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Best one-prog Dredds

Started by JayzusB.Christ, 28 March, 2014, 02:28:11 PM

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8-Ball

Return to Mega-City.

Dredd comes back from his tour of duty as Judge-Marshall on Luna 1. He calmly wanders about the city with a grin on his face while all these various crimes are happening around him. Then once he is sworn back in as a Mega-City One Judge he commandeers a Lawmaster and utters one of my favourite lines ever, "Look out you lawbreaking scum! Judge Dredd's back in town!" Then he deals with all these perps in the way that only Dredd knows how. I like how it restates Dredd's utter devotion to the law, it refocuses the strip back onto the comings and goings of Mega-City One instead of continuing with the misstep of sending Dredd to the moon. And I like Mick McMahon's subtle redesign of Dredd, making him pretty much the character we know and love today.
Whatever happened to Rico, Dolman and Cadet Paris? I'm sooo out of the loop.

TordelBack


Greg M.

Quote from: Eightball on 28 March, 2014, 07:36:02 PM
Return to Mega-City.

Dredd comes back from his tour of duty as Judge-Marshall on Luna 1. He calmly wanders about the city with a grin on his face while all these various crimes are happening around him.


That's always been the unsettling part of this story - Dredd smirking away, despite his face clearly not being designed for expressions of joy. Obviously he can't intervene until he's sworn back in as a judge of MC-1, but he looks so happy not being a lawman. I can only think of two other occasions in the whole series when he smiles - at the end of Garth Ennis's 'Firepower', and when he's controlled by the city's deities in 'The Power of the Gods'.

Frank


I know it led to further stories, but Bad Manners is a masterpiece of the economical storytelling and satisfying payoff the one-and-done format requires. That ending's also an example of the kind of narrative device which could only work in comics that gets Alan Moore all excited. The original PJ Maybe story, Bug, is another tight one-parter whose sequels test our definition of that term.

John Cassavetes  Is Dead is a great shout, even if it's wearing its influences on its sleeve, but it's all getting terribly thought provoking and ... touching round here. Practically any one-off from the end of The Day The Law Died to the beginning of Necropolis could serve as an example of how to tell a complete story while having a brilliant laugh. Vark!, Russell Muscle, So You Want To Be A Judge, Love Story, The House On Runner's Walk, The Prankster, Blobs, Gunge ... I'm just pointlessly listing names now, but the humour of those stories was a crucial part of the appeal of Dredd, to me.


Buttonman

A few good shouts here - I'd pitch in with the tear jerker 'And The Wind Cried' Prog 637. Never fils to draw a lump - and it's not even that sexy!

8-Ball

Quote from: Greg M. on 28 March, 2014, 07:53:38 PM
Quote from: Eightball on 28 March, 2014, 07:36:02 PM
Return to Mega-City.

Dredd comes back from his tour of duty as Judge-Marshall on Luna 1. He calmly wanders about the city with a grin on his face while all these various crimes are happening around him.


That's always been the unsettling part of this story - Dredd smirking away, despite his face clearly not being designed for expressions of joy. Obviously he can't intervene until he's sworn back in as a judge of MC-1, but he looks so happy not being a lawman. I can only think of two other occasions in the whole series when he smiles - at the end of Garth Ennis's 'Firepower', and when he's controlled by the city's deities in 'The Power of the Gods'.

Oh Greg, you are going to get me going off topic but I have been ruminating for a while about what would Dredd do with himself if (for some reason) he got suspended from the Justice Department. If he wasn't a Judge for a few weeks how would he pass his time? I posit that he wouldn't act like a Judge because he wouldn't want to break the law by becoming a Jimp. In fact, he would become the anti-Dredd. :lol:

Anyway, I still love that story and I think it is a great one-and-done that old-timers and newbies can enjoy.
Whatever happened to Rico, Dolman and Cadet Paris? I'm sooo out of the loop.

Dark Jimbo

Quote from: Eightball on 28 March, 2014, 08:18:44 PM
...I have been ruminating for a while about what would Dredd do with himself if (for some reason) he got suspended from the Justice Department. If he wasn't a Judge for a few weeks how would he pass his time?

