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Firekind

" My wife has no interest whatsoever in reading Dredd, because she can't be arsed to read from the early strips but thinks she'll miss too much. With Dredd being (effectively) one long story, that can be intimidating."

I guess a further factor is that those collections which are often presented as "new readers start here" are the most continuity heavy and usually only show one facet of what the strip can do.

Fortunately, we now have the best of John Wagner which shows the range of stories and art styles but also the majority of stories don't rely on knowledge of previous epics.

Brass Sun

Quite often, it seems as if the question of Dredd's lack of success state-side is framed as if it's the Americans fault for not "getting it" or not understanding satire. Actually, the case is that there was a time when the Americans DID get Dredd and it WAS popular. The fact that it's success was so brief is not down to them.

Back in the 80s, I was an ex-pat kid living in the states. It was chancing across the Eagle reprints in a hobby store that got me into comics. Going into comic stores in Massachusetts and neighbouring states, I saw a  very healthy presence of all Eagle reprints and I can recall one of the owners telling my Dad that it was his biggest selling independent by far. - I do understand that this is a sample of one area of the US and may not be indicative of the whole of the country.

So what went wrong? Over-milking the cow.

1). Within 3 years, Dredd was pretty much drained through mini-series, maxi-series and the like. The appearance of Dredd: the Early cases was neatly summed up by Pat Mills as, "Dredd: scraping the bottom of the barrel.
2). As well as the Eagle reprints, other publications appeared. You could pick up Titan reprints, Best of 2000AD and copies of the prog. Sometimes you had the same stories appearing in 2 or 3 publications (eg). The Blood of Satanus for example got around a lot), sometimes you had stories split between publications (eg. Nemesis Book 2 appeared in the eagle but not Titan reprints, Book 4 appeared in the Titan reprints). So you had to choose one version and stick to it, knowing you were going to be missing key stories OR if you had deep pockets, buy them all and know that there was going to be a lot of doubling up.

And reason 3...
3). Quality. Before the end of the 3rd year, the Dredd Eagle reprints became Quality reprints. The difference was marked. Poorer quality reprints and taking Bolland off the covers certainly hurt.

For myself, I ended up getting the prog shipped over and getting chunks of back issues the same way. I don't know what choices others made but by the late 80s, Dredd was a very reduced presence and often absent.

For the other stabs post 80s, I think honestly it's been the quality of the new stuff that's being offered.
* Both Dredd films were IMHO pretty poor and not reflective of what Dredd was.
* The DC comics of Dredd bar the Wagner/Grant stuff was pretty poor and not reflective of what Dredd was.
* The (can't remember the publisher) Dredd comics of the '10s were - with a few exceptions - pretty poor and not reflective of what Dredd was.

Were Dredd launched with a decent monthly I genuinely think it would be absolutely fine.

Summer Magic Book 1

Kingdom

Feral and Foe

80s

insurrection

The Out

VCs

Spinnies noms...

Best writer: John Smith. Really did a lot of the heavy lifting for a prog which had seen better days. Firekind - Slaughterbowl - Tyranny Rex - each of those were the highlights of the progs they appeared in and then we also get the best 2000Ad Dredd of the year: Roadkill - even if Dredd is a bit much in the ending.

Best art: Glenn Fabry. Stunning, just stunning art combined with great storytelling.

Best story: Firekind

And I know these aren't Spinnies awards but:

Strangest editorial decision: asking Fabry to commit to a multi-book, fully painted epic (Whilst he's working on Vertigo covers, whilst he's committed to Dredd/Batman) was never going to end well. Had they got him on some shorter Slaine tales - such as the Swan children - then we'd have had a real highpoint of the prog to rival the Horned God.

Missed opportunity: So this is how the mighty Ron Smith sees out his days at the prog: some of the lesser Dredd tales and a handful of Future Shocks. Ron deserved better than this. It would have been great to see him really deliver on something like Slaughterbowl or Mechanismo part 3.

Best year: 1986

Meggies
Best writer: Alan Grant or John Wagner
Best art: John Hicklenton
Best story: Anderson or Taxidermist

[Mean Machine.]

Mean Machine.

The very first Bad Company was all kinds of brilliant and brought a new voice into 2000AD at a crucial time. The "what's in the box?" mystery was a great hook for a weekly comic and I don't remember it disappointing.

However,... whilst Mean as a solo strip hasn't surpassed Bad Company's initial highs, it has been pretty consistently great:
- Travels with my shrink
- Son of Mean
- Judgement on Gosham
and that one-off drawn by Hicklenton

* Daily Star Dredds - I think there are some of these which never got collected. I guess the hardcover sales weren't great - perhaps the Meg could reprint the last ones.

Outside of 2000ad...

Unless I've missed the reprint, there's a whole bunch of stuff Alan Moore did for Doctor Who weekly/monthly which hasn't been seen for 40 years.

Book 1