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I also don't agree with this 'Dredd doesn't get consistently good until volume 5' idea.

whoa, that wasn't the impression I meant to give at all - my point was that volume 5 is a great introduction to Dredd for a new reader, as it's got a varied mix of easily accessible classic stories, and would allow someone to decide if Dredd is their thing.

THEN, once they're hooked, they mortgage the house and pimp the cat to buy everything else published! Bwahahahaha

As a geek, I like the fact this explains the odd use from "The Killing" so that trumps any feeling I have about the concept being odd in itself!

Oh, I want to believe *sob*, I really do....

Won't I need to read the earlier material though to understand the story etc?

I don't think so - As long as you know he's an ultra-strict future cop in a vast mega-city around the turn of the 22nd century, I think most stories will be fairly understandable. In fact, volume one often makes little sense, as various ideas and features were later dropped or amended (such as there being a handful of judges supplementing the regular police, whilst it was soon changed to judges being the only police and government in the city). loads of the early stories just don't ring true to what we now understand as Dredd's world, but from around 1980 onwards this was really taking shape and being defined, in both fact and appearance, by Wagner and Ezquerra (among others).

Volume 5 is good intro because of that mix - the Crime files aren't the greatest stories, but they're a good intro to mega city life and show Dredd doing his primary job, policing. Judge Death is an example of the more traditional comic fantastic-action type story, and fleshes out the character of Psi judge Anderson (who goes on to be an important character to this day) whilst the Apocalypse War explores the wider geopolitics of Dredd's world (and is just spugging amazing anyway!)

After volume five, I'd agree that volume 2 (featuring the two classic stories mentioned above) would be the next choice!

I've never in my life heard of anybody less impressed by Disney World than Macon, but I'm full of state pride to hear you say it.

The indian burial mounds were really fascinating!

So, your both American.

Nope, I'm true Brit. My Georgia visit was just for a few weeks, but I later spent a year of my university studies in the midwest.

Somebody needs to swap me some before I start spending wedding money bidding on things I don't need to spend wedding money on.

You getting wed? Congrats. I'd love to see a wedding list at a comic shop. All your uncles and grannies coming in to buy obscure back issues that they don't understand!

But still, a time bomb leaves you in the same location while the planet moves on in space (or has yet to reach that space if jumping backwards), so are we to believe that the EXACT SPOT on which he corners Moon once occupied the EXACT SPOT in a building overlooking the blast in Britain, despite being on different planets? And that not only did 2 planets miraculously pass through the same space, but that they did so EXACTLY at the time difference between then and now! Nah, not buying it!

I preferred Faceache (SCRUNNNNGE!)

Have  you read Alan Moore's Albion? A novel updating of all these old characters.

(whisper)

can someone explain Buttonman's one to me? I don't want to appear foolish

it's the Stainless Steel Mat of course!

How often did you check this thread until someone finally asked?

Lack of inspiration and feelings of inadequacy mean I'll most likely be giving this comp a miss, but strewth, the choosing's going to be impossible, the entries so far are incredible!

services

//http://detroit.craigslist.org/for/1053888940.html

*sigh* too late, it's been deleted already.

Bulloch-D'Angelo-Allen made some other fantasy shows in the late 70s, like Big John Little John

Oh wow, that's what I love about this board - I had TOTALLY erased this from my memory until I read your post and then the opening song and transformation sequence came flooding back: Big John Little John. Great stuff!

And Grant, I have fond memories of visiting your neck of the woods as a 15 year old on an exchange visit organised by the Rotary club of Griffin, Georgia. We saw the Braves and visited the Omni and the Peachtreee Plaza, but our hosts always made us lock the car doors when we drove through Atlanta. What I remember most was the weather - hot sweaty days with an awesome thunderstorm around 4pm every day that would dump gallons of rain in just a few minutes and then clear up. Disneyworld was supposed to be the 'highlight' of the trip, but I was far more impressed by Stone Mountain and Macon.

If you did fancy the casefiles, you could do a lot worse than start with volume 5 - this collects stories from 1981 and 1982 and contains  a good tripple-whammy of top story arcs - The Crime Files (Mega-City mobsters and bizarre future crimes); Judge Death Lives (the second,and IMHO greatest, appearance of Dredd's undead nemesis) and The Apocalypse War (The epic to beat all epics as MC1 is laid waste by nuclear attack and Sov invasion)

I reckon it's pretty much a golden age of Dredd. I'd leave most of the 90s stuff until last, when you're thoroughly hooked and need to read everything, 'cos some of it wasn't that great.

In a lesser story, I'd be fuming about the laxy plotting...

I too wilfully ignored the bonkers use of a Time bomb so as not to ruin my enjoyment of an otherwise great story, but it doesn't make any sense - I remember once he carefully calibrated one to such a short time jump that he remained on the same planet some distance away, but this was portrayed as an unorthodox and risky manoeuvre (Did he end up in mid air on that occasion? Damn, I really must invest in those agency files so I could check these things!).

A cross-galaxy jump to a specific event in the past is just silly - if he could do that, he'd never have spent so much time being insulted by bigoted staff and passengers on all those space-liners.

But like Dandontdare says, there's also Leroy Wedgewood Bunn, Prime Minister during the events of Portait of a Mutant, and also the personal aide to the current Prime Minister (Traitor to his Kind).

See, If I had them books I'd have been able to remember his name!

The Prime Minister in "Portrait of a Mutant" was black I believe (but then again, I didn't realise for ages that the Harlem Heroes were supposed to be black - I'd never heard of the Harlem Globetrotters! and b/w comic art didn't always make it clear)

By the way, what does prog mean?

heh - when launched in 1977, 2000ad was super-duper futuristic, so it couldn't be a mere comic or issue - it was 'Programme 1' - every issue since then has been a prog - 32 years on, we're currently enjoying Prog 1627.

It was (and still is) billed as being "in orbit every Wednesday" rather than in the shops.

and then there's Tharg.........

I now know a new word. Brythonic!   Thankyew!

If Syfy wasn't bad enough:- Reasons why image consultants and marketing execs are braindead gimps that must be hunted down and killed in painful ways:- EXHIBIT B: