Catching up, one graphic novel at a time

[wedgeski]

Hi all!

I've just spent the most glorious couple of weeks catching up on Origins, Tour of Duty, Day of Chaos, and soon Trifecta in a bid to bring myself up-to-date before settling back into the comics, but I also want to fill in the blanks since I stopped reading sometime around Mechanismo.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judge_Dredd#Major_Judge_Dredd_storylines I can see all the major arcs since then and most or all of them seem to have collected editions on Amazon.

However, I also notice that the complete case files have just got around to almost the exact period where I stopped reading, so I have a conundrum.

Do I grab the collected editions of all the major stories, or do I just start collecting the CCF's?

How often do the CCF's come out? Are they released with regularity? Help me, discerning ones!

[Jim_Campbell]

Do I grab the collected editions of all the major stories, or do I just start collecting the CCF's?

The beauty of Dredd is rarely in the 'epics', TBH. Wagner, in particular, loves to bury significant character moments and plot points in shorter stories and one-offs, plus I'd bet money if you canvassed people's favourite single Dredd stories on here, a significant majority would come down in favour of a short or self-contained story.

Obviously, the downside of the Case Files is the same as that of an anthology: you're not going to like every single story, but I'd argue the occasional duff story is more than offset by the sheer range of tone in the strip when its presented in sequence.

Cheers

Jim

[radiator]

Go the Case Files route - volumes 16-20 are a little patchy - some great stuff/some godawful filler, but things should improve drastically with the next book, 21.

The next few after that will cover some real classics, such as The Pit which heralded the start of modern Dredd.

They tend to release one or two Case Files books a year, though it used to be more like three.

[Colin YNWA]

Do I grab the collected editions of all the major stories, or do I just start collecting the CCF's?

The beauty of Dredd is rarely in the 'epics', TBH. Wagner, in particular, loves to bury significant character moments and plot points in shorter stories and one-offs, plus I'd bet money if you canvassed people's favourite single Dredd stories on here, a significant majority would come down in favour of a short or self-contained story.

Kinda building on what Jim says for me the Joy of Dredd comes on the contrast. The fact that it has the epic or long form stories as well as the shorter done in one or two stuff. Each gains benefit from the other. The variety is the key.

Having just started (well 200 plus Progs in actually) the joyous task of re-reading all the Wagner Dredds since issue 950 I can certainly vouch for that*. 'Smaller' events in short stories resonate through the longer form storytelling building towards the 'Epic' Doomsday (one of my favs I have to say). The shorter stories power benefiting from the sense that they take place in a world that changes and evolves and thus stuff, everything matters. Characters turning up here and there, as pieces of the bigger puzzle fall into place. The timing of the whole thing keep fresh by the occasion comedic one-off. Its neither one nor the other but both playing off each other that makes this such a successful period for me (950 - 1173) and beyond I imagine.

That does of course endorse what Jim suggests that waiting for the Case Files (what is it 2 or 3 a year maybe?) could be the way forward.

*This of course reveals that there is a third way get to eBay and get the Progs themselves. You get Dredd and so much more besides. It was certainly a very interesting time in the comics history and from about 950 there is a slow (feels very slow at times) and steady up turn in quality until you reach the heights of today's 2000ad (well not specifically the very very current run which... no need to go there...)

[Fungus]

I can imagine rattling through those collections was a treat :-) Got back on board myself just before
Trifecta and you'll of course love that...
Have had a niggling doubt myself that in my 20 years in the 2000ad wilderness, I was missing so much
quality stuff but realize through people's comments (& podcasts) that things were very lean in the 90's.
It wasn't me and the inevitable loss of my faculties! Just the progs! [Combs hair proudly]

[wedgeski]

*This of course reveals that there is a third way get to eBay and get the Progs themselves. You get Dredd and so much more besides. It was certainly a very interesting time in the comics history and from about 950 there is a slow (feels very slow at times) and steady up turn in quality until you reach the heights of today's 2000ad (well not specifically the very very current run which... no need to go there...)

That was my first instinct, as I've still got all my old progs and the idea of building out the collection appealed to the same collector's instinct I had when I was a kid. But, we're about to downsize and I made a promise to myself (and my wife!) that I'd stop accumulating stuff. This is why I'm limiting myself to collections and why I'm buying the mags in digital form these days.

