Case files or not?

[U.S.S.R]

Thanks for all the advice again people. Tbh I'll probably stick to the case files at the mo as Im really enjoying case files 01. Cheers

[Dark Jimbo]

...where's Walter the Wobot these days?

Still kicking around, after a chequered past. He was written out in the early 1980s (along with Maria) as being out of place in an increasingly mature strip, but Wagner eventually relented and ressurected him in the 90s for the odd appearance. Now helping to run a Judge Death tourist attraction and last seen in Prog 1536.

[Richard]

Thankfully, 2000AD hasn't often featured "adult" strips with "references to rape" and "extreme violence" of the kind that would warrant a "not for kids" rating. So maybe if that's the only reason they liked the movie, they'd be better off going elsewhere for their comics. On the other hand, if they liked the character and the set-up, then they'd like pretty much any of the strips mentioned above.

Leaving aside the non-consensual sex we saw in Lenny Zero a few weeks ago, I didn't actually suggest that extreme violence and rape were the only reason why people liked the film. Please don't put words in my mouth.

What I am saying is that those are the reasons why kids were not allowed to see the film and so (ignoring the few kids who may have sneaked in or seen a pirate copy online) the only people who saw it were adults who might not necessarily expect or want to read comics aimed primarily at young children but who were hoping instead to read mature comics aimed primarily at over-18s.

Consequently if on the strength of the film they ask us to recommend a Judge Dredd comic story to introduce them to the character who inspired the film, we might do better to point them towards, say, "America" or "Mandroid" rather than, say, "A Tale From Walter's Scrapbook." That's all.

[Dandontdare]

...where's Walter the Wobot these days?

Still kicking around, after a chequered past. He was written out in the early 1980s (along with Maria) as being out of place in an increasingly mature strip, but Wagner eventually relented and resurrected him in the 90s for the odd appearance. Now helping to run a Judge Death tourist attraction and last seen in Prog 1536.

glossing over when he lead the second Robot Rebellion and tried to killl Dredd:

But he got over that, and I do absolutely adore all the Mrs Gundson stories.

[sheldipez]

...where's Walter the Wobot these days?

Still kicking around, after a chequered past. He was written out in the early 1980s (along with Maria) as being out of place in an increasingly mature strip, but Wagner eventually relented and resurrected him in the 90s for the odd appearance. Now helping to run a Judge Death tourist attraction and last seen in Prog 1536.

glossing over when he lead the second Robot Rebellion and tried to killl Dredd:

But he got over that, and I do absolutely adore all the Mrs Gundson stories.

Shocked! Walter you very naughty wobot!

[Dark Jimbo]

glossing over when he lead the second Robot Rebellion and tried to killl Dredd:

For the very good reason that I've never read it! The Case Files have gradually brought me up to date on the '70s and '80s but there's still a huge gap in my Dredd knowledge. Never read Mechanismo, Doomsday, Inferno, America, Young Death, Wilderlands, The Pit, Dredd/Batman...

[Stan]

casefiles are now up to vol20 and are just reaching the dodgy period in the 90s when quality suffered, and it'll be a long time sbefore the great post-2000 stuff appears in that format. So yeah, alternating them seems like a good idea!

That partly answers a question I posed in another thread. Though I was somewhat aware of the 90s dip.

I don't see any harm in picking up trades here and there while reading the Case Files. It just depends on your own particular desire to read a specific story, and they're a good introduction for newbs. Though I kind of agree with Richard in that it's not always as simple as just picking up a trade and getting the whole story. That's why I'll stick with the Case Files while following 2000AD from prog 1800.

[IndigoPrime]

Never read...

Unless I'm having a senior moment, Mechanismo and Inferno are collected in Case Files 18/19; also, America's been reissued in standalone trade, Young Death has its own trade, as does The Pit (although that'll fairly soon end up in the Case Files), and a new Dredd/Batman collection's out next month. So that'd plug some of the gaps!

[radiator]

It's not a question of how well they've aged.

