I know you've seen these Epics before, some this will be the third time they've been in a vote BUT this is it. This is the first set of final positions to be decided. So if you care about any of these thrills, for good or ill, find it in your heart to vote one final time...
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
43 - The Mega Rackets (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-46-44-actually-these-are-quite.html) - Progs 209-223
44 - The Robot War (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-46-44-actually-these-are-quite.html) - Progs Progs 9-17
46 - Raptaur (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-50-47-dont-bother.html) - Megs 11-17
48 - Dead Ringer (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-50-47-dont-bother.html) - Megazines 3.64-3.69
49 - Purgatory / Inferno (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-50-47-dont-bother.html) - Progs 834-841/842-853
50- Luna-City (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-53-51-worst-first.html) - Progs 42-59
51 - Blood of Satanus III (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-53-51-worst-first.html) - Megs 257-265
52 - Crusade (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-53-51-worst-first.html) - Progs 928-937
Voting will close on the morning of Friday 5th March and we'll have our bottom 8 positions sorted.
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. The Mega Rackets
2. Raptaur
3. Dead Ringer
1. Robot War
2. Raptaur
3. The Mega-Rackets
1. Luna City
2. Raptaur
3. Dead Ringer
1 The Mega Rackets
2 Luna City
3 The Robot War
1 - The Robot War
2 - Raptaur
3- Luna-City
1. Robot War
2. Mega Rackets
3. Luna City
- The Robot War - This and Inferno feel like the only true epics here and I can't bring myself to vote for Inferno
- The Mega Rackets - Not really an epic but so much excellent world building
- Raptaur - Good fun alien hunting romp which had some long term consequences
1 Mega Rackets
2 Raptaur
3 Purgatory/ Inferno
1. Purgatory/ Inferno
2. Luna City
3. Raptaur
1. Mega Rackets
2. Luna City
3. Dead Ringer
1. Mega Rackets
2. Raptaur
3. Luna City
1 Robot War
2 BoS III
3 Raptaur
1. Inferno
2. Robot War
3. Raptaur
1st: Raptaur
2nd: The Mega-Rackets
3rd: Luna-City
I'm seeing "lunacy" in "Luna-City". Deliberate punnage or me reading too much into it?
1. Raptaur
2. Satanus III
3. Crusade
SBT
1. The mega rackets
2. Luna city
3. Robot war
Thanks!
This vote has seen some of the most diverse responses yet! Goes to show how subjective and individual our preferences really are.
Don't really understand what's going on now and I've already blah-blahed about these ones in the previous threads, so:
01. Crusade.
02. Robot War
03. Luna City.
1 - Mega-rackets - prime dredd. Not an epic but if you're listing it....
2 - purgatory / inferno - at the end of the day it's full of Carlos
3 - robot wars - because it's the OG.
Well I've only read four of these eight, which helps narrow the field. Of those four:
Robot Wars - goofy as all hell, but it was the first, dammit. It's arguably the reason that Dredd (and by extension Tooth) are still here today. Plus Call-Me-Kenneth is great, first in a long line of gregarious Wagner comedy robots.
Luna City - Generally less goofy than Robot Wars, despite Walter and CW Moonie's best efforts. Some of it's actively great (Oxygen Board, Olympic/Sov War, Face-change crimes). Plus it gave us our first futsie.
Mega Rackets - Solid Dredd worldbuilding with little to fault, but less pioneering than the others.
I'm not sure I care too much about these, but in a bid to keep Blood of Satanus III out of the points I'll go for
1. Inferno
2. Mega Rackets
3. Robot War
Whoops forgot to say - this one closes in the morning so if you want to impact on the final positions 52 - 45 get your votes in TODAY!!!!
VOTING CLOSED
Final position for the bootom eight and in and here there haven't been any massive moves, as might be expected, but rather its all about the shuffling. Without further a do:
52: 48 - Dead Ringer (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-50-47-dont-bother.html) - 3 points = down 4 places
51: 52 - Crusade (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-53-51-worst-first.html) - 4 points = up 1 place.
50: 51 - Blood of Satanus III (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-53-51-worst-first.html) - 4 points = up 1 place.
49: 49 - Purgatory / Inferno (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-50-47-dont-bother.html) - 12 points = no move.
48: 50 - Luna-City (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-53-51-worst-first.html) - 18 points = up 2 places.
47: 44 - The Robot War (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-46-44-actually-these-are-quite.html) - 22 points = down 3 places.
46: 46 - Raptaur (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-50-47-dont-bother.html) - 26 points = no change
45: 43 - The Mega Rackets (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-46-44-actually-these-are-quite.html) - 31 points = down 2 places.
So any thoughts about our final placings? Is Dead Ringer victim of simply not being well remembered? Is Mega Rackets victim of not really being an Epic... are you all just sick of voting for these Epics?
Positions 44 - 37 next Friday.
There's nothing wrong with Dead Ringer, it just feels inconsequential, a bit of light fun trading on Judge Child nostalgia - so not really epic in any sense beyond page count. Correctly relegated to its place at the bottom of the heap on largely technical grounds.
I'm a bit surprised by Robot War's placing (I forgot to vote in this one, so share any blame), it's surely the best of this bunch: it might be very short, but it is definitely epic. Reading through the Robot Wars supplement for the current Judge Dredd RPG recently I was reminded of the sense of large-scale threat it manages to convey. Both victim and beneficiary of where it falls in the shaky early history of the strip.
