2000 AD Online Forum

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

Advanced from the previous rounds:

The Chief Judge's Man (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-46-44-actually-these-are-quite.html) - Progs 1244-1247, 1263-1266, 1342-1349

City of the Damned (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-50-47-dont-bother.html) - Progs 393-406

Doomsday (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/07/epics-43-41-these-stories-are-real.html) - Progs 1141-1164; Megs 3.52-3.59

Mechanismo (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/07/epics-43-41-these-stories-are-real.html) - Megs 2.12-2.17; 2.22-2.26; 2.37-2.43

Next four from Dredd Epics Ranked:

Judgement Day (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-40-38-youd-be-forgiven-for.html) - Progs 786-799; Megs 2.04-2.08

The Ecstasy (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-37-34-very-average.html) - Progs 1617-1626

Blood Trails (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-37-34-very-average.html) - Progs 1440-1449

Sin City (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-37-34-very-average.html) - Progs Progs 1289-1299

Voting will close on the morning of Saturday 6th March and the 4 Epics with the most votes will progress to the next round.

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. Sin City
2. Mechanismo
3. The Chief Judge's Man

1. Mechanismo
2. City of the Damned
3. Sin City

Hmmmm this is getting a bit harder as some strips I don't really remember enter the fray. Plus one I know very well but which really wasn't very good. I think I am going to have to use how memorable strips were as a factor in determining my vote. That's maybe a little unfair as I remember some better than others, either because I happen to have reread them recently or because I didn't like them.

Anyway I'm going to stick with my vote from last time:

1 Mechanismo
2 Doomsday
3 The Chief Judge's Man

1. Mechanismo
2. City of the Damned
3. Judgement Day. I have time for Garth's epic and haven't read or can't remember much about the other additions to the list.

Quote from: Magnetica on 04 March, 2021, 08:20:49 AM
Hmmmm this is getting a bit harder as some strips I don't really remember enter the fray.

Quote from: abelardsnazz on 04 March, 2021, 08:24:23 AM
... haven't read or can't remember much about the other additions to the list.

Sorry if I'm stating the obvious, but if you click the names of the epics in Colin's first post, you can go to Alex's blog and read all about them - might jog the memory a bit.

A couple on here I haven't read as they fell between the time I stopped reading and where I've caught up on the Case Files / Hachette stuff.

I can't bring myself to vote for the odious Judgement Day, which has more bad about it than good, but Sin City is worthy of a place in this round. I go for:

1. Mechanismo
2. Sin City
3. The Chief Judge's Man

1 - city of the dammed - still the most epic at this stage
2 - sin city - Kev Walker bringing it
3 - mechanismo - at this point bk 2's art hurts it's overall standing.



So fairwell chief judges man which has been top 3 for 3 rounds for me.

1. chief judge's man
2. city of the damned
3. mechanismo

1. Sin City
2. Mechanismo
3. The Chief Judge's Man

1. Mechanismo
2. Judgement Day
3. The Ecstasy

We're still in 'deeply flawed' territory here! I'll never not love a Wagner-penned story about robots, and for me the good bits of Judgement Day (Doherty and Ezquerra's art; the early zombie attacks, that final panel...) linger in the mind so well that I can overlook the bad bits (the overall story making little sense, nuking all those cities for insufficient reason). I'm also in that minority camp who thinks Sabbat is a fun villain!
The Ectasy I'm mostly voting for to give this forgotten story a boost. Sure, Marshall's art is at the mediocre end of his abilities, but the story is actually a lot more compelling and fun than it's given credit for. And, as I may have ventured before, it's actually not a bad first story to introduce readers to Judge Dredd and Mega City 1...

Never a good sign when you don't remember some of these strips! Still:

1. Sin City
2. Mechanismo
3. Doomsday

Chief Judge's Man finally drops out of my list, but, well, it's not really an epic anyway, is it?

As for Judgement Day, it for me comes across like a poor man's Apocalypse War combined with some real throwback sensibilities. There are good moments, but fridging Dekker wasn't great in a strip with a dearth of female characters, sort-of Dennis wound me up, and the lack of logic felt out of place. That said, as much as I don't really care about that strip, it's leagues ahead of the shit Morrison and Millar churned out and it's at least readable.

