Dredd vs Death TPB... what happened?

[Grant Goggans]

Good grief.  I flipped through this in the store yesterday (I pick my copy up in a week and a half) and I was very, very underwhelmed.  This might be the worst print job to date.  It looks like it was scanned from Titan collections!

Really, it's like a crummy reprint of one of the last Titan volumes, showcasing most of Bolland's Luna-1 episodes totally out of context and out of order (stories from progs 50, 51, 57 and then 52...?).  What the heck do these Luna-1 stories have to do with Judge Death?  Oh, Bolland drew them so we need to include them?  Then where the heck's Block War?

Ancillary complaint: I still think a proper "Dredd vs Death" volume should include the first 20 Judge Death episodes: Judge Death, Judge Death Lives and Four Dark Judges.  The first Anderson book should have had all the annual and special stories which are skipped (MIND! OF! EDWARD! BOTTLEBUM!) and a couple of Dredd team-ups like Tomb of the Judges instead.

Yick.  Come on, guys, we've seen the great-looking Rogue Trooper book and we KNOW you can do print jobs better than this.

--Grant

[The Amstor Computer]

Oh dear... my copy arrives in a day or two, and this isn't promising. If it is as bad as you say, Grant, I'll be seriously disappointed...

[Grant Goggans]

Actually, I pretty sure it's a scan from one of the Titans, because one of the episodes has a "Next Prog" note which "announces" the next episode in the volume, like they did with the Titan books.  I think it's "Night of the Fog" which says "Next prog: The Forever Crimes."  Ummm, no.

--Grant

[The Amstor Computer]

This does raise the question of quite what in the way of original art/films Rebellion actually have - if this is being scanned from a Titan reprint, and stuff like Dante and Devlin Waugh is being scanned from progs, then what's happened to the films? Were they disposed of by previous owners? Knackered by age?

[ukdane]

Ask Logan- he was organising the films.

[IndigoPrime]

Thanks for the heads-up?that's one struck off my "wants" list. Here's hoping I can grab one of the Titan volumes cheap next time I'm around a Music Zone...

[The Amstor Computer]

Finally got my hands on this...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v297/buttonman/dredd_death.jpg">

[The Amstor Computer]

Now, I'm going to have to disagree with Grant on the repro quality.

I've done a side-by-side comparison with the Titan Dredd Vs Death hardback, and apart from the change in size, I can really see no problems here at all. I've posted some samples from each below to give a *rough* idea of the quality of each - any slight blurring or greyish white are due to not being able to scan each of the pages flat.

The big problem is one that Grant's already laid out - this is just the Titan book reprinted in a smaller size. It's in *exactly* the same order & it appears to be a straight copy of the Titan collection, right down to the small quirks - I believe the only change is the addition of a couple of extra covers. This really isn't what I expected, and it strikes me as a rather pointless exercise.

Simply put - if you own the Titan books, or if you can get them cheaper than this, then go with them. The art reproduction isn't really an issue; the lack of imagination in choosing contents is.

[The Amstor Computer]

First, a sample from "Judge Death Lives". The first image is the Titan original, the second the new DC reprint:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v297/buttonman/sample2Titan.jpg">


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v297/buttonman/sample2DC.jpg" >

[The Amstor Computer]

...and from "Punks Rule":

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v297/buttonman/sample1Titan.jpg" >



http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v297/buttonman/sample1DC.jpg" >

[opaque]

The print quality looks fine to me but what the hell is going on with this? It's called Dredd vs Death but there is more unrelated content than Death related content!

If the idea was to reprint Dredd stories then fine but don't jam them into unrelated collections, start a new series for them, don't put them in a specific character collection volume.

Grrr

[Art]

Dredd Vs Bolland!

[opaque]

Really stupid though, gorgeous cover but what a waste, especially as it's a one off not a proper collection. Just think of what they could have done with this!