Query

[TheEnforcer]

   Greetings,
           After watching the movie Judge Dredd, I decided I would look into the comic series 2000 AD. The whole Judge, Mega-City, Cursed Earth, etc really caught my interest. I have never actually read one of these comics before. I had some question before I did though. How and where would I go about getting 2000AD issue #1? How many issues of 2000AD are there? Is Judge Dredd a seperate series or is it part of the 2000AD series? How much would it cost me to start from issue #1 all the way to the current? It makes more sense to start from the beginning that start from issue 600, right? That is all, I do have a request though. Because of my busy time schedule I cannot come and visit this forum all the time. I ask that you send all answers to my query to the following email address: FutureCop07@aol.com

Thank You

[Tex Hex]

What was that...? The film did good ??

[The Amstor Computer]

Sorry for posting here, but here you go:

2000AD runs from issue #1 back in 1977 to #1280 this coming week. It's an anthology title that features stories from many different genres, from fantasy (Slaine) to future war (Rogue Trooper) all the way to modern-day thrillers (Button Man)
The one story that has run nearly every week since the comic launched is Judge Dredd. The movie managed to showcase some elements of the strip, but it failed to capture the spirit of the character successfully.

Over the years 2000AD has had several companion magazines.

Best of 2000AD Monthly reprinted classic stories from the weekly comic. It ran for 119 issues before changing its name to Classic 2000AD. The magazine folded after 15 issues under the new name.

The Complete Judge Dredd was a monthly title that set out to reprint every single Dredd story in chronological order. It ran for 42 issues before changing to Classic Judge Dredd. Again, it folded after 18 issues. Over these 60 issues, the magazine managed to reprint every Dredd story from 2000AD issue #2 all the way to #570
If you wanted to learn more about Dredd before buying the individual magazines, this is probably a good bet. Try eBay.

Judge Dredd Megazine. This is the one companion magazine that's still available in shops, despite a fairly rocky road over the past few years.
It set out to print stories from Dredd's world, not necessarily focusing on him as a main character. As time went by, other characters crept in & as the cost of printing another mag full of original material became too great, reprints of old Dredd material started to fill the pages. This got worse over the last few years, with much of the magazine being made up of reprint material. However, it's now finding it's feet again, and though reprint material still features, the magazine is more enjoyable than it has been at any time since 1994-1995.

Now... cost :-O

If you want to collect every single prog, be prepared to spend a lot of time tracking down missing issues, and be prepared to shell out a LOT of money for the earlier magazines. Issues 1-10, in good condition, could set you back somewhere in the region of ?200 MINIMUM. Good copies of issue 2 alone can go for anywhere from ?50-150.
The good news is that the later progs can be found for far less. From 300 onward, expect to pay anywhere from 50p upward, depending on quality & scarcity. If you're lucky, you can track down longer runs, and this is probably the best way to collect. Here, expect to pay from ?30-80 for a run of 50-100 comics.
If you're very lucky, you can probably pick up progs 400-1280 for under ?400.

The publishers are currently considering selling reprinted & rebound collections of the earlier progs, so you might want to wait & see what happens with this. No price point has been confirmed, but it will certainly be cheaper than trying to purchase originals!

Hope this helps.

[Thread Zero]

I think Blackblood has covered it all succinctly.

Shame the law in order Dredd reprints stopped. Ideal for new Dredd fans. Before I managed to get a full collection of 2k, I used to love reading the old Dredds in that mag.

I emailed TheEnforcer and mentioned Titan Book reprints. He might like Dredd on nice quality paper. And reasonably(?) cheap!

scojo

[The Amstor Computer]

Yeah - Titan reprints are a relatively cheap & easy way to pick up some of the Dredd classics. The downside is that they tend to miss out a lot of the brilliant shorter Dredd stories.

[Anemic_Newt]

I've also added this:-
My own 2p worth - 2000AD is an anthology comic but you don't need to get from issue 1 to jump on board and begin to understand what is going on. Just pick up any issue - or a new launch issue eg prog 1280 the next one! and go from there.

I have been collecting for about 15 years and generally have never felt left out by not having read all 400 issues before that. So if your budget is low - just purchase a Titan book or 2 and start collecting now - you'll soon get into it.
Newt