Plans for Classic Material Expand to Monthly Series

Press release

Following their Comic-Con announcement of the new ongoing JUDGE DREDD comic’s creative team, IDW Publishing is proud to announce expanded and refined plans to offer new editions of beloved Judge Dredd material as well.

Once again showing a willingness to tailor books to fan requests, IDW’s first hardcover collection of classic Judge Dredd comics, JUDGE DREDD: THE COMPLETE BRIAN BOLLAND, will first appear as a fully black-and-white edition, presenting crisp, clean, and stunning pages of Brian Bolland artwork as they first appeared. Bolland’s amazingly detailed linework will be on full display in this oversize hardcover edition.

“Fans have been very vocal to us about wanting to first see Bolland’s amazing pages in pristine black-and-white,” said IDW’s Chief Creative Officer/Editor-in-Chief and JUDGE DREDD editor Chris Ryall. “The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Ultimate Collections presented the original Eastman/Laird stories in gorgeous black and white, and that’s what fans have told us they’d like to see here at the start, too. We’re happy to give them what they want, especially since Brian Bolland’s art is so stunning even without color.”

Owing to the TMNT model again, IDW is also preparing to give the fans of colored art a chance to experience this artwork in full color as well. “In the spring, we’ll do as we did with Classic Doctor Who and TMNT Classics, and release the best Dredd stories as monthly color comics,” continued Ryall. “So anyone who loved what we did with that material—applying the most modern coloring techniques to these beloved pages—will also be able to re-experience these Dredd tales in vibrant color.”

Charlie Kirchoff, who has done such a masterful job re-coloring Doctor Who stories by Dave Gibbons, John Ridgway, will tackle Bolland’s Judge Dredd material for the monthly comics. This ongoing 32-page comic series will also see all-new colors applied to classic work by Carlos Ezquerra, and many other fan-favorite artists.

“I first experienced Judge Dredd in the form of the Eagle Comics reprints from the early ‘80s, so it’ll be fun to pay that forward and let a new generation of readers also experience that material in monthly color comics, albeit with the benefit of 21st century coloring and printing techniques,” Ryall said.

IDW has other archival Judge Dredd projects planned to complement the full slate of 2000 AD/Rebellion books, in the form of hardcovers that collect the work of other beloved Judge Dredd artists, TREASURY EDITION-sized comics, and some other special things other than the new ongoing series, which launches in November alongside the Brian Bolland collection. Whatever your preference for Judge Dredd material, there’s no doubt justice will be coming your way in late 2012 and beyond!

JUDGE DREDD: THE COMPLETE BRIAN BOLLAND ($49.99, 248 pages, B/W, HC) will be available in November 2012. Diamond order code: APR12 8054. ISBN 978-1-61377-488-5.

– The Comic Book Critic