Set in the near future, it features the exploits of gun sharks (hitmen) Finnigan "Finny" Sinister and Ramone "Ray" Dexter in the city of Downlode, sprawled across Central Europe "like a hit and run victim".

In early strips the police used hovercars with "Polizei" written on the side, and this hovercraft technology appears in later stories, retrofitted to old cars such as Checker Cabs.

Sinister and Dexter themselves drive a 1950s Edsel, this started out as a hardtop but in the story "Alibi of Broadway" had its roof torn off and was re-built as a convertible.

In one story a malfunction in this temporarily gave him the ability to see in infra-red and detect a small hole in a crime-bosses' personal forcefield (referred to as a very rare and expensive technology).

In early stories the duo work as freelance hit-men, taking contracts from their "fact-totem", a PDA-like device, and killing people for money.

Eventually The Czar, moblord of the Russian mafia calls a conference of gang leaders in an attempt to resolve the situation and hires Sinister and Dexter as security for the meeting.

The rendezvous between the accountant and Mr Hammer's men in Fred Quimby Municipal Park is violently interrupted by the Department of Taxation, causing the "Infamous Audit Showdown of '66".

As a result of the carnage, Sinister and Dexter decide to take a holiday and The Czar recommends that they visit a nightclub in Asbestopol known as the Bawdwalk.

When they return from this job, they run into Demi Octavo who is at the nightclub under a pseudonym, she tells the pair that the word spread that she was the one who put out the hit on Holy Moses Tanembaum so she decided to escape Downlode.

The pair invade Philly's island lair and kill him and all of his minions and return to Downlode to take out the Czar using a giant, cyborg alligator that ticks (referencing J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan).

During this time Demi's younger sister, Billi Octavo, decides to become a Gunshark, but a misunderstanding results in her killing some respected city dignitaries.

In Eurocrash, Demi sees her empire begin to crumble, so plans to marry Prince Guapo and unite the two biggest gangs and restore 'peace' to Downlode.

Another mob boss, called Apellido, begins to take over the city and sends a huge squad of "bullet monkeys" (inferior but cheaper gunsharks) after Billi Octavo.

However, this didn't stop some one-page "gag strips" from appearing in the Judge Dredd Megazine This issue has now been addressed in passing as part of the twist in the, initially apparently unconnected, series Malone.

After surviving the showdown with his boss, Apellido, Sinister changed his face and took drugs to try to forget his past, fleeing offworld to Generica.

Volumes published include:[4] The "Downlode Tales" story arcs were collected into three trade paperbacks that came polybagged with issues 330, 334, and 335 of Judge Dredd Megazine.