Swoon Now! Judge Dredd

 
2000AD books have always ticked out nicely but the DVD release of the movie Dredd has seen a spike in interest so I thought I'd point out a couple of releases in this week. Judge Dredd - Day of Chaos: The Fourth Fraction features an epic storyline that marked the return of original writer (we hope this catches on) Sir John Wagner. Every Dredd book is going to throw the reader into the universe without any 'how the world got like this' preamble because it's taken from an ongoing weekly strip but Day of Chaos is great at giving us a Dredd story that shows him and his world in a way most people expect, even if you've only seen the film.

It should, however, reward both new and old readers as, although it's not vital to the understanding of the story (and there is a brief introduction containing the need-to-know), it leads on from events that took place waaay back in The Apocalypse War. Epic stuff.

If Day of Chaos focuses on the grittier side of Mega City 1, for the more surreal side - showing just how elastic the universe is and therefore giving us a glimpse of the enduring appeal - there's Judge Anderson: The PSI Files vol. 3. Written by Sir Alan Grant (come on Queen; surely for services to British comics!) and Marvel stalwarts Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning with stories from across the 1980's and 90's, Anderson's troubled persona has been a great counterpoint to Dredd - hence her appearance in the movie, I guess.

And finally, with all this Dredd-talk it's worth drawing attention to the fact that the 2000AD is primarily a great source for action sci-fi. The Ten-Seconders: The American Dream is set in a future where superheroes - or gods as they're called here - have raged war on the world and focuses on the few survivors, the Ten-Seconders; a name referring to their life-expectancy when they go up against a god.

Bravo Tharg!

Ah cross-over events. A marketing ploy to lure in the readers with an enormous story contrived to be filled with as many characters as they can, or a regular reader delight when all the pieces come together and the parts make a spectacular whole? Obviously publishers would like it to be something between the two but with all the hints, sneak peeks, leaks, banners and (most dreaded of all) tie-ins it's difficult not to be a touch cynical. Last year 2000AD treated regular readers to a proper chill down the spine moment when it suddenly became apparent that those apparently fragmented, tonally different stories were actually starting to build a bigger picture. I know our Jason came flying down from the comic department like Chazz Palminteri at the end of Usual Suspects when he started seeing the links. Obviously the fact that 2000AD features several stories each week gives it an in-built advantage in terms of crossing over between stories but it was still a masterclass in slow burn and planning. ComicsAlliance have run a lovely piece explaining what went down and singing 2000AD's praise (see here).