Dredd in the US

[JayzusB.Christ]

Alex Ross's lovely painting in the other thread got me thinking.  How well known is Dredd as a comics character in the States?  I would imagine most comics creators, and the more devoted comics enthusiasts, are at least aware of him, but for everyone else it's an obscure Stallone film.   

Which is a crying shame, really.

[dweezil2]

James Gunn of GOTG and Suicide Squad 2 fame is a fan, if you believe his Twitter feed, so Dredd and 2000AD must have some low-level awareness in the States at the very least.

[Funt Solo]

The guy who runs our local comic shop appreciates the value of 2000 AD and imports four-to-a-batch prog bags. (I don't buy them because they're about four times as much as digital.)

[JOE SOAP]

As opposed to other non-US comic characters, maybe a little more, but not Hellboy level.

[Art]

Known well by reputation amongst comics people, far fewer have actually read any, vanishing few have read any recent Dredd.

(I always try and do my bit in this regard getting to people to give it a try)

[Rogue Judge]

Known well by reputation amongst comics people, far fewer have actually read any, vanishing few have read any recent Dredd.

(I always try and do my bit in this regard getting to people to give it a try)

This summarizes Canada perfectly as well. Most people know of Dredd and say "yeah Dredd is awesome" but few people actually have read it (sadly).

[milstar]

I bet most people who Dredd, got to him thru Sly's movie. Otherwise, I wouldn't place Dredd on the same level as other well known British icons like Harry Potter, Lara Croft or James Bond.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Known well by reputation amongst comics people, far fewer have actually read any, vanishing few have read any recent Dredd.

That's kind of what I'd suspected. Thanks!

[Funt Solo]

Off I go on a tangent: if you think a thought like "it would great if they made Zenith into a television series", and then you watch Jupiter's Legacy, you realize they already have. Sort of. Thematically.

Sort of related to the whole Dredd question - he was taken and made into Robocop years ago.

[milstar]

Funt Solo mentioning Robocop, I always saw Robocop comics as US version of Dredd. Ofcourse, the movie has something to do with it. I think I recall that I read somewhere that it was Paul Verhoeven who was influenced by Dredd's design when creating the character of Robocop. Aside that, I liek to think that it was The Dark Knight Returns that had something to do with it as well; to be more specific, the world around Robocop. Someone compared similarities between the movie and that comic series. Given the influence of TDKR on 1980s pop culture, I'd say it's not far fetched claim. By the time TDKR was in release, Robocop film was in the pre-production stage.

[Dandontdare]

Robocop was definitely influenced by Dredd as this shows... https://forums.2000ad.com/index.php?topic=37414.0.

[milstar]

I'd stick with this line.

I think the official line is that it was a starting point and inspiration, which they always knew they were going to alter quite radically. To be honest, the first time I ever considered the relationship between Murphy, A and Dredd, J was when John Brosnan brought it up as a possible reason why a Dredd film might not work (at that time) in his flix column. The reasons he gave and the comparisons he made struck me as a little reductive, since I'd never thought of Dredd as emotionless, just a mean cunt, and Weller wears the helmet for less than a third of the film.

Not only that, but Robocop's story of the corporate world's dehumanising commercialisation of every aspect of life and Murphy's quest to (re)discover his humanity didn't strike me as territory which Wagner and Grant had explored at that time. There's really about ten minutes of the film, when Murphy first hits the street, which you could say cop some moves from Dredd, but the rest is its own wonderful thing.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Off I go on a tangent: if you think a thought like "it would great if they made Zenith into a television series", and then you watch Jupiter's Legacy, you realize they already have. Sort of. Thematically.

Had a look at the first episode and a half, on the strength of your text. It was OK - I know it's early doors but I can't really see anything as brain - twistingly complex as the Omnihedron Multiverse happening, though. So far, it seems kind of to Zenith what Canon Fodder is to Killing Time.

Though I will watch more of it.

[Funt Solo]

Ah, no - plot-wise they're miles apart.

In particular, in a later episode (can't recall which one), there's more focus on the daughter, and how she makes a living - which is as a model. She's young, self-absorbed, doesn't behave well for her agent etc.

It just made me think immediately of that idea in Zenith of the superheroes being like celebrities, and leaning heavily on that to make a career for themselves that involves little to no actual super-heroism.

So, there's still value, for me, in trying to bring something like Zenith, or Dredd, to the screen. It's just that they would (ironically, perhaps) seem as if they're being derivative, because of the things that have already been brought to the screen that are probably at least semi-inspired by the works in 2000 AD. See also: Firekind.

It's not too much of a stretch to suggest that Millar might have been inspired by Morrison, given the history.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Ah, no - plot-wise they're miles apart.

In particular, in a later episode (can't recall which one), there's more focus on the daughter, and how she makes a living - which is as a model. She's young, self-absorbed, doesn't behave well for her agent etc.

Her antics did strike me as a bit Zenith-like - obnoxious and vain, using the superpowers for celebrity status.  And yeah, it's hard to see how Millar couldn't have been influenced by Zenith - he even did a Zenith-universe text story once, though Grud knows which special it was in.