Just recieved the Press Relesase for the upcoming 2000AD Audio series from John Ainsworth the producer of the 2000 AD series for Big Finish Productions. So as its a bit quiet today I thought I'd share the news with everyone.
La Placa Rifa,
W. R. Logan.
PRESS RELEASE.
JUDGE DREDD ON CD
THE STARS OF '2000 AD' ENTER ANOTHER
DIMENSION IN ALL-NEW FULL-CAST AUDIO DRAMAS
Big Finish Productions have signed a deal with Rebellion that grants a licence to produce a series of full-cast audio dramas based on characters from the long-running 2000 AD - the galaxy's greatest comic! Naturally Judge Dredd will be the principal star of the CDs but he will be ably supported by Strontium Dog and Rogue Trooper. Each CD will feature one of the three characters in a completely new adventure enacted by a professional cast of actors. The fantastic future worlds they inhabit will be brought to life with mega-blistering movie-style sound design and enhanced by a specially composed music score.
2000 AD recently celebrated its 25th Anniversary and is undoubtedly the most influential British comic and has made substantial contributions to the SF genre and pop culture. Jason Kingsley, CEO of Rebellion who publish 2000 AD, is delighted that, through Big Finish, the comic will now be reaching new audiences beyond the printed page: "Comics are an inherently visual and silent medium, which makes the possibilities for audio production all the more exciting. Rebellion is thrilled to be bringing the worlds and characters from 2000 AD into a different medium".
Big Finish Productions may be a new name to comics enthusiasts but they are no strangers to audio. Since 1999 they have been producing monthly CD audio dramas based on Doctor Who. The series, produced under licence from the BBC and featuring the original stars of the show, has been highly successful. Big Finish also release CD dramas based on The Tomorrow People and James Follett's Earthsearch. Big Finish have a wealth of talent and experience that they will be bringing to the worlds of 2000 AD. Jason Haigh-Ellery, Big Finish CEO, is particularly excited about this project as he holds a personal fondness for 2000AD: ""I've been reading 2000AD since issue one, and still buy it 25 years later. What's kept my interest has been the fantastic worlds that have been created for 2000AD's characters - and now we have the chance to live in those worlds and fight along with our heros!".
The first 2000AD CD adventure will be released on 2nd April and will be fully promoted by a free CD cover-mounted on the Judge Dredd Megazine, published on 3rd April. This first adventure will of course star Judge Dredd and is entitled Wanted: Dredd or Alive and has been written by long-time Judge Dredd author and editor, David Bishop. Further CDs will be released every month from thereon continuing with Judge Dredd - Death Trap in May and Strontium Dog - Down to Earth in June.
So you can save up your pennies here's the release schedule for the audio series.
La Placa Rifa,
W. R. Logan.
2000AD Audios - Release Schedule
2nd April 2002:
JUDGE DREDD - Wanted: Dredd or Alive
Written by: David Bishop
29th April 2002:
JUDGE DREDD - Death Trap
Written by: David Bishop
3rd June 2002:
STRONTIUM DOG - Down to Earth
Written by: Jonathan Clements
1st July 2002:
JUDGE DREDD - The Floating Game (title TBC)
Written by: Dave Stone
5th August 2002:
ROGUE TROOPER - Nordland Calling
Written by: Gordon Rennie
2nd September 2002:
JUDGE DREDD - Auteur! Auteur! (title TBC)
Written by: David Bishop
Further release details to be confirmed but the dates of the releases will be:
30th September 2002
4th November 2002
2nd December 2002
30th December 2002
3rd February 2003
3rd March 2003
Sounds very interesting! Thanks for the info Logan. Any news on the cast?
The guy who did the Dredd voice, Gary Martin, he was not bad.
Also they are new stories too. I look forward to hearing them.
scojo
Thanks Logan, I am quite looking forward to them. Some of the Dr Who ones are good (some not) and the Earthsearch one is pretty good.
I'm fairly sure I've read a Judge Dredd novel by at least one of those guys and it was shocking, I only got half way through. So I hope they work. I think they've made three good choices to start with for characters anyway. Obviously there is a lot to choose from.
I'm worried by the potential sheer volume of releases (I think one a months okay). My mate is a Dr Who fan who bought everything that contained a story from lollypop wrappers to videos but those Big Finish CD's broke him in the end.
Are they 2CD sets like the Dr Who ones or 1CD like the Earthsearch? Any idea of cost?
Anyway, I'm kinda looking forward to it. I may as well be the first person to ask if The big W could be persuaded to do one.
Cheers
Paul
Dave the rave Bishop former editor of 2k and the meg wrote the first Dredd novel The Savage Amusement.
So it might be that one you read. He also wrote Silencer and Cursed Earth Asylum.
