1st Judge Dredd Comic Book! BRIAN BOLLAND + Judge Dredd Invade America! I AM THE LAW! Pat Mills

[@TheTonyFigueroa]

We Americans took Judge Dredd as a straightforward quasi superhero instead of the black comedy it really is. British comic creators weren't too interested in rendering homage to authority figures as we Americans are. Judge Dredd is truly a product of its time.

[@ULYSSES-31]

@@jcjc4164 John Wagner views Dredd as both villain and hero.

[@omarlopex6923]

adjacent to audience response to Verhoeven's adaptation of Starship Troopers

[@SuperLaughHard]

@@jcjc4164 They stopped writing together because they disagreed on how the Judge Dredd epic 'Oz' should end. They have worked together since, most notably on the Dredd/Batman Crossovers.

[@hindytitchard]

definitely, it was a proper take on Thatcher and the authoritarian right, taken to extreme levels. The writers found the more they pushed the totalitarianist ways, the more they loved Dredd

[@VicRattleHead28]

​@@hindytitchardmodern day leftisim is FAR worse. Trying to force vaccines on people? Alan Moore shudders.

[@godstomper]

So good. The thrash metal band Anthrax steered my curiosity when I saw Scott Ian wearing a Dredd shirt and I had to figure out what this comic book was all about. I looked everywhere for the Eagle Issue 1.and a old comic book shop in downtown San Jose had it. I bought it for 30.00 in 1990

[@androod6211]

I grew up on 2000AD (from Prog 30) and was fortunate enough to win the 2000AD Writing Competition in 2016 (my Future Shock! was in Prog 2023). I thought that might trigger a dream-come-true career change, but with no previous experience in the industry and being in my 50s (and probably having no discernible talent), Tharg didn't think I was worth bringing on. I hope to prove that Betelgeusian grexnix wrong one day.

[@mostlydregs]

Better than most my man, you should be proud of this alone!

[@antonydrossos5719]

My story on how I discovered Judge Dredd: It was '89, I was 18, & training in my first Kung-Fu school. I made friends with a classmate named Kevin who was as big a comic nerd as I was. We made a temp trade of our collections, my short stack of Viz-licensed manga, like Heavy-Metal Warrior Xenon, Appleseed & Grey, & Kevin's big ol' stack of 2,000 AD magazines. That was my intro to the great British comics like Strontium Dog, Rogue Trooper, & of course, Judge Dredd!

[@cameramandanno]

Back in 86 I used to collect these judge dredd eagle comics then collected the quality comic line... I lost all my comics after a few moves... I just started to get my collection going again..by far the judge child quest 1-5 has to be the most brilliant of colors used in any comic I've read.

[@robertambrose6864]

Local con in 1983!!! Grabbed issues 1-3!!! The beginning of my 2000ad/British obsession and the end of my love of Marvel/DC supes comics!!! Never looked back!!!

[@fid9255]

I'd love to see you guys go through more of these issues, great stuff!!

[@nicholassmart4790]

Cinebook, the prime publisher of translated Western European comics (basically the Euro equivalent of Viz) publishes some series's albums out of order, to release the ones with the most appeal to the English-speaking market. They publish adult-oriented albums at B6 size, close to US comic size, in order to appeal to the comic shop market, while their all-ages titles remain at the original A4 size, probably because children's comics are more prevalent in the UK, and are usually that size.

[@omarlopex6923]

The Issue No. 1 cover with the flat red is a play on wax pack trading cards that Topps made - the compositional layout, the typeface combos & the flat blue + yellow too.

[@dwaynemuth8775]

That was just the beginnings of my swan dive into British comics! I remember the 1st time I saw Bolland’s art was JLA 200 with lots of great artists! Batman vs Black Canary&Green Arrow,short and sweet to the point! Dred was definitely a game changer especially in American comics! Great job,guys! Keep reading and making comix!

[@bobhoskins-kl6ue]

I have many of these issues framed and hanging on the walls, every cover is amazing

[@DsComicColours]

That cover to issue 5 is my favourite Bolland image ever. So weird and cool.

[@jamessibley6128]

Nice to see you guys looking at some Dredd!

[@EnderHuntIII]

Great episode! I would enjoy a going through of all the early Judge Dredd, Cursed Earth, Judge Caligula, Apocalypse War, Judge Child Quest stories.

[@lazarusxtc]

I think these work better in the original black and white.They came across as more dynamic.Bolland was a slow artist and so although 2000ad was a weekly comic Judge Dredd would be drawn alternately by McMahon and Ezquerra plus others around Bolland.Also, I always pronounced it 'Cursed' but I think the 2000ad creators did in fact pronounce it 'Curs-ed' which I always thought strange as a kid.

[@solomonkane3989]

Keep doing what you're doing guys. Your enthusiasm comes through loud and clear, and I'm interested on your take as artists as to what you're seeing. Keep giving us plenty of analysis of the art as well as the stories themselves, pacing, plot devices, use of dialogue etc. And give us more 2000AD.

