This blog has just gone live today:
https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/ (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/)
Mostly for my own amusement, but also because even Judge Dredd doesn't have enough of an internet presence for my tastes. There are websites out there that run down short lists of 'essential Dredd stories', and clearly the people behind them know what they're talking about.
https://io9.gizmodo.com/top-11-essential-judge-dredd-stories-5944097 (https://io9.gizmodo.com/top-11-essential-judge-dredd-stories-5944097) (a chronological list)
https://vocal.media/geeks/top-10-judge-dredd-stories (https://vocal.media/geeks/top-10-judge-dredd-stories) (plays a little fast and loose with the idea of a single storyline)
https://www.scifinow.co.uk/top-tens/top-10-best-judge-dredd-comic-book-stories/ (https://www.scifinow.co.uk/top-tens/top-10-best-judge-dredd-comic-book-stories/) (best of the bunch I reckon)
But they tend to skew too heavily towards the older epics, and more to the point, why stop at 11 when you easily classify more than 50 stories as 'epic' - in length, if not in brilliance?
Anyway, 3 new posts per week will get us through my ranking by the New Year. My Number 1 won't be much of a surprise, but just maybe the rest of the Top 10 will be...
Really looking forward to this. I guess there is a firm favourite for Number 1 spot - it wouldn't be mind there a couple of more recent one's a prefer and a couple of others even I'd rate close if not higher. So excited to see what you come up with.
Great stuff Alex - will follow with interest.
How do you subscribe? The suscribe(atom) button just leads me to a page with loads of text.
Apocalypse War for the win!
Will follow as well, great stuff !!!
This is excellent.
Great read that, looking forward to the rest! And definitely the most charitable take on Blood of Satanus III I've ever read. Cor, that Satanus double spread does looks absolutely fantastic, may have to dig those issues out again just for that.
Thanks folks!
Buttonman, I've tried setting up the subscription using feedburner - maybe it works now?
But I don't really know my way around Blogger, despite using it for more than a decade!
Have managed to subscribe via the RSS with my Feedly account. great stuff! I see neither Crusade or Blood Of Satanus 3 made it into the Mega Collection, so they left some drekk out after all!
I remember neither Crusade nor Saturnus III
Great, really looking forward to following this Epics blog! I appreciate that you are including where to read it, especially the Case Files references so I can go back and reread easily.
Anyone who can't remember Crusade should be counting their blessings tbh.
Pouring one out for Dredd's space cape.
Following! They could make this a bit simpler!
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You made the Thrillmail! Well done sir.
This is great stuff Alex.
Crusade is terrible plot-wise, but I love the design of Cesare's uniform.
I'm intrigued by Blood of Satanus III, having never read it. Has Pat commented on it anywhere?
New entry up:
https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-50-47-dont-bother.html (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-50-47-dont-bother.html)
and yay to that shout out in the Thrill-Mail! Somehow having that link makes me feel I should try harder to iron out typos...
As for BoSIII, I don't recall Pat talking about it much, although I definitely read an interview somewhere with John Hicklenton where he confesses he rushed a bunch of pages. He sure made up for it elsewhere in the same story, though!
I was very hard on BoSIII at the time, so much so that I can't even face looking up my contemporary online remarks, but it really is a truly terrible story that seems to want to be Hellraiser fanfic more than anything recognisably Dredd-related. Hicklenton's rather washed-out storytelling clearly struggled to keep up with the lurching plot as random judges, cultists and demons run hither and thither giving endless speeches about Dark Matter that'd make Phillip Pullman blush, but his core imagery is absolutely outstanding. Satanus has never looked more terrifying, and the inter-dimensional churn of demonic forms is consistently unsettling.
But in all this, I have never considered it as a Dredd epic, so I'm thankful to Alex for making me look at it again, if only for the art.
Yeah, I remember very little of BoS3, barring that I didnt much like it, and absolutely *nothing* about BoS2- so little in fact that in the intervening years when I've seen 3 mentioned I had internally marked it as a gag- because 2 had never been done.
Thanks to that blog entry i now have the Meg numbers written on my little pad, and as soon as the boiler man has been and made our house slightly warmer- allowing me to move through it without cracking ice crystals from my limbs, I will be heading into the Thrill Vault to remove said Megs from their box to read this weekend. So, thanks for that.
I've read the original BoS too many times to attempt it again at this point.
SBT
Another fantastic entry and its interesting - and high praise indeed that its taken two posts and 7 epics to get the rubbish out the way and into the good stuff. And I have to be honest a lot of those I've never considered epics (though I of course accept your definition entirely) - I love the decription of Raptaur as a micro-epic!
I completely agree with your analysis of 'City of the Damned' and I find it fascinating that I reckon many will have an alternative view and have very fond feelings for it.
I'm really looking forward to tracking this awesome blog.
With regards to the Blood of Satanus stories, I think the Blood of Satanus II was fairly bland, inoffensive, and just sort of existed. Blood of Satanus III was a whole different barrel of napalm piranhas! I recall the response on here as the story unfolded month by month. Confusion as all sorts of mad stuff was rolled out in the plot, then anger as the more it unfolded the less it made any sense at all.
The Dark Matter! Good jeebus, the Dark Matter! It was being splurged all over the shop to fill various plot holes and plot bunkers. Terrible stuff. The art didn't go uncriticised either. Hicklenton's art can usually be graded by listening to yourself make a variety of "oohs", "aahs", and "arrgh" noises as you read it. More of these noises is usually a good thing. I can only recall a series of disappointed groans.
I think the consensus was that it was nearly as if the creators were working hard to make the story terrible because if they were just dialling it in then it would have been far blander. And it went on for so long in the Meg! I'm thinking that it is uniquely even worse than we remember it.
The Crusade thing started off interesting as I was always enthusiastic to see various world judges, but this story was a good bit on from the world judge fiesta of Judgement Day. It was just a sideshow of nasty cruel things happening to one character after another. Just plain bad.
I'm excited to see what comes next in the blog. Perennial anti-favourite Purgatory can't be too far off now!
Getting a shout-out on the Thrill mail is cool.
Great second entry. I can't disagree with anything said here, these stories, more or less, all suck.
