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2000 AD => General => Topic started by: Colin YNWA on 08 March, 2021, 06:11:54 AM

Title: Dredd Epics Ranked - Better! Round 5
Post by: Colin YNWA on 08 March, 2021, 06:11:54 AM
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

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

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

Next four from Dredd Epics Ranked:

Die Laughing (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/08/epics-37-34-very-average.html) - OGN

Helter Skelter (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-31-29-reaching-for-heights.html) - Progs 1250-1261

Trifecta (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-31-29-reaching-for-heights.html) - Progs 1804-1812

Wilderlands (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-31-29-reaching-for-heights.html) - Progs 904-918 and Megs 2.63-2.68

Voting will close on the morning of Wednesday 8th 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.

Title: Re: Dredd Epics Ranked - Better! Round 5
Post by: abelardsnazz on 08 March, 2021, 07:49:05 AM
1. Mechanismo
2. Wilderlands. One of Mechanismo's legacy stories, at position 2 as I'm not sure the Prog/Meg crossover entirely worked, but a significant "event" story.
3. City of the Damned

HM: Trifecta
Title: Re: Dredd Epics Ranked - Better! Round 5
Post by: broodblik on 08 March, 2021, 08:07:49 AM
1. Trifecta
2. Sin City
3. Mechanismo
Title: Re: Dredd Epics Ranked - Better! Round 5
Post by: Magnetica on 08 March, 2021, 08:37:50 AM
Trifecta. A proper epic.
Mechanismo.
The Chief Judge's Man.
Title: Re: Dredd Epics Ranked - Better! Round 5
Post by: SmallBlueThing(Reborn) on 08 March, 2021, 09:14:42 AM
1. Wilderlands. I know people dont like it- but with Carlos in fill-in ecstasy at having discovered Kai's Powertools and the glorious juxtaposition with Trevor Hairsine's work, it's hard not to love. And I love it.

2. Mechanismo.

3. City of the Damned.

SBT
Title: Re: Dredd Epics Ranked - Better! Round 5
Post by: Barrington Boots on 08 March, 2021, 09:52:46 AM
Now it's getting real!

1. Trifecta - this is, as Magnetica says, a proper epic. I think it still stands up on a re-read.
2. Wilderlands - it's a bit of a mess but it's a cool story and it looks great.
3. Mechanismo - still the business.

Really tough not to vote for Sin City here, but Wilderlands pips it, for all it's flaws.
Title: Re: Dredd Epics Ranked - Better! Round 5
Post by: IndigoPrime on 08 March, 2021, 10:01:18 AM
1. Sin City
2. Mechanismo
3. Trifecta
Title: Re: Dredd Epics Ranked - Better! Round 5
Post by: BPP on 08 March, 2021, 10:03:04 AM
1 - trifecta
2 - city of the dammed
3 - sin city

Honourable mention to wildelands as the first real 'deserved a vote but squeezed out by quality' for me in this structure. Just too talky is my memory.

Anyone who votes for helter skelter needs posting rights removed.
Title: Re: Dredd Epics Ranked - Better! Round 5
Post by: Tomwe on 08 March, 2021, 10:24:14 AM
1) Trifecta

2) Mechanismo

3) Sin City
Title: Re: Dredd Epics Ranked - Better! Round 5
Post by: Bolt-01 on 08 March, 2021, 10:54:13 AM
1. Sin City.
2. Trifecta.
3. Chief Judges Man.
Title: Re: Dredd Epics Ranked - Better! Round 5
Post by: AlexF on 08 March, 2021, 12:24:53 PM
1. Wilderlands
2. Trifecta
3. Mechanismo

Wilderlands has all the good bits in the first half, but they're so good it sustains the rushed ending and art/editorial error.
Trifecta is too ambitious not to vote for, and if I could single out Low Life: Saudade that'd be WAY up higher. It's up there with Creation as the best Low Life story.
It feels a bit of a cheat to vote for Mechanismo as well as Wilderlands but Crazyface told me to.
Title: Re: Dredd Epics Ranked - Better! Round 5
Post by: Southstreeter on 08 March, 2021, 01:46:21 PM
1. Mechanismo
2. Trifecta
3. Wilderlands
Title: Re: Dredd Epics Ranked - Better! Round 5
Post by: sintec on 08 March, 2021, 03:36:53 PM
Title: Re: Dredd Epics Ranked - Better! Round 5
Post by: Rogue Judge on 08 March, 2021, 03:39:11 PM
1. Wilderlands Dynamic duo Trevor Hairsine & Carlos Ezquerra provide killer art, and this feels like a true epic. One of my guilty pleasures for sure!
2. Mechanismo Has lasting a legacy, including all the Mechanismo spinoffs, including Harvey etc.
3. City of the Damned A classic epic, better than it gets credit for. It doesn't feel dragged out to me. Full of amazing art too.

HM - Sin City almost made the list.
Title: Re: Dredd Epics Ranked - Better! Round 5
Post by: WhizzBang on 08 March, 2021, 03:52:20 PM
1. Trifecta
2. Wilderlands
3. Mechanismo

From memory right now, Trifecta is the best big Dredd story which Wagner is not invoolved in (for me).
Title: Re: Dredd Epics Ranked - Better! Round 5
Post by: Funt Solo on 08 March, 2021, 03:54:05 PM
1st: City of the Damned
2nd: Trifecta
3rd: Mechanismo
Title: Re: Dredd Epics Ranked - Better! Round 5
Post by: Dark Jimbo on 08 March, 2021, 06:33:13 PM
Man, this is really getting tricky now.

