The Presentation and Representation of Police Officers in comic books – The 1970’s

The Presentation and Representation of Police Officers in comic books – The 1970’s – From Britain, Judge Dredd

Guest blog by Sergeant Clayton Brown

After the 1960’s, American Police Officers realized that policies needed changing. As the ’60s transitioned into the ’70s, police services focused on improving their images. One practice that made a difference was the increase in foot patrols — officers who walked rather than drove, around the city. For decades, officers had been using their cars to show their presence, but research had shown that this wasn’t very effective, however that same research had shown that foot patrols were a better solution. People wanted to know their officers and felt safer when they saw them walking around. People felt like the officers cared about them and their problems. Policing in the 1970’s saw a rise in community involvement as officers started trying to encourage citizens to be part of the solution for societal problems through community engagement models — that would continue on through the decades and evolve into what is currently the Community Mobilization Model of Policing. In the 1970’s, the OPP (Ontario Provincial Police) increased specialization in different units, training, equipment and deployment. This included bomb disposal, underwater search and recovery, forensics, criminal investigation, canine and much more.  

In 1974, the first class of women police officers joined the OPP. In 1975, after assuming responsibility of First Nations Communities from the RCMP in 1974, the OPP supported increasing First Nations autonomy to head towards a better system for aboriginal communities in the Province. This eventually led to the current Indigenous Policing Bureau. In 1970, in the United States, NYCPD Police Commissioner Murphy assigned the first group of women to patrol. In 1973, the Bureau of Policewomen was abolished, and the first gender-neutral civil service exam for police officers was held. Also, in that year, “Policewomen” and “Patrolmen” were officially renamed “Police Officers”. 

In 1975, the OPP lost a true hero when police dog Cloud ll was shot and killed in the line of duty while attempting to capture an escaped fugitive from the North Bay jail. Cloud ll picked up the suspect’s trail approximately 25 miles east of Sudbury with his handler Provincial Constable Ray Carson. Unfortunately, it was just outside a cabin in a bush clearing when he was shot. Cloud is the only OPP dog to have been killed in the line of duty and was the first police dog to be killed in Ontario. He is a member of the Purina Hall of fame and his remains have a permanent home at the OPP museum at General Headquarters in Orillia.

By the 1970’s, Marvel was the number one comic company taking the lead from DC Comics. One of the major trends in distribution was the creation of direct marketing to the customer. Where in the past comics were sold at newsstands, the ’70s saw more specialty shops opening up.  This was better for the consumer as the books arrived quicker and in better condition and the retailers liked it because they made more profit on the books. Many of the retailers could then also sell the back issues. Unfortunately, by the 1990’s the mass expansion of these stores would see many of them closing in an oversaturated market. The 1970’s saw an explosion of many new characters in comic books however we will stick to the ones relevant to this essay. 

In July of 1975, Lady Cop made her debut as a rookie police officer in issue number 4 of 1^st Issue Special published by DC Comics. Liza Warner is a young woman who is a witness to her two roommates being murdered while she hides under her bed. When she provides her statement the police woman who attends the scene she is praised for her eidetic memory and is called a “born police officer” by the officer. Liza enrolls in the police academy graduates and begins her career as a police officer all the while hoping to find the mysterious killer that murdered her roommates.  Although the character only had the one appearance in the 70’s she was well written and the story was a mature presentation of the job (admittedly with a few dated elements).  In the first issue she saves a young girl from being sexually assaulted, helps another deal with a stalker and is shown as being capable of subduing an assailant wielding a switchblade.  She saves a criminal from drowning and does CPR to save a victim. Although looking back on this 40-year-old book there are certainly some gaps, such as being on patrol but not having any use of force options but overall, it was well written and an attempt to present a strong lead police officer rather than showing the police as support to the more colorful superheroes in most comic books. The character disappeared for a few years, but then was brought back years later except that now she has moved up in the police service and is the Police Chief for fictional town ‘Ivy Town’. The potential of the character was further illustrated when Liza Warner was brought back, this time on TV, during the 4^th and 5^th season of WB TV Show ‘Arrow’ as a Sergeant heading a task force.

