Main Menu

Dredd Epics Ranked - Better! Round 1

Started by Colin YNWA, 22 February, 2021, 06:21:48 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

MumboJimbo

I'd soooo like to join in with this...but I've only read City of the Damned. This rather poor hit rate made me wonder how many progs I've actually read, and being lockdown what better way to waste some time than to actually calculate the exact figure! It came out as 32%  :-[  And I thought I was so well read on 2000 AD matters, what a wake up call up call! Oh well, I'll lurk on the sidelines...

Dark Jimbo

Quote from: MumboJimbo on 23 February, 2021, 10:32:05 AM
I'd soooo like to join in with this...but I've only read City of the Damned.

Yeah, I thought I was pretty well-read Dredd-wise, but I've only read four of the eight here!

Apart from Dead Ringer, the  others all come from the stretch of the Case Files (16-20) that I avoided - and I avoided that era because of its infamous reputation. So it's not too surprising that this is where most of the lower-tier epics dwell.
@jamesfeistdraws

SmallBlueThing(Reborn)

Somehow this had passed me by til today.

1. City of the Damned
2. Chief Judge's Man
3. Raptaur

And that's all I can say at the moment due to suffering the severe side effects of vaccination.

SBT

TordelBack

1. City of the Damned
2. Chief Judge's Man
3. Dead Ringer

Southstreeter

1. Chief Judge's Man (From that wonderful Wagner period when he was seeding plot lines over many years)
2. City of the Damned (Cos it feels significant)
3. Inferno (Carlos!)

DrJomster

The top two are looking pretty consistent so far... Fascinating stuff!
The hippo has wisdom, respect the hippo.

maryanddavid

City of the Damned
Chief Judges Man
Luna City

Rogue Judge

Glad to see I'm not alone in my enjoyment of Inferno (Carlos!)

skurvy

1. City of the damned
2. Lunar city
3. Chief judge's man

Rogue Judge

Quote from: Dark Jimbo on 23 February, 2021, 11:32:22 AM
Quote from: MumboJimbo on 23 February, 2021, 10:32:05 AM
I'd soooo like to join in with this...but I've only read City of the Damned.

Yeah, I thought I was pretty well-read Dredd-wise, but I've only read four of the eight here!

Apart from Dead Ringer, the  others all come from the stretch of the Case Files (16-20) that I avoided - and I avoided that era because of its infamous reputation. So it's not too surprising that this is where most of the lower-tier epics dwell.

Just my 2 groats - While that is definitely a low period for Dredd, there are some gems in each of those Case Files, I'd recommend not skipping any. Many of the one-offs have great art, by Ezquerra, McMahon, Smith etc.

Case Files 16 has Twilights Last Gleaming and Justice One, CF 17 has Judgement Day (love it or not, a worthwhile Epic IMO), CF 18 has Mechanismo, CF 19 has Mechanismo returning and Inferno, and CF 20 has some fun stories including the Sugar Beat (Ron Smith) and The Enemy Below.

Some skippable stories for sure, but I treasure each of the Case Files (some more than others,  obviously).

Colin YNWA

VOTING CLOSED

But feel free to carry on the conversation. I wasn't sure about this one but the response to this opening vote has been fantastic! Let's see if it sustains. Anyway the top two have been clear from almost the start. The next two became clear pretty soon after that, but fascinatingly ever story, even amongst these 'bottom 8' got at least one vote... anyway enough already the results.

Progressing to next vote:

1. City of the Damned - 62 points
2. Chief Judge's Man - 54 points
3. Luna City - 19 points
4. Raptaur - 14 points

Into the 52 - 44 position play off:

5. Purgatory / Inferno - 5 points
6. Dead Ringers - 4 points
7. Blood of Satanus III - 3 points
8. Crusade - 1 point
6. Dead Ringer

Tomorrow I'll start the next vote when things get really interesting and see if any of those top four beat the next four...

I, Cosh

Quote from: Barrington Boots on 22 February, 2021, 12:39:58 PM
I'm kind of interested to see if there's any epic that'd rank below Crusade.
At least six of the others on this list for me. Oh, but I'm too late. Sorry, will try harder next time.

01. City of the Damned. Weak Wagner & Grant is still better than anything else on the list. It's the only one that's a "real" epic and it gave us a handful of unforgettable moments. I should've had it done years ago.

02. Crusade. I know it's like the World's tallest dwarf, but this is by far the best of Morrison Millar long form stories. Partly because there's a bit more Grant than Mark about the McGuffin and the finale but mostly down to Mick Austin. A very underrated artist whose Dredd goes back to the tough, wiry prototype.

03. Luna City, I guess. Already stretching the definition of an epic but some early world-building, vintage art and fond memories of the Eagle comics reprints find a place here.

The rest:

Chief Judges' Man. Disqualified for not being an epic. I get that the original redefinition was a bit of fun to bring in more stories. However, the natural state of Dredd is an ongoing fight against all sorts of crime with occasional villains, plot threads and themes recurring over time as they would in life. Epics are the punctuation marks along the way which threaten to upset or at least resolve elements of this equilibrium. The CJM strand is very clearly in the former camp and it's a perfectly fine but unspectacular example. The background stuff about how it plays into the Edgar plot is more interesting than the individual stories.

Raptaur/Dead Ringer. Have read both but neither left much of an impression.

Purgatory/Inferno. I'm sure somebody's already made this joke but was Paradise when this rubbish finally ended?

Blood of Satanus III. I'm sure I'm not alone in being a bit ashamed of my comments on this story's original run in the Meg before I knew some of the reasons for it. What's left after that's acknowledged is a fairly incoherent story with occasional spectacular images. A good thing for Pat to have done perhaps, but not something I'm likely to revisit.
We never really die.

BPP

#57
1) city of the dammed
2) chief judges man
3) purgatory / inferno

Never understood the dislike lumped upon City of The Dammed. 1 & 2 are solid but the writing of the Hersey relationship is CJM  is icky (not a complaint, just it's not so enjoyable because it's inherently icky). Purgatory inferno gets the vote over anything else due to the art.

One days voting? Oh. Whatever...

If I'd known it was harmless I would have killed it myself.

http://futureshockd.wordpress.com/

http://twitter.com/#!/FutureShockd

milstar

 Seems that I missed something. Nobody to mention Day the Law Died, Oz and Apocalypse War (i find these classic Dredd arcs the best).
Reyt, you lot. Shut up, belt up, 'n if ye can't see t' bloody exit, ye must be bloody blind.

Dark Jimbo

Quote from: milstar on 24 February, 2021, 03:15:00 PM
Seems that I missed something. Nobody to mention Day the Law Died, Oz and Apocalypse War (i find these classic Dredd arcs the best).

This is only Round 1...!
@jamesfeistdraws