Judge Dredd Casefiles

[13 schoolyards]

I suspect the OG Dredd model - lots of wacky one-offs and short stories with the occasional epic - worked when it was Wagner / Grant because they were also writing a lot of serials for 2000AD and elsewhere. They had a bunch of steady paydays where they just had to keep things rolling on autopilot (to some extent) and so Dredd could be an outlet for shorter ideas and basically be a bit of a break from their other gigs.

Unfortunately now it seems like the current crew of Dredd writers all want to write it as a serial where they keep things ticking over, because it's a lot easier to write chapter 8 of an ongoing story than it is to come up with eight separate stories. So there's all these overlapping ongoing not-quite-sagas that never seem to build up a decent head of steam and Dredd rarely gets to do anything Dredd-like because the big appeal of Dredd's character is that he gets the job done.

If Dredd was really acting like Dredd in half these stories, they wouldn't make it past page five.

(fortunately the Case Files are nowhere near up to the current slump, so you've got at least 40 books of quality crime fighting - plus the two or three where Mark Millar pops up - to look forward to)

[Norton Canes]

It's funny to think of a time when Dredd needed informers keeping him up to date with what's happening on the street, considering every second storyline now involves some massive quasi-magic threat to the city or focuses almost entirely on some awesome supporting character who makes Dredd look like a chump

I don't think things are quite so bad. Looking at a list of Dredd stories in the prog from 2022 the only multi-parter that got seriously supernatural was Rob Williams' Buratino Must Die, with its roster of bizarre Sov psi-villains. Niemand does like to focus on cits with a story but to be honest Wagner often did much the same thing; in fact, the strip is arguably at its best when putting MC1's bizarre denizens to the fore and letting Dredd react.   

[Small Man Big Horse]

I suspect the OG Dredd model - lots of wacky one-offs and short stories with the occasional epic - worked when it was Wagner / Grant because they were also writing a lot of serials for 2000AD and elsewhere. They had a bunch of steady paydays where they just had to keep things rolling on autopilot (to some extent) and so Dredd could be an outlet for shorter ideas and basically be a bit of a break from their other gigs.

I do love that run and many of the one off's are fantastic, but sometimes it feels like they've just taken something topical and put a futuristic spin on it, and I have to confess I do prefer the mega epics overall. That said I've not read past case files 14 (my original plan being to start with vol. 11 which was when I began reading it as a kid, but that's gone out of the window now) and so could imagine that one giant epic after another would get a bit exhausting, especially if Dredd doesn't act in character any more.

[Ron Maels Moustache]

I suspect the OG Dredd model - lots of wacky one-offs and short stories with the occasional epic - worked when it was Wagner / Grant because they were also writing a lot of serials for 2000AD and elsewhere. They had a bunch of steady paydays where they just had to keep things rolling on autopilot (to some extent) and so Dredd could be an outlet for shorter ideas and basically be a bit of a break from their other gigs.

Yeah I think that's it, also when Wagner & Grant were a team they were working in a time when you could make a decent income just working for a single publisher, whereas these I days I don't think any writer could dedicate the time to knocking out Dredd strips week after week as they have to juggle numerous other, usually better paid gigs in order to put food on the table.

I guess you could say...man cannot live on Dredd alone.

I do love that run and many of the one off's are fantastic, but sometimes it feels like they've just taken something topical and put a futuristic spin on it,

Ha, that's exactly what they did! They would spend ages scouring the papers for interesting stories and pull something out to base a comic around.

[13 schoolyards]

I don't think things are quite so bad. Looking at a list of Dredd stories in the prog from 2022 the only multi-parter that got seriously supernatural was Rob Williams' Buratino Must Die, with its roster of bizarre Sov psi-villains. Niemand does like to focus on cits with a story but to be honest Wagner often did much the same thing; in fact, the strip is arguably at its best when putting MC1's bizarre denizens to the fore and letting Dredd react. 

