Top ten Dredds and top ten non-Dredd thrills

[Greg M.]

Not sure how I missed this thread before: I do like a list.

Non-Dredd:

1: Bad Company Bk2
2: Bad Company Bk1
3: The Dead Man (others seem to be listing this as a Dredd story, for obvious reasons, but it appeared under its own title, and is very much its own thing.)
4: Revere (I know there's 3 books, but they're only six episodes each, so I'll count it all as one.)
5: Chopper: Song of the Surfer
6: The Dead
7: Nemesis the Warlock: Bk V
8: Nemesis the Warlock: Bk I
9: Ace Trucking Co.: The Great Mush Rush
10: Zenith: Phase III

Dredd:
1: Necropolis
2: Young Giant
3: The Raggedy Man
4: Hitman
5: In the Bath
6: Crazy Barry, Little Mo / Banana City
7: The Pit
8: Blood Cadets
9: The Apocalypse War
10: The Lurker

[Richard]

That's a good list.

[Frank]

Non-Dredd:

1: Bad Company Bk2
2: Bad Company Bk1
3: The Dead Man
4: Revere
5: Chopper: Song of the Surfer
6: The Dead
7: Nemesis the Warlock: Bk V
8: Nemesis the Warlock: Bk I
9: Ace Trucking Co.: The Great Mush Rush
10: Zenith: Phase III

Dredd:
1: Necropolis
2: Young Giant
3: The Raggedy Man
4: Hitman
5: In the Bath
6: Crazy Barry, Little Mo / Banana City
7: The Pit
8: Blood Cadets
9: The Apocalypse War
10: The Lurker

Our mums must have been wheeled into the delivery suite within minutes of each other, Greg.  Please don't enter me into the prize draw, Eamonn. I pick all of Greg's, obviously, but these too:


1/  Requiem For A Heavyweight by TB Grover & Ezquerra (331-334)
1/  Citizen Snork by TB Grover & Smith (356-358)
2/  Bloodline by Wagner & Simpson (583-584)
3/  Blow Out by Wagner & Doherty (1213)
4/  Slow Crime Day by Wagner & Doherty (1191)
5/  Jimping by Wagner & Goddard (Meg 3.71 - 3.72)
6/  I, Jovis by Wagner & Parkhouse (Meg 3.60)
7/  Revolution by Wagner Grant & Higgins (531-533)
8/  Wot I Did During The Summer Holidays by PJ Maybe (Age 13) by Wagner & Sharp (592-594)
9/  Our Man In Hondo by Wagner & MacNeil (608-611)


1/  Strontium Dog: Portrait Of A Mutant by Alan Grant & Carlos Ezquerra
1/  Big Dave by Morrison Millar & Parkhouse
2/  Indigo Prime: Anthropocalypse/Everything & More by John Smith & Edmund Bagwell
3/  Ordinary by Williams & D'Israeli
4/  Torquemada The God by Pat Mills & Kev O'Neill
5/  Cradlegrave by John Smith & Edmund Bagwell
6/  Zaucer Of Zilk by Brendan McCarthy & Al Ewing
7/  Shadows by Pete Milligan & Richard Elson
8/  Taxi Driver by Alan Grant & Paul Hardy (531-532)
9/  DR & Quinch Get Back To Nature by Moore & Davis

[Greg M.]

Our mums must have been wheeled into the delivery suite within minutes of each other, Greg.

From what you've said previously, I'm pretty sure our first progs are only weeks away from each other (I'm 506, for what it's worth.)

[Frank]

Our mums must have been wheeled into the delivery suite within minutes of each other, Greg.

From what you've said previously, I'm pretty sure our first progs are only weeks away from each other (I'm 506, for what it's worth.)

511, old-timer.

[TordelBack]

8/  Taxi Driver by Alan Grant & Paul Hardy (531-532)

Now I often say "Eh? I have no memory of this?!?", but usually the thrill in question is from the mid-90s and there's a good reason.  This is from a period when I hung on every dribble from Tharg's well-wrung organ.  So why does something that makes it into Frank's Top Ten ring no bells?

[Frank]

8/  Taxi Driver by Alan Grant & Paul Hardy (531-532)

Now I often say "Eh? I have no memory of this?!?", but usually the thrill in question is from the mid-90s and there's a good reason.  This is from a period when I hung on every dribble from Tharg's well-wrung organ.  So why does something that makes it into Frank's Top Ten ring no bells?

My fault; insufficient information. It was one of the first Tales Of Megacity One.

It appeared during a run of progs I'd nominate in my personal golden era, when all was snug and baby tight (janglechimes). It stands at the opposite end of the dramaturgy spectrum to America, as an example of the potential the format of Dreddworld-stories-without-Dredd has, but rarely fulfils.

I liked Paul Hardy's art* for the same reason most seeing it now for the first time will dislike it; it looked like the kind of thing I could do. The easy confidence and flow of Ian Gibson and the meticulous detail of Glenn Fabry were beyond even my aspiration, but Hardy (like Weston & Walker) looked like he was learning on the job.


* Lots of artists only do one job for Tharg. Hardy's that rare beast, the creator who worked for 2000ad twice then dropped off the face of the Earth.

