| Title | : | Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 01 |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1904265790 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781904265795 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 336 |
| Publication | : | First published March 5, 1977 |
Now you can re-discover the roots of this legendary character in this vast and Thrill-packed series of graphic novels collecting together all of Dredd's adventures in chronological order, complete and uncut!
Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 01 Reviews
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"Judge Dredd" is the most popular title of the British science fiction anthology 2000 AD, and this first volume collects the title's earliest stories from 1977-78. Dredd is a law enforcement officer in the futuristic North American Mega-City 1, empowered to pass death sentences or jail terms on the job. Robots perform most traditionally human tasks, providing the 800 million people living in Mega-City 1 with an abundance of wealth and leisure time. And what better way to enjoy all that wealth and leisure time than to commit crimes, right?
Well, it certainly is a scenario that provides fictional justification for the police-state methods personified by Judge Dredd. After all, the reader is not likely to feel sorry for a bunch of bored "degenerates" who go on crime sprees just to keep themselves entertained. The notion that widespread wealth spells disaster is a bit silly, though (unless you happen to be a member of the Tea Party), and the fictional world of Judge Dredd generally feels rather half-baked at this early stage. The characters are underdeveloped, the stories predictable, and the humor often does not work.
Still, there is potential here, and the highly polished Brian Bolland artwork that starts to appear towards the book's end is a real treat. Here's hoping things will start to fall into place soon! -
This is early Dredd, like the first year of publication.
It's composed of short stories each of which provides a bland introduction to Dredd and his world.
The stories were pretty lame, the characterization two-dimensional and the dialogue...meh!
The artwork is black and white, I certainly don't dig that as much as the colour comic books.
Worth getting though if you want the complete set. -
2.5 Stars
The year is 2099 AD.
Welcome to Mega-City One: A highly populated city with staggering crime rates. To ensure peace and uphold the law of Mega-City One, the justice department uses judges: An officer of the law who acts as police, judge, jury and executioner if necessary. Who is the toughest and smartest of them all?
Judge Dredd
The collection contains some brilliant stories a lot of terrible ones.
A gun that shoots six types of bullets? Face changing machines? A Fingerprint triggered gun? Perfectly planned terrorist attack using dream machines? So awesome!
A Robot that reprograms third law of robotics by talking to other robots? Robots leaking oil when crying? killer cars? So dumb.
Then there is the matter of the terrible catchphrases by Dredd
* Crime doesn't pay.
* Gunplay doesn't pay.
* One type of dirt is more difficult to remove - CRIME.
* The Law will clean you out.
* You just struck an officer of the law! So the law must strike back!
* No way you could win - playing against the law!
* I am the law and you'd better believe it.
And spectacular criminal names!
* Frankenstein 2
* Krong, a mechanical Gorilla
* Gorilla, a cocky criminal
* call-me-Kenneth, a robot that started robot war
* Mr. Buzzz (yes, with three z)
* Crazy Al
* Slick willy
* Geek Gorgon
* Mr. Scroodge, a special Christmas villain.
* C.W Moonie of Moon
* Cosmovich, a Russian judge who works in space.... Yep, the writers were not very subtle.
and my personal favorite
I loved the character they introduced in the 2012 movie and I have read some great random Dredd comic strips (featuring Judge Death). But the first adventures of Dredd featured in this book lacks substance at places that matters and most of the stories are bogged down by lackluster thrills.
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Uhhhh.. Was this supposed to be ironic?! -
Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 01 collects the Judge Dredd stores from 2000 AD #2-60.
Like a lot of people, I only know Judge Dredd from the pair of movies and the times he teamed up with Batman. In my quest to fill in some gaps in my comics knowledge, I picked this up.
This is a collection of 4-8 page shorts, some linked, featuring Judge Dredd, lawman of the post-apocalyptic future. He patrols Mega City-1, a sprawling metropolis that encompasses half of North America from what I gather.
This volume collects Judge Dredd's earliest appearances. Dredd fights street crime, quells a robot uprising, and goes to the moon and back again. The writing is nothing spectacular in and of itself. World building takes a back seat to dark humor and violence. The stories remind me of EC crime or war comics more than anything else, what with the short length and punchiness.