1. City of the Damned
2. Mechanismo
3. Judgement Day

Quote from: AlexF on 04 March, 2021, 10:35:16 AM
The Ectasy I'm mostly voting for to give this forgotten story a boost. Sure, Marshall's art is at the mediocre end of his abilities, but the story is actually a lot more compelling and fun than it's given credit for. And, as I may have ventured before, it's actually not a bad first story to introduce readers to Judge Dredd and Mega City 1...

The Ecstacy is a weird one. I re-read it recently and it was such a revalation when I learnt from your post (links below folks check out AlexF's blog if you haven't already - its brilliant!) that it was originally designed to be a 3 issue US series introduction to Dredd. That made the pacing make a lot more sense and explained why when I read it I was thinking - really you've taken 12 parts (or whatever) to cover this. John Wagner would normally do this is 3 parts... and he was... just longer parts...

I've had a bit of a rethink, and swopped my besties around a bit between last round and this.

1. Mechanismo
2. City of the Damned
3. Sin City

SBT

1. Sin City
2. City of the Damned
3. Mechanismo

1st: Mechanismo
2nd: City of the Damned
3rd: Judgement Day

Of those, only Sin City is nipping the heels of my previous three, and more due to Kev Walkers art than anything, so

1: Mechanismo
2: City of the Damned
3: Chief Judges Man

it remains!

I'm changing my vote! Didn't see Judgement Day prior to my first vote.

1. Mechanismo
2. Judgement Day
3. City of the Damned

I enjoy Judgement Day probably much more than I should, but it really is pure insane fun and is full of (mostly) amazing art. Singing zombies aside, I love seeing Alpha and Dredd fighting together against the hordes of undead. The first time I read it (in the case files) I realized how much fun I was having and was sending pictures of my favorite panels to my brother (encouraging him to read Dredd too)

Mechanismo just about hangs on to the top spot. It still has the most legacy of probably any story here, and it's hard to beat Wagner writing robots! Show's over, Crazyface!
Newbie Sin City can't quite supplant my beloved Wagnerbots, but damn if it wasn't close. I adore this story - think it was one of (or the?) first Dredd epic I read, and was the one to beat for a long time.
And Chief Judge's Man surprises me by clingin' on in there for at least one more round. Less epic than many of the others, but that's about the worst you can say of it. Just a solid Wagner thriller.

1) Mechanismo
2) Sin City
3) City of the Damned

• Mechanismo
• Doomsday
• Chief Judges Man

Uninspiring new contenders; of the 4 on offer I've not read two and can't remember one. So my top two spots are remaining unchanged from last time and Chief Judges Man is sneaking back onto my list.

Not a massive fan of the new four contenders, so....

1. Mechanismo
2. City of the Damned
3. The Chief Judge's Man

Quote from: Rogue Judge on 04 March, 2021, 04:28:26 PM
I enjoy Judgement Day probably much more than I should, but it really is pure insane fun and is full of (mostly) amazing art. Singing zombies aside, I love seeing Alpha and Dredd fighting together against the hordes of undead. The first time I read it (in the case files) I realized how much fun I was having and was sending pictures of my favorite panels to my brother (encouraging him to read Dredd too)

This. It's got some great beats that you can enjoy alongside the camp spectacle. Even The Apocalypse War had that silly conga dance - so it's not like the story itself didn't descend into farce at times, long before Ennis dipped his toe in the pond.

1. Mechanisms
2. Chief Judges Man
3. City of the Damned

Quote from: Dark Jimbo on 04 March, 2021, 08:45:17 AM

Quote from: Magnetica on 04 March, 2021, 08:20:49 AM
Hmmmm this is getting a bit harder as some strips I don't really remember enter the fray.

Quote from: abelardsnazz on 04 March, 2021, 08:24:23 AM
... haven't read or can't remember much about the other additions to the list.

Sorry if I'm stating the obvious, but if you click the names of the epics in Colin's first post, you can go to Alex's blog and read all about them - might jog the memory a bit.

