A detailed account of my various commission/hobby projects.
Random – As of late I've been reading a lot of graphic novels. I recently found that through our library collective I'm able to put holds on books from any library in the system and as it turns out that system has a bunch of comics. So I've taken a break from novels as I wait for the Horus Heresy stuff to be released in mass market paperback (I refused to pay more than $10 for bolter porn). I've been catching on on stuff that I missed.
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Book Review – As quickly as the Judge Dredd Complete Casefiles are being released in the US I'm picking them up and reading them. It bums me out that the next volume won't be released until February so I might have to splurge and get the British Editions.
Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files Vol 6 picks up where the last volume ended. In the aftermath of the Soviet Judge invasion Mega City One is in ruins. Most of these stories deal with the problems that arose from the city being destroyed. Some of my favorites deal with a Soviet Judge who doesn't realize the war is over.
Once the aftermath is dealt with the stories fall back into the usual pattern I really liked the series which dealt with the Perfect Crime. Each episode dealt with a different "genius plan" which is ultimately foiled by Dredd.
The quality of this as with the other collections is pretty top notch and I highly reccomend them if you have any interest in Judge Dredd as a character or the Mongoose Publishing miniature game.
Book Review – I just finished up reading Judge Dredd: The Complete Casefiles Volume 5. This is the fifth collection in the series and collects some major story arcs in the Judge Dredd Universe.
The first half of the book collects a series of shorts detailing the rackateers of Mega City One. Each story focuses on a particular type of crime perpetuated by the syndicates. Some of the more memorable ones are body leasers who put a loved one in cryogenic sleep as collateral for a loan. These stories are really fun and give a sense of what the Judges deal with on a day to day basis.
The second half of the book is dedicated to the Apocalypse War. This huge story line begins with Block Madness erupting all over Mega City One; think civil war with each giant block of people fighting against every other block.
Book Review – Hmm ... I seem to be running out of clever law references, anyway I recently finished reading Judge Dredd the Complete Case File Volume 4. This volume continues the chronological adventures of "Britain's Favorite Comic Hero" (I wonder if that's true, is Judge Dredd as popular over there as Spider-man is here?) and is presented in black and white like the other volumes. This time around the paperstock seems to improved in quality and there's a soft touch UV coating on the cover. I hope this is the direction the rest of the collections go in as it just feels nicer.
Some big stories in this collection most of which is taken up by the Judge Child story which takes Judge Dredd into space searching for a child who is supposed to save the city in the future. It's a interesting story that introduces the Angel Gang, a band of Desperadoes from the outskirts of Texas City. During the interstellar chase Dredd visits numerous planets doing battle with various alien species as well as law breakers on colony worlds. Eventually Dredd catches up with the child and deems him evil abandoning the quest to return to Mega City One.
For a story that took up most of the book this was a good read some of the chapters were better than others and some were just plan weird, which seems to be a thing for this book. The material from this story feels dated although the new Green Lantern cartoon is using a similar premise to tie it's stories together so I guess the idea still is relevant.
Where the book shines is when Dredd is back in his element fighting crime in Mega City One. I really liked Chopper story and the Rat Fink stories. They carried on for a few issues but kept on point without getting to weird.
Book Review – Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 03 is the third book in the series that captures Judge Dredd's chronological adventures from the pages of 2000AD. This book seemed to be significantly thinner than the other volumes I picked up. The paper seemed to be of a lower grade stock as well as having a few less pages (unsuprisingly the MSRP is the same as the other volumes).
This volume introduces Judge Death and being from another dimension in which life is against the law. Creepy premise but the initial story wasn't as great as I though it was going to be and only took up three or four chapters of the total book. It's a little unimpressive since he's featured on the cover but still not a bad read, especially since the shorts are self-contained or carry over for and issue or two.
My favorite story in the collection is "Sob Story," in which a gang of killers is killing residents that live in mobile homes and setting the home on auto pilot so it can be years before the body is found.
This collection features more one shot stories than the previous collections and I really enjoyed the volume as a whole.