The Mega Rackets, while highly enjoyable stories in their own right, had no place here at all, merely a telling artefact of AlexF's twisted mind. Now if we're talking The Crime Files...
Yeah I thought Robot Wars would do better. Its place in the pantheon of Epics is assured for so many. Its the original and AlexF was right to have made an exception to give it a place. That said it is early Dredd and early Dredd isn't that good.
Similarly I agree that we will see some stories caught between being quite good - or very good, but not really being an Epic in a lot of folks minds and Mega Rackets is a prime example of that.
Poor Dead Ringer. As Tordel says it's very light, but doesn't deserve to go down in infmay as worse than Crusade! But I guess Crusade is, for sure, memorable. Can't have helped that Dead Ringer ran in the Megazine at what may well have been its lowest point, sales-wise. (It was towards the end of Volume 3; Volume 4 was, for my money, the start of the rise of the Meg).
I wonder if my assertion that the Mega Rackets does count as an epic is because I first read it in the Best of 2000AD Monthly, where it dominated for a few issues in a row. And also because almost all of its villains ended up in the old Judge Dredd board game, making them loom larger in my mind than they did in the actual Prog...
Still trying to wrap my head around the idea that a Judge with all legal powers to execute can 'know' that e.g. Slick Ike Colarado is a gang boss, but somehow not have evidence to allow him to convict. Who are these judges showing evidence to, exactly? And who would complain if they just executed these perps?
Quote from: AlexF on 05 March, 2021, 09:23:36 AM
And also because almost all of its villains ended up in the old Judge Dredd board game, making them loom larger in my mind than they did in the actual Prog...
This was my first thought on seeing its original inclusion in your list. Like yourself I wouldn't read most of the Mega Rackets until they appeared in Best Of, but all the characters were already old friends from the board game. (Similarly, I've seldom experienced such a sense of anticlimax as when I actually read 'The Invisible Man' - Edwin the Confessor had been such a big part of my life, why was he a footnote in a minor story! ).
The continued existence of known gang bosses in MC-1 is as bizarre a contrivance as the overland Trek to MC-2, but just as welcome a one!
Quote from: AlexF on 05 March, 2021, 09:23:36 AM
Still trying to wrap my head around the idea that a Judge with all legal powers to execute can 'know' that e.g. Slick Ike Colarado is a gang boss, but somehow not have evidence to allow him to convict. Who are these judges showing evidence to, exactly? And who would complain if they just executed these perps?
Without a reread to check but haven't Beeny and Gerhard both officially interrogated Dredd as to past decisions meaning the system checks and rechecks individual instances of justice being dispensed. Therefore there are burdens of proof and evidence needed. Given that it would then be perfectly possible to have circumstantial evidence that Slick Ice is a crime boss but no actionable evidence sufficient to displace the burden and allow action.
/thatoldlawdegreeprovinguseful
I'm kind of shocked that anything ranked worse than Crusade, but Dead Ringer, as others said, just seems a bit light whereas Crusade at least is memorable for all sorts of reasons.
To ape Tordel on a second point, I'm surprised Robot War didn't do better. Yeah, it isn't great, but surely better than Raptaur: I've always found this story to be the epitome of 90s-ness with 90s murky artwork and a 90s non-plot. A reasonable amount of love shown for it here says what do I know, but Robot War is a classic, isn't it?
Other than that, looking good. Mega-Rackets I'd have put top of this list, even though it's epic-hood is a real stretch. Even for the bottom bracket, there's some cool stuff here.
None of these were a "hill to die on" for me, I simply enjoyed some (or some art) more than others. Funny, I didn't think I had read Dead Ringer until I checked the list and saw it was in Case Files 31, I had read it! It really is forgettable. Looking forward to the next round(s).
Yeah Dead Ringer really does seem to be the "not quite epic" that everyone forgot. Turns out it was in the MegaCollection so I've read it fairly recently but I couldn't recall it at all.
Also a little surprised The Robot War didn't come out better but I do think Mega Rackets is a better slice of early Dredd in a lot of ways. There's not much between Robot War and Raptaur - it's noticeable that there's a big drop between 4th place and 5th and then an even bigger one down to 6-8. There was clearly some consensus in the voting.
If I'd have seen this was going i'd have voted Dead Ringer top, so Crusade is there rightly at the bottom, if only for me!
Anyhows, how can we have a bottom when we havent finished ranking everything? What if the Apocalypse War doesnt qualify?
Quote from: Barrington Boots on 05 March, 2021, 12:35:40 PM
I'm surprised Robot War didn't do better. Yeah, it isn't great, but surely better than Raptaur
Raptaur has a bit where Dredd manages to hang on waiting for help by sticking his boot knife through his own hand. So, in terms of judging things purely on whether or not they contain a "One chance! Boot knife!" moment, Raptaur definitely beats Robot Wars.
Have other people been using some other method of determining value?
Quote from: Funt Solo on 05 March, 2021, 05:59:15 PM
Quote from: Barrington Boots on 05 March, 2021, 12:35:40 PM
I'm surprised Robot War didn't do better. Yeah, it isn't great, but surely better than Raptaur
Raptaur has a bit where Dredd manages to hang on waiting for help by sticking his boot knife through his own hand. So, in terms of judging things purely on whether or not they contain a "One chance! Boot knife!" moment, Raptaur definitely beats Robot Wars.
Have other people been using some other method of determining value?
10: if finale at spaceport go to 20
20: 1st place