Previewing The Latest Big Must Read Dredd Epic – ‘Judge Dredd: End Of Days’

Judge Dredd: End Of Days is the latest collection of 2020’s BIG Dredd tale, fifteen episodes of world-traversing stuff with big stakes, very bad bad-guys and plenty of Dredd being wonderfully Dredd. Yep, ‘End Of Days’ is epic Dredd.

Yes, this is a lovely old school Dredd for today, a fast-paced, epic thing with two incredible Dredd artists for our times.

Inside, there’s action around the world, with Dredd and his group of Judges going up against the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse, Famine, Pestilence, War, and Death. And no, just as Dredd figures, that’s really not good news…

And it all kicks off with the unexpected appearance of the dead cowboy Ichabod Azrael, as last seen in ‘The Grievous Journey of Ichabod Azrael (and the Dead Left in His Wake)’, turning up in Mega-City One with an Angel’s head and a talking horse and issuing portents of terrible doom.

And of course, that doom appears, sending the world haywire and Dredd et. al. off on a quest to take down each Horseman one by one. And along the way, we get plenty of action, plenty of thrills, a certain famous polar bear, and the Sovs turning up – never a good thing as far as Dredd is concerned…

And in addition to the fifteen parts of End of Days here, you also get two epilogue tales of sorts, ‘Carry The Nine’ and ‘They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?’.

‘They Shoot Horses’ is a little coda more than anything, fun nonetheless, with Dredd continuing that failure to bond with Ichabod’s talking horse. But the first epilogue, ‘Carry The Nine’, co-written by Williams and Arthur Wyatt, with some beautiful Boo Cook art, well that is a special tale, where Judge Maitland from accounts works out the unthinkable, just how to solve all crime in Mega-City One. It’s a doozy of a short tale and hopefully something that we might see more of in the future.

End of Days was one that didn’t quite work episode by episode in the Prog, at least not for me. But now, in one piece, with the benefit of taking it all in one go and allowing the pace to really ramp up, this has proven itself as a real bit of epic Dredd.

JUDGE DREDD – END OF DAYS – written by Rob Williams, art by Colin MacNeil and Henry Flint, colours by Chris Blythe, letters by Simon Bowland & Annie Parkhouse.

Also contains the epilogue tales – ‘Carry The Nine’ is written by Rob Williams & Arthur Wyatt, art by Boo Cook, letters by Annie Parkhouse and ‘They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?’ is written by Rob Williams, art by Dan Cornwell, colours by Jim Boswell, letters by Annie Parkhouse.

Published by 2000 AD on 16th March 2021.

Now, preview time… first couple of pages from Messrs MacNeil and Flint first from End Of Days… Colin MacNeil first…

And then from Henry Flint…

Now, a couple of Boo Cook‘s pages from the brilliant Carry the Nine… just so you can see that glorious moment for Maitland…

And finally, Dan Cornwell showing us just how good a Dredd artist he’s becoming with They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?. Perfect just for the classic, ‘Why the long face?‘ line from Anderson there.