The Future Of the Case Files...

[Robin Low]

"Thing is, the series would likely get canned at some point anyway, what with the dire strips that showed up during the no-Wagner run. As for the naming, I think it was clear by the second volume that it wasn't really a complete run of Dredd anyway (and, no, I'm not talking about the banned episodes, but about the lack of annual and specials stories)."

Sorry, but I can't accept that, and you know me well enough to know that I'm not likely to back down on this.

Given the series title, it's perfectly reasonable to expect that all the 2000AD strips would be collected. Annuals, specials and Megazine strips are a special case - arguing for the inclusion of those as well would be unreasonable (although room was still found for the Walter the Wobot stories).

As for the poorer strips of the 90s, well, I seem to recall that publishers of previous Dredd collections happily latched on to the name value of Ennis, Morrison and Millar (though god knows what the sales were like). While many of us here may not care for everything they wrote, other readers, especially in the US, are likely to be more impressed.

I felt I was screwed over by the Law in Order/Classic Judge Dredd, and now I feel I'm being screwed over again.

Regards

Robin

[Robin Low]

"Good God, man, I actually avoided 2000ad work because of this volume. I truly thought Dredd sucked as a character."

Ennis is pretty much true to the character. A bit harder than usual, but not by much. And apart from the mistakes regarding destruction of cities and characters, the story is pretty much par for the course as far as 2000AD is concerned.

Regards

Robin

[Robin Low]

"'Return of the King', 'Death Aid' and the whole 'Democracy' sequence would ideally be included in a complete 'Necropolis' volume which now seems a distinct possibility."

And you'd also need, Bloodline, Letter to Judge Dredd, The Dead Man, Tale of the Dead Man, Prelude to Necropolis, Nightmares and probably other stuff I've forgotten.

Regards

Robin

[paulvonscott]

Well, as a possible compromise they could always try one or two volumes and then if it wasn't profitable, they could quite rightly say it wasn't working.

You do need better paper I'm afraid, because the crap they printed on during the nineties made everything look bloody horrible (and some of it didn't look that good to start with).  And it is going to be more expensive.

If it did work, and people were still willing to buy them, then they could certainly slow down the release of Case Files to say two or three a year.  And I think they could still release focussed collections.  Having all the issues in Case Files, wouldn't stop someone from wanting to buy the Chief Judges man as a collection, because it's great to have it in one place.  Though it may well dent the colour epics.

I'm a bit of a fence sitter on this one, I know what I want - complete case files - but I understand the arguments against.

[paulvonscott]

Also, just to say it is such a terrific body of work, largely by one man over thirty years, that it really would be a titanic tribute to see it all collected.  Something lagely unsurpassed in comics I suspect.

[Keef Monkey]

I for one certainly wouldn't have a problem paying the extra once it goes into colour, I'd always assumed that would be the case anyway. Dredd deserves to be collected damn it!

[radiator]

I think maybe we need some perspective here. It was only a few years ago we had to settle for one or two Hamlyn GNs every year or so (nice as they were).

I never thought I'd see the day when you could go and buy, say, all of Nikolai Dante, and I never ever dreamt stuff like 'Sector House'/'Brothers of the Blood' would get reprinted. Rebellion have done an incredible job with the GN line, and I think we, as 2000ad fans, have been quite lucky.

This could have all been avoided if they'd just called the series 'The Classic Case Files' or something.

[Keef Monkey]

I agree that Rebellion have been great with the collections, and I wouldn't think any less of them as a company if the sensible business decision turned out to be stopping the case files. I would however be disappointed, hence my whingeing. If I had my way I'd have complete collections of everything on my shelf.

[Robin Low]

"I think maybe we need some perspective here. It was only a few years ago we had to settle for one or two Hamlyn GNs every year or so (nice as they were)."

True. However, I never bought those books because they simply had no value for me, given that I already had the comics and they were thin with often poorly chosen stories. I bought the Complete Case Files because they're more compact and convenient to store and access, and because I'd eventually get everything. The same is true for the Strontium Dog reprints. In an ideal world, Rogue Trooper, Slaine, ABC Warriors and Robo-Hunter would have been collected in a similar manner.

I suppose an important question is, who is actually buying these things? General comic readers and younger 2000AD newbies or long-time 2000AD fans with disposable income? I'd hazard a guess that a lot of buyers are people like myself: 36 year old long tmer fans with a decent income and a stack of boxes in the corner of the dining room they'd like to shift. In other words, people with the money and inclination to be completists.

