Origins Vs. The Cursed Earth - Dredd Epics Ranked - Better! H2H Rd 3

[Colin YNWA]

Seed 14  the first true mega Epic - an artistic wonderland and probably the second greatest of all the ep... what no, no I'm not bias, vote for what you like, don't listen to me... just know that if The Cursed Earth doesn't get through I will track you down... oh I will... or Origins which, ya know Wagner, Carlos, just covered some stuff like the very creation of the Justice Department and the backstory of Dredd... nowt important like... of course it drew on a quite fantastic former Epic... oh look just vote how you will...

Seed 3 Origins Progs 1500-1504; 1505-1519; 1529-1535

Vs

Seed 14 The Cursed Earth - Progs 61 - 85

Back to the simple purity of popping the name of the Epic you prefer in a reply to this thread (remember to mark it clearly so I can spot it - bold tags are good) and then say whatever the heck you like to about these two great stories.

We're also back to 3 day votes so this one will close first thing in the morning Friday 2nd of April - winner advance sto the Quarter Finals - loser goes into the 16th - 9th playoff vote.

All links go through to AlexF's simply brilliant Dredd Epics Ranked blog. You may need to scroll to find his write up of a particular story - but I'd suggest just reading the whole thing anyway - it's fantastic stuff.

Baffled by what's going on here - well we have a a thread for that - though that might leave you more confused than anything.

Rules for what they are worth.

Not sure about anything just ask and I'll blag it.

[broodblik]

Origins

[abelardsnazz]

I get the love for The Cursed Earth, I really do. But when so many gaps in Justice Department's history are filled in, Carlos draws the whole thing, and it seeds Tour of Duty, for me it's Origins.

[WhizzBang]

A tough pair to choose from so going by memorable events count I will pick The Cursed Earth.

[BPP]

Origins.

[Barrington Boots]

Origins by a country mile.

[Mikey]

That's a difficult one. Cursed Earth is seminal and bonkers so sums up what 2000ad felt like when I started reading. Origins was good comics without a doubt, but for me was another of those turning points that precipitated events and yarns I found much more enjoyable than that story itself.

So it's The Cursed Earth round my way, by a Dog Vulture's whisker.

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

Origins

[Magnetica]

This is a very difficult one. The Cursed Earth is the original Dredd epic and the art is out of this world. Origins was the start of a huge Dredd story, leading into Tour of Duty.

When I was reading it, I was thinking does this show modern Dredd can be very bit as good as classic Dredd?

It comes really, really close.

But I'm going to go for The Cursed Earth, because of Bolland.


And to be clear my vote is for The Cur-said Earth not the Curst Earth.

[Dark Jimbo]

Origins was good comics without a doubt, but for me was another of those turning points that precipitated events and yarns I found much more enjoyable than that story itself.

Spot on. Origins is a great, er, origin, but not always the most original read.

Plus it wouldn't have anything to talk about if The Cursed Earth hadn't first given us Booth, Solomon, Goodman and the atomic war. There is so much worlbuilding going on in that first epic. Satanus? Vegas? Death Belt? Mega-City Two? Mount Rushmore? Okay, it's a bit scrappy and goofy, but man if it doesn't have bags of mad, crazy energy and invention - nothing that you could really say about Origins.

[SmallBlueThing(Reborn)]

The Cursed Earth for me. It's not my favourite of the early Dredds, but its episodic nature provides some of the most.singular memories of the strip at that time. Notably metal trees and flying rats.

Origins is okay- but there is something hugely anticlimactic about it, for me at least, and none of it sits particularly comfortably as the beginnings of the System. Much as the Star Wars prequel trilogy (whatever you thought of them) didnt quite match up to what had been in my head all these years, so Origins seemed... off, in some way.

SBT

[maryanddavid]

Origins

[IndigoPrime]

The Cursed Earth laid a lot of groundwork for Dredd, but it just doesn't hold up for me. The portrayal of Dredd is out of whack, clearly in a pre-Wagner-showrunner period. It's all quite hokey, messy and annoyingly episodic. I get why people like it, and it's frequently inventive, but it's not for me.

Origins also isn't one of my favourite Dredd epics. I get the reasoning behind it, and it's nice Wagner decided to fill in the gaps and give us a chunk of the story behind the history of Dredd's world, but on a re-read it doesn't quite excel like the best Dredd epics. (Amusingly, it also ties into Cursed Earth.)

By a smallish margin, Origins gets my vote here.

[AlexF]

An impossible choice!
The Cursed Earth is a story I read and read again and again, some of my formative Judge Dredd. I still get that thrill of crazed imagination on display when I read it now. But boy are there frustrating parts about the overall story structure and the rushed ending. All that build-up to a cannibal plague, and all Dredd has to do is hand over a backpack? And yes, it's a weird version of Dredd we meet here. But still...

Then there's Origins, a story I remember feeling a bit let down by as I read it week-to week. But I've re-read 2 or 3 times since then and I like and admire it more each time, am already looking forward to reading it again. I really do think Wagner pulls off an amazing trick of making you believe you've read about how and why the Judges came to be, and why that war happened - but actually there are precious few details. So much wiggle room for the likes of Michale Carroll to play around in!

I guess I think Origins is the better epic overall, but dammit if I don't just LIKE the Cursed Earth more. And, for all that Origins was, more or less, the prologue of a decade of story ending in Tour of Duty / Day of Chaos, the Cursed Earth was ground zero for a bajillion Dreddworld ideas that still carry on. Missionary Man! CUrsed Earth Koburn! Sleeze 'N Ryder! The Helltrekkers!

The Cursed Earth it is, and not just as a thank-you present for Liverpool's finest Colin for putting this epic-length tourney together.

[Sean SD]

Origins for me