Okay this is a little different in this one NO ONE DIES... or gets knocked out to put it less melodramatically. The aim here is to get the seedings for positions 16-9 as we go into the knockout phase, which starts next week.
The Top 8 from Alex F's list will keep the seedings they have in his rankings
Look at the list of 8 Dredd stories below and tell me your top three:
1 (your favourite of the 8) will get 3 points
2 (your 2nd fav) will get 2 points
3 (your 3rd fav) will get 1 point
The survives from previous rounds:
Tour of Duty (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-28-26-sublime-and-ridiculous.html) - Progs 1649-1693
Oz (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-16-14-two-of-these-are-many.html) - Progs 545-570
The Pit (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-16-14-two-of-these-are-many.html) - 970 - 999
Necropolis (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-13-10-nostalgic-favourites.html) - Progs 662 - 699
Next four from Dredd Epics Ranked:
Judge Child (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-13-10-nostalgic-favourites.html) - Progs 156 - 181
The Cursed Earth (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-13-10-nostalgic-favourites.html) - Progs 61 - 85
The Day the Law Died - Judge Cal (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-13-10-nostalgic-favourites.html) - Progs 86 - 108
Machine Law (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-9-7-short-but-oh-so-sweet.html) - Progs 2024-2029 and 2115-2122
Voting will close on the morning of Saturday 27th March and we'll be ready for the knockouts!
All links go through to AlexF's simply brilliant
Dredd Epics Ranked (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/) blog. You may need to scroll to find his write up of a particular story - but I'd suggest just reading the whole thing anyway - it's fantastic stuff.
Baffled by what's going on here - well we have a a thread for that (https://forums.2000ad.com/index.php?topic=47367.0) - though that might leave you more confused than anything.
Rules (https://forums.2000ad.com/index.php?topic=47367.msg1053448#msg1053448) for what they are worth.
Not sure about anything just ask and I'll blag it.
1. Necropolis
2. Tour of Duty
3. Machine Law
Now this is where the really big guns enter the fray. And Machine Law. 😉
Quote from: broodblik on 25 March, 2021, 06:43:10 AM
1. Necropolis
2. Tour of Duty
3. Machine Law
Sorry Colin I am going to stuff you around I just want to change my vote too:
1. Necropolis
2. Tour of Duty
3. The Judge Child
Well since I prefer Machine Law I might not allow that.... nah all good.
My vote remains the same:
1. Necropolis
2. Oz
3. Tour of Duty
1.The Judge Child
2. The Day the Law Died
3. Tour of Duty
That might well be top three, period.
1. Necropolis
2. Pit
3. Judge Child
1. Necropolis
2. Pit
3. The Day the Law Died
1. Day the Law Died - unquestionably the Judge Dredd story I read and re-read the most as a child (well Book 1 anyway, had to wait years before finding those precious back progs to finish the story up!)
2. The Cursed Earth - the imagination on display here from all writers and artists is just the most 2000AD thing ever. (except maybe the Judge Child, god its hard choosing between those two)
3. Oz
but this round is one of those where, on a different day, my votes could go to almost any other.
1. The Pit
2. Tour of Duty
3. Necropolis
SBT
Oz
City of the dammed
Tour of Duty
The Cursed Earth
The Pit comes in close but it's Hill Street Blues internal affairs stuff can't actually close the gap to either the thrills of Oz, the writing on Tour or the world-building of Cursed Earth.
Say it quietly but Necropolis sorta bored me as (1) those pesky kids (2) the powers of the 6 dark judges are just too much and (3) chasing the kids down the sewer aside I can't recall many set-pieces. Do I get thrown out for saying this? Maybe I need to re-read.
