I am as excited about Judge Dredd apearing in the Metro as the next guy (though I still don't know when his first appearence will be) but he's been there and done that, first in The Daily Star (so no exposure there) and then in Heavy Metal Magazine. I'm not so sure how successful he was but I think if it's a Dredd story, it should be at least double the traditional space that it allocted to the average newspaper strip and in colour to build up a new fan base.
With this in mind, I think Nikolai Dante would be more suited to a newspaper strip and would have a wider appeal. What does everyone else think, are there any other characters which you think would be better suited than Dredd?
Bec & Kawl? It's humorous and not overly offensive, and most people would claim to know people like Bec or Kawl.
yes dante or bek and kawl both have appeal dont they.
dredd has been done before.but any exposure is good in the long term.
krustabi has a point but may offend teh over 40s, no i think that nokolai dante would be an excellent but then his story is standalone isnt it
how about scripting the continued early adventures of strontium dog johhnny alpha in newspaper form
or u could just do stories set in mega city 1 (which would be better), as u could occasionally feature jd and push the megazine as well
Why not invent a comedy Judge, created specifically for the paper. As long as it isn't Joyce, I'd be happy
Comedy Judge, no way, that's a terrible idea. He would have the same uniform as Dredd and We don't want Dredd to become a joke figure.
Well it doesn't have to be comedic, but a all-new judge in another Mega city would work in MY opinion.
DR and Quinch have worked well in a shorter format before.
- Trout
" I'm not so sure how successful he was but I think if it's a Dredd story, it should be at least double the traditional space that it allocted to the average newspaper strip and in colour to build up a new fan base."
IIRC, the Daily Star Dredd strips were pretty popular, but I don't know whether that popularity translated into extra sales for the weekly.
I like the idea of short Dante strips, but we see little enough of him in the weekly, so I'd be loath to see the series spread any more thinly!
What about Banzai Battalion?
dunno, dante could become no more than a randy thieving eejit in short form, but then by that decree Dredd could be a jutty chin fashist, & banzai battalion could be a constant stream of bad gardening gags, is this short strip format idea a good one? who do we lynch if it goes horribly wrong?
I know what you mean my Firey Queen. That's why I thought Dante would be better suited than Dredd, but I've just had another idea. Button Man. He would be perfect and I think he would suit the short strip.
Aaargh, no! The fantastic thing about button man was that it had space to breathe, time to build tension. All those scene-setting panels, all those slow nothing-seems-to-be-happening-but-WOW-I'm-feeeeeeling-it moments... they'd be killed deader than hyperdisco in a shorter format.
BUTTON MAN nope nope nope,
i still think tales of mega city 1 would be good, u could feature judge joyce anderson, a new guy, have a revolving supporting cast - anything u liked really
"is this short strip format idea a good one? who do we lynch if it goes horribly wrong?"
Newspaper strips don't tend to be particularly subtle, but with a good writer at the helm, they can easily exceed their limitations.
Still no word on who's supposed to be writing the Metro Dredds though...
"Button Man. He would be perfect and I think he would suit the short strip."
That's a pretty good suggestion - IIRC, aren't there are a couple of espionage/action newspaper strips running at the moment? The biggest problem with running Button Man is that it's creator-owned, so any new material would likely have to come from John Wagner & Arthur Ranson, and any form of reprint would be subject to some fairly stiff reprint fees (part of what bumped the price up for the recent TPB)
The metro Dredds are written by Matt Smith, J-BO-1 and oh dear, cant remember for the life of me.
There are deffo three writers mentioned so far though.
Bolt-01.
"The metro Dredds are written by Matt Smith, J-BO-1 and oh dear, cant remember for the life of me."
Really? Have either Matt or Jamie had any strips published before, or will this be their first professional writing gig?