So here we go folks the very last of these to decide the topper-most Judge Dredd epics outside the big 4 (which aren't actually the big four but I won't return to my whining... at this point at least). There are some truly stunning stories here, all classics in their own way BUT which are the best DREDD and EPICS. Well that's for you to determine...
Look at the list of 8 Dredd stories below and tell me your top three:
1 (your favourite) will get 3 points
2 (your 2nd fav) will get 2 points
3 (your 3rd fav) will get 1 point
(1) America (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-3-1-bitter-end.html) Megs (Vol. 1) 1-7
(2) The Dead Man (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-3-1-bitter-end.html) Progs 650-662
(3) Origins (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-3-1-bitter-end.html) - Progs 1500-1504; 1505-1519; 1529-1535
(5) Day of Chaos (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-6-4-how-much-destruction-can-one.html) Progs 1743-1789
(6) Terror / Total War (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-6-4-how-much-destruction-can-one.html) Progs 1392-1399, 1407-1422
(10) The Day the Law Died - Judge Cal (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-13-10-nostalgic-favourites.html) - Progs 86 - 108
(15) The Pit (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-16-14-two-of-these-are-many.html) - Progs 970 - 999
(16) Oz (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-16-14-two-of-these-are-many.html) - Progs 545-570
I'll give this one the full 4 days to run its course and hope to close voting first thing Friday 16th April . One note, I'm going away today for a week(ish) and we are meant to have wifi BUT if I go off line we might have a delay... fingers crossed we'll be fine
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. America. Its precise status may be debated, but it's definitely the best Dredd story to only be partially reprinted in the Casefiles, beating out The Dead Man for that dubious honour.
2. Day of Chaos. Such an experience to read week to week, and what an ending. If it didn't exist I'd put Total War in this slot, which it now comprehensively overshadows.
3. The Pit. A whole new kind of Dredd strip, and a whole new city of characters.
1. The Pit
2. Day of Chaos
3. America
SBT
1. America
2. Terror/Total War
3. Day of Chaos
1. The Dead Man
2. Oz
3. Origins
Shockingly difficult to choose at this stage but I have gone for:
1. America - yes, I agree it's not an epic, but it's still monumental.
2. The Pit - redefined Dredd in many ways, huge impact on bringing me back to the Prog
3. Day of Chaos - completely harrowing read with a devastating ending. If Dredd were to end it should have been here.
1 America
2 The Pit
3 Oz
PS I think DoC is excellent, but I don't like the way it dismissed the Dark Judges. I'd have preferred another Necropolis to add to the ... chaos.
Day of Chaos
The Pit
Origins
1 - Oz - long neglected in Dredd assessments it's showing here is heartening. The iconic Janus-faced Dredd epic and a rare win for a nemesis who also loses at the same time. And then there is the art - McCarthy, Dillon, Simpson, baikie, kitson... the second wave of Dredd artists really showing their stripes and a use of colour far better than was to come in the following painted-era. Oz is a Joy.
2 - Day of Chaos - piling misery upon misery, defeat upon defeat, utterly compelling every week. A wagner masterclass.
3 -origins - walkers prelude, carlo's epic swan song, wagner deciding to pump new myths into the judges story. People complain that writers haven't picked up from the day of chaos properly but nobody has really gone to explore the 'it was never meant to be permanent' message of origins.
city of the damned
1 ~ The Day The Law Died
2 ~ Day Of Chaos
3 ~ The Dead Man
1st City of the ... oh, it's been missed out by accident ...
1st Day of Chaos
2nd Oz
3rd Terror / Total War
Day of Chaos
America
Origins
1. Origins
2. America
3. Dead Man
Are America and Dead Man epics? Are they Dredd stories? I don't know anymore...but I love these stories!
1) The Dead Man
2) America
3) Oz
1) Origins
2) The Day The Law Died
3) Oz
Let me teleport you
'Cause we're going to the City of the Damned
Nothing is real
And nothing to get hung about
City of the Damned forever
Living is crazy with eyes poked out
Zombie Dredd's all you see
It's getting hard to stay alive
But it all works out
It doesn't matter much to Feyy
1.Day the Law Died
2.Oz
3.The Pit
1 The Day the Law Died
2 The Pit
3 Day of Chaos
Day of Chaos
Terror / Total War
Oz
1. The Dead Man
2. Oz
3. Terror/Total War
1. America
2. Day of Chaos
3. Origins
1. The Pit
2. America
3. Day of Chaos
1.Day of Chaos
2. America
3.The Dead Man
All three are deserving of top billing so this is just how I feel about them right now, so I'm hitting 'post' before I change my mind!
1st) America.
2nd) Day of Chaos.
3rd) Oz.
It feels like I've voted so many times in this poll that I've already contradicted previous choices based on nothing more than today's wind direction.
1. America
2. The Pit
3. Day of Chaos
Lot of love for these three in various orders, I see!
Anymore for anymore? I have literally no idea which way this is going. We will in the morning though as tomorrow I'll be counting this one up and announcing places 12 through 5 - super exciting - so anyway last chance to vote.
Wow I've just done a mid-term count - saves time in the morning - and suffice to say if anyone hasn't voted do so - its close across the board here - with tussles for almost all positions. 5th places is a two way battle it would seem, but places 7-11 are very close so any votes today will almost certainly change things...
