Ok real thinking cap time here folks. In a straight race few would say number 15 seed, The Day the Law Died is a better story than 2nd Seed Dead Man BUT this is about which is the best Dredd EPIC. Is Dead Man really in the right place, is it Epic in a way that the struggle against Cal's rule most certainly is? Heck is it even Dredd, or is it a just a Prologue to another Epic and thus shouldn't stand on its own. Well that's for you to decide...
Seed 2 The Dead Man (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-3-1-bitter-end.html) Progs 650-662
Vs
Seed 15 The Day the Law Died - Judge Cal (https://dreddepicsranked.blogspot.com/2020/12/epics-13-10-nostalgic-favourites.html) - Progs 86 - 108
Back to the simple purity of popping the name of the Epic you prefer in a reply to this thread (remember to mark it clearly so I can spot it - bold tags are good) and then say whatever the heck you like to about these two great stories.
We're also back to 3 day votes so this one will close first thing in the morning Saturday 3rd of April - winner advance to the Quarter Finals - loser goes into the 16th - 9th playoff vote.
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.
I voted for Necropolis in previous rounds with one of the reasons that The Dead Man was included. Then I went back and read Alex's blog again and saw The Dead Man was listed separately...but Necropolis is still brilliant and I stand by my votes.
Anyway, TDTLD has its moments: Kleggs, the wall, Ron Smith's first work on Dredd - but, as it's one of my all-time favourite Dredd stories, for me it has to be The Dead Man.
I vote for Necropolis once but twice is fine as well so I am going for The Dead Man. I still see The Dead Man as part of the Necropolis arc/epic.
Weird given how hard some of the choices are that these two I'm not mad about - judge cal always seemed silly and meh compared to the cursed Earth and The Dead Man was fine and creative plotting but the art wasn't a big fave of young me and I've never liked what they did to mcgruder in her Crazy era. However for plotting and use of a young black protagonist The Dead Man gets my vote tho I might just go back and read Cal tonight to think again.
A straight forward choice for me.
The Dead Man isn't even Judge Dredd story and it's not really an epic. Plus, whisper it quietly, I found it just a little bit boring. And I didn't really like the art.
The Day the Law Died is an all time classic, gave us one of the best villains in Cal, plus Fish and Slocum and many great moments. Plus the art is great (except that Ron Smith had not yet perfected his depiction of Dredd).
Day the Law Died has an all-time best first-half, but is merely OK in the second half. Dead Man is perfection from start to finish.
dead man. for ridgway, and for the manner in which my floor was ultimately in serious danger from my jaw.
The Dead Man. Because (whisper it), even when it was running in the progs I never liked The Day The Law Died.
SBT
The Dead Man
The Dead Man isn't an epic, it's a single mystery story. I'd count it as part of Necropolis as far as epics go.
The Day the Law Died on the other hand is epic: it has Cal, Fish and the Kleggs, plus the Aaaron A Aaardvark gag and some classic artwork. And it also has my vote!
QuoteThe Day the Law Died on the other hand is epic: it has Cal, Fish and the Kleggs, plus the Aaaron A Aaardvark gag and some classic artwork. And it also has my vote!
The Aaaron A Aardvark gag still makes me laugh, as does the whole movie audition : sizing up Conrad Conn's head and 'The midget will do. Have the others put down, Slocum.'
The Day the Law Died
The Day the Law Died.
The Dead Man.
The Dead Man wins it for me. Very solid indeed with gorgeous art. TDTLD is quite inconsistent, some good bits to be sure and it's an important story too, but it's not up there with the dead man for me.
Oh maan.
The Dead Man.
Dead Man, though isn't this the Block Mania to Necropolis?
Cal is one of the best bad guys ever, but there was a lot of silliness in TDTLD - Dredd snapping his metal chains, Dredd getting shot through the head by a sniper but getting back on his feet in no time, the Council dropping snooker balls in jars to announce their verdicts. I mean, the Cursed Earth was silly too, but the epic worldbuilding made up for it.
The Dead Man is my choice - it was a combination of perfect scripting and perfectly-suited art, and the big reveal was absolutely mind-blowing (even though I experienced it through my brother saying, 'Guess [spoiler]who the Dead Man is? Judge Dredd[/spoiler]').
My memory of reading The Dead Man is that I really wasn't fussed about it to begin with, but it drew me in perfectly to the point it was a weekly highlight, then the stunning twist made it what is still one of my favourite reading moments ever.
I also love The Day The Law Died. So much of that wonderful madness of MC1 - not the same kind of storytelling as The Dead Man, but perfect for the time it was published and what it is. Ultimately not too heavy.
Very tough to choose, but for that brilliant story crafting that won me over even without the reveal, it'll have to be The Dead Man.
Quote from: The Enigmatic Dr X on 31 March, 2021, 01:29:15 PM
Dead Man, though isn't this the Block Mania to Necropolis?
Feel the same, Block Mania is the intro/prequel for AW as is Dead Man the intro/prequel to Necropolis
Actually... BAN THIS SICK FILTH.
The Dead Man isn't actually a Judge Dredd strip, is it?
The Dead Man, even though it shouldn't really be in here. I never really took to TDTLD.
The Dead Man was a great story, but as has been mentioned I consider it part of Necropolis. TDTLD was daft in places, but it was great fun, pickled Slocum freaked me out a bit as a kid. Over the top fun and Wagner starting to mould MC1 into the city we now have.
The Day the Law Died.
This is the first difficult one of these head-to-head votes.
The Dead Man is just a perfect slice of Wagner pie, though, and gets my vote.
The Dead Man
While the Day the Law Died is good silly fun (Judge Fish!), and I really like Judge Cal as the villain, its the Dead Man for me. Awesome atmospheric artwork, mystery, and leads into Necropolis, another one of my favorites.
The Dead Man
The Day The Law Died
The Dead Man!
Really hard choice but it's got to be The Day The Law Died
I think you had to be there for The Dead Man. It's a perfectly good little Dreddworld horror/thriller with a good twist; but there's not a huge amount to it beyond that twist, which will almost certainly have been spoiled for you going in. Plus it hardly feels like an epic.
Day the Law Died can be pretty goofy, and the pacing is terrible - as (I think Alex) noted, it peaks too early with Cal sentenceing the city to death, then struggles to know where to go. There's a definite feeling of Wagner making it up from week-to-week. But it's a relentless thrill-a-minute ride, crammed full of humour, invention and incidence. And it gave us the Kleggs, Fergee, SJS, Cal and Griffin.
Day the Law Died definitely. Not because it was the first Dredd epic I read, but just the pacing, twists, trademark humor, side characters (Kleggs, Fergie)... I prefer it over The Dead Man.
Comparitively quiet this one so if you haven't voted yet you still have today to do so and I'll count up first thing in the morning.
This is a tricky one. Think I'm going to have to go with The Day The Law Died on the grounds that it's actually epic. The Dead Man is a great story and a hugely important part of Necropolis but standing on it's own it's a fairly simple little tale. A brilliant one but not an epic one.
Day the Law Died.
VOTING CLOSED
Well I did wonder of the complications of Epic and even Judge Dredd in the title of this tourney would throw a spanner in the works here. But it wasn't even close, despite a rally at the end by the more clearly defined Dredd Epic. As it is though
Dead Man
Make clear progress into the Quarter Finals and the Day the Law Died fights for the lower places.