Reminds me of the brilliant spit-take moment from Tour of Duty:

@jamesfeistdraws

Greg M.

Quote from: Eightball on 28 March, 2014, 08:18:44 PM

Oh Greg, you are going to get me going off topic but I have been ruminating for a while about what would Dredd do with himself if (for some reason) he got suspended from the Justice Department. If he wasn't a Judge for a few weeks how would he pass his time? I posit that he wouldn't act like a Judge because he wouldn't want to break the law by becoming a Jimp. In fact, he would become the anti-Dredd. :lol:

We have some idea of the answer to this - he would go mad. There's a great one-off - I think it's 'Killing Time' in the Megazine - when Volt insists that all judges have a mandatory 24-hours off duty every so often, and Dredd can't handle it all, because he has literally no idea what to do when he's not working.  Cue awkward hospital visits to wounded colleagues (complete with extended Pinter-esque silences) and Dredd eventually flipping out and cursing Volt's name. Very funny stuff.

JayzusB.Christ

I forgot all about In the Bath and John Cassavetes.  And yeah, the first Bella Bagley one, for sure.  I'm going to throw in a Rennie one too: the first Planet Gary one.  While I sometimes find his Dredd a bit too mouthy, that one captured him perfectly - a flawless little story.
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"

8-Ball

Quote from: Greg M. on 28 March, 2014, 08:41:01 PM
Quote from: Eightball on 28 March, 2014, 08:18:44 PM

Oh Greg, you are going to get me going off topic but I have been ruminating for a while about what would Dredd do with himself if (for some reason) he got suspended from the Justice Department. If he wasn't a Judge for a few weeks how would he pass his time? I posit that he wouldn't act like a Judge because he wouldn't want to break the law by becoming a Jimp. In fact, he would become the anti-Dredd. :lol:

We have some idea of the answer to this - he would go mad. There's a great one-off - I think it's 'Killing Time' in the Megazine - when Volt insists that all judges have a mandatory 24-hours off duty every so often, and Dredd can't handle it all, because he has literally no idea what to do when he's not working.  Cue awkward hospital visits to wounded colleagues (complete with extended Pinter-esque silences) and Dredd eventually flipping out and cursing Volt's name. Very funny stuff.

The stuff you miss when you leave the fold for "cough" eighteen years. It's this kind of material I am looking forward to most when the relevant Case Files comes out. Kudos for the heads up. :D
Whatever happened to Rico, Dolman and Cadet Paris? I'm sooo out of the loop.

ZenArcade

Firepower prog 736....old joe at his don't f**k with me best. The in the bath one's an absolute cracker as well. Z
Ed is dead, baby Ed is...Ed is dead

Call-Me-Kenneth

I really like the gentleman thief one from prog 841 'Down Among the Dead Men', very amusing.

I also love the 'the Al Capone Story' from meg #52, the friendship between the two boys was as absurdly touching, in it's own way as 'bury my knee, John cassavates' etc.

Montynero

"Alone in a Crowd" Wagner, Grant, Dillon prog 205. One of the earliest Dredd's to take a mature approach, is how I remember it. Also Steve Dillon's first Dredd, I think. As such he absolutely went to town on the artwork. He put a hell of a lot of time into it, in comparision to his current pace, and the detail in the world, the bike, the city, and the crowd of citizens was rarely bettered in my view. Absolute must read.

Magnetica

Quote from: Eightball on 28 March, 2014, 07:36:02 PM
Return to Mega-City.

he..  utters one of my favourite lines ever, "Look out you lawbreaking scum! Judge Dredd's back in town!"


This one features one my favourite lines as well which JD says as he calmly walks by: " Good morning Citizens. I would remind you that armed robbery is illegal in Mega-City 1."

Krakajac

Part of a larger story of course, but I think it made a great 'one-off' at the time...

"The Shooting Match", Prog 650 (Wagner/Higgins)