This has probably been talked about before, but why doesn't Rico get his own strip?
I guess for the same reason Beeny or Giant don't. Although Dredd isn't just any old Judge, the stories would tend to be too similar. Anderson has her psi shtick but other than that any other attempt (like the Judge Hershey strip) just makes you think 'well why not do the story as Dredd'. The Streets of Dan Fransisco strip worked but probably wouldn't have the legs much past whats been done.
Read the Michael Carroll Rico e-novel and also the Al Ewing Dredd e-novel, as that has a lot of Rico in it ;)
Wait which Rico are we talking about?
The Rise and Fall of Rico Dredd could be great, but if we're talking about Judge Rico, well, he's practically identical to Joe, so what would be the point?
I'd love some more little snippets of original Rico, esp as a cadet before and after the accident. He's fun for the exact reason mentioned - he's a big contrast to Dredd. I just finished Wear Iron, Ewing characterized Rico as way more sadistic than I thought he would be. It was fun, you should pick it up :)
Quote from: Echidna on 19 December, 2014, 06:55:29 PM
The Rise and Fall of Rico Dredd could be great, but if we're talking about Judge Rico, well, he's practically identical to Joe, so what would be the point?
With Judge Rico you can see how the cursed earth colony are doing
You could possibly use Rico to look at aspects of the 22nd century in greater depth. It isn't often we get to see Dredd deal with day to day issues like we did in his recent brilliant Block Judge story. This was a great insight into something always in the background but seldom looked at in depth. Z
Quote from: Echidna on 19 December, 2014, 06:55:29 PM
The Rise and Fall of Rico Dredd could be great, but if we're talking about Judge Rico, well, he's practically identical to Joe, so what would be the point?
His character portrayal in the vignettes we've seen over the years have always been markedly different from Joe.
I always feel sad that Wagner doesn't write about Giant anymore :'(
Correct me if I'm remembering this wrong, but near the end of The Day of Chaos, didn't Rico just show up from the cursed earth with a bunch of mutants to help with the clean up?
Was there any explanation of what he was doing it in the cursed earth? I can't remember off the top of my head. I thought it would have made a good companion strip, watching him gather up support in the cursed earth.
Think he remained behind to oversee/advise on the consolidation of the townships when Dredd got Francisco reinstated and was placed on the council of five. Z
They should do a Rico/Beeny/Giant 'team' strip of some kind with the three of them working together to solve tough cases. Throw some Dolman in there too as some kind of city liaison or something.
I like that idea adventurer!
Quote from: IronGraham on 19 December, 2014, 09:19:30 PM
Quote from: Echidna on 19 December, 2014, 06:55:29 PM
The Rise and Fall of Rico Dredd could be great, but if we're talking about Judge Rico, well, he's practically identical to Joe, so what would be the point?
With Judge Rico you can see how the cursed earth colony are doing
Quote from: JOE SOAP on 19 December, 2014, 11:01:58 PM
His character portrayal in the vignettes we've seen over the years have always been markedly different from Joe.
Serves me right for sticking my noob oar in... I have a lot of catching up to do! I do wonder though if there are better candidates for a stand-alone strip than a clone of Dredd.
Quote from: Echidna on 20 December, 2014, 09:09:59 AM
Serves me right for sticking my noob oar in... I have a lot of catching up to do! I do wonder though if there are better candidates for a stand-alone strip than a clone of Dredd.
Well, I agree with you. There's no point in a Rico strip, he only works as a supporting character for Dredd.
Unless Dredd dies, then Rico would be a good replacement...
Don't ever be afraid to stick your noob oar in. Everyone's oar is interesting :)
Quote from: James Stacey on 19 December, 2014, 03:53:23 PM
...any other attempt (like the Judge Hershey strip) just makes you think 'well why not do the story as Dredd'.
I quite liked the Marc Wigmore Hershey stories. I really like his spare, austere art, for one, but I think they showed that there's some mileage in centring a story around a more normal street-Judge (which obviously wouldn't work with Hershey now); as I remember they dealt with quite low-key issues compared to Dredd, with a far less rigid, more human main character, which I thought worked well.
Quote from: JPMaybe on 20 December, 2014, 12:07:57 PM
Quote from: James Stacey on 19 December, 2014, 03:53:23 PM
...any other attempt (like the Judge Hershey strip) just makes you think 'well why not do the story as Dredd'.
