Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Judge Dredd: The Chief Judge's Man
Judge Dredd: The Chief Judge's Man
Written by John Wagner. Illustrated by Will Simpson, Colin MacNeil, and John Burns.
Last time I wrote about 2000ad I said I'd wait until the next "all part ones" issue. But you know what? Screw that. Because for slightly more than the price of the average issue of 2000ad (£1.80) I can just buy collections from bookshops that sell everything for £2. Awesome!
Of course, unfortunately I start with one of the least interesting Judge Dredd comics I've read. Most of what I've read has been in random American reprints, so I really don't remember what I actually have read. Necropolis? with Judge Death? That was pretty good.
This, however, wasn't. It starts off with someone killing pro-democracy citizens of Mega-City One, and while Dredd isn't the biggest fan of democracy, he also doesn't like people breaking the law, so he goes after him.
Now, from the title you can probably guess that something fishy is going on with this killer, he's being told to kill these people by the Chief Judge. And I guess that's where my problem with this arises, I have no idea who any of the Judges that aren't Dredd are. There's a bunch of other Judges in this comic, and, presumbly, I'm supposed to know who at least some of them are? I know Dredd is an ongoing series, and has continuity, but I think this is only the second Dredd story from the last decade that I've read, so I really don't know. Is this in character for the Chief Judge? Iunno.
Anyway, there's some other stuff, and the prison's just outside of Mega-City One show up again (I last saw them in the most recent issue of 2000ad that I read), and it seems that those scenes are moving some larger plot forward.
There's also a kind of bizarre bit which seems retconned in. Maybe it was the intention from the beginning, but the killer suddenly having cockroach DNA just seems utterly ridiculous.
Meanwhile, in the art department, Colin MacNeil does a really good job on his part.
It's a bit static, and thus doesn't show movement/action that well, but that's frequently a problem with painted art. I think it looks pretty awesome. Maybe I should have bought that Devlin Waugh trade he did the art for.
Thursday, October 01, 2009
2000AD prog 1654
Oooh, a review of last week's issue of 2000ad, exactly what you want to read. Especially since if you really wanted to read one, you'd probably have gone to this site.
But, no matter, here it is anyway. Mostly because I was so excited to buy an issue of this off the news-stand, something I had never done before in my times visiting/living in the UK/Ireland. (Which is where I currently am.)
For those that don't know, 2000ad is a weekly sci-fi anthology comic that has been published in England forever and ever and ever. It's on issue 1654, I can't even understand that.
Judge Dredd: Tour of Duty part 5
Dredd is in the Cursed Earth doing some prison thing. It's written by John Wagner, so even before reading, you know it's more than likely going to be good, as he's one of the people who created Dredd and has been writing him since issue two or whenever Dredd first appeared. There's some weird caption stuff going on here, where it seems like it sh/could be internal narration/a character thinking. But than later on the captions refer to that character in the third person. So I dunno.
And yeah, it's pretty good. Probably the best thing in the issue. The art by Colin MacNeil is pretty good. I like the robot dressed in Judge gear, though I wish we'd gotten to see a full body shot.
Kingdom: Call of the Wild part 5
This one didn't really do much for me. The main character seems to be mentally delayed in some way. He always speaks in terrible English, and doesn't seem to understand things. Not really a character I want to read about. The character I would like to read more about is the human character who's apparently been held hostage by some mutant people things for two years. Or the other mutants, even if some of them look like Tank Girl kangaroo people.
Strontium Dog: The Mork Whisperer part 4
Strontium Dog is another of the comics that has been in 2000ad forever. It hasn't been in every issue (I think Dredd has), but it's there fairly frequently. It's about a mutant bounty hunter travelling the galaxy, and while I probably should like it, I don't really get the appeal to be honest. It's alright, but I didn't really dig the art (or maybe just the colouring). I mean, it is drawn by Carlos Ezquerra, who's stuff I usually enjoy.
I think Johnny Alpha (the main character) looks like Jesse Custer from Preacher without his armour on.
Shakara: Destroyer part 5
Wow, now this has nice art. Or at least this first floating thing is.
(Yes, I have access to a scanner now.)
The other character designs don't do much for me. And the comic doesn't do much to explain why Robbie Morrison has multiple strips in this issue and is fairly well known as a 2000ad writer. His run on the Authority was super horrible. It's just a big robot fight scene! With teknosaurs! I do not know why I don't like it.
