Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 42 (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Judge-Dredd-Complete-Case-Files/dp/1786187094) - Paperback, 17th August 2023, 288 pages
Based on the stories we know are in Vol 41, this will probably be stories from late 2005/early 2006. By my estimate, the series should catch up to "Origins" in Vol 43!
Excellent, I haven't read that since it was originally in the prog. Looking forward to the Case Files eventually catching up with Tour of Duty too.
What was in the Prog when the first Case Files was released? Was it around 2006?
Quote from: AlexF on 28 September, 2022, 09:29:08 AM
What was in the Prog when the first Case Files was released? Was it around 2006?
Yep, December 2005. Running in the prog were the likes of Ten Seconders, Caballistics, Red Seas and Leatherjack. Dredd had just wrapped up Mandroid.
That's interesting: Mandroid will be in Case Files 41. So in 17 years, the case files have collected 23 years of content. That's roughly 18 months of content collected each year.
By my calculation (assuming the prog, meg and case files continue publishing at their current rate indefinitely), that means the Case Files will be publishing today's stories in 2035, but won't catch up with the prog/meg entirely until 2055.
That's only an average over 17 years. The first few years was just reprinting 2000AD, before the Megazine kicked in around Case File 14. Since then it has naturally slowed down.
Let's face it, 41 Case Files is already enough material that if I ever decide to read through them all again from Volume 1, by the time I got to Vol. 41 it would be years later and I'd be all ready to start from the beginning again...
But from this point on the content is gonna get REALLY good for ages.
So I just had a look at my Case Files and it turns out the Megazine stories started being collected in CF 15, in 2010. CFs 15 to 40 cover 15 years' worth of stories and were published over 12 years. That's 1.25 years per year. By my reckoning it will take another 13 or 14 years to get to today.
What volume number (roughly) would 2022's stories be in? Maybe we'll have companion Dreddverse books for likes of Devlin Waugh, Lawless, Missionary Man, etc. show up one day, as mixed compendium? I.e. Dreddverse 1992-94.
Also - are any of the first 40 currently out of print do we know?
Each volume is ~6 months of stories, so 2022's stories would be in volumes 73 and 74.
All 40 currently released volumes seem to be in stock on the 2000AD store (except for Volume 1, weirdly, but that one is very easy to find elsewhere):
https://shop.2000ad.com/catalogue/graphic-novels/dredd-case-files
Quote from: AlexF on 29 September, 2022, 10:34:15 AM
Case Files is already enough material that if I ever decide to read through them all again from Volume 1, by the time I got to Vol. 41 it would be years later and I'd be all ready to start from the beginning again
Can confirm. I got to Volume 30 before I decided to go all-in on the expanded universe, and buy the other characters' stories. Once I had those, I began reading through the complete canon chronologically from the earliest point in the timeline. About a third of Mega Collection volumes contained Dreddverse stories never before collected in trade form, then there's the other character GNs, Daily Dredds, Dredd novels, audio dramas, canon IDW miniseries etc.
Aside from the occasional story which remains uncollected (like the older Hershey stories and text stories) I've now read everything produced in the Dreddverse from pre-Case Files 1 in the timeline all the way up to Vol 32 (I'm currently replaying
Dredd vs. Death set in 2122).
I'd bought Vol 31 new when it first came out in 2018 and have only just read it - so that's four years so far, covering about 25 years worth of content.
That's really impressive. Any favorite hidden gems that don't get talked about often?