I quite liked the Marc Wigmore Hershey stories. I really like his spare, austere art, for one, but I think they showed that there's some mileage in centring a story around a more normal street-Judge (which obviously wouldn't work with Hershey now); as I remember they dealt with quite low-key issues compared to Dredd, with a far less rigid, more human main character, which I thought worked well.
Hershey would work as a 'political' drama.
In my opinion, the Dredd strip handles the political side of things very nicely already. From the roots of the democracy storyline through America to the democratic referendum, from the rise of Fargo to the mutant issue, Wagner has more than delivered, and it's to see a Hershey political strip being anything other than superfluous at best and irrelevant at worst.
Quote from: JayzusB.Christ on 20 December, 2014, 01:38:30 PM
In my opinion, the Dredd strip handles the political side of things very nicely already. From the roots of the democracy storyline through America to the democratic referendum, from the rise of Fargo to the mutant issue, Wagner has more than delivered, and it's to see a Hershey political strip being anything other than superfluous at best and irrelevant at worst.
There are writers other than Wagner . . .
And saying that such strips would only be 'superfluous' or 'irrelevant' strikes me as more of a lack of imagination then anything else.
I always wanted there to be a Hershey strip when she was 'exiled' at the beginning of Tour of Duty, thought there was a load of potential in a story of her finding her place in the world, off world and displaced.
Now looking at the post Day of Choas thread a political thriller featuring Hershey would have really worked in developing the post DoC world.
So to try to keep this on topic if we were to have a strip beyond Dredd and Anderson Hershey always seems to me to have the most potential, a great character who always seems to be enbroiled in interesting circumstance. Rico (current) would be Dredd lite?
Quote from: Colin_YNWA on 20 December, 2014, 06:04:20 PM
So to try to keep this on topic if we were to have a strip beyond Dredd and Anderson Hershey always seems to me to have the most potential, a great character who always seems to be enbroiled in interesting circumstance. Rico (current) would be Dredd lite?
Except Rico has grown up in a completely different world to Dredd, it would be really interesting to see how this has changed his attitude.
Very good point Skullmo.
He is like Dredd, but he's been through different things, so it may have made him a different person.
The truth is we don't know if he is just the same as Dredd, as we haven't seen him stretch his own wings.
The scenes between Rico and Dolman in Brothers of the Blood always struk me as Rico being considerably less cynical then Dredd himself. More understanding/sympathetic of Dolman's circumstances then Dredd, etc...
Like when Dolman choos to leave Rico was some what proud of him, where Dredd was closer to disappointed.
In fact the pressure of being 'the next Judge Dredd' seems lik something you can hang a whole series on.
Quote from: The Adventurer on 20 December, 2014, 01:49:00 PM
saying that such strips would only be 'superfluous' or 'irrelevant' strikes me as more of a lack of imagination then anything else.
Bit harsh. The Megazine has been going for a quarter of a century, and the best received stories have been those which bear only a tenuous connection to the main Dredd strip, or none at all. Stories such as
Insurrection, Devlin Waugh, and
Low Life are either set somewhere other than MC1, are centered on something other than the work of a street judge, and/or feature a larger than life, charismatic lead character. A solo Rico strip wouldn't satisfy
any of those criteria.
The Hershey, Anderson, Karyn, Janus, and Francisco solo stories weren't
superfluous or
irrelevant because they were rotten characters or the stories were badly written/drawn, it was because they were confined to the same format of the crime story as Dredd. The protagonists were more sympathetic than Dredd, had a different approach to Dredd, and gave the stories a different punchline, but they're still tied to the criminal investigation format.
I think MC1's a great setting for stories with or without Dredd in them, but the few decent solo stories featuring a character other than Dredd would usually work just as well with Dredd in the lead, and the mediocre ones dilute the appeal of the main title.
Tales of MC1 seems to offer greater potential to tell stories outwith the crime genre *.
*
I'd draw a parallel here with Jaegir; the problem with the original Rogue Trooper strip was the repetitive and restricted nature of the stories the war story format allowed, and taking a left turn into detective fiction, horror, and psycho drama revitalised the appeal of that world for jaded readers.
While it is a good point the question remains for me as to who those subtlies would be of interest too. The diehard fan sure but to others? In the long term if you want a replacement Dredd, should that happen then fine that works. When you run those stories in Dredd with the two side by side, yeah they work too. But a seperate strip running in conjunction with the main Dredd strip I don't see that working?
Though I'm sure talented writers may well have an idea I'm not seeing them being writers and their job and all but I'm not seeing it.
