Cold Deck & foreshadowing stories

[jabish]

Hi There,

Been really enjoying Cold Deck along with its threads running through Low Life and Simping Detective. Probably one of the best non-wagner stories so far and also a logical follow up to the events of Day of Chaos. Great work all round and especially Matt Smith for overseeing it all. John Wagner himself has recommended it on his Facebook page. High praise indeed.

Just a quick question because you guys will know. Is there any other stories that foreshadow the Cold Deck featuring Bachmann and black ops judges outside of the Family Man story in the meg?

Thanks a mill

JB

[jabish]

I'll take that as a no then.

[Pioneer]

Copied from a review thread, I picked up these issues off the back of reading this post, although unsure at the moment whether the stories suggested are directly linked to The Cold Deck, but that could all fall into place yet-

I think the first mention of the god city was in Si Spurriers Domino stories, although she's not re-appeared (yet)

2000 AD #1482

Judge Dredd Megazine #245 (I think that's the neo-cuba one)

Then there would be the Family Man story in the Megazine # 312 and 313

Not sure if there's any others.

[Dark Jimbo]

2000 AD #1482

Judge Dredd Megazine #245

Megazine # 312 and 313

That really is it.

In many ways that's been one of the nice things about The Cold Deck arc - it really has come out of the blue.

[The Adventurer]

Interesting thing just happened. For a long time I thought the stories that appeared in Prog 1482 and Meg 245 were written by Gordon Rennie. I had memories of reading them when they came out, and being disappointed that they didn't seem to go anywhere. But I kept them in the back of my mind, even if I was remembering the wrong writer. So I was surprised to see them get dug up again with recent event concerning the Cold Deck epic. So thanks to this thread I gave them a reread (except Family Man, which I don't have)

So after digging them out, I was still sort of convinced that I was actually remembering another series of related Dredd stories from somewhere in 2005-2008 that Rennie did write that also didn't go anywhere. As a result I got looking at his Dredd credits on the Barney Zone, trying to guess-and-test one-offs to see if I could get my memories straight. I didn't find what I was looking for (pretty sure I was definitely recalling Spurrier's Black-Op stories) but what I did find by chance was Prog 1466. Which contained the Rennie penned/Flint drawn Dredd one-off that introduced the Kazan clone!

So I might add that to your master Cold Deck reading list.

Also, has the Kazan clone appeared anywhere since, before being pulled out for Cold Deck?

EDIT: Oh wait, there is a editor's note here that says the Kazan clone was the mastermind behind the Blood Trails mini-epic.

If there was ever an excuse to get that reprinted in a Meg Floppy... now would be a good time.

[Link Prime]

If there was ever an excuse to get that reprinted in a Meg Floppy... now would be a good time.

Great idea.
And it wasnt half bad in its own right too.

[Cactus]

EDIT: Oh wait, there is a editor's note here that says the Kazan clone was the mastermind behind the Blood Trails mini-epic.

If there was ever an excuse to get that reprinted in a Meg Floppy... now would be a good time.

Qué? When was this published?

[a chosen rider]

EDIT: Oh wait, there is a editor's note here that says the Kazan clone was the mastermind behind the Blood Trails mini-epic.

If there was ever an excuse to get that reprinted in a Meg Floppy... now would be a good time.

Qué? When was this published?

Just after Total War; "Blood Trails" ran in progs 1440-1449, though you also want the one-offs in 1423 and 1452 to get the complete story.  I hunted it down in back issue form in my efforts to collect all the "Dredd family" stories, and it's pretty good stuff.  Definitely deserves reprinting as a Meg floppy.  (Or better yet, as part of a larger Gordon Rennie Dredd collection.)  It'll be ages before the case files get that far.

[Dark Jimbo]

Well if you're going to read all the Kazan stuff then you'll also want Regime Change in Megs 246-249, his last appearance before Bullet to King Four.

[Cactus]

All good stuff, thank you. From perusing my wants list it appears that I already own most of Blood Trails, and the other issues mentioned are already top priority for future purchase. Payday on Tuesday. 

Wasn't Regime Change the South-Am story with the [spoiler]tanks and the mass graves[/spoiler]? I read that a few months ago and don't recall Kazan.

[Pioneer]

Jimbo, I'm also currently in the process of purchasing back issues to flesh out the wider Dredd narrative, will be on to Gulag, Blood Trails and the rest of the Rennie stories you've been talking about soon. Apart from the progs you've already mentioned in this thread are there any others that would be relevant?

[Dark Jimbo]

Wasn't Regime Change the South-Am story with the [spoiler]tanks and the mass graves[/spoiler]? I read that a few months ago and don't recall Kazan.

It's a minor role indeed, but [spoiler]at the very end Hershey is talking to the Council about the successful implementation of their new aggressive foreign policy and signs off with 'We're all very grateful to our new military advisor' (or something to that effect) at which point Kazan is wheeled in. The story ends on his smirking, knowing face.[/spoiler]

Jimbo, I'm also currently in the process of purchasing back issues to flesh out the wider Dredd narrative, will be on to Gulag, Blood Trails and the rest of the Rennie stories you've been talking about soon. Apart from the progs you've already mentioned in this thread are there any others that would be relevant?

Here's all I can think of off the top of my head - obviously given the way the Dredd strip works there's a fair bit of overlap here and there -

Total War

Terror, progs 1392-1399*
Total War, progs 1408-1419*
After the Bombs, progs 1420-1422*
Visiting Hour, prog 1423 (Rico, Vienna, Bloodline)
Casualties, prog 1424 (Guthrie)
Horror in Emergency Camp 4, progs 1425-1428**
Descent, progs 1432-1436 (Karyn)***
Caught in the Act, progs 1450-1451
One For the Boys, Prog 2009

Blood Trails

Gulag, 1382-1386 (Sovs, Guthrie, Giant, Karyn)
Blood Trails, 1440-1449 (Sovs, Vienna, Bloodline, Guthrie, Giant, Kazan)
Matters of Life and Death, prog 1452 (Giant, Vienna)
Change of Loyalties, prog 1466 (Sovs, Kazan)
Regime Change Megazine 246-249 (Sovs, Kazan)
Burned Out, prog 1461, Megazine 238 (Guthrie, Giant)

Other recurring Rennie stuff

Global Psycho, prog 1468 (Global Psycho)
Direct Action, progs 1477-1479 (Mercey Shakespeare)
House of Pain, prog 1484-1490 (Guthrie, Krush)
Test Flight, prog 1554 (Krush, Mercey Shakespeare)
Killer Elite, Megazine 328-? (Global Psycho)

*(Reprinted in the Total War TPB)
**Sequel to Black Widow, Megazines 1.07-1.09
***Sequel to Asylum, Megazine 4.05

I may have missed a few as my progs from that era are long gone and this was compiled from memory (and help from Barney!) To be honest if I'd realised how long this post was going to take to compile I might not have bothered! Ah well.

[TordelBack]

Damn, that's an impressive list Jimbo!  To the attic!

[oshii]

On a Rennie related tip, whatever happened to Vienna's [spoiler]pregnancy[/spoiler]?

[The Adventurer]

Nice master list Jimbo. The only thing I might add would be that serial about Karyn ending up a vampire monster just to put an end cap to her story (so far)

EDIT: Or was that Decent?