The Missing Daily Star Dredds

[Leigh S]

After having a tidy up, I got to reading the Daily Star Dredds in my possession again - in particular, I found it quite interesting revisiting the Mark Millar ones - but more of that later.

My collection of the Daily Star Dredds runs out in September 94, just a few parts into a story called "Perp Watch".  I then don't have much idea of the stories that appeared for the next two years, up til the start of "Euroball 2118" in June 96

As the data on this site come from my incomplete collection, that means theres a big hole in there between these dates.  I've always wondered if they did anything that commented on that film...

Does anyone know what stories appeared in this gap?  Better still, did anyone collect them?  Any info (or scans!) gratefully received, in the knowledge that you are piecing back together Dredd history! ;)  

Getting back to the Millar stories I do have -  Reading them again in the glow of Wagners return and particularly the Originsy goodness of present progs, I'm able to have a bit of perspective about them, as opposed to the pure hatred of the time.  Not that they read any better - they're the kind of thing you'd expect if you gave Ed Wood the first half of Case Files 1 and let him loose on the character!  As such, theres now a real (admittedly sick) pleasure in seeing just how lame they get... I've scanned in a couple of classic Millar cliches, but now I'm annoyed that many more are out there unknown to me - I'd love to see just how far Millar got with the barrel scraping!...  

Heres cliche 1:  When all else fails, let the bike do it!

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n68/DobeyKweeg/millardredd1.jpg">

[Leigh S]

and THE classic... conveyor belt fight!

I can be tempted into continuing with more scans - or bribed into stopping! ;)http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n68/DobeyKweeg/MillarDredd2.jpg">

[Dudley]

Oh... my...

[Leigh S]

Forgot to add - the second one gains cliche bonus points for the perp being "indestructible"




except by punches/cutty things

[Leigh S]

Heres a question for David Bishop, if youre out there... just who in the Nerve centre at the time was authorising these things - I assume the editor of 2000aD - hence the attempt to revive things when you took over?

[Leigh S]

Heres are two strips from different stories - separated by about 20 weeks or to put it another way, by 2 stories (only one of which was written by Millar).

Never be afraid to reuse great material...http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n68/DobeyKweeg/MillarDredd3.jpg">

[Bolt-01]

Sweet grud, stop. Please.

I collected the strips till about 86, but then I stopped being a paperboy and wasn't about to pay for a newspaper every day.

I'd love to see a realistic collection of these strips though- my fave EVER line of Dredd comes from one of them.

"No use crying over Milt Spilk!" Can't remember who wrote it, but to my tender mind that was genius!

Bolt-01

[paulvonscott]

Accounting Memo to Judge Dredd

RE CRUTCH REQUESTS

It has come to our attention that you are requesting an unrealstic number of crutches to be delivered to crimes scenes.  Over 700 pairs in this financial year so far.

Due to budgetary cutbacks, I'd like to request that you avoid shooting perps in the knees, or at least drag them as far as the medwagon whenever possible.

Yours  

ACCOUNTS JUDGE LOURDES

[Floyd-the-k]

Sweet Grud, don't stop. I'm enjoying this.

Did the series end when they put protective railings over the conveyer belts?

[Pete Wells]

Some corkers there.

I remember a one that was published around about the time that Dredd and McGruder were locking horns over the Mechanismo Project. It was about a Stan Lee type hitman assassin who was after Dredd. After the obligatory big scrap the beaten assassin revealed that McGruder had hired him!

Of course, all was forgiven when the mad old cheif judge revealed to Dredd that she had done so because she knew he'd clobber the baddie and everything would be fine in the end.

I remember thinking this was great in my naive, love-everything-Dredd, youth but now it just seems very silly. Was that a Millar strip?

Pete.

[Leigh S]

yep!  

[davidbishop]

I can't recall who was in charge of the Daily Star Dredds before me, but I took them over about the same time as 2000 AD editorial [December 18, 1995, fact fans - 20 years to the day after Kelvin Gosnell's infamous memo]. The strip's scripting duties had been split between McKenzie and Millar at the time, with art duties divided between Ron Smith and Carlos Pino.

IIRC, there was a small stockpile when I arrived. Once that was burnt through, I unceremoniously dumped Carlos Pino and started alternating other artists with Ron Smith on the strip. Sundry creators were given a go at writing and drawing the strip after that, including Grennie, Robbie and various others. When the plug was pulled, Dylan Teague was drawing a Dredd & Inaba story called Warriors - I think that went into the Meg. Charlie Adlard was drawing a story I'd written called The Blackwood Incident, not sure if that ever saw print. I think Andy also wrote a Daily Star strip - no idea if that saw print. My memory is something of a colander these days!

db

[Leigh S]

Andy's story saw print, though the Blackwood Incident never did.  I've seen art for it from first to last installemnt on ebay and various other places, so I'm sure that was finished, but never printed.  They ditched all their strips bar two to make room for Princess Di's astrologer midway through Smashball in May 98 IIRC (which eventually made its way into the Meg).

[Leigh S]

Heres that one you remember, Pete.

Now unless someone 'fesses up to owning the missing ones, I'm going to have to post up the Millar rewrite of "Gaze into the face of Fear"...

I won't warn you again! http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n68/DobeyKweeg/MillarDredd4.jpg">

[Pete Wells]

My God... That was so cool when I read it all those years ago! I must have been going through that thick-as-pigshit teenage phase. "Annual Assignment" indeed...

Thanks for that, Watcher!