Main Menu

JUDGE DREDD: IDW #1

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

Previous topic - Next topic

BPP

This arrived on Thursdays morning from Disposable Heroes so I guess if you ordered from them then its the postie at fault as they were mailed out on Wednesday.

The paper stock is LOVELY and they don't plaster the thing with Ads mid-story (That shocked me last time a bought a big 2 comic (McCarthy's Spiderman thing)). So double points on that. As for the content...


1) The covers  - both covers I got (the Jim Starlin rooftops and the DHC variant) are pretty ropey. The Starlin anatomy is just rubbish and the Variant cover has no attempt to merge the retailer logo with the perspective of the door it is supposed to be on. Still nice cover stock. I did like the background towerblocks in the Starlin piece.

2) The story - 'The Story as DREDD' - didn't really get much of a feel who Dredd is, he's depicted as merely one of the judges in the story. The moustached judge deals with Dredd in an off-hand manner that depicts no seniority or respect. Fair enough, its Dredd of a different era obviously. Not too sure why anyone will take to this Dredd tho. He stands around, shoots a tree, jumps down an improbable distance and then does nothing. Nothing special or even individual about his character so far.

'The Story as Story' - well, who knows, its seems to make little sense (the robbers at the same time as the tree and that's a consequence of the robot going wonky? EH?) and lacked any tension. The stand-off in the sewer / lower section is incredibly unclear - did the head explode or was he shot? Why's Dredd just stand there? Why's he not off down the way the terrified guy has just run from? Its bobbins. So was the lawgiver not-working/working, the radio not working (really, the mutant fruit jammed the signal but your gun just fired Hi-Ex and the robots are working fine? EH?).

3) The art. Not my bag is the best I can say. The best bit would be the uniform and the size of the boots. The best panel was the Law-Master arrival. The City looks okay, if lacking detail and love. The rest? Well its not great and definitely didn't add any tension to the story. Or any believability. Nothing wrong with a cartoony style but not for tense hardcore action and suspense. Dredd leaping 3 stories and landing like Thor was likewise just, well, meh. I can see younger readers thinking that panel is cool but I can't see them digging the art style, not unless they are very very young.

4) The backup - The story - better. Still not dazzling and functionally told rather than imbuing the dialogue between boss and robot with any real wit or interplay  but it does the job. Certainly more appealing than the main story. Earphones with cord attachments do strike me as not really going to be with us much longer tech. The art - hard to know what to say. The second panel actually looks really nice, but thereafter just about everything is 'wtf' - proportions, head-shapes, perspectives, look-theres-a-phone-last-sold-in-1998. The panel where Dredd appears made me laugh. Not for the right reasons.

Still, lovely paper stock.

I'll keep buying this but then I'm a sucker for 2000AD and this is, just about, Dredd. McCarthy is doing Anderson in issue 2! Have no idea about IDW page-rates but surely they can get some decent artists who suit the tone of the thing in. I'm not saying Nelson Daniel isn't decent, I'm saying I don't think his style helped this story.


Still, people buying this and not the Megazine need their heads examined.
If I'd known it was harmless I would have killed it myself.

http://futureshockd.wordpress.com/

http://twitter.com/#!/FutureShockd

SmallBlueThing

Im off to chaham tonight to see naked ladies wobble their ample breasts and pert bottoms, but my wife tells me two parcels arrived for me before she left. One had better be dredd #1 or SBT SMASH!

SBT
.

Spikes

Quote from: BPP on 23 November, 2012, 05:18:55 PM
This arrived on Thursdays morning from Disposable Heroes so I guess if you ordered from them then its the postie at fault as they were mailed out on Wednesday.

Well, hopefully Tomorrow....

Quote from: SmallBlueThing on 23 November, 2012, 05:31:56 PM
One had better be dredd #1 or SBT SMASH!

And its J.J SMASH! as well, if it dont turn up tomorrow ;)

Though ive no reason to doubt that its on its way, as DHC's havent let me down yet, and ive ordered shed loads from them over the last couple of years.
And talking about DHC, just had an email reply to a query i sent them. In future, cover artists names will be put next to the title, so those wanting to track down a particular variant etc, will now be able to see whats what. Good stuff, DHC!

COMMANDO FORCES

I presume all that ordered with Disposable Heroes must have theirs now, as my shop variants turned up today!

DrRocka

Read it, not really keen - didn't really recognise Dredd as the same character I've seen before (when the hell has he ever warned perps to prepare for sentencing other than that bloody Stallone movie???!!).