The less said about Inferno the better (lovely art though, as literally everyone says whilst slagging off Inferno) and it's refreshing to see another negative take on City of the Damned. Raptaur I couldn't stand at the time and can't stand now: it's a strip that screams 90s by embodying a lot of what was bad about the 90s in comics and if anything I'd have placed it lower than some of the other duffers we've had so far.
Really cool and interesting read this!
In turns of Raptur I'm going to say it now and be damned I loved Dean Ormston's work at the time and I love it now. I appreciate he was an artist learning his craft it sang to me then. Is so muscular and atmospheric and still think it works and is perfect for this story.
I mention in as both this and a Drokk! I've just caught up with, rightly flag some problems. Problems - unlike so much my 40s self has beaten out of the opinions set by my teens self - my teen self just won't let my 40s self see!
As it was my first mega-epic I'll defend City of the Damned to the end, there might not be much to the story, but it gets the very best out of Dredd.
Raptaur was a characteristically muddy non-event for me. Buying it all again actually brought my Casefiles purchasing to a halt at Vol. 16.
There's no saving Inferno, Carlos or no Carlos. Although I retain a soft spot for the incoherent nastiness of Purgatory.
(Incidentally, I did go searching for my online rantings about BoSIII while it ran, against my better judgement. Ouch, I was a nasty bit of goods in those days; it's painful to see it. You lot were all much wittier back then though, pull your socks up!).
City of the Damned and Raptaur are personal faves, City of the Damned particularly, so I'm going to quibble the rankings which probably wouldn't be MY rankings, but, eh, nothing they say is wrong and it's hard to name any story's that would go under them that aren't in their own way worthy.
Also if we're honest Necropolis did City of the Damned better and without a time machine.
I think City Of The Damned is regarded as a weaker due to 2 issues.
One is that the previous epics were The Cursed Earth, Day The Law Died, The Judge Child and The Apocolypse War. By comparison to these it is less of a classic.
The other is that John Wagner and Alan Grant themselves have publicly admitted their boredom with it and how they felt they had to wrap it up.
Taken on its own merits it is good story but the most significant impact of it is the change of Dredd's eyes.
City benefits from superb Dillon artwork. As an idea it has merit. Execution wise however ... reminded that Grant / Wagner bored of it and wrapped it up quickly, that makes sense. There was so much scope there.
The other epic that always sits a little uncomfortably for me is Necropolis. I get the decision to suddenly jump to the city in the thrall of the DJ's. It just still jars a lot.
When Necropolis was running in the prog, it was a source of much amusement to my 2000AD-reading best chum and me. We were at college at the time and would get our progs to read on the train, nicknaming it with shocking lack of imagination "Necrapolis".
One of our college peers saw the cover to prog 669 and threw a fit, claiming it was "glorification of drugs" and should be banned. Which we, obnoxiously, found hugely amusing.
In retrospect, I sort of see her point, and my attitude to Necropolis has changed ged over the intervening years. Especially as I watched my eldest absolutely loving it- it's probably his favourite Mega-Epic- due to the killer combination of colour, Ezquerra and the Dark Judges. These days i pick it up for a reread far more often than i would have guessed back then.
SBT
I always appreciate your desire to get more 2000AD content onto the web! I'm really excited for this project, keep it up!
Also, poor Luna City. It's more of a framing device for other Dredd adventures, but did require Dredd to wear a cape for some reason!
Boo! This blog is wrong. City of the Damned is top 10 material.
He was very publicly angry about its reception (negative) at the time - likely in part because hicklenton was either near his end or had recently passed. Emotional times.
I think hicklentons version of Dredd is very visually divisive but boy can he draw the shit out of a dinosaur.
Btw - ridiculous almost criminal placing of City of the Dammed. It's fine as a sci-fi tale and has brilliant dillion and Gibson art. Sure it's not as good as what immediately preceded or succeeded it epic wise but compared to some of the non-wagner snorefests coming up the list it's bloody outstanding. Saying 'don't bother' with it is a joke.
I'm not sure I would agree with the idea of Lunar City as a Mega-Epic. Then again I can sort of see the logic. I mean in some respects stories like the Judge Child Quest and Cursed Earth saga following similar structures. Whereas the likes of the Day the Law Died and Apocalypse War are more unified stories (AW in particular).
I guess that is just me being pedantic. At least we can all agree on Crusade ...
Super glad to get people riled up in defense of their favourites here. Personally I keep wanting to like City of the Damned but it just goes nowhere, all too quickly.
Anyway, next entry up this morning:
https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-46-44-actually-these-are-quite.html (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-46-44-actually-these-are-quite.html)
-and we've already reached the point where I'd say these stories are good and well worth reading. Longform Dredd is a reliably good time.
Never would have thought of including Chief Judge's Man, but good call! The art on that, throughout, is gorgeous.
My own fondness for the Mega-Rackets comes from picking them up bit by bit, out of order, as back-progs. In that format, they seemed vast, and a gradual insight into a more complex MC-1 than I had previously imagined (as well as making sense of the JD Boardgame!). Their exoticism was increased by my general ignorance of the gangster tropes they were playing with.
I absolutely loved Wilson's SF environments, an order 'harder' than the Ron Smith/Ezquerra era I was getting weekly downstream in 1983, and all the more captivating because Wilson had vanished from the Prog completely by that time.
I'm having as much fun playing with my nerd rage about what's being counted as an epic as the actual positions of the stories listed here!
I've never thought of the Luna 1 stuff as an Epic, but certain see why folks might. I can kinda see the argument for Chief Judge's Man though it really is interconnected short stories. BUT the Mega Rackets no surely not I won't stand for this outrage... except of course I will... and I'll eat it up as:
1) Its your list so my childish fan rage can do one.
2) Including these here means we just have more of your fun write ups in this wonderful Blog - so nerd rage Colin will just have to bloody well get over it!
No rage like nerd rage. :lol:
Pretty sure today's trio would all be considered as epics without much quibbling...
Part of what makes the selections feel right is if they've ever been bound up in their own collection - which is very much not true of Luna 1 or the Mega Rackets.
https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/07/epics-43-41-these-stories-are-real.html (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/07/epics-43-41-these-stories-are-real.html)
Quote from: AlexF on 09 December, 2020, 09:49:22 AM
Pretty sure today's trio would all be considered as epics without much quibbling...