The art ranges from crude to spectacular. Brian Bolland is on the spectacular end of things. It's no wonder he was tapped to do The Killing Joke a few years after this.
Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 01 is fun and darkly humorous. I might take a crack at some newer Dredd once I knock out a few other things. It was never a "drop everything to read" kind of book, though. 3 out of 5 stars. -
A fantastic idea from 2000AD, the Complete Case Files reprint every Dredd story that appeared in the comic. Volume one covers issue 2 (he didn’t appear in number 1) from March 1977 through to issue 60 from April 1978 and as an early reader of the Thrill Zone (the first issue I remember is 18, from June ’77), this was a real blast from the past. While some of the early stories suffer from format issues as it tries to find its feet (the incident, Dredd says no-one is above the law, sorts the baddie out, the end) it quickly gets better as time goes on and the world-building is superb - simple but clever, very close to the fears of the day (and, indeed, 40+ years later as I read this) and exceptionally well designed. The artwork is consistently good (Dredd was my first exposure to Brian Bolland), the black humour, which would have been lost on 8-year-old me, works more often than not and some of the one-liners are smart and the things that rankle the writers - war, crime, poverty - come through without being preachy. My highlights of the book include Call-Me-Kenneth and the war of the robots, the brainblooms (issue 18!), Muggers Moon, Rico!, Walter The Wobot, the whole Luna 1 run, war (with four combatants) and Elvis the killer car while the book also includes the first Dredd story and a run of Walter one-page adventures. Great fun, well written and superbly illustrated, well presented and thoroughly iconic, I very highly recommend this.
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I got inspired to read this by the 2012 "Dredd" film starring Karl Urban: One of my favourite science-fiction action films in a long while, which basically felt like a cyberpunk "Die Hard" directed by John Carpenter. The comics, however, turn out to be a level weirder than the movie at least.
Most of the stories herein are episodic one-shots with a couple longer epic story arcs appearing. In the comics it's clearer than the films, both the Sylvester Stallone version from the mid 90's and the recent Karl Urban version, that the central concept of Dredd is a British parody of 1960's/1970's American cop-on-the-edge movies like "Bullitt" or "Dirty Harry". That genre comes across as faintly ridiculous to UK audiences, who prefer their action heroes closer to James Bond or Sherlock Holmes. A good deal of the humour at first comes from putting a straight-laced hard-boiled supercop into the type of patently ridiculous futuristic society typical of the more satirical strain of UK science-fiction, and having him act like the "straight man" to everything around him. Imagine Steve McQueen's Bullitt dumped into "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", and you have a good idea. Unfortunately, the one-note joke character Dredd starts as gets tedious at first when you read more than one story a week like intended for the original audience.
As the omnibus goes on, however, the stories get more inventive. You see the writers satirise utopian not dystopian SF, or at least schemes by 1970's-era futurologists to create a more efficient society, by thinking up ways for criminals to exploit them and for totalitarian surveillance states like Mega-City One do so as well. Things get really exciting once the long term story arcs start to appear. The most famous is the robot uprising, which introduces frequently recurring comedy relief character Walter the Wobot.
My favourite of the longer stories here, however, has to be the one where Dredd becomes marshal on a moonbase city. That plot concept results in some well written culture clash humour, more overt satire of then-contemporary politics in particular the Cold War, as well as the type of spaghetti western pastiche that'd later become a hallmark of Judge Dredd whenever the stories go into the Cursed Earth or into the outer space colonies.
This is still pretty rough around the edges, though, with my favourite Judge Dredd comic book stories being the long ambitious epic story arcs like "The Cursed Earth" and "The Day the Law Died" found in omnibus volume 2, or "The Judge Child" found in volume 4. I would recommend vol 2 as a better place to start for the curious, to be honest. -
These case files are amazing value for money. RRP is £15 but you can pick most of these up for a tenner thanks to the internet. You a get a years worth of Dredd stories printed on a pretty good paper. It’s not parchment but compared to Marvel and DC collected editions, it might as well be. It’s not that terrible pulp you get with manga. These are a bloody bargain; with other comic companies you would get 4-6 issues at this price point. 5 stars for value.
