2000 AD Online Forum

2000 AD => General => Topic started by: COMMANDO FORCES on 28 February, 2014, 09:05:30 PM

Title: Judge Rico novella - Michael Carroll
Post by: COMMANDO FORCES on 28 February, 2014, 09:05:30 PM
I was just looking at the Rebellion Catalogue to see when the Year One Omnibus was coming out and I stumbled upon this :o

Michael Carroll is one of the current generation of celebrated Dredd comics writers, he has also written a Judge Rico novella.
This book will be eagerly awaited by Dredd's substantial fan base.


Now I'm even more excited, as we've seen little glimpses of the way Rico is behaving in these novellas already!

Just wondering if these will come out the way the previous tales have, in digital with a paper omnibus afterwards!
Title: Re: Judge Rico novella - Michael Carroll
Post by: Goaty on 28 February, 2014, 09:08:54 PM
That really sounds interesting, which Rico, love to know what happens with late-Rico in Cursed Earth on the event of Chaos Day!
Title: Re: Judge Rico novella - Michael Carroll
Post by: Bat King on 01 March, 2014, 12:42:40 AM
I'm assuming original Rico... who we had glimpses in City Fathers & Cold Light of Day (not to mention Judge Gibson in the latter too).

This is a good thing!
Title: Re: Judge Rico novella - Michael Carroll
Post by: 8-Ball on 01 March, 2014, 08:10:45 PM
Cards on the table guys. This whole Rico Dredd being labelled Rico and Joe Dredd being labelled Dredd gets on my thrupenny bits. It bugged me in Origins and it bugs me now. As far as I am concerned Judge Rico is the current Fargo/Dredd clone with no first name. Judge Rico Dredd was Judge Joe Dredd's deceased clone brother and father to Vienna. Am I mad at getting annoyed by this?

Anyway I hope this is a good read and I'm sure to pick it up in the near future.
Title: Re: Judge Rico novella - Michael Carroll
Post by: Bolt-01 on 02 March, 2014, 09:37:44 AM
Am I the only one who hopes this is similar in tone to the Stories Mike did for the late 2000 AD review site? I'd be plenty happy to read the rest of those tales.
Title: Re: Judge Rico novella - Michael Carroll
Post by: Bat King on 02 March, 2014, 06:31:48 PM
Quote from: Eightball on 01 March, 2014, 08:10:45 PM
Cards on the table guys. This whole Rico Dredd being labelled Rico and Joe Dredd being labelled Dredd gets on my thrupenny bits. It bugged me in Origins and it bugs me now. As far as I am concerned Judge Rico is the current Fargo/Dredd clone with no first name. Judge Rico Dredd was Judge Joe Dredd's deceased clone brother and father to Vienna. Am I mad at getting annoyed by this?

Anyway I hope this is a good read and I'm sure to pick it up in the near future.

I just reread the original story... only to find that I remember it wrong. Rico's badge clearly say 'Dredd'. I last read this last year, comparing it to the re-write from 1995.

Funny... I thought, before Origins, that Rico didn't have Dredd on his badge.

Anyway - I'm still hoping we see a Rico story in the Year One novella setting.

Would also love a COMIC story of Rico in the Mutant Townships.
Title: Re: Judge Rico novella - Michael Carroll
Post by: 8-Ball on 02 March, 2014, 09:12:33 PM
Bat King, I'm also looking forward to getting a better insight into Rico Dredd and why he went so rotten so quickly after graduating from the academy. So much of what we do know about him is purely from Joe Dredd's perspective. We all know about Dredd's shame from having a nefarious clone-brother and his guilt from having to send him to Titan.
Title: Re: Judge Rico novella - Michael Carroll
Post by: Mike Carroll on 11 June, 2014, 05:55:46 PM




The long wait is over... (Well, it's been a long wait for me, anyway!).

Out now: Rico Dredd - The Titan Years: The Third Law (http://www.rebellionstore.com/products/the_third_law)

(http://www.michaelowencarroll.com/cov-thirdlaw.jpg)

-- Mike
Title: Rico dredd The Titan years - The Third Law by Michael Carroll
Post by: COMMANDO FORCES on 11 June, 2014, 06:01:29 PM
Just announced by Rebellion. The third ebook in the world of Dredd and the second by Michael Carroll Rico dredd The Titan years - The Third Law. £2.99 and out now!