Well actually Mechanismo I've never thought of as a... okay, okay I'll let it go now...
More great write ups. I'm a fan of Doomsday - the double header of Wilson and Kennedy in the Prog story is just wonderful. I also defo take on board the idea that Narcos is a rubbish villain - but that's almost his charm for me. At the end when he's all but won there's a wonderful moment when he kinda says "Yah me I won... but this is all a bit rubbish... what did I do that for I hate the fact I'm now in charge... bugger...".
The prospect of Kennedy and Wilson on Dredd was what drew me back to the prog in 1999, so I'll always have a soft spot for Doomsday (although tellingly I don't own a collection of it). Issues with mixed results from the artists aside (despite being a massive SBD fan, I can't get along with his largely leg-free work here), my main objection is how often this still gets billed as Robot War II.
It really isn't.
Not only is the instigator just another fleshy-one brain in a cybersuit, rather than a robo-messiah, the premise of MC-1's legion of robots being turned on the Judges by a gangster is ditched immediately in favour of an army of purpose built Assassinator droids, which for me makes a nonsense of Narcos's scheme. You don't really need to have a brilliant plan if you can just buy enough wardroids to take over, as the denouement shows all too clearly.
This leaves the MkII booby-trap as the only clever bit, but in a way it's too clever - it shouldn't have been a matter of street judges just losing a hand (never really mentioned again), they should have all been killed outright by whatever war-robot they were drawing against. This might not have been true if they were fighting vending-machine butlers and block-painting droids, but against Assassinators none of them should have survived.
There's a lot to like in the story, especially the DeMarco bits, and Narcos' anti-climactic resignation, but ultimately I don't think it lives up to its considerable promise
Yeah, I think it's one of those ideas that sounds more interesting on paper than it is in execution - what if a villain was in a position to basically buy his way to domination but didn't actually have any reason to want it, and no idea what to do after he'd won? Turns out, he doesn't do much except wait to get beaten.
And you're right that this is a lot less Robot War-y than I made out. It did feel like it was referencing that story when I read it, though - I wonder if Wagner had meant to do more with the idea of Narcos becoming more robot than man, perhaps? Given how good AI is in MC1 times, it's a wonder more robots aren't granted personhood - or that more people haven't transferred their minds into robot bodies.
Quote from: AlexF on 09 December, 2020, 12:36:54 PM
And you're right that this is a lot less Robot War-y than I made out.
Didn't mean you were doing it there, you're quite right that Wagner is having another go at the concept, more that it's literally referred to as the Second Robot War in some later stories, when it's actually a crimelord putsch, and not an AI uprising.
(A bit like when characters refer to
Day of Chaos as "the Chaos Riots", as if that was the significant event, rather than the death of 80% of the population from a bioweapon).
I only read Robot Wars decades later as an adult, so maybe my view is clouded by that, but for me it's very much a strip still finding its feet at that point. It's quite basic: bad guys do stuff, mayhem ensues; Judge Dredd stops them.
The Mega Rackets is one of my all time favourite Dredd strips. I would love to see more stories like this. There must be a lot of special stuff to come if this is down at 43.
It's especially impressive given (as I understand it) it was commissioned as filler to give Bolland more time to complete Judge Death Lives.
This blog is excellent: keep it up!
Trying to figure out what counts as an epic is good nerdy fun. I can just about get to Blood of Satanus III at 35, but struggling to get to 52 from there.
One thing's for sure: you must be including a ton of stuff that isn't anywhere near as good as 'Doomsday' :)
All together in Case Files 30, it's a cracking read with some really great art from some of my all-time favourites. Plus, it's fun to try to figure out a reading order if you were to remix the Prog and Meg stories in story sequence.
Another set of three 'epics' up this morning:
https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-40-38-youd-be-forgiven-for.html (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-40-38-youd-be-forgiven-for.html)
Quote from: AlexF on 10 December, 2020, 09:06:34 AM
Another set of three 'epics' up this morning:
https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-40-38-youd-be-forgiven-for.html (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-40-38-youd-be-forgiven-for.html)
Great blog AlexF
Epic 37 you listed as
Progs 2055-1069, I think it should have been
Progs 2055-2069
The epic so epic is travels back in time!
Good spot, Broodblik, have fixed it now.
Oh now we are in the sticky mire of placings to debate. Which is always fun.
I was wondering whether you'd roll the Mandroid's together, but as you rightly point out since its clearly marked as Mandroid 2 and as such should stand in its own. I love both the Mandroid stories so I'm a little surprised to see this one down here, but haven't really got a list in my head as to what's to come. I'll sure I'll petulantly rant about this later though...
Dredd in Sovland needs to be read again as I'll hold off commenting here, except to say is this the one with sliding lava dog - that seems to get some folks excited! I'm looking forward to eventually reading this with a fresh perspective.
BUT IN WHAT WORLD OF CRAZY are Judgement Day AND Darkside ranking higher than both Mechanismo AND Doomsday... why I...
... I'm tracking you down AlexF. I'm tracking you down and... and ... debating strenuously and as maturely as two adults debating the relative qualities of Dredd epics can this placement. Oh get ready to get your ass debated...
...I mean I know Judgement Days has its fans. Pete 'Lovely' Wells even has some fevered delusions where he rates it better than 'Cursed Earth', but its full of all sorts of nonsense. Why nuke Mega City 2 which is hundreds of miles away 'cos if they don't the world will be over run by zombies from there... a world that has 2 days left as I recall, giving the slow moving rambling zombies two days to get across the Cursed Earth to be of any significence... oh what the heck let's nuke 'um anyway...
and relax Taylor... relax...
... better than, Mechanismo, grumble mumble, doesn't even hold a candle to Doomsday, gripe moan...
... oh but you do get bonus points for being the first person ever to write up Judgement Day without mentioning that page!
While we're nitpicking, "Dredd in Sovland" has been collected, in the very skippable 'Cold Wars' GN.
You're generous to this one...
