Right Here On The Head, Muse!

That's Me, Waiting For Artistic Inspiration To Strike
In the meantime, perhaps we can continue to explore the background to 2000AD's most popular and iconic character, Judge (Joe) Dredd, though I don't know anyone who's brave enough to ever call him by his first name.  Also, since he is a clone, one also wonders who actually gave him a name?

"You broke the rules of grammar, creep!"*

     Okay, time to bring on The Wally Squad.  To look at them, you might think that, yes, this is another bunch of freakazoids typical of the Big Meg: bored and willing to take up the next fifteen-minute famous fad.  Art?

Joe does not appear to embrace the Wally Squad ethos.

     However, they are actually undercover Justice Department Judges, going about their undercover nefariousness in pursuit of justice - or at least their definition of same, which may not be what you or I understand by the phrase.**
     One reason Old Stoney Face - Judge Dredd, not Buster Keaton - is not impressed with the Wally Squad is that they mingle with the citizens far too much and thus acquire unhealthy things like personality and attitude.

You can feel Joe a-wincing

       Also, you can't knock around with a city full of nutters and be in contact with them without going at least slightly round the twist yourself.
     Okay, time to throw the motley into the porcupine enclosure after having rattled them a bit by hurling fireworks in there first!

Cower for it, motley!

The Pusher And The Push
Okay, more technical and tactical detail of the First Unpleasantness, as taken from "Defiance" by G. Nichols, which I ought to be taking notes from.  It might be a tad bewildering to you the public with abbreviations like D.A.C. and C.R.A. or "5.9s", but it is meat and drink to Conrad.  

A Teuton 5.9", for your elucidation

     Here is a telling quote from one officer to the author on 22nd March 2018, speaking of their Teuton assaulters:
     "And aren't they hot with the machine gun?  They must have been specially trained for this sort of warfare.  They snipe you at 700 yards as if the machine gun were a rifle, and their infantry hasn't needed a barrage to prepare the way.  There's so many of them."
     Said officer was bang on the money with his observation, since the enormous Teuton assault of 21/3/1918 was indeed led by the Stosstruppen ("Storm Troops"), who were specially equipped and trained.  Art?

Ready to make someone's day very unpleasant

     They were lavishly equipped with what was laughably called a "Light" machine gun, the MG08/15, which they tootled around the battlefield with.  Art?

"Light" as in "Needs human ox to carry it"

     We may come back to this, but for now your humble scribe intends to wrap himself around a brace of sandwiches, so there will now be a short pause -

<inelegant sound of munching and swilling>

That paints a word picture, eh?  Okay, on with the wibbling!

The Gingerbread-City Building Robot
I didn't lead with this as a title because you would surely think either senility has come early or the old fool is typing random word salad.
     Neither is true, I'll have you know, and in any case it would be "Differently enabled sanity" thank you very much.  Art?

I can think of a couple of reasons

     It's not apparent from this shot but the whole thing was put together by a robotic arm.  Also, it was a rhetorical question, but Reasons Why Not - architecture is supposed to be a sensible profession with an image to maintain and this stunt, frankly, makes architects look daft.  Why gingerbread, anyway?  It has very little provenance as a construction material: the only person I know of who used it was that witch in Hansel and Gretel, and it didn't end well for her.***

FOR SALE

Make No Bones About It -
Another in our listings of experimental and prototype precursors to the definitive TANK, because one can never have too much of TANK, a proposition I will fight to defend.  Plus, it's my blog and I can fit this stuff in if I feel like it.  And I feel like it.
     Okay, let us have vision of the Skeleton Tank.  Art?

With puny humans for scale

     This bizarre-looking contraption was created by the South Canadians, bless them, with a brief to be able to cross wide trenches yet be lightweight as well.  They managed both criteria, since it was able to cross trenches up to 25 feet wide and it weighed but 9 tons, compared to the heavy version invented by Perfidious Albion at 29 tons.  You can see how they manage the weight reduction: by using piping to complete the support structure rather than solid metal walls.  Speculatively, it was reasoned that many bullets or shells would fail to hit it, since there was so much space in it's design.

Holey metal plates¬

     It never went into production, but since it was only developed in October of 1918, when the writing was on the wall, in the wall and behind the wall for the Teutons, this is not especially surprising.
Cover Versions
Conrad generally likes cover versions of songs and prefers them to the originals, with the exception of Apollo 440's cover of "Don't Fear The Reaper" which I regard as an interesting failure, and I wonder what Blue Oyster Cult made of an electro-dance pop version of their classic.
     One band that made a cheeky living from their own South Canadian street-punk-garage take on cover versions were The Dickies, whom Conrad has a deep fondness for.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flMS2gHFOH0

     There you go, a link to an actual hit single of theirs, "Banana Splits".

CAUTION!  Watch where you step

*  O how I wish I could do this.
**  For example, I don't think you can be locked up for farting in public, but I'd not risk it.
***  Because a) she was diagnosed with diabetes and b) the resale value depreciated substantially.