Judge Dredd: The Mega Collection discussion thread

[moldovangerbil]

Having messaged Hachette twice without response To see what I need to do to upgrade my subscription I am now torn between phoning them or just letting it go out of sheer irritation.

I've had far better results phoning them than emailing them although it does seem to depend a little bit on who you speak to.  They messed up my upgrade originally as well, but it got sorted in the end so it's worth persevering.

[James Stacey]

Will these books be numbered minus one , minus two, etc...

The marvel ones just used roman numerals and the 'classics' tag. Just think of the lovely 'the creep', 'pan African judges', 'cal hab justice' and those minimalist Hershey stories (where she got shot _every_ week) they could give a second outing too. In all seriousness though there have been some cracking stories since the collection started, and others they wouldn't have included at the time due to the possible closeness to planned trades.

[Trent]

Despite being in no rush to see them again, I wonder if the Pan African Judges stories will be included with Fetish. Unfortunately given the location, artist and combined page count it looks feasible.

[The Monarch]

Preeeeety sure cal hab justice was confirmed for this series

[Michael Knight]

Cal Hab is definitely in this collection! 

[Trent]

Yup, vol 57. No offence to those involved but it never grabbed ne and I even dumped the floppy when it turned up. Are they worth revisiting (non-Jocks only need reply) 😉

[Anzati]

Okay Anzati, I'll bite. Assuming 20 more volumes to extend the picture to the left what Dreddverse characters would be added to the image? Based on the current picture let's assume 10 more.
Giant
Griffin
Sisters of Death
Kazan

Over to the board for a bit of fun.

I hadn't thought that much about it

Mrs. Gunderson
Call-Me-Kenneth
Maria
Max Normal
Tweak

[Trent]

All good,
Spikes Harvey Rotten
Armon Gill
Joyce
Vienna

(Banzai Battallion as an extra)

[The Monarch]

I personally thought once they ditched the comedy scots angle and got serious calhab was a pretty good series in a pretty shit time in the meg

[GordonR]

Yup, vol 57. No offence to those involved but it never grabbed ne and I even dumped the floppy when it turned up. Are they worth revisiting (non-Jocks only need reply) 😉

It started as lightweight comedy jocks in kilts stuff and ended on a weird and disjointed lurch into Vertigo Comics type psycho-horror, but Calhab Justice never seemed like a series comfortable in its own skin.

[spoiler]That every other subsequent Dredd story using Calhab ignored the fact this series destroyed Calhab as a location tells its own story.[/spoiler]

[Trent]

That was always my take on it Gordon, I tried to keep with it on its initial run but it never really felt part of the Dreddverse Sadly this is something I would also apply to the otherwise redoubtable Dave Stone for Brit-Cit in Armitage; the revision currently underway by Mike Carroll is another Prog slap to it. Too many stereotypes and cliches to make it English rather than a genuine future society a la MC1 where the quirks and national traits arise naturally. I have always thought it a strength in Strontium Dog that you have to remind yourself Johnny is English.

[GordonR]

I thought Armitage worked well as a conscious move away from the foreign Mega-Cities = Judges in national stereotype outfits stuff that there was far too much of in those days.  (Judges in kilts. FFS...)

[Trent]

Fair enough, I take your point to a degree although the Brit Cit uniforms (which are excellent) were set back in Atlantis and all the inbred Royal nonsense was lazy and old hat in my view. That said, there were aspects I did like (including Sean's art obviously)

[The Monarch]

Exactly Gordon kilts...yeesh

[TordelBack]

Armitage never quite seems to fully deliver on its huge potential, but after the more tenuously-linked Devlin it's my favourite Dreddworld strip. Stone gave BritCit a distinct identity to go along with McCarthy's magnificent designs, and while hampered a bit by the fact that TB Grover's  MC-1 is already largely a parody of Britain, he exaggerates all sorts of English tropes in a fun way. I don't really see Carroll's version as doing anything but adding to that fun.