You're Doing Time!
Judge Dredd is always one of those comic books I've meant to read, but when I was younger availability was shit, and when I was older everything, like that Batman crossover, was about the Dark Judges, who I never really cared for. Yes, I realize that Dredd is painted as such an absolute badass that the only things that could give him trouble are inter-dimensional zombie judges, but still... never liked them.
And then even later, when you could find everything on the internet, starting from the very beginning of the Judge Dredd comics was kinda not good, because the earliest Dredd stories had him arguing with his land lady or included Walter the Wobot, the worst character in comics ever (yes, even worse than Aquaman and/or Cipher).
So after the good Dredd movie came out I was hoping some cool Dredd stuff would follow it, and was sadly disappointed. But Amazon has alot of stuff on the cheap, so there ya go.
The d20 RPG is hands down the cheapest game stuff I have picked up, ever. $6 for the main book, found a couple supplements for .89¢ each. At this rate I think I can pick up every book I want for the game and not even break over what the main book would've cost new. Except for the fucking shipping costs. Huzzah.
The actual comics themselves, there's a Complete Files collection that divides everything into phone book size (old phone books, not the bitch ones we have now because nobody has a land line anymore) parts for $20 a pop. Which, buying from Amazon, drops that to $15.
Sure, it's in black and white, but then so was the original magazine back then, so it's totally good.
I started with #2, since it includes Cursed Earth Saga and The Day the Law Died, which are the two big epics all the fans online say you should start with, and it'd cut down on how much fucking Walter the Wobot I'd have to stomach.
Cursed Earth is pretty good. I can see how it's a 70s classic. The Day the Law Died is somewhat clownshoes. Judge Cal(igula) becomes Chief Judge, goes crazy, Dredd forms an underground resistance, Cal's pet goldfish is made a judge (Judge Fish! He was a good cop!), he sentences the entire city to death, yadda yadda yadda, and in the end is killed by Dredd's inbred hillbilly pal (SPOILER!), who I secretly suspect isn't actually a underdweller as much as how Brits see ALL Americans.
The story they include after this is all the judges going "This one gang is causing some hijinks. We need to send like 50 judges there to show them what's up," and Dredd is all "No, we send ONE judge to get the fucking message across!"
I haven't read the comics immediately after this one, but I liked that story alot and really want to cite it as the growing the beard moment. Although that's a judgement that should be reserved depending on how much fucking Walter there is later.
Thanks to a few interweb sites and the comics included in the RPG books though I can say, I really like the dark satire in Judge Dredd over being all GRIMDARK IS SRS BSNS!! about it. I say the Judge Cal shit was retarded, but it was still fun to read. And I kinda like how unimportant judge characters have stupid names, like Fodder (SPOILER: Things turn out badly for Judge Fodder).
If you ever get to see some of the comic strip-like bits they put in the annuals and stuff, it's really comedy gold. Example:
And then even later, when you could find everything on the internet, starting from the very beginning of the Judge Dredd comics was kinda not good, because the earliest Dredd stories had him arguing with his land lady or included Walter the Wobot, the worst character in comics ever (yes, even worse than Aquaman and/or Cipher).
So after the good Dredd movie came out I was hoping some cool Dredd stuff would follow it, and was sadly disappointed. But Amazon has alot of stuff on the cheap, so there ya go.
The d20 RPG is hands down the cheapest game stuff I have picked up, ever. $6 for the main book, found a couple supplements for .89¢ each. At this rate I think I can pick up every book I want for the game and not even break over what the main book would've cost new. Except for the fucking shipping costs. Huzzah.
The actual comics themselves, there's a Complete Files collection that divides everything into phone book size (old phone books, not the bitch ones we have now because nobody has a land line anymore) parts for $20 a pop. Which, buying from Amazon, drops that to $15.
Sure, it's in black and white, but then so was the original magazine back then, so it's totally good.
I started with #2, since it includes Cursed Earth Saga and The Day the Law Died, which are the two big epics all the fans online say you should start with, and it'd cut down on how much fucking Walter the Wobot I'd have to stomach.
Cursed Earth is pretty good. I can see how it's a 70s classic. The Day the Law Died is somewhat clownshoes. Judge Cal(igula) becomes Chief Judge, goes crazy, Dredd forms an underground resistance, Cal's pet goldfish is made a judge (Judge Fish! He was a good cop!), he sentences the entire city to death, yadda yadda yadda, and in the end is killed by Dredd's inbred hillbilly pal (SPOILER!), who I secretly suspect isn't actually a underdweller as much as how Brits see ALL Americans.
The story they include after this is all the judges going "This one gang is causing some hijinks. We need to send like 50 judges there to show them what's up," and Dredd is all "No, we send ONE judge to get the fucking message across!"
I haven't read the comics immediately after this one, but I liked that story alot and really want to cite it as the growing the beard moment. Although that's a judgement that should be reserved depending on how much fucking Walter there is later.
Thanks to a few interweb sites and the comics included in the RPG books though I can say, I really like the dark satire in Judge Dredd over being all GRIMDARK IS SRS BSNS!! about it. I say the Judge Cal shit was retarded, but it was still fun to read. And I kinda like how unimportant judge characters have stupid names, like Fodder (SPOILER: Things turn out badly for Judge Fodder).
If you ever get to see some of the comic strip-like bits they put in the annuals and stuff, it's really comedy gold. Example:
