Villordsutch Reviews Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files #01 (10th Anniversary Edition)…



The first thing you’ll notice about this Complete Case Files #01 is that it’s fairly massive, this book is so big my Nexus 7 creaked when I uploaded it. Now quite a few of you may also have this book, as this is the 10th Anniversary Edition of The Complete Case Files #01, which is rather lucky for me as I had initially missed it. So being given the chance to read the starting stories of the genesis of Judge Dredd – from the founding Fathers – and not only that but to see the classic Dredd artwork is going to be an added bonus.

As you may expect with the Dredd stories of old they aren’t the Dredd we know today. Yes John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra are still creating unbelievable tales for Dredd now and they can really kick you in the gut and haunt you for years, but looking back to some initial tales you realise that time has rapidly moved on from the days of a 10p mix-up and copy of 2000AD. My middle daughter who is a fan of the B&W 2000AD artists was taken by the artwork of this book and asked to have a look, and after a few minutes her words she came back with included “embarrasing”. I was taken aback a bit with that, and explained that 2000AD has moved on and these tales in Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files #01 #01 like, “The Robot Wars” at the time didn’t exist in children’s comics and they were ground-breaking and ruffled many a feather of the conservative right. Still this does highlight that this £35 heavy book is nothing more than a nostalgic trip down memory lane for us fading few. Perhaps there are also a limited number of “cool” kids out there that “dig” on retro-stories of old and will get what we got, but for £35 are they going to be able to get it?

This may all sound rather negative and unfortunately, other than a few tales throughout this heavy book I did find myself resisting the strong urge to skip pages. I know everything is placed in here warts’n’all, but I wouldn’t be happy to know that I’ve paid a lot of cash for stuffing. The only true pleasure that stays constant throughout this book is the artwork for the classic masters of 2000AD. Their skills shine on every page, I adore this style of art and to be given the chance to admire it panel by panel is a real gift.

Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files #01(10th Anniversary Edition) is a hefty price to pay for a piece of nostalgia, however if you have the money and you want to see Judge Dredd in his early days when he was more of a hero and less of Judge, Jury and Executioner, then this is the heavy book for you.

Rating: 6/10

Villordsutch likes his sci-fi and looks like a tubby Viking according to his children. Visit his website and follow him on Twitter.