2000 AD - The Ultimate Collection

[Le Fink]

Hi all, I had reason to revisit the classic Dredd episode A Question of Judgement today. A key part of Dredd lore, and followed by the equally essential An Error of Judgment and A Case for Treatment, all drawn by the late, great Ron Smith. Did these stone cold classic episodes end up in the Mega Collection? If not are we going to get a Ron Smith Dredd book in the Ultimate Collection? Surely there's enough quality stuff to make a book.

[Le Fink]

...Did these episodes end up in the Mega Collection?...

A Question of Judgement appearing in prog 387. Barney doesn't think so, so question probably answered. All the more reason for a Ron Smith book!

[Jade Falcon]

I ordered off of Hachette.  WH Smiths were not interested in the fact that they had missed an issue saying I would have to talk to 'George'.  Last time an issue was missed it took weeks, and I know that some of these sell out, so I couldn't take the chance.

[AlexF]

A Ron Smith Dredd collection would, potentially, be an ideal 'Intro to Dredd' book. As long as it DIDN'T include 'the Sugar Beat', though... (one of the last strips Smith drew for 2000AD in the still-openly-racist mid-90s)

I am biased because my own intro to Dredd was mostly through the early 'Best of 2000AD Monthly' reprints, which typically had at least one Ron Smith comedy Dredd one-off.

But seriously, you'd get Cityblock and Graveyard Shift in there, two of the purest 'what is Judge Dredd all about?' strips ever, but also: Unamerican Graffiti, the Otto Sump stories, the original Hotdog Run, Blobs/Jimps, the Stupid Gun, the Invisible Man, Alien Seeds and, yes, the Question of Judgement trilogy - some of my all-time favourites. Plus you could maybe throw in a bunch of the original newspaper strips?

[OrnateColt]

A Ron Smith Dredd collection would, potentially, be an ideal 'Intro to Dredd' book. As long as it DIDN'T include 'the Sugar Beat', though... (one of the last strips Smith drew for 2000AD in the still-openly-racist mid-90s)

I am biased because my own intro to Dredd was mostly through the early 'Best of 2000AD Monthly' reprints, which typically had at least one Ron Smith comedy Dredd one-off.

But seriously, you'd get Cityblock and Graveyard Shift in there, two of the purest 'what is Judge Dredd all about?' strips ever, but also: Unamerican Graffiti, the Otto Sump stories, the original Hotdog Run, Blobs/Jimps, the Stupid Gun, the Invisible Man, Alien Seeds and, yes, the Question of Judgement trilogy - some of my all-time favourites. Plus you could maybe throw in a bunch of the original newspaper strips?

Nice book, but not as part of the 2000ad collection- these are all covered in the Dredd mega collection.

[Le Fink]

Comparing what Barney says (and looking through case files) with the Wikipedia entry on the Mega Collection, the following Wagner/Grant/Mills/Ron Smith tales have probably not appeared in the Mega Collection:

City block
The Exo-Men
Pirates of the Black Atlantic
Battle of the Black Atlantic
A Tale from Walter's Scwapbook
The Invisible Man
Death of a Judge
The Blood of Satanus
Mega way madness
Lawmaster on the loose
Rabid
Jimps
Prezzel logic
King of the Road
The stupid gun
Bob & Carol & Ted & Ringo
Portrait of a Politician
Question of Judgement
Error of Judgement
A Case for Treatment
cadet assessment
Casey steech
Megaman
The squadron time forgot
The lurker
Battle of Chester Dog / hell's packers
A guide to mega speak

I left out the steelgrave/miller tales, but there are a few of them too.

[Jade Falcon]

I've had these books stockpiling because I haven't had much motivation to read recently.  Dredd/Anderson was wonderful, the only fault being that I wish there was more of it.

Middenface McNulty...passable, but I was disappointed with some of the stories.

Mean Team, I haven't read all of it yet, but so far...no wonder this thing got such a bad name.  I kept thinking that it couldn't be THAT bad could it.  I guess I was wrong.

[Hackenbush]

Can anyone confirm the contents of Zenith volume 1?
I'm not likely to get it as I have the hardback set, but I'm curious about the contents and the back matter.
Did they include the Winter special story? Any commentary about Grant Morrison's ownership claims?

[sintec]

Can anyone confirm the contents of Zenith volume 1?
I'm not likely to get it as I have the hardback set, but I'm curious about the contents and the back matter.
Did they include the Winter special story? Any commentary about Grant Morrison's ownership claims?

Contents follow the first 2 hardbacks so; Phase 1, Interlude 1, Interlude 2, Phase 2, Maximan. That last one was in a Winter Special so I'm assuming is the story you're referring to.

Back matter talks about super hero comics in general, the design of Zenith (and links back to Paradax), the influence of pop culture on the story and some general blurb about Morrison and Yeowell's careers. Nothing about the ownership claims.

Mean Team, I haven't read all of it yet, but so far...no wonder this thing got such a bad name.  I kept thinking that it couldn't be THAT bad could it.  I guess I was wrong.

It's a strong contentder for worst book in the collection - the Bellardinelli art might be the one thing that saves it from that ignominious title.

[IndigoPrime]

I just caught up on a couple of cherry picks.

Dredd was a solid read. I'm still cool on the last arc, and the Anderson solo stuff feels a bit like an intro that doesn't really go anywhere. But I'm glad I bought the book and a little sad that the run didn't continue. (I get why it didn't, but that Elseworlds Dredd would have been fun to still be reading now.)

Devlin Waugh: A Very Large Splash was... interesting. I've been cool on the McConville stories and it is very interesting in the back matter to discover he wasn't familiar with the character prior to being commissioned. But on reading those strips now, with a little gap from the Smith run, they were better than I remembered. The Kot stories, surprisingly, had slipped a little for me. The earlier ones have the odd bit where I was struggling with timelines and such; but they're still very good. It's a pity the book ends on a cliffhanger and that we'll not see another in this Hachette run. (The Reckoning at least only has minor crossover. The first 40 or so pages would be duplicated.)

[sintec]

Latest books (Return To Armageddon and Mazeworld) arrived yesterday. Had a quite evening so cracked into Return. I was anticipating it might be a bit of a slog but it was anything but. Ended up reading the whole thing. It cracks along at a terrific pace and is full of mad twists and turns, the ending is a bit lame but given the time/audience it was written for is fine. Redondo's art is superb throughout. Really glad this one got included.

Also recently got through Snow Tiger which was similarly awesome. Nice to still get the odd surprise in the collection and this one definitley delivered. If you're cherry-picking I'd highly recommend adding this one to your list.

[Dark Jimbo]

Also recently got through Snow Tiger which was similarly awesome. Nice to still get the odd surprise in the collection and this one definitley delivered. If you're cherry-picking I'd highly recommend adding this one to your list.

I wish we'd got more Bendatti Vendetta. Still, lovely that it's been collected.

[Shakira? Shakara!]

Any idea what is likely to be in the Dredd: Machine Law volume (apart from Machine Law, natch)? Need to decide whether to pre-order this or not, but the inclusion of Colin MacNeil and Dan Cornwall in the credits makes me think it may have a chunk of stuff I already have in the Guatemala collection. Probably not worth it just for the Machine Law arc.

[IndigoPrime]

I grabbed a copy today from Forbidden Planet (which, surprisingly, had it and Return...). It contains:

• Harvey
• Machine Law
• Guatemala
• The Victims of Bennett Beeny

And seven pages of back matter

[sintec]

So it's all of the Machine Law trade and some of the Guatemala one missing out:

• By private contract
• The trouble with Harry
• Get Jerry Sing