Top 3 single episode Dredds

[IndigoPrime]

John Cassavetes Is Dead always resonated with me as a kid. It seems... worryingly prescient now.

[Funt Solo]

I have always been fond of Beyond the Wall, from the 1986 sci-fi special. Top notch Steve Dillon art. The garden oasis later became home to the Banzai Battalion when they spun into their own series.

[Woolly]

Al Ewing... 'choose your own adventure'-style one where you had to hack the game to finish the story and which was Moore-ishly clever in how it pushed the medium of comics to its limits.

Wagner... The haunting one where a man develops empathy for genetically engineered medical zombies.

Literally the first two that came to mind when I started reading the thread. Maybe I do have good taste after all!

I also like the one with the Rockefeller orbital homes, that the Judges turn into a slum. The great Ian Gibson on art duties.
And, of course, the classic with the poor guy on a bus who can't stop farting. The sublime Peter Doherty providing the art.

Pretty sure The Mighty Wagner wrote them both.

[Funt Solo]

a man develops empathy for genetically engineered medical zombies

[Zombies], prog 470

the Rockefeller orbital homes, that the Judges turn into a slum

High Society, prog 364

[Richard]

And, of course, the classic with the poor guy on a bus who can't stop farting. The sublime Peter Doherty providing the art.

I think that's Blow Out! in prog 1213.

Two of my favourites are Letter From a Democrat, for reasons which I trust are obvious to everyone who has read it, and Death of a Judge, which is a brilliant "all ages" story which sums up Dredd's moral compass in a nutshell and serves as an excellent introduction to new readers (which I was). (It also has a great title, because (Spoiler) it actually has two judges who die, and you assume the title refers to the first one, and then the second one is totally, completely unexpected.)

I'm going to have to think really hard about my third choice!

[JayzusB.Christ]

Thanks, Funt! I remember the stories, but the names of them and their prog numbers are usually beyond me. Glad there's someone here who knows their onions.

Another cracking pair of 80s one-offs were that Mean Machine Christmas one where the Judges prove themselves right bastards - I remember my brother buying that one in the newsagent's - and (iirc) The Exploding Man where a Sov bombs turn an ordinary guy into a sort of vengeful Dr Manhattan that's in constant agony.

[Funt Solo]

The Exploding Man

I really enjoyed that one, as well. Higgins on art? The nutso after-the-bombs stories were pretty high quality, overall. I think The Apocalypse War is the disaster with the best follow-up material. Meka-City, The League of Fatties, Fungus, Rabid, Night of the Rad-Beast, Last Invader, Shanty Town - a whole bunch of thrillage. The Exploding Man came much, much later, so it was an interesting call-back.

[Le Fink]

Either Firepower, prog 736 or [Snowstorm], prog 819?

It was indeed Firepower, prog 736. 6 pages of all-action and ultra-macho Dredd, painted by Colin MacNeil. "This is the story of those 3 minutes". It's mainly shooty-shooty-death-kill-'splosions, but there is some sophistication. Well, a little bit. With nice use of infra-red, armour-piercing rounds, and mutie-piercing bike. Also loving the bike backchat - Dredd jets his Lawmaster from a diving board(!?) at the last (impervious) mutie and dives off: "Over to you, bike". "Wilco. Thanks a bunch."

Slightly (in)famous for being one of the few episodes where Dredd smiles.

[Le Fink]

And, of course, the classic with the poor guy on a bus who can't stop farting. The sublime Peter Doherty providing the art.

I think that's Blow Out! in prog 1213.

Two of my favourites are Letter From a Democrat, for reasons which I trust are obvious to everyone who has read it, and Death of a Judge, which is a brilliant "all ages" story which sums up Dredd's moral compass in a nutshell and serves as an excellent introduction to new readers (which I was). (It also has a great title, because (Spoiler) it actually has two judges who die, and you assume the title refers to the first one, and then the second one is totally, completely unexpected.)

I'm going to have to think really hard about my third choice!

"Letter" is a classic for sure. And I remember the "John Cassavetes Is Dead" episode mentioned by Indigo Prime. They have stuck with me for sure.

What prog was Death of a Judge?

[Funt Solo]

"Over to you, bike". "Wilco. Thanks a bunch."

Oh, yeah! I remember that one. I liked when Dredd would chat with his bike. That kind of got resurrected (sic.) in the Deadworld saga. There's a little bit in One-Eyed Jacks, as well, but they don't tend to have sassy comebacks anymore.

What prog was Death of a Judge?

137

[nxylas]

One motif that ran for a few months in the '80s and then got quietly forgotten, was the monthly meetings where the top criminals of Mega-City One would plot ways to get rid of Judge Dredd. One of the stories, Prezzel Logic, led to perhaps my all-time favourite gag. The plan was that one of their most wanted would stand at the end of a one-way street and try to lure Dredd into going the wrong way in pursuit, thinking that he'd probably sentence himself to 20 years on Titan as punishment. The perp stands there taunting him, but instead of chasing after him, Dredd just shoots him and rides off to his next case. It was when Wagner and Grant were writing together, but that gag seems very Alan Grant to me!

[JayzusB.Christ]

The Exploding Man

I really enjoyed that one, as well. Higgins on art? The nutso after-the-bombs stories were pretty high quality, overall. I think The Apocalypse War is the disaster with the best follow-up material. Meka-City, The League of Fatties, Fungus, Rabid, Night of the Rad-Beast, Last Invader, Shanty Town - a whole bunch of thrillage. The Exploding Man came much, much later, so it was an interesting call-back.

While I must have been dipping into progs during the Apocalypse War, I was so young I can't remember. Obviously I've reread everything since, and yeah, the nuclear devastation made for a rich seam of Dredds for many years.

The Exploding Man represented to me what was so often missing during the Ennis years - the bad guy wasn't just a revenge-filled mutant looking to get the Judges back, but also a grieving husband and father who had seen his family die in nuclear fire.  No punches in the jaw, no kicks to the balls, no crazy shoot-outs - just a touching little tragedy with just enough sci Fi to make it Dredd. And a huge explosion, of course.

[Funt Solo]

One motif that ran for a few months in the '80s and then got quietly forgotten, was the monthly meetings where the top criminals of Mega-City One would plot ways to get rid of Judge Dredd. One of the stories, Prezzel Logic...

Also a fan of what I call "The Crazes Trilogy":
 - Blobs, prog 290
 - Jimps, prog 295
 - Prezzel Logic, prog 304

[Le Fink]

link=msg=1110944 date=1707435324]

One motif that ran for a few months in the '80s and then got quietly forgotten, was the monthly meetings where the top criminals of Mega-City One would plot ways to get rid of Judge Dredd. One of the stories, Prezzel Logic...

Also a fan of what I call "The Crazes Trilogy":
- Blobs, prog 290
- Jimps, prog 295
- Prezzel Logic, prog 304

Blobs has definitely stayed with me. I can picture the Ron Smith art. Crazed brilliance.

[norton canes]

The one where the Lawmaster gets a bullet to the computer, goes crazy and starts gunning down (and running over) cits. Not subtle, me.