Nikolai Dante: Lulu's War part 4
This is Robbie Morrison's better known comic in 2000ad, and it's actually good. The so called lead "Nikolai Dante" doesn't actually show up, but I have no idea who that is so it doesn't matter. This comic is set in some weird future version of Russia with tsars and the like? I think. I am not sure.
This is good though. Vampires, corrupt aristocrats, some woman who seems to have magical powers with insects for blood or something. I would read more of this. Too bad this is the last part!
Overall? It was alright. I only really liked two of the stories, and the Nikolai Dante one is going to be in the next issue. I think I will wait for one of those periodic issues where every story is a part one before I pick this up again.
Thursday, February 09, 2006
Shimura
Shimura
Written by: Robbie Morrison
Art by: A bunch of people
There are some comics that when you hear about them you wonder why they didn’t sell that well. Shimura (and indeed the entire 2000AD/DC line) is one of those. Thankfully it answers it’s own question.
Why should it have sold well? The cover features the words “Frank Quitely” prominently. The same person who drew The Authority (when it was good), some of New X-Men, We3… Popular comics. And Quitely’s a good artist, it’s just that hiding under the beautiful cover he drew there isn’t much of his art. (this collection is over 200 pages long, around 35 of them are by Quitely) And the stories aren’t very good.
I like Judge Dredd. I like the (many) Judge Dredd comics I’ve read. But the spinoffs I’ve read have been terrible. Red Razors (Judges in Russia!) by Mark Millar was so uniformly terribly that I no longer own the copy I bought and it was probably a year or something before I bought any more of the 2000AD/DC trades.
Shimura falls into the same boat. It’s set in the same universe as Judge Dredd (Japan this time) and even the same time period (Red Razors wasn’t), but it’s still dreadful (not Dredd-full despite an appearance).
The book is composed of many short, interconnected stories. As the first story begins Shimura is still a judge, training in a new cadet. However soon Shimura decides to leave the judge system so as battle corruption and the yakuza. Which is what most of the rest of the book is about.
I think my biggest problem with Shimura is that it’s yet another comic about how everyone in Japan is incredibly concerned with honour (but at the same time horribly corrupt). Oh, and they’re really sexist. It’s just boring at this point. Yeah, yeah, honour, face, whatever. I no longer care and I don’t think that the Japanese are going to be as concerned about it in one hundred years.
There’re a few stories about Judge Inaba, the female cadet Shimura was training in the first story. I think the premise of these is better (female judge tries her best to function in a corrupt and sexist organization), but they’re not really fleshed out and feature an over reliance on sex.
The art is just weird. The Quitely stuff is really good, and some of the other art is pretty good, but some of it is just grotesque. There’s a couple of artists who’s styles are interesting and I’m not sure if it’s just not that good or if they’re just being used on the completely wrong type of story.
All I expected from Shimura was Judge Dredd in Japan. A tough as nails, take no attitude judge who gets the job done and has a katana to take down perps. I guess Morrison didn’t want to just rip off Dredd, which is fair enough, but he went in a direction I wasn’t really interested in and was hampered by art that wasn’t really suited to the stories.
So far I’ve enjoyed one of the three 2000AD/DC collections I’ve read, hopefully the other two I’ve bought will be better…
Written by: Robbie Morrison
Art by: A bunch of people
There are some comics that when you hear about them you wonder why they didn’t sell that well. Shimura (and indeed the entire 2000AD/DC line) is one of those. Thankfully it answers it’s own question.
Why should it have sold well? The cover features the words “Frank Quitely” prominently. The same person who drew The Authority (when it was good), some of New X-Men, We3… Popular comics. And Quitely’s a good artist, it’s just that hiding under the beautiful cover he drew there isn’t much of his art. (this collection is over 200 pages long, around 35 of them are by Quitely) And the stories aren’t very good.
I like Judge Dredd. I like the (many) Judge Dredd comics I’ve read. But the spinoffs I’ve read have been terrible. Red Razors (Judges in Russia!) by Mark Millar was so uniformly terribly that I no longer own the copy I bought and it was probably a year or something before I bought any more of the 2000AD/DC trades.
Shimura falls into the same boat. It’s set in the same universe as Judge Dredd (Japan this time) and even the same time period (Red Razors wasn’t), but it’s still dreadful (not Dredd-full despite an appearance).
