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JUDGE DREDD: IDW #1

Started by COMMANDO FORCES, 21 November, 2012, 03:29:11 PM

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CrazyFoxMachine

I think I ordered it from Disposable Heroes on Pete's suggestion ;) If there's a better service someone tell me !

Richmond Clements

Quote from: CrazyFoxMachine on 23 November, 2012, 10:55:03 AM
I think I ordered it from Disposable Heroes on Pete's suggestion ;) If there's a better service someone tell me !
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Banners

Are we not allowed to comment on this here? Am I not allowed to express my utter amazement that Rebellion let through the depiction of Dredd in the backup strip, and sanctioned such poor quality scripts?

And what's with all these daft variant covers - and have they blended in the logos with the background, or just plonked them on?

It's a beautifully presented product (ie. the paper and reproduction are gorgeous), and the main strip looks fantastic - but the narration on the "Ripe" is way off and it all seems a little desperate. The main antagonist is a tree...!!! And two instances of petulant shop security droids in one issue...?

It beggars belief that strips like these are the way to grow the Dredd brand in America, especially in light of how high the Prog is soaring at the moment. I don't doubt IDW's expertise and know-how, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

2000 AD is better than this, and Dredd deserves better than this.

Trout

There's a thread on this in "other reviews".

Jim_Campbell

Quote from: Supermarine Troutfire on 23 November, 2012, 11:19:27 AM
There's a thread on this in "other reviews".

Err, this is the thread on this in "other reviews", isn't it?

Cheers

Jim
Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.

Pete Wells

Quote from: Banners on 23 November, 2012, 11:11:13 AM
And two instances of petulant shop security droids in one issue...?

I'm assuming that in a few issues time we may have some kind of Robot War situation or at least a techosavvy bad guy.

Colin YNWA

Quote from: Banners on 23 November, 2012, 11:11:13 AM

It beggars belief that strips like these are the way to grow the Dredd brand in America, especially in light of how high the Prog is soaring at the moment. I don't doubt IDW's expertise and know-how, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

2000 AD is better than this, and Dredd deserves better than this.

Si Spurrier (I think apologise if I'm attributing that to the wrong person) made a very good point about this in a recent interview (I assume the CBR one) when he pointed out trying to get American's into the Prog Dredd has been tried for years and its never taken. Therefore if this is going to work it probably has to be a bit different to what we expect and are used to.

We might not like it but it might be necessary and of course doesn't mean this version will work either, but its  valid to try something different.

Professor Bear

Oh, Banners, it's not that it's unoriginal, poorly structured, uninteresting to anyone but Dredd fans as an oddity, full of awful dialogue and Dredd as a superhero - it's that you and all other critics are reading it wrong.  It is actually a great comic book that stands alongside Vertigo's best and will sell by the bucketful and make Dredd a success in America, but if by some quirk it doesn't sell, that will turn out to be your fault.

I'm not even joking, when if Dredd fails to sell, it will be because of some nebulous group of people on the internet whose opinions are irrelevant but who nonetheless are still to blame.

Quote from: Colin_YNWA on 23 November, 2012, 11:25:58 AMSi Spurrier (I think apologise if I'm attributing that to the wrong person) made a very good point about this in a recent interview (I assume the CBR one) when he pointed out trying to get American's into the Prog Dredd has been tried for years and its never taken. Therefore if this is going to work it probably has to be a bit different to what we expect and are used to.

That reasoning is contradictory for two reasons: 1) they licenced Dredd so why would they want to make him into something else?  Why bother licencing him at all, why not just licence Robocop?
And 2) they also tried to get Americans into Dredd before with a glossy monthly that was not very well written or objectively interesting to anyone outside a minute number of existing Dredd fans and that also failed even with house ads in millions of DC Comics, a major Hollywood film in theaters, and a contemporary catalogue of material by shit-hot writers like Grant Morrison, Mark Millar and Garth Ennis to back it up, and all this happened when the market was a lot bigger than it is right now.
IDWs Dredd is - by contrast - made by nobodies*, sold via Diamond during a global recession and a contracted comic book market and I - an existing Dredd fan who will buy books sight unseen - only know it exists because I read this forum.  The maths on this aren't exactly rocket science.




* I speak only of their market presence and not their abilities as creators.

Trout

Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 23 November, 2012, 11:21:28 AM
Quote from: Supermarine Troutfire on 23 November, 2012, 11:19:27 AM
There's a thread on this in "other reviews".

Err, this is the thread on this in "other reviews", isn't it?

Cheers

Jim

Ah, so it is. Apologies. It had wandered off so much that I thought I was reading the thread announcing the comic. Whatever. I'm not buying it. I like the prog.

Colin YNWA

Quote from: Professah Byah on 23 November, 2012, 12:00:44 PM

Quote from: Colin_YNWA on 23 November, 2012, 11:25:58 AMSi Spurrier (I think apologise if I'm attributing that to the wrong person) made a very good point about this in a recent interview (I assume the CBR one) when he pointed out trying to get American's into the Prog Dredd has been tried for years and its never taken. Therefore if this is going to work it probably has to be a bit different to what we expect and are used to.


That reasoning is contradictory for two reasons: 1) they licenced Dredd so why would they want to make him into something else?  Why bother licencing him at all, why not just licence Robocop?


Just because they are making alterations to suit a different market doesn't mean it can't still be Dredd in essence, a bit like... oh I don't know... a recent movie? (I should point out as this juncture I've not read the book yet as I've not made it to my LCS yet so I'm talking in general terms and not specific).

Quote from: Professah Byah on 23 November, 2012, 12:00:44 PM
2) they also tried to get Americans into Dredd before with a glossy monthly that was not very well written or objectively interesting...

And because something has been tried before it is therefore destined to fail again? As you say yourself its a different marketplace now and this is off the back (intentionally or otherwise) of a movie that while it hasn't reached a mass audience is perceived to have a very good reputation amongst the comics potential niche audience. While at the same time Dredd is getting more and more visible to the American market via a host of different avenues and strategies.

That's not of course saying it will succeed, I've no idea, many people thought the movie would. Just that a bunch of people with more knowledge about these things than us (we hope) have looked at these factors, or very possibly utterly different ones and decided its worth a punt.

Professor Bear

Leaving aside that I see no flaw in the plan to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results, no-one's saying to not try a Dredd title, they're saying it should be better and it should be different from what DC already did because that was a palpable and provable failure both critically and commercially.  If you're doing a US Dredd comic, learn from those mistakes, don't just repeat them on a lower budget.

I would personally argue that if US audiences won't buy the prog Dredds, the logical assumption is that any US format Dredd must be at the very least as good as the prog Dredds, not "not as good, but longer."

Banners

Did I mention it's a sentient tree? It speaks at one point (in a rather unfortunate panel).

Dark Jimbo

If the colonials won't warm to Dredd when you've got the likes of Wagner, Ewing, Flint, MacNeil, etc, etc kicking arse like they have been for the past year and more and delivering Dreddworld material as good as we've ever seen, then they definately won't warm to him because they've read a weak imitation with unconvincing scripts and dodgy art. Those brave, knowlegable few who know good comics from bad - Goggans and Adventurer, for instance - will seek out the prog, and find a happy home here. The rest will simply never care, and fuck 'em anyway.
@jamesfeistdraws

IndigoPrime

Or perhaps they'll gel with a more US-oriented approach, which is what IDW appears to be going for. In six months I guess we'll know for sure, but at least they're not starting from scratch with their own origins (unlike the dire DC series).

Dark Jimbo

I certainly want it to do well, don't get me wrong, but I'm not optimistic.
@jamesfeistdraws