Chief Judge Fargo

Chief Judge Fargo
Chief Judge Fargo (painted by Carlos Ezquerra)
Publication information
Publisher	Fleetway Rebellion Developments
First appearance	2000 AD #377 (4 August 1984)
Created by	John Wagner
In-story information
Full name	Eustace Fargo

Chief Judge Eustace Fargo is an important fictional character from the Judge Dredd comic strip in 2000 AD. He is Judge Dredd's clone father.

Fargo was commonly known as the 'Father of Justice', as he was responsible for the founding of the Judge System and was Mega-City One's first chief judge. Consequently, there is an annual Fargo's Day Parade in his honour, and his body lies in a sarcophagus in the Hall of Heroes in the Grand Hall of Justice. Officially he was born in 2001 and died in 2051, though these dates are actually inaccurate. Details of his secret history were fleshed out in the story "Origins".

The character Fargo was first introduced to readers when his tomb was shown in 2000 AD #107, near the end of the story "The Day the Law Died." The inscription read:

Fargo was next mentioned six years later in issue #377, in the story "Dredd Angel." In this episode it was explained that Fargo's DNA was being used to produce clones, but the writers had not yet decided that Dredd himself was one of Fargo's clones. Consequently, a detailed picture of Fargo's face was allowed to appear in #377, drawn by veteran Judge Dredd artist Ron Smith. Since it was not revealed until #389 that Dredd and Fargo shared the same DNA, and therefore (presumably) the same features, the rule that Dredd's face is never shown in the comic did not yet apply to Fargo. Once this was established however, Fargo's face was never shown again, and the Ron Smith picture may not be regarded as a true depiction of Dredd's face, having effectively been "retconned" away.

Fargo first appeared "in person" in the story "Oz." This was in a flashback in #559, drawn by Brendan McCarthy, who drew the chief judge with his face obscured by a helmet visor. (Fargo remains the only character to appear in the Judge Dredd strip wearing a helmet while chief judge.) This flashback was set in 2070, and showed Fargo alive and ruling as chief judge. This created two discrepancies between "Oz" and "The Day the Law Died" – not only did it contradict the date on Fargo's tomb, but the earlier story had also stated that Judge Goodman had been chief judge between 2058 and 2101. Another story, "The Cursed Earth," had implied that Judge Solomon had been chief judge in 2070.