In 1974, Gotham City Detective Harvey Bullock made his first appearance in Detective Comics #441. He was created by Archie Goodwin and Howard Chaykin. Harvey was a different type of cop in that he was presented as overweight and a bit of a slob. However, don’t let that fool you as he proves himself time and time again to be a brilliant crime solver and someone that is a perfect fit for the mean streets of Gotham, the stomping grounds of Batman.  At first the character was created as a foil for Batman however as time goes on, he becomes a bigger and bigger part of Batman’s war on crime.  The character has been around for decades and has been proving his keen analytical skill and observational abilities are up to the challenge of solving the most confounding crimes that Batman’s rogue’s gallery can throw at the city.  The character has become the ‘go-to’ guy for the Police Commissioner (Jim Gordon – see the 1930’s) and has proven himself to be an incorruptible force for good and one of the city’s most honorable cops.  His image presents him as someone who looks like he spends half his paycheck at the donut store but his steel trap mind and morally upright spirit make him one of the greatest cops in omics.  He serves as a counterpoint to the more reserved Jim Gordon (Police Commissioner) and he never backs down from a challenge.

Captain Jean DeWolf of the New York City Police Department first appeared in Marvel Team-Up #’s 48-51 (August-November 1976) and was created by Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema. She was one of the very few recurring support characters for this series published by Marvel Comics. As the premise of the book was to have Spider-Man partner with a different super-hero every month there was not much consistency. Captain DeWolf was introduced to create a sense of continuity to the series.  She was described as hard edged and no nonsense and usually with a cigarette in her mouth. The character was meant to be a modern (for the time) post-feminist take on the classic tough guy character. The character had a problematic history as she faced disapproval from her mother for following in her father’s and step-father’s footsteps to become a police officer and then later had to deal with the loss of her brother (also a police officer) in the line of duty. She was determined to make a name for herself within the police service and eventually became a tough and unrelenting Captain for the NYPD.  Jean became acquainted with and befriended Spider-Man during the investigation of a serial bomber. In time Jean became one of Spider-Man’s greatest allies and supporters in the NYPD. Eventually Jean was killed by her lover, but, being a comic book, she was brought back years later as a clone which, unfortunately, in the course of assisting Spider-Man, is killed again.

In 1977, we were introduced to possibly one of the most famous of all comic book police officers and one of the most enduring comic book characters, Judge Joseph Dredd. Created in Britain this character has been around for over 40 years and has patrolled his streets dispensing a gritty raw justice in this future post-apocalyptic world where police are known as ‘Judges’ and carry out arresting, sentencing, convicting and punishing criminal activity instantly and efficiently in the future city of Mega-City One which covers most of the east coast of North America. 

The development of the character started in 1976 when Pat Mills and writing partner John Wagner wanted to develop a ‘Dirty Harry’ style tough cop, but to take that concept to the extreme. The visualization of the character was given to Spanish artist Carlos Ezquerra, who subsequently stayed with the book for many years. He pictured the character clad in black leather and on a motorbike with body amour and chains. Judge Dredd’s first appearance was in 2000AD in February of 1977. Of note and possibly unique in comic books, the Judge Dredd stories are supposed to reflect a true passage of time. Thus, in contrast with Robin (Batman) (who remained a teen from 1940 – 1980 at which time he finally went off to college) a year in the Judge Dredd series is an actual year of time passage for the character. Thus, as he started at about 20 years old and the book has been running for over 40 years the character is now in his 60’s and is reflected in the comic as actually being that age. This has been the subject of inside humor in the book such as having him take a mandatory rejuvenation treatment and in one case having to have his eyes replaced. 

In addition to all the regular crimes in society, Judge Dredd deals with block wars, robot wars, in once case a nuclear war, stolen body parts and a variety of other crimes real and in some cases futuristic, ridiculous and sarcastic. The book takes a shot at everything from politics to pop  culture. In 1983 Dredd made his American debut with his own series from publisher Eagle Comics, titled Judge Dredd. This book reproduced stories taken from the British comic.  Dredd has also been published in a long running comic strip (1981 – 1998).  He was one of only 10 British comic characters commemorated in a series of stamps by the Royal Mail and he has been the subject of two feature movies in 1995 and in 2012. He has also been the subject of a novels (‘Judge Dredd: Year One’ and ‘Judge Dredd: Year Two’). IGN Magazine ranked Judge Dredd 35 out of the top 100 comic book heroes of all time.

Join us next month when the ongoing special about Policing in Comics continues with a look at the 1980’s.