Previewing ‘Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 42’ — More Dredd To Impress

The Complete Case Files does exactly that, reprinting every single Dredd strip from 2000 AD and the Judge Dredd Megazine – it’s The Law in order and we’re up to 2005 and 2006 here.

 

This time around, the Surgeon terrorises Mega-City One, feeding on the still-beating hearts of his victims; there’s another serial killer in town, the globetrotting blogging Global Psycho; and then there’s the deadly plots in Mega-City One’s virtual gardening competitions. But that’s just three of the many great Dredd tales to be found in the latest Case Files.

And all of this is brought to you by the usual incredible array of writing and art talent, including John Wagner, Gordon Rennie, Henry Flint, Cam Kennedy, Arthur Ranson, Ian Gibson, and many more.

Again, it’s a Case Files of shorts, mostly single Prog tales, a couple of two Prog tales, and the longest 2000 AD Dredd here is five Progs long. It’s a similar tale with the Megazine reprints, mostly single Megazine issues, with the longest being a John Wagner-written four-parter.

But it all opens with a Prog/Meg crossover, ‘Burned Out‘ by Gordon Rennie and Carl Critchlow, a very good two-part Dredd and one which shows just how good Rennie was at writing Dredd – or, in this case, Dreddworld tales. And Critchlow, well he really doesn’t do enough Dredds and it was always a joy to see his art.

So, Burned Out is a tale of Judge Giant and Judge Guthrie, continuing from what happened to Guthrie in the last Case Files. Giant’s down in the Pit, one of MC-1’s worst places, with Judge Guthrie the voice in his head, due to Guthrie being just that little bit out of action right now…

 

Giant’s tracked drugs into the Pit and there’s no one knows the Pit like Guthrie, whether in person or mic’d into Giant’s ear. But Guthrie wants payback for helping.

 

Like I said, it’s a simple two-hander tale, Giant and Guthrie, the old and the new, the finding meaning in a Judge’s life when he thinks there’s none left. It’s a great start to the volume.

And it’s immediately followed up with another bit of brilliance – the John Wagner-written ‘Everything In The Garden‘, with art by Arthur Ranson. And yes, that’s such a wonderful pairing. And yes, it’s every bit as good as you’d expect.

 

It’s that tale of the virtual gardening competition I already mentioned. And it is as far away from epic Dredds as you can get, mundane and ridiculous and surely beneath Dredd’s notice. But no, here he is, another case to investigate, another law broken. And that’s the whole point with Dredd. You’re just as likely to get something as great and mundane and inconsequential as this as you are a massive epic with a huge villain. And it’s a classic case of Wagner writing brilliant one-off Dredds, the lifeblood of the series that’s kept it interesting all these years. A great one-off, and of course, great artwork.

And, as if to hammer home the point that, during this time, it was Wagner and Rennie really guiding Dredd, the very next one-off sees writer Gordon Rennie and artist Henry Flint – seemingly always a great Dredd artist, then and now – tell us of the ‘Change of Loyalties‘, having Anatoli Kazan, clone or War Marshall Kazan, instigator of the Apocalypse War, turn up looking for asylum in MC-1.

It’s a story that sets up a load of things, including the friction between Chief Judge Hershey and Dredd that went on for so many years.

It’s as tight and tense and brilliant as any Wagner-written Dredd. And Flint’s art is perfect for it.

 

Right then, that’s just the first three episodes of this particular Case Files. I had meant to go through the entire thing and pick out a few favourites, and there are certainly many great tales further into the book. But those three are particularly good Dredds, perfectly illustrating the richness and diveristy of Dredd’s stories and the creators who’ve guided them over the many years.

I could just go on and on here, listing all the reasons why this Case Files is full of brilliance. But I haven’t the space or the time. Sure, there are some clunkers, there always will be in a volume such as this. But the quality is really very high and the hit-to-miss ratio really is extremely high here and so much of that is Rennie and Wagner trading off each other and having a selection of great artists to show us how it’s done.

Simply put, like so many previous volumes of Dredd’s Case Files, Volume 42 is chock full of great tales, full of great artists. And it’s well worth your time.

 

JUDGE DREDD: THE COMPLETE CASE FILES 42

Written by John Wagner, Gordon Rennie, Ian Edginton, Simon Spurrier, Robbie Morrison.

Art by Carl Critchlow, Arthur Ranson, Henry Flint, Richard Elson, Ian Gibson, Greg Staples, D’Israeli, Cam Kennedy, Mike Avon Oeming, Patrick Goddard, Laurence Campbell, Kris Justice, Anthony Williams, John Ridgway, PJ Holden, Paul Marshall, and Steve Yeowell.

Cover by Dylan Teague.

Originally published in 2000 AD Progs 1465-1484, and Annual Prog 2006 and Megazine 236-244, 2005-2006.

Published by 2000 AD on 17th August 2023

Now, preview time. I can’t preview all the tales in something like this, so I’ve picked a few to intrigue…