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Judge Rico novella - Michael Carroll

Started by COMMANDO FORCES, 28 February, 2014, 09:05:30 PM

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TordelBack

Going to have to get this.  A great writer and an intriguing subject.

oshii

Did I imagine talk of the City Fathers and Cold Light of Day being published in physical form?  And if not, did it happen yet?

Bat King

A new book about Judge Rico... OK.

But Mike who?
Blog
http://judgetutorsemple.wordpress.com/

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glassstanley

Quote from: oshii on 11 June, 2014, 10:22:40 PM
Did I imagine talk of the City Fathers and Cold Light of Day being published in physical form?  And if not, did it happen yet?

Due out in November, I believe. One volume containing those 2 plus a previously unreleased novella.

Dash Decent

So, which third law are we talking about?  Presumably Newton's "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction".  Rico the anti-Dredd.
- By Appointment -
Hero to Michael Carroll

"... rank amateurism and bad jokes." - JohnW.

Definitely Not Mister Pops

Could be the third law of Thermodynamics, it's impossible to reduce the entropy of a system to zero. There will always be disorder.
You may quote me on that.

oshii

Quote from: glassstanley on 12 June, 2014, 12:20:59 PM

Due out in November, I believe. One volume containing those 2 plus a previously unreleased novella.

Ta.

Mike Carroll

For those interested in such things, I've added an article to my website on how the cover for The Third Law was created...

Creating the Cover of Rico Dredd: The Third Law

-- Mike

8-Ball

Quote from: Mike Carroll on 13 June, 2014, 12:05:50 PM
For those interested in such things, I've added an article to my website on how the cover for The Third Law was created...

Creating the Cover of Rico Dredd: The Third Law

-- Mike

Mike, that's a nifty bit of work and the impact of the finished cover is well worth the effort. Am I the only one, when looking a representation of Dredd without his helmet on (in this case Rico Dredd), feels a bit uneasy? Like you are peering through a gap in a curtain and seeing something that you shouldn't be. Probably just me.
Whatever happened to Rico, Dolman and Cadet Paris? I'm sooo out of the loop.

teckno viking

Oooo Looks very interesting.

Have to get this methinks :D

oshii

Just read and enjoyed this. 

It also got me thinking.  Rico is surely the most underused character in Dredd's canon.  Off the top of my head I think he's only featured properly in "The Return of Rico" and "Origins".  But when you think about it, he's potentially a massively interesting figure.  He and Joe are in essence the same person, and yet went such different ways.  Also, and this is something Mike touches on in the book, seeing as he was better than Dredd at the Academy, part of his tragedy is it should have been him that went onto be the talismanic figure that Joe becomes.  (arguably that's something that is later explored through Kraken in Necropolis, I suppose)

Mike takes an interesting approach to his character - one that's more rewarding than simply just treating him as a straightforward bad apple, and which suggest there's loads of potential to be explored there, both in his time on the streets and on Titan.  Worth reading and I'd happily see more either in book form or the prog/meg.

Greg M.

Quote from: oshii on 17 June, 2014, 01:52:28 PM
It also got me thinking.  Rico is surely the most underused character in Dredd's canon.  Off the top of my head I think he's only featured properly in "The Return of Rico" and "Origins".  But when you think about it, he's potentially a massively interesting figure.  He and Joe are in essence the same person, and yet went such different ways. 

For me, 'Blood Cadets' is the defining Rico story. It certainly gives the fullest explanation of why he went the way he did, leaving it up you whether you wish to assume his wickedness came from a radioactivity-related brain injury, or whether it was something intrinsic to the bloodline. (Or both.)

oshii

#27
Ah, I'd forgotten about "Blood Cadets".  Personally I think the radiation thing is far less interesting than a personality based explanation, because it absolves Rico of responsibility.  Also if an extreme of good and bad is something inherent in the Fargo genes (as Origins suggests with Eustace and Ephram) than the idea that Dredd contains the potential to go down the same path is really intruiging.

[spoiler]I rather like the idea in the Mike's book that Rico has a flexible perception of the law that in his opinion is beyond Joe's simple application of a rule book.  You could argue that there's a slight analogy between this and Dredd's slightly more liberal approach to reform in recent years [/spoiler]

Greg M.

Quote from: oshii on 17 June, 2014, 04:10:44 PM
Ah, I'd forgotten about "Blood Cadets".  Personally I think the radiation thing is far less interesting than a personality based explanation, because it absolves Rico of responsibility.

I largely agree with you, though I quite like the fact we have the 'classic supervillain origin' option. I like the idea that it was less the radiation to blame though, and more that the incident, in rendering Rico helpless, causes him to subsequently overcompensate to prevent Joe from seeing him as weaker. This in turn leads to arrogance born of fear and a materialism derived from a heightened awarenes of his own mortality.

JOE SOAP

Quote from: oshii on 17 June, 2014, 04:10:44 PM
Ah, I'd forgotten about "Blood Cadets".  Personally I think the radiation thing is far less interesting than a personality based explanation, because it absolves Rico of responsibility.  Also if an extreme of good and bad is something inherent in the Fargo genes (as Origins suggests with Eustace and Ephram) than the idea that Dredd contains the potential to go down the same path is really intruiging.


I think Blood Cadets is making the case that Rico's outlook is not down to just one thing.