The book is composed of many short, interconnected stories. As the first story begins Shimura is still a judge, training in a new cadet. However soon Shimura decides to leave the judge system so as battle corruption and the yakuza. Which is what most of the rest of the book is about.
I think my biggest problem with Shimura is that it’s yet another comic about how everyone in Japan is incredibly concerned with honour (but at the same time horribly corrupt). Oh, and they’re really sexist. It’s just boring at this point. Yeah, yeah, honour, face, whatever. I no longer care and I don’t think that the Japanese are going to be as concerned about it in one hundred years.
There’re a few stories about Judge Inaba, the female cadet Shimura was training in the first story. I think the premise of these is better (female judge tries her best to function in a corrupt and sexist organization), but they’re not really fleshed out and feature an over reliance on sex.
The art is just weird. The Quitely stuff is really good, and some of the other art is pretty good, but some of it is just grotesque. There’s a couple of artists who’s styles are interesting and I’m not sure if it’s just not that good or if they’re just being used on the completely wrong type of story.
All I expected from Shimura was Judge Dredd in Japan. A tough as nails, take no attitude judge who gets the job done and has a katana to take down perps. I guess Morrison didn’t want to just rip off Dredd, which is fair enough, but he went in a direction I wasn’t really interested in and was hampered by art that wasn’t really suited to the stories.
So far I’ve enjoyed one of the three 2000AD/DC collections I’ve read, hopefully the other two I’ve bought will be better…
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Bad Company, Goodbye Krool World
Bad Company: Goodbye, Krool World
Written by Peter Milligan
Art by Brett Ewins, Jim McCarthy and Steve Dillon
Published by 2000AD/DC Comics
Bad Company is a war comic. Yes, it may be dressed up in science fiction trappings (there’s a big green guy on the cover with a ludicrous gun), but it’s really just a war comic in space. They may be fighting dehumanised (well, never humanized) aliens who are killing for no apparent reason, but in British war comics the Germans (or whoever was being fought) were shown the same way.
In Bad Company Humanity is fighting the Krool, an alien species who delight in torture and killing, and who are attempting to wipe out all humans. If the Krool take the planet Ararat they’ll have a staging ground to attack Earth from, and the war on Ararat is going badly for Earth.
Danny Franks is a soldier on the planet Ararat. He and his fellow troops have already seen untold horrors and some are on the verge of giving up. Then the Krool unleash war zombies, humanity’s own dead turned into fighting machines for the Krool. The Earthians don’t want to shoot their friends and fellow soldiers, dead or not, so it looks like they’re finally going to be wiped out.
Then Kano and Bad Company appear. They’re the roughest, toughest soldiers that exist. Fighting behind enemy lines without official support they still do more damage then all the other Earth soldiers. They’re feared by the Krool, but they’re also feared by the Earth soldiers. Kano is a monster, incredibly tall, green (or possibly blue) skin and he doesn’t seem to feel any pain, only give it out. The rest of Bad Company aren’t much better, there’s a robot, a werewolf creature, a guy that looks like a ghoul, a guy with a carnivorous plant for an arm and more. Even those that at least look human are insane and think they’re fighting the nazis or who knows what.
Kano recruits Franks and the rest of the surviving soldiers with him. They’re part of Bad Company now. Kano leads them into Krool territory, testing them, using them as bait, throwing their lives away to advance his own plans. A lot of them die, but Kano doesn’t care, those that survive will replace the dead members of Bad Company.
Franks becomes friends with a member of Bad Company named Malcolm. He doesn’t seem to be as monstrous as Kano and the rest, but he’s still worse than the soldiers Franks is used to interacting with. Malcolm explains he’s been with Bad Company for less time than the others. He has yet to embrace the nihilistic death wish the others seem to carry.
So the question is: what will happen to Franks? Will he die (for this seems like a distinct possibility)? Will he escape Bad Company with at least some of his sanity intact? Or will he too become as bad as those he at first fears?
Bad Company is one of Peter Milligan’s first comics and it doesn’t disappoint. Milligan wrote an engaging and interesting comic with Bad Company. Are there problems? Yeah, the fact that each chapter is only four to seven pages long (as it was originally published in the anthology comic 2000AD) means it’s hard to develop all of the characters fully, meaning that with the high death count you know who some of those that die are going to be (ie. those that aren’t developed). Similarly being thrown into a story after it’s already started (who is Kano? Why are these people in Bad Company?) means that the story can be confusing at times. I think this confusion may have been created on purpose to put the reader into the place of Franks who doesn’t know what’s going on either.
