How did you discover Judge Dredd?

[SpongeJosh]

I discovered Dredd after searching for Cyberpunk cities through t'internet in 2009. Came across a poll (on Empire website i think) for best fictional cities (or comic cities) and in number 1 spot was Mega City One. Did some research, found The Complete Case Files and started collecting them and was hooked from there.

In 2010 I subscribed to the Meg. #300 was the first issue i got, then it took me till Nov 2015 to subscribe to the Prog. #1958 was my first Prog.

[Dash Decent]

My brother and I used to spend most of our pocket money on comics.  One day he came home with prog 164.  We always read each others comics and he kept getting it for ages through primary school and high school, probably up until he went to university.  I'd already left home for uni so got out of the habit of reading it but we'd been through the good years and Crisis, Revolver, Diceman, etc.

[Magnetica]

The first 2000AD I read was a summer special (possibly 1977) someone gave me.

To be honest I wasn't impressed. I read it and threw it away. The only story I remember was Judge Dredd.

I got into 2000AD indirectly through Starlord. My mum bought issue 4 on holidays one summer and I got it every week after that.

I was really miffed when it merged into 2000AD. So the first weekly Dredd I read was the "Crime and Punishment" in Prog 86 (the first part of the Day The Law Died really) with art by Bolland. Sounds unbelievable now, but I didn't get into it. Then my newsagent missed the odd Prog and I gave up after Prog 92.

I tried a couple more a few months later but still didn't get into it (even with McMahon on ABC Warriors!!!!).

Bought Prog 127 based on the tag line "At last! Britain's top two papers join forces!!!" thinking it was referring to Starlord and 2000AD, not realising it was referencing Tornado, which I had never heard of.

Amazingly Wolfie Smith, Blackhawk and Captain Klepp did what Judge Dredd and Flesh couldn't and hooked me for life.

[Espoc]

Summer 1979. Prog 120. That robot on the cover caught my attention but Dredd kept me on board. My favourite comic. Still enjoying it on a daily basis thanks to the paperbacks and all that stuff they are putting out 

[Andy Lambert]

My Dad bought me my first prog when I was 6 years old, and I now know it was prog 1 because I clearly remember the first page of 'Flesh'.

My memory grows dim after that, but I must have had more progs bought for me as I remember the Mess in a hat and coat from 'ABC Warriors' and giant alien worms in 'Dan Dare'. I would get the annuals for Christmas, but it looks like I started my love for Judge Dredd in 1981 with 'Judge Death Lives' and 'Alien Zoo' in the 1982 annual - two stories that I clearly remember devouring at the time.

I was thrill-sucked around 1986, didn't touch another prog throughout the 90s, bought the occasion prog in the 00s, but started reading regularly again at the start of last year.

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

I wanted a Buck Rodgers sticker album. I got a free one with a Prog. A few months later I recognised Judge Death on the cover of Prog 224.

[Jim_Campbell]

I remember being bought occasional 2000ADs to keep me quiet on long car journeys to stay with Scottish relatives in lieu of actual holidays through '77 and '78 (I think I still have a copy of Prog 14 somewhere), but don't recall Dredd being the particular standout in those random issues. Pestered my parents for a regular sub from Prog 104 in '79, but don't recall being especially grabbed by Dredd, who was in the closing stages of The Day The Law Died at that point.

I had eyes mainly for Gibbons' careful draftsmanship on Dan Dare, largely due to my Dad's enthusiasm for the original Eagle incarnation, plus Strontium Dog kicked off Journey Into Hell, and Gibson was filling the pages of Robo-Hunter's Verdus with so very many delightfully eccentric robots...!

Although Dredd's adventures climbed in my estimation over time, I don't think it was until Prog 140's Black Plague that I really came round to viewing Dredd as the highlight of the Prog...

[Judge Smudge]

Mine was a little more recent. I think it was in 2007 I used to walk past Forbidden Planet in Leeds and I always loved their model displays. I particularly loved the Hell Boy model. One day I had had a particularly bad day at work so I wandered in to have a look around. I took a look round the graphic novel section and saw the Satans Island collection, picked it up and was mesmerised- wow this was like watching an amazingly stylised film in full technicolor madness. I had remembered seeing a few progs when I was a kid and the Judge Dredd image had stuck in my mind, so when I saw Satans Island I had to get it. I picked up PJ Maybe, Kenny Who? and Case Files 1 - amazing, vibrant, crazy, awesome! Gotalovabitadredd. I never did buy the the Hellboy model. Work isn't,any better either sometimes but at least now I can take regular holidays with some of favourite characters in the craziest place imaginable... Mega city 1. And having been picking up the progs and Megs as well for a few years now I couldn't imagine life without my little holidays into the wonderful world of 2000ad creative imagination

[Klegg Bait]

Great thread!

I saw the Stallone movie and thought it was okay.
I was always aware of Dredd, people made the occasional reference, but it never was something I was interested in.
The newer movie got a lot of good buzz and it was available on demand, so I took a look.
That hooked me.

Now I am enjoying collecting the graphic novels.

[Jim_Campbell]

As a small addendum to my discovering 2000AD/Dredd post, it was my interest in Gibbons' Dan Dare that led, fairly directly, to me (eventually) becoming a letterer. Dave lettered his own work on Dare, meaning that he got his name on the credits twice.

To my ten-year-old brain, this was the coolest thing ever, and meant that I paid attention to who got the lettering credits on all the strips, developing a keen sense of which letterers I liked, which I didn't, and why. Attempts to hand-letter my youthful attempts at my own strips were... not great but when, many years later, I became a graphic designer, one of my first thoughts was "I bet with the right fonts, you could do this on a computer".

All my digital lettering efforts since then have been entirely about thinking how Frame or Potter or Gibbons (and, later, on discovering US comics, how Orz, or Klein, or Novak, or Workman) would have tackled a strip by hand and trying to bring some of that to the page.

[Judge Brian]

I remember that when Justice League of America 200 came out I was captivated by Bolland's artwork, particularly Black Canary's breasts.





That led me to Camelot 3000 and anything else I could find by Bolland. One day I saw an ad for Judge Dredd  by Eagle Comics showing the first 3 covers. There was my favorite artist drawing a brand new comic. I added the title to my subscription at my local comic shop & fell in love. To this day I don't know why Anderson is blonde & not a redhead like in the Eagle comics Dredd.

Soon my LCS started getting 2000AD, my first prog was 389 (I think) & I bought it up through the end of City of the Damned. Returned for Necropolis - Judgement Day. One day around 2010/11, I found the first Call of Duty trade at my LCS, picked it up even though it was $32!! I thought it was neat , but only read the PJ Maybe story before setting it down. I picked it back up when I read on Wikipedia that Dredd ages in real time & that he was almost 70. That really intrigued me. I soon started picking up the trades, the Meg & the prog.

[Professor Bear]

I do kind of wonder how many people decided to try Dredd/2000ad since 1995 but then chucked it when it wasn't like the Stallone movie.

[Hawkmumbler]

I actually bought 2000AD for the Flesh cover. Because a Tyrannosaurs Rex munching on a cowboy is one hell of an eye catch. Dredd quickly became my staying point for that first year of the prog, namely because of how enthralling Day of Chaos was weekly...still the best reading experience of my life.

[ZenArcade]

Dilworth. Prog 736's Dredd is an out and out classic.  Sublime art and the story is Dredd honed down and encapsulated in 6 stunning pages. Z

[auxlen]

My mate had it !980s and he would read it then keep the cover and the middle spread and bin the rest and wouldn't let me read it. We are obviously no longer friends.