The Savage Amusement is an original novel written by David Bishop

David Bishop

David Bishop is a screenwriter and author. Born in New Zealand, he was a UK comics editor during the 1990s, running such titles as the Judge Dredd Megazine and 2000 AD, the latter between 1996 and the summer of 2000....

 and based on the long-running British science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 comic strip

Comic book

A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...

 Judge Dredd

Judge Dredd

Judge Joseph Dredd is a comics character whose strip in the British science fiction anthology 2000 AD is the magazine's longest running . Dredd is an American law enforcement officer in a violent city of the future where uniformed Judges combine the powers of police, judge, jury and executioner...

. At the time of publication (1993) Bishop was editor of the Judge Dredd Megazine

Judge Dredd Megazine

Judge Dredd: The Megazine is a monthly British comic magazine, launched in October 1990. It is a sister publication to 2000 AD. Its name is a play on words, formed from "magazine" and Dredd's locale Mega-City One.-Content:...

.

Synopsis

Rookie Judge Harry Brisco is taking his gruelling final assessment to decide if he is fit to be a full street judge, and Judge Dredd is assigned as the supervisor who can make or break him. As they hit the streets a mystery virus begins killing all the clones

Human cloning

Human cloning is the creation of a genetically identical copy of a human. It does not usually refer to monozygotic multiple births nor the reproduction of human cells or tissue. The ethics of cloning is an extremely controversial issue...

 in the city – and Dredd himself is a clone. Meanwhile, Mega-City One

Mega-City One

Mega-City One is a huge fictional city-state covering much of what is now the Eastern United States in the Judge Dredd comic book series. The exact boundaries of the city depend on which artist has drawn the story...

 is about to hold an election for its new mayor

Mayor of Mega-City One

Mayor of Mega-City One is a fictional office in the Judge Dredd comic strip in 2000 AD. The most significant mayor to appear in the comic was serial killer PJ Maybe, in disguise as Byron Ambrose....

, and opinion polls indicate that undead

Undead

Undead is a collective name for fictional, mythological, or legendary beings that are deceased and yet behave as if alive. Undead may be incorporeal, such as ghosts, or corporeal, such as vampires and zombies...

 mass-murderer Judge Death

Judge Death

Judge Death is a fictional character of the Judge Dredd universe recounted in the UK comic 2000 AD. He is the leader of the Dark Judges, a sinister group of undead law enforcers from the alternate dimension of Deadworld, where all life has been declared a crime since only the living commit crimes...

 may win. Brisco is about to face the toughest challenge of his life.

Continuity

Brisco first appeared as a cadet in the 1985 story Thirteenth Assessment in 2000 AD #421, written by John Wagner

John Wagner

John Wagner is a comics writer who was born in Pennsylvania in 1949 and moved to Scotland as a boy. Alongside Pat Mills, Wagner was responsible for revitalising British boys' comics in the 1970s, and has continued to be a leading light in British comics ever since.He is best known for his work on...

 and Alan Grant.

External link

• The Savage Amusement at the 2000 AD website (note: the reference to Judge Dredd in the synopsis should read "Judge Death," and the "reprint material" section erroneously refers to another story).