Judge Dredd: The Restricted Files 03

[SmallBlueThing]

Got this the other day, and read it yesterday... so please forgive my ageing memory of it's contents. It's at home now, and I'm at work, but-

On the whole, and fighting against the obvious problem of being made up of bits from some of the, er, dodgier end of the 2000AD spectrum (Specials and annuals, etc, from the 1990s), it's not bad at all. Obviously, the Stront/ Dredd team-up by Wagner and Colin Macneil stands head and shoulders above everything else, but there's also a fair number of strips that I have no memory of, that turn out to be at the very least pretty readable. Personal favourites: Carry On Judging (if ever a strip was buggered by its title, it's this. That's the punchline, for Grud's sakes! Couldn't they have called it something- anything!- else?), that Brett Ewins one about the alt.Universe Judda judges, and Dan Abnett's Dog Vulture story.

It also has Judge Planet in it.

I skipped one strip- the name or content of which escapes me- but that just reinforces the sort-of hit-rate of the thing. Yes, it's an odd collection, and yes, nobody really has much nice to say about the publications these strips come from... but do you know, divorced from all that 90s guff that surrounded them, they do show that even when Dredd as a strip is going through problems, it's still strong enough to be incredibly readable all by itself.

Oh, and it has the Wagner/ Staples poster magazine strip about Dredd interrogating a class of primary school kids, and Love Story II, with Bella Bagley (sp?)- so it's worth anyone's hard-earned groats.

SBT

[Greg M.]

Personal favourites: Carry On Judging (if ever a strip was buggered by its title, it's this. That's the punchline, for Grud's sakes! Couldn't they have called it something- anything!- else?), that Brett Ewins one about the alt.Universe Judda judges, and Dan Abnett's Dog Vulture story.

I remember Carry On Judging, Cliff Robinson art I think... it was quite fun but ran out of steam on the last couple of pages (lacking, as you suggest a really killer conclusion... think it's just Anderson doing an 'Ooh, saucy' line or something?)

I have fond memories of the parallel universe Judda, which I believe was also an Alan Grant, in part because of my enduring fondness for Brett Ewins, but in part because that special or annual was published at probably the nadir of the regular Dredd strip in 2000AD and if we couldn't have Wagner weekly, I was dying for this to be a sign that Alan Grant was about to make a regular comeback and sweep away all the hopeless pretenders. He didn't, of course. But I clung to it as a thought and in my head it became a mega-epic waiting to happen. Dark days.

[Dark Jimbo]

Thanks chaps! I was a bit undecided whether to get this one, but now I think I shall.

[radiator]

Eh? Thought this wasn't supposed to be out til July?

[SmallBlueThing]

Eh? Thought this wasn't supposed to be out til July?

I won it in a competition. It's not in the shops yet, I'm told.

SBT

[Mangamax]

"but do you know, divorced from all that 90s guff that surrounded them, they do show that even when Dredd as a strip is going through problems, it's still strong enough to be incredibly readable all by itself"
What he said.

[SmallBlueThing]

I remember Carry On Judging, Cliff Robinson art I think... it was quite fun but ran out of steam on the last couple of pages (lacking, as you suggest a really killer conclusion... think it's just Anderson doing an 'Ooh, saucy' line or something?)

Well, the final line is "You men- Carry on Judging"- which would have been excellent, if it wasn't the title of the strip, as I said. But yes, Cliff Robinson art, great likenesses of Sid, Bernard, Charles and Kenneth- not sure who Anderson's supposed to be though- and some very funny interplay between the Bernard and Charlie heads. "But ox-"/ "Bernard!"/ "-en jokes are my favourite." is so marvellously torturous that it's been making me laugh all day. The main problem I have is that it's a cheat- in that it's not really a Carry On take on the Dredd strip at all, but an illegal movie. I know that's clever-ish, and probably unexpected, but I found it dissappointing. I think there's room for a full length Carry On Dredd- especially now, when we're gearing up for a grim and gritty serious movie.

SBT

[Greg M.]

The main problem I have is that it's a cheat- in that it's not really a Carry On take on the Dredd strip at all, but an illegal movie. I know that's clever-ish, and probably unexpected, but I found it dissappointing.

That's right... we leave the film when some shelves fall on the characters or something, and then it's back to 'reality' and the judges bust 'em all for enjoying sexism and innuendo (which, of course, we've all just been enjoying.) I would also have preferred if it'd had the courage of its own convictions and just had a proper Carry On ending (something the best of the films themselves do very well... Khyber and Screaming both having classic denouements.)