Now onto the content. Yeah, I didn’t realise Dredd was THIS old. I thought he was 80s, not 70s. The writing is, well, 70s. It follows a pretty rigid formula for the most part. 4 pages of Saturday morning cartoon villain does crime, Dredd is probably a bit of a douche, Dredd catches criminal scum and says “witty” on liner. It’s eye rolling bad. It does get better as we progress, the stories being bumped up to 6 pages and the terrible jokes being dialled back a bit but yeah, it’s still a bit shit.
I read this whole thing though. The world is really interesting and I can’t wait for it to find its feet. I’m not a fan of early comics in general so I knew going into this it would not really be my thing, but I did finish it which is more than I can say for my attempts at early Marvel and DC. I’m glad I have read this. I won’t ever read it again but I’m glad I powered through. Walter is a great character that I’m sure will be round for a lot more issues. The robot rebellion was interesting but clearly not resolved properly so it’s bound to come up again. We met Dredd’s evil clone! He has to come back at a later date.
It’s shit but shows potential. We didn’t really need a four part story about a killer car, BUT the car did have the personality of a child, most probably dead. That’s dark. There is depth here, hidden away.
Going to the moon for the last section of the book was a terrible idea. The only thing keeping me going was the cool world and then it was stripped away.
This was a tough read right up until the last few stories. The stories were still shit, don’t get me wrong, but something changed. Dredd is fascist, man. There is no other way to say it. The man was always an arsehole throughout this book but the last couple of stories, he changed. He gave a guy 6 months for littering, the littering being his attempted suicide. 5MPH under the speed limit? Banned from driving for 12 years! Holy shit guys, I think Dredd might be both the hero and villain here. I know next to nothing about the character so I don’t know if I’m off here but I think things are going to be interesting going forward.
2 stars but I’m hopeful for the future. -
Ok I am irrational and biased - so there!
This is a collection of the Judge Dredd comic strips collected together and presented in one book- they are taken from the pages of the British Comic 2000AD (yes there are other publications as well but this is really his home admit it). The reason for the high praise for what is essentially a dated and simplistic comic strip - simple - my past. Growing up in a village - not really in to reading (yet mind you), this was my slice of escapism. A friend of mine would get each week a copy of 2000AD and i would beg to get a chance to read it. It was amazing to a young impressionable boy who really didn't know what was out there and wonders I could find. So to this day I still respect and love these comic strips even though comics and graphic novels have matured and moved on - this to me still is the heart of escapism. -
Reason for Reading: I've read quite a few Judge Dredd collections now including book 5 of these Case Files and knew it was time to start at the beginning.
This is where it all started! The very first Judge Dredd stories collected together in chronological order are a delight for any fan to read. I had such a fun time reading this book. The book starts off with single episode stories but it doesn't take long until the Robot Wars issues start and we have a long running sequential story. After this the stories vary from one short episode to several long running issues. Midway through the book Dredd is sent to Lunar-1, the moon, as the new Marshall, and the rest of the book takes place there which was a little disappointing as such little time was spent in MegaCity 1 for this book. However just at the very end he returns home to earth. I had not ever read any stories that took place on the moon so this was all interesting for me and I have to say I enjoyed everything in this collection along with all the cheesiness involved in the early days of Dredd.
First, I had not realized Dredd started in the late '70s, I had thought it was early '80s, and this makes a difference in how the comic was presented. My first shock right on page one was being presented with a skinny Dredd! This skinny '70s Dredd is surrounded by other skinny people with Afros and Charlie's Angels' haircuts. It takes the whole book for Dredd to develop into a muscular Terminator-type though not quite up to his '80s self yet. Also MegaCity 1 is in the US and Judge Dredd though a British comic is very American in presentation, however as we start to read the first couple of comics I was hit by the "Britishisms". Right away way the word "lorry", then came "petrol", "lift", etc. this continues for quite some time and starts to disappear midway through the book, though even at the end the word "lift" was used. In the collections I've read so far I haven't gone back this early, and have paid particular note to how "American" the MegaCity culture is so this was surprising. Another difference was the lack of Block names, instead of the amusing famous people names for the city Blocks MegaCity is just divided into numerical Sectors, Sector 64, etc. It will be interesting to see when the Block names are incorporated. Finally, a major difference in the early Dredd is his personality. Dredd, of course, always gets his man and is on the side of justice no matter what, but this early Dredd is a bit of a goody two-shoes compared to the mid-80s onwards Dredd. Every crook is captured and goes to prison. Dredd drives around handing out fines to citizens for jaywalking and driving too slowly. He main concern in life is following the law to the letter. He's really a bit of a jerk when it comes down to it, not the complex character he is now, and I wouldn't love him if this was my first exposure to him. But it's not and I do.
