Judge Dredd Complete Case Files 23

[Skullmo]

Plus the art on both those stories is lovely

[Art]

The Pit is a very special story to me. I've a theory that it changed the way Dredd is written and is the start point for "modern" Dredd , so it will be interesting seeing the stories after that to see if they bear that out.

[Fungus]

[Some quick Googling later...]

I do enjoy filling in the blanks. Pleased to discover Wagner returned to "regular" writing in '94 but I see Wilderlands was split between prog and meg ?-( Drokk! I've been ignoring the megs, it's always felt less satisfying than the prog (excluding vol. 1). I've a feeling my decision to quit the prog may have had a lot to do with the ropiness of the meg at the time.

[radiator]

Said it many times before, but there was a period (IIRC of a couple of years) during the late nineties where Wagner was writing all of Dredd for both prog and Meg single-handed, and lots of those are short tales and one-offs that have never been reprinted anywhere, so Case Files 25-7(?) are going to be solid slabs of greatness.

T.B. Grover's 'classic' run of Dredd gets talked about a lot, but IMO this second prolific run of Wagner's never gets the credit it deserves - there's equal amounts of world-building going on, plus a whole new supporting cast gets introduced, and post-The Pit, a much more mature tone is evident.

[Frank]

The Pit is a very special story to me. I've a theory that it changed the way Dredd is written and is the start point for "modern" Dredd , so it will be interesting seeing the stories after that to see if they bear that out

That's true in retrospect, but you have to ignore the directionless six or seven years of dune sharks, spider brides and second robot wars which followed that crucial development in the strip (and Wagner's writing) in order to sustain that thesis. The Pit redefined the strip and made an awful lot of that which preceded it look a bit redundant, but it took everyone involved (including Wagner, apparently) a while to realise that.

Wilderlands has a few nice moments, but it doesn't really work as a story or achieve its stated purpose of restoring Dredd to the role of hero and focus of the drama in his own strip.

[Bat King]

The Pit is a very special story to me. I've a theory that it changed the way Dredd is written and is the start point for "modern" Dredd , so it will be interesting seeing the stories after that to see if they bear that out.

Yes.

[Greg M.]

Having now got my grubby mitts on a copy of CF23, I must agree with Skullmo's earlier comment that 'Goodnight Kiss' worked better episodically – that said, it's still pretty good, and I love the hallucination episode, not least for the novelty of seeing Kraken. What really impressed me though is how well 'The Three Amigos' has aged – I liked Hairsine's art well enough at the time, but looking at it now, it's a total revelation – we never got anywhere near enough of him on Dredd.

[radiator]

you have to ignore the directionless six or seven years of dune sharks, spider brides and second robot wars which followed

I dunno, I'd argue 'directionless' - Dredd has always varied wildly in tone - one week it's gritty police procedural, the next lightweight whimsy, and that continues even to this day. Personally I have a hell of a lot of affection for that post-'The Pit' period of stories (I'll even stand up for The Hunting Party) and though the execution of Doomsday proper didn't please everyone I rate it quite highly. The buildup, including stories like The Scorpion Dance and The Cal Files is solid gold, and Beyond The Call of Duty and Sector House are practically The Pit 2 and 3.

[PsychoGoatee]

T.B. Grover's 'classic' run of Dredd gets talked about a lot, but IMO this second prolific run of Wagner's never gets the credit it deserves - there's equal amounts of world-building going on, plus a whole new supporting cast gets introduced, and post-The Pit, a much more mature tone is evident.

I look forward to it, can't wait to read those! Wagner's Dredd and especially the later 80s and 90s stuff I've read has been especially awesome, as much as I also love the earlier classics. Plus I really dig a lot of the art styles at that time and Ezquerra just seems to get better and better.

[Colin YNWA]

The Pit is a very special story to me. I've a theory that it changed the way Dredd is written and is the start point for "modern" Dredd , so it will be interesting seeing the stories after that to see if they bear that out.

I did a Wagner re-read from The Pit onwards not that long ago and the theory kinda holds out for me. Wagner still did a lot of the more  darkly comedic shorts - that now seem the providence of other writers - on his return to The Prog Dredd, but certainly its a very useful benchmark for the shift.

Of course we could debate this to death (of go on can we!) and push it back to things like 'Letter' etc etc and the like but The Pit certainly works as a useful shorthand for me.

[Richard]

You can't call that era "directionless!" Over a period of four years Wagner steadily builds up the whole Frendz / Nero Narcos storyline, and separately the Galen DeMarco unrequited love story, and also Dredd's ongoing Feud with Judge Edgar, and then fuses all three story arcs together in a tour de force of brilliant story-telling, which results in Hershey becoming chief judge and major career changes for DeMarco, Edgar, Buell, Niles and Shenker -- practically the entire supporting cast of Judge Dredd. You need to read it all again and pay attention this time! It starts from Bad Frendz and continues until The Cal Legacy in progs 1178-79.

[Frank]

You can't call that era "directionless!"

As radiator correctly discerns above, I was speaking with reference to the wildly varying tone, narrative mode, dramatic register, and thematic concerns of the period between The Pit and Blood Cadets, rather than the plotting of huge arcs. I enjoy the soap opera of Beyond The Call of Duty, but it's a continuation of the characters and subplots of The Pit, rather than its procedural/investigative mode and realistic tone.

It's the change of tone established by The Pit that means I (and presumably Arthur Wyatt, to whom I was responding) consider it to be the forerunner of the great run of Wagner stories dealing with aging, responsibility, and human frailty that continue all the way until the end of Day Of Chaos.

I don't think the influence of The Pit and the possibilities it suggested for telling different kinds of Dredd stories were really understood or embraced until well after its publication, which was why I mentioned dune sharks and spider brides in my previous post as examples of the way Wagner almost seemed to retreat into the heroics and melodrama of earlier stories until the Rebellion era and stories like the above mentioned Blood Cadets, Total War, and Tour Of Duty.