Judge Dredd Classics Volume 1: Apocalypse War (IDW, coloured)

[Dash Decent]

Now up for pre-order at Amazon UK - Judge Dredd Classics Volume 1: Apocalypse War [Hardcover]

Blurb:
Re-presenting classic Judge Dredd tales with all-new colors by Charlie Kirchoff! In "Block Mania," Dredd must track down a villain who has poisoned the city, which leads into the five-part "Apocalypse War" storyline about the eruption of the long-contained tensions between Mega-City One and East-Meg One.

IDW Publishing, 192 pages, 6th May 2014

[Colin YNWA]

I really hope this is over-sized (well at least regular 2000ad at the time size anyway) and in the correct proportions. Time will tell I guess.

[SmallBlueThing]

Yes, a sale here depends ENTIRELY upon whether this is oversized or not. Any smaller than original prog printing and, to contour the ghost of the sadly-missed Duncan Bannatyne for a moment- "ah'm oot!"

SBT
;

[Spikes]

Oh very nice. I didnt think we'd get to see this. Well, not so soon anyway.
Think ill stop buying the comic now this is on its way. Be grand if it was oversized, but ill not mind if it isnt.

And lets hope the fuck up that was issue 3 is corrected for this.

[Judge MANSON]

I have bough some IDW comic books... I was very unlucky on my Dredd issues: bad cuts, pages with some glitches, and the worst (exception made of the issue #03) the staples which are cutting the central folio!!!

Wow!!!! A free pull-out poster!!! err... no... It's the central folio... Damned.

I never had such disagreements with the Progs. Never. But how many from the US comic books...
I say. Expensive books and bad qualities don't work together. No, Sir.

So, I have passed the IDW books without regrets, except for the loss of my money...

[dweezil2]

Yes, a sale here depends ENTIRELY upon whether this is oversized or not. Any smaller than original prog printing and, to contour the ghost of the sadly-missed Duncan Bannatyne for a moment- "ah'm oot!"

SBT
;

I agree.

If it ends up being oversized and the errors with the printing of the art and missing pages have been corrected, then I'll bag one!   

[James Stacey]

Same here. If 1/4 of the book is oversized margins I won't be interested. They print the artist collections at the right format so lets hope so.

[SmallBlueThing]

Has anyone seen this yet? And- has the reprint series been cancelled? #8 seems to have been the last one.

SBT

[COMMANDO FORCES]

I've not seen anything in Previews, so perhaps it was!

[M.I.K.]

There's a page at the back of issue 8 that says "COMING SOON : JUDGE DREDD CLASSICS : THE DARK JUDGES" and then "JUNE 2014".

[COMMANDO FORCES]

Perhaps I should've looked there

[Fragminion]

Yeah. I got the impression this wasn't going to be a on going series but a regular run of Mini Series.  Which I will gladly waiting to buy each month it comes out.  If my stupid local store will carry it.

[Tjm86]

Succumbed at the weekend and splurged.  It's nice enough and the paper does make a difference to the quality.  I only picked up the Bolland recoloured Block War variant cover which is reprinted inside so I had only seen the first half of the Block War reprints.

Overall the colour works well.  The Dillon and Bolland episodes were nicely done, better I thought than the Ron Smith parts.  The Ezquerra artwork seemed the best.  Personal opinion but this was where it really seemed to come alive. 

It is the same size as the Rebellion Zenith and Nemesis hardbacks in terms of height but a little wider, not the same size as the IDW artist editions, so there is a bit of spare space on the page.  Bit of a shame.  The cover is the same as the newsstand issue 1.  Again a shame.  Of all the artwork they could have chosen.  Even commissioning either Bolland or Ezquerra to do a special.

The cover section reprints the IDW covers and the original tooth covers.  The tooth covers haven't been treated at all and look faded.  Bit of a shame there as well.  Another gripe is a lack of an introduction.  Whatever else you want to say for Titan, one thing they did well was give a bit of background / interest to each edition.  Considering the social and political landscape of the time it would have been a nice touch.

Is it worth the full cover price?  Not sure.  It is a real mixed bag.  Whether corners have been cut to save on the recolouring cost I don't know.  If I was scoring I would have to give it 6 /10.

[TordelBack]

I had a good poke about this one at the weekend, and was actually quite impressed.  The colour in places is a bit dark, but that's almost inevitable given McMahon and Ezquerra's dense styles of the time (not such a problem on the Bolland and Dillon episodes), and aside from the rejects from Tony' Hart's Gallery that make up half the extras at the back, it's a handsome thing.  I thought the page sizing was a solid compromise, and looked well. 

I have a strange relationship with the Apocalypse War, as I first read it (and Block Mania) in the Eagle reprints, so in my mind it's always been in colour.  So while I'm usually a B&W man by preference, this story is an exception.

I was very tempted to get this, thinking it to be a useful gateway book to lend to children and non-scrots, as well as having take-to-the-loo appeal.  In the end I opted for buying Slaine: Lord of the Beasts, half of which I had never read, over this material which I have in 4 (?) versions already, including the aforementioned coloured one.  I may yet succumb.

[Recrewt]

I saw this book at the weekend and would say that the page sizes are a big improvement on the comics.  There is still a border at the bottom but its not as large as the comics and doesn't look so bad.