I'd agree with that, and I think you're right that it has gotten a little better in the last year or so. But there did seem to be a fairly long stretch there where instead of getting stories about the cits with Dredd as the looming antagonist (which Al Ewing used to do well, to praise a more recent Dredd writer), there were stories about characters that were basically a new main character with Dredd pretty much superfluous in his own strip.

The other problem that seems to crop up a bit lately with Dredd is writers trying to explore his character (I'm thinking of that moment in Buratino where we're told that Dredd is full of anger - huh?). I guess today's writers assume - possibly correctly - that readers expect a bit more "depth" in their main character.

But whereas Wagner has introduced a lot of shading in his depiction of Dredd in recent years while keeping him roughly the same character (only now with added doubts), other writers don't seem to have his lightness of touch or awareness of what makes Dredd work.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Ha, that's exactly what they did! They would spend ages scouring the papers for interesting stories and pull something out to base a comic around.

I can't really blame them either, it must have been really difficult to keep on coming up with new ideas for the strip, especially given how many they burnt through in the early days of the comic where nearly all the stories were one or two parters.

I've now got to the part where Dredd is Luna Marshall on the moon and wearing a sexy cape for some unknown reason, and was bemused by the Christmas story where Dredd's actually nice to Walter, admittedly I've missed decades of the series but this is the kindest I've ever known Dredd to be.

[Ron Maels Moustache]

Dredd's stint on the moon eventually lead to one of the most notorious non-canon stories of all time, "Christmas Party", which was evidently considered so embarrassing it was eventually dumped in the 1980 Dan Dare Annual of all things.

Set during Dredd's time on Luna One. Tale starts off with Dredd investigating his own apartment for a disturbance, only to discover that Thagg the Mighty has thrown him a surprise party. At the party you see all the other main characters of that era at- Dan Dare, Johnny Alpha, ABC Warriors etc. Soon the party comes to an end when the Writer/Art Droids of 2000 AD start protesting outside. Dredd leads the Characters against the Droids and locks up everyone.

It's hard to describe just quite how inept this is, but evidently it was supposed to be a light-hearted jape full of inside gags, in the vein of the occasional Tharg The Mighty one-offs, except this one is mystifyingly unfunny and misjudged, and the art by Keith Page is absolutely dreadful(no pun intended). It's like a masterclass in how not to do funny comics.

To this day no-one has ever owned up to writing it, which leads me to suspect it wasn't someone on the usual writing staff, given the anti-union slant to it makes me suspect it was someone on the editorial or management side sticking the boot in, to cringeworthy effect.

[bgmnts]

What the fuck is that?

[Norton Canes]

As described in the link (and RMM's preamble)

[bgmnts]

I was more just reaffirming my disbelief really, rhetorical question. It's shocking.

[Ron Maels Moustache]

To be fair, that was also my response when I first read it. Whole sorry mess can be viewed in full here - https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Judge-Dredd-The-Restricted-Files/TPB-1?id=131775&readType=1

That book includes the also terrible "Mega-Miami" which features Dredd giving Walter The Wobot dating advice, I shit you not.

Annual stories really were a whole weird sub-genre in themselves at the time, like all these bizarre alternate versions of characters written or drawn by artists who otherwise had nothing to do with them. I think at one Alan Moore ended up writing a one-off episode of ABC Warriors.

[Norton Canes]

'Red Planet Blues', it's brilliant. He also did some Ro-Busters and a Rogue Trooper story. Sorry, I'd add some links but I'm out and about

[Pranet]

That's weird I had that Dan Dare annual when I was a kid. Looking back someone must have picked it up remaindered or even second hand for me.

I have it again now as full of booze and nostalgia I bought it off ebay a while back.

[Small Man Big Horse]

To be fair, that was also my response when I first read it. Whole sorry mess can be viewed in full here - https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Judge-Dredd-The-Restricted-Files/TPB-1?id=131775&readType=1

I'd been wondering what the Restricted Files were, and now I know I'm almost certainly not going to bother with them unless I can pick them up really cheaply, my plan to get all of the case files is expensive enough as it is and so far I've only got the first 14.

