Looking for any recommendations that I may have missed. There have been quite a few stories that have pulled at my heart strings, Leviathan's farewell being the crowning achievement. Bury my heart at wounded knee is another great example. Other ones I can think of at the top of my head... an error in judgement, the death of a legend. Any suggestions?
Fading of the Light got me the first time.
Zombies
Simple Domestic
I thought 'Death of a legend' was up there - another painted by Pete Doherty.
Zombies is a good one alright.
Full Mental Jacket is surprisingly affecting, for a strip that appears to start out as a bad pun. Over the Wall is pretty sweet, and at the other end of the emotional spectrum, the later chapters of Song of the Surfer (if it counts as Dredd), with MacNeil somehow turning familiar OTT Dreddworld carnage of national stereotypes into something grim and moving.
Surprised America II got a mention but not the first one!
'The Mega City Way of Death' is up there for me. A very underrated Dredd story, that (perhaps because the beautiful Greg Staples artwork is smothered under those ugly early digital colours).
Not one for Alan Grant's solo Dredd, but "John Cassavettes is Dead" is up there
The name of this one escapes me, but there's an old Cliff Robinson Dredd about living crash test dummies who have various diseases tested on them.
I think it was just a one-off - hopefully someone else here will point you in the right direction!
Woolly - I think that is the laaready mentioned "Zombies"? The Incredible Exploding Man from around thte same time might qualify?
Ah-haa! Like I said, someone will point you (and me!) in the right direction :-[
Quote from: Richard on 12 December, 2017, 05:57:24 PM
Surprised America II got a mention but not the first one!
Here's the thing, America is great, no doubt. But I think America II has a big double whammy of a gut punch between Beeny's rape and what he has to sacrifice to protect his daughter in the end.
Also, in a similar vein, Terror is another story who's resolution hits pretty hard.
'Letter from a Democrat; (Prog 460) and 'A Letter to Judge Dredd' (Prog 661) are both good 'uns.
I didn't recognise some of those stories from their titles either, I might be mistaken, but here's my guess at the following:
- Leviathan's Farewell - is this the Anderson/Corey story, featuring the last humpback whale?
- Error of Judgement - part of the Ron Smith trilogy - Error of Judgement, Case for Treatment, and... er... the other one
- The Death of a Legend - McGruder's farewell?
- Fading of the Light - ?
- Zombies - the afore-mentioned Cliff Robinson medical dummies (rather like a certain episode of New Who)
- Simple Domestic - ?
- Full Mental Jacket - Ian Gibson's gang story (except for the last episode)
- Mega-City Way of Death - is that the one with a citizen who works for the clean-up crew?
- John Cassavettes is Dead - early Colin McNeil view of MC1 Justice Department's censorship, a la Fahrenheit 451
- Incredible Exploding Man - someone caught in an explosion walks through the Cursed Earth and tries to get back into the Big Meg
- Terror - ?
- Letter from a Democrat - John Higgins, pre- the Democracy storyline
- A Letter to Judge Dredd - similar vein in the lead up to Necropolis
Correct about most of those.
Fading of the Light is America II.
Mega-City Way of Death in prog 1111 is about a sky surfer who is shot in the head and his body is used by a terminally ill rich man for a full body transplant. He then bumps into the sky surfer's girlfriend.
Terror was by Wagner and Colin MacNeil, fully painted, about a Total War terrorist who falls in love and decides to pull out of a suicide mission.
Quote from: sheridan on 12 December, 2017, 10:46:58 PM
I didn't recognise some of those stories from their titles either, I might be mistaken, but here's my guess at the following:
- Leviathan's Farewell - is this the Anderson/Corey story, featuring the last humpback whale? Yes
- Error of Judgement - part of the Ron Smith trilogy - Error of Judgement, Case for Treatment, and... Question of Judgement
- Death of a Legend - McGruder's farewell Yes, prog 1009 iirc
- Fading of the Light - aka America II
- Zombies aka Zombie Barbeque- the aforementioned Cliff Robinson medical dummies (rather like a certain episode of New Who)
- Simple Domestic - This was a one-off that ran in the Megazine around 1997/8 and had beautiful Steve Tappin art. It was about a perp getting released from the Iso Cubes. He's been in there for domestic violence against his wife (witnessed by his young son). He's met by his son out of the cubes, who used the time of his father's incarceration to get completely ripped. He then beats the shit out of his father and is arrested by Dredd. He doesn't resist, and always planned on being arrested.
- Full Mental Jacket - Ian Gibson's gang story (except for the last episode)
- Mega-City Way of Death - My exact memories of the story details are hazy - It begins with a guy trying to skysurf over the wall, and the story in the main revolves around a romance, Resyk and bodyswapping. I just remember that it's very moving but has that typical Wagner twist in the tale.
- John Cassavettes is Dead - early Colin McNeil view of MC1 Justice Department's censorship, a la Fahrenheit 451
- Incredible Exploding Man - someone caught in an explosion walks through the Cursed Earth and tries to get back into the Big Meg
- Terror - Wagner/MacNeil story that reintroduced Total War and focuses on a relationship between an older female lecturer who begins a relationship with a younger man who is a terrorist. It doesn't end well. It's included in the Total War tpb
- Letter from a Democrat - John Higgins, pre- the Democracy storyline
- A Letter to Judge Dredd - similar vein in the lead up to Necropolis
I'd also add
Class of '79, again by Wagner and Staples from prog 2006(?). It's about Dredd having to bring down yet another of his former classmates who has gone rogue. It's not a heartbreaker, but it's got quite a bleak, downbeat tone, and we also get to see Dredd's attempt at attending a family Christmas with Rico and Vienna, which is gold.
I also remember a story called
The Gift of Mercy in one of the Xmas progs being quite an affecting one, but can't remember what it was about. Dave Taylor art, iirc.
Mandroid and, to a lesser extent, Mandroid 2.
The original Uncle Ump story, kinda.
Nightmares, the sort-of sequel to the Dead Man, tells Yassa Povey's story pretty emotionally. With art by Steve Dillon, who excels at that kind of thing.
'The Return of Rico' has to be on the list, surely. Also from the early days I'd include the final couple of installments of The Cursed Earth, where the members of the Land Raider party are finally picked off and Dredd himself is reduced to crawling through the dirt, his uniform in tatters. Not 'gut punch' emotional but it definitely had an impact on me beyond that of a mere action story.
Quote from: TordelBack on 12 December, 2017, 10:17:52 AM
Over the Wall is pretty sweet
Surely that's
Beyond the Wall from the
1986 Sci Fi Special that you're thinking of there, Tordels?
Profoundly effective stuff with pitch perfect Steve Dillon. So good that it was at this point that Stevie, who had been reading Tharg's mighty organ since Prog 6, finally grokked why it said
featuring that ludicrously dressed cop with the silly name under the 2000AD logo on the cover.