Judge Dredd: The Mega Collection discussion thread

[Mardroid]

For volumes of this type £11.99 is still pretty good value, when you consider how much hardback collections usually are. Or hardback books in general, for that matter.

[Jade Falcon]

I know the woman at WH Smith's said "Aren't these expensive", but basing it on comparing the size and content of one of the JD books to say, your typical Star Wars graphic novel reprint like Shattered Empire and the Star Wars one is more expensive.  Granted, Star Wars has got the hype just now, but still....

Helltrekkers, I still enjoyed and I'm surprised at the reception here, especially considering when I first asked on this forum about them being reprinted on their own, and later in this collection, the opinions seemed pretty poor.  The other two stories weren't as bad as feared, though Sleeze N' Ryder's art was a bit headache inducing.

I wonder what's next.  Guess I should check the facebook page.

[Jade Falcon]

Ya know it's each to his own... personally I hate Devlin Waugh and can't get through the books. This is mainly due to the fact John Smith writes them, and I have never been able to enjoy anything eh has written.

An unusual opinion, I know, but that's life!

I'm not exactly a fan of Devlin Waugh myself, I was reading those books from a fresh perspective having never read them before.  It wasn't because he was a gay character, I just wasn't a fan.

[Tony Angelino]

I almost enjoyed the Devlin Waugh - Chasing Herod one with Steve Yeowell art but I ended up struggling with it. John Smith has his fans but I don't find his writing style or stories accessible.

[Richard]

The Hershey stories by Igor Goldkind were pretty good. Are they in this series?

[JaHawkDroid]

The Hershey stories by Igor Goldkind were pretty good. Are they in this series?

I don't think there's a Hershey volume...


I now kind of really wish there was a Hershey volume.

[Trent]

Issue 57 now previewed on the Hachette site.
Volume is Armitage City of the Dead as already noted elsewhere.
Artists listed as: Doherty, Gillespie, Ridgeway, Cooper and Goddard so it is clearly the second and last volume of Armitage covering
City of the Dead - 69 pages ( Doherty and Gillespie)
Apostasy in the UK? - 14 pages (Ridgeway) and
Underground - 36 pages (Goddard)
which total 119 pages.
There are then 3 John Cooper stories which also total 119 pages so the likelihood is we'll get 2 out of 3 of these.

That leaves Armitage, Influential Circles and Flashback for the other Armitage book (168 pages) with possibly the 40 pages Steve Yeowell story.

Overall looks like we are getting all of Armitage up to date bar one of John Coopers later stories.
Still leaves a gap for the Treasure Steel and Steel/Hershey stories.
Possible we'll get Adlard's Steel Hershey story at 16 pages instead of Steve Yeowell as 184 pages sounds about right and keep consistency with the artists.

ANALysis over for now.

[IndigoPrime]

Bizarre decision to go with the later Armitage stories first, especially at this stage of the collection. Gnh.

[The Monarch]

I really, really hope that city of the dead mixup issue is fixed for the collection

[Trent]

Well they put out what is ostensibly the third Missionary Man volume first (although I hope - nay, demand - that Promised Land is included, possibly the best story he appeared in) and the second and third volumes of Tour of Duty are preceiding the first.
Don't really see the logic here although the books do work as standalone volumes the build up stories add resonance to them and the issue order simultaneously diminishes the earlier stories since we know how it all resolves.
Very odd indeed.

[The Monarch]

weeeelll its third in the mega collection....but its technically the second of mm hell the run in that collection ends with mm being found by the mutants he ends up travelling with in the promised land story....its weird numbering

[abelardsnazz]

A solid collection of stories in The Chief Judge's Man, with the exception of Psycho Block - not sure that did much for me. Highlights of the volume were the Dredd-Edgar scenes, and contrasting Manners with Klee and Jackson - judges can go off the rails for reasons of love or hate.

There's only one drawback to stories being published out of order - having to read the whole collection again when it's complete ;-)

[sheridan]

The Hershey stories by Igor Goldkind were pretty good. Are they in this series?

I don't think there's a Hershey volume...

I now kind of really wish there was a Hershey volume.

Considering she's the longest-serving Chief Judge (that has been depicted) that's kind of surprising.

Well, I think she's longest serving - her broken service and McGruder's broken service make it difficult to tell without actually doing research.

[TordelBack]

Oddly enough I thought Psycho Block was the really strong part of this volume, with extraordinarily creepy Wilson art, even though I didn't remember it at all. I'll take all the strips  about the evils of privatisation that I can get.

TBH neither Chief Judge's Man nor the Mannerses do much for me as stories, although the array of artwork involved was more than worth the cover price (Burns in particular has never been better, more Simpson is always welcome and seriously, does Colin MacNeil ever sleep: it feels like he drew half of the pages in this whole collection, and each one is magnificent). The Edgar appearance seems to pass without anything interesting happening, and if it was building to something more then that never materialised either; and Gill's sorry tale is just a bit too similar to Nate Slaughterhouse's.

Better, although not exactly original either, is Wayne Reynold's Flippers, which has that precious The Pit feel which is later Wagner at his best, the lives of a whole Sector House of judges sketched out in a few lines.

And now the series stuff: the bloody Issue No sticker was stuck directly onto the cover of my book, rather than the cellophane. Removing it was no east task and the circle underneath is puckered and distinct. Gah! Get it sorted, Hachette.

[Skullmo]

Finally read Sleeze and Ryder. I would love to know how that got commissioned if Bish-Op is lurking on here? It seems so awful I can't imagine how it got through the door!