Rank the Dredd epics!

The actually good Dredd epics are:

The Day The Law Died
The Judge Child
The Cursed Earth

in that order.

Did the Robot Wars run for long enough to count as an epic? I think the art was a bit rubbish, but Call-Me-Kenneth is one of the all-time great Dredd characters.

That way there would be room for classic epics-that-weren't LUNA ONE and THE MEGA-RACKETS!! I can remember nothing at all about the Mega-Rackets except for Lips Lazarus.

The Cursed Earth is a distant second.

The Judge Child is the most overrated Dredd story...

but even so it is far better than latter-day epics like Necropolis and Judgement Day. Only Ezquerra made them remotely worthwhile. Though I always found every single one of his characters incredibly ugly. That Mr PotatoHead effect he seems to have...

I've never read all of the Judge Child, but what I did read worked very well in episodes, and had great arse-tastic Ron Smith art.

clone judge stuff also k-rub

Funny that many (most?) of these stories are similar in that they use Dredd in a fish out of water situation. Dredd goes to War, Dredd goes on the road, Dredd goes on the Road again, Dredd goes to War against the dead etc etc.
For me the best Dredd stories were the short one and two parters where the focus was really on Mega City and its inhabitants, with Dredd used best as a Deus ex machina in the last page or two. As a character, he is (admittedly loveably) entirely one-dimensional.

OTM, Ron Smith is shit.

Oz was poor - what Tom said, plus it was the first epic during the period when 2000AD was in that particularly scraggy format of glossy, easily ripped cover that somehow seemed a million times more tacky then the stapled newspaper style.

Judge Child is over-rated, but fun nonetheless.

Necropolis felt like should be good, but wasn't somehow. Also, it seemed to tediously infect the entire Judge Dredd arc for ages. All the bits have been bound by Titan, and a right mess it looks.

And Judgement Day? What a con. Not buying two mags for one story.

The British writers are more rockstar than the American, there aren't many dependable but anonymous workhourses like Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka etc. That said, I'm thinking of a specific British Invasion +Alan Moore: I couldn't name any new one from the last ten years (apart from Vic Fluro!)

Also for all that 2000AD is central to their success, none of them have done their best work on Dredd.

I think my argument as such is completely useless: I can always tell if a comic is written by Moore/Morrison/Millar/Ennis/Ellis, but then I am considerably more likely to know that going in, as they're people I look out for news on anyway.

Hey, y'all!

A local used bookstore has two Dredd trades - The Judge Child and Cursed Earth - available. Being a boy on a budget, which of these should I prioritize and get first?

Cursed Earth is a classic, IMO. I've read Judge Child but I can't remember anything about it, which probably means it wasn't as good.

not on topic but since it's bumped - is the great big Best Of 2000 AD hardcover worth a go for ten bucks or so? I had a flip through and the repro is just incredibly poor but I'm wondering if I might manage to slog past that if the stories are fun enough

For a tenner that best of 2000 AD is worth getting if you have never seen that stuff before.

R Baez - both of those Dredd trades have their charms. They are also both episodic travelogues, so they are not all of the same quality.

I'd be tempted to say Cursed Earth, but they're both worth it. The Judge Child is more Space Opera to Cursed Earth's Mad Max.

Judge Child also has spaghetti western elements, like the chase at the end.

Yeah, but it's like Rico in that context.

Thanks, everyone!

If the Cursed Earth collection has the episodes they tried to ban (i.e. the Burger Wars and the one with Colonel Sanders) then it is a must buy, though it almost certainly does not have them.

These are British imports, bearing the Titan name proudly, so I'm guessing they don't?

those episodes have never been reprinted

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TztlWa8a2ik&feature=share

So, that movie then?

DREDD MOVIE QUESTION FOR nTH LEVEL FOLK SUCH AS THOSE WHO FREQUENT ILC (Asked this on Twitter and, appropriately, got only crickets):

Was there a billboard featuring the Joe Friday knock-off from Moore & Gibbons' "Chronocops" story in the background of the opening chase scene? Did anyone else notice this? Am I delusional? This has been bugging the hell out of me.

The movie is mostly being discussed on Best Dredd - consensus is that it's not short of Thrill Power.

Coming back to this late, largely thanks to having interest in Dredd revived by the film.

Ron Smith isn't shit. He's a genius.

Definitely, it is hard to imagine the stories he drew done by anyone else.

R Baez - I may have to see the film again to answer your question. And to try and see the Fatty without his bellywheel.

It's split-second. I may, as I said, be delusional. #chronocops

Surprising!

http://bigcomicpage.com/2015/10/29/2000ad-to-reprint-banned-cursed-earth-stories-for-the-first/

That's more unexpected than Zenith.

Has the Cursed earth just not been collected before or has it had the stories/sections concerned omitted?
I thought that there were crucial elements of the story contained in there, the introduction and possibly exit of central characters.
I've had the story as cbr files and not read it in a couple of years but though t that unless thes story was creatively edited it would be difficult for it to make as much sense with thiongs from there included.

I take it that the Matchbox reproductions in the artwork are ok? & Green Giant wasn't the only brand icon reproduced in that section.

I was also just thinking earlier when I first heard the story was being reprinted uncensored that Burger King and McDonalds weren't the only burger chains likely to be big enough to be battling in the midwest or wherever that was actually supposed to be. but they were the 2 brands that had been beginning to make inroads in the UK. I would have been very young and not visiting the centre of London very frequently but I don't think McDonalds had appeared much before around '75 or '76. I assume Burger King was appearing around the same time, not sure though.

Has the Cursed earth just not been collected before or has it had the stories/sections concerned omitted?

Rank the Dredd epics!

Well, guess I'm glad I haven't yet repurchased the early Case Files volumes I sold during leaner times.

I was flipping through the current B&W reprint omniba at ny comic con and was kind of tempted by the bolland heavy ones but tbh I do not love the repro quality

I always wondered what the story was on the vehicles used as the main expedition transport. I think I had had a set of them prior to the beginning of the story, got given them for Xmas one year. Though maybe I just wasn't paying much attention to the comic, I think i have several editions from the story but not all and not sure if I repicked up buying the comic or was just picking up a few randomly.
Anyway there is that vehicle pack used regularly and there is also at least one depiction of a wider range of matchbox vehicles at one point.

There was apparently a competition for winning the set at the start of the story.

in other words, if these links work for me
http://www.michaelowencarroll.com/3d-landraider2.jpg
is
https://2warpstoneptune.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/matchbox-adventure-2000-raider-1976.jpg?w=500&h=303

I still have them somewhere in the house I think, I will check the dates on the bottom but I'm sure they came out beforehand as well. (The reason is I'm confident I was surprised when I saw it in Cursed Earth, which I wouldn't have been if I wasn't familiar with them.)

Posting in belated defense of Ron Smith, who brings a hallucinatory weirdness to his stories and really nails the grotesque qualities of Mega City One. Especially good during the Judge Cal stuff. In a way he is the best Dredd artist.