Dredd in america....err again

The Monarch · 28 June, 2008, 05:19:04 PM

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/080627- ... Dredd.html

I am torn as to whether this is a good thing or bad thing.....

johnnystress · 28 June, 2008, 05:21:12 PM

interesting

i hope it's a success this time

ukdane · 28 June, 2008, 05:34:26 PM

I thought Ennis said (in numerous interviews) that he would never write Dredd again, as only Wagner could do it properly.
There's something odd about Ennis being a consultant to Wagner.

JamesC · 28 June, 2008, 05:45:47 PM

I expect Ennis is just there to put his name to it really. I'm sure that Dynamite know that having a big name like Ennis attatched will help sales.

Gavin_Leahy_Block · 28 June, 2008, 05:56:09 PM

Depends how they do it though. Might be grate or just fall apart again.

IndigoPrime · 28 June, 2008, 06:03:34 PM

QuoteI told him that I had wanted to publish Judge Dredd in the United States for a while and had not had any luck in reaching the right person at Rebellion

Yeah. It is really hard getting in touch with people at Rebellion. Last time I emailed Matt about getting information for an interview I recently did with a 2000 AD artist for a news-stand publication, he took nearly a few whole hours to respond. I can therefore fully understand if this guy was finding it tricky. And it's not like Rebellion makes things easy anyway. You'd think they'd put the company phone number on the contacts page, right?

Alternatively: GNH!

ukdane · 28 June, 2008, 06:43:43 PM

Quote from: "Gavin_Leahy"Depends how they do it though. Might be grate or just fall apart again.

I think you're probably right, it probably will grate. The chances of it being great however, well, let's just wait and see.

Indigo: That's what I thought too.

Gavin_Leahy_Block · 28 June, 2008, 07:59:03 PM

Apologies for all misspellings

Leigh S · 28 June, 2008, 09:25:00 PM

Hmm - very interesting - am i having deja vu about this? Wasnt something similar mooted a while ago, then went quiet?

As others have said over on that link, I'd resent the need for Garth ennis to tell Wagner how to write Dredd, but froma marketing point of view, get his name in there, let Wagner write them....

hold on.... this had better not mean less Stront you creeps!

ahem, sorry, back on topic.... making Dredd work for the yanks...? Now this presupposes the Eagle stuff didnt do well, and iirc it did very well, despite some shoddy production and random story order. Surely the Dredd that failed was the film, and the DC Dredd and the later Quality comics repackaging of non wagner material? Maybe Dredd hasnt taken off there cos of how theyve seen it rather than what theyve seen?

Anyway, mabe they should do young(er) Dredd - set is in the 2080s/2090s? no continuity to worry abut, and the UK fans would lap it up?

The Adventurer · 28 June, 2008, 09:38:51 PM

Quote from: "Leigh Shepherd"Anyway, mabe they should do young(er) Dredd - set is in the 2080s/2090s? no continuity to worry abut, and the UK fans would lap it up?

Here's the fundimental problem with this (and really this project in general). There's really only two ways to do this 1)You do a full reboot of the character (which based on the Alex Ross Cover design, they aren't going that far off the beaten path at least in character design) which means old fans won't care because its not really Judge Dredd. Unless they go full scale "Ultimate Judge Dredd" which honestly, if they were going to do that, Dredd and his world needs a signifigant redesign to make that remotely interesting, and not just a rehash of old stories.

Or 2)A non-canonal/young Dredd series, which Also doesn't work because in such a series nothing consequential can possibly happen.

Because there's no way Rebellion is let this take any of the current serious Dredd stories away from 2000AD/The Megazine. To to mention the obvious continuity of those won't work with a new US audience.

It smells of weak licensing deal to keep Dredd's name around in America.

The whole project feels like its going to flop after maybe 12 issues. And it'll be DC/Rebellion all over again.

Leigh S · 28 June, 2008, 10:39:31 PM

Quote from: "The Adventurer"
Quote from: "Leigh Shepherd"Anyway, mabe they should do young(er) Dredd - set is in the 2080s/2090s? no continuity to worry abut, and the UK fans would lap it up?

Here's the fundimental problem with this (and really this project in general). There's really only two ways to do this 1)You do a full reboot of the character (which based on the Alex Ross Cover design, they aren't going that far off the beaten path at least in character design) which means old fans won't care because its not really Judge Dredd. Unless they go full scale "Ultimate Judge Dredd" which honestly, if they were going to do that, Dredd and his world needs a signifigant redesign to make that remotely interesting, and not just a rehash of old stories.

