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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
And here's where it really got good..., 13 Jul 2006
Whereas the continuity of the first Dredd Case Files collection was very slap-dash, here we start to get a lot of much-needed history and backstory for Dredd's world, establishing why the Judges came about, how their world became like it is, what surrounds the city, etc. In short, Dredd's world finally feels three-dimensional and fully-realised, and is much the better for it.
The bulk of the book is taken up by Dredd's first two epics, and this creates a far more stable line-up of creators (only two writers, for instance) that again give the adventures a more coherent voice and feel. The first tale, Pat Mills' The Cursed Earth, is absolutely manic - mutants, tyrannosuars, vampires, aliens, punk bikers, vengeful robot armies and gambling-obsessed mafia judges all throw themselves at Dredd in a roaring blood and guts epic that never lets up once. By the time you get to the base-under-seige ending, you'll actually be breathless, I guarantee it. John Wagner's The Day the Law Died slows things down (but only a little) and lets a raving maniac take complete power of Mega-city One. The results are too brilliantly mad-cap to go into here, but the wonderful satire and black humour in this tale mean the more unstable line-up of artists doesn't really matter. It's worth it anyway just to see a goldfish become Deputy Chief Judge.
As for the art - Mike McMahon and Brian Bolland are of course the stars, dominating the book as they do, McMahon's sometimes scratchy-looking art still conveying a madcap energy and glee at working on such stories, and Bolland producing some of the most intricate, detailed, well-handled art in comics. An essential purchase, containing classic Dredd tales only possibly bettered by what's to come in Books 4 and 5...
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
know your history, 24 May 2006
As mentioned in other reviews here, by comparison with the artwork of todays beautifully rendered graphic novels this belongs to a different era.
But what an era!
If you are looking purely for the action (good though it is) you are missing half the point. Even today the writing and the satire is fresh and effective. The dark humour is as shocking now as it was then. When Dredd scrawls at the end of one memorable episode that sometimes the human race makes him sick, you know exactly where he is coming from. (in this particular case he has just rescued an alien, whose family has been murdered and taken into slavery).
Its a shame too that the Burger Wars episodes had to be left out due to copyright reasons (here was art sticking it to McDonalds and BK 25 years before Supersize Me).
Read it for reference, read it for history, read to fill in the gaps if you are already a fan or just read it because its brilliant. I don't think you will be disappointed.
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3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Dredd's first epic, 4 April 2006
For those of you old enough to remember the early days of 2000ad, this publication is aimed squarely at you. I find it hard to see how the style of writing and illustration will win over new converts. That aside, if you are a fan of JD, there is nothing better than the offerings here.
The Cursed Earth saga and Judge Cal ( Incomplete due to copyright issues) is a fine piece of work espeially the penmanship of Brian Bolland. His style of illustration is well rendered and capable of offering some truely memorable moments. For me the image of Fergie walloping Dredd with a baseball bat has stayed with me since the first time I read it, nearly 30 years ago. Which brings me to the point that these comics showed quite a raw violence, maybe more so than US comics, perhaps because of it's Englishness?
The Judge Cal offering is also a classic, it is also very english in its style, with some very surreal moments in a very nero-esq tale of a lunatic taking power.
Overall these are some of the best, the apocalypse war in later issues was for me, even stronger.
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