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Without Dredd, 2000AD is nothing...

Started by Trout, 08 January, 2007, 11:17:50 AM

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Trout

A bold statement, I know, but something that's been on my mind lately, with Origins being soooooo good.

Here's the question: can you have a satisfying prog without a good Dredd story?

Can anyone point to a prog that was really, really thrilling overall, but had a poor Dredd?

I'm prepared to be convinced otherwise, but I'm of the opinion that the judge is the essential meat in the prog's sandwich. (Cue Wils...)

Without him, you only have bread and butter.
Now, bread and butter's fine, but wouldn't you rather have steak?

(I am, of course, talking about the era of established Dredd. It's commonly said the strip took a while to find its feet, and of course he wasn't in the first issue.)

Anyway, I'm hoping to start a big fight with this thread. It's been a while. ;-)

- Trout

The Enigmatic Dr X

Origins isn't that good. It's a re-telling of a tale already told. With the sole new bit being a nod towards Bush and a rigged election.

You know what's going to happen in the past and the sooner it gets to the present day, the better. Provided something then happens. My fear is that the present day plot line will be wrapped up in a few episodes.

So, having said all that, you are wrong Mr Fish.

What the prog needs is one good story - something to grab your attention and make you want to know what will happen next. It doesn't have to be Dredd.

In fact, for me it was the last run of SinDex. I was disappointed that it wasn't in this week's prog. Now it's Dante. Dredd is just meh. I am looking forward to the next epidsode of Kingdom or Sticklebakc over another slice of established history.

I'm not sure if that's enough fuel to the fire to start a fight, or if this is a sensible post. If not, then bear this in mind:

The next person to post smells of pee.
Lock up your spoons!

Wils

I'm of the opinion that the judge is the essential meat in the prog's sandwich. (Cue Wils...)

I totally agree. What makes it even better is the fact that Dredd was never intended to be the star of 2000ad in the first place, but ended up just eclipsing eveything else in the prog (at times completely), not necessarily from his first appearance, but certainly since the Robot Wars, where the sheer quality of Wagner's writing first shone like a very shiny thing to young Squaxx and Dredd's character traits were first properly consolidated.





What? ;)

Wils

The next person to post smells of pee.

DAMN!

The Enigmatic Dr X

Lock up your spoons!

Wils

Right. You asked for this...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/hamaliel/spit2.jpg">

Tiplodocus

Dredd is the strip that now represents what 2000AD is most about; rocking good stories packed with mad ideas, black humour, biting satire and women in tight leather jum suits (big guns optional).

So if Dredd went, but those ingredients remained in other stories, I think we'd be OK.


Oh and I'm at the stage now where I don't know what would make me give up 2000AD.  Even if it turned completely mince (cf early nineties), I think I'd keep on until the end of the road just for the hell of it.  
Be excellent to each other. And party on!

Mikey

I wouldn't go as far to say it would be nothing without him but when Dredd is good, it's bloody good and the rest of the prog does kind of bask in reflected glory at times.

I couldn't imagine tooth without Dredd-but how many of us buy it just to read Dredd?

"those ingredients remained in other stories, I think we'd be OK." I agree.

And also-although i've never seen a woman in a 'jum suit' I'd likley pay fine English pounds to see one.Sounds like...bum.

M.
To tell the truth, you can all get screwed.

Mr C

Oh jesus, look what you've gone and unleashed!

Dredd has always been my favorite thing in the prog and always been the first thing I've read. Mainly because it's usually the first thing in the prog but I'd read it first even if it wasn't.

Dredd's world is so vivid and so detailed that I recon Mega City 1 is one of the great sci-fi constructions. There's so much you can do with a Dredd story, you can go from the bizarre to the horrific, the epic to the intimate and the humurous to the grim and gritty in the space of a few pages. All this whilst guided by the monolith figure of Dredd, a creation that should be a cypher but that has more vitality than most characters.

So yeah, Dredd is pretty essential to my enjoyment of the prog.

And Wils smells of three week old smeg scratchings.

Cthulouis

While Dredd is not completely essential to the Prog, and there have been several other stories I have skipped to first in my weekly reading, he is the only character that we could have this conversation about.

That seems to me a good indicator of his position in the comic.


chozum

Without Dredd 2000AD wouldn't be nothing it would just be simply less entertaining.I personally think though, that origins is probarbly one of the best if not the best story that i've read, though i have only been reading for a year.

W. R. Logan

OK off the top of my head, crap Dredd Cover, crap Dredd story but otherwise a great Prog:

2000AD PROG 658
COVER DATE: 23rd December 1989
Price: 40 pence Earth money
Cover: Judge Dredd by Richard Dolan

FUTUREGRAPH
Ace Trucking by Massimo Belardinelli
http://www.2000adonline.com/covers/scans/mediumres/658.jpg>

Judge Dredd
Little Spuggy's Xmas
Script: John Wagner
Artist: Jim Baikie

Chopper
Song of the Surfer
Script: John Wagner
Artist: Colin MacNeil

The Dead Man
Script: John Wagner
Artist: John Ridgway

Zenith
Phase 3: War in Heaven
Script: Grant Morrison
Artist: Steve Yeowell

Judge Anderson
The Random Man
Script: Alan Grant
Artist: Carlos Ezquerra


Link: http://www.2000adonline.com/?zone=prog&page=profiles&choice=658" target="_blank">Prog 658

http://www.2000adonline.com/covers/2000ad/mediumres/658.jpg">

Carlsborg Expert

Yeah but the only character not from the Dreddverse in the prog is Zenith.

That's probably down to the character not being legally free to too.


Do some more digging man.

W. R. Logan

>Do some more digging man.

OK

2000AD PROG 298
COVER DATE: 8th January 1983
Price: 18 pence Earth money

Cover: Judge Dredd by John Cooper

Judge Dredd
The Last Invader
Script: John Wagner/Alan Grant
Artist: John Cooper

Robo-Hunter
Play it again, Sam
Script: John Wagner/Alan Grant
Artist: Ian Gibson

Rogue Trooper
Fort Neuro 19 episodes
Script: Gerry Finley-Day
Artist: Cam Kennedy

Harry Twenty
Harry 20 on the High Rock
Script: Gerry Finley-Day
Artist: Alan Davis

Time Twisters
Family Trees
Script: Alan Hebden
Artist: John Higgins

Link: http://www.2000adonline.com/?zone=prog&page=profiles&choice=298" target="_blank">Prog 298

http://www.2000adonline.com/covers/2000ad/mediumres/298.jpg">

Funt Solo

Whilst there are examples of progs where the Dredd effort is well below par compared to the other thrills on offer, they're few and far between and difficult to find.

Mind you, Slaughterbowl kept me reading through the Summer Offensive.

Without it's anthology format, 2000AD is nothing.
++ A-Z ++  coma ++