Judge Dredd has been around for a while (1977?) and although I know what the character is about I don’t ever recall reading a single one of his stories. I think the concept sounds pretty interesting but I’m also fascinated by a comic book character that actually ages as time passes in the real world. There’s almost 40 years worth of Dredd stuff though. Where do I start?
Unlike the majority of serials in 2000AD, Judge Dredd stories rely very little on past stories. Read the wiki on the character to ground yourself in the setting and you’re good to go to pick up at the start of any of the (usually short) story arcs.
I missed this. Don’t expect a whole lot of character evolution from Dredd. That’s one reason it’s so easy to pick up at any point.
Start with collections of some of the major story arcs: in more or less chronological order, The Cursed Earth, Judge Death/Judge Death Lives, The Judge Child, Block Mania/The Apocalypse War, The Dead Man and Necropolis ought to get you up to speed on the character, background and setting.
The strip really relied less on these longer story arcs, though, and more on shorter single or two issue stories: for my money the best Dredd is in those, with Dredd in his perennial role as straight-man to the city and its oddball inhabitants like Otto Sump and Max Normal.
Mega City One was aways just as much a character as Dredd himself, and the heart of the strip was always in the ultimate authority figure Just Not Getting It, forever vainly trying to impose order on a giant lunatic asylum.
The heyday of the strip’s glorious absurdity and deadpan black comedy is found in its exploration of this milieu, and probably peaked from about 1980 to 1985: if you’re exploring the strip for the first time, look for collections from this era.
For a long time it was difficult to get Dredd stories in the US, but thankfully they’ve started releasing the Judge Dredd: Complete Case Files series of TPB over here (albeit slowly with worse covers). They’re dirt cheap (<$15), too.
If you just want to try one, consider skipping to vol. 5, which has the Apocalypse War arc in it.
I was going to suggest starting with the Apocalypse War as well. As Beastly Rotter says Dredd’s bread and butter are the short arcs, but the Apocalypse War is a pretty good tale in itself.
Gosh, that takes me back. I had 2000AD from the late 300s to the mid 400s, mid-1984 to late 1985 or so, and so sadly I missed all the classic Dredd stories (the only was “City of the Damned”, which unfortunately relied on backstory more than most). I filled in the gaps by getting old of some paperback reprints that came out in the early 2000s, and they’d held up surprisingly well. Looking at Amazon.com my copy of The Apocalypse War seems to be going for $50 used, but it’s duplicated by The Complete Case Files #5, which is $13.59. Buy that. Yet again a thing I bought for very little is or was worth something in the US but I can’t act on this because I threw it away. I’m looking at you, parents, and I’m looking at that pile of UK Transformers comics that I don’t have any more because you threw them away! But in exchange you fed and clothed me… and technically you paid for those comics, so they were yours. Let’s call it a draw. I’m going to go back and talk to the people on The Straight Dope, okay?
As Mr Rotter points out, Block Mania / The Apocalypse War is a good start. Block Mania has some striking minimalist artwork, and The Apocalypse War captures the darkly cynical essence of the strip whilst being an accessible shoot-em-up action tale at the same time. It pulls off the clever feat of being an exciting war story with an almost completely unsympathetic hero. Until that point the strip had trouble meshing satire and action, and tended to veer too far in either direction (Judge Caligula was more or less straight comedy, The Cursed Earth - at least, the bits that weren’t banned - was uncomplicated heroic action). From The Apocalypse War onwards the balance was much better. There’s a bleak bitterness to it that seems quintessentially British; my impression of American culture is that it’s far more sentimental in comparison. Judge Dredd was not a sentimental strip.
My opinion is that Dredd peaked with the lengthy Democracy arc in the late 1980s / early 1990s; for the first and last time the strip was actually about something, and I can’t think of an earlier, more sophisticated take on the same theme.
As far as I can tell John Wagner used up his pool of ideas at that point, and looking at Wikipedia’s list of significant stories I see lots of retreads in more recent years. Mega-City One seems to have been destroyed again, and again.
So, yeah, looking at the choices you have in your country on the other side of the Atlantic, and bearing in mind that you’re flush with cash on account of your enormous disposable income, get Case Files #3 - it’s got Judge Death, he’s cool #5, and there were collections of America and Democracy but I think they’re out of print, so cough google cough torrents cough, and also get #14. Get two copies of #14 as natural justice for illegally downloading the collected Democracy stories.
The storyline is good in its own right, but I always feel a little whiplash when JD tries to be “serious” in that way.
It’s hard for me to suddenly feel concerned about the political rights of the people when all the other stories show that they’re unqualified to tie their own shoes, let alone govern themselves.