Total War.
Oz.
The Pit.
VOTING CLOSED
Sniff, sniff, never more will we have one of these 8 way play-offs. All we have left is the glory of the final and 3rd place play off. Its a bit like when you are watching the World Cup and you realise the group stage is over and while you have the knock outs there will be less football and even days without any.... well a little bit like that... sigh...
ANYWAY results:
12 (12): Terror / Total War - 9 points = down 6 places
11: (10) The Day the Law Died - 11 points = down 1 place
10: (3) Origins - 11 points (and my casting vote) = down 7 places
9: (2) The Dead Man - 12 points = down 7 places
8: (16) Oz - 18 points = up 8 places
7: (15) The Pit - 19 points = up 8 places
6: (1) America - 32 points = down 5 places
5: (5) Day of Chaos - 32 points (and my casting vote) = no change
So yeah I said it was close and I had to give two casting votes. Origins vs The Day the Law Died was easy and not even close for me. America and Day of Chaos was a much tougher call. I prefer America but in the end I decided to give it to Day of Chaos for its superior Epicness - ask me tomorrow and I'm sure I'll regret that decision.
Come back Monday for the 3rd place play off and Tuesday FOR THE FINAL!!!!
For me the biggest surprise is America. The things counting against America is it really an epic and is it a Dredd story. Personally America is one of my favourite comic strips out of world of AD
Quote from: broodblik on 16 April, 2021, 08:18:28 AM
For me the biggest surprise is America. The things counting against America is it really an epic and is it a Dredd story. Personally America is one of my favourite comic strips out of world of AD
Yeah it is a wonderful story and possibly my favourite Dredd tale ever... possibly... I actually ranked it above Day of Chaos when I did my own rankings at the start of all this BUT when it stirred me in the face - a straight choice between DoC and America in a vote for the best EPIC I just found I couldn't shake the world Epic out the equation. Now if it had been favourite Dredd story entirely different answer...
America is arguably the best Dredd story of them all, and the fact that it still manages to score.No. 6 on a list of Epics (which it definitely isn't) is testament to that. Balance is restored, although next time round I want Sunday Night Fever, Graveyard Shift and (why not) Bury My Knee included in the pool, just to see how high they can get as Non-epics in an Epics smackdown.
Pleased to see Oz climbing the rankings but disappointed for The Dead Man.
Quote from: TordelBack on 16 April, 2021, 08:27:30 AM
America is arguably the best Dredd story of them all, and the fact that it still manages to score.No. 6 on a list of Epics (which it definitely isn't) is testament to that. Balance is restored, although next time round I want Sunday Night Fever, Graveyard Shift and (why not) Bury My Knee included in the pool, just to see how high they can get as Non-epics in an Epics smackdown.
This brings me on to the next questions - how are the remaining Dredd stories broken down into categories? How is a medium-length story such as Graveyard Shift or Destiny's Angels defined?
There are clearly loads of one-offs, but should recurring characters (PJ Maybe, Oola Blint, Slick Dickens) have their own category?
Quote from: abelardsnazz on 16 April, 2021, 09:07:44 AM
should recurring characters (PJ Maybe, Oola Blint, Slick Dickens) have their own category?
Has there been a 'best Dreddverse non-Dredd characters' tourney yet?
Quote from: credo on 16 April, 2021, 09:41:43 AM
Quote from: abelardsnazz on 16 April, 2021, 09:07:44 AM
should recurring characters (PJ Maybe, Oola Blint, Slick Dickens) have their own category?
Has there been a 'best Dreddverse non-Dredd characters' tourney yet?
There was a best Characters tourney right at the start of all this which included a selection of Dreddverse characters. You can see how they did in the spreadsheet below:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1A1UTrGivpwMSX53dPQchStXiidOA8m5HBEWo3hjJvn8/edit?usp=drivesdk (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1A1UTrGivpwMSX53dPQchStXiidOA8m5HBEWo3hjJvn8/edit?usp=drivesdk)
Quote from: abelardsnazz on 16 April, 2021, 09:07:44 AM
This brings me on to the next questions - how are the remaining Dredd stories broken down into categories? How is a medium-length story such as Graveyard Shift or Destiny's Angels defined?
There are clearly loads of one-offs, but should recurring characters (PJ Maybe, Oola Blint, Slick Dickens) have their own category?
Broodblik did a great job of this a while ago as I recall in a different style vote - as I recall and I'm to lazy to check - he had Epic / long (over 12ish... or was it 8?); mid-length say 3-7 or 4 -10 as I recall. I'm tempted to do something with that but have the next two I'd like to do already in my head... and then the big one... the scary big one I think...
From the thread https://forums.2000ad.com/index.php?topic=47406.15 (https://forums.2000ad.com/index.php?topic=47406.15):
My mumblings:
This is how I see it:
1 part story one shot
2 to 4 part story multi-part
5 to 6 parts mini-series
7 to 11 parts maxi-series
12 to 20 parts epic
Above 21 parts mega-epic
Well you do get the epics and mega-epics that rather consist out of multiple-parts rather than one big continuous storyline.