[SmallBlueThing]

Yeah, i think they should definately do another one. Doesnt have to be a sequel- could even be a one-off carry on stronty tale, come to that. But get cliff robinson back to do it, because his bernard bresslaw and sid james are exceptional.

And ive just remembered another strip i enjoyed in JDRF03: paul grist's kinky boots. Brilliant last page, worthy of a tshirt.

SBT

[O Lucky Stevie!]

It also has Judge Planet in it.

One of Stevie's favouritest Dredds ever.

Sold.

[radiator]

My copy just arrived - quite looking forward to getting my teeth into this - a real mixed bag. There are certainly some real gems in there, though. If they ever get round to a volume 4, that will be a real stinker. For anyone interested in the full contents:

Carry On Judging (Alan Grant/Cliff Robinson)
Beyond the Alley of the Ultra-Vixens (Alan Grant/David Roach)
Computer Warrior (Alan Grant/Ron Smith)
Sleeping Mutie (Unknown/Paul Marshall)
Top Dogs (John Wagner/Colin MacNiel)
Jonathon Livingston Dog-Vulture (Alan Grant/Paul Marshall)
Christmas is Cancelled (Mark Millar/Brett Ewins)
Cult of the Thugee (Alan Grant/Glynn Dillon)
Love Story II: Futile Attraction (John Wagner/Ian Gibson)
Judge Planet (Peter Milligan/Shaky Kane)
The Juve Mutated Kung Fu Kleggs (Andy Lanning & Steve White/Dermot Power)
Auld Acquaintance (John Wagner/Cam Kennedy)
The Sleeper (John Wagner/Geoff Senior)
Impact Imminent (Simon Furman/Steve Yeowell)
The Mystery of Judge (Edwin) Drood (Dan Abnett/Mike Hadley)
Roadblock (Simon Furman/Lee Sullivan & Kev Hopgood)
Joovz 'n' the Hood (John Wagner/Richard Preston & Edmund Kitsune aka Edmund Bagwell)
Parallel Lines (Alan Grant & Tony Luke/Brett Ewins)
Serial Killer (John Wagner/Simon Hunter)
The Squealer (John Wagner/Greg Staples)
Kinky Boots (Robbie Morrison/Paul Grist)
Hate Inc. (John Smith/Manuel Benet)
Virtual Unreality (John Wagner/John Burns)
Nightmare Man (Alan Grant/Dean Ormston)
Call Me Mr Nice Guy (John Wagner/Greg Staples)
Cage of Knives ('Sonny Steelgrave' aka Alan McKenzie/Paul Marshall)

I'm quite ambivalent about rereading Serial Killer - ISTR it being perhaps the worst John Wagner-scripted Dredd strip I've ever read, though that could be due to the lousy art.

[Dandontdare]

Cage of Knives ('Sonny Steelgrave' aka Alan McKenzie/Paul Marshall)

Sonny Steelgrave? What the drokk was that all about? I thouight we'd long past the John Howard/TB Grover pseudonym stage - and I'm still uncl;ear why they even did it back then!

[radiator]

Sonny Steelgrave? What the drokk was that all about? I thouight we'd long past the John Howard/TB Grover pseudonym stage - and I'm still uncl;ear why they even did it back then!

I may be wrong here (so feel free to correct me everyone), but I heard somewhere it was so Alan McKenzie (2000ad Editor at the time) could essentially commission scripts from himself.

Wagner's pen names were apparently to disguise the fact that he and Grant were writing so much of IPC's comics output. IPC didn't mind them doing so as long as they used pseudonyms to make it appear as if they had more writers (and possibly to stop other publishers from poaching their talent).

[Grant Goggans]

What McKenzie told me was that he was following perceived 2000 AD tradition that each writer should only be credited as the writer for a single series, as he believed that had been the case with John Howard / TB Grover / F Martin Candor, etc.  So his Bradley scripts were credited to McKenzie, allowing him to use "Sydney Falco" on Moon Runners and, later, the mammoth rewrite of Fleisher's final Rogue Trooper.  "Sonny Steelgrave" was shared by himself and John Tomlinson whenever either of them wrote Dredd.

[Jedit]

It also has Judge Planet in it.

One of Stevie's favouritest Dredds ever.

Sold.

You're mad.  Judge Planet must be one of the worst Dredd strips ever.  Milligan's script is stupid - not to mention absolutely non-canon - and wiping your arse on Shaky Kane's horrible pop-art could only improve it.

On the other foot, just got my copy of the book today and it is on the whole pretty good.  Rebellion just need to accelerate publication of the Case Files, because the Restricted Files are now ahead of them.