1. The Judge Child.
2. Necropolis.
3. The Pit.
First comics collection of any kind that I bought was Judge Child vol 2, with this incredible evocative, enticing cover:
(https://d1466nnw0ex81e.cloudfront.net/n_iv/600/988535.jpg)
This was part of an attempt to get hold of the background for City of the Damned, my first mega-epic (I only started reading regularly in the early 300s), and of course there's bugger-all of that in this. But have I ever regretted it? No! Judge Child has all the novelty, density and satire of Cursed Earth, but Wagner is in full control of his character and his craft, and McMahon and Ron Smith are quite simply on fire.
Quote from: BPP on 25 March, 2021, 09:26:37 AM
.. the powers of the 6 dark judges are just too much...
Counting Kraken, there's actually 7!
1. TOD
2. Necropolis
3. The Pit.
No love for Cursed Earth?
A good selection here. I've gone for one from each of the first three classic eras.
1. Necropolis
2. The Pit
3. The Cursed Earth
1. Tour of Duty
2. The Pit
3. Necropolis
Quote from: Southstreeter on 25 March, 2021, 10:47:50 AM
No love for Cursed Earth?
I like it well enough but not as much as some of the other epics here.
For me it suffered from the fact I only read it years later and had read other epics before it; and from being incomplete as a collection until the uncensored edition came out.
The Cursed Earth just felt too fragmented for me. It is almost like those games on rails, go to point A kill the boss go to point B kill another boss and go to..........
Mmmm, Cursed Earth is great fun, but it's really an uneven grab-bag of wonderful ideas and imagery rather than a good story. When I finally got the whole thing (a Titan album plus a mound of quite expensive progs, minus the banned progs) I remember feeling a bit let down. It's superb seminal world-building, but by then (mid 80s) I'd seen most of those ideas explored at more length, and more coherently.
Yeah some of you folks better start voting for 'The Cursed Earth' or I'm kicking you all out and just letting my vote stand... not that I've voted.... nor can I kick you out... but ya know .... grrrrrr
Got to agree on Cursed Earth: there's some brilliant ideas in there but it doesn't hang together as coherently as the others on this list and the characters of Tweak and Spikes Harvey Rotten are about as subtle as a brick. Overall I think it's really dated. To me it reads like a kids comic, which in fairness it was, but as the bane of the comic industry (a bloke in his 40s) it doesn't really get much love here.
1. city of t ... sorry ... cal.
2. judge child
3. tour of duty
1) Necropolis
2) Oz
3) The Cursed Earth
I: Oz - remember that centre-spread of Chopper riding his board through the lightning storm?
II: Necropolis - but am I really voting for The Dead Man?
III: Tour of Duty - all the threads at once (except for the Dark Judges - but he does that in Chaos Day)
---
IV: The Judge Child - piecemeal, but great pieces of meal.
[IV.V: City of the Damned]
V: The Day the Law Died - a bit "what's on telly just now, let's do that", but Judge Fish!
VI: The Pit - Meg Street Blues.
VII: The Cursed Earth - great episodic adventure, but the rocks floating in the atmosphere are so silly most writers pretend it never happened, however hungry those hacks might be feeling.
VIII: Machine Law - it's not awful, but "here, you should be CJ" then "you're doing it wrong, though" is a bit too incoherent. Like, whose judgement is flawed?
1. Necropolis
2. Oz
3. The Judge Child
I owe the Cursed Earth a lot, as case files #2 was my first Dredd and thats what really got me hooked into 2000ad. I thought that had to be the best Dredd epic ever, and then I read Judge Child...then City of the Damned...then Necropolis! It just kept getting better!
Some days I feel like reading something a little more serious (Necropolis or the Pit) and some days something that's just good fun (Cursed Earth) - hard to decide which is best from day to day.
1. Tour Of Duty
2. The Cursed Earth
3. The Day the Law Died
- Tour Of Duty
- Necropolis
- Machine Law
1. The Judge Child
2. Oz
3. The Pit
1. Judge Child - I'm with Lopez block!
2. Cursed Earth - I know what you all mean about a bit of a mixed bag of creative ideas, but what a bag!
3. Tour of Duty - Time for a re-read of this one I think.
whispers: I'm with BPP on Necropolis... just didn't work for me at all.. ducks for cover...