I could go on about "this" Dredd and the later Dredd but when all is said and done this was a load of fun for a fan. I would not recommend a newcomer start here; you probably wouldn't "get" what the big deal is, a lot has changed. But these stories are fun, yes some are cheesy, but some are very good. I loved seeing how Walter was introduced, the first glimpse of Judge Rico, the whole Robot Wars episode, the "red shirt" syndrome of any other Judge who went out on a call with Dredd, the introduction of Judge Giant and the introduction of Sov-City. Looking forward to volume 2 which promises to bring the epic "Cursed Earth"! -
I appreciated this collection much more on second reading. There is enough creativity and solid work from Mick McMahon and Brian Bolland to bump this up. It is damn rough, but that is part of the pleasure. Especially when it comes to the design of Dredd. The stories are a bit all over, but there are real shiny parts - like Rico and Judge Gibson in addition to the obvious Call Me Kenneth.
We also get an introduction to evolved monkeys and mutants which give us a taster of this world and the satire which makes it so diesel. The Mega City 5000 race and later the killer Elvis car are cool storylines, and surprisingly a lot takes place on the moon with Dredd as the steward of the place. The entire Soviet Union theme is also ever present and indicates that we are in for a lot more on that front.
Overall, continues to be scrappy, but with real acorns which grown into amazing story arcs such as the Cursed Earth, the Apocalypse War and many others.
Key Characters
Call Me Kenneth
Rico
Judge Gibson
Walter the Wobot
The (First) Grand Judge
The Neon Knights are cool
2,5
As mentioned by many, this first case file includes the character and creators finding their feet. The longer stories (the robot war and Dredd as Moon Marshall) were OK - but there were quite a lot od progs that were quite boring IMO.
That said, there were some high points. Elements of stories to come and the Rico storyline, whilst underdeveloped, helped. Brian Bolland's stuff is a massive highlight and Mick McMahon's stamp also helps.
An OK start but yeah, just a taste of what was to come. I read 2,3,4 before this and am stoked to start 5 with the Death Judges . -
Got to love Dredd. These stories from the early 2000AD are superb to watch the evolution of a character who was ground breaking back in the Seventies and Eighties. Some excellent tales that include his six month deployment to Lunar 1 and the classic Robowar story arch. Annoyingly finished just at the start of Cursed Earth - better look out for Volume 2 !!!!!
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I tracked this down because I've spent the past 35 years haunted by the image of Rico Dredd's surgically altered face to enable him to serve out his 20-year sentence on Titan. The reveal is still shocking, but I had forgotten that it all leads to a terrible joke where an exhausted Judge Dredd carries Rico's body claiming, "He ain't heavy..."
Where this short strip terrified me years ago, this time around it made my cry and laugh within a few panels.
It'll be another few hundred issues before the level of storytelling improves and I may dip in and out of this series until I get to the Dead Man and Necropolis, but I'm also keen to catch up on the Judge Child, Chopper and other stuff I missed.
The clarity of the reprint in these editions isn't always ideal, but they look great on the shelf and it's better than having to track down thousands of weekly back issues. -
The original Judge Dredd Case Files go back to the 1970s in the early days of the satirical authoritarian protagonist who works in New York City and later Mega City One. The strip is rough compared to how it would eventually come to be with a lot of the stories lacking some of their later edge. Still, some of the satire is still biting like the fact the Statue of Liberty gets replaced by a bigger Statue of Justice.
