Pretty straight-forward this one. We need to slot Epics 17 through 24 into positions 28-21 but there are some good thrills here that deserve your vote to get them positioned as high as possible.
Look at the list of 8 Dredd stories below and tell me your top three:
1 (your favourite of the 8) will get 3 points
2 (your 2nd fav) will get 2 points
3 (your 3rd fav) will get 1 point
17 Block Judge (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-19-17-hidden-gems.html) - Progs 1900-1909
18 Served Cold/The Cop (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-19-17-hidden-gems.html) - Progs 1718-1725; Megs 356-361
19 Dead Zone (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-19-17-hidden-gems.html) - Megs 350-355
20 Every Empire Falls (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-22-20-have-you-forgotten-about.html) - Progs 1973-1990 and Megs 371-373
21 Krong Islands (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-22-20-have-you-forgotten-about.html) - Megs 376-377, 386, 392-395
22 Fetish (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-22-20-have-you-forgotten-about.html) - Megs 3.25-3.29
23 Dark Justice (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-25-23-noble-failures.html) - Progs 1912-1921
24 Beyond the Call of Duty (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-25-23-noble-failures.html) - Progs 1101-1110
Voting will close on the morning of Friday 26th March and we'll have our next 8 positions sorted
All links go through to AlexF's simply brilliant Dredd Epics Ranked (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/) blog. You may need to scroll to find his write up of a particular story - but I'd suggest just reading the whole thing anyway - it's fantastic stuff.
Baffled by what's going on here - well we have a a thread for that (https://forums.2000ad.com/index.php?topic=47367.0) - though that might leave you more confused than anything.
Rules (https://forums.2000ad.com/index.php?topic=47367.msg1053448#msg1053448) for what they are worth.
Not sure about anything just ask and I'll blag it.
1. Every Empire Falls
2. Dark Justice
3. Krong Islands
1. Fetish
2. Every Empire Falls
3. Dark Justice
1. Every Empire Falls
2. Fetish
3. Beyond the Call of Duty
SBT
- Every Empire Falls
- Dark Justice
- Served Cold
1. Served Cold
2. Every Empire Falls
3. Beyond the Call of Duty
1. Every Empire Falls
2. Block Judge
3. Beyond the Call of Duty
Block Judge gets my vote here over Beyond.. because although it's not an epic, I liked it more.
Fetish I've never been a fan of, personally. Dark Justice looks great, but it's a bit light, isn't it? Starts off so well, and then bleh.
1 Beyond the Call of Duty
2 Block Judge
3 Served Cold
HM Dark Justice.
1) Every Empire
2) Dead Zone
3) Fetish
1) Every Empire Falls
2) Dark Justice
3) Block Judge
1 Dark Justice
2 Block Judge
3 Beyond the Call of Duty
Beyond the Call of Duty
Every Empire Falls
Block Judge
Every Empire Falls
Block Judge
Dead Zone
1. Beyond the Call of Duty
2. Fetish
3. Dead Zone
1st: Every Empire Falls *
2nd: Block Judge
3rd: Dark Justice
---
*I had a lot of fun writing this one up, so I'm going to paste it in here just in case anyone's interested in reviewing my review.
++SPOILERS AHOY!++
Judge Dredd: The Grindstone Cowboys
(1973-1977)
Script: Michael Carroll, Art: Colin MacNeil, Colours: Len O'Grady, Letters: Annie Parkhouse
An odd fish here as we get Carroll's first foray into chained mega-epic territory. On the one hand, there's the impeccable timing of a prog-shattering climax in prog 1977 and on the other there's some confused storytelling as Dredd and Rico get sent on a mission together and it ends up being quite difficult to tell them apart. Prog 1975's cover suggests a Judge's death that's not apparent in the story itself.
The grander scheme of political machinations (seeming to foreshadow difficulties to come) plays out well against the foreground of the mission against raiders in the Cursed Earth who are threatening the city's supply lines. The main villain - a masked giant who seems to have stepped out of a computer game (Splatterhouse from 80s arcades) - is a characterless foil who continually lumbers away around corners like a faceless McGuffin.
(https://i.imgur.com/bvkUV3q.png)
The end clearly isn't, and we're told to keep reading in the Megazine, giving us our first prog / meg crossover since 1999's War Games / Doomsday. In summary: we have some storytelling flaws in a very compelling deeper plot that seems set to shake the foundations of Dredd's world.
