The Judge Dredd Collection

The Judge Dredd Collection

IPC Magazines, Ltd., 1985

My local comic book store occasionally has some really off-the-wall items scattered around its shelves along with the inevitable X-Men and Superman and Dog Boy stuff.

So it was that recently, I picked up a trade paperback collection of Judge Dredd newspaper strips - ! 

In August 1981, the 2000 AD character had achieved sufficient recognition for the magazine's editors to arrange for a weekly Judge Dredd strip to run in the UK tabloid newspaper the Daily Star.

The Star was (and is) not an exemplar of 'journalism', but rather, an exemplar of Fleet Street. It ran (and continues to run) pictures of scantily-clad models, along with gossip and all manner of provocative articles (the kind that elicit libel lawsuits). So it was a natural home for Judge Dredd, and indeed, writer John Wagner did his best to make the strip reflect the irreverent, acidic tenor of the 2000 AD magazine, with no watering down of content. The strip was very successful, and ran until 1998.

There are five 'Judge Dredd Collection' trade paperbacks from IPC, which compile the comic strips originally appearing in the Star.

In 2014, Rebellion reissued the strips, packaged in two chunky, 350-page hardcovers, as Judge Dredd: The Daily Dredds, Volumes One and Two. 

I've posted scans of some selected strips from 'The Judge Dredd Collection'. 

One thing that is readily apparent to any U.S. reader is that the liberal editorial standards of the Star allow for the type of content that never would have been approved by the syndicates that provide comic strips to American newspapers. 

The facetiousness, and violent actions, of the Dredd dailies in the Star are much too coarse and transgressive for the delicate sensibilities of American readers.

It's also clear that Wagner understood the limitations of writing weekly strips, with a limit of 10 panels. His stories are cogent and effective and filled with a uniquely British sense of humor. 

And Ron Smith was a gifted artist who understood the need to keep his drawings legible, while at the same time, rendering faces and expressions with a brilliance akin to that of the golden age of newspaper strip artists such as Alex Raymond (Rip Kirby), Leonard Starr (Mary Perkins, On Stage), Dale Messick (Brenda Starr) and Milton Caniff (Terry and the Pirates).

If you can find affordable copies of the Judge Dredd Collection, get 'em. They are a lot of fun !