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Post by tingramretro on Feb 21, 2016 2:46:15 GMT -5
I have never read one Judge Dredd comic. I guess that's why I didn't hate the movie. Strictly speaking, the majority of Dredd's stories have never been told in a Judge Dredd comic (unless you count reprints or the two less than successful attempts to launch versions of him in the US market). He is primarily the lead character in the weekly anthology 2000 AD, and his is the only strip in the title which remains a constant, with others rotating in and out every few months. There is also a monthly Judge Dredd Megazine, but that's also an anthology, with most of the strips set in Dredd's world.  |
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Post by tingramretro on Feb 21, 2016 2:56:46 GMT -5
I have never read one Judge Dredd comic. I guess that's why I didn't hate the movie. It's a post-apocalyptic satire on American culture and consumerism. It's not hard to get collected editions for cheap as the stories were originally printed in B&W. I read the 80's Eagle reprints (which were in color) in my teens, so I was perplexed to learn that the stories were initially visually told others  Those reprints were pretty awful. They shrank the art down much smaller than intended and sometimes moved panels around to fit the American format, which is significantly smaller than the original 2000 AD format. And while the Eagle Comics titles weren't quite so bad in this regard, the colouring on the later Quality Comics reprints was often abysmal, with the colourists seemingly having been provided with no reference material for the characters. The paper used on the Quality titles was awful, too. |
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Post by tingramretro on Feb 21, 2016 3:04:06 GMT -5
Yeah it probably benefitted me I had no insight or exposure to dread beyond one or two of the batman crossover comics. I thought the movie at the time had a lot of cool and unique story ideas. And I thought it looked cool and was fun for its time. I also really liked the 2nd movie. But I can't say if either were a good or accurate portrayal of the character. The thing is, neither movie really grasped the fact that the best Dredd stories aren't really about Dredd. As a character, he is by necessity pretty one dimensional, basically just a human machine programmed to uphold the law. He has no personal relationships, no outside interests, no life beyond his job. So the focus of the stories has to be on other characters, the people he interacts with, the crazies who inhabit his world. The real star of Judge Dredd is Mega City One itself.  |
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Post by tolworthy on Feb 21, 2016 4:53:10 GMT -5
The thing is, neither movie really grasped the fact that the best Dredd stories aren't really about Dredd. As a character, he is by necessity pretty one dimensional, basically just a human machine programmed to uphold the law. He has no personal relationships, no outside interests, no life beyond his job. So the focus of the stories has to be on other characters, the people he interacts with, the crazies who inhabit his world. The real star of Judge Dredd is Mega City One itself. Yes, exactly this. Dredd is simply an excuse to tell any kind of story. Detective? Romance? Horror? Comedy Alien sci-fi? Historical (via time travel)? No problem in Mega City One. The one dimensional Dredd is the glue, and a brilliantly inspired move. Mess with it and it fails. I also agree with tingramretro: if you've only seen the American reprints, you haven't seen Dredd. As a child the larger page size meant the story would fill your field of vision, and they are drawn accordingly. And the harsh black and white (especially by somebody like Esquerra) was a perfect fit for the punk anarchist stories. To put something like the Apocalypse War or Judge Death into a small, coloured format is to destroy it. |
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Post by Confessor on Feb 21, 2016 10:08:06 GMT -5
It's a post-apocalyptic satire on American culture and consumerism. It's not hard to get collected editions for cheap as the stories were originally printed in B&W. I read the 80's Eagle reprints (which were in color) in my teens, so I was perplexed to learn that the stories were initially visually told others Those reprints were pretty awful. They shrank the art down much smaller than intended and sometimes moved panels around to fit the American format, which is significantly smaller than the original 2000 AD format. And while the Eagle Comics titles weren't quite so bad in this regard, the colouring on the later Quality Comics reprints was often abysmal, with the colourists seemingly having been provided with no reference material for the characters. The paper used on the Quality titles was awful, too. Yeah, the Quality Comics series wasn't a patch on the earlier Eagle Comics series. Ironic that they called themselves Quality Comics, when the printing and paper quality was a lot poorer than what had come before. Still, the Eagle Comics series was pretty damn good, I think (I have a full run). The smaller size didn't bother me a jot and I'd been used to reading my best friend's copies of 2000AD for years. The colouring was also very good in that first series. |
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Post by crazyoldhermit on Feb 21, 2016 10:11:09 GMT -5
How are those big Dredd Complete Case File trades they've got out now?