Dave Stone wrote the Medusa Seed, Deathmasques and Waterworks. Based on his leaking sink so I heard.
Stephen Marley wrote Dread Dominion (a helter Skelter type story!) and Deadlocked.
And John Grant (Alan's four year old son) wrote The Hundredfold Problem.
So take your pick PVS!
scojo book nerd
I now know who it was and I prefer to remain silent. Thanks Scojo.
Dave Bishop right?
Baa as the sheep say in New Zealand!
scojo working on more Dredd trailers
Sounds good - I'm esp looking forward to the Rogue one, (which is unusual as hes not really a favourite of mine - I always like Gordons interpretations of established characters though so I have high hopes).
Never heard of the Stront writer - anyone know of anything else he's done?
and is 'Death Trap' going to feature a certain Thin Green Judge? I'm not a great fan of the Dredd books Dave Bishop wrote, as I felt they relied too heavily on recooking old ideas (especially the Cursed Earth one, which took the everything AND the kitchen sink approach to raiding previous continuity) but I'm still going to be first in the queue for these.
Pual, According to John Ainsworth over on the Doctor Who website that is www.gallifreyone.com they'll be single discs. Their single disc stories have retailed at ?9.99 in the past. Should they be doubles they'll come in at ?13.99. They also do very good subscription deals where you pay for five and recieve six or thereabouts.
"is 'Death Trap' going to feature a certain Thin Green Judge? I'm not a great fan of the Dredd books Dave Bishop wrote, as I felt they relied too heavily on recooking old ideas (especially the Cursed Earth one, which took the everything AND the kitchen sink approach to raiding previous continuity) but I'm still going to be first in the queue for these."
You never who's lurking on these boards, do you?
Have to agree with you about my three Dredd novels - they were guilty of using continuity as a substitute for creating original plots of my own! I think Silencer is the worst for this, but all three suffer from the same disease. Sorry you didn't like Cursed Earth Asylum, that's my favourite of the three because the villain, Soon, who was freshly created for the book.
As for the Judge Dredd audios, I have written two of these and have been commissioned for a third. You'll be happy to know that continuity references are at an absolute minimum. The goal is to make these stories enjoyable without insulting the intelligence of regular 2000 AD readers or alienating listeners unfamiliar with Dredd.
davidbishop
On another topic altogether, I'm a US fan/collector wondering if the Big Finish CDs will be sold in my country. Also, will the free CD be attached to the Dredd Megazine sold in the US as well?
Well the Cursed Earth Asylum did gain points for referencing David Bowie....
I suppose a problem inherent in all of the novels was they had to be lengthy 'epics' to fill the space. These are by their very nature hard to do and require over the top super villains, epic quests, etc, which aren't really the bread and butter of Dredd IMO. Even Wagner himself has found there to be only a handful of winning formulas for epics, and once used, they can only be repeated to an ever diminishing effect. Hopefully the audios will be a much better format, given they'll be 60 min max?
Good luck with these Dave - I'll be listening with interest!
I don't know about the freebie disc but the Big Finishg Who C.D.'s are available in the U.S.A. Find an outlet for them and you'll likely find the Dredd C.D.'s in a month or two. Big Finish themslelves ship internationally by the way.
And another question just struck me - who's going to be doing the art for the CD covers - 2000AD regulars or somebody/thing different?
Here is the big finish website if you want to go look for various details. I'm looking forward to the new Earthsearch CD
http://www.doctorwho.co.uk/
Hopefully Adrian Salmon will do some. He did a Dredd cover for 2000A.D. recently and has worked on the covers for Big Finish. I love his art work. Very stylised and blocky. In a good way.
Hey, David.
I thought your books were the best out of a very poor bunch. That one were Dredd splits into lots of other Dredds is the biggest pile of stomm I have ever read. And that one with James Cagney running around and Dredd killing babies has to be just as bad. At least your books had Dredd acting like Dredd and not some one dimensional nazi.
Which of the Dredd novels had to Killer Kamikaze Klutz Kult?
Cursed Earth Asylum I think.
I have to say that I really enjoyed the Dredd novels, except one.
Being a fan, I enjoyed the descriptive perspective of Dredd's world, i especially enjoyed "Dread Dominion" but found "The Hundredfold Problem" a bit heavy.
Ed
I adapted that sequence into an 8-page strip a few years ago. Good in places, not so good in others. Anyone wanna see?
Actually, I quite liked the Strontium Dog ones. The Dave Bishop Dredd ones were, quite simply, dreadful.
Or at least the endings were awful. I don't want to spoil them for people so I won't go into detail, but you'll see exactly what I mean (and everyone who has heard it will probably know where I'm coming from).
Curiously the reviewer for S.F.X. magazine loved the Dredd ones and din't like the Stronty one. Which is odd.