Very interesting to see how these are evaluated. I enjoy a lot of City of the Damned, and Judgement Day is one of my guilty pleasures - I love it! I can't disagree with a lot of the problems with it, but I always have a blast re-reading it. Zombies! Ezquerra! Alpha & Dredd side by side!
City of the Damned is a great story. It isn't even spoiled by having so many different artists on it, because I like all of them (but Steve Dillon especially). I love the revelation of who the bad guy is, and how far the city has fallen, and vampire judges, and undead Dredd, and blind Dredd refusing to give up. Everything about it is brilliant.
Judgement Day was superb.I literally couldn't wait for days to count down until the next issue.I think it's the last Dredd epic that really grabbed me in such a way.8
If anything, reading Dredd Epics Ranked reminds me how much I enjoy reading Dredd and inspires me to pull out the case files...suddenly The Chief Judge's Man and The Hunting Party will be part of my holiday reading.
Well getting people to re-read Dredd is the main point, of course!
For what it's worth, I marked down Doomsday and especially Mechanismo down quite a lot for the art. I think Manuel Benet might be my least favourite work on a major Dredd story - he's not a bad artist but it didn't fit here for me. And Doomsday has the disadvantage of a) young Googe and young Simon Davis not being ready for the big time yet, and old master Cam Kennedy just NOT being able to draw Cass Anderson. There I said it.
Thanks for pointing out the Cold Wars collection, Andy B - I'll update that entry. It's making me feel better about including that story here - having the side definition of 'has this story been reprinted in a collection' is quite a useful one for deciding whether a storyline counts as 'epic'.
More rankings up this morning, and more choices to argue about!
https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-37-34-very-average.html (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-37-34-very-average.html)
I hadn't realised Die Laughing counted here, but ranking above anything (apart from maybe Crusade) seems pretty scandalous as it is absolutely abysmal, lacking any of the good bits from Judgement on Gotham and amplifying the bad.
This continues to an interesting read. I haven't read a couple of these: I enjoyed Sin City, although in retrospect it is a bit crowded, I think this kind of adds to the story rather than detracts from it.
Sin City is one of my top 10 Dredd epics
I'm just struggling with the idea that The Ecstacy ranks higher than City of the Damned and Doomsday. It's in contention for Wagner's most boring Dredd.
You're a fiend for those controversy clicks, Alex! :lol:
Yeah Ecstacy is the least epic of epics I have to say. Thouhg re-reading it recently was entirely enjoyable and its interesting to learn why its quite so needlessly long. But there's no point me thrashing around screaming x should be higher than y is there... I mean I've done that already... so... I won't... yet...
I really enjoyed Blood Trails when I re-read it recently(ish). Shame some of the plot threads where never picked up. Sin City seems an all together more popular beast. I think its placed about right here (with no idea whats to come) a kinda mid range long form Dredd. With great art.
To my enternal shame I've never read 'Die Laughing' and there's nowt said here that especially makes me want to either!
I'm definitely guilty of judging some of these things on what they could have been, versus what they actually are. City of the Damned and Sin City both strike me on re-reads as missed opportunities - I mean, you've got Dredd in Hell and Dredd in the city of vice and all he does in one is go back to a time machine then nuke a robot from orbit, and in the other instead of having fun with hookers and fatties and gladiators he uncovers a sov plot (again)...
But clearly the controversy is not going to stop; gotta get those clicks!
Quote from: AlexF on 15 December, 2020, 02:51:02 PM
I'm definitely guilty of judging some of these things on what they could have been...
In The Ecstasy's case, that's "3 parts".
I don't rate Sin City as much more than 'competent and stylish' myself - although that being said, I don't think I've re-read it since it originally ran. The shift from Danser to Orlok as antagonist just seemed like a pointless throwaway, coming after his appearances in Childhood's End and Doomsday. I did however enjoy the perfunctory execution epilogue, that's proper 'uniquely Wagner', that is.
I remember when reading The Ecstasy thinking firstly, this is very poor for Wagner, and secondly, this is interminable, when is it ever going to end?
Blood Trails I really liked, particularly for how the supporting cast got pulverised. There was an amazing cliff hanger when it looked like Giant (I think) had got his head blown off.
I have no recollection whatsoever for The Ecstasy - I had to look it up in my spreadsheet. 2009, huh? Ten episodes. I should remember something. I'll try cover clues...
(http://www.2000ad.org/covers/2000ad/mediumres/1620.jpg) (http://www.2000ad.org/covers/2000ad/mediumres/1623.jpg)
Nope - still nothing.
Okay, I'll read yer blog...
Ahh ... the vaguest of memories are surfacing now. Pretty dire stuff. A cross between Pulp Fiction's case of wonder and that brummy robot from SkIIIzz.
And this ranked higher than City of the Damned?
The Ecstasy isn't so bad when you read it all in one go, but I remember being bored by it when reading one episode a week. It should be lower on the list than it is though.
Quote from: AlexF on 15 December, 2020, 06:47:00 AM
More rankings up this morning, and more choices to argue about!
https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-37-34-very-average.html (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-37-34-very-average.html)
When you finish this epic endeavour, might I suggest you rank the end of year 100-page progs? This year's festive prog will be the 21st edition. [Only took 2 years of campaigning to convince Egmont it was a good idea to try this in the 1990s...]
Happy to take requests! You are right to be proud of this tradition, Mr Bishop. I've been a digital subscriber for 6 years now but I make a point of picking up the Xmas prog in print.
(and I trust Matt Smith doesn't curse your name annually when he has to fill 100 pages on a very specific deadline... :D)
Meanwhile, more Dredd musings:
https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-31-29-reaching-for-heights.html (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-31-29-reaching-for-heights.html)
Oh, and to all you 'Ecstasy' haters - I'm willing to bet that of all the epics I've ranked so far, this one is the best to give to someone who has literally never read any Judge Dredd before...
Quote from: davidbishop on 16 December, 2020, 09:10:20 AM
might I suggest you rank the end of year 100-page progs?
The first two are hard to beat content and classic creator-wise.
Quote from: Link Prime on 16 December, 2020, 09:48:00 AM
The first two are hard to beat content and classic creator-wise.
Prog 2000 (the first one) by a mile, for me. I think there may well have been objectively better end-of-year extravaganzas (extravaganzæ...?) over the years when judged by content, but the nineties, man... the f***ing
nineties.
