Judge Dredd 101

[Colonel Mortimer]

Any Essential stories in the most recently released case file, Volume 22? What about the next one to be released, Volume 23?

[Judge Dredd]

You will get some mixed reviews on 22 and probably 23 they both are from the era with Morrison and Millar. I know some are not fans of the Morrison/Millar stuff, personally I thought it was solid but lots of Dredd I would read before it.

[earl]

Thanks, guys. I've started case files case files 01. Not a big fan but I'll try to read it in order as much as possible.

To be honest, the first Case Files isn't as good as it got later on, as I don't think they really knew what the Dredd strip was going to be yet. The second part of the book is beginning to get into the groove with the Robot rebellion. The Rico story will also tie quite a bit into the Dredd mythos too.

Volume 2 is when the series really kicked into high gear with The Cursed Earth and the Judge Cal story. I'd definitely read those two story lines and America before reading Origins, as Origins is a direct sequel to some elements in those stories.

Volume 3 is really solid with shorter stories after the two big epics in vol. 2, but some of the short stories are great like Boing and then you get the introduction of Judge Death which is just fantastic.

I think reading Judge Death's early appearances and Block War/The Apocalypse War are also really big, as they are just huge parts of the Dredd back story. The Judge Child story is a pretty big part of the Dredd series plot too. Many of the big epics (including Day of Chaos) are sequels to those story lines.

Rico/Robot Wars - v.1
The Cursed Earth - v.2
Judge Cal - v.2
Judge Death - v.3, v.5
The Judge Child - v.4
Block War/The Apocalypse War - v.5
America - reprinted in it's own trade, oddly not included in Case Files

[paul townsend]

While The Cursed Earth was mind-bending to my then 13 year old brain on release, its okay now. Judge Cal was the start of some VERY good stories. IMHO the first 6 or so years had the most creative stories by far, with ideas flowing like Kirby on crack. Dredd is always best when he just takes a back-seat to John Wagner's social commentary, and the Mega-City takes over in all its insanity.

Having come back to 2000AD after too many years away I'm slowly discovering the many other delights...Lowlife, Nikolai Dante, Sinister Dexter, Lobster Random, and of course Strontium dog to name a few.