Judge Dredd: The Mega Collection discussion thread

[The Amstor Computer]

Hoped these would turn up yesterday; maybe tomorrow. Intrigued to know what Ron Smith stories are in the Missionary Man volume, prime suspects must be Black Plague, Hotdog Run or Shanty Town.

...and you'd be right on all three counts. Those three stories form the final third of the book.

Running order:

Mardi Gras (inc. prologue)
Goin' South
Apocrypha
Mark of the Beast
True Grit
Lonesome Dave
The Black Plague
The Hotdog Run
Shanty Town

Plus cover gallery (233, 1031, 1093 and 1118) and a brief interview with Gordon Rennie (not one I recognise from elsewhere, so new for the collection?)

re: Collecting more classic material. I wonder if part of the idea behind this project was to try and pull in new readers as much as it is serving existing readers. If so, showcasing tales more representative of the current state of Dredd/Dreddworld (in terms of storylines, themes and creators) makes more sense, so there may be more focus on that, with the mega-epics and significant Dreddworld stories taking up another big chunk, leaving less room for the earlier, shorter classics.

[IndigoPrime]

The Marvel collection (at least pre-expansion) was very much along those lines, and so it's not a huge surprise to see the Dredd collection doing much the same. That all said, there have been classic episodes and series dotted about, and more are confirmed for later on (such as Judge Child and City of the Damned).

[The Amstor Computer]

The Marvel collection (at least pre-expansion) was very much along those lines, and so it's not a huge surprise to see the Dredd collection doing much the same. That all said, there have been classic episodes and series dotted about, and more are confirmed for later on (such as Judge Child and City of the Damned).

Yeah, my impression of Matt Smith's approach to the Mega Collection is that he's tried to cover the "required reading" - the various mega epics, including recent event stories like Trifecta - hit on some rarely-seen classics and the key stories for Dreddworld characters like Waugh, Anderson, MM et al, and introduced as much recent material as possible to bring people up to speed with the near-current state of Dredd in the prog. Although I suspect that a large number of Mega Collection subs are existing readers, if it manages to pull in at least some new readers (or regain lapsed readers) by taking that approach it will be worth it.

[Trent]

Excellent news re Goin'South Ron Smith stories. I agree with what people are saying re new/colour stories but there were some absolute gems outside the epics that I would love to have in the final collection. That said, give me a Judge Child with colour centrespreads and I'll let it lie. We know they can do it if they want (Trapper Hag).

[IndigoPrime]

Plenty of stories have also been dotted about in the themed collections as well. Plus we're only halfway through anyway, so lots of issues still to go.

[The Monarch]

Yuppers seems to have played out as suspected 66 will be the promised land and place of the dead and 64s the stuff well reprinted  as well as the not reprinted mm stuff

What else is in childhoods end aside from the obvious?

[Trent]

Slight misdirection in the volumes as Goin' South is actually vol 66 but happily the introduction confirms 64 and 65 will be Missionary Man based so it looks like we're getting the bulk of the stories reprinted for the first time.
Interesting to read Gordon's interview at the back of the volume where he appears to slate Alex Ronald for his work on Mardi Gras etc. I remember his scratchy art being divisive at the time but personally I love it and think it compliments Simon Davis' very different style. I always thought Alex's work on Missionary Man gave an indication of what the Pit might have looked like without the neon colouring.

[The Amstor Computer]

What else is in childhoods end aside from the obvious?

Running order is:

Reasons to be Cheerful
The Witch? Report
Childhood's End
Voyage of the Seeker
Postcards from the Edge
Postcard to Myself

Cover Gallery (Meg 2.14, 2.51 and 2.73)
Growing Pains (text piece on Anderson's "adolescence" as Grant developed the character from "Engram" through "Childhood's End" and "Postcards..." to Anderson's return to the big Meg)

I'd forgotten quite how much I had disliked Steve Sampson's art (play spot-the-Loaded-pinup at home, folks!) but it was lovely to revisit Kev Walker's run on Anderson, and Tony Luke's episodes of "Postcards..." are interesting - not entirely to my taste, but unique and phantasmagoric, and it's a shame Luke didn't live to see them get another outing.

[teckno viking]

You think a series of the One off Judge stories maybe done?

Raggedy Man & Death of a Legend (McGruder) for instance?

[Trent]

These might be tucked at the back of 64 or 65. Lots of Cursed Earth stories that could be included eg Damned Ranger, The Fear that made Milwaukee Famous etc but I'd rather see more Missionary Man and a separate Dredd in the Cursed Earth volume. Part of the fun of the collection is guessing what's coming and trying to flesh out some of the clues we have been given.

[IndigoPrime]

it was lovely to revisit Kev Walker's run on Anderson

His general grasp of figure work and anatomy was still questionable at that point, but I liked how he made Anderson look like a fit, tough cop, rather than a skinny pin-up. (It's always odd how male Judges are usually 'built', but female ones are waif-like. That doesn't seem viable in Mega-City One. Mind you, I still find it odd in the Prog how most Judge crowd scenes are usually 100% blokes.)

