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Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files + The Restricted Files+ The Daily Dredds
Judge Dredd - The Complete Case Files 20
Mega-City One: the future metropolis bustling with life and every crime imaginable. Keeping order are the Judges, a stern police force acting as judges, juries and executioners. Toughest of all is Judge Dredd. He is the law and these are his stories. Volume 20 in this best-selling series sees Judge Dredd travel to the North African city of Luxor, where he has to battle a flesh-hungry mummy! The past catches up with Dredd when an abomination from the ashes of East Meg 01 travels to the Big Meg with vengeance on its mind. Plus the return of the first-ever published Judge Dredd artist Mike McMahon!
Collects:
- Roadkill (Prog #856-#858)
- Book of the Dead (Prog #859-#866)
- I Hate Christmas (Prog #867)
- Frankenstein Div (Prog #868-#871)
- Crime Prevention (Prog #872)
- Sugar Beat (Prog #873-#878)
- Top Gun (Prog #879)
- Under Seige (Prog #880)
- Manchu Candidate (Prog #881-#883)
- Scales of Justice (Prog #884-#885)
- Enemy Below (Prog #886-#887)
- It's a Dreddful Life (Meg #2.44-#2.45)
- Bury My Knee at Wounded Heart (Meg #2.46)
- You are Mean Machine (Meg #2.47)
- Freefall (Meg #2.48)
- Do the Wrong Thing (Meg #2.49)
- Giant (Meg #2.50-#2.52)
- Howler (Meg #2.53-#2.56)
Collects:
- Roadkill (Prog #856-#858)
- Book of the Dead (Prog #859-#866)
- I Hate Christmas (Prog #867)
- Frankenstein Div (Prog #868-#871)
- Crime Prevention (Prog #872)
- Sugar Beat (Prog #873-#878)
- Top Gun (Prog #879)
- Under Seige (Prog #880)
- Manchu Candidate (Prog #881-#883)
- Scales of Justice (Prog #884-#885)
- Enemy Below (Prog #886-#887)
- It's a Dreddful Life (Meg #2.44-#2.45)
- Bury My Knee at Wounded Heart (Meg #2.46)
- You are Mean Machine (Meg #2.47)
- Freefall (Meg #2.48)
- Do the Wrong Thing (Meg #2.49)
- Giant (Meg #2.50-#2.52)
- Howler (Meg #2.53-#2.56)
320 pages, Paperback
First published October 9, 1993
6 people are currently reading
113 people want to read
About the author
John Smith
72Ìýbooks2ÌýfollowersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ database with this name.
John Smith (1967- ) is a British comics writer best known for his work on 2000 AD and Crisis. He has a host of creative credits to his name, including A Love Like Blood, Devlin Waugh, Firekind, Holocaust 12, Indigo Prime, Pussyfoot 5, Revere, Slaughterbowl, Tyranny Rex, Leatherjack, Dead Eyes and Cradlegrave. Smith has also written Future Shocks, Judge Dredd, Judge Karyn, Pulp Sci-Fi, Robo-Hunter, Rogue Trooper, Tales from Beyond Science, Vector 13 and Tales from the Black Museum. Smith's work beyond the Galaxy's Greatest Comic includes the long-running New Statesmen series in Crisis, DC/Vertigo's Hellblazer and Scarab, and Harris Comics' Vampirella.
John Smith (1967- ) is a British comics writer best known for his work on 2000 AD and Crisis. He has a host of creative credits to his name, including A Love Like Blood, Devlin Waugh, Firekind, Holocaust 12, Indigo Prime, Pussyfoot 5, Revere, Slaughterbowl, Tyranny Rex, Leatherjack, Dead Eyes and Cradlegrave. Smith has also written Future Shocks, Judge Dredd, Judge Karyn, Pulp Sci-Fi, Robo-Hunter, Rogue Trooper, Tales from Beyond Science, Vector 13 and Tales from the Black Museum. Smith's work beyond the Galaxy's Greatest Comic includes the long-running New Statesmen series in Crisis, DC/Vertigo's Hellblazer and Scarab, and Harris Comics' Vampirella.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
April 12, 2025
Not a great run. The Mark Millar stories could have been written by a 12 year old boy, they're all stereotypes and shootouts, and the art on the final Howler story doesn't exactly tell a story. But there are a couple of good tales from the Megazine like one about an old man wanting to bury his wife like in the old days and the junior Judge Giant having a challenging first day, so worth it in the long run.