There was a very real feeling in the middle of that decade that the comic wouldn't survive until the landmark year and that end-of-year prog had a triumphal "We're
still here" vibe. All those classic creators writing and drawing love-letter-to-2000AD stories... it revived a sense of both pride and hope, bolstered a few months later by news of the Rebellion buy-out.
It was special in every sense of the word.
Thanks for this AlexF.
Love reading 2000AD, and love reading peoples thoughts / reviews / musings.
What's so wonderful, is that you aren't snarky and hateful, and always try to find the positives, and in the year we have just put behind us, we need more of your lovely writing on something we all hold near and dear to our hearts.
Thank you.
Quote from: AlexF on 16 December, 2020, 09:31:29 AM
Oh, and to all you 'Ecstasy' haters - I'm willing to bet that of all the epics I've ranked so far, this one is the best to give to someone who has literally never read any Judge Dredd before...
Funnily enough I think the same of sin city.
And am baffled the slight dig at walkers art.
Atmosphere, characters, b-plot, showdowns, dredd being the baddest MF... everything works.
I remember really enjoying the Blood Trails story, but cursing the art. It just did not feel right for a weighty significant feeling story. The other time I recall being as annoyed by the art was the sequence in the Tale of the Dead Man where Morphy is killed and I think the art was by Jeff Anderson. This was one of the most important ever Dredd stories and it was drawn by some randomer and not one of the major artists.
My Trifecta experience was somewhat unique. For someone who will usually read each prog from cover to cover religiously, for some reason in this run of progs I was just reading Dredd, and only skimming Low Life. I wasn't even reading Simping Detective and whatever else was on the go. I'm trying to recall at what point I realised I was missing two thirds of the story, but I think it was a number of weeks after the actual reveal was made and everyone else in the universe knew what was going on. Did I feel stupid looking back over the stories and finding that I had not even noticed that moment where Dredd burst into the next story? You betcha!
Ha! That's brilliant - even Tharg can't account for our individual reading habits.
Back when I was getting the physical Prog I would often read strips out of order, picking whatever I was in the mood for first. It's a bit more of a pain doing that with thr Digital Prog so I kind of have to read it cover to cover without skipping bits.
Quote from: sixmo on 16 December, 2020, 11:25:47 AMThe other time I recall being as annoyed by the art was the sequence in the Tale of the Dead Man where Morphy is killed and I think the art was by Jeff Anderson. This was one of the most important ever Dredd stories and it was drawn by some randomer and not one of the major artists.
And there truly is no accounting for taste! Anderson's Dredd output was a bit up and down for me, but I thought he (and Simpson) did a fantastic job on Tale of the Dead Man, especially the pages where the Med-Judges are bagging up Morph. The colouring in particular is incredible, coming between Simpson's unique palette and the absolute tour-de-force of Ezquerra's on Necropolis: the full-colour era had truly arrived. My only beef was the cliffhanger transition between the episodes when Dredd is excessive-forcing Morph's killer in front of the Zoom, which just doesn't work in collected form.
Quote from: AlexF on 16 December, 2020, 09:31:29 AM
Oh, and to all you 'Ecstasy' haters - I'm willing to bet that of all the epics I've ranked so far, this one is the best to give to someone who has literally never read any Judge Dredd before...
It's a good point, and my tongue in cheek ramblings about it should be filed under "that man only read it once eleven years ago so his opinion isn't entirely relevant".
It does remind me of a movie in which there's some kind of alien in the trunk of a car ... what was that? Oh wait - Repo Man! So, perhaps shades of Repo Man in there.
Quote from: TordelBack on 16 December, 2020, 03:12:14 PM
And there truly is no accounting for taste! Anderson's Dredd output was a bit up and down for me, but I thought he (and Simpson) did a fantastic job on Tale of the Dead Man, especially the pages where the Med-Judges are bagging up Morph.
I really loved Will Simpson's work on that story and the previous Kraken stories. Anderson's art was not exactly like Will Simpson's and therefore I was cranky!
Pronouncement A: City of the Damned is aces!
Pronouncement B: Dead Ringer is aces!
Pronouncement C: It isnt a real Epic unless it has 100 pages or more (though not sure what that does for City of the Damned...)
Just to make a change from "I can't believe you put X higher than Y!", I agree 100% with your placing and assessment of 'Trifecta'. I could never get on with Jack Point: almost unreadable. (Spurrier's Hellblazer has been fantastic, though).
That said, next up: two pieces of "fluff" that are better than 'Doomsday' :)
I'm fast approaching a re-read of Trifecta and really look forward to getting there. Its one I should probably buy in trade to be read without being distracted by the other thrills - as I will on the upcoming re-read (as part of a prog Slog). I think it deserves bonus points for the ambition of it and Tharg's decision to allow the surprise to absolutely land... I have to be honest it took me a bit before it hit home and I remember sitting there when I started to read 'Simping Detective' thinking. Wow that's a bit weird that Dredd's about to burst into a room and then actually does in the next strip... I think it took me until I noticed some ducks on the wall before it slotted into place!
I love the artistic choices being so different, but then using Carl Critchlow to so perfectly bring it all home and pull it together and somehow, magically, become the nexus of those three utterly diverse styles.
Unlike Wilderlands which I think is artistically so weak as its all over the place and I get no sense of rythm or reason behind the lurches all over the place. And sorry to say it and I'll take my licks for doing so) but he's really let down by this early use of computer colouring... I also don't like how he draws Old One Eye in Helter Skelter, but that's small fry given his house was falling down around him!
Not gonna make any new friends this morning I feel...
https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-28-26-sublime-and-ridiculous.html (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-28-26-sublime-and-ridiculous.html)
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 16 December, 2020, 07:46:50 PM
... I have to be honest it took me a bit before it hit home and I remember sitting there when I started to read 'Simping Detective' thinking. Wow that's a bit weird that Dredd's about to burst into a room and then actually does in the next strip... I think it took me until I noticed some ducks on the wall before it slotted into place!
I made this comment on the prog thread
one week before the big reveal - how foolish did I feel afterwards?
