Judge Dredd: The Mega Collection discussion thread

[The Monarch]

Thats all of simping except for obviously the trifecta story right?

[Dark Jimbo]

Hm. Simping Detective was going to be cherry-picked as a volume but DeMarco in recent times hasn't been so great and we're talking pre-Trifecta so now unsure about this one... Is Simping Detective a good call?

I think it's a really clever move. Demarco is a major supporting character in SD, so it makes perfect sense to have her first three solo stories in the same book (although they'd probably work better read first).

[Silent_Bomber]

The deadman includes the deadman naturally, bloodlines, the shooting match, tale of the deadman and nightmares.

Damn, guess I won't be getting the Necropolis book either then

[robert_ellis]

I admire the cherry pickers amongst you. When the toothless gaps in your collections spines stare down at you, you don't blink. How do you do it?

[TordelBack]

Hmmmm, as I have all the Dead Man contents in a fairly neat Casefiles/Dead Man grouping on the shelf, that's probably a skip for me. But Simping Detective, which I only have in the Meg pile somewhere, is way too tasty a prospect. And even if De Marco PI never lived up the character's early promise, it does have the much-missed Travis Perkins. Never could resist an urbane gorilla.

Thanks for the info, IronGraham and CF.

[Apestrife]

So, Letter to Judge Dredd isn't in The Dead man? Perhaps in Necropolis then, and I'm guessing "The Theatre of Death" and "Return of the King" in the end of it.

While it's different from how I read Necropolis (which was CF14), I quite like what they're up to. Mixing it up a bit by making Deadman both a companion book to Necropolis as well as a democracy book.

I also like the inclusion of DeMarco (I haven't read those outside the post DOC stuff) in Simping Detective, helping bridge her appearance in Trifecta. I'm curious about her pet/friend-gorilla that's sacked in Triftecta's "Jokers to the Right"

[Arkwright99]

So, Letter to Judge Dredd isn't in The Dead man? Perhaps in Necropolis then, and I'm guessing "The Theatre of Death" and "Return of the King" in the end of it.

Admittedly I've only flicked through The Dead Man volume so far (decided to read SD first) but I'm fairly sure I did see 'Letter to Judge Dredd' in it.

[Dark Jimbo]

I also like the inclusion of DeMarco (I haven't read those outside the post DOC stuff) in Simping Detective, helping bridge her appearance in Trifecta. I'm curious about her pet/friend-gorilla that's sacked in Triftecta's "Jokers to the Right"

As Tord says, Travis Perkins is what saves the Demarco stories from being utterly forgettable. He's a superb character, and the third story 'Fierce and the Furious' is his real moment to shine.

The real shame is that Spurrier seemed vaugely contemptuos of the character; when it came to Demarco appearing in Simping Detective, Travis has a purely (and, I think, non-speaking) background role and Jack Point makes repeated arched insults regarding him, before he's rather casually offed in Trifecta. 

[Apestrife]

Admittedly I've only flicked through The Dead Man volume so far (decided to read SD first) but I'm fairly sure I did see 'Letter to Judge Dredd' in it.

If so, perhaps then Necropolis will be a Carlos Ezquerra book, similar to America being a McNeil one. Then I'm betting Return of the king ends Necropolis with Young Giant as a backup story.

As Tord says, Travis Perkins is what saves the Demarco stories from being utterly forgettable. He's a superb character, and the third story 'Fierce and the Furious' is his real moment to shine.

The real shame is that Spurrier seemed vaugely contemptuos of the character; when it came to Demarco appearing in Simping Detective, Travis has a purely (and, I think, non-speaking) background role and Jack Point makes repeated arched insults regarding him, before he's rather casually offed in Trifecta. 

Perhaps why I didn't remember him much from Simping Detective, if he had a non speaking roll. When you mention it I vaguely remembering some gorilla standing guard when DeMarco is dancing -near- nude.

Either way. Jack Point is a real charmer "Women... --Can't live with em, can't get em lobotomized."

[COMMANDO FORCES]

Just checked The Dead Man

And just so there's no confusion, these are the stories included:-

The Dead Man
Bloodline
The Shooting Match
A Letter To Judge Dredd
Tale Of The Dead Man
Nightmares

7 covers and a 4 page interview of John Ridgway, by Michael Molcher (1 of those pages is a just a page of art)

[TordelBack]

Is that the running order CF?  Doesn't The Dead Man segue straight into Tale of.., complete with a linking page of colour art? Hmmmm, was that colour on the last page of The Dead Man by Will Simpson? If so, interesting link into his Bloodline art, potentially recasting all the earlier Kraken stuff as an extended flashback as Dredd reflects on just how he ended up half-cooked in the Cursed Earth.

Nightmares makes sense since it continues Yassa's story (although it doesn't really conclude until Death Aid) but it is a rather large spoiler for those who haven't read Necropolis.

Anyone read this yet? Does it work?

[IndigoPrime]

Nightmares makes sense since it continues Yassa's story (although it doesn't really conclude until Death Aid) but it is a rather large spoiler for those who haven't read Necropolis.

This again highlights the two biggest flaws in this series:

1. They can be spoiler-heavy. Some of the intros seem to make the assumption you're already familiar with the material. Day of Chaos is a good example. I hope entirely new readers are training themselves to ignore Matt's editorials and then to back and read them at the end.

2. There are some problems with stories that are out of context or that jump between very different points in Dredd history. I can't help but feel some issues would have hugely benefitted from recap pages rather than just titles and Prog numbers. The democracy book suffered from this, with seeming about-turns happening during a single page-turn. Anderson's Shamballa had a big jump, too. And in Dead Man, you go from the bit right before Necropolis happening to a story that happened afterwards. I really like Nightmares — I thought it was a smart move to follow-up on Povey. But it feels odd here. (Perhaps it had no other place to be. Hard to know without seeing the entire schedule.)

None of this is enough to make me wobble with the collection, natch. It's just looking at the books, you wonder if in hindsight they should have done a little more to help new readers through fairly complex continuity.

[COMMANDO FORCES]

Is that the running order CF?

It is indeed.

[TordelBack]

Is that the running order CF?

It is indeed.

Cheers, John.

I'm not sure there's any way around the series containing numerous massive spoilers ([spoiler]Dredd survives - even when he's quite clearly been killed![/spoiler]), unless it was to present material chronologically, either in release or volume order, but that largely exists already as the Casefiles. And even going down that route you'd be left with the problem of slotting in the non-Dredd strips (e.g. Chopper, DeMarco) without spoiling the 'main continuity' of which they are a part.  Better to ignore the problem and concentrate on thematically satisfying volumes.

However, I do agree with IP: perhaps a paragraph linking each story or placing it in time, or a more specific discussion of context in Matt's intros, might make things easier for the new reader. Then again, maybe piecing it all together yourself (with the help of the intros and essays) is part of the fun of a part work.

[abelardsnazz]

I agree with that last part: some detective work on bridging some of the gaps with (so far) unprinted stories and trying to guess whether they'll appear is half the fun.