The Four Dark Judges... Plus nine more?

[Richmond Clements]

Look forward to seeing him in the prog.

Probably not - he's got a regular gig.

Aye. That's the reason.

What are you suggesting here? Is the only reason that Mignola is not drawing Dredd every week because everyone secretly thinks he's shit?

[BPP]

Hi Richard,

Excuse me for not replying to your point (which I don't really grasp tbh) but as you only ever post to have a go at me I'm not really interested.

Cheers.

[Frank]

The point of licencing Dredd comics to a US publisher was to try to get US readers to buy Dredd comics, because they don't at the moment and haven't in the past. Expecting the licensee to print the kind of comics Dredd's UK creators have been producing for nearly forty years without attracting US interest seems like a recipe for more failure.

If you don't like successful US comics and think they're a bit rubbish, and you don't like IDW's Dredd and think what they've done with the Dark Judges looks a bit rubbish, there's a fifty/fifty chance the kind of US reader who actually buys the comics you think are rubbish might think the 49 Dark Judges looks like a great idea and buys the comic.

I don't think the IDW main Dredd title looks like my kind of thing, and that what they've done with the Dark Judges looks a bit rubbish, so I won't bother with it. Their mini-series using Ewing, Coleby and Wolk are more my kind of thing, so I bought them. This thread was hilarious when it started off, now it's went a bit rubbish.

[Link Prime]

(really, no hiding in 'that is your opinion', it's full of basic errors and scale problems)

Sorry, I and other droids in the office are fans of Nelson's work and I'd refute that very much indeed.

I'm personally not a fan of Nelson Daniel's artwork, but there are indeed worse artists currently working in mainstream comics. He ain't that bad at all.
I mentioned this point on another thread- I would absolutely forgive (what could be considered) sub-par artwork on IDW's Dredd if the writing hit the right notes.
There are many writers with a rock solid grip on Dredd currently working for US publishers; Si Spurrier, Mike Carroll, Rob Williams & Al Ewing to name a few.
Surely if tasked with making Dredd more accessible to a US audience, while still retaining what makes the character work, any one of those writers would far excel Swierczynski.
I'm not slating Duane Swierczynski as a comics writer by the way- I actually really enjoyed his stint on Marvel's 'Cable' a few years ago. I just don't think he's suited to Judge Dredd.

The point has already been proven with 'Mars Attacks Judge Dredd' & 'Year One'.
The editors in IDW obviously know what they're doing in the main- the company produces some excellent titles, with excellent creative teams. I really don't understand how blinkered they are to the quality of the writing on Dredd.

I'm absolutely delighted that IDW is helping raise the character's profile & sell 2000AD graphic novels in the US, but my personal opinion is that their main Dredd comic is currently a dogs dinner.

[IndigoPrime]

I'm now imagining Molch-R printing that sauchie olympics post in 100pt text, nailing it to the wall, and doing a little jig in front of it, before planning on nailing a copy to anyone's head who keeps moaning that IDW isn't doing 'our' Dredd.

[BPP]

Plenty of us read plenty of US titles so that adamant dichotomy is a complete red herring.

[ming]

Wasn't Adamant Dichotomy an early 1970s prog-rock band from Lowestoft?

[BPP]

That was 'Adamant Dichotomy feat. Red Herring'.

Classic tracks. The US remastered CD didn't do their sound justice.

[Spaceghost]

I wouldn't mind Dredd being re-booted and jiggered about if the result was a good comic, but it's not. It's a bad comic. A very bad comic.

With the very greatest of respect, this is just your opinion. A smidge under 10,000 people disagree with you every month.

Indeed it is my opinion but I'm hardly a lone dissenting voice.

As I said, the other titles outside of the main one have worked very well and seem to have appealed to UK and US readers alike whereas the Swierzinski title is pretty much universally maligned, by UK readers at least.

I suppose the point is that nobody really cares whether it goes down well in this country or not as it's designed to sell in America.

Anything good for Rebellion, 2000 AD and Judge Dredd is great of course, I just don't like seeing my beloved Dredd being represented by what are (in my opinion) bad comics.

I'll continue to buy the good stuff and wait for the creative team to change on the main title.

[SmallBlueThing]

I've been amused, over the last day or so, by the pictures of the new DJs (we agreed not to call them "the darkies" didn't we?) and was all ready to pop in here and say that, yes, I buy the IDW Dredd titles (and have preordered Rogue, despite not caring for the character), but I do so because of a compulsion to "support the line". Mars Attacks and Year One proved IDW can do it right, but equally the last fourteen issues of the main book have proven they also can't. I've not yet received my MC2#1, so my #2 sits unread at present. I was also going to say that while I find the art "alright", as it goes, it's the writing that has really let it down- along with the format not making the most of the "book length thriller every issue" and instead giving us a succession of mediocre back-up strips. I was going to say all that.

But I've just read #15 and for the very first time really enjoyed it. It read like a "proper" Dredd story (barring one or two character things that stuck out), and the art (except the hilarious two-footed kick through glass) was nice and told the story perfectly well. The set up for the DJs was well done, and it certainly got me interested enough to look forward to the next one.

Cards on the table- I'm not the biggest Dredd fan in the world. I don't read 2000AD for Dredd, and it's usually not in my top two thrills in a prog. I much prefer Pat Mills's output, and it's his work that sings "proper 2000AD" to me. I enjoy the strip when it's good, but I'm not as invested in the mythology as others. However, I did very much enjoy IDW's #15- more so than any previous issue, and probably up there with Mars Attacks and Year One. If it all kicks off in a similar style next issue, I might start to look forward to it more than I do now. Also, the back-up strip was rather lovely, and I loved the old-style McMahonesque helmets.

As for the DJs themselves- there are certainly at least two female judges in them tanks. Judge Nag and Judge You're On The Sofa Tonight Pal, perhaps?

SBT

[Frank]

I've just read #15 and for the very first time really enjoyed it. It read like a "proper" Dredd story (barring one or two character things that stuck out), and the art (except the hilarious two-footed kick through glass) was nice and told the story perfectly well. The set up for the DJs was well done, and it certainly got me interested enough to look forward to the next one.

Your status as this forum's foremost contrarian remains undiminished, SBT.

[Spaceghost]

I've just read #15 and for the very first time really enjoyed it. It read like a "proper" Dredd story (barring one or two character things that stuck out), and the art (except the hilarious two-footed kick through glass) was nice and told the story perfectly well. The set up for the DJs was well done, and it certainly got me interested enough to look forward to the next one.

Your status as this forum's foremost contrarian remains undiminished, SBT.

Quick, everyone say they love it and see how quickly he does a u turn!

[judda fett]

Hoping that Judge Smoke gets a crossover team up with

[Frank]

There was a Superman/Nic O'Teen anti-smoking poster on the wall of my primary four class room. I genuinely thought he was one of the title's rogue's gallery, and felt he should have been the villain in Superman IV instead of Nuclear Man. I don't think little-me was wrong. I don't smoke, so that poster must be why - hooray for advertising!

[judda fett]

I love Superman's voice in this advert. He should have been portrayed like this in MoS. Nic O'Teen is a right evil bastard, he's Dark Judge as f@#k, from a certain point of view.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qW65xwXbB9Y&feature=youtube_gdata_player