The "Call me Kenneth" story arc takes up a lot of the early strips and is just basically about a particularly unpleasant rebelling machine. Ditto the bizarre Wild West theme "Moon" arc where Judge Dredd is cleaning up the saloons and gambling dens on Luna, which inexplicably are less Cyberpunk 2077 and more Firefly.
Though even it has a few pot shots at fascist ideology like the fact he immediately begins oppressing his fellow robots worse than regular humanity once he uses their oppression to gain power. Others are just sort of weird for the sake of being weird like the brain bloom storyline or a deranged teenage car. However, even the lesser strips have some value like a deranged game show where your life is on the line.
There's some elements to the book that aren't very good. I don't think I've met a single Judge Dredd fan who cares about Dredd's robot butler Walter or his elderly landlady. Also, the fact is that Mega City One, once it's established, is a complete cartoon means that we don't have nearly the level of continuity that would eventually be expected of it. Everything goes in the future at this point because much of the setting isn't established yet.
On the other hand, there's some genuinely good stories here as well. The best of the first Complete Case Files are the stories that have a serious core: Judge Dredd facing down his brother Rico, Judge Dredd training a new cadet, and Judge Dredd fighting an evil former friend at the Academy are all excellent stories. Still, this isn't the Dredd we know yet. The series can't figure out its tone and whether its bleaky humorous or humorously bleak.
The art is black and white but very well detailed even if the sequential art is a tad focused on the "joke" at the end of each strip. It's not my cup of tea but a great look at the origins of the world's greatest law man. Not quite cyberpunk but dystopian scifi that is building toward it. Bluntly, at 300 pages, this is mostly worth reading for the historical value. -
This is the first of the Judge Dredd case files and an interesting look at how Joe Dredd and Megacity One was conceived and developed in the beginning.
Mostly consisting of single episode stories with two early multipart stories in the form of the Robot Wars (against Call-Me-Kenneth) and Dredd as Judge Marshall of Luna-1.
Walter the Wobot, Dredd's fawning robot servant, gets introduced, mainly as comic relief as well as Dredd's landlady (later, maid), Maria.
His helmet gets removed twice here (gasp!), once with a rather off-putting CENSORED notice pasted on his face, the second when he temporarily gives up the post of Judge Marshall (and Judge), but with his face never shown. -
Jednak to nie dla mnie.
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Let's get things straight. I am NOT a comic book fan. I never have been. There is something about trying to read dialogue and thought bubbles while looking at pictures at the same time that is just distracting. I'd rather read a novel and visualize things myself, or go see a movie. This is probably why, even though I enjoy the Marvel movies and The Walking Dead, I have never been one to try and get the entire history behind them or compare original stories with the movie version or what's on TV.
However, there was something about Judge Dredd that fascinated me. I know most of this came from the 2012 "Dredd" remake. The story, the setting, the dystopian future. All of that was just super entertaining and right up my alley. A few weeks ago I randomly picked up "Dredd: Year One" and it only reinforced my love for the helmeted, take no excuses badass that Dredd is. One thing lead to another and now, I have to freely admit that I believe I have found a comic book I can truly say I like.
So, yes, the original comic (and this bumper has the first 60 in order) isn't nearly as violent or dark as the movie. It's actually quite cheesy and laughably bad in places, but it's fun, light, and an easy read. I mean, talking robots for comedic relief? Doesn't get more ridiculous than that. Then again, there's something refreshing about the satirical feel of the Brits that is addicting. It also shows just how far comics have come since the late 70's, although Brian Bolland's work is probably the begging of the more modern day feel.
I can't wait to go out and buy volume 2 and watch the evolution of Dredd and Megacity 1 -
I love this character, and understand the comic medium well enough to know to keep my expectations low for a first volume of a thirty-five year old character. I approached this book as an exercise for the sake of appreciating this character's history and development, and I'm glad I did. The art improves significantly over the course of the book. Still, most of the book is made of short stories, four to nine pages, in a monster-of-the-week format. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone but those who are trying to intentionally study and know the comic medium, and the history of comics, as I am right now.