The issue is that the stories in Case File 1 are for kids, and the new film is for adults, being rated R or 18 for extreme violence and references to rape. You just can not reasonably expect someone who has just seen that film -- who has never read the comics before and is interested in starting -- to pick up Case Files 1 and read some stories which are completely different to what the film had led them to expect, and be converted into a life-long fan of the comic. They simply will never look at the comic again.

Our responsibility is to refer them to stories which actually resemble what they think they are going to get. Then, having hooked them, you can try to broaded their horizons.

I very much agree. I think certain people on this board have the rose-tinted spectacles firmly attached when it comes to this issue. Frankly, I wouldn't recommend any Dredd pre-Apocalypse War to newcomers (with a very few exceptions such as Judge Death/Judge Death Lives!), and I'd only recommend Apocalypse War with several caveats. I think people forget that we, as long term fans, are predisposed to forgive/overlook a lot of the quirks of old British boys comics because we know what to expect, never mind the fact that a large proportion of people will simply not pick up a black and white comic in the first place.

People who have just seen the film are going to expect Judge Dredd as a comic to be mature, gritty and hard-edged - which it more often than not IS - so to that end I'd always recommend something more recent, such as Mandroid, The Pit, America etc. Once people have got the Dredd bug, they'll be prepared to go back to the early stuff and look on it more favourably.

Old Dredd is very dated - just because that doesn't matter to you personally (or even adds to the appeal) doesn't mean it's going to do the trick for people coming in cold - imo it's far more likely to put them off.

[radiator]

Never read... The Pit

Woah woah woah woah woah woah. Woah.

And you call yourself a Dredd fan? 

[Judge Fish]

While, truthfully, I think some comics do not age well at all, Judge Dredd has lost very little. There are a few lines of dialogue and story devices in the older material that are very much of the time, sure - but it's amazing how well those stories hold up. In fact, they don't JUST hold up - they're still genuinely fun and entertaining!

I'd actually agree with that. I'm re-reading (and in the odd case, reading for the first time) Judge Dredd from the very start, and the thing that struck me immediately, not having read a great many of these stories for, well decades, is just how well they generally hold up. Sure, you can argue that everything is of its time, and that a lot of the stories were often throw-aways, and occasionally even a bit silly, but for the most part the old strips didn't feel anywhere near as dated as I frankly expected them to, and I have thus far been enjoying my big read through a great deal.

I've been collecting and reading 2000AD since the 80's, but a lot of the stories, outside the beloved epics and the 'important' stories, I haven't really revisited much (if at all) since way back when, while some others I may have originally missed or skipped over due to having gaps in my collection at the time. But reading though them now most of these stories hold up, for me at least, a lot better than a lot of other material from the era. I mean when I've gone back to Marvel or DC comics of the era, for example, no matter how enjoyable, they can often feel a bit hamstrung by the comics code in relation to exactly what can be said or shown or even inferred, but with 2000AD I just don't feel that as much. Still on occasion, and then mostly in terms of dialogue, but not too much. They may not be as graphic, sure, but thematically, stylistically, and in terms of content, complexity, and character, they usually hold up quite well, at least to my mind anyhow.

As for the Dredd film giving new readers certain expectations, I haven't had the opportunity to see the film yet, but I would think it would depend on just what it was about the film that appealed to these new would-be fans in the first place. I mean Nolan's Batman films have significant differences to the Batman comic universe too, but the core of the key characters rings true across both mediums, and those kind of touchstones can act as an anchor and help audiences transition from one into the other, despite all the other differences that may be there. Sometimes there might be a few bumps along the way, but I think anyone who has any level of genuine interest, beyond just a passing fancy, kind of expects that to a degree anyhow.

As such, in the Dredd movie's case, if it was strictly the action and violence that was most appealing, then maybe early Dredd isn't the best starting point, I'd agree, but if it was the characters and the concept that appealed, if they were the touchstones that were latched on to, then I think some of the early strips can still fill that need admirably, as Judge Dredd hit the ground reasonably well formed, and soon went from strength to strength, again at least in my view.

I guess, ultimately, you kind of have to know your potential audience and feed them a meal that best suits their tastes, and they can hopefully expand out from there.