Quote from: Dark Jimbo on 18 October, 2012, 03:39:28 PM
I think running Low Life alongside Simping Detective is going to flag up the similarities of both strips to their detriment, especially coming so soon after also-very-similar Lenny Zero - and as if to prove the point (comes right after the Jack), both strips feature a 3-flying-ducks motif this week, of all things - what are the chances?! Not to mention that they're both following a narrator-straight-in-at-the-deep-end-unsure-what's-happening plot; Dirty Frank's got a bump on the head and no memory, Jack's got a hangover and toothache, but it's still all far too similar. Three Dreddworld strips in a five-strip comic is too much. Isn't that what the Megazine's for?
Quote from: AlexF on 17 December, 2020, 09:04:10 AM
Not gonna make any new friends this morning I feel...
https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-28-26-sublime-and-ridiculous.html (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-28-26-sublime-and-ridiculous.html)
AlexF, AlexF I admire your work. I will still steal it to make my worthless tourney's easier for me. Heck I might even respect your Blogging but I can never... never... never speak to you again after placing Tour of Duty there... I retract my offer of marriage. I offer you a white feather. And I'm looking at all legal options available to me.
Tour of Duty is in my top 3 and I'm not sure where in that... okay okay I might read
why you place it there at some point and have your own opinions and all sorts. But for now I just need space...
Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 16 December, 2020, 10:27:16 AM
Quote from: Link Prime on 16 December, 2020, 09:48:00 AM
The first two are hard to beat content and classic creator-wise.
Prog 2000 (the first one) by a mile, for me. I think there may well have been objectively better end-of-year extravaganzas (extravaganzæ...?) over the years when judged by content, but the nineties, man... the f***ing nineties.
There was a very real feeling in the middle of that decade that the comic wouldn't survive until the landmark year and that end-of-year prog had a triumphal "We're still here" vibe. All those classic creators writing and drawing love-letter-to-2000AD stories... it revived a sense of both pride and hope, bolstered a few months later by news of the Rebellion buy-out.
It was special in every sense of the word.
Defo.
When you look at the creator call sheet for the original Prog 2000..."Legendary" doesn't cover it.
Quote from: AlexF on 17 December, 2020, 09:04:10 AM
Not gonna make any new friends this morning I feel...
https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-28-26-sublime-and-ridiculous.html (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-28-26-sublime-and-ridiculous.html)
Ah here! Leave it out! Tour of Duty wallowing in the deep 20's? I promised myself I wouldn't get too worked up about the actual placings and just wallow in the excellent and entertaining reviews that you were providing, but this is beyond the pale! I'm wondering what surprises we are going to see next. Will we see America, The Apocalypse War, The Pit, and Necropolis all outside the Top Ten? Will The Three Amigos be number one? Where will the madness end?
Maybe the very act of creating the blog has broken your mind? Who knew that obsessive cataloging, analyzing, and ranking of 40+ years of freak out weirdo stuff could have this effect on a person's psyche!
I mean, Tour of Duty is still an excellent story! But come on, have you re-read it lately, all in one go? It's not a strong on a re-read as it was when it ran weekly and we just couldn;t wait to see what happened next...
Meanwhile, just for fun, here's a rundown of all the Mega Epics in order of how Mega they are, where 'Mega' is defined as 'More than 100 pages'. I've even inlcuded covers and star scans, just to break some ties.
The Hunting Party: 105 + 4 covers 109
Luna City: 110 pages + 1 cover (for the epilogue) 111
Terror + Total War: 121 pages + 4 covers 125
Purgatory + Inferno: 121 pages + 5 covers 126
Judge Cal: 129 pages + 4 covers + 1 star scan 135
Every Empire Falls: 132 pages + 3 Prog covers 135
Titan + Enceladus: 130 pages + 7 covers 137
Judgement Day: 150 + 6 prog covers 156
Trifecta: 163 pages + 6 covers 169
Mechanismo 1+2+3: 164 pages + 7 Meg covers 171
The Cursed Earth: 164 pages + 12 covers + 1 star scan 177
Origins: 169 pages + 9 covers 178
The Judge Child: 169 pages + 10 covers + 1 star scan 179
The Pit: 191 pages + 5 covers 196
Oz: 199 pages + 9 covers + 5 star scans 213
Block Mania + The Apocalypse War: 208 pages + 10 covers 218
Wilderlands (+ prologues): 217 pages + 6 prog covers 223
Doomsday (+ prologues): 279 pages + 10 Prog covers 289
Day of Chaos: 299 pages + 6 covers 305
Tour of Duty, the whole boiling lot: 336 pages + 7 Prog covers 343
Necropolis, + The Dead Man and all prologues: 336 pages + 15 covers 351
Quote from: AlexF on 18 December, 2020, 11:16:57 AM
I mean, Tour of Duty is still an excellent story! But come on, have you re-read it lately, all in one go? I
I have literally just finished a re-read as part of my Prog Slog... no no I need the space, I need the space... I can't do this now...
... uhhh more exciting stats - this is excellent!
...but still need the space...
I'm fairly sure this blog is a plea for help.
Quote from: BPP on 18 December, 2020, 11:24:38 AM
I'm fairly sure this blog is a plea for help.
:lol:
It's like that old Megazine Dredd Texas sting story. Anybody replying or commenting has had their details taken, and the men in white coats will be along shortly.
Quote from: AlexF on 18 December, 2020, 11:16:57 AM
I mean, Tour of Duty is still an excellent story! But come on, have you re-read it lately, all in one go? It's not a strong on a re-read as it was when it ran weekly and we just couldn;t wait to see what happened next...
The episodic style of these stories is an important factor though, I feel. It's hard to quantify at a remove, but that cliffhanger feeling and having to wait till next week and mull over the possibilities in the meantime are a big part of the enjoyment. I think that should be taken into consideration if that is at all possible and I do think you mention it in the reviews in fairness.
In protest I will now be only reading collected volumes at a rate of one episode per week!
Also, the stats! Love the stats!
On another crazy stats rabbit hole, I wonder if anyone has ever compiled the list of Dredd's various minor injuries and major wounds down the years. For example, I can think of at least four occasions where he was burnt to a sizzle alone. There has to be a nutter out there to take this on!
