Judge Dredd Script Droids

[Funt Solo]

Notes:

- It starts in the center ring with 1977.
- Order of droids is weighted by contribution, then by year.
- The big Pat Mills chunk in 1978 is The Cursed Earth.
- Wagner's voluminous dominance is obvious from the first year.
- Noteworthy long-form stories from this era are Robot Wars, Luna-1, The Cursed Earth and the Judge Cal saga.

[Dandontdare]

Oooh New geeky graphology. *claps*

I guess these will become more instructive as they go on, but for now it's just Wagner and a bit of Mills. I'm more interested in those lost names - Herring, Harris and Flynn.

Which episode is unknown?

[Funt Solo]

Do you think Herring is a ... red herring? And Flynn? I don't know all the made-up ones. Actually - those early progs didn't have credit cards, did they? So, that info. is straight outta Barney.

The [unknown] refers to Dr. Panic in the 1979 Annual (from '78), and Mega Miami in the 1980 Annual (from '79).

---

I've got these done in a set of ten that goes all the way up to 2020. One a day, maybe?

[Funt Solo]

Notes:
- It starts in the center ring with 1980.
- Order of droids is weighted by contribution, then by year.
- The blue for John Wagner is the only consistent colour-coding used in the project, as I've always placed him first in the list. (So, Alan Grant was a little chunk of orange in the first diagram, but is red in this one.)
- As an eleven-year stretch massively dominated by two writers, we'll see that this is the most consistent era of Dredd in the history of the comic.
- Highlights from this era are manifold and include many epics, from The Judge Child to Necropolis.
- The [unknown] is Sleeping Mutie from the 1991 Annual (from '90).

[Funt Solo]

Grant and Wagner move most of their attention over to the Megazine and first Ennis, then later Millar & Morrison move in to the prog as Dredd writers.

Notes:
- It starts in the center ring with 1991.
- Order of droids is (mostly) weighted by contribution, then by year.
- The blue for Wagner is (often) the only consistent colour between diagrams.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Notes:
- It starts in the center ring with 1980.
- Order of droids is weighted by contribution, then by year.
- The blue for John Wagner is the only consistent colour-coding used in the project, as I've always placed him first in the list. (So, Alan Grant was a little chunk of orange in the first diagram, but is red in this one.)
- As an eleven-year stretch massively dominated by two writers, we'll see that this is the most consistent era of Dredd in the history of the comic.
- Highlights from this era are manifold and include many epics, from The Judge Child to Necropolis.
- The [unknown] is Sleeping Mutie from the 1991 Annual (from '90).

Loving this - had no idea Mark Millar did a Dredd as early as this.  What was it?

[Funt Solo]

Loving this - had no idea Mark Millar did a Dredd as early as this.  What was it?

That was Christmas is Cancelled from 1990's Winter Special (#3).

[SpaceSpinner2000]

For counting 1980-1990 are Wagner and Grant each getting entries for stories written as a team? I know until 86 or so they're being credited as various pen names, then change to Wagner & Grant until a bit after Oz. Just trying to figure out the mechanics here!

[Funt Solo]

For counting 1980-1990 are Wagner and Grant each getting entries for stories written as a team? I know until 86 or so they're being credited as various pen names, then change to Wagner & Grant until a bit after Oz. Just trying to figure out the mechanics here!

I counted it up as episodes, rather than a page count, so there's that. Someone doing a 10-pager in the Meg gets the same as someone doing a 6-pager in the prog.

My spreadsheet has converted all of the pen names that I know of back into real names, so most of this time period is listed as "Alan Grant, John Wagner". In that case, I gave each of them 0.5 per episode.

My data is based on a mixture of Barney and my own collection. My first listing for the pair is The Judge Child (prog 156), then it seems like they split apart around prog 578 with Full Mental Jacket. I have no idea how closely that reflects the reality and probably others have more insight in that regard.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Loving this - had no idea Mark Millar did a Dredd as early as this.  What was it?

That was Christmas is Cancelled from 1990's Winter Special (#3).

Ahaaa. I remember now. Brett Ewins? I remember the story alright, a Scottish judge in charge of surveillance. Thanks!

[Funt Solo]

1994-1995 saw publication of Sci-Fi Specials, 2K & JD Yearbooks, Mega-Specials, Winter Specials, fortnightly Megazines (at 52pp, sometimes with two Dredds) and (as if that wasn't enough) it was also during the period of the fat prog (36pp) and then the fatter prog (44pp, often with two Dredds).

Increased content meant a need for more creators, and although it's clear that Santa Wagner was in charge of the sleigh, he needed a lot of little elves to help make the presents. 1994 has as many writers as the previous three years, and 1995 holds the record for the most Dredd scripters in a single year (at seventeen scribes).

The big epic of '94 is The Tenth Planet / Wilderlands, but then '95 is a quieter year, although it foreshadows and then kicks off The Pit.


Notes:
- Order of droids is weighted by contribution.
- The blue for Wagner is the only consistent colour between diagrams.
- I haven't included content outside of the main publications and their seasonal specials.
- I haven't included text stories.

[Funt Solo]

The tsunami of specials and extra pages subsided, the Meg went monthly and the number of scribes required scaled back significantly as Wagner took on the vast majority of Dredd tales once again.

The start of this era is dominated by The Pit (the epic that finally put Dredd in charge of something), but the Meg was also special with the America sequel Fading of the Light. 1997 gave us John Smith's mini-epic, Darkside, riffing out from events in City of the Damned, followed by a multi-part Cursed Earth adventure that starts with The Hunting Party.

1998's Beyond the Call of Duty serves as a link between The Pit and 1999's prog/meg Doomsday crossover - another of those "we lost the city, but oh no we didn't" epics. Finally, the year 2000 proves more restful but (like a lot of Wagner-Dredd) starts sowing the seeds and laying down track for future tales with a PJ Maybe resurgence and a focus on domestic insurrection (SABS).


Notes:
- It starts with 1996 in the centre ring.
- Order of droids is weighted by contribution, then by year.
- The blue for Wagner is the only consistent colour between diagrams.

[TordelBack]

Wow, that's even more extreme than I imagined.

[maryanddavid]

This is brilliant, thanks Funt!

[Funt Solo]

Wagner's still keeping the canon alive, but there's a strong and relatively consistent supporting cast, including a strong vein of Rennie running through all eight years.

How could you even begin to summarize 252 episodes of Judge Dredd in only eight lines? Well, here goes:

2001: Fairly aimless, with Ennis's Helter Skelter being the mini-epic.
2002: The Sovs are up to no good again in Sin City.
2003: Judge Dredd vs. Aliens!
2004: Total War!
2005: Blood Trails is more important than Mandroid to the canon.
2006: Origins originates.
2007: Origins culminates. Mutants in Mega-City One starts the ToD ball rolling.
2008: The canon provides: Emphatically Evil, The Edgar Case & Ratfink.


Notes:
- It starts with 2001 in the centre ring.
- Order of droids is weighted by contribution, then by year.
- The blue for Wagner is the only consistent colour between diagrams.