(https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/t1.0-9/10356275_10204224756003432_7352630365340480699_n.jpg)

Here's the write up

You know about me. I'm Rico Dredd, Joe Dredd's big brother. I'm the clone that went bad, that brought shame on Judge Fargo's legacy.
I was a Judge, the best the Academy of Law ever turned out. The very best. But after less than a year on the streets of Mega-City One, I was brought down, taken in. It was Little Joe who caught me; second-best Judge there's been.
Broken, sentenced, stripped of office, I was shipped out to the brutal moon Titan, to do my twenty years' hard labour. Yeah, you know about Rico Dredd.

But do you know what really happened? Why I did it? What it was like, out there on the edge of space, doing time in the Bronze?
Truth is, mister, you know stomm about me.
Title: Re: Judge Rico novella - Michael Carroll
Post by: COMMANDO FORCES on 11 June, 2014, 06:03:06 PM
Can one of the mods delete my thread that I started just a few second ago or merge it into this. I couldn't find this one and I started it  :lol:
Title: Re: Judge Rico novella - Michael Carroll
Post by: IronGraham on 11 June, 2014, 06:50:02 PM
How long till it's on Kindle?
Title: Re: Judge Rico novella - Michael Carroll
Post by: 8-Ball on 11 June, 2014, 07:52:14 PM
Rico Dredd - The Titan Years. That looks suspiciously like an umbrella title for a series of e-books. Will there be more Rico Dredd books? Being a realist I am not expecting there to be more but if there were that would be SO FRICKIN' COOL! Sorry, my emotions got the better of me there. Also kudos to the art-droid who did the cover.
Title: Re: Judge Rico novella - Michael Carroll
Post by: Colin YNWA on 11 June, 2014, 08:22:56 PM
That does sound like a very cool idea and we know ya can't fault Mr Carroll so I'm in.

Personally if this was to be a series of books and it is kinda implied, I'd love to see some bent Judge Rico... but ya know I'll not whine and be happy with what we got!
Title: Re: Judge Rico novella - Michael Carroll
Post by: Albion on 11 June, 2014, 09:09:12 PM
Quote from: 8-Ball on 11 June, 2014, 07:52:14 PM
Also kudos to the art-droid who did the cover.

Just purchased and the cover is by Michael Carroll and Pye Parr.
Title: Re: Judge Rico novella - Michael Carroll
Post by: 8-Ball on 11 June, 2014, 09:26:08 PM
Quote from: Albion on 11 June, 2014, 09:09:12 PM
Quote from: 8-Ball on 11 June, 2014, 07:52:14 PM
Also kudos to the art-droid who did the cover.

Just purchased and the cover is by Michael Carroll and Pye Parr.

Is there no end to their talents? :D
Title: Re: Judge Rico novella - Michael Carroll
Post by: TordelBack on 11 June, 2014, 10:00:34 PM
Going to have to get this.  A great writer and an intriguing subject.
Title: Re: Judge Rico novella - Michael Carroll
Post by: oshii on 11 June, 2014, 10:22:40 PM
Did I imagine talk of the City Fathers and Cold Light of Day being published in physical form?  And if not, did it happen yet?
Title: Re: Judge Rico novella - Michael Carroll
Post by: Bat King on 12 June, 2014, 12:34:38 AM
A new book about Judge Rico... OK.

But Mike who?
Title: Re: Judge Rico novella - Michael Carroll
Post by: glassstanley on 12 June, 2014, 12:20:59 PM
Quote from: oshii on 11 June, 2014, 10:22:40 PM
Did I imagine talk of the City Fathers and Cold Light of Day being published in physical form?  And if not, did it happen yet?

Due out in November, I believe. One volume containing those 2 plus a previously unreleased novella.
Title: Re: Judge Rico novella - Michael Carroll
Post by: Dash Decent on 12 June, 2014, 01:21:35 PM
So, which third law are we talking about?  Presumably Newton's "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction".  Rico the anti-Dredd.
Title: Re: Judge Rico novella - Michael Carroll
Post by: Definitely Not Mister Pops on 12 June, 2014, 01:50:15 PM
Could be the third law of Thermodynamics, it's impossible to reduce the entropy of a system to zero. There will always be disorder.
Title: Re: Judge Rico novella - Michael Carroll
Post by: oshii on 12 June, 2014, 03:10:44 PM
Quote from: glassstanley on 12 June, 2014, 12:20:59 PM

Due out in November, I believe. One volume containing those 2 plus a previously unreleased novella.