Storywise Bad Company follows at least one (and perhaps several) older British war comics pretty closely. One of the most famous of the British war comics is Darkie’s Mob which was about a group of soldiers in Japanese occupied Burma in World War Two. The story is the same as Bad Company really, a group of soldiers are afraid they’re about to get killed when Darkie shows up. He crazy and impossibly strong and leads them on impossible and suicidal missions to harden them and kill a bunch of “Japs.” It’s even narrated by journal entries the same way Bad Company is. So was the idea of Bad Company stolen? I don’t know, perhaps all British war comics were written the same way and Bad Company just stole from all of them. Maybe it’s an homage. It’s still good though.
However, all of the previous is about Bad Company, what of the sequel Bad Company II also included in this volume? To put it bluntly, it’s not as good. Bad Company II takes the opposite approach from the first story in that it takes a long time to introduce the new characters. However, despite spending the time to introduce the characters, it still felt like I didn’t know who most of these characters were. Also whereas the first story was more of a “ohmyshitwhatishappeningarewegoingtosurvive?” story this one has more of a plot and goal, a plot and goal I find sort of boring.
The artwork is good in both parts, though I think I liked the art in part one better (one site said the art in part one had been stretched, if this is indeed the case, though I’m not sure if it is, I guess I like the stretched artwork better). Ewins and McCarthy make the monsters seem monstrous (including some nice homages to Frankenstein’s monster) and the humans seem humany. The storytelling is clear and the action sequences are well illustrated.
There’re a few things with the art that are pretty interesting. There’s a use of photocopied panels that’s used to zoom in or out of certain shots, giving the comic a cinematic style. While this is pretty common these days, I don’t know how common it was back when this comic was originally published in 1980s. There’s also the use of splashes at the beginning of each strip. Whereas in longer comics you might get a full page or double page splash at the beginning of the comic, Bad Company (which had only four to seven pages per chapter) usually has a half page or so splash. Sometimes they’re just pinups of one or more characters, and other times they’re part of the story, but generally I thought they worked well and helped create a consistency between each chapter of the story.
One last thing, this isn’t all of the Bad Company stories. There’re a few shorts and text stories that were published in annuals and specials around the same time as the original series (one of them is actually listed in the indicia, but not included in the actual book). Most (all) of these can be tracked down in an issue of the 2000ad Megazine from a few years ago. There was also a Kano solo series at some point in the 1990s that I don’t think has been reprinted anywhere, and there was a Bad Company 2002 story that was, apparently, terrible.
Despite the second part not being as good, overall I’d say Bad Company, Goodbye Krool World is worth picking up if you’re into war or sci-fi comics. It’s not as weird as other Milligan comics (though there is a scene where some of the characters get drunk after eating alcoholic mud…), but it still has solid storytelling and good art.
You can read Darkie’s Mob (and some other old British comics) here.
Written by Peter Milligan
Art by Brett Ewins, Jim McCarthy and Steve Dillon
Published by 2000AD/DC Comics
Bad Company is a war comic. Yes, it may be dressed up in science fiction trappings (there’s a big green guy on the cover with a ludicrous gun), but it’s really just a war comic in space. They may be fighting dehumanised (well, never humanized) aliens who are killing for no apparent reason, but in British war comics the Germans (or whoever was being fought) were shown the same way.
In Bad Company Humanity is fighting the Krool, an alien species who delight in torture and killing, and who are attempting to wipe out all humans. If the Krool take the planet Ararat they’ll have a staging ground to attack Earth from, and the war on Ararat is going badly for Earth.
Danny Franks is a soldier on the planet Ararat. He and his fellow troops have already seen untold horrors and some are on the verge of giving up. Then the Krool unleash war zombies, humanity’s own dead turned into fighting machines for the Krool. The Earthians don’t want to shoot their friends and fellow soldiers, dead or not, so it looks like they’re finally going to be wiped out.
Then Kano and Bad Company appear. They’re the roughest, toughest soldiers that exist. Fighting behind enemy lines without official support they still do more damage then all the other Earth soldiers. They’re feared by the Krool, but they’re also feared by the Earth soldiers. Kano is a monster, incredibly tall, green (or possibly blue) skin and he doesn’t seem to feel any pain, only give it out. The rest of Bad Company aren’t much better, there’s a robot, a werewolf creature, a guy that looks like a ghoul, a guy with a carnivorous plant for an arm and more. Even those that at least look human are insane and think they’re fighting the nazis or who knows what.
