Monday 21 November 2011
I Dream of Dredd
The long running British sci-fi comic 2000AD was a major force in my young life. I started reading the mag in the mid-80's when I was 7 or 8, introducing me to an extraordinary world of fantasy and imagination. 2012 sees the release of Dredd, the second pass at 2000AD's most famous character, the fascist, futuristic Dirty Harry, Judge Dredd. The crusty old cynic in me doesn't hold out much hope that this will be any better than the Stallone film, but we shall see. In the meantime, I was flicking thru the 1989 Judge Dredd annual yesterday and came across a readers competition to design a poster for a Judge Dredd film (which had been percolating for some years, eventually arriving in 1995). The following are some of the winning entries and are interesting for what readers chose as their dream cast and crew.
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I remember this. Didn't the eventual director of the film, Danny Cannon, submit one as well as a kid?
ReplyDeleteYes, I seem to remember hearing something like that Jon. I was going thru some of the 1988 back issues to find it but no luck. If I find it I'll post it !
ReplyDeleteWes. I never got into Dredd, despite loving comics and I keep thinking of picking up a couple of those case file collections they've been releasing to try it out, I just know as soon as I buy one, they'll start to go out of print though. Any recommendations?
ReplyDeleteThe Case Files can be hit and miss but they really are a great way of catching up with Dredd stories. I know what you mean about them going out of print though, but I have seen various Case Files come back into print again so... Aside from Judge Dredd, other 2000AD stuff I'd recommend would be Rogue Trooper and Strontium Dog collections and Slaine series The Horned God.
ReplyDeleteMy expectations are very low for the upcoming movie. I really disliked Cannon's effort. I'm more surprised that they've never tried to pull a Rogue Trooper or Strontium Dogs movie off the ground.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many zarjaz stories that I've read over the years in 2000AD (although I haven't read an issue since 1993(ish)), but the one that always stuck out for me as being full of motion picture potential was The Button Man - d'you remember that Wes?
Yeah, I'm amazed that 2000AD hasn't been raided for more film ideas. I must confess I missed Button Man - I was well out of the mag by then, but I came back to it a few years ago, and now I have digital copies of all but the most recent issues. Man, I wish I kept all my old mags. Some guy on eBay is currently selling every single issue for a grand and a half, something like that...
ReplyDeleteYeh, I rather stupidly threw all mine away a few years ago as I was sick of carting them around whenever I moved house. I had about 6 years worth and lobbed them all in a recycling bin!
ReplyDeleteButton Man was superb - not very 2000AD really - kind of a cross between Hard Target and Get Carter!
My fave stuff was generally written by John Smith - Indigo Prime, Firekind, Revere and more - but I'm slightly bias towards him as he's from my little home town.
6 years worth...incredible ! That must hurt now Phil. The Rebellion reprints have been very good - the Strontium Dog book is like a telephone book, very good value. One of the best things about Christmas as a kid was getting the 2000AD and Judge Dredd annual, and I still have a few at home. I'd never be able to put a complete run of Progs together, but I might put together a collection of Best of 2000AD Monthly - 119 issues I think, so it could be do-able. I just know if I start it, I'll be like a maniac to finish it out. We'll see...
ReplyDeleteTo be fair Wes, I'm a dab hand at getting rid of stuff. I've moved around so much over the years that I never get 'too' attached to my worldly possessions, although since having my son I've started to think, "Oh, he might like that when he's older so I should hold on to it."
ReplyDeleteBut even so, I do get the odd twinge now and again when I wish I could flick through my evaporated vinyl collection, or hunt through some old progs of 2000AD, but hey, c'est la vie.
I never got any of the annuals though, so maybe that's something I could keep an eye out for on eBay - just one or two...
Great Post - I love the idea of Clancy Brown as Dredd.
ReplyDeleteMy problem with the first Dredd movie is in it's conception; with Dredd as the main character there is no way to avoid taking the helmet off... but maybe this just shows my bias towards stories such as 'America' where Dredd featured around the edges.
I love the comics - we've discussed my trade system with my British pen pal before - I thought the first movie was okay - though of course they never should have taken Joe's helmet off - Stallone or no Stallone. As for the newer movie - I thought it was pretty marvellous - what did you think, Wes?
ReplyDeleteI liked it very much Craig, much better than I though it would be.... although I was thinking about the film afterwards, about Dredd working his way thru the tower block, and I got the nagging feeling that I was watching a live action video game... which bothered me a little because I'm most definitely not a gamer !
ReplyDelete