Book Review – Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files Vol 2 continues the adventures of everybodies favorite lawman. The second collection is more interesting than the first as it begins to tell more epic tales that introduce you to the insane world that is Mega City 1.
The first of these tales is the Cursed Earth Saga. This tale has Judge Dredd leading a convoy to Mega City 2 (Essentially L.A.) to deliver a cure for the disease that is running rampant in the city. Unable to fly Judge Dredd has to trek across the radioactive wasteland that is the Cursed Earth. The stories are fun to read however due to some copy right issues several installments were not included in the collection. Apparently two of the story arcs had Dredd fighting against the descendants of McDonald's, Burger King and Kentucky Fried Chicken. Honestly I'm really bummed about that and am trying to track down someplace to read these stories as they sound like a blast. The stories that are included in the collection have Dredd fighting dinosaurs, mutants, robots mecenaries, rat worshipers and the corupted judges of Las Vegas.
The next big epic in this collection is The Day the Law Died. In this story Judge Caligula becomes the Chief Judge and has a rein of terror. Fun story and I can see how they'd be fun to play in the tabletop game.
The rest of the collection has random one shots about Dredd patrols of Mega City 1.
Overall I enjoyed this collection a bit more than the first one. It's still crazy and off the wall (much like most comics from the late 1970's) but you can slowly see Dredd developing into the facist lawman that I've always known his character to be. I have a feeling the next volume will be even better, as the writers seem to be developing along with the characters.
Book Review – Dredd 3D peaked my interest in learning more about the long running British comic. I had some exposure to Judge Dredd through crossovers and the DC attempt at publishing new adventures during my youth but never really felt like the character was something I wanted to read more about. After that dreadful Stalone movie I passed the Judge off as a joke and never looked into reading more about him.
The Mongoose Kickstarter (which lets be honest was really just a presale to garner attention, but good for them because the game looks like fun and I like the look of the sculpts) combined with the amazing new movie gave me reason to revisit the character and give him a second chance. A book that's been running since 1977 and still going strong has to be worth checking out. The special features from the blueray convinced me that I needed to read the original British work and not the attempts to "americanize/superheroize" the Judge.
Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 01 covers his adventures from the 2000AD, Programs 2-60. While these were written in 1977 they still hold up fairly well, some of the costuming is a little dated but overall the stories are well written and clever. Most of the stories are self contained one shots but a few carry over for a few issues such as the Great Robot War in which a robot named Call me Kenneth instigates a rebellion of all the robot slaves and Dredd's six month visit to the moon to serve as marshal of the Luna 1 colony.
The printing is clean and crisp black and white with a decent quality uncoated paperstock. My only minor issue with the production quality of this collection is in the panels that span a full spread. Most of the text gets lost in the gutter due to the massive size of the spine on a collection this big.
I'm convinced that reading the original material is the only way to truly appreciate Judge Dredd. However this first collection is pretty disjointed and most of the stories are plays of pop culture at the time, so not all readers are going to love it. I have the next three case files to read and am looking forward to the books of the 1980's.
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BONUS REVIEW – Over the weekend I took my daughter and her friend to go see Mama. This is the new Guillermo del Toro movie about two girls who are found after being lost in the woods for five years. After years of searching their artist uncle and rock star wife adopt the girls and try to give them a normal life. Unfortunately the thing that kept them alive for all those years won't let them go and craziness ensues.
The visuals for this movie are super creepy and set the atmosphere for the story. Rather than being the traditional gore fest modern horror movies have opted to become this relives more on disturbing images and sounds to set the tone. While there are plenty of sudden scares the movie isn't all that scary and instead languishes in the skin-crawling, grimey-feeling creepiness that del Toro is famous for.
While I enjoyed the film and thought it was well executed, the ending fell flat for me. I'm not going to spoil it for those who have yet to see the film, but it was pretty meh for an otherwise well executed film. If you're a fan of Pans Labyrinth or Hellboy then you should definitely check this out as the visuals almost make up for the lame ending.
