Mega City block names

barneytabasco · 09 February, 2020, 02:10:26 PM

I've often wondered if anyone has ever made a list of every named Mega City block in the Dredd strip. It seems to me that they don't appear as often as they used to.

Gary James · 09 February, 2020, 02:30:22 PM

I hate you a little right now. You know that don't you?1

A full list won't be forthcoming any time soon.

1. This is pretty much pure OCD-bait, designed to get me away from doing the horrible thing. Thankfully my willpower is holding for the moment...

Steve Green · 09 February, 2020, 02:46:58 PM

Quote from: barneytabasco on 09 February, 2020, 02:10:26 PM
I've often wondered if anyone has ever made a list of every named Mega City block in the Dredd strip. It seems to me that they don't appear as often as they used to.

Someone did a book of all the locations, but it's out of print, and a few years old now.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/City-Dredd-John-Caliber/dp/1447661354?SubscriptionId=AKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q&tag=duc08-21&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1447661354

barneytabasco · 10 February, 2020, 02:18:37 PM

Thanks for the replies. That book looks interesting. Am I right in thinking that the writers and artists don't include the block names in Dredd as much as they used to? Block names were sometimes used in a way that added to the particular story they appeared in. I know I'm going back a while but I always liked how Bob Oppenheimer block was used in the Apocalypse War. I also seem to remember Bob Dylan block and Woody Guthrie block being neighbours.

Has anyone got any favourites?

sheridan · 10 February, 2020, 02:28:22 PM

I'm in the midst of a prog slog (well, still quite close to the beginning, to be honest) and the most recent story I read involved the first appearance (and first destruction) of Bob Oppenheimer. As I'm going along I'm updating the following wiki:
Category:Mega-City One Blocks
At the current rate I should be up to date in the year 2026 or so. Hope you're patient!

barneytabasco · 10 February, 2020, 02:39:08 PM

Thanks sheridan. That's exactly the thing I was looking for!

Funt Solo · 10 February, 2020, 05:14:42 PM

I'm both impressed and disturbed by the level of nerdage going on here.

(After a stressful and tiring week at work I relaxed on Friday evening by entering data into a spreadsheet while Stranger Things played off to one side. Excel: it's my opiate. Mind you: so is opium.)

sheridan · 10 February, 2020, 07:50:26 PM

Quote from: Funt Solo on 10 February, 2020, 05:14:42 PM
I'm both impressed and disturbed by the level of nerdage going on here.

(After a stressful and tiring week at work I relaxed on Friday evening by entering data into a spreadsheet while Stranger Things played off to one side. Excel: it's my opiate. Mind you: so is opium.)

Disgraceful behaviour on a Friday night. Get with the times - google sheets rocks!

Rackle · 10 February, 2020, 08:07:49 PM

Quote from: sheridan on 10 February, 2020, 07:50:26 PM
Quote from: Funt Solo on 10 February, 2020, 05:14:42 PM
I'm both impressed and disturbed by the level of nerdage going on here.

(After a stressful and tiring week at work I relaxed on Friday evening by entering data into a spreadsheet while Stranger Things played off to one side. Excel: it's my opiate. Mind you: so is opium.)

Disgraceful behaviour on a Friday night. Get with the times - google sheets rocks!

Mind your grammar, darling.
It's Google Sheets rock! Tsk Tsk. Can't get the staff these days.

Dash Decent · 11 February, 2020, 12:43:11 PM

Quote from: Funt Solo on 10 February, 2020, 05:14:42 PM
Excel: it's my opiate.

There's a great little converter that allows you to put values in cells to represent colours. Every three cells represents a pixel. You can use the converter to turn photos into spreadsheets. Mind you, you have to zoom out to something like 10% to see the photo.

sheridan · 11 February, 2020, 01:07:41 PM

Quote from: Dash Decent on 11 February, 2020, 12:43:11 PM
Quote from: Funt Solo on 10 February, 2020, 05:14:42 PM
Excel: it's my opiate.

There's a great little converter that allows you to put values in cells to represent colours. Every three cells represents a pixel. You can use the converter to turn photos into spreadsheets. Mind you, you have to zoom out to something like 10% to see the photo.

Full Frontal Nerdity (don't have time to double-check, but I think that's a video showing what you're talking about, taken from a comedy and/or science festival).

IAMTHESYSTEM · 11 February, 2020, 02:51:26 PM

I'm fighting with Charlton Heston Block! What about you skivers?

Proudhuff · 11 February, 2020, 04:42:16 PM

can you hear me? CF Block ... your boys took a hell of a beating! Your boys took a hell of a beating!"

Gary James · 11 February, 2020, 08:33:43 PM

Quote from: Funt Solo on 10 February, 2020, 05:14:42 PM
I'm both impressed and disturbed by the level of nerdage going on here.

So... I've been thinking about the best way to have useful data - that is, a layout which can be sorted according to various needs. I've already figured out that the first chunk of blocks which are named all came from John Wagner's pen, though the first is a problem. Well, it is a problem for me.

I haven't found any screenings of Soylent Green from the late 70s which might have prompted the name on the side of the building, but in April of the year before Film 78 ran an episode which (among other films) looked at Heston's SF classic.

The only Heston release (of note) which was shown within the likely timeframe of the script being written was Gray Lady Down, a disaster flick about a sunken submarine, and it isn't even an SF release. It is a film which on the surface - so to speak - doesn't really fit with anything in the story so it might have been Heston's penchant for firearms which earned him the honor of being the first to have a city block named after him... Only that doesn't work either. A story about littering? Iron Eyes Cody Block would have been more appropriate.

It is slightly bugging me that there isn't an obvious line of thought from which the first Block received its name.

Anyways, the information (and I only have the first 60 or so blocks listed, so no yelling for me to get a move on), for it to have any use, needs the date of appearance. It also needs how it is used. Some spoken references without seeing a block might be jokes not intended to reflect a real location in MC1 - sorta 'go to Vinnie Jones Block' can be construed as something akin to 'go to hell'.

I'm noting where the blocks have explicitly been shown to be destroyed, although the writers and artists of the stories where blocks appeared are a matter of debate. I started listing them, but it's probably not going to be of as much use - unless anyone desperately needs to know who created the most blocks (a hint - it is likely to be Wagner).

Not that I have any of them in my hands yet, but I'm thinking of using the game books to indicate which sectors the known blocks are in.

sheridan · 11 February, 2020, 09:31:20 PM

Quote from: Gary James on 11 February, 2020, 08:33:43 PM
It is slightly bugging me that there isn't an obvious line of thought from which the first Block received its name.

I suspect there isn't going to be an obvious line of thought. When Rowdy Yates Block was named it would have been a twenty to twenty-five year old pop cultural reference (I know it was five to ten years before I knew it had anything to do with Wagon Train, and that was probably as a result of a letter in the Nerve Centre).

QuoteNot that I have any of them in my hands yet, but I'm thinking of using the game books to indicate which sectors the known blocks are in.

Which game books are you referring to? I know a mobile game company had one or two gamebooks (Fighting Fantasy style) a few years ago, but by the time I had a smart phone they weren't available any more. Then there's the Games Workshop RPG, the two Mongoose RPGs (one based on D20 the other Traveller) and the current RPG - Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000AD (based on WOIN).