[13 schoolyards]

From what I remember the first restricted files isn't too bad, as it's largely annual stories from the 70s and 80s. But by the time they get to the third volume it's hardly worth bending down to pick up for free.

It's strange they decided to make sure all that tat was collected when there's still years worth of decent quality Dredd newspaper strips uncollected, but I guess already being in comic format meant it was basically money for nothing

[Small Man Big Horse]

From what I remember the first restricted files isn't too bad, as it's largely annual stories from the 70s and 80s. But by the time they get to the third volume it's hardly worth bending down to pick up for free.

It's strange they decided to make sure all that tat was collected when there's still years worth of decent quality Dredd newspaper strips uncollected, but I guess already being in comic format meant it was basically money for nothing

It seems like they were published again in two separate collections in 2018. I remember having the old style format paperbacks from the eighties as well, but was never a huge fan of them.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Judge-Dredd-Dredds-John-Wagner/dp/1781082642/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=judge+dredd+daily+dredds&qid=1680793547&sprefix=daily+dredd%2Caps%2C93&sr=8-1

[13 schoolyards]

I had a few of the old paperback volumes and wasn't a huge fan, but I picked up the HC collections (which I think only collect a bit over half the run?) and it did improve a bit. Much as I like Ron Smith's art, I think Ian Gibson's looser style worked better, and it moved away a bit from the done-in-one stories with a comedy twist.

Hardly essential Dredd, though the strip where they cover the entire Apocalypse war in eleven panels is a classic: https://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=1064739&GSub=211455

[Small Man Big Horse]

I've finished the first case files collection now and enjoyed it a great deal, the move to the moon works really well and allowed them to mix in some western tropes while still being distinctly sci-fi, and though I found him irritating at first Walter really grew on me, he's a pathetic little bastard but his adoration for Dredd is never less than very funny.

Because I'm quite annoying I'd previous read Case Files 2 a few weeks back and that I loved throughout. It kicks off straight away with the first "Dredd Epic" as he travels across the Cursed Earth, but though it's set in that location it feels more like a selection of two or three parters shoved together as Dredd runs in to vampiric robots, feuding fast food bosses, the jolly green giant (though due to copyright reasons I had to track both of those parts down online), and a bunch of dinosaurs. Even better is the fact that once Dredd returns to Mega City One it immediately launches in to The Day The Law Died (though it's about six parts in before they begin naming it that), and mad old Judge Cal is controlling the city and dishing out extreme punishments.

I don't know why Judge Giant speaks as if he's in a blaxploitation movie, he didn't when he appeared in the first case files book, and I can't imagine Dredd enjoying being called "Baby" in the current era of 2000AD. Still, apart from that it's consistently entertaining, even if it does get very, very silly on occasion (Judge Fish, and the poor bastard who spends the whole story in his spotted boxer shorts and nothing else). Also, it's been so long since I read a story when Dredd was young that it really added a different spin to it, especially as Joe actually seems to care about some of the humans he meets, and makes friends with a cute furry alien in the first epic and then with Fergee in the second.

[13 schoolyards]

I feel that there's a big divide between the Dredd of (roughly) the first two Case Files and the "real" Dredd that comes afterwards - after The Day the Law Died Dredd's character is pretty much set as the hard-as-nails uncaring loner bastard we all know and love, whereas before that he's often more straightforwardly heroic, with comrades or leading a team depending on the story.

Pat Mills has said repeatedly that his version of Dredd was meant to be a regular action hero, and it was John Wagner who made him into a more satirical character who was often something of an antagonist with the cits as the real focus. Which was definitely the right way to go, even if it does mean today that other writers often struggle with Dredd stories that aren't just straight action.

[Pink Gregory]

Is Vol.3 the first appearance of the Dark Judges?/Judge Anderson?

Struggling to remember where the Angel Gang show up as well.