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Post by Batflunkie on Feb 21, 2016 10:26:22 GMT -5
How are those big Dredd Complete Case File trades they've got out now? I've got the first three volumes and I'm happy with them. I tend to prefer the shorter stories as opposed to epics like "The Day The Law Died", mostly because a lot of the first issues I read in my teens were full of them |
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Post by tingramretro on Feb 21, 2016 11:00:16 GMT -5
How are those big Dredd Complete Case File trades they've got out now? I've never bought them since I have most of the stories in their original form anyway, but I have a friend who collects them and she seems really impressed by the way they're presented. |
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Post by tingramretro on Feb 21, 2016 11:10:57 GMT -5
Those reprints were pretty awful. They shrank the art down much smaller than intended and sometimes moved panels around to fit the American format, which is significantly smaller than the original 2000 AD format. And while the Eagle Comics titles weren't quite so bad in this regard, the colouring on the later Quality Comics reprints was often abysmal, with the colourists seemingly having been provided with no reference material for the characters. The paper used on the Quality titles was awful, too. Yeah, the Quality Comics series wasn't a patch on the earlier Eagle Comics series. Ironic that they called themselves Quality Comics, when the printing and paper quality was a lot poorer than what had come before. Still, the Eagle Comics series was pretty damn good, I think (I have a full run). The smaller size didn't bother me a jot and I'd been used to reading my best friend's copies of 2000AD for years. The colouring was also very good in that first series. Quality did produce some interesting stuff later on, though. I'm still trying to work out why Romero's Axa was in 2000 AD Showcase...
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Post by Confessor on Feb 21, 2016 12:35:59 GMT -5
Yeah, the Quality Comics series wasn't a patch on the earlier Eagle Comics series. Ironic that they called themselves Quality Comics, when the printing and paper quality was a lot poorer than what had come before. Still, the Eagle Comics series was pretty damn good, I think (I have a full run). The smaller size didn't bother me a jot and I'd been used to reading my best friend's copies of 2000AD for years. The colouring was also very good in that first series. Quality did produce some interesting stuff later on, though. I'm still trying to work out why Romero's Axa was in 2000 AD Showcase...
Ah, that's interesting. I'd like to get some Axa reprints. Did these books censor the nudity in the strips? And are they in colour, rather than the original black and white? I rememeber this strip in The Sun in the early '80s. |
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Post by tingramretro on Feb 21, 2016 14:36:20 GMT -5
Quality did produce some interesting stuff later on, though. I'm still trying to work out why Romero's Axa was in 2000 AD Showcase...
Ah, that's interesting. I'd like to get some Axa reprints. Did these books censor the nudity in the strips? And are they in colour, rather than the original black and white? I rememeber this strip in The Sun in the early '80s. They are not censored, and they are indeed in colour. Several full length original colour Axa strips were apparently produced after her departure from The Sun, mostly in continental Europe. These, I believe, are English translations of two of them. |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 21, 2016 15:19:48 GMT -5
The Axa material was also released in the US by Eclipse publishing in the 80s. It had a 2 issue comic series and a 9 volume series of trades by Eclipse. The trades were in B&W with mature reader warnings, so I don't think they were censored. cover to the second trade...  here's a link to the GCD pages for the trades so you can see what content they had if interested. The comics were in color and claim to be all new material...  according to the GCD the creative team for Axa issues was Chuck Dixon (writer) and E.B. Romero (art) issue 2 said it would be continued, but no 3rd issue was ever produced. -M |
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Post by tingramretro on Feb 21, 2016 17:05:31 GMT -5
I have all of those. The trades were indeed the uncensored originals, and the two Dixon issues were absolutely bloody awful.
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Post by chadwilliam on Feb 21, 2016 17:42:48 GMT -5
Not really a story but an idea, and not really one that everyone hates so much as a situation which I suspect arose when the people who loved the idea just quit buying and those who hated it stuck around.
Spider-Man being married.
It really seems like a no-brainer to me that a series about a kid (and later adult) who goes through various stages of life (high school, graduation, college, a job in the field he studied in, etc) should naturally progress to the point where that kid/adult gets married. I know characters don't usually age in comics and when they do, they do it do differently from the rest of us, but I'm not talking so much about age as I am progression. A large part of the appeal behind Spider-Man is here's a guy who has to do the same stuff that most people within his age category does only he has to juggle his Spider-responsibilities with his everyday routine. Wasn't Spider-Man supposed to be comic's Everyman (albeit with super powers)? |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 21, 2016 19:33:40 GMT -5
Not really a story but an idea, and not really one that everyone hates so much as a situation which I suspect arose when the people who loved the idea just quit buying and those who hated it stuck around.
Spider-Man being married. I was one of those that stopped buying. I doubt I will ever buy another Spider-Man book. |
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