(https://i.imgur.com/DZGTikq.png)
Judge Dredd
Script: Michael Carrol, Letters: Annie Parkhouse
Dust to Dust (M371-M373), Art: Henry Flint
The Lion's Den (1978-1985), Art: PJ Holden, Colours: Adam Brown
Reclamation (1986-1990), Art: Colin MacNeil, Colours: Len O'Grady
From the Ashes (M374), Art: Carlos Ezquerra
In the opening salvo of The Grindstone Cowboys, Dredd & Rico tracked a group of marauders who were threatening MC-1's Cursed Earth supply lines, but the leader (the protagonist from 80s arcade classic Splatterhouse) kept evading them. At the climax Dredd is first badly wounded and then his medivac shuttle mysteriously explodes! All the squaxx are like "Michael! You can't kill the title character!"
Publishing order, by the way, goes like this:
(https://i.imgur.com/dadYXj3.png)
The meg's Dust to Dust sees Rico join up with Major Eazy Judge Koburn and some stereotypical native americans (feathers, savage nobility, mystic powers: check!) to track Splatterhouse: only to find that he's a pawn of ... but wait!
(https://i.imgur.com/OvNDneB.png)
In The Lion's Den, Judge Joyce is handed over to Brit-Cit to stand trial for the Murphyville Spaceport massacre (clue: he's innocent) and finds himself a target of some shady undercover types. Turns out Brit-Cit has a rogue high level cadre bent on the destruction of MC-1. Oh, and Dredd's alive! He was teleported out of the med shuttle! Armitage gets roped in on the goodies side while in MC-1 Hershey does a deal with Texas City to bring some of their Judges in to shore up their strength. She's like Lando in The Empire Strikes Back, because the deal keeps getting worse. Turns out that Brit-Cit are just acting as the pawns of ... but wait!
(https://i.imgur.com/5wngx1G.png)
In Reclamation it's revealed that Texas City has planned the entire debacle in an attempt to run a quiet coup on MC-1 and commit mutie genocide (and beat up on Judge Giant). He's having none of that, and (see title) the fight back begins:
(https://i.imgur.com/fjFWCjn.png)
Finally, From the Ashes provides an interesting denouement to the saga, where *new psi-Judge I don't recognize* is going to get installed as the new CJ of TC. It's been a grand old saga with some impeccable timing, but this part seems weak: just because their coup fails I don't see why they're going to accept Hershey installing a new CJ in TC (from MC-1). I mean: why?
(https://i.imgur.com/njXwvSv.png)
1. Beyond the Call of Duty
2. Served Cold / The Cop
3. Block Judge
1 Dead Zone
2 Block Judge
3 Beyond the Call of Duty
1. Block Judge
2. Every Empire Falls
3. Dark Justice
1. Beyond the Call of Duty
2. Dead Zone
3. Dark Justice
Served Cold/The Cop - Raved about this last time. Loved it. Closest we ever got to a Ewing epic.
Beyond the Call of Duty takes this spot over Block Judge based mainly on the larger cast. Plus lots of Roffman!
Dead Zone - Just great fun. And it's Flint!
1. Every Empire Falls
2. Dark Justice
3. Dead Zone
0 - sin City
1 - block judge
2 - beyond the Call
3 - dark justice
Hey BPP - I'm reading that as Block Judge 1st, Beyond the Call 2nd and Dark Justice 3rd - the reference to Sin City an honourable mention sort of thing. Let me know if I've got that wrong.
YIKE! Forgot this one is meant to be closing in the morning. So since I did I'll let it run an extra 12 hours and close it 6pmish tomorrow Friday so everyone gets a chance.
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 22 March, 2021, 10:14:33 PM
Hey BPP - I'm reading that as Block Judge 1st, Beyond the Call 2nd and Dark Justice 3rd - the reference to Sin City an honourable mention sort of thing. Let me know if I've got that wrong.
Honourable mention or bitter protest, either way you're right 😂
Every Empire Falls
Beyond the Call of Duty
Block Judge
1st) Beyond the Call of Duty
2nd) Every Empire Falls
3rd) Dark Justice
1. Krong Islands
2. Block Judge
3. Beyond the Call of Duty
VOTING CLOSED
Sorry, sorry, sorry - I've really messed about with this ... as well as forgetting Sin City isn't even in the vote! I'm getting old, there's a lot going on, forgive me! Anyway there won't be much movement as shuffling things down really here.
28: (21) Krong Island - 4 points = down 7 places
27: (22) Fetish - 8 points = down 5 places
26: (18) Served Cold / The Cop - 10 points = down 8 places
25: (19) Dead Zone - 11 points = down 6 places
24: (23) Dark Justice - 17 points = down 1 place
23: (17) Block Judge - 24 points = down 6 places
22: (24) Beyond the Call of Duty - 30 points = Up 2 places
21: (20) Every Empire Falls - 40 points = down 1 place
It would be interesting to see how some of these would have done against Epics that have placed lower - BUT I AIN'T DOING IT... but it'd be interesting that's for sure!