Dredd Epics Ranked - Better! Round 1

[broodblik]

Hicklenton's art worked for me on Nemesis, Blood of Satanus it just did not work. Apart form the art the script was also pretty weak. I could not enjoy the story at all. 

[Huey2]

Some real gems hidden at this end of the ranking.

1). Lunar City - "The Pit" in space! As a whole story, it's not as good as some of the other entries but there are some great individual tales here - Lunar Olympics/Sov War - Oxygen Board - Tough Guy and The Face Change Crimes just being some of these. So much of Dredd law starts here and there are some great Dredd moments: "Don't do it citizen - littering the streets is an offence!"

2). City of the Damned

3). The Chief Judge's Man

HM - Raptaur

[Barrington Boots]

I'm kind of interested to see if there's any epic that'd rank below Crusade.

[IndigoPrime]

Even when reading the synopsis of Dead Ringer, I don't remember it — which says a lot. So:

1. The Chief Judge's Man — because it was good and imporatnt
2. City of the Damned — because it was a good first half of a story before Wagner got bored and Steve Dillon's art is fantastic
3. Raptaur — because it's the only one of the remaining items I'd still actually want to read today, although...

HM: Luna City, because Huey2 is right in that it's a bit like The Pit on The Moon. however, it really doesn't feel like an epic to me, and is more a bunch of individual strips.

[Magnetica]

Hmmm......can I vote for just one?

1.  The Chief Judge's Man.

It's actually quite good; I read the collected edition a couple of years ago and enjoyed it.

Not so much the others.

Actually I think I will vote for another:

1.  The Chief Judge's Man.

2. Luna City.

Re Luna City - it's not really an epic, but some of the stories are great and the art is top notch, especially the Bolland episodes.

I have decided I will after all vote for those stories I don't consider to be epics and will include "epic-ness" as part of the criteria i.e. a great but not epic story will get penalised.

[JayzusB.Christ]

I didn't mind Inferno at the time - I hated Judgement Day and I was absolutely sick of Garth Ennis's shouty, motormouth Dredd and at least now Dredd was sounding like Dredd again.  Also, Purgatory made it look good.  But looking back on it now, it's kind of shite and I'll probably never read it again.

Haven't quite made up my mind here yet though.  A relief though Inferno was back then, for me at least, it's not up there with even the mediocre Wagner Dredds.

[Rogue Judge]

I'll slightly defend my vote for Inferno as #3...it has some awesome Ezquerra art and McGruder develops a little further...and I haven't read it in a few years. That's all I got!

[The Mind of Wolfie Smith]

1. luna city
2. the chief judge's man
3. city of the damned

[Colin YNWA]

I have decided I will after all vote for those stories I don't consider to be epics and will include "epic-ness" as part of the criteria i.e. a great but not epic story will get penalised.

This is kinda the approach I think I will take if I need to make a call. I'll not exclude a story I don't consider an Epic. But a story of similar quality but feels less of an Epic to me will lose out to a story that I don't think is quite as good but ticks all my Epic boxes.

[WhizzBang]

1) Chief Judge's Man
2) City Of The Damned
3) Luna City

[Magnetica]

I hated Judgement Day

I won a copy of a Judgement Day graphic novel a few years back for getting a letter published in the Judge Dredd Megazine.

I think it was the US version and at the risk of being ungrateful, it had the feeling of "whatever we had lying around the office."

I did read it and it was every bit as bad as I remembered. Which was a shame as the first episode was actually quite good and the premise ought to have resulted in a good story.

[broodblik]

I think we are in the murky waters here for the first few rounds, still going to be interesting.  I try remember what Judgement Day was about and then the curtains came down. It was that cross-over story and the rest is history

[IndigoPrime]

Getting through Inferno in the Mega Collection required effort. I'm not sure I agree with the previous comment that Dredd sounded like Dredd again. He sounded like meathead Dredd — a one-note bully boy cliche machine entirely lacking in nuance, as he did throughout the Morrison/Millar run. They at the time revelled in not giving a shit about the strip's history — and it showed. Ennis arguably had the opposite problem: he was too reverential. Judgement Day was like a second-rate Apocalypse War, but Inferno was like Dredd from another dimension — one with worse scriptwriters. It's almost as bad as IDW's stuff. Purgatory was appalling as well. What a waste of Ezquerra. The transformation of Grice from conniving arsehole to muscle-bound indent-a-kit Morrison/Millar villain for me encapsulates that entire era of trashy and weirdly boring Dredd.

[Dark Jimbo]

1 - Chief Judge's Man - Objectivley the best quality of the choices here, even if it's a bit safer and less mad/experimental than most of the others. Of course, the art is superb throughout - Simpson, Macneil, Burns. Wins bonus points for Edgar's role in the last entry.

2 - City of the Damned, I suppose, although I've never been a fan. Shows some early promise before it peters out, and Dillon's art is sublime.

3 - Luna City, if only because (apart from BoS III) this is the only other 'epic' here that I've read! Never been in much of a rush to seek those others out, either! Luna City is at least blessed with a lot of artistic talent, and some of the individual tales are true little gems. As has aready been noted, 'Don't jump, citizen!' is a properly classic Dredd moment.

[Leigh S]

Wot IP sed


also, can I ake the case for City of the Damned as my number 1 here:
I present two arguments:

Firstly, how often do we moan that a story wwmeandered on too long and would benefit frm beng x parts shorter?  here, Wagner Grant have just that realisation and it is to the strips benefit, not its detriment.

Which leads me to the second part - how much of CotDs "poor" reputation is down to Wagner /Grant dismissing it themselves - like how Black Sabbath members slate "Never Say Die" as an album, more from their own harried feelings of the band rather than the actual quality of the ensuing product


I'll also make the case for Dead Ringer-  yes, a bit of a reun of Judge Child structure wise, but Fegredo art! And lots of fun episodes - massively underrated in my book, so thats second

That leaves Chief Judges Man for third spot.

Getting through Inferno in the Mega Collection required effort. I'm not sure I agree with the previous comment that Dredd sounded like Dredd again. He sounded like meathead Dredd — a one-note bully boy cliche machine entirely lacking in nuance, as he did throughout the Morrison/Millar run. They at the time revelled in not giving a shit about the strip's history — and it showed. Ennis arguably had the opposite problem: he was too reverential. Judgement Day was like a second-rate Apocalypse War, but Inferno was like Dredd from another dimension — one with worse scriptwriters. It's almost as bad as IDW's stuff. Purgatory was appalling as well. What a waste of Ezquerra. The transformation of Grice from conniving arsehole to muscle-bound indent-a-kit Morrison/Millar villain for me encapsulates that entire era of trashy and weirdly boring Dredd.