Ta.
Title: Re: Judge Rico novella - Michael Carroll
Post by: Mike Carroll on 13 June, 2014, 12:05:50 PM
For those interested in such things, I've added an article to my website on how the cover for The Third Law was created...

Creating the Cover of Rico Dredd: The Third Law (http://www.michaelowencarroll.com/cov-thirdlaw.htm)

-- Mike
Title: Re: Judge Rico novella - Michael Carroll
Post by: 8-Ball on 13 June, 2014, 12:23:54 PM
Quote from: Mike Carroll on 13 June, 2014, 12:05:50 PM
For those interested in such things, I've added an article to my website on how the cover for The Third Law was created...

Creating the Cover of Rico Dredd: The Third Law (http://www.michaelowencarroll.com/cov-thirdlaw.htm)

-- Mike

Mike, that's a nifty bit of work and the impact of the finished cover is well worth the effort. Am I the only one, when looking a representation of Dredd without his helmet on (in this case Rico Dredd), feels a bit uneasy? Like you are peering through a gap in a curtain and seeing something that you shouldn't be. Probably just me.
Title: Re: Judge Rico novella - Michael Carroll
Post by: teckno viking on 13 June, 2014, 09:23:39 PM
Oooo Looks very interesting.

Have to get this methinks :D
Title: Re: Judge Rico novella - Michael Carroll
Post by: oshii on 17 June, 2014, 01:52:28 PM
Just read and enjoyed this. 

It also got me thinking.  Rico is surely the most underused character in Dredd's canon.  Off the top of my head I think he's only featured properly in "The Return of Rico" and "Origins".  But when you think about it, he's potentially a massively interesting figure.  He and Joe are in essence the same person, and yet went such different ways.  Also, and this is something Mike touches on in the book, seeing as he was better than Dredd at the Academy, part of his tragedy is it should have been him that went onto be the talismanic figure that Joe becomes.  (arguably that's something that is later explored through Kraken in Necropolis, I suppose)

Mike takes an interesting approach to his character - one that's more rewarding than simply just treating him as a straightforward bad apple, and which suggest there's loads of potential to be explored there, both in his time on the streets and on Titan.  Worth reading and I'd happily see more either in book form or the prog/meg.
Title: Re: Judge Rico novella - Michael Carroll
Post by: Greg M. on 17 June, 2014, 02:55:37 PM
Quote from: oshii on 17 June, 2014, 01:52:28 PM
It also got me thinking.  Rico is surely the most underused character in Dredd's canon.  Off the top of my head I think he's only featured properly in "The Return of Rico" and "Origins".  But when you think about it, he's potentially a massively interesting figure.  He and Joe are in essence the same person, and yet went such different ways. 

For me, 'Blood Cadets' is the defining Rico story. It certainly gives the fullest explanation of why he went the way he did, leaving it up you whether you wish to assume his wickedness came from a radioactivity-related brain injury, or whether it was something intrinsic to the bloodline. (Or both.)
Title: Re: Judge Rico novella - Michael Carroll
Post by: oshii on 17 June, 2014, 04:10:44 PM
Ah, I'd forgotten about "Blood Cadets".  Personally I think the radiation thing is far less interesting than a personality based explanation, because it absolves Rico of responsibility.  Also if an extreme of good and bad is something inherent in the Fargo genes (as Origins suggests with Eustace and Ephram) than the idea that Dredd contains the potential to go down the same path is really intruiging.

[spoiler]I rather like the idea in the Mike's book that Rico has a flexible perception of the law that in his opinion is beyond Joe's simple application of a rule book.  You could argue that there's a slight analogy between this and Dredd's slightly more liberal approach to reform in recent years [/spoiler]
Title: Re: Judge Rico novella - Michael Carroll
Post by: Greg M. on 17 June, 2014, 04:50:37 PM
Quote from: oshii on 17 June, 2014, 04:10:44 PM
Ah, I'd forgotten about "Blood Cadets".  Personally I think the radiation thing is far less interesting than a personality based explanation, because it absolves Rico of responsibility.