Quote from: Man2Man on 20 December, 2014, 09:41:37 PM
The Hershey, Anderson, Karyn, Janus, and Francisco solo stories weren't superfluous or irrelevant because they were rotten characters or the stories were badly written/drawn, it was because they were confined to the same format of the crime story as Dredd. The protagonists were more sympathetic than Dredd, had a different approach to Dredd, and gave the stories a different punchline, but they're still tied to the criminal investigation format.
That's kinda why I want a Hershey strip thats a political thriller of sorts. It offers something different to the normal Dredd and thus has a real value?
I'd like to see a year long interconnected strip in the meg that would star a different fan favorite judge for the first 10 parts & then have a big 2 part finally where all the judges work together.
Quote from: The Adventurer on 20 December, 2014, 01:49:00 PM
And saying that such strips would only be 'superfluous' or 'irrelevant' strikes me as more of a lack of imagination then anything else.
Fair enough. I suppose I'd just worry that it may veer off into Anderson territory where hugely significant political events happen and are promptly forgotten about in the main Dredd strip. In fact it kind of happened in the Dredd strip itself; when groundwork was being put in place for the Sino war that never was.
I wish someone would explain what that whole Sino war story was going to be and who it was going to be written by!
Que Trumpet fanfare and enter Dark days David Bishop! Z
Well I think the racist portrayals of Chinese people throughout that non-story would have been disgraceful; and the writer and artist would both should have ought to have would of have of been ashamed of themselves.
Judge Russell and I were discussing some of the decisions made in the 90's and we were aghast....the farming out of the advertising contract with the 2 resulting s exist ads was IMO firstly just plain sexist and secondly suicide in terms of attracting readership; let alone keeping the then current readership. Z
Just had a heads up from a good friend. My profuse apologies to Dave Bishop, he was not the editor at the period in question and I won't say who was. Again any implication of slight against DDDB is utterly withdrawn and apologies made. Z :-[
Quote from: ZenArcade on 21 December, 2014, 06:30:10 PM
Just had a heads up from a good friend. My profuse apologies to Dave Bishop, he was not the editor at the period in question and I won't say who was. Again any implication of slight against DDDB is utterly withdrawn and apologies made. Z :-[
I was kind of joking about the racism thing, but here's the man himself explaining some of those decisions. I like to think that the fact that I reminded him of the regrettable Loaded ads kind of means that I wrote that chapter of Thrill Power Overload single-handedly. In fact, no - I wrote it all. That's what I like to think, me.
http://forums.2000adonline.com/index.php?topic=2279.0 (http://forums.2000adonline.com/index.php?topic=2279.0)
Just checking in on a slow Sunday night and can't say I'm happy with the way this thread has gone - please take greater care of your language when discussing our creators and editorial staff, past and present.
Quote from: JayzusB.Christ on 21 December, 2014, 06:45:45 PM
Quote from: ZenArcade on 21 December, 2014, 06:30:10 PM
Just had a heads up from a good friend. My profuse apologies to Dave Bishop, he was not the editor at the period in question and I won't say who was. Again any implication of slight against DDDB is utterly withdrawn and apologies made. Z :-[
I was kind of joking about the racism thing, but here's the man himself explaining some of those decisions. I like to think that the fact that I reminded him of the regrettable Loaded ads kind of means that I wrote that chapter of Thrill Power Overload single-handedly. In fact, no - I wrote it all. That's what I like to think, me.
http://forums.2000adonline.com/index.php?topic=2279.0 (http://forums.2000adonline.com/index.php?topic=2279.0)
I love how angry everyone seemed to be in the early forum :lol:
It's been said that the real star of Judge Dredd is the city. And there in lies the problem with spin off strips. Dredd is perfectly capable of taking the back seat in his own strip so if a writer had a brilliant idea for a Hershey story there is no compelling reason why she couldn't take the lead for a while. The question isn't even 'why not Dredd' it's why can't this be story told in Judge Dredd?' a Rico Strip would be redundant because Dredd's strip is Dredd's world not Dredd himself.
Quote from: Skullmo on 22 December, 2014, 12:26:47 AM
Quote from: JayzusB.Christ on 21 December, 2014, 06:45:45 PM
Quote from: ZenArcade on 21 December, 2014, 06:30:10 PM
Just had a heads up from a good friend. My profuse apologies to Dave Bishop, he was not the editor at the period in question and I won't say who was. Again any implication of slight against DDDB is utterly withdrawn and apologies made. Z :-[
I was kind of joking about the racism thing, but here's the man himself explaining some of those decisions. I like to think that the fact that I reminded him of the regrettable Loaded ads kind of means that I wrote that chapter of Thrill Power Overload single-handedly. In fact, no - I wrote it all. That's what I like to think, me.
http://forums.2000adonline.com/index.php?topic=2279.0 (http://forums.2000adonline.com/index.php?topic=2279.0)
I love how angry everyone seemed to be in the early forum :lol:
I know. How dare Dave Bishop answer my question in such an articulate, honest and interesting manner?