[Wentworth Smith]

Vol 3 has Judge Death and Anderson, vol 4 is the Judge Child and the Angel Gang.

[grainger]

even if it does get very, very silly on occasion

Judge Schmaltz!

[Small Man Big Horse]

I feel that there's a big divide between the Dredd of (roughly) the first two Case Files and the "real" Dredd that comes afterwards - after The Day the Law Died Dredd's character is pretty much set as the hard-as-nails uncaring loner bastard we all know and love, whereas before that he's often more straightforwardly heroic, with comrades or leading a team depending on the story.

Pat Mills has said repeatedly that his version of Dredd was meant to be a regular action hero, and it was John Wagner who made him into a more satirical character who was often something of an antagonist with the cits as the real focus. Which was definitely the right way to go, even if it does mean today that other writers often struggle with Dredd stories that aren't just straight action.

I'm really looking forward to the third volume, I've never read Dredd in the correct order before (I started reading 2000AD around prog 520, and then only had the Titan reprints to catch up on older stories, before a friend of my sister's sold me about 100 issues from around prog 350) and it's fascinating to see the evolution of the character, and the world building too, right now Dredd needs a good seven or eight hours kip and spends time off reading law books, and there hasn't been any mention of the PSI division or Iso Cubes, so it'll be interesting to see how they're brought in to the story. I'm taking a brief gap to finish off Alias and Kieron Gillen's Die, but will hopefully be ready to start by the end of the week.

Judge Schmaltz!

Heh, yeah, that really was very daft, but the story was so much fun I didn't mind it at all. And I was also bemused by the complete coincidence that one of the tutor judges looks like Patrick Stewart!

[grainger]

I really liked Schmaltz.

[Wentworth Smith]

'Can it, Judge Schmaltz!'

Dredd, for the most part,  really misses that kind of thing these days.

[13 schoolyards]

I don't know that Dredd could sustain that kind of thing any more - Wagner's shift towards a more serious procedural model in the 90s pretty much put paid to and traces of the old idea of Dredd being just as ridiculous as everyone else in Mega City-1.

The strip really does need humour in there to make it work though. A lot of the 80s shorts could be laugh-out-loud funny at times. I don't think anyone currently writing Dredd is all that funny, though Al Ewing did get a few good jokes in there semi-recently.

[Wentworth Smith]

I think Dredd still works as the straight man, there was a recent Sensitive Klegg story which worked pretty well, but I agree the current writers aren't really up to the humour side of things. Not for lack of trying, I just don't think they can pull it off. Shame, as it is one of the best things about classic Dredd.

[Norton Canes]

The one-shot Dredd episode in this week's prog made me laugh a few times

[13 schoolyards]

I think Dredd still works as the straight man, there was a recent Sensitive Klegg story which worked pretty well, but I agree the current writers aren't really up to the humour side of things. Not for lack of trying, I just don't think they can pull it off. Shame, as it is one of the best things about classic Dredd.

Yeah, classic Dredd is a straight-up humour strip at least half the time, and a very good one at that.

Good point that Dredd does still work as a straight man, it's just that the comedies he's dropped into recently rarely seem to need him to be one (though I haven't read the latest prog, which does seem to be getting laughs).

[Small Man Big Horse]

Started Case File 03 last night and it starts off strongly with Vienna, Dredd's niece, being kidnapped. I'm not quite sure how Rico had a kid who is so young (I'd put her at seven or eight at the very latest) but perhaps life on Titan wasn't as bleak as suggested. Anyhow, I enjoyed Dredd walking sway from her, and the following story which introduces the Block's for the first time feels like the more traditional mean Dredd, though that's instantly intercut by Walter bringing Dredd's lunch to him in the middle of a bank robber / hostage situation and forcing him to eat.



I grabbed the above image from one of those ReadComicsFreeOnline sites and really hate the colouring, I'm guessing it's from the Quality Comics reprints? Whatever the case I'm glad the trades are in black and white.