Judge Francisco

Chief Judge Dan Francisco is a fictional supporting character in the Judge Dredd comic strip in 2000 AD. He is chief judge of Mega-City One.

Fictional character biography

Before becoming chief judge, Francisco was a street judge and the subject of a 24-hour reality show called The Streets Of Dan Francisco – a major public relations boost for Justice Department. Despite his experience, however, he would often do what the audience expected rather than what made the most sense, due to the unremitting pressure from the constantly-present cameras.^[1] Francisco was well-meaning and affable, and Dredd viewed him as a good judge, albeit one being continually manipulated by others.

In 2131 Judges Sinfield, Cardew and Millan began a campaign to run Francisco as a candidate to replace Judge Hershey as chief judge, running on an anti-mutant platform.^[2] He was elected by a landslide, thanks to an attempted assassination by a mutant gang. It later transpired that this had been set up by an anti-mutant group to ensure his victory, but the vote was unaffected by this revelation.^[3]

Depicting Francisco becoming chief judge in a story published in 2009 may be a reference to Barack Obama becoming President of the United States earlier that year; 2000 AD publishers Rebellion Developments have sold "campaign badges" of him, with the slogan "Change We Can Believe In!"

When Francisco took office, he appointed a completely new Council of Five which included his backers Sinfield, Cardew and Millan. He appointed Sinfield deputy chief judge. Though Francisco survived the assassination attempt, he remained in a serious condition for some time. While he remained hospitalised, Sinfield was briefly acting chief judge.

Mutant townships in the Cursed Earth were set up, to which to expel the mutant citizens. Francisco also had Hershey and Dredd given new postings, off-world and in the townships respectively, until the mutant issue died down; how much of this was his own idea and how much was Sinfield's remains ambiguous.^[4] However, after discovering the conditions of the townships were little better than temporary shanty towns, Francisco forced through an increase in expenditure over Sinfield's objections, believing there was a moral duty to do the clearances "with humanity and generosity."^[5] This led Dredd to reappraise his original assessment of him.

Francisco was aware of the belief that he was easy to manipulate, and that Sinfield and his allies intended to do so. He nevertheless retained them on the Council of Five, both out of the belief that they had the city's interests in mind and out of his determination not to be a "typical politico."^[6] Late in the year, Francisco suffered a relapse when his body began to reject the prosthetic lungs fitted after his assassination attempt. Sinfield took advantage of Francisco's weakened, drug-addled state to dose him with a powerful hypnotic drug and persuade him to resign.^[7] Sinfield succeeded him as acting chief judge.^[8] Both Dredd and Mayor Ambrose were left confused and suspicious by Francisco's sudden collapse in confidence and by his support of Sinfield. This eventually led to an investigation, and Sinfield's crime was uncovered. Sinfield was arrested, and Francisco returned to office. Francisco appointed Dredd to the Council of Five.

Sinfield received the mandatory sentence of 20 years on Titan, and Justice Department decided to cover up what had happened.^[9] However Francisco soon vetoed this,^[10] noting that showing that the law was even harder on corrupt Judges than on citizens might help the Judges' image.

Bibliography

Francisco has appeared in the following stories:

Judge Dredd:

• "The Streets of Dan Francisco" (written by John Wagner, art by Rufus Dayglo, in 2000 AD #1520, 2007)
• "Backlash" (written by John Wagner, art by Carl Critchlow, in 2000 AD #1628–1633, 2009)
• "Under New Management" (written by John Wagner, art by Carl Critchlow, in 2000 AD #1649, 2009)
• "Tour of Duty" (written by John Wagner, art on relevant episodes by Colin MacNeil, Mike Collins, John Higgins and Carlos Ezquerra, in 2000 AD #1650–1693, 2009–10)
• "The Skinning Room" (written by John Wagner, art by Ben Willsher, in 2000 AD #1700–1704, 2010)
• "The Chief Judge's Speech" (written by Al Ewing, art by Paul Marshall, in 2000 AD #2011, 2010)
• "California Babylon" (written by Michael Carroll, art by Ben Willsher, in 2000 AD #1730–1734, 2011)

Judge Anderson:

• "The Trip" (written by Alan Grant, art by Boo Cook, in Judge Dredd Megazine #309-present, 2011)

References