TVTropes Now available in the app store!
Open

Follow TV Tropes

Following

IDW Judge Dredd, and other things

Go To

VampireBuddha Calendar enthusiast from Ireland (Wise, aged troper) Relationship Status: Complex: I'm real, they are imaginary
Calendar enthusiast
#1: Jul 17th 2012 at 8:07:12 AM

So, Tharg is making another attempt to break into America.

A while ago, it was announced that IDW would be publishing an American Judge Dredd comic around the time that Dredd appears in cinemas. You might be aware that this is the same tactic they tried back in 1995, with DC.

Anyway, three days ago, IDW announced the creative team. Duane Swierczynski is doing the writing; I've never heard if him, but Wikipedia tells me he's primarily a crime writer who has done bits and pieces of comic work in recent years. It's apparently a joint decision by IDW and Rebellion to give the title to a team that has not done Judge Dredd before; this gave me pause, but Swiercynski has apparently been a fan since the 80s, so I'm cautiously optimistic.

Nelson Daniel has now page on either the English or Spanish Wikipedias. Google turns up a bunch of pages in Spanish; his own page shows some absolutely gorgeous watercolour-inspired pictures, which actually makes me a little excited for this series.

Dredd is being released on September 7th; Rebellion has said that while this means they'll miss summer blockbuster season, that was a deliberate move, as opening any earlier would mean going up against Marvel Avengers Assemble, The Amazing Spider-Man, and The Dark Knight Rises. A September release allows them to ride the coat tails of Batman and possibly get a few bums on seats just before the new school term starts.

As it happens, I was on Amazon recently, and came across this item, a hardcover collection of all the Batman/Judge Dredd crossovers. Unfortunately, it's not going to be released until November. This seems a bit odd; if they had released it in August, Rebellion could exploit the buzz left by The Dark Knight Rises to attract interest in Judge Dredd, while DC could use whatever excitement Dredd managed to drum up to shift units and make some profit of the tail end of The Dark Knight.

Ah, well. I'm no businessperson, so I'm sure there's a good reason for the delay, but still.

Oh, and on an incredibly tangential note, this might be worth a look. I've read it, and the best way to describe it is not so much a comic as a multi-drug hallucinogenic trip converted to dead tree form. Seriously, it's unlikely this was made without the aid of at least a couple of consciousness-altering substances.

Ukrainian Red Cross
Shiningknight S.E.A captain from Professor Xavier's school for gifted lesbians. Since: Apr, 2010 Relationship Status: Non-Canon
S.E.A captain
#2: Jul 22nd 2012 at 10:11:18 AM

I would describe that story as if Dr seuss had a truly,truly bad trip

" I did the right thing, didn't I? It all worked out in the end." "In the end? Nothing ends, Adrian. Nothing ever ends."
SlendidSuit Freelance Worrywart from Probably a Pub Since: Oct, 2011
Freelance Worrywart
#3: Jul 27th 2012 at 3:22:17 AM

With regards to the new comic:
Is there anything you particularly want out of it? Any elements of Dredd you feel they need to feature and do justice to, and any that could be (or even should be) changed?

Gimme yer lunch money, dweeb.
VampireBuddha Calendar enthusiast from Ireland (Wise, aged troper) Relationship Status: Complex: I'm real, they are imaginary
Calendar enthusiast
#4: Jul 27th 2012 at 8:27:01 AM

Hmm.

I think the Dark Judges could use some tweaking. I don't like how they need to find new costumes each time they take a new body; if I was writing this new comic, I would make it so that possessing a properly-treated corpse automatically transforms it into the form of the Dark Judge possessing it.

One thing that has to stay is the aversion of Comic-Book Time. That is one of the aspects that sets Judge Dredd apart from Marvel and DC, and it means that when he has to deal with age, it's something that emerges organically from the narrative rather than, as is the case with things like Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (which I haven't read by the way), a radical departure from the established situation that has to shout "Hey, look! The character's old!" and make up a whole lot of new backstory that occurred during the period they were subject to flow through time.

Ukrainian Red Cross
TamH70 Since: Nov, 2011 Relationship Status: Faithful to 2D
#5: Jul 29th 2012 at 5:33:05 AM

I will not read another Judge Dredd comic with the Dark Judges in it. Just flat no. They only get wheeled out when the writers of the strip have run out of any other better ideas as they and the writers know that they had stopped being interesting characters decades ago.

SlendidSuit Freelance Worrywart from Probably a Pub Since: Oct, 2011
Freelance Worrywart
#6: Jul 30th 2012 at 2:11:28 AM

Aww, come on. My Name is Death was fun!

Gimme yer lunch money, dweeb.
VampireBuddha Calendar enthusiast from Ireland (Wise, aged troper) Relationship Status: Complex: I'm real, they are imaginary
Calendar enthusiast
#7: Nov 17th 2012 at 2:12:55 PM

Preview. Looks good; let's hope this gets a digital release.

Ukrainian Red Cross
Add Post

Total posts: 7
Top