This is good satire. I look forward to seeing where the satire goes as the storytelling and art become a little more nuanced and sophisticated. -
Going back to the original source material can really change your perspective on a character - without doing so you might never know about Judge Dredd's stereotypical Italian lady landlord, his lisping robo-butler Walter the Wobot (who even lisps in his writing?!?) his brother Rico, his adventures fighting the Ape Mafia or his stint as Judge of the Moon. None of which I made up.
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Read this with my six year old who loves it. Absolutely loves it. Now he calls his dad Call-me-Kenneth!
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For many, Judge Dredd and 2000AD are not so much synonymous as interchangeable. So it’s a weird old thing reading a young and still not quite Dredd like Dredd. His character slowly takes form as the book and progs go on, but it’s weird to see him almost be funny a couple of times and be fond of Walter his annoying robot butler. But the strength of this first volume is seeing the world of Mega City One come together
Call Me Kenneth and the robot rebellion is the first longer plot the story tries and it mostly works brilliantly. Rico’s episode is surprisingly frittered away - no build up and none of the repercussions that his death will bring are immediately felt here. We also get the first sense of one of the biggest problems Dredd always has - no reoccurring villains of note, because by nature Dredd is a cop at the height of his game and as such even long running foes like PJ Maybe eventually have to die at his hands. It’s good to see Max Normal though and some of the other familiar aspects of Mega City life. The bits that have been long since forgotten - Judges being buried, for example, has I presume become a luxury they can ill afford and so they become recycled at Resyk too - are forgivable because of the genuine crackle the story has when an element falls resoundingly into place
The other fascinating thing is the art - McMahon is a lot scrappier than you remember but still feels like the archetypal early Dredd artist (those feet!); Gibson particularly enjoys the robots and it’s unsurprising that Tharg moved him to Robo Hunter where his ridiculous and hilarious imagination at dumb robots could take flight; Bolland must have been a revelation with those clear lines and use of chunky blacks and it’s fascinating to see that he’s the one who streamlines the helmet into the familiar one we have today. Dredd himself doesn’t quite look himself (and you can see how early artists took up on Ezquerra’s unusual early idea that Dredd might be biracial in some way) and his jaw is particularly nothing like the iconic presence it would become. It’s a fascinating moment when his face is censored (because Bellardini cocked it up), a genuinely historical moment where a happy accident leads to one of the most iconic absences in comic history. If Bellardini had managed to conjure up a suitable face, would Dredd’s days have been numbered? His very facelessness is in part why he is so iconic. It doesn’t matter what he looks like, he’s just “The Law” -
No creo que el Jued Dredd necesite mucha presentación: En un futuro distópico y ciberpunk existe la ciudad de Mega City 1, que ocupa toda la costa este de los EE.UU. Los elevados niveles de violencia y criminalidad llevaron a la creación de los jueces, agentes de la ley con un entrenamiento que los hace casi invencibles y con la potestad de dictar sentencia y ejecutarla de inmediato.
Creado por Carlos Ezquerra y John Wagner, Juez Dredd es un alegato contra el fascismo. No en vano, la figura de los jueces reúne dos de los poderes del Estado (el ejecutivo y el judicial), de forma que en Mega City 1 no se cumple la separación de poderes que es una de las bases de la Democracia.
Este volumen es el primero de una serie que reúnen todos los cómics publicados de Juez Dredd. Aunque no es una mala edición no me ha gustado el tamaño, creo que es demasiado pequeño y, a menudo, me costaba leer algunos de los textos más pequeños.
Respecto al contenido, Dredd me gusta, pero el estilo de los dibujos de la época contenida en este volumen se me hacen confusos, sucios y abigarrados en exceso. Entiendo que la decisión es deliberada, para transmitir una sensación de caos y suciedad, pero he leído cómics de Dredd de otras épocas que conseguían lo mismo con un dibujo más limpio. Es también posible que el poco tamaño de la edición haga más difícil apreciar los detalles y cree más sensación de confusión de lo que los dibujantes realmente pretendían.