Almost there, almost there. Last call for votes here as I'll count this one up in the morning and we'll be ready (well preparation willing) to kick off the knockouts Monday first thing. If you want to get your favourite epic a better seeding vote now... or just vote for Cursed Earth to keep me happy!
1st) Tour of Duty
2nd) Necropolis
3rd) Oz
No contest as to the best of the bunch here. Judge Child has everything you want to from an epic - a fabulous mcguffin in the form of Owen Krysler; legendary antagonists; meaningful world-building (I'll take the three episodes in Memphis over the whole of The Cursed Earth) and a great balance of humour (Mean stuck on 4 1/2) with high terror (Old Joe Blind; Lopez under the influence).
And then that ending. "I see only...Evil"
What elevates it even further is that all three artists are drawing to their strengths and illustrate the perfect episodes. No one could have evoked the Jigsaw Man as well as Bolland did, nor Murd the Opressor as gloriously as McMahon...and neither could have drawn the Pazaaz war wheels as well as Ron Smith.
Perfection.
Judge Child
Tour of Duty
Oz
1 - Necropolis
2 - Oz
3 - The Pit
Quote from: gogilesgo on 26 March, 2021, 08:51:55 AM
No contest as to the best of the bunch here. Judge Child has everything you want to from an epic - a fabulous mcguffin in the form of Owen Krysler; legendary antagonists; meaningful world-building (I'll take the three episodes in Memphis over the whole of The Cursed Earth) and a great balance of humour (Mean stuck on 4 1/2) with high terror (Old Joe Blind; Lopez under the influence).
And then that ending. "I see only...Evil"
What elevates it even further is that all three artists are drawing to their strengths and illustrate the perfect episodes. No one could have evoked the Jigsaw Man as well as Bolland did, nor Murd the Opressor as gloriously as McMahon...and neither could have drawn the Pazaaz war wheels as well as Ron Smith.
Perfection.
Yes totally agree:
Best Dredd epic
Best art
Indeed it might well be my favourite story in all comics, ever.
Hmm, getting really tough now.
Tour of Duty still top for me. There's just so much going on.
Necropolis still getting a vote from me, not so much for the Dark Judges stuff, but for the excellent build-up, the Bloodline stuff, and the legacy.
The Cursed Earth is not my favourite of what's left, but, dammit, it was the first! The one that pointed the way for all epics to follow. Plus it does a ton of world-building, most all of which is still informing the strip now - Bad Bob Booth, anyone?
1: Necropolis
2: The Cursed Earth
3: The Pit
Quote from: gogilesgo on 26 March, 2021, 08:51:55 AM
No one could have evoked the Jigsaw Man as well as Bolland did, nor Murd the Opressor as gloriously as McMahon...and neither could have drawn the Pazaaz war wheels as well as Ron Smith.
You inspired me to look these out:
(https://i.imgur.com/TT9YwXC.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/v9JQdSd.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/4Pz1ma3.png)
VOTING CLOSED
So we have the seeding done and its been an interesting set of vote - which you all got wrong - but I'll move one - so without any more whining from me about how The Cursed Earth shaped the way I view all fiction - ahem this isn't one of my self-absorbed thread is it... the results to take us into the knockouts Friday...
16th Seed = Machine Law - 1 point
15th Seed = The Day the Law Died - 10 points
14th Seed = The Cursed Earth - 12 points
13th Seed = The Pit - 16 points
12th Seed = Oz - 19 points
11th Seed = Judge Child - 20 points
10th Seed = Tour of Duty - 31 points
9th Seed = Necropolis - 41 points
So yeah the points distribution has closed up and when we close in on the real quality in the pack I think we might get some real interesting results.
Join me Monday when the knockouts begin.
Quote
You inspired me to look these out:
NOTHING CAN STAND AGAINST THE
WAR WHEELS!
Glorious.