[@johna4371]

I have a big run of the latest 2000 AD Dredd reprint collections...They're solid gold. I especially love the Cam Kennedy stuff.

[@pbgauthier5487]

More DREDD please very seriously this has HUGE potential for a series

[@1971thedoctor]

Man memories of one of the independent direct market comic, I had the first three issues and was blown away when I found out it was British.

[@SFictionGaming]

Dredd is awesome great video

[@josephde-haan1074]

2000AD. The most zarjaz comic of the 20th century.

[@bigstefan]

gents, please perform some magick behind the scenes and secure an interview with Simon Bisley. you know you can do it. we need this!

[@Director714]

So excited for you to cover Dredd!

[@georgegolston5417]

I still have a few of the Titan Books black and white TPBs plus a couple of the British annuals.

[@billstorie5161]

If you want to know how Dredd would work on TV check out the strips drawn by Arthur Ranson - he has an incredibly realistic style and created a really grounded view of Dredd - and on the other had the later trips with art by John M Burns are the perfect mixture of action and spectacle. I've never seen a comics artist anywhere in the world more able to create a sense of movement in a strip and John has been working since the 1950's and is still producing The Order for 2000AD.

[@HappyCynic]

John Burns is the governor of British comic book artists. Even the great Brian Bolland holds him in high esteem.

[@PatrickBrown924]

The lettering is by Tom Frame, who was one of the mainstays of British comics until he died in 2006. Those creepy balloons he drew for Judge Death's dialogue are amazing. Some of the blank panel backgrounds aren't Bolland's choice - the pages of 2000AD were quite a lot wider than standard American comic book size, and to resize the pages to fit, they extended some of the panels vertically, adding empty space. I'm not 100% sure, but I believe the resizing and colouring was done by John M Burns, who's a fantastic artist in his own right, and has worked on newspaper strips like Modesty Blaise and TV adaptatons for Look-In magazine, as well as Judge Dredd and Nikolai Dante in 2000AD. If you like the Spanish artists who worked for Warren, you'll dig Burns. I'd love to see you do a deep dive into Mick McMahon's stuff some day. His work has changed so much, and so many times, over the years. The contrast between the Cursed Earth material, and later Dredd material like Howler is astonishing.

[@SuperLaughHard]

Tom Frame also did the colour for the centre-spreads each week.

[@HappyCynic]

John M Burns did not work on Judge Dredd until the nineties.

[@alanblott4559]

It was great having these weekly in 2000AD. Black and white was very special.

[@fransaacs]

I grew up with some of the weekly newsprint 2000AD anthologies and B&W Titan 'Chronicles' albums before reading these Eagle reprints. It's interesting to see how each page was re-edited for the format conversion from to the original UK 9 1/2 x 11in to US 6 7/8 x 10 1/2in; a combination of cut and paste, redrawn background texture, gutters compressed or stretched and removal of the weekly titles, creator credits and a staple of John Wagner and Alan Grant's tenure on the strip, the cliffhanger pun.

[@iDEATH]

Don't worry to much about talking about colour holds and black layers or whatever, guys. I love knowing all about how the sausage is made, even if some of it goes over my head, and I can't be the only one. :) I'm a huge Dredd fan. Friend introduced me in '87 with some of the Eagle Comics and I immediately started hunting down the issues myself. I think Dredd was far more influential than people realize, given the actual start date (1977) and how much of it is very much what we would come to think of as cyberpunk. That lean on the black comedy and satire is so very British, though! I wonder if that's part of why Dredd never really took off here in NA?

[@joshv.1514]

I'm glad to see this channel growing! I have a request if u take them... I dunno if this is comics exclusive but if u can do some sort of special episode about Manga i would love to see Berzerk. But don't mind me, i'm not an avid sub anyway. Just thought i'd toss that out there

[@smeagle3295]

That music was hilarious.

[@MultiSoulless]

I'd urge everyone who loves Bolland to compare this with the Titan reproductions (or original progs) and you'll see how they really messed with the panels in the Eagle version. On page 1 they eliminate the original Judge Dredd logo at the top and "extend" the top 3 panels by inserting more of the square windowpane light in 1 and 2. More egregiously, in the bottom 3 panels the originals cut off above the dude's nose - so anything drawn above that is not Bolland. On page 2 the main left panel cuts off just below the top of Judge Death's helmet, so you get the "wacky lettering", then in panel 3 it cuts off above the dude's eyes so the hedgehog hair is not Bolland. Most noticeably, the cyberpunk background Ed mentions in page 4 panel 6 doesn't exist in the original and is almost an entirely new panel - as the original frames Dredd's lips to the top of his ventilator. Goes on throughout - I used to have these as a kid mainly for the format and the new covers they commissioned Bolland for. Cheers!