Kano recruits Franks and the rest of the surviving soldiers with him. They’re part of Bad Company now. Kano leads them into Krool territory, testing them, using them as bait, throwing their lives away to advance his own plans. A lot of them die, but Kano doesn’t care, those that survive will replace the dead members of Bad Company.
Franks becomes friends with a member of Bad Company named Malcolm. He doesn’t seem to be as monstrous as Kano and the rest, but he’s still worse than the soldiers Franks is used to interacting with. Malcolm explains he’s been with Bad Company for less time than the others. He has yet to embrace the nihilistic death wish the others seem to carry.
So the question is: what will happen to Franks? Will he die (for this seems like a distinct possibility)? Will he escape Bad Company with at least some of his sanity intact? Or will he too become as bad as those he at first fears?
Bad Company is one of Peter Milligan’s first comics and it doesn’t disappoint. Milligan wrote an engaging and interesting comic with Bad Company. Are there problems? Yeah, the fact that each chapter is only four to seven pages long (as it was originally published in the anthology comic 2000AD) means it’s hard to develop all of the characters fully, meaning that with the high death count you know who some of those that die are going to be (ie. those that aren’t developed). Similarly being thrown into a story after it’s already started (who is Kano? Why are these people in Bad Company?) means that the story can be confusing at times. I think this confusion may have been created on purpose to put the reader into the place of Franks who doesn’t know what’s going on either.
Storywise Bad Company follows at least one (and perhaps several) older British war comics pretty closely. One of the most famous of the British war comics is Darkie’s Mob which was about a group of soldiers in Japanese occupied Burma in World War Two. The story is the same as Bad Company really, a group of soldiers are afraid they’re about to get killed when Darkie shows up. He crazy and impossibly strong and leads them on impossible and suicidal missions to harden them and kill a bunch of “Japs.” It’s even narrated by journal entries the same way Bad Company is. So was the idea of Bad Company stolen? I don’t know, perhaps all British war comics were written the same way and Bad Company just stole from all of them. Maybe it’s an homage. It’s still good though.
However, all of the previous is about Bad Company, what of the sequel Bad Company II also included in this volume? To put it bluntly, it’s not as good. Bad Company II takes the opposite approach from the first story in that it takes a long time to introduce the new characters. However, despite spending the time to introduce the characters, it still felt like I didn’t know who most of these characters were. Also whereas the first story was more of a “ohmyshitwhatishappeningarewegoingtosurvive?” story this one has more of a plot and goal, a plot and goal I find sort of boring.
The artwork is good in both parts, though I think I liked the art in part one better (one site said the art in part one had been stretched, if this is indeed the case, though I’m not sure if it is, I guess I like the stretched artwork better). Ewins and McCarthy make the monsters seem monstrous (including some nice homages to Frankenstein’s monster) and the humans seem humany. The storytelling is clear and the action sequences are well illustrated.
There’re a few things with the art that are pretty interesting. There’s a use of photocopied panels that’s used to zoom in or out of certain shots, giving the comic a cinematic style. While this is pretty common these days, I don’t know how common it was back when this comic was originally published in 1980s. There’s also the use of splashes at the beginning of each strip. Whereas in longer comics you might get a full page or double page splash at the beginning of the comic, Bad Company (which had only four to seven pages per chapter) usually has a half page or so splash. Sometimes they’re just pinups of one or more characters, and other times they’re part of the story, but generally I thought they worked well and helped create a consistency between each chapter of the story.
One last thing, this isn’t all of the Bad Company stories. There’re a few shorts and text stories that were published in annuals and specials around the same time as the original series (one of them is actually listed in the indicia, but not included in the actual book). Most (all) of these can be tracked down in an issue of the 2000ad Megazine from a few years ago. There was also a Kano solo series at some point in the 1990s that I don’t think has been reprinted anywhere, and there was a Bad Company 2002 story that was, apparently, terrible.
Despite the second part not being as good, overall I’d say Bad Company, Goodbye Krool World is worth picking up if you’re into war or sci-fi comics. It’s not as weird as other Milligan comics (though there is a scene where some of the characters get drunk after eating alcoholic mud…), but it still has solid storytelling and good art.
You can read Darkie’s Mob (and some other old British comics) here.
