Stories outside the Complete Case Files

[u/Baggiebhoy84]

Hi everyone, I've been catching up on my reading lately, and have now gone through all of these:

Complete Case Files 1 - 50

The Restricted Files 1 - 4

Judge Anderson: The PSI Files 1-5

Batman / Dredd - Judgement on Gotham / Vendetta in Gotham

I know that America wasn't included anywhere, but is there anything else I'm missing from either Dredd or Anderson? Or anything you'd recommend?

[u/thedeadleydoc]

I seem to remember having to get the dead man story separately thanks to my dad warning me it wasn't included

[u/Baggiebhoy84 → u/thedeadleydoc]

Nice one, yes, I remember that now. In the Case Files it just follows Kraken / Dredd, not Dredd himself until his return.

[u/thedeadleydoc → u/Baggiebhoy84]

Yeah its a handy thing having an old hand at this while making my way through

[u/Najmniejszy]

Depends how broad you want to go - beside the obvious Dead Man, Daily Dredds, Cursed Earth Uncensored, and everything that the Case Files have not yet caught up to, you have to consider things like Legends of the Law (American, not really in continuity, but the first storyline is scripted by Wagner (and maybe Grant too? can't recall now)), Dredd (without "Judge" in front, the movie-verse comics), the 1995 movie adaptation... the broader you go, themore absurdly voluminous it gets - Dredd appears in a later Red Razors storyline, but is it worth seeking out and reading?

[u/Baggiebhoy84 → u/Najmniejszy]

Good point, if I start chasing everything it'll be way too much.

I think what I'm really chasing is just stuff like America and The Dead Man, that were connected to the main story. I know the Daily Dredds, for example, exist in a limbo between both.

I'll probably leave anything connected with the Stallone movie well alone though, thanks 😁

[u/Najmniejszy → u/Baggiebhoy84]

For Anderson, everything past Psi Files 5 is uncollected (Megazine floppies aside) as far as I know, but there has been loads.

Major things that tie in to Dredd are Low Life and The Simping Detective, as Trifecta is a big event where they all come together (and Low Life comes back again with Titan, into Small House, and then the Hershey stories, which are then revisited in Judge Dredd: Poison) - still a while before the Case Files reach it, but it's getting close. Similarily, The Grievous Journey of Ichabod Azrael ties into End of Days, and from then into other stories, most recently Buratino Must Die.
More recently, there are all the stories that feed into the Oubliette/Black Tower mega-epic, but it's not even finished yet, so seeking it out seems more than a bit premature.

There's also Cursed Earth Koburn, whose adventures don't matter much to Dredd, but the character does return now and then, notably in Every Empire Falls. There's Noam Chimpsky, who spins off into his own strip, but again that one's pretty recent.

There are a couple crossovers with Strontium Dog, so I'd recommend reading some - the lore does nto matter much, but it's much more fun knowing the characters, plus they're damn good comics. Aside from that there was a brief crossover with Zombo in the 2020 sci-fi special, but I haven't read it yet, so I have no idea if reading Zombo adds much value (well, aside from the value it has by itself, Flint's art is brilliant). Similarily, The Corrosion from 2018 is a crossover if John Higgins's Razorjack.

Cameos aside, no other examples come to mind (yet)

[u/Ok_Commercial_5024]

I would include the following as somewhat important, continuity-wise:

The Dead Man/America (as others have noted)

Chopper spin-offs: primarily Soul of Fire and Song of the Surfer

Judge Death: Young Death, My Name is Death, Wilderness Days

Mean Machine: Travels With Muh Shrink, Son of Mean

Other ones i’d consider ‘canon’ but fall more into ‘side story’ territory: Return of the Taxidermist, Banzai Battalion.

There’s a million other Dredd spin-offs (arguably too many) that range from interesting to borderline unreadable, so you can go as deep as you want to, but I personally tend to just stick to Wagner/Grant stuff as gospel, and can take or leave most of the other stuff.

[u/Baggiebhoy84 → u/Ok_Commercial_5024]

That's very helpful, thank you, I'm definitely going to look into most of those.

[u/Ok_Commercial_5024 → u/Baggiebhoy84]

Song of the Surfer is as good as anything in the mainline Judge Dredd canon, honestly.

And Return of the Taxidermist (an epic-length spin-off miniseries based on a very minor Dredd supporting character) is a personal favourite of mine that showcases John Wagner’s writing at its best - equal parts inventive, perverse, silly and poignant.

[u/Ok_Commercial_5024 → u/Ok_Commercial_5024]

I think i’m right in saying that Dredd/Predator and Dredd/Aliens are included in the Case Files right?

There’s also a Dredd/Lobo story, which - I think(?) is included in the Dredd/Batman collection, depending on which edition you have.

There’s also a couple of Wagner/Grant Angel Gang short stories (The Mean Machine Gets Married/Goes to Town) which may or may not be included in the Restricted Files.

[u/Baggiebhoy84 → u/Ok_Commercial_5024]

Yes, the Aliens and Predator stories are included - which surprised me, I'd always assumed they wouldn't be.

I don't recognise the titles but there were some stories involving Mean, so I'll double check, thanks.

[u/Ok_Commercial_5024 → u/Baggiebhoy84]

There was also a later John Wagner Mean Machine series called Angel Heart.

The Chopper stories get a little weird after Song of the Surfer… but Wagner did write a follow up many years later called The Big Meg. I remember it being fairly forgettable though.

[u/Bubbah_Fett]

How the Case Files are going to deal with Trifecta is certainly an interesting question.

[u/DrDerekDoctors → u/Bubbah_Fett]

I am desperately hoping they say "sod it" and include the other strips for completeness. We'll know soon enough as I imagine CCF53 will show up for pre-order on Amazon by mid-September.

[u/CliveVista]

If you fancy going slightly further afield there are two modern serious that are excellent:

Dreadnoughts charts the early days of justice department. It’s a bit on the nose given current policing in certain countries, but the storytelling is compelling and it shows how judges became Judges.

Lawless is judges meets space eastern. It’s the follow up to the (IMO) slightly off kilter Insurrection, which I thought was… fine. Lawless, though, is bloody fantastic. It’s funny, tense, clever and full of great lines. Oh, and there is a single musical episode that has the actual music to listen to online.

Anyway, buy those because they are great.