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Dredd: The Complete Case Files

Started by Arkady, 24 August, 2015, 01:27:31 PM

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Hawkmumbler

Quote from: Colin_YNWA on 09 February, 2016, 11:44:42 AM
Aren't they the US Editions. Same content just a different cover for the US market.
Exactly this.

Arkady

Did they fix the problem of mismatching spines? I just got Case Files Vol. 11 and the problem really does get worse there.

Hawkmumbler

Honestly the spine issue with the case files has reached such an unprecedented level of omni-shambles* i've actually grown to love it.

*Word of the day, not a slight on the graphic designers at rebellion who co tinue to do a sterling job.

IndigoPrime


Arkady

First, the lettering, helmet image and number are resized and therefore misaligned on each volume. On some issue 2000AD symbol is also misaligned or a different size (beginning with #10). Then from #11 there is a redesign which incorporates the badge into the name, and reverses the colour scheme design. they just aren't as visually unified as they ought to be.

Hawkmumbler

To be fair, the case files has been running for 10 years. That has to make it one of the longest  continuously in print line of reprints on the market

IndigoPrime

Quote from: Arkady on 11 February, 2016, 10:56:33 AMFirst, the lettering, helmet image and number are resized and therefore misaligned on each volume.
The books are different thicknesses, in some cases quite significantly. Tricky to design that to have all the bits you mention end up identical.

Really, though, you're on a hiding to nothing with spine consistency anyway. Even the simplest ones have a tendency to screw up. My Hellboy Library Edition books don't exactly align. The Canongate Complete Peanuts collection suddenly had a change of logo colour halfway through.

Dark Jimbo

Quote from: Arkady on 11 February, 2016, 10:56:33 AM
Then from #11 there is a redesign which incorporates the badge into the name, and reverses the colour scheme design. they just aren't as visually unified as they ought to be.

That's deliberate, though - every 10 books the series has a minor redesign. It becomes more obvious once you have quite a few of the books lined up together. 1-10 is colour above black and a fairly simple font; 11-20 is black above colour and a Judge badge in place of the 'U' in the font; 21-30 flips back to colour above black, and has an ever-so-slighty different badge. CF31 is presumably going to flip the colours once again.

The reason 11 looks so horribly out of place, even next to 12-20, is simply the thickness of the spine. I would honestly re-buy 11 if they re-released in a thinner colour edition.
@jamesfeistdraws

Arkady

Quote from: IndigoPrime on 11 February, 2016, 11:18:19 AM
Quote from: Arkady on 11 February, 2016, 10:56:33 AMFirst, the lettering, helmet image and number are resized and therefore misaligned on each volume.
The books are different thicknesses, in some cases quite significantly. Tricky to design that to have all the bits you mention end up identical.


Not that tricky. You could very easily have every element horizontally lined up accept for the writing.

IndigoPrime

In order for that to work, you would have to align and size components to fit the thinnest book and then use that for every volume. The result would be thicker volumes with acres of space around spine elements.

Arkady

Nah you'd scale it for the biggest one. No need to figure that out in advance either. Just have the logo at then very bottom, the number just above that, and the helmet just above that (as in vols 5 & 11, for instance). The text - and thus coloured strip between the text and the helmet - would then be the only thing that had to vary in size and all the other visual elements would be lined up. It would look vastly cleaner from a design perspective.

Arkady

Perhaps I could be more clear - the elements might have to vary in size, but they could be lined up on the vertical axis.

IndigoPrime

But that would still look odd. 'Judge Dredd' would be in wildly different sizes, as would all type and the logo.

Arkady

Yes, but that's already true. This way at least they would be aligned.

IndigoPrime

If you've not seen it already, I've got the feeling you'll like the spines thread.