Judge Dredd Complete Case Files

[Dandontdare]

I also don't agree with this 'Dredd doesn't get consistently good until volume 5' idea.

whoa, that wasn't the impression I meant to give at all - my point was that volume 5 is a great introduction to Dredd for a new reader, as it's got a varied mix of easily accessible classic stories, and would allow someone to decide if Dredd is their thing.

THEN, once they're hooked, they mortgage the house and pimp the cat to buy everything else published! Bwahahahaha

[Leigh S]

also sorry if my wording suggested Dredd isnt much cop til Vol 5 - personally, once teh Cursed earth kicks in, its pretty much there (Vol 2), The Day the law Died is a brilliant (and funny) epic (still Vol 2), Vol 3 has a whole bundle of classics following on from that.... theres a thread that touches on this subject... let me see if i can resurrect it!

[Leigh S]

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=23354&p=400562&hilit=classics#p400562

[Dark Jimbo]

Fair point, but I'm guessing you were a fan of, or were at least familiar with Dredd at the time. AFAIK Rogue has never read a 2000ad comic, and thats why I suggested something with a more modern sensibility.

Ah, gotcha - yeah, I wasn't familiar with any of the 'classics' but I had been reading the prog/Meg since about 2001, so I suppose I already knew what the strip was capable of at its best.

whoa, that wasn't the impression I meant to give at all - my point was that volume 5 is a great introduction to Dredd for a new reader, as it's got a varied mix of easily accessible classic stories, and would allow someone to decide if Dredd is their thing.

Okay, that makes more sense.

also sorry if my wording suggested Dredd isnt much cop til Vol 5 - personally, once teh Cursed earth kicks in, its pretty much there (Vol 2)

Well, I did wonder! Yeah, my thinking is that from vol 2 onwards it's pretty much all gold with enough gems to outweigh the duffers (which mercifully get less and less over time).

[chilipenguin]

Necro thread here but I have just received Complete Case Files v1&2. I've never read a lot of the progs (mainly just the assembled arcs and one offs such as Dredd VS Death etc) but it's amusing to see the original Dredd patrolling MC1.

I think they were struggling to set the tone in these original strips (why does Dredd have a sterotype as his cleaning lady?) but Call-Me-Kenneth is a fantastic villain and there are some great stories in here.

When do we start to see the more modern Dredd begin to emerge?

[Greg M.]

I think they were struggling to set the tone in these original strips (why does Dredd have a sterotype as his cleaning lady?) but Call-Me-Kenneth is a fantastic villain and there are some great stories in here.

When do we start to see the more modern Dredd begin to emerge?

Suppose that depends on how you'd define the modern Dredd, but possibly the Apocalypse War, as much from a visual perspective as anything else? (Though that has plenty of Walter and Maria, which you might see as hold-overs of a previous era.) Personally, I tend to think once we're into the Call-Me-Kenneth stuff, things are pretty recognisable from there on in - i.e. once Wagner is regularly writing or co-writing.

[TordelBack]

For me 'modern Dredd', that is to say 'self-conscious Dredd', kicks off during The Judge Child (Casefiles 4) but really begins in earnest in Casefiles 7.  Throughout that volume he starts questioning the law and his role in it:  it's there in his response to various crazes, in his near-self-sacrifices in Cry of the Werewolf and the Graveyard Shift, in his dealing with various harmless nutters, and of course, in Question of Judgement.  It's very interesting to see, especially as Wagner claims not to work intentionally in these long-running trajectories.  

[Greg M.]

For me 'modern Dredd', that is to say 'self-conscious Dredd', kicks off during The Judge Child (Casefiles 4) but really begins in earnest in Casefiles 7.  Throughout that volume he starts questioning the law and his role in it:  it's there in his response to various crazes, in his near-self-sacrifices in Cry of the Werewolf and the Graveyard Shift, in his dealing with various harmless nutters, and of course, in Question of Judgement.  It's very interesting to see, especially as Wagner claims not to work intentionally in these long-running trajectories. 

Aye, I think that's a pretty astute observation. If indeed 'modern Dredd' reads as 'more introspective Dredd', then undoubtedly, Question of Judgement is it. Maybe there's an argument (though I'm not sure if I'd make it) for 'The Cursed Earth' though... lines like 'Sometimes the human race makes me sick!' and Dredd's deliberate cover-up of what he knows about Tweak and his planet are quite revealing, though they don't so much pertain to his role as a lawman. Mind you, Dredd at the time of, say, Oz or the Democratic March (where he is at most unsympathetic) probably wouldn't have done that. It seems that in doubting himself and the law, his reaction is eventually to suppress his doubts so much that it ends up damaging him as a human being, and it's not until he can't shoot Chopper in Oz that the human side starts to take ascendance again.

[TordelBack]

It seems that in doubting himself and the law, his reaction is eventually to suppress his doubts so much that it ends up damaging him as a human being, and it's not until he can't shoot Chopper in Oz that the human side starts to take ascendance again.

Hmmm, so McGruder's solution to send him to 2120 paid off in the short term, eh?  Never thought about it like that before.

[chilipenguin]

Hmm. My reply went awol?

Anyway, I am really enjoying this so far. It's just some of the daft stories (20th Century comics cartel) and the constant one liners that are throwing me a wee bit.

That said, the best moment so far has been when Dredd carried Rico's body from his apartment (Judges have apartments?).

"He ain't heavy, he's my brother!" 

[Greg M.]

Hmmm, so McGruder's solution to send him to 2120 paid off in the short term, eh?  Never thought about it like that before.

Yeah, maybe. Her idea was that she wanted to get his mind off his doubts by immersing him in a mission of major importance, if I remember rightly? Maybe there is an argument that Dredd's vision of his decimated city allows him to dedicate himself with renewed vigour to its laws? Maybe Dredd is completely over-compensating for his moral quandries by throwing himself headfirst into the most hardline stance he's ever held? In general I think the Dredd of Casefiles 9 & 10, for instance, is a much nastier character - there are so many stories in those volumes that play him as a sheer bastard.