[GordonR]

True Grit's rubbish, a fact for which I heartily apologise - taken from the 1994 Dredd Yearbook, which was full of dross unfit for the prog or Megazine, and which killed off the yearbook tradition.

True Grit does include Dredd, which I guess is why it's included here.  But it's still rubbish, and I had hoped never to see it again.

Hoped these would turn up yesterday; maybe tomorrow. Intrigued to know what Ron Smith stories are in the Missionary Man volume, prime suspects must be Black Plague, Hotdog Run or Shanty Town.

...and you'd be right on all three counts. Those three stories form the final third of the book.

Running order:

Mardi Gras (inc. prologue)
Goin' South
Apocrypha
Mark of the Beast
True Grit
Lonesome Dave
The Black Plague
The Hotdog Run
Shanty Town

Plus cover gallery (233, 1031, 1093 and 1118) and a brief interview with Gordon Rennie (not one I recognise from elsewhere, so new for the collection?)

re: Collecting more classic material. I wonder if part of the idea behind this project was to try and pull in new readers as much as it is serving existing readers. If so, showcasing tales more representative of the current state of Dredd/Dreddworld (in terms of storylines, themes and creators) makes more sense, so there may be more focus on that, with the mega-epics and significant Dreddworld stories taking up another big chunk, leaving less room for the earlier, shorter classics.

[The Amstor Computer]

His general grasp of figure work and anatomy was still questionable at that point, but I liked how he made Anderson look like a fit, tough cop, rather than a skinny pin-up. (It's always odd how male Judges are usually 'built', but female ones are waif-like. That doesn't seem viable in Mega-City One. Mind you, I still find it odd in the Prog how most Judge crowd scenes are usually 100% blokes.)

There are a few wonky panels, and Anderson's face is occasionally rather lumpen, but it's still very enjoyable, and it's reproduced very well here. And, yeah, she does look more "tough female cop" here than elsewhere in the same collection (*cough*Sampson*cough*) which is good - more Murphy than model, if you will.

True Grit's rubbish, a fact for which I heartily apologise - taken from the 1994 Dredd Yearbook, which was full of dross unfit for the prog or Megazine, and which killed off the yearbook tradition.

True Grit does include Dredd, which I guess is why it's included here.  But it's still rubbish, and I had hoped never to see it again.

It probably doesn't help that the art was... questionable (Cain seems to have some kind of weird microcephalic thing going on), but the other tales hold up better (from this reader's perspective, at least!) and have far better art (Redondo, early Flint and Davis, and I even have a soft spot for Alex Ronald's stint). It's nice to see it collected from a completionist POV, though I suspect that's cold comfort!

[GordonR]

It probably doesn't help that the art was... questionable (Cain seems to have some kind of weird microcephalic thing going on), but the other tales hold up better (from this reader's perspective, at least!) and have far better art (Redondo, early Flint and Davis, and I even have a soft spot for Alex Ronald's stint). It's nice to see it collected from a completionist POV, though I suspect that's cold comfort!

The artist was....Robero Corona?  Something like that?  He had come from Deadline, iirc, but I don't think I ever saw his work again.

It was just one of those dreary stories where Dredd meets one of the Megazine world judge characters, and - predictably - they don't get on, with a lot of snarling at each other etc, and the dumb young Megazine writer wanting to make sure their precious character gets to go toe to toe with Dredd as some kind of even match or equal.

You saw a lot of that in those days, any time any of us actually got to include Dredd in our work.

[The Amstor Computer]

The artist was....Robero Corona?  Something like that?  He had come from Deadline, iirc, but I don't think I ever saw his work again.

Yeah, Roberto Corona. I think he did a fair bit of work for Sonic the Comic after that, and possibly some stuff for DC and a webcomic of his own. The few bits of his work I can find online from Sonic look better, so his work on "True Grit" is perhaps just another case of the editorial team being pushed to find new artists to fill up the prog, Meg, yearbook etc. and picking someone who just wasn't quite ready (there seemed to be a lot of that at the time).

It was just one of those dreary stories where Dredd meets one of the Megazine world judge characters, and - predictably - they don't get on, with a lot of snarling at each other etc, and the dumb young Megazine writer wanting to make sure their precious character gets to go toe to toe with Dredd as some kind of even match or equal.

You saw a lot of that in those days, any time any of us actually got to include Dredd in our work.

See: Judgement Day, that Devlin Waugh MC-1 customs short and their odd couple adventure through Dreddworld Africa etc. To be fair, it's probably the instinctual thing to do in that situation - hell, film had been doing much the same for decades with the various Universal Monsters match-ups through to stuff like Godzilla vs King Kong, and comics had been doing it for yonks too - and it seems like trying to get a really good story out of that "what if X met Y?" setup is pretty tough, never mind trying to do it in a 15-page short for a yearbook. Even some of the more feted recent Dredd team-ups/meet-ups struggle, IMO - a one panel/one episode gag doesn't necessarily work as well over multiple episodes.