I largely agree with you, though I quite like the fact we have the 'classic supervillain origin' option. I like the idea that it was less the radiation to blame though, and more that the incident, in rendering Rico helpless, causes him to subsequently overcompensate to prevent Joe from seeing him as weaker. This in turn leads to arrogance born of fear and a materialism derived from a heightened awarenes of his own mortality.
Title: Re: Judge Rico novella - Michael Carroll
Post by: JOE SOAP on 17 June, 2014, 07:23:44 PM
Quote from: oshii on 17 June, 2014, 04:10:44 PM
Ah, I'd forgotten about "Blood Cadets".  Personally I think the radiation thing is far less interesting than a personality based explanation, because it absolves Rico of responsibility.  Also if an extreme of good and bad is something inherent in the Fargo genes (as Origins suggests with Eustace and Ephram) than the idea that Dredd contains the potential to go down the same path is really intruiging.


I think Blood Cadets is making the case that Rico's outlook is not down to just one thing.
Title: Re: Judge Rico novella - Michael Carroll
Post by: Frank on 17 June, 2014, 07:38:12 PM
Quote from: Greg M. on 17 June, 2014, 04:50:37 PM
(T)he incident, in rendering Rico helpless, causes him to subsequently overcompensate to prevent Joe from seeing him as weaker. This in turn leads to arrogance born of fear and a materialism derived from a heightened awarenes of his own mortality.

That's my preferred reading of it. Like Dredd says at the end of Blood Cadets, it's up to you how you choose to interpret the information he's presented you with.


Title: Re: Judge Rico novella - Michael Carroll
Post by: Mike Carroll on 18 June, 2014, 07:25:28 PM
Woohoo! The Kindle version is now available from Amazon (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00L3H517G/theofficialhar00/)!

-- Mike
Title: Re: Judge Rico novella - Michael Carroll
Post by: dweezil2 on 18 June, 2014, 07:33:09 PM
Excellent news!
Can't wait to read it!   :)
Title: Re: Judge Rico novella - Michael Carroll
Post by: COMMANDO FORCES on 19 June, 2014, 02:29:07 AM
Finally, those days waiting were killing me. I wanted to get it via Amazon as I didn't know if reviews could be left via the other available download sites and I do like to leave a review now and again!
Title: Re: Judge Rico novella - Michael Carroll
Post by: Bat King on 19 June, 2014, 08:50:03 AM
Reviews schmewss. Most reviewers know nowt!
Title: Re: Judge Rico novella - Michael Carroll
Post by: mimikeke on 19 June, 2014, 10:38:41 AM
bleh Kindle on my Android phone is freaking out after the last update, dunno if anyone else is having this problem??? If I open the app it immediately crashes.

I have to read it currently on my pc   :sick:  Happy to say I bought it at least though!

Title: Re: Judge Rico novella - Michael Carroll
Post by: Bat King on 19 June, 2014, 06:42:39 PM
I got on Kindle too. My Android Kindle Ap works fine so.
Title: Re: Judge Rico novella - Michael Carroll
Post by: COMMANDO FORCES on 23 June, 2014, 01:46:43 PM
That was pretty damn good, now where's part 2
Title: Re: Judge Rico novella - Michael Carroll
Post by: Dash Decent on 25 April, 2019, 06:22:02 AM
Have we got a thread for the Rico omnibus?

I read The Third Law when it came out but am catching up with the other two novellas. As usual Mr Carroll has done a cracking job. It's again making me think of the excellent Big Finish audio "Trapped on Titan" and how great it would have been if they could have done an audio story starring Rico (who essentially sounds the same as his little brother Joe, meaning Toby L could provide the same excellent voice acting). In fact it would be a great way to wrong-foot the audience with us listening in to a Dredd adventure then hearing Joe do the wrong thing (gasp!) and suddenly discovering the Dredd we are listening to is actually Rico (double gasp!).

Back on topic, Neil Roberts cover art for the omnibus is excellent, with Rico looking suitably tough and mean in prison overalls and Titan face mod. Some broken manacles dangle from his wrists; I think the only missed trick here is that it would have been cool if the number of links dangling from each restraint was seven! ; )

While writing this note, the predictive text function decided that whenever I typed 'omnibus', I actually meant to write 'church minibus'. Hmmm!