I take it the rogue droid we see on the first page and assembling itself a face in the last panel will be Call Me Kenneth?
Never ever bloody anything ever

auxlen

Received mine today. it was ok but read like much of the worst from 2000ad/annual/specials. I mean how minor was Dredd? should have been titled 'mega city robots' but Dredd? where was he?

Hawkmumbler

Quote from: DrRocka on 23 November, 2012, 10:20:27 PM
I take it the rogue droid we see on the first page and assembling itself a face in the last panel will be Call Me Kenneth?
If this is true, then the end result could go either way. :-\

Spikes

Quote from: COMMANDO FORCES on 23 November, 2012, 09:35:49 PM
I presume all that ordered with Disposable Heroes must have theirs now

And five minutes ago, my lovely looking, but horribly expensive, Carlos variant (over two months in the waiting!) finally arrived  :thumbsup:


SmallBlueThing

I read mine at 2:30am when the lady and i returned from chatham. I may comment further later on, but in case i dont, here are brief thoughts:

The back up strip is a waste of space. It's horrible, gulacy's art is amateurish and a joke, and it's an indication of the shitty editing on the title. Worse, by giving over a number of pages to a short, the comic completely throws away it's one selling point- that it was an opportunity to tell longer, u.s comic-style stories. Now the comic is just a mash-up of short dredd strips, and that's available elsewhere, and better.

The main strip is actually pretty good- and i will continue with the comic based solely upon it. It's not great by any means, but if it had turned up in a summer special or wotnot, i wouldnt complain.

Oddly, my  biggest complaint is the paperstock- it's just ridiculous. The weight of the comic in comparison to everything else ive bought this month is ludicrous- it's slippy and horrible to hold. It's not proper comics, to my mind. (cont)
.

SmallBlueThing

(cont) it's something vastly inferior to much of the market, masquerading as something of quality, and actually made me want to chuck the bloody thing away just to make a point. I have no idea where this quest for better and better stock will end- presumable with comics printed on some kind of frictionless dwarfstar allow- but i only wish publishers would be half as excited about finding new creators with talent. I bought a couple of thirty-five year old comics this week, the paper-stock of which was absolutely fine, still white and still showing the art just as intended. I dare say in another 35 years they'll be the same. I doubt anyone will be opening IDW's JD#1 in five, let alone 35 years.

SBT
.

SmallBlueThing

Dwarf star alloy, no
'allow'.

SBT
.

a chosen rider

Quote from: SmallBlueThing on 24 November, 2012, 10:55:10 AMThe main strip is actually pretty good- and i will continue with the comic based solely upon it. It's not great by any means, but if it had turned up in a summer special or wotnot, i wouldnt complain.

Yeah, that's about where I'm at with it.  Personally I really like the art style on the main story, and while the writing's not setting my world on fire, it's pretty much of a quality with Meg Dredds I've read by script droids new to the writing for the character, so I'll stick with it for the next couple of months and see how it progresses.
On Twitter @devilsfootsteps

Spikes

And, finally ive had chance to read it.
Pretty much enjoyed this overall, though its certainly not the Dredd were used to, it gets enough sorta right to be a pass.
The main story is a fun, if a little bit too cartoony a read, and the art is fine. The back up story is ok, and reading it, the art (not the greatest) didnt turn me off like i thought it would.
After reading it i wouldnt class this comic as an essential purchase (well, it was for the Carlos cover..), but not a bad first attempt. And im happy to stick with it for the time being.

So overall, a different take on Dredd that doesnt offend. A cautious thumbs up from me.

Daveycandlish

I felt the main story did a decent job of introducing the world that we all know and love to a new audience - slightly different to what we know about (being old hands at the Mega City), but still, not bad. I even liked the cartoony style and letratoned art.
But oh that artwork on the second tale... I'm not a fan of Gulacy's inks anyway so to let him loose on Dredd (and to give him Stallon's uniform) is just ... wrong.
An old-school, no-bullshit, boys-own action/adventure comic reminiscent of the 2000ads and Eagles and Warlords and Battles and other glorious black-and-white comics that were so, so cool in the 70's and 80's - Buy the hardback Christmas Annual!

SmallBlueThing

It'd not even for me the uniform- i can live with that as ive always (shhhhhh!) "not minded it"- ahem!- but it's the inconsistency. Gulacy only had to draw dredd in three panels- and he couldnt even be consistent throughout them. Look at the respirator, fer fuckssakes! Four stripes and a crossbar, then four stripes no crossbar, then six stripes! It'd just terrible. Is this a 'thing' that Gulacy does, a quirk of his that's supposed to indicate his talent? I remember his name being bandied about in the eighties, around Eclipse comics, i think. I had a mate who thought he could do no wrong, but it always looked awful to me. This cements it in my mind.

SBT
.