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Judge Dredd: The Cursed Earth
Judge Dredd: The Cursed Earth
Written by Pat Mills, John Wagner and Chris Lowder
Illustrated by Mike McMahon and Brian Bolland
(Titan Books/2000AD)
In the 22nd century much of the world has been destroyed, what remains of civilization has gathered in various "mega-cities" where hundreds of millions of people live. In Mega-City One crime is rampant and on the streets the Judges act as judge, jury and executioner. Judge Dredd is the best there is: he is The Law.
Judge Dredd is a character I go through phases with. I think he's awesome and read piles of comics about him. I read about his history. I look at websites. And then... I burn out. I get sick of him. For a while. Six months go by and I see some other Judge Dredd comic and I get excited again. (Now, admittedly I've only actually been reading Judge Dredd comics for like two years, but I do regret passing up lots of cheap back issues when I had a chance earlier this year. Oh well.)
When I found that one of the comic stores in St. John's was selling off some Judge Dredd trades cheap I got pretty excited. Dredd is, to me, a character who I've read...entirely in cheap bin comics or in stuff I borrowed off friends (who I think got it out of cheap bins). And one of the novels (which I bought for like $1.30 or something). The only Dredd related comic I've ever bought for full price was the DC/2000AD trade of Red Razors, which was fucking terrible. But I digress.
The Cursed Earth is old Dredd, from the second year of 2000AD's publication (which was 1978 for those who didn't know). It was the first epic Dredd story, spanning half a year and twenty five issues of the weekly 2000AD comic. Up to this point all the Judge Dredd comics had been one and two parters. A crime happens, Dredd busts the perp. Rince and repeat. This was different.
In The Cursed Earth Dredd is sent across the vast radioactive wasteland that is the Cursed Earth to deliver a vaccine and hopefully stop the plague that is ravaging Mega-City Two. Thankfully Dredd has three other judges, a pile of robots and Spikes Harvey Rotten (the best biker in all of Mega-City One) on his side and the Land Raider, the Killdozer and some quasar bikes for everyone to ride on (and I do mean on, I found it hilarious how Dredd and Spikes would invariably ride on top of their impervious motor vehicle, you can go inside Dredd...). Along the way Dredd fights the Brother of Crazy Mutants, flying rats, dinosaurs (Satanus), robot vampires, the Alien Catcher General (who has the head of a goat), and countless other creatures. He also befriends an alien, condemns the speciesism that is rampant on Earth and finds the last president of the United States of America.
Now admittedly The Cursed Earth isn't an epic like some of the later Dredd stories. It isn't one long story, but rather a series of picaresque adventures (hah, take that English class). After the two opening chapters the next twenty chapters are broken into nine stories (I think), each a few chapters long. These are just "crazy things happen to Dredd as he crosses America" stories and for the most part they could happen in any order. You could not read most of them and it wouldn't affect the story.
This is proven by the fact that the collection I read (and every collection of the story that exists) is missing two of the stories. Burger Wars featured two famous burger chains fighting a war with each other to see who would be the sole burger server in America. While Mascotomania featured a certain colonel and many different products mascots in a negative light. 2000AD was sued, and they've promised to never republish them. Damnit. Thankfully they can be found online if you know where to look (here's part of them). I read both and found Mascotomania (by Jack Adrian aka. Chris Lowder) to be pretty weird. However Burger Wars (written by John Wagner under his T.B. Grover pseudonym) is really good. Wagner wrote another two parter concerning corrupt Judges in Las Vegas and while good, it isn't as fun as Burger Wars.
However, the writing of most of this volume is done by Pat Mills (creator of Marshal Law, Slaine and the ABC Warriors, which is in my pile of things to read) and it's good stuff. You can't expect "the best thing ever," but if you want Dredd fighting a semi-sentient tyrannosaurus that escaped from an amusement park or other, similarly, ridiculous things then Mills delivers.
On the art side of things most of this collection was drawn by Mike McMahon, who's art is pretty good for the most part, though his Dredd is incredibly scrawny looking in the first few parts. Still, no matter how good his art was McMahon can't compare to Brian Bolland who drew about a third of these comics. Bolland's art and design in these comics is just amazing, really top notch.
Overall I think this is a pretty awesome package (especially since I got it cheap). I only wish that it included the Burger Wars and Mascotomania chapters and the Cursed Earth boardgame that was included in a few issues of 2000AD at the time. (Oh some of the boardgame is online, issues 75-80. Who wants to play?)