Quote from: JayzusB.Christ on 22 December, 2014, 01:59:44 PM
Quote from: Skullmo on 22 December, 2014, 12:26:47 AM
Quote from: JayzusB.Christ on 21 December, 2014, 06:45:45 PM
Quote from: ZenArcade on 21 December, 2014, 06:30:10 PM
Just had a heads up from a good friend. My profuse apologies to Dave Bishop, he was not the editor at the period in question and I won't say who was. Again any implication of slight against DDDB is utterly withdrawn and apologies made. Z :-[
I was kind of joking about the racism thing, but here's the man himself explaining some of those decisions. I like to think that the fact that I reminded him of the regrettable Loaded ads kind of means that I wrote that chapter of Thrill Power Overload single-handedly. In fact, no - I wrote it all. That's what I like to think, me.
http://forums.2000adonline.com/index.php?topic=2279.0 (http://forums.2000adonline.com/index.php?topic=2279.0)
I love how angry everyone seemed to be in the early forum :lol:
I know. How dare Dave Bishop answer my question in such an articulate, honest and interesting manner?
I don't understand, I don't think how he responded to you was an issue. Maybe I missed something in his response if you found it offensive?
Mate, I'm joking! If I remember rightly, I actually sent him a message after that thanking him for such a thorough and honest answer. Some other boarders seemed to be pissed off with him at the time, though, for 'spoiling' a forthcoming chapter of Thrill Power Overload in answering my question.
Quote from: JayzusB.Christ on 22 December, 2014, 03:14:31 PM
Mate, I'm joking! If I remember rightly, I actually sent him a message after that thanking him for such a thorough and honest answer. Some other boarders seemed to be pissed off with him at the time, though, for 'spoiling' a forthcoming chapter of Thrill Power Overload in answering my question.
Ahh, yeah I meant the others not you.
plus just generally looking back through past threads - people just used to get really annoyed with the work of creators and start putting it down. I am really glad that kind of thing has generally stopped!
If we had a new Rico strip I'd like it to be an ensemble procedural like Top Ten crossed with NYPD Blue.
Call it 'The Judges of Sector House 10' or something. It could have a rolling cast as characters are killed and get promoted. You could have a nice mix of down to earth detective stories, supernatural stuff and more wacky future crime stuff but all told from a more group based perspective than you get with the main strip.
Quote from: JamesC on 22 December, 2014, 04:12:02 PM
If we had a new Rico strip I'd like it to be an ensemble procedural like Top Ten crossed with NYPD Blue.
Call it 'The Judges of Sector House 10' or something. It could have a rolling cast as characters are killed and get promoted. You could have a nice mix of down to earth detective stories, supernatural stuff and more wacky future crime stuff but all told from a more group based perspective than you get with the main strip.
Hmmmm... apart from the supernatural stuff, that sounds very much like both
Sector House and
The Pit.
Quote from: The Adventurer on 20 December, 2014, 09:34:52 PM
In fact the pressure of being 'the next Judge Dredd' seems lik something you can hang a whole series on.
Yes, and indeed that was a major part of Necropolis.
Quote from: JayzusB.Christ on 21 December, 2014, 04:35:52 PM
Fair enough. I suppose I'd just worry that it may veer off into Anderson territory where hugely significant political events happen and are promptly forgotten about in the main Dredd strip. In fact it kind of happened in the Dredd strip itself; when groundwork was being put in place for the Sino war that never was.
I understand the problem with non-Wagner Dredd-world stuff to be that Wagner largely ignores it.
James C makes a good point. In my opinion the Megazine never really fulfilled it's basal remit, which was to explore in depth aspects of Dredd's world. It spread itself too far and frankly too thinly. A storyline where a character like Rico or indeed an ensemble of popular sub characters explore the day to day, week to week working of the Citizenry and systems which constitute the Mega City would be in my estimation a truly positive benefit to the Prog/Meg and would serve to inform and enhance the Dredd setting for all of us. Z
yes give him his own strip and maybe launch into a quest into space like the Judge Child quest, he can run into the Dark judges but ultimately to help him set different encounters that Dredd never went through