Broken Frontier

John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra's law bringer first appeared in 1977 in the first issue of 2000 AD. Since then, he has appeared in almost every single issue of the eminent magazine and managed to almost always stay within its firmly set parameters: hi-tech police procedural in a future city, surrounded by a nuclear wasteland. Now that is one kick-ass high concept.

Rebellion started in 2006 with the Complete Judge Dredd Case Files. Collecting Dredd's adventures chronologically in big phone book-sized collections with a glossy paper stock, they are producing books heavier than your From Hell softcover. The reprints though are of a high quality, just as the design on the covers and the paper stock makes the black and white drawings come out crispy and sharp like a cursed earth mutants' teeth.

Judge Dredd the Complete Case Files 12 does not contain any of the big storylines essential to the Dredd mythos. 'The Cursed Earth' saga was in Case Files 2, 'The Judge Child' in 4, 'Judge Death' and his lieutenants in 5, 'City of the Damned' was in Case Files 8 and the previous volume contained the 'Chopper in Oz' storyline. What we got here though is still solid Dredd goodness. Especially notable is Dredd's trip to a Japanese Mega City counterpartin 'Our Man in Hondo'. Dredd is equal story and visuals so the panel where we see him riding the Japanese version of his trusty Lawmaster steed is pure fanboy pleasure. And seeing the western style face off against his Hondo City equivalent, his equal in grime and grit is a nice exercise in knowing thyself on Dredd's part. One of the more human tales and a personal favourite is the Miss Marple-lite 'Alzheimer's Block' wherein a nursing resident tries to convince Dredd that they are all being slowly murdered. On a more humorous note there is also 'The Sage' where Dredd is face to face with an enlightened Bodhisattva. The volume ends on a high note with 'Crazy Barry, Little Mo', detailing the psychological breakdown of a fellow Judge. But as with any volume in this series, there's a lot off good stuff in there and picking out the best just means that the other stories are still a firm good.

Character development is interspersed in between seemingly minor or major storylines or single tales. A throwaway line here, a seemingly insignificant character there, a nice little done-in-one; they can all pop up again at any moment when you least expect it and in hindsight turn out to contain important developments in Dredd's history. And that is part of the fun. Sometimes, you get a tale about one of the denizens of Mega-City One, sometimes it's about the Judges, other times we follow Dredd patrolling or we see Dredd becoming involved in a more political role. John Wagner as often as not ends things on a bang but always leaves enough wiggle room to come back to a tale later on if he so pleases or if he finds there's still any mileage to wring out of it.

Since part of the concept is that Dredd ages right along with the reader, we're facing a Dredd that often has to remind himself that he is not as young as he used to be. Since his first appearance in 1977, he has effectively aged 30 years. Though his hard right-wing stance has not let up, he is faced with a slightly jaded look on any kind of physical action that takes place in the volume. It makes the character definitely more human even though his jawline is still firmly pointed in the air. It sets the stage for later volumes in which Dredd will have his beliefs in the judicial system seriously shaken but I'm getting ahead of myself, close again, veil of the future!

Art-wise, all the Case Files books are a steal and this one no less. Case Files 12 contains work from John Rigdway, Chris Weston, Glenn Fabry, Brett Ewins, Jamie Hewlett and a host of others. I must say that the more stylized art of Ian Gibson, though impeccably drawn, seems to detract a bit from the Dredd stories themselves. The highly figurative art of someone like Weston or Fabry enhances the absurdness of the concept by taking a realistic approach to the art, rendering and shading the future world of Dredd to the smallest detail. Thereby the tongue-in-cheek storytelling and the firmly clenched fist of justice stands out even more amidst these detailed stylings and it enlarges effectively the high concept. One of the reasons why Brian Bolland is one of the most popular Dredd artists on the planet.

If you like your Dredd in colour, this is the volume for you. After a nice fantastic voyage through the land of Oz with Dredd as Dorothy (bear with me), the black and white disappears for the rest of T he Complete Case Files 12. 2000 AD has gotten in a definitive groove  concerning Dredd producing constantly top notch archetypal Dredd stories thanks to the talents of co-creator John Wagner who handles all the stories in this volume and a consistent stream of the best of the best of the British comic book artist. Judge Dredd the Complete Case Files 12 is no exception to this rule.

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Judge Dredd the Complete Case Files 12, published by Rebellion 2000 AD, is a full color 288 pages TPB, retailing for £18.99. It is available in finer bookstores and comic shops everywhere.