Written by Pat Mills, John Wagner and Chris Lowder
Illustrated by Mike McMahon and Brian Bolland
(Titan Books/2000AD)
In the 22nd century much of the world has been destroyed, what remains of civilization has gathered in various "mega-cities" where hundreds of millions of people live. In Mega-City One crime is rampant and on the streets the Judges act as judge, jury and executioner. Judge Dredd is the best there is: he is The Law.
Judge Dredd is a character I go through phases with. I think he's awesome and read piles of comics about him. I read about his history. I look at websites. And then... I burn out. I get sick of him. For a while. Six months go by and I see some other Judge Dredd comic and I get excited again. (Now, admittedly I've only actually been reading Judge Dredd comics for like two years, but I do regret passing up lots of cheap back issues when I had a chance earlier this year. Oh well.)
When I found that one of the comic stores in St. John's was selling off some Judge Dredd trades cheap I got pretty excited. Dredd is, to me, a character who I've read...entirely in cheap bin comics or in stuff I borrowed off friends (who I think got it out of cheap bins). And one of the novels (which I bought for like $1.30 or something). The only Dredd related comic I've ever bought for full price was the DC/2000AD trade of Red Razors, which was fucking terrible. But I digress.
The Cursed Earth is old Dredd, from the second year of 2000AD's publication (which was 1978 for those who didn't know). It was the first epic Dredd story, spanning half a year and twenty five issues of the weekly 2000AD comic. Up to this point all the Judge Dredd comics had been one and two parters. A crime happens, Dredd busts the perp. Rince and repeat. This was different.
In The Cursed Earth Dredd is sent across the vast radioactive wasteland that is the Cursed Earth to deliver a vaccine and hopefully stop the plague that is ravaging Mega-City Two. Thankfully Dredd has three other judges, a pile of robots and Spikes Harvey Rotten (the best biker in all of Mega-City One) on his side and the Land Raider, the Killdozer and some quasar bikes for everyone to ride on (and I do mean on, I found it hilarious how Dredd and Spikes would invariably ride on top of their impervious motor vehicle, you can go inside Dredd...). Along the way Dredd fights the Brother of Crazy Mutants, flying rats, dinosaurs (Satanus), robot vampires, the Alien Catcher General (who has the head of a goat), and countless other creatures. He also befriends an alien, condemns the speciesism that is rampant on Earth and finds the last president of the United States of America.
Now admittedly The Cursed Earth isn't an epic like some of the later Dredd stories. It isn't one long story, but rather a series of picaresque adventures (hah, take that English class). After the two opening chapters the next twenty chapters are broken into nine stories (I think), each a few chapters long. These are just "crazy things happen to Dredd as he crosses America" stories and for the most part they could happen in any order. You could not read most of them and it wouldn't affect the story.
This is proven by the fact that the collection I read (and every collection of the story that exists) is missing two of the stories. Burger Wars featured two famous burger chains fighting a war with each other to see who would be the sole burger server in America. While Mascotomania featured a certain colonel and many different products mascots in a negative light. 2000AD was sued, and they've promised to never republish them. Damnit. Thankfully they can be found online if you know where to look (here's part of them). I read both and found Mascotomania (by Jack Adrian aka. Chris Lowder) to be pretty weird. However Burger Wars (written by John Wagner under his T.B. Grover pseudonym) is really good. Wagner wrote another two parter concerning corrupt Judges in Las Vegas and while good, it isn't as fun as Burger Wars.
However, the writing of most of this volume is done by Pat Mills (creator of Marshal Law, Slaine and the ABC Warriors, which is in my pile of things to read) and it's good stuff. You can't expect "the best thing ever," but if you want Dredd fighting a semi-sentient tyrannosaurus that escaped from an amusement park or other, similarly, ridiculous things then Mills delivers.
On the art side of things most of this collection was drawn by Mike McMahon, who's art is pretty good for the most part, though his Dredd is incredibly scrawny looking in the first few parts. Still, no matter how good his art was McMahon can't compare to Brian Bolland who drew about a third of these comics. Bolland's art and design in these comics is just amazing, really top notch.
Overall I think this is a pretty awesome package (especially since I got it cheap). I only wish that it included the Burger Wars and Mascotomania chapters and the Cursed Earth boardgame that was included in a few issues of 2000AD at the time. (Oh some of the boardgame is online, issues 75-80. Who wants to play?)
