"The Dead Man" was a major event in the history of the "Judge Dredd" strip, as it heralded the onset of the 26-episode epic "Necropolis" in 1990. As the story would introduce major changes in the strip, writer John Wagner used a pseudonym, Keef Ripley, to impede readers in guessing the answer, reasoning that readers would assume that a new and unknown writer would not be allowed to make such major changes in the continuity of "2000 AD"'s star character. "2000 AD" had already published several spin-offs from the "Judge Dredd" strip before, without Dredd appearing in them, so the fact that the story was set in Dredd's universe was not the give-away it might otherwise have been.