Sorry, I should have been clearer and said "despite reading Alex's excellence sumaries, there are some thrills I still don't remember, where as others I have no problem remembering. Some because they were great, some because they were poor. It's the average ones on the middle I struggle remember."

Or something like that.

Glad I'm not alone in my appreciation of Judgement Day Funt. If you like zombie action, look no further!

(https://ibb.co/XSKQXQW)
(https://ibb.co/HdTYWvM)
(https://ibb.co/XbKm1yy)

"Bullet seems to work." - Ennis doing great laconic Dredd.

City Of the Damned
Sin City
Mechanismo

Last call for Round 4. Closing in the morning for our weekend break from all this. Votes on the last day have had a significent impact so far so get your votes in today and we'll see how things line. This one seems to be stirring up some real movement.

That's really just a variation on "Stow the Silver Bullets - Bike Cannon!" though, isn't it?

Quote from: Funt Solo on 04 March, 2021, 09:51:22 PM
"Bullet seems to work." - Ennis doing great laconic Dredd.

VOTING CLOSED

Well well well some Epics just can't be stopped. All we can hope for is that other Epics migth join them in their seemingly relentless march to the top.

Progressing to the next round:

Mechanismo - 51 points
City of the Damned - 26 points
Sin City - 25 points
The Chief Judge's Man - 13 points

Going into the 44 - 37 position play off:

Judgement Day - 6 points
Doomsday - 5 points
The Ecstasy - 1 point
Blood Trials - well I really like it at least....

For one of our unstoppable troop the march seems to be slowing, the other however is rallying. Mechanismo shows its form makes it a real one to watch and Sin City puts in a good opening performance.

But come on folks what's wrong with Blood Trails?

Come back Monday when some very interesting choices join the fray!

I like Blood Trails, and would have thrown it a vote if we'd had four spots to fill. We need more epics (micro epics?) where the stakes are based on character jeopardy rather than THOUSANDS WILL DIE! threats that we've seen so many times before.

Quote from: Dark Jimbo on 06 March, 2021, 07:51:38 AM
We need more epics (micro epics?) where the stakes are based on character jeopardy rather than THOUSANDS WILL DIE! threats that we've seen so many times before.

Yeah that's the factor that really makes this one work for me. Its tight and personal which is fascinating for a character like Dredd.

There was a stage when we had all the epics only related to killing of millions and destroying cities. This might be a reason why something like even Day of Chaos I do nor ate near my top epics.

Quote from: Colin YNWA on 06 March, 2021, 08:07:26 AM

Quote from: Dark Jimbo on 06 March, 2021, 07:51:38 AM
We need more epics (micro epics?) where the stakes are based on character jeopardy rather than THOUSANDS WILL DIE! threats that we've seen so many times before.

Yeah that's the factor that really makes this one work for me. Its tight and personal which is fascinating for a character like Dredd.

And as far as a Sov revenge plan goes it makes so much more sense. If Dredd, personally, is their target, surely they'd try to strike at those closest to him rather than BRING MEGA-CITY ONE TO ITS KNEES (AGAIN). Rest assured I'll give it some love come the play-offs.

I'm glad City of the Dammed is getting its reputation restored.

Am still a bit iffy about mechanismo being considered in this competition. It's more a constant theme in Dredd rather than an epic. You could equally argue the stand alone PJ maybe stuff is all a mega-epic or the Letter From / Democracy stuff or argue Harvey is part of the mechanismo epic.

Quote from: BPP on 06 March, 2021, 09:40:41 AM
Am still a bit iffy about mechanismo being considered in this competition. It's more a constant theme in Dredd rather than an epic. You could equally argue the stand alone PJ maybe stuff is all a mega-epic or the Letter From / Democracy stuff or argue Harvey is part of the mechanismo epic.

While I don't necessarily disagree in AlexF we abide. He took the time to work his magic and while I'm doing my upmost to unpick that, we must work with his madness engine.

The answer remains if you're not sure don't vote for it and the majority will win the day...

...but you are clearly right!

Bugger, I missed this. I'd have definitely given Judgement Day a vote. And I have a soft spot for Blood Trails. Ah well, I'll boost them in the wooden spoon vote.