The Batman Judge Dredd Collection

[Jimmy Baker's Assistant]

Got this from Santa and read it today. Decidedly mixed feelings.

Lovely cover by Mike Mignola. Shame it's his only contribution.

Judgment on Gotham is pretty good. I have a sneaky fondness for Bisley art and this is a great example of The Biz in his prime (complete with trademark "dodgy printing" murkiness - couldn't this have been cleaned up digitally?). The script is functional and lightly amusing, but I don't like the portrayal of Dredd, which smacks of Alan Grant's solidily negative portrayal rather than John Wagner's more nuanced take on him.

Vendetta in Gotham reads like a DC comic, complete with the pointless superhero fight (I wonder if the homo-erotic undertones were intended?) and cardboard cut-out villain (The Ventriloquist, not one of the good ones). Cam Kennedy's art is nice though.

The Ultimate Riddle pretty much sucks. A succession of quite boring cliches, although it does have 1 or 2 vaguely amusing lines.

Die Laughing may well have the best script, The Joker complements the Dark Judges nicely and the Mega City One setting helps. Shame Fabry didn't manage to finish it himself, but it's still quite fun.

There's also a Lobo strip that has Dredd in it, which is great if you like that sort of thing. Possibly.

[Skullmo]

Now I remember why I hated the Dredd / Batman crossovers . . .

[Mattofthespurs]

Surprised at how small this is. For some reason was expecting a 'european album'/ 'titan reprint' size.
Good book but glad I kept my originals.

[Tjm86]

Surprised at how small this is. For some reason was expecting a 'european album'/ 'titan reprint' size.
Good book but glad I kept my originals.

Know what you mean.  The colour on Vendetta In Gotham is decidedly bleached out for some bizarre reason.

[COMMANDO FORCES]

This was in my local comic shop today and on a whim I bought it and noticed that bleached effect, which stands out a mile but didn't spoil my enjoyment at looking at all the stunning artwork inside.

[ChickenStu]

This is stupidly expensive on Amazon. £20 last time I looked...

[Colin YNWA]

There's a softcover coming out in September which should reduce the price?

[radiator]

£20 is perfectly reasonable for a nice hardback compilation of what is essentially 5 trade paperbacks in one.

[Mister Macheath]

There's a softcover coming out in September which should reduce the price?

I thought the softcover was already out, largely because a pal gifted this to another pal recently and I could swear it was the softcover version. Unless my brain is just failing me.

I have the hardcover myself and, although it is a mixed bag, I quite enjoy it for what it is. Sure, Judge Death joining a metal band for a wee bit is utterly ludicrous and there are cliches left right and central, but there are some fun romps and gorgeous Biz/Fabry art.

[Recrewt]

I picked this up the other day and as others have already stated, its a mixed bag of stories but the quality of the book is great and its always nice to pick up Dredd in hardback.

Considering the material though, I did think it was a bit barebones - there were no additional notes, sketches or such like.  I'd be interested reading the background to most Dredd stories but ones which involved one of the world's most well known comic characters, having to work with DC and the fact that this crossover was a very big deal at the time should have left them with plenty of material for extras.

[Colin YNWA]

Considering the material though, I did think it was a bit barebones - there were no additional notes, sketches or such like.  I'd be interested reading the background to most Dredd stories but ones which involved one of the world's most well known comic characters, having to work with DC and the fact that this crossover was a very big deal at the time should have left them with plenty of material for extras.

Yeah maybe info about the aborted attempts or even that Alan Davis 'try-out' story. Might be a rights issue?

[Hawkmumbler]

Yeah maybe info about the aborted attempts or even that Alan Davis 'try-out' story. Might be a rights issue?

There were other crossovers planned?

[radiator]

No, but I think the original plan for the first Batman/Dredd crossover was that it would be written by Alan Moore, with art by Alan Davis.

[Colin YNWA]

Prior to Judgement on Gotham, I think it all started around 1985 (take all the details with a huge pitch of salt, this is all from memory and pretty sketchy) and originally was going to be done my Alans Moore and Davis. For whatever reason that didn't happen (is that date right hadn't the Alans fallen out by that time?). This rumbled along and got as far as a strip that I always believed was a try out, 'Bat Mugger' in '88... or maybe it was a shrug of the shoulders, well that didn't happen, lets have fun with it then.

http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=prog&page=profiles&choice=585

[Recrewt]

Prior to Judgement on Gotham, I think it all started around 1985 (take all the details with a huge pitch of salt, this is all from memory and pretty sketchy) and originally was going to be done my Alans Moore and Davis. For whatever reason that didn't happen (is that date right hadn't the Alans fallen out by that time?). This rumbled along and got as far as a strip that I always believed was a try out, 'Bat Mugger' in '88... or maybe it was a shrug of the shoulders, well that didn't happen, lets have fun with it then.

http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=prog&page=profiles&choice=585

Wow - I didn't even know about this, thanks for the info Colin. 

Please excuse me while I go and look for Prog 585 on ebay!!