I remember “Letter from A Democrat,” but I don’t think I’ve read the rest of the democracy arc (my 2000AD reading was always patchy and non-existent since about 1996).
INteresting that there’s been no recent strips suggested yet.
I could recommend some recent strips if there’s interest, but they’re not exactly a natural place to “start” with Dredd.
The longer arcs are fine as stories, but Dredd as a character works best when he has the City as a supporting character to play against him: for all that it’s a crime-ridden post-apocalyptic hellhole, the Mega-City has a lunatic verve to it that Dredd needs to spark off against, otherwise he risks becoming dull. Too many of the stories set outside its walls are insipid in comparison; the only exception for me is the Judge Child quest, in which the entire surrounding galaxy is cheerfully barking mad.
I’d say start with The Cursed Earth series (be sure to try and find the banned bits elsewhere), or Judge Death (which also introduced Psi Judge Anderson, who I like a lot).
The Burger Wars were great: “Everythin’ in MacDonalds is disposable - includin’ th’ staff!”
I don’t know if any of the P.J. Maybe stories have been anthologized but I really dig those.
I don’t care much for the stories that take place in the Cursed Earth; IMO they’re too serious and lack the zaniness of stories set among the meg blocks, mopads and Sump-Ugly salons.
I’d say start anywhere, and just keep reading. I started reading Judge Dredd back in like 1981. I liked the Cursed Earth stuff a lot. I thought the character and the ideas behind him and his world were interesting, awesome and horrifying in so many ways.
But then I read my first Robo-Hunter story, and 2000 A.D. has been all about Sam Slade for me ever since.
Strontium Dog for me.
Rather than start a new thread I thought I’d continue with this one. I started out with the Judge Dredd: Complete Case Files 01 for the Kindle and recently finished volume 14. For some reason the next available volume at Amazon is 22 but I don’t want to skip 15-21.
I’m really enjoying the series a lot and it’s now one of my favorite comics of all time. I disagree that there’s no continuity as events from past comics come up fairly often. I loved the Apocalypse War and the story where Dredd is put in charge of suppressing a democratic advocacy group. The way Dredd takes on the democracy group is a play by play book on how various governments have infiltrated, harassed, and worked to bring down “dissident” groups and for a comic I thought it was a pretty sophisticated story.
In some stories Dredd is an asshole for no reason I can discern and in others he’s actually pretty sympathetic. He gets in trouble after authorizing payment of a new robot body for a little girl and punching the Accountant Judge who hassles him about it, he’s deeply affected by the death of Judge Minty, he has a hard time coming to terms with some of the laws he’s required to enforce, and when he finds out about his former housekeeper/land lady living as a wino in Cardboard City he tries to help her.
I do agree that Mega City 1 is just as much a character as Judge Dredd. But I do think Dredd is a pretty decent character and a little more complex than the “I am the law!” version people most often think of.
I was always an Ace Trucking fan: for a strip that was ostensibly aimed at 10 year old boys, it was brilliantly and irresponsibly gung-ho in its attitude to lying, stealing, cheating, smuggling, drunkeness, smoking, brawling, kidnapping, extortion, and general lawlessness. And that was just the heroes: “We drink, we fight, we gamble, and we generally cause trouble. Apart from that, we’re pretty law-abiding”. See also Alan Moore’s wonderful D.R. and Quinch: one of the best things about early 80s 2000AD was how wonderfully subversive it was.
The “Judge Caligula” collections are some of the best work…but they are also kind of odd-ball. It might be better to know how Mega-City One is supposed to work before you read one of the stories where it gets ruined.
The same applies to the “Judge Death” collection. Really good stuff, but if you aren’t familiar with the world, it will seem strange.
The “Cursed Earth” collections are probably more conventional, plus, you get the Angel Gang, and they’re just so damn much fun! Also Satanus the Tyrannosaur. Tutti-Fruitti!
Y’know, never mind. The Judge Dredd universe is strange! I’ll recommend “Judge Caligula.” Easy the Ferg!
I’m evidently in a minority here, but I actually prefer John Wagner’s later work on the strip. Mega City One ceases to be the one-note joke it was in earlier years and becomes more believable as a real future city. Dredd himself shows greater depth too, as he starts to doubt the way things have always been run there and finds himself dragged into city politics.
Rebellion has an excellent collection of graphic novels collecting each long story arc from this later period, details of which you’ll find here: http://shop.2000adonline.com/categories/judge_dredd/1. (The books to look for there are the ones with the large Judge Dredd logo across the top of the cover.)
The two Days of Chaos volumes are particularly good, in my view. Wagner’s far and away the best writer Dredd’s ever had so his is always the name you want to see in the credits.