However, I'm happy to look at the market research that proves me wrong.

"This could have all been avoided if they'd just called the series 'The Classic Case Files' or something."

True. There would still have been moaning, of course, but my argument would have been weaker.

Regards

Robin

[Robin Low]

"You do need better paper I'm afraid, because the crap they printed on during the nineties made everything look bloody horrible (and some of it didn't look that good to start with). And it is going to be more expensive."

I don't know anything about the the current state of play regarding paper and printing technology (I'd hope it's improved in the last fifteen years), but all I'm after is something as readable as the originals.

"If it did work, and people were still willing to buy them, then they could certainly slow down the release of Case Files to say two or three a year."

I'd be happy with that. £20 a shot (less on Amazon), two or three bulky volumes year. Anyone object? After all, there would come a point when they caught up anyway, so slowing down makes sense anyway.

Regards

Robin

[Keef Monkey]

He's not wrong.

[Byron Virgo]

"I'd hazard a guess that a lot of buyers are people like myself: 36 year old long tmer fans with a decent income and a stack of boxes in the corner of the dining room they'd like to shift."

From what I've heard from retailers, a lot of the sales are to lapsed readers who probably read the comics when they were kids and are now just finding them all over again. I believe bookshop sales are quite good (at least judging by the few that I've spoken to).

"all I'm after is something as readable as the originals."

Problem is that they weren't - I've just been looking at some Dredd's from this period, and they were virtually unreadable brown murk. Plus, the paper currently used on the Case Files is, if anything, even less suited to colour printing than the stuff they were using at the time was. Colour printing equals a much higher grade of paper stock, which equals an increased cost to both publisher and purchaser.

As for those Ennis Dredd's listed previously, I have to say that they only one worth reading is Return of the King, whilst Twilight's Last Gleaming was apparently dictated by Wagner. Obviously that's just my opinion, but given that people were vacating the comic in droves during the Ennis/Millar/Morrison/Steelgrove years, it does seem pretty damn foolhardy to go in for a more-expensive-yet-slimmer series collecting all that rubbish.

[JOE SOAP]

I'm not a publisher so I'm not going to advise Rebellion on how they should publish these stories because that would be stupid and ignorant. The casefiles obviously cost a lot to put out there in the first place and need to sell a lot, so I can empathise with their dilemma.

I'd rather they didn't take the risk of putting out something that won't sell in the numbers they need to justify them, unless,

A) it was some kind of print to order system were they had a payment/deposit up front from those who wanted the books -I don't know how realistic this would be- or,

 B) they just go ahead and release a line of DVDs, which are far cheaper.

[The Amstor Computer]

As for what will happen after book 11...
Again, this hasn't been put on my schedule yet but the feeling is that if we went full colour we would entirely loose the Case Files format that has worked so well. The books would no longer be as chunky. The paper stock would be entirely different and the price would be much higher. At a guess we're talking £17-20 here. Thus the identity of the Case Files would be lost and I think sales would probably suffer hugely as a result. What I'm more keen to do is pick and choose and print the best of the colour stuff from the early 90s onwards as I think these books would work much better.

Anyway, that's my reasoning folks.

£20? Sounds a bit high unless Jon is contemplating collections larger than the largest Dredd colour collections so far.

Personally, I would be prepared to pay £15-ish for a 200-250pp collection that reprinted a smaller chunk of Dredd strips in the same format as the current Dredd colour books. Colour stories on the current stock would be unacceptable, and I certainly would be far less likely to entertain regular purchases if the price shot up to £20.

I can see his point about losing the identity of the series, but perhaps this could be made a strength by differentiating the new books - the "Colour Case Files"?

IMO, the biggest problem - as others have noted - is that the bulk of the material from the beginning of the colour age until the late 900s/early 1000s simply isn't that great.

I'd hate to see the idea of continuation post-colour dropped though - and even if it means shifting to "The Art of Kenny Who?" type volumes instead of the chunky beasts, I'd like to see Jon & Rebellion give it a go.  

[Wils]

From a design point of view, I can't see the need to ditch the casefiles branding, even if the paper stock, page count and price changes. Keeping the same size (using the same matte varnish card if possible), simply dropping 'complete' and carrying on the numbering as is would work really well IMO. Cherry-picking chronologically would help keep that 'passage of time' feel that the Casefiles inherantly have.

If anyone can give me some rough details of what stories would be in a cherry-picked, say, Casefiles 15, I'll throw a mock-up together.