In the 1980s Alan Grant co-wrote a series of stories featuring Judge Dredd set in the USA around the year 2100. Reality has swiftly overtaken fiction and many of his made-up problems have already become part of everyday life: the ever-increasing fascism of state police forces; society’s inane fascination with celebrity; the empowerment of the rich and famous at the expense of ordinary people – in short, the crushing of the ordinary person as an agent in the world. Can things only get worse?