Or 2)A non-canonal/young Dredd series, which Also doesn't work because in such a series nothing consequential can possibly happen.

Because there's no way Rebellion is let this take any of the current serious Dredd stories away from 2000AD/The Megazine. To to mention the obvious continuity of those won't work with a new US audience.

It smells of weak licensing deal to keep Dredd's name around in America.

The whole project feels like its going to flop after maybe 12 issues. And it'll be DC/Rebellion all over again.

It's certainly a problem in terms of two continuities... unless of course the stuff will just filter into the Meg as reprint? So your reprint is actually the lead if you will - that sounds stupid, or is it so crazy it might work to keep the Meg topped up with new pages. To be honest, that'd work for me if it meant more money for the meg overall.

Ignoring that mental bit of speculation, I think a untold tales of younger Dredd avoids the continuity issues of modern "Dredd" - you can say it suffers from the "he cant die" syndrome, but hey, so does current Stront, and I think thats working pretty darn well. It would have the advantage over stront that these are tales set in a period we've seen nothing (or little) of. Would the UK fans really prefer 3 Wagner Dredd threads (prog/meg/Dynamite) or see something a bit different in that third slot? Granted its not an ideal solution, but I dont think theres a simple way of doing it without putting limitations on what you can do or risking a reboot.

DC Dredd flopped because it was awful and missed the point of the strip and character completely - I think this has the best chance of any attempt to sell Dredd to the US. Sure, it might crash and burn, but comparing it to the DC "effort" is comparing apples to turnips

If Im not mistaken, that Ross covers a thing he did for an Anthrax poster - not related to this... or maybe it was related to this when it as mooted years ago, as I seem to have a false memory of!

COMMANDO FORCES · 29 June, 2008, 03:29:05 AM

Quote from: "Leigh Shepherd"
Quote from: "The Adventurer"
Quote from: "Leigh Shepherd"If Im not mistaken, that Ross covers a thing he did for an Anthrax poster

You are not mistaken, it is the Anthrax stuff.

The Adventurer · 29 June, 2008, 08:18:40 AM

Quote from: "Leigh Shepherd"Ignoring that mental bit of speculation, I think a untold tales of younger Dredd avoids the continuity issues of modern "Dredd" - you can say it suffers from the "he cant die" syndrome, but hey, so does current Stront, and I think thats working pretty darn well. It would have the advantage over stront that these are tales set in a period we've seen nothing (or little) of. Would the UK fans really prefer 3 Wagner Dredd threads (prog/meg/Dynamite) or see something a bit different in that third slot? Granted its not an ideal solution, but I dont think theres a simple way of doing it without putting limitations on what you can do or risking a reboot.

Its not so much that "Dredd can't die" its more about "You can't blow up Mega-City-One!" or use the name villains, like Death, Mean, PJ Maybe, ETC... Granted the latter's not the biggest deal ever, and can be worked around by introducing new threats. But I doubt Dynamite wants to ignore the big name iconic characters.

Essentially, I'm seeing this having the same problems Dynamite's Battlestar Galactica* comic series have. Nothing that happens in those books is Canon, and therefor automatically irrelevant. Not to mention they don't bother to push any legitimately interesting ideas, for fear of stepping on the toes of the show. So you end up with a lukewarm pile of MEH based on one of the best show's ever.

*and to a lesser extent IDW's Doctor Who series.

nameuser · 29 June, 2008, 11:07:13 AM

I don't think American comic readers get Dredd or like him enough to make a new comic profitable. Had the Stallone Dredd film been a success it would have made Dredd a household name in the US but it wasn't to be. A successful Dredd film would have led to more comic books.

The two DC Dredd titles didn't sell enough so it will be hard for Dynamite Entertainment to succeed. The irony is hiring Garth Ennis as writer may be the best chance for success. Ennis never managed to capture Wagner's Dredd - he's even admitted it himself saying his material was too much like a fan writing Dredd - but his popularity in America would get people interested in a Dredd comic. Would British fans like an Ennis Dredd comic book? Doubtful. Would an Ennis Dredd comic shift units? Possible. Hmm... bit of conundrum.

JamesC · 29 June, 2008, 11:20:52 AM

Perhaps it could be done as a kind of 'Legends of the Dark Knight' equivalent.
Each story arc could be from a different time period. You could have completly new stories and maybe some retellings of classic stories perhaps from a slightly different viewpoint.
For example Judge Death could be told exclusively from Judge Death's own perspective or the first PJ Maybe story could be told as a straight detective mystery without the Columbo style beginning showing us who the killer is.