February 21, 2024
Worst collection of the series so far. Lots of filler and another in the terrible stereotypes entries. Poor
March 16, 2024
Oh boy, this one’s tough going. So many offensive/ borderline offensive racist caricatures, some deeply ugly art and some of the worst writing in Dredd history. As a huge enthusiast for Grant Morrison, it gives me no pleasure to confirm that almost all of that terrible writing is by him.
I have less problems saying the worst of it is the product of his one time protégée/ collaborator, Mark Millar. Mainly this is because Millar is and always has been a terrible hack of a writer. It’s not that he doesn’t so much misunderstand Dredd as a character and more that he gives no indication he wants to understand him or his world. The worst of it is Frankenstein Division, which feels like the comic equivalent of a lazy school child trying to bluff their way through an essay on a book they’ve not bothered reading: it has no tension, it’s ugly in plotting and dialogue, has lots of destruction hiding as action and has a set up/ ending that’s one of the dumbest things I have ever read. Millar is absolutely one of the worst writers of anything ever.
Anyway.
John Smith’s story is pretty decent, the Tomlinson/ McKenzie Mexico story is unfortunately full of the most awful racism (and it’s not exactly Ron Smith’s finest moment either), although their Manchurian Candidate story is just about okay. It’s almost reassuring to see that Clint Langley has always been an ugly, muddy artist but The Enemy Below’s real problem is that the editor has clearly forgotten that between the stupid Inferno plotline and this, MacGruder is actually up and about and fine so her suddenly decrepitude makes no actual narrative sense. It’s lazy and stupid and feels symptomatic of the prog half of this collection.
The Megazine stuff is much better. It’s a Dreddfull Life is very silly, but helped enormously by Macneil’s art. There’s a breeziness and lightness to the silliness as opposed to the ugliness of the prog stuff. The Resyk story shows that Wagner truly understands that sometimes Dredd does do the humane thing, even if he also will then undercut it with following the law to the letter. Rennie’s story is a minor one, but already proves he understands Dredd better than the last few years of stand ins for Wagner and it’s no surprise he got the job eventually.
The last two stories are easily the best - another Dredd and cadet one, which uses the Kraken story for an added frisson but then beautifully dovetails into some Walter nonsense and has some beautiful art by Ian Gibson. And then Mick McMahon just makes it all look effortless. One of the most visually beautiful Dredd stories of all time.
I have less problems saying the worst of it is the product of his one time protégée/ collaborator, Mark Millar. Mainly this is because Millar is and always has been a terrible hack of a writer. It’s not that he doesn’t so much misunderstand Dredd as a character and more that he gives no indication he wants to understand him or his world. The worst of it is Frankenstein Division, which feels like the comic equivalent of a lazy school child trying to bluff their way through an essay on a book they’ve not bothered reading: it has no tension, it’s ugly in plotting and dialogue, has lots of destruction hiding as action and has a set up/ ending that’s one of the dumbest things I have ever read. Millar is absolutely one of the worst writers of anything ever.
Anyway.
John Smith’s story is pretty decent, the Tomlinson/ McKenzie Mexico story is unfortunately full of the most awful racism (and it’s not exactly Ron Smith’s finest moment either), although their Manchurian Candidate story is just about okay. It’s almost reassuring to see that Clint Langley has always been an ugly, muddy artist but The Enemy Below’s real problem is that the editor has clearly forgotten that between the stupid Inferno plotline and this, MacGruder is actually up and about and fine so her suddenly decrepitude makes no actual narrative sense. It’s lazy and stupid and feels symptomatic of the prog half of this collection.
The Megazine stuff is much better. It’s a Dreddfull Life is very silly, but helped enormously by Macneil’s art. There’s a breeziness and lightness to the silliness as opposed to the ugliness of the prog stuff. The Resyk story shows that Wagner truly understands that sometimes Dredd does do the humane thing, even if he also will then undercut it with following the law to the letter. Rennie’s story is a minor one, but already proves he understands Dredd better than the last few years of stand ins for Wagner and it’s no surprise he got the job eventually.
The last two stories are easily the best - another Dredd and cadet one, which uses the Kraken story for an added frisson but then beautifully dovetails into some Walter nonsense and has some beautiful art by Ian Gibson. And then Mick McMahon just makes it all look effortless. One of the most visually beautiful Dredd stories of all time.
May 27, 2019
The first half is written by Mark Millar, whose writing I just can't get behind. His Dredd stories to be are just kinda angry and miserable. John Wagner and Gordon Rennie close in the last half with some fun classic style Dredd.