[Dark Jimbo]

Presented with the usual caveats i.e. if I did my lists tomorrow they'd be completely different!

Non-Dredd:

Nemesis: Book I - Mills/O'Neill
Absalom: Noblesse Oblige - Rennie/Trevallion
Indigo Prime: Anthropocalypse - Smith/Bagwell
Strontium Dog: Portrait of a Mutant - Wagner/Grant/Ezquerra
Bad Company: Book 1 - Milligan/Ewins
Rogue Trooper: Cinnabar - Smith/Dillon
Nikolai Dante: The Romanov Empire - Morrison/Burns
DR & Quinch Go To Hollywood - Moore/Davis
ABC Warriors: The Black Hole - Mills/Bisley/SMS
Slaine: Sky Chariots - Mills/McMahon

Dredd:

Sin City - Wagner/Walker
Cold Deck - Ewing/Flint
Apocalypse War - Wagner/Grant/Ezquerra
The Talented Mayor Ambrose - Wagner/Higgins
America - Wagner/Macneil
Eve of Destruction - Wagner/Flint/Willsher/Macneil
Sector House - Wagner/Ezquerra
Total War - Wagner/Flint
It's Deja Vu all Over Again - Wagner/Kennedy
The Americans - Ewing/Dyer

[The Adventurer]

Okay. Lets do this... no particular orders for me. They change wildly from moment to moment.

NON-DREDD

Nikolai Dante - The Romanov Empire
Shakara - The Assassin
Indigo Prime - Perfect Day
Lobster Random - The Agony & the Ecstasy
Robo Hunter - Day of the Droids
Stickleback - Mother London
The Red Seas - Twilight of the Idols
Strontium Dog - Blood Moon
The V.C.s - Down
Sinister Dexter - Murder 101

DREDD

Mandroid
Apocalypse War
Total War
America
Terror
Brothers of the Blood
Fading of the Light
the Monsterus Mashinashuns of P.J. Maybe
Robot Wars
The Art of Kenny Who?

[Eamonn Clarke]

Thanks for all the submissions, here, on the Facebook page, and by email.
Voting is now closed and the Mega City Book Club super computer is now crunching the results, imagine lots of flashing lights and spinning tape reels and you'll get the idea.
Results will be out in a podcast episode this Sunday and posted up here.

[JayzusB.Christ]

I'm restricting myself to one book per series, and I'm going to leave out something essential here and remember later, but...

Non-Dredd:

1. Sláine The Horned God
2. Bad Company 1
3. Zenith 4
4. Halo Jones 3.
5. Killing Time
6. Nemesis in Deathbringer
7. Cradlegrave
8. Nikolai Dante's last book
9.  Firekind
10.  Revere

Dredd:

1. Sunday Night Fever
2.  Necropolis
3.  Apocalypse War
4.  Sin City
5. Democracy Now
6.  Full Mental Jacket
7. Oz
8. The Midnight Surfer
9.  The Americans
10.  America

[Eamonn Clarke]

The Results are in and you can listen to them in my latest podcast at:

http://megacitybookclub.blogspot.com/2018/12/81-top-ten-results.html

Let's start with the top ten Dredd stories.

1. The Apocalypse War
2. America
3. Necropolis
4. The Pit
5. Day of Chaos
6. The Cursed Earth
7. Judge Death Lives!
8. The Judge Child Quest
9. Tour of Duty
10 The Dead Man

The Apocalypse War was always the frontrunner with more than twice the number of votes of second place America.

And John Wagner had his hand in all of them, either as sole writer, co-writer, or popping up for a couple of Progs in The Cursed Earth.

And nice to see three great stories by Carlos Ezquerra in the top four.

[Eamonn Clarke]

Next up is the top ten non Dredd stories.

1. Portrait of a Mutant
2. Nemesis the Warlock book 1
3. Rage
4. Halo Jones book 3
5. The Horned God
6. Nemesis the Warlock book 4: The Gothic Empire
7. ABC Warriors The Meknificent Seven
8. Bad Company book 1
9. Rogue Trooper: Cinnabar
10. Halo Jones book 2

Strontium Dog: Portrait of a Mutant was a clear winner but the voting was a lot tighter after that.
And again it's a number one for the great combo of Wagner, Grant and Ezquerra.

[Eamonn Clarke]

And finally I amalgamated the votes for all the differrent individual non Dredd stories to come up with a not too surprising top ten non Dredd thrills.

1. Strontium Dog
2. Nemesis the Warlock
3. Halo Jones
4. Slaine
5. The ABC Warriors
6. Rogue Trooper
7. Anderson: PSI Division
8. Indigo Prime
9. Zenith
10. Bad Company

And it is a clean sweep of three top spots for Wagner, Grant and Ezquerra!

Thanks to everyone who voted, made comments and said nice things about the podcast.
Thanks to Alex Frith for the suggestion.
And the two lucky names out of the hat for the Hachette collection covers books are Roland Ungoed-Thomas and the forum's very own Zenarcade. I'll be in touch to arrange delivery. 

[Richard]

Thanks Eamonn, that was very interesting.