I wish someone had composed a list of how many times Sinister and/or Dexter got shot in the shoulder. By the strip's third year it had become a running gag between myself and Dan Abnett, so by now it must be dozens of times...
Must ... resist ... compiling a spreadsheet ...
Quote from: davidbishop on 18 December, 2020, 02:10:16 PM
I wish someone had composed a list of how many times Sinister and/or Dexter got shot in the shoulder. By the strip's third year it had become a running gag between myself and Dan Abnett, so by now it must be dozens of times...
If it helps I used to have a list of every time it had ever been in Downlode. CET.
Ouch! I'd have put money on 'Tour of Duty' being top 3. If you leave nostalgia for the early stuff aside, I think it's John Wagner's masterpiece. But I take the point about its fragmented nature: there's more than one kind of 'epic'...
Yay! The 100 sift sorts the wheat from the chaff (though there's still the old long form clunker hanging aroound in there! )
Whilst I may have serious issues with your numerical scores and hence the ordering (I would've been tempted to rank by gut instinct and then fudge the numbers), I can't argue with most of your actual reviews or arguments - I have quibbles, but you make a sound case about the strengths and flaws of each epic (well until you shat the bed downgrading the script for ToD. You mention the good things about the storyline, but I don't think you give them enough weight in the score. It's a definite top 10 IMO).
I agree Trifecta is far less impressive without the delightful shock (which I missed at the time as I always read in worst to best order).
As for Helter Skelter, I think you're being a bit generous when it comes to the balance between "interesting story" and "indulgent fanwank" - Ennis has admitted that he was too much of a fanboy to be writing Dredd, and for me the whole "ho hum, another magic callback of a dead character I remember" annoyance obliterated any subtle strengths of the story.
I never thought there was a continuity error in Wilderlands - I always read it as that comment on Doug Wolk's blog explained. Those photoshop backgrounds though - yikes, they do look a bit crude and dated now, but I remember at the time we were all having our minds blown by desktop publishing and early photoshop, and I thought they looked cool then.
PS -has anyone taken that guy up on the Hicklenton artwork offer?
I fear I've lost too many friends and readers after my last entry, but nonetheless the ranking continues...
https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-25-23-noble-failures.html (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-25-23-noble-failures.html)
Catching up on these and that the risible End of Days ranks higher than the likes of Trifecta, Sin City and especially Origins is just mindblowing! In fairness it did look ace.
This continues to be such a good read though. It's really inspired me to go back and read stuff like Beyond the Call of Duty and Mandroid that I haven't read for aaages
Damni these are all reasonable placings and well executed analysis (as ever)... what the heck am I meant to rally against???
One thing that does worry me you have over 20 Epics to go and are already ranking things 16+ have you numbers left support the ongoing climb in quality? I did an Asterix re-read not that long ago, alongside a website and ranked all the books on the comments on that website, alongside others who were doing the same. In the end I ended up with a mark of 14/10 having broken my 1-10 scale with Legionnary (as I recall) and still needing extra praise from there!
This is like asking two people what their favourite dish is and you will get 5 different answers. I am also quite surprised by the high ranking of End of Days but I still enjoy the analysis behind it all.
Can't agree with the ranking (better than City of the Damned and Origins? Nah), but otherwise Alex is spot-on re: End of Days. It's just plain fun, and packed hyper-dense with imagery and incident. Looking to it for some sort of deep significance for Dredd or his world is a fool's quest and led me to initial disappointment: it's a wacky globe-trotting ensemble adventure, and in a strip recently full of dark conspiracies and intimations of mortality, all the more welcome for that.
I think it turned out the best of Rob's longer Dredds, maybe tying with the Pin sequence, albeit completely different in tone and scope.
Another round of 'your definition of epic is kinda shonky' today...
https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-22-20-have-you-forgotten-about.html (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-22-20-have-you-forgotten-about.html)
Now that makes for fascinating reading. I didn't even know Krong Island existed, let alone that it was already collected. Going to have to pursue that one.
Fetish I've never thought of as an epic, although I like it well enough. Every Empire Falls I think is due for a re-read, and I'm not sure I ever read the Koburn bits.
Lots to think about!
I'm enjoying this a lot. Thanks AlexF
I'm really looking forward to a re-read of Every Empire Falls - which is kinda close on my Prog Slog. I remember really liking it but it getting a bit of a kickin' at the time. Interested to see how it actually lands.
In other news you link to an old Hamlyn edtion of Fetish - now for some reason - lost to me now - I have an older Rebellion edition of 'Swimming in Blood' (2004) in my head I was advised the printing was much better in that edition which really helped the colours and storytelling therefore - but I've also got a nagging feeling there were other printing problems in that one OR was that in a different edition? Its not in the new Devlin Waugh Swimming in Blood edition I don't think SO how is the printing in Cases Files?
I guess my question is which is the best edition to get Fetish is? Does anyone know?
I only have the Hachette version of Fetish (TMC Vol 16), and it looks fine to me there. Bit dark in places, but that seems intentional. In fact, a quick flick suggests that all the Waugh material looks pretty spiffy. I feel an impromptu re-read coming on...
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 23 December, 2020, 12:43:22 PM
I'm really looking forward to a re-read of Every Empire Falls - which is kinda close on my Prog Slog. I remember really liking it but it getting a bit of a kickin' at the time. Interested to see how it actually lands.
I have the trade print of this and it is the only Dredd volume I have that I couldn't finish. I got about 2/3rds of the way through but just closed the book and couldn't bring myself to go back and finish it. I can't really give any specific reasons why, I just wasn't feeling invested. Maybe I will try to give it another go over the xmas break.
The printing quality of Fetish in the Case Files is top notch. But it does suffer, as they all do, from being such a fat book that sometimes the full impact of those double-pagers gets a bit lost in trying to jam the book open. I don't actually have that Hamlyn collection but they were printed at original Prog/Meg size, and are probably the best out there for art lovers.
On with the show, and another round of smaller epics...
[spoiler]https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-19-17-hidden-gems.html[/spoiler]
Bringing out the big guns now, no doubt more forum friends will fall by the wayside...