July 6, 2022
So many stories and so many not-so-good and so many oh-so-good. Mostly good art but some really artsy crap also (yes, the McMahon Howler bit was badder than bad). Looking forward to times when Dredd will again be really good and solid all the way through.
March 23, 2019
Three and a half stars. Excellent artwork compensates for some weak story-telling and "Bury My Knee At Wounded Heart" was always a classic.
October 1, 2024
Full of the edge of the seat world building, rib breaking humlur, great art that really captures the characters and events, three-dimensional characters and epic goings on! :D
October 28, 2024
Quite spectacularly racist in places, and rather dull, despite some great art. The John Smith story at the start is solid, as are some of the Wagner ones later. Millar's stuff is embarrasing.
February 13, 2017
Contrary to many of the reviews on here that suggest this is a slump in the series, I actually found it to be a creative high-point. The artwork is consistently amazing and the stories are all classic Dredd (which includes the traditional going-to-another-city-and-being-extremely-racist-about-other-cultures tales - this time Egypt and Bolivia). The volume starts off with the rather traditional story Roadkill, followed by the fantastic Book of the Dead, in which old stony face battles a Mummy-type creature, ending in an inventive and gruesome climax. As a bonus we get to meet some Egyptian Judges, who look awesome! You'll be forgiven for wanting to skip over the goofy (and now annual) Christmas themed story and move straight on to the brilliant Frankenstein Division, where Dredd's part in the Apocalypse war catches up with him. Crime Prevention could easily have been forgotten as one of those typical daft stories they so often do, but is handled so well that it actually stands out as one of the book's strongest. The Sugar Beat is guilty of a lot, but is still heaps of fun. The Manchu Candidate adds to the Judges mythology while Scales of Justice does the same in a creepy, cool way. The Enemy Below is an artistic highlight with an amazingly absurd creature. It's a Dreddful Life is a parody of It's a Wonderful life and feels contrived and aimless - an utter waste of time. Bury My Knee at Wounded Heart is a touching highlight in which even Dredd shows us he's not COMPLETELY impervious to empathy. You Are The Mean Machine is pointless, but the well crafted Freefall more than makes up for it. Do The Wrong Thing is an interesting episode but is really only taking up space before the compelling Giant story, in which we see the 15 year old son of Giant as a cadet under Dredd's tutelage. Overall one of the best Dredd volumes in a while.
August 18, 2016
This is the 20th installment in a bestselling series that chronologically reprints Judge Dredd stories, and anything I say about it should be read with the foreknowledge that I will continue buying and reading these volumes until they run out of them or until I die, and I have every intention of outliving Judge Dredd, who, unlike Batman or his ilk, happens to age, albeit slowly. In other words: while I would prefer to read good Judge Dredd, I will settle for bad Judge Dredd. Almost everything in this volume is the latter, ranging from a terrible Dredd Versus The Mummy story by Grant Morrison to an as-bad riff on Frankenstein by Mark Millar. There’s one of those bizarrely offensive Dredd-goes-to-Mexico stories where people are named Gonzalez and they pronounce stinking as “steenkeeng�, and there’s one of those who-fucking-likes-these alt-cartoonist Dredd stories. It’s all bad, the kind of comics people should apologize for, and awesomely enough: they all totally have! Except for John Wagner, but he never has to, because his success rate is so unbelievably high that he would have to be caught boiling golden retrievers before anybody would even consider harshly tousling his hair. They outta knight that guy if they’re still doing that silly shit.
Read
July 28, 2013Dark times for Mega-City One. Not because of any particularly major disasters or wars along the usual lines, but because the creative talent at this point simply wasn't up to scratch. Millar and Morrison never got Dredd, Alan McKenzie just wasn't a very good writer, but there's still basic failures of editorial oversight making matters even worse. Millar pens two consecutive stories with Dredd versus undead superjudges (both of whom he obviously smacks down); Chief Judge McGruder plays a role in stories while she's meant to be in a coma; Dredd engages in acts of self-aggrandisement and pettiness which aren't quite him. Some of it (especially 'Book of the Dead') is beautiful from an art perspective, and the John Wagner stories from the Megazine, while still far from classic, have some nice little character pieces - but even these are undermined by bollocks like Walter the Wobot's reappearance as a genocidal messiah. Poor.
March 2, 2016
Very run of the mill, although as usual there are a few gems. Howler (drawn by Mick McMahon) is especially wonderful.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
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