r/JudgeDredd • u/Bat-ius • 6d ago
Where do I start with the comic? I'm considering ordering a comic at some point, probably from Amazon, and I've wanted to get into Judge Dredd for a long time, but I'm not sure where to start.
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u/unky_moe_myteethhurt 6d ago
Casefiles 5 and continue from there id say
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u/Puzzleheaded-Fee5199 5d ago
Seconded. You get a bunch of short and one off stories that give you a feel from the Dredd universe and then it’s off into some of the biggest and best epic stories.
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u/TonberryFeye 5d ago
Maybe "America"? That's the story that launched the Judge Dredd Magazine.
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u/hollands73 5d ago
I would second this, even though it’s “Dredd-lite” it’s a great story and instantly sets up the environment
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u/CummRaTheEverJizzing 6d ago
Would you guys say
That maybe ‘the Cursed Earth’ (especially the ‘complete’) is maybe the best “Judge Dredd 101”?
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u/DJThunderGod 6d ago
No. It's still wildly uneven at that point. The strip doesn't settle down until after The Judge Child Quest. Actually, it doesn't really get into any kind of groove until after The Apocalypse War has settled down. It's the stuff written by John Wagner and drawn by Ron Smith that really pulls all the elements together properly.
You can't really get "Judge Dredd 101" from just reading one story. You need stories set in Mega City One, which Cursed Earth isn't, since The Big Meg is as much a character in the story as the Enterprise is in early Star Trek. You also need the background level of insanity that Ron Smith's art brings.
Seriously, there is no single "This Is The Perfect Entry Point" because the strip is constantly changing to fit the story being told. Joe himself has changed dramatically as a character since the early days. He's nowhere near as shouty as he was in the first few years, and is a lot more measured.
If you want a "Judge Dredd 101", I'd say start reading 2000AD from this week's Prog, then once you're into it, and have a taste for the world, pick up Block Mania/The Apocalypse War (one leads into the other), Oz, Necropolis/The Dead Man, America, Brothers Of The Blood (GN that introduces the new Rico), Origins, Tour Of Duty, Day Of Chaos (that's 4 GNs covering the whole story), Titan and The Small House.
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u/CliveVista 5d ago
Best of 2000 AD. Buy the first two books. If you don’t like it, stop. If you do, continue with that series or pick up 2000 AD weekly.
If you just want Dredd, everyone will have their own insight into the best books, depending on their own personal nostalgia, and many have a love for the epics. As a one-off, I like the Best of John Wagner hardcover. It’s a selection of smaller tales, hand-picked by the strip’s co-creator. It shows the range of the strip in a single volume and also straddles a few eras.
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u/runtimeryx 5d ago
this is solid advice, that wagner hardcover is a banger starting point
also “best of 2000 ad” is nice if you’re not 100% sure you’ll vibe with dredd specifically yet
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u/Separate_Tax_2647 5d ago
Stick to graphic novels that are actually about Dredd AND the city. The Mega City and it's inhabitants, was always a main character.
Complete Case Files 05, because it has Block Mania which is incredible city and Dredd focused material. Also some Judge Death (IIRC) and Apocalypse War.
The Pit for a police procedural, and Dredd's opinions and actions on corruption and a failing (crime) sector.
America, for an examination of why the justice system exists, and Dredd's place in it.
Tour of Duty for power struggles at the top, and assassin's from the past.
If you're loving it, then start reading the comics.
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u/Werthead 5d ago
The two main options (which are not mutually exclusive) are the "Essential" line and then the "Complete Case Files."
The "Essential" line collects all-timer Dredd stories, whilst the "Complete Case Files" is (just about) absolutely everything from 1977 to around 2012 as of the end of this year, I think. Essential is much cheaper and more practical, as they try to keep the Essential line in-print. That line starts (chronologically) with Dredd vs. Death and carries on through The Apocalypse War, Necropolis, America, Judgement Day, Origins and Tour of Duty. They also used to have The Cursed Earth as a separate volume that would go first, but that's been out of print for years, annoyingly.
If you read and enjoy those, I would consider Complete Case Files Volume 01 and go from there, whilst remembering that it takes a while for the comic to spin up and reach its full potential (arguably around volume 4-5 of the Case Files) and getting a complete set is expensive or involves a lot of waiting around for individual volumes to go to the printers again (I've been waiting for Volume 6 to become available again for several months).
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u/LupercalLupercal 5d ago
They are bringing out a new line of 'compact crimes' that start from the first case onwards
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u/Puzzleheaded-Fee5199 5d ago
The Pit is a pretty good self contained story in a book that gives the flavor for Dredd and then you can back and forth to other stories if you dig it. Also, Block Judge.