After sitting there since round 1, Chief Judge's Man (along with more recent front-runner Mechanismo) finally bows out of my ranking in favour of:

Wilderlands. Shame it couldn't have been all Ezquerra/Hairsine, but when I think back on it in my head it sort-of is! You don't hear this one talked about too often so I wasn't expecting much when I reached Case Files 21, but I loved it! Dune sharks, spaceship crashes, murderous Mechanismo, McGruder, the Nomen - all great stuff. Just wish we'd had a return visit to Hestia.
Sin City - Not massively remarkable but damn solid, and a personal favourite. Scores big just for being the most artistically consistent story here!
Trifecta has to score something just for sheer inventive aplomb, even if some elements of it didn't quite work (the villians' plans made little sense, and the final episode where everything came together fell a bit flat). But still, damn. Cold Deck is superb, Enormo Overdrive is classic Mega-City insanity, and it gave us Sensitive Klegg. So why doesn't it score higher? Because it also killed Travis Perkins, that's why, and I'm still not over that.
Title: Re: Dredd Epics Ranked - Better! Round 5
Post by: DrJomster on 08 March, 2021, 09:48:38 PM
1. Trifecta (the new kid on the block, with some pretty special moments, not to mention THAT initial reveal)
2. City of the Damned (just)
3. Mechanismo (legacy importance and all that)

Title: Re: Dredd Epics Ranked - Better! Round 5
Post by: TordelBack on 08 March, 2021, 10:25:12 PM
1.City of the Damned
2. Trifecta
3. Mechanismo.
Title: Re: Dredd Epics Ranked - Better! Round 5
Post by: BPP on 08 March, 2021, 10:43:28 PM
Am genuinely loving that Tordelback - the man who disagrees with me on modern Dredd writers - is a fellow City of the Dammed supporter.

*hugs*
Title: Re: Dredd Epics Ranked - Better! Round 5
Post by: Colin YNWA on 09 March, 2021, 06:23:12 AM
Have we finally stopped the march of two that have been with us since the start? Is it finally over? Not sure but it might be. Either way if you want to help determine that, or just want to shout out for the stories you love vote today and I'll wrap this one up in the morning.
Title: Re: Dredd Epics Ranked - Better! Round 5
Post by: GoGilesGo on 09 March, 2021, 02:28:55 PM
Sin City - Edge-of-the-seat story and razorsharp art

Trifecta - Glorious...and I own a an original page of Carl Critchlow's from this

City of the Damned - first prog I ever picked up was 2nd episode of this so makes the top 3 for sentimental reasons
Title: Re: Dredd Epics Ranked - Better! Round 5
Post by: The Enigmatic Dr X on 09 March, 2021, 02:54:52 PM
1 City of the Damned
2 Mechanismo
3 Chief Judges Man
Title: Re: Dredd Epics Ranked - Better! Round 5
Post by: Rogue Judge on 09 March, 2021, 02:59:53 PM
Trifecta sound popular...I haven't read it unfortunately. For Dredd, if it's not in case files 1-36, restricted files or in the prog/meg from the past couple years, I haven't read it yet.

I migh have to seek this one out, as its likely years away from being collected in the case files.
Title: Re: Dredd Epics Ranked - Better! Round 5
Post by: The Mind of Wolfie Smith on 09 March, 2021, 05:08:33 PM
1. wilderlands
2. chief judge's man
3. mechanismo
Title: Re: Dredd Epics Ranked - Better! Round 5
Post by: I, Cosh on 09 March, 2021, 09:54:26 PM
01. Sin City.
02. Wilderlands
03. Trifecta.
Title: Re: Dredd Epics Ranked - Better! Round 5
Post by: maryanddavid on 09 March, 2021, 10:56:49 PM
City of the Damned
Mechanismo
Sin City
Title: Re: Dredd Epics Ranked - Better! Round 5
Post by: Colin YNWA on 10 March, 2021, 06:46:00 AM
VOTING CLOSED

Counts and recounts needed for this one but we have a verified result (I hope) which was very close for the all in important 4th spot. And more importantly finally

https://youtu.be/D475j4sZyz0 (https://youtu.be/D475j4sZyz0)

... well kinda. This one was very interesting but with no more a do.

Progressing to the next round:

Trifecta - 39
Mechanismo - 30 points
Wilderlands - 25
City of the Damned - 20 points

Going into the 36 - 29 position play off:

Sin City - 19 points
The Chief Judge's Man - 5 points
Die Laughing - 0
Helter Skelter - 0

So the march of two Epics that have been with us from the very start is over for one of the thrills. The other marchs on - just. We have a new front runner.

Also two of the stories here have got no votes, which has never happened before - we've had the odd one or two or never two in the same round. The final vote for positions will be very interesting.

Anyway join us tomorrow when some big hitters and personal favourites join the race.
Title: Re: Dredd Epics Ranked - Better! Round 5
Post by: Leigh S on 10 March, 2021, 06:23:53 PM
Doesnt the fact that those two didnt even get votes at the primary stage make them worse than poor Dead Ringer, lumbered with the wooden spoon just because it was in the first batch?

Didnt get round to voting in this round, but wouldnt ahve changed a thing - sad to see Sin City go, but I;d have given more to CotD, so the result would have been the same!
Title: Re: Dredd Epics Ranked - Better! Round 5
Post by: Colin YNWA on 10 March, 2021, 08:02:12 PM
Quote from: Leigh S on 10 March, 2021, 06:23:53 PM
Doesnt the fact that those two didnt even get votes at the primary stage make them worse than poor Dead Ringer, lumbered with the wooden spoon just because it was in the first batch?

Yeah as i said its not a perfect system. I did have a very convoluted one where we got all loser into a different sort of play-off... but it was so over complex I gave up on it. To be fair would Die Laughing and Helter Skelter have got points against the weaker opposition in those earlier rounds? We'll never know... or will we...???