[wedgeski]

I can imagine rattling through those collections was a treat :-) Got back on board myself just before
Trifecta and you'll of course love that...

It was like being a kid again, when I'd unload a box full of 2000AD's and spend entire Sundays reading them.

Have had a niggling doubt myself that in my 20 years in the 2000ad wilderness, I was missing so much quality stuff but realize through people's comments (& podcasts) that things were very lean in the 90's. It wasn't me and the inevitable loss of my faculties! Just the progs! [Combs hair proudly]

I've had the same regrets! There was a time when I was a kid that Dredd consumed every geek calorie I burned.

There is much wisdom in this thread! Thanks everyone for your answers, it looks like I'll be catching up on the CCF's.

[PsychoGoatee]

For the record, for me Dredd's epics often are some of the best. I do agree that they're all great though, short and longform, especially by Wagner.

Anyways, you could always buy some current books as well as the Case Files. I forget the math, but it should be what at least a decade before The Case Files cover current stuff like Day of Chaos right?

[radiator]

Anyways, you could always buy some current books as well as the Case Files. I forget the math, but it should be what at least a decade before The Case Files cover current stuff like Day of Chaos right?

He already has.

Wedgeski - I probably wouldn't go any further back than Origins though, as the next ten or so volumes of the Case Files will bridge the gap from where you've already read to Origins (originally published in 2006).

If you ever find yourself twiddling your thumbs waiting for the next Case Files book, you could always pick up some of the stuff that isn't going to be included in the Dredd Case Files, such as the Anderson Psi Files, the Mean Machine, The Taxidermist or Chopper books or Dredd/Aliens and The Complete Dredd/Batman.

[Frank]

The beauty of Dredd is rarely in the 'epics', TBH. Wagner, in particular, loves to bury significant character moments and plot points in shorter stories and one-offs, plus I'd bet money if you canvassed people's favourite single Dredd stories on here, a significant majority would come down in favour of a short or self-contained story.

There is much wisdom contained in those words. Un-American Graffiti was a two parter, The Midnight Surfer contained as many pages of story as a single issue of a US comic, and Requiem For A Heavyweight weighs in at a decidedly trim 4 parts.  My favourite of all the recent Dredd work that wedgskie's caught up with so far is Tour of Duty, since it's effectively a series of loosely thematically related but individually satisfying shorter stories.

I adore Necropolis for all manner of reasons, but read in isolation it's a good but hardly essential read. What makes it so extraordinary is not just the extra-textuality of The Dead Man, but the fact that the storylines of Kraken, Dredd's aging and his dissatisfaction with his role in MC1 played out across several individual episodes and innumerable, seemingly casual lines in unrelated stories over the two or three years between Oz and Necropolis.

I'm not sure I'd put many of the 'epic' Dredd stories on my list of all-time favourites, maybe just The Apocalypse War and the especially episodic (and not at all epic) The Pit. Definitely skip ahead of The Case Files and buy The Pit, wedge, because that's all kinds of wonderful, and I'd enthusiastically recommend Total War too.

[radiator]

Definitely skip ahead of The Case Files and buy The Pit, wedge, because that's all kinds of wonderful, and I'd enthusiastically recommend Total War too.

I would say just wait for them to appear in the Case Files - The Pit is what, a couple of books away? It'll be in Case Files 22/23 won't it?

[Frank]

Definitely skip ahead of The Case Files and buy The Pit, wedge, because that's all kinds of wonderful, and I'd enthusiastically recommend Total War too.

I would say just wait for them to appear in the Case Files - The Pit is what, a couple of books away? It'll be in Case Files 22/23 won't it?

Keith Richardson's recent podcast interview indicated that he had just a single Case File scheduled for next year.

[radiator]

Yeah, so far, but IIRC the 2014 schedule hasn't been properly put together yet. I certainly can't find much due for release after Spring 2104.

[Frank]

I certainly can't find much due for release after Spring 2104.

Case Files 25 should be out round about then.

[Greg M.]

I would say just wait for them to appear in the Case Files - The Pit is what, a couple of books away? It'll be in Case Files 22/23 won't it?

The Case Files seem to be averaging about 30 issues of the prog per file, which makes me suspect that The Pit will be the first (and only) Dredd story from the progs in Case Files 24.