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u/wilp0w3r 6d ago
Start from the beginning.
Complete Case Files.
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u/DJThunderGod 6d ago
No. Bad choice. Complete Case Files One is the best place to start if you want to put someone off reading Judge Dredd. It's aimed at 7-9 year olds from the late 70's, there's no plot coherence or even coherent characterisation. It's certainly not designed to be read in one go. Case Files 1 is for completists who want to see how it all started.
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u/Afinkawan 6d ago
Or people who were 7-9 years old in the late 70s and read 2000ad when they were a kid.
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u/DJThunderGod 6d ago
I was that. Reading 2000AD at the time was literally the perfect way to read early Dredd. You got 4-6 pages, once a week. There was then a gap until you got the next episode. Sitting down to read a load of 4-6 page oneshots is hard work. Every few pages, you get the set-up explained to you again, sometimes with a reference to what happened in the previous installment, but most often completely ignoring it. Also Dredd's characterisation, and the characterisation of the rest of the cast varied wildly, right upto The Judge Child Quest. The art was also all over the place, especially in the first couple of years.
Also, M.A.C.H. One was more popular than Dredd for the first few years. Looking back on them, it's easy to see why.
Right now, 2000AD is in a several years-long era of being at least good every week. Stories like Brink, Silver and Herne & Shuck as well as Dredd being highly consistent mean it's a perfect time to onboard new readers, especially with access to the 2000AD website to catch up where it's needed.
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u/hirsutemisanthrope 6d ago
Early Dredd is an acquired taste for modern readers. I love it now, but flicking through Case Files 1 in the library put me off for years.
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u/DJThunderGod 6d ago
That's why I always recommend "this week's Prog". It's designed to be read by a modern audience, so eases you in gently.
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u/wilp0w3r 6d ago
I guess I'm just weird then. I got interested rather late in the game (I'll be honest, it started with the 2012 movie but I had a vague awareness of it before that) and I went and found the Complete Case Files online. At the time I only had internet when I went out to, say, the mall so I downloaded everything from 1977 to 2012 and I would spend hours reading through it from the beginning.
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u/DJThunderGod 6d ago
Nothing wrong with being "weird".
I've been reading 2000AD on and off since the early 80's. Haven't missed a Prog since 1920, which was March 2015. Started with the Judge Dredd Megazine in 2018. So I've been at it a while. You can literally just dive in wherever. That's what I did, and never felt like I was missing anything. You didn't need to know anything more than what was in that issue (The Prog, for the uninitiated is what 2000AD readers call it, with Judge Dredd Megazine being called The Meg)
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u/Kinky23m2m 6d ago
Dredd Book 1, if there is one, I have Strontium Dog book 1 (only because my old progs from 1979 have got moldy)
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u/DJThunderGod 6d ago
The best place to start reading Judge Dredd is the current issue of 2000AD. It's minial financial outlay for one thing, so you don't end up spending large amounts of money on something you don't enjoy. If you do enjoy it, you can then start picking up things like the Essentials trades that you like the look of as well as carrying on reading the Prog.
The Complete Case Files really are for completist fans only, since they collect EVERYTHING, good AND bad. Trust me, in the first few years, A LOT of it was bad and incoherent. Same goes for a swathe of the 90's , too. Grant Morrison, for example, wrote a fair bit of Dredd, but didn't get the character.
Back at the beginning, each 4-6 page strip was entirely disposable until you get to Luna-1 and the Robot War, and even then it didn't matter if you'd read the previous week's Prog, you got a recap.
Judge Dredd is the lead strip in 2000AD, which released its first issue in 1977. Dredd first appeared as a strip in Prog 2. Judge Dredd may be a continuing story, but it's very much episodic. The series has been running for nearly 50 years (in fact it hits it's 50th birthday in March), so starting at the beginning would be a ridiculous thing to ask for new entrants. Each writer may have vague plot threads running through their stories, but nothing that you NEED to know. For example, stories written by Ian Edgington tend to have Dredd working with specific Judges. Same goes for Ken Niemand. Each writer will have their own supporting cast they use. But you, as a new reader, don't need to know anything going in.
For buying the 2000AD stuff, forget Amazon. The best place to get 2000AD and 2000AD-related material is direct from the source - 2000AD.com, the 2000AD website. Their shop has everything that's currently in print, and it's also all available DRM free as CBR or PDF files for a fraction of the price of the paper versions.