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Judge Dredd- what is the point?

Our Lady of The Two Towers

16:46 / 12.12.01

If anyone today came up with the idea of an emotionless lawman who dispatches foes with a gun with a ridiculous option of bullets, who has almost no internal dialogue and never questions his actions or the decrees of his superiors, who knows and believes he is right, who is a complete fascist, and has a rogues gallery made up of ghosts and a guy who turns into a Glasweigan drunk if you fiddle with the dile on his head, who's average stories seem to involve; killing, some ultra-humorous mention made of current events and more killing, they wouldn't have a chance.

So why is Judge Dredd still going? Is it because every fanboy secretely wants to be tied down and whipped by a Daddy? Does it have to have an Authority-shaming bodycount purely to try and distract people's attention from the fact that really, it is shit? And is 'Emerald Isle' just crap, regardless of whether it's written by an Irishman or not

yawn - thing's buddy

17:11 / 12.12.01

is this a serious question?

you obviously haven't heard of Umpty Candy.

or Otto Sump.

or Spikes Harvey Rotten

or Block Wars

or The Phantom

or Tiny the Tap

or Judge Cal

or Walter the Fuckin Wobot.

or even Boing.

They are the point of Judge Dredd, drokk it.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

17:44 / 12.12.01

OK, if this is a serious point, then put some meat on those bones. From where I'm sitting Dredd would not work without ridiculous amounts of ultraviolence. I've tried to get into Dredd many times but failed, in many ways it seems to be the complete opposite of what I look for in comics, it seems to be the proof that you DON'T need to bring anything new to a story, that you CAN just do the same old crap that's gone before, again and again and again.

A Bigger Boat

18:53 / 12.12.01

quote:Originally posted by Lozt Cause:
If anyone today came up with the idea of an emotionlly stunted billionnaire who dispatches foes with a pointy boomerang dressed up as a bat, with far too much internal dialogue and never questions his actions or the decrees of his superiors, who knows and believes he is right, who is a complete vigilante and has a rogues gallery made up of alter-egos who never get killed and always get put away in the same asylum only to escape again and again, who's average stories seem to involve finding yet another way of revisting or re-inventing his origin story.

So why is Batman still going? Is it because every fanboy secretely wants to dress up in tight-fitting spandex and stay out late at night?

I see your point.

NotBlue

19:45 / 12.12.01

"Democracy now" ... does it foe Dredd inner dialouge/turmoil/growth.

Also, one of the writers said " if you don't know how Dredd's going to react to a situatuion you're a fucking idiot, it's the situation thats the story" or words to that effect.

BTW, "I" am not calling anyone an idiot, just quoting a bit about the point of the character, and maybe some of it's appeal

[ 12-12-2001: Message edited by: Duncan ]

sleazenation

20:11 / 12.12.01

Dredd has been and always shall be a satire, specifically a satire on law and order policy first on the Thatcherite Government and later on her predecessors.

There is an element to dredd's caracter that 'he may be a fascist but he's damn cool' but the main driving force behind the narrative has always been a specific expository point. And satire is always in business

Spatula Clarke

21:16 / 12.12.01

Translation from SHAKO-speak:

The point of Dredd is the city and the characters that inhabit it. Or, at least, it used to be.

The Natural Way

10:19 / 13.12.01

God, how I wanted a can of Boing.....

e-n

10:28 / 13.12.01

Chopper for OZ!

Chubby P

11:40 / 13.12.01

A very unique thing about Dredd is that it is set in real time. Every year that goes by in the real world causes another year to go by in Dredds world. Hence he's an old man these days and the writers are inevitably going to be forced to confront this issue. Will he die or will he just have his mind transferred to a younger body so they can keep him going for another 20 years. I'm not the biggest Dredd fan by anymeans but there have been many intriguing stories over the years. The best of recent times was Sector House (or something like that?) when Dredd ran a Sector house and the story was more about the Judges (corrupt to varying degrees) working below him. During this story we got to see a more human attitude towards being a Judge then Dredds coldness.

[ 13-12-2001: Message edited by: Chubby P ]

Saint Keggers

14:06 / 13.12.01

For thoe of you who dont already know this, there are about 2-3 movies planned.

yawn - thing's buddy

16:55 / 13.12.01

quote:Originally posted by Gun Runce:
God, how I wanted a can of Boing.....

..... to accompany that other fictionaut's favourite tinny,

the Invisbles can! (sic smiley)

fluid_state

02:06 / 14.12.01

There was a bit on Dark Horizons.com that mentions an interview with Jason Kingsley (who?) and his next Dredd movies.... how they're going to shoot 2 and 3 back to back and :

"How are they going to avoid the problems plaguing the Stallone 1995 film version: "We're going back to the original ethos of Dredd. I'm a producer on the movie, so will share the blame if its no good, but also, being a reader from issue 1, I have a deep knowledge of Dredd, and am working with the script writer now". Production is aiming to begin in Summer 2002 in Canada or India."

ethos of Dredd? "I am the law",isn't it? long as he doesn't take the helmet off this time....

sleazenation

06:48 / 14.12.01

And someone better explain to this supposed 'fan' that dredd didn't actually appear in 2000AD issue 1...

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