[spoiler]https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-16-14-two-of-these-are-many.html[/spoiler]
And before you can draw breath, here's today's entry, where I'll really lose people's respect:
[spoiler]https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-13-10-nostalgic-favourites.html[/spoiler]
This ranking is running up until New Year's Eve, by the way - in the hope all can be forgiven in time for 2021...
Hold on you've posted another... I'll save my ranting until I've read that. Just in case i can be more ranting efficient...
[RANT]
What the... if we weren't already on a break this would have done it... I might now have to get back together with you so I can plot the downfall of your family, all your loved ones AND destroy your career AND then break up with you again...
... or maybe I'll just find out your secret identity from my tower of crime and then shatter your life piece by piece until you have no hope left, you have nothing to fear... hmmm ... I seem to remember someone else doing that in another comic and it going wrong for them... oh well...
Anyway there is so much to unpick here. Firstly I am entirely comfortable with your placing of the following, some quibbles about exact ordering aside:
Oz (always thought that was a little over rated)
Necropolis (build up superb, moments of wonder, lets itself down a little at the end)
Day the list I mean Law Died (pretty good, but no where near as good as... well we'll come back to that...)
Judge Child Quest - most scatter gun of epics
I'm happy (by and large with all that) as long as you accept the stunning folly of placing Cursed Earth and The Pit outside the top 3 - I've come to the awkward conclusion that there are in fact 4 in my top three, but compared to the stoning offenses committed in this list my numerical ineptitude is nothing NOTHINGGGGGGG I say, nah SCREEAAAMMMM.
Okay I can see how the art on The Pit brings down the overall score, but that just means you are hung by your own system damnit.
The one good thing this list has done is made me come up with a whole new format of Tourney that I plan to get to as soon as possible to right some of the wrongs here.
[/RANT]
By all that is Thrillpowered I can't wait to see what the top ten looks like - this is an amazing read. Even if it has made me storm into a fast food resturant and demand breakfast at gun point...
Very excited to see this list reach its climax! There's a ton of these that are outside my personal reading timeline, and I'm stoked to eventually get to them!
When this madness finally is over I think we need our own mass vote.
Not epics, I mean whether to pay for his counselling.
After having stomped on people's childhoods, we're into the Top 10, strating with some right crackers from more recent years. What do you mean, you don't like the horse?
[spoiler]https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-9-7-short-but-oh-so-sweet.html[/spoiler]
I see you have one of my favourite Dredd stories quite high up on the ladder, Mandroid. Just one problem with it and it is you even gave the lower ranked ones a bigger font to celebrate their position
Its interesting how personal biase creeps in here. The thought of Harvey and Machine Law being put together and counted as epics gives me a nervous twitch in my lower left eye lid. Yet I'm entirely happy with Titan, Enceladus and Enceladus - New Life being lumped together. The latter feel far more cohesive as a whole. The former seem like deliberately seperated stories with a theme running through them.
You pays ya money and takes ya choice!
The thing is, I'm a sucker for stories that explore the AI/human dynamic. For my money, Harvey/Machine Law is the satisfying version of Mechanismo. But yes, bundling them as an epic is just me cheating!
Thanks BB for the heads up on the font styling error! It's an offence on a par with putting the title of a book too high/low on the spine. Luckily, it's easy to fix these things on a digital creation.
More hearts to be broken this morning...
[spoiler]https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-6-4-how-much-destruction-can-one.html[/spoiler]
Oh you thought I was mad. I get the feeling this one might be even more controversial and the stuff that made me break off our engagement and cut holes in all your trousers.
Curiously for me this is the one where by a large I think I find all these epics in about the right place. Its even possible these are placed exactly as I would, though more likely these three would be placed 4, 5, 6 in my listing but in a different order - when this is done I'm going to do my list to see how it compares out of interest... and maybe for a tourney I now have planned.
Really interested to see what the top 3 are - trying not to think about what's not appeared to work it out ahead of time as this has been fascinating...
Oh I've just realised, as your definition of what qualifies is different to mine, I might know at least 1 of the top three and if that's right then it would also be in mine, but I'd not factored it in my ranking to this point... this is going to be very interesting...
The final ranking...
https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-3-1-bitter-end.html (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-3-1-bitter-end.html)
...but not the final posting. Two more entries over the next two days to tie everything off.
If we're including both America and Deadman it will be interesting to see how I would rank things. Certainly both would be in my top ten and very possibly top 5... America might well be my no.1
Interesting that you have rated Origins so highly. Its good but for me has significent issues.
This list, aside from ending our relationship and forcing me to become a rabid ne'r-do-well set only on your destruction, has been a fantastic read. Thanks so much for sharing.
I look forward to the next two posts when I can only assume will be spend throwing yourself at our mercy and begging our forgiveness?
Quote from: AlexF on 29 December, 2020, 10:04:55 AM
The final ranking...
https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-3-1-bitter-end.html (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-3-1-bitter-end.html)
...but not the final posting. Two more entries over the next two days to tie everything off.
I almost agree with your top 2 but I would have at least included The Apocalypse War in the top 3. I still think you have a solid list here for the top 10.
I'll take an "I almost agree" any day!
Time for some housekeeping:
https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/aftermath-part-1-whatd-i-miss.html (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/aftermath-part-1-whatd-i-miss.html)
You did a sterling job and I just love your analysis of the story. We all have different reasons why we like something. If I setup a to 10 today it will look completely different by the ned of the week. We will ask two people and get 3 different opinion and 10 different explanations.
Truly fantastic series, Alex, up there with Douglas Wolk's Dredd Reckoning, Sheridan's mammoth Back Prog Hack, the Hipster Dad stable and your own Heroes of... in the all-time great 2000AD blogs . Even where I completely disagree with you your analysis and arguments are sound and always insightful and entertaining. Many thanks!
Although let me be clear about one thing: you are wrong.
(Also, Emerald Isle isn't even a little bit racist)
Thanks one and all for your kind words, and allowing me to be wrong in public!
One final posting for the blog, to give the masses their voice...
https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/aftermath-part-2-actual-best-judge.html (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/aftermath-part-2-actual-best-judge.html)
It was a great journey does not matter how you got there
Thank you, those were a fascinating read, all well argued and you pointed out some themes and discussion points that had never occurred to me. I did also like the way you had a little joke with us by putting them in the wrong order!