Messages

They're in the web archive:


http://web.archive.org/web/20130615191107/http://www.2000ad.nu/classof79/jw_interview.htm


http://web.archive.org/web/20130515033021/http://www.2000adreview.co.uk/features/interviews/2005/grant/grant1.shtml

[dark times]

I can see why watching their dreams of another Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-style multi-media phenomenon go South would have left them disheartened, but spiking what was still one of the most popular strips in the comic doesn't make any business sense. I know Egmont's Dutch management were looking at the plummeting sales and concluding that the title's days were numbered, but it's not as if Dredd was all that was holding it back from recovering readers.

That was the dark times, before Rebellion... but I believe Egmont might retain a small % of 2000AD, possibly as low as 1%.

Dredd's stock is considerably higher than it was pre-September 2012, and even before Yesterday's push of enthusiasm, I'm sure any external interest -studio or otherwise- had all ready made itself known in terms of the property's potential post-September 2012. I'd say it's almost inevitable we'll see something...

In my humble opinion, the world of Dredd should start thinking about how it's going to become the world of Strontium Dog - start setting up the conditions leading to the S/D world Atomic Wars.

That might be a post-Wagner phase for editorial to consider but the general drift of the strip seems to concern the constant shrinking of Dredd's external world while internal matters expand to include the Fargos mutants, Beeny, Rico, Vienna etc. that are an adjunct to his obligations at a consolidated Justice Dept.

Inherent Vice

The Daily Dredds. What sort of stories will it have? Same as the regular prog but retold as news paper strips? Where there anu epics?

They were original stories by Wagner, Grant & Smith.

http://dreddreviews.blogspot.ie/2011/08/judge-dredd-mega-collection.html

Well, then part of the punishment is he'll only be allowed use a banana as a Lawgiver...

Win.

This feels like one of those circular dialogues you have with an Alzheimer's patient, with me as the patient. I worry we'll still be having the same conversation when we're both in bath chairs, and we'll probably still be wondering how a 97 year old Wagner is planning to wrap up the adventures of the 110 year old Dredd.

Yes; to the detriment of our better selves, we're a pair of wasters.

is it conceivable that someday he'll simply welcome old age and death? I love the idea that when he's ready to pop his clogs, he'll be given back his youth as punishment from a villain a la Murd The Oppressor and forced to continue living with the things he's done. Yeah, it's a supernatural solution which kinda cheapens it but it works better for me than the clones/swap brains solutions...

I reckon an end of the line Dredd faced with that horrifying proposition would likely enact on the impulses that come naturally to the bloodline:

[This was first suggested to Wagner by Alex Garland [1], and every time this topic comes up someone (including me) half-remembers it and puts it forward as their own idea.]

I say this every time this subject comes up, but what I'd really love is when John Wagner finally retires, for him and Carlos Ezquerra to produce a one-off, prog-length 'final ever' episode of Dredd

^This, except stick it in the safe and keep it until the end seems in sight, then publish it in the last issue. Personally I hope Mr Wagner is still thinking up ideas to keep the strip going rather than how to end it.

This was first suggested to Wagner by Alex Garland [1], and every time this topic comes up someone (including me) half-remembers it and puts it forward as their own idea.

[1] Garland: I feel very strongly that John has to end it. Somehow, John, you've got to end it. This is an incredibly morbid conversation, but I don't think Dredd should survive after John.

Wagner: I would love to write it, but I can't see it happening. I'll leave the script in my will.

Garland: Yeah, lock it in a safe!

http://www.empireonline.com/interviews/interview.asp?IID=1530

That interview with Wag & Gar (in Empire) was first published online 11 July 2012 and -yes I'm going to blow my own totally insignificant horn here- I first stole the idea -as did Sauchie- from Alan Moore in April 2012 when I suggested it as Whatever Happened to the Lawman of Tomorrow?. I'll be expecting a cheque/credit until John Wagner comes up with the inevitable better idea written by a professional.

http://forums.2000adonline.com/index.php/topic,35801.30.html

http://forums.2000adonline.com/index.php?topic=35801.90

I can see why it's thematically tempting to have Dredd subjected to the kind of trial and due process he and the system he upholds have denied so many others, but that time he was tried by Sovs on a raft was dull. The Trial Of Orlok had some great Cam Kennedy art, but the talking heads didn't really work as a comic book.

The finale of Origins took the piss out of such a set up and it rarely results in anything other than a list of transgressions read out to the defendant followed by a fight. The past 37 years of stories have shown every reason not to do that kind of thing.

Best thing about the TV show was the opening sequence and that theme*.



*composed by Stewart Copeland.

[not fucking up this planet]

I think not fucking up this planet is more essential to the long-term survival of humanity.

Yes, but as Proudhuff so rightly says, that does not preclude space exploration.

It probably should preclude all else if our only intention is to pillage the universe the same way.

There are two things being discussed here - Joe Dredd aging, & then Dredd dying.

Usually one leads to the other.

NASA should do a Kickstarter.