[@orbtastic]

If you like Bolland then get the hardback collector edition they did. Easily the best reprint of 2000AD. They also did a few others - the 3 first main Dredd "big" stories and Nemesis and er I think DR & Quinch. Obviously get all Bolland's work but those are the best 2000AD reprints. The newer Apex editions by Bolland and McMahon are fantastic but not necessarily full stories. The original Titan reprints which preceded the Eagle comics reprints were great but the bindings were crap so sometimes the pages fell out quite easily. They're reasonably hard to find now too.

[@teetoo3790]

Judge Dredd could kick the Punisher's ass. Lol ha ha

[@JH-pe3ro]

The lunar pool game is most likely inspired by the Stern Electronics pinball "Orbitor 1" (1982) which has a conspicuously similar molded playfield.

[@angularfpv6572]

New fan here! I was one of those that had two awesome comic book stores in my hometown. I was able to order 2000 A.D. on a weekly subscription, it was totally awesome. You guys should totally check out “nemesis the warlock“ by Kevin O’Neill. Some dark similarities to Geof Darrow’s illustrations.

[@ihavenoquarrelwithyou3249]

Having been a 2000AD buyer from about 1980 to '83 it is fascinating to see these in color. As for how the violence made it to print in the UK back then, well it wasn't without controversy. Although I am pretty sure the only time they were actually censored was when a Judge Dredd story used real-world corporate mascots in a story. That didn't make it past the lawyers. Flesh was a 2000AD story that was perhaps even more graphic than Judge Dredd. Time travelers harvesting dinosaur meat for starving future earth. What could go wrong? Red Room would have been a great addition to the 2000AD world.

[@cjansenATL]

As a kid, this was my introduction to Dredd and Brian Bolland.

[@cjansenATL]

And Camelot 3000 was going on at that time.

[@HiddenGemComics]

That's so dope, I'm a huge dredd fan, I need that issue

[@miksolt]

Wow, first I thought it's Baraka on that cover... :-)

[@metalmarcrosser]

Wouldn’t surprise me if baraka was influenced by that cover, the same team that did the old MK games did afterall create the Judge Dredd Arcade beat em up game that got cancelled, it was even digitised like the first few MK games & goro is a little Easter egg in the background, I heard a rumour once that Ed boon wanted Dredd as a guest character in one of the newer MK games but Dredd owners Rebellion said No.

[@Wooden_pillars_]

Hey guys. Love the vidz. Long time enjoyer of Red Room and can’t wait for Hulk Grand Design. The comics you guys have are always in Fresh Clean shape. I’m a relatively new collector but I’m curious how you guys store and care for your comics. Are there particular brands you prefer over others when it comes to bag and boards. I appreciate the great content I look forward to whatever you guys have coming down the turnpike next.

[@DrCory48]

Cool video

[@luisalonso7352]

I dont know if you have looked into Ralph Snart comics i believe from Marc Hemple. Thanks

[@antonlubichart]

You guys doing many great reviews! Can you please also make sound centered in post? Thanks!:)

[@MC-bh8ph]

I'm with you guys I can talk me some color saturation

[@jrvondoom]

REALLY glad you guys did this. More 2000AD PLEASE. but also no because they are so cheap but kayfabe effect my fuck yo my buying hahaha

[@hamzadawud]

"Iggle" Comics? That's how you know Jim is from Pennsylvania, lol.

[@fireboy312002]

There are also people like me who have this on as background noise, rewind to look at this example of black. Art nerds here my dudes.

[@matthewbrookeart]

I think the censorship on the ninja turtles may have been just for tv? Like comics wise we got away with much more violence XD

[@matthewbrookeart]

I read these in black and white it’s so odd seeing them in colour

[@robertonline6543]

I wonder if professor x could defeat judge death like Anderson did?

[@thenapalmbrothershq5585]

JD the best

[@SethMcFartlane]

I never liked Dredd the character, but the world around him was always interesting.

[@SuperLaughHard]

Top Tip: 'The Law of Judge Dredd' reprints the entire Volume 1 of Judge Dredd by Eagle/Quality Comics and is usually way cheaper to purchase (and easier to find). It was also published five odd years later so the pages are often whiter. The only downside is that they don't have the Bolland covers.

[@SuperLaughHard]

'The Essential Judge Dredd: Apocalypse War' or 'Dredd Vs Death' are currently the two best examples of how to reprint Judge Dredd recolored 👍. The latter also has the first two Judge Death stories in the original black and white, but beautifully remastered and it's never looked so good due to the paper it's printed on.

[@SuperLaughHard]

The covers for this series are great, but sadly the way the artwork was reproduced left a lot to be desired. The Titan Judge Dredd books are the best way to read and appreciate the stories and artwork from the "Classic Black and White" years. Thanks for another great video 🙂

[@MultiSoulless]

100% agreed dude - the 2000ad Titan reproductions rule. Bring on the Bolland Apex Edition!!

[@miksolt]

Wow, first I thought it's Baraka on that cover... :-)