En todo caso, es interesante y entretenido de leer aunque, personalmente, no seguiré con la serie. -
Wat een onzin-reviews met al die lage scores op Goodreads. Zogezegd volgens de top reviewers is “comic” een ruw medium in de jaren 70, spijtig genoeg “slechts” zwart wit art, “slechte” storyline, etc etc. 🤦
Het is prachtige satire. De ideale anti-Hero. Vol grappige en erg droge oneliners en andere moppen. En de storyline? Hallo. 2000AD was toen nog maar een wekelijks magazine die slechts enkele pagina’s overhad voor Dredd. De art? Carlos Ezquerra stel je niet in vraag.
Fantastische comic -
These stories seem a little rough by modern standards, but they must have been exciting to read when they were originally published. It's interesting to see Dredd's character and world as they are first established, but this collection will most likely be of interest only to die-hard fans and completists.
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Judge Dredd rules. As badass as it is to see a Judge dealing with baddies, there's also a degree of humor with his land lady and Walter the Wobot for example.
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I thoroughly recommend going back to the start, the inception of Judge Dredd. Almost all of the stories here are one-off tales which serve to demonstrate the day-to-day life of a Judge in Megacity One. Even the prolonged series of stories set on Lunar One follow this pattern. A few characters pop up more than once, some of whom you’ll recognise from more recent editions.
Great fun. -
This is entertaining, and it's interesting to see how such a long-running series began.
At the start, they hadn't quite worked out all the details. For instance, the characters live in "The Mega City" (rather than Mega-City One) and it says that judges are elected (rather than being trained since they were children). Still, those are just minor points.
They introduced the "futsie" concept: that's short for "future shock", and it describes people who couldn't adapt to life in the future. I can see the logic, since the story is initially set in the year 2099, but it doesn't really make sense; from the characters' point of view, they live in the present! So, this is a bit like the old SF stories where people would get into their space-car and eat space-biscuits for their space-lunch. Looking at more recent Judge Dredd stories (printed in 2015), they still use "futsie" as a slang term for people who are mentally ill, but they no longer define it; that's probably the best compromise.
Actually, despite all the violence, this volume reminds me of the Silver Age Superman stories. They use ridiculously complicated methods to solve problems, e.g. . Still, that's not a criticism: there's a certain charm in that approach. -
The first volume Judge Dredd is far from his best volume. In fact in a lot of ways it's his worst volume as he as a character was still getting his bearings together.
During this time period Carlos Ezquierra was doing a lot of the artwork and his early stuff is rather messy. Same with Mike McMahon (Although fans like him I find his artwork pales in comparison to some of the other greats)
And they hadn't quite gotten the ball rolling yet with the regular good artists (Ron Smith, Brian Bolland, Steve Dillion)
The stories are more fairly whacky at this stage (Moon Marshall anyone?). However they're still fairly entertaining.
Walter the Wobot provides much comic relief during this era.
However the Robot Revolution and Space Marshall story arcs were not nearly as interesting or as well drawn as the upcoming Volume 2's Cursed Earth and Judge Cal story arcs.
However this being Dredd it's still great stuff. -
This represented a return to my childhood - 2000AD was the first comic I can recall really getting into - it seemed so different and raw to the Beano.
My memories of this are therefore perhaps rose-tinted, and revisiting the stories in this format proved that to me.
There is something to be said for the collection in that you can see the character and stories develop from, frankly, terrible, trite morals into a more free flowing storyline basis.
The writing isn't great, but the illustrations still resonated with the 7 year old who first devoured the weekly installments.
It's made me more aware of the fact that I enjoyed the Judge Child storyline much more, which must be in volume 2 or 3, but that then reflects the older age I was when that came out?
This proves the old adage that some things are best left as memories. -
Collecting the first 59 Dredd progs, this collection has so many first that its hard to keep count. Just to name a few highlights: Dredd's householding staff Walter and Maria, Judge Giant's hot dog run with old Stoney Face himself, the Return of Judge Rico, Call me Kenneth's Robot Rebellion, the strained relations with Sov City, the Luna 1 colony, and many many others.
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Pues no se. Creo que las historias del Juez Dredd han soportado mal el paso del tiempo. Es la primera vez que leo algo de este personaje y me ha parecido bastante simple ...
