I bought JUDGE DREDD: THE COMPLETE CASE FILES v1 way back in 2012 and while I did crack it open to enjoy the art from time to time, I never read it.

Last weekend, I randomly decided to dig in and am loving it, with only 5% of the book left to go. One thing that stands out is while it’s professionally made and well done, it still manages to have a great “outlaw comics” / black & white indie boom vibe to it.

The robots, the motorcycle design, the dystopian future, it all reads like something a super cool teenage punk rocker would come up with — it's got cool factor through the roof. The writing is all very good and consistent. I was surprised to see that the book had so many different writers aside from John Wagner -- other than a handful of moments, I thought it was all very consistent, with each writer doing a great job of adhering to the vision of the series.

I also thought most of the artists did a nice job of maintaining the original aesthetic Carlos Ezquerra laid out -- the only guy that felt substantially different was Brian Bolland, who is so exceptional that it becomes a treat more than a disturbance (and his style, while very different, also suits the book's tone and content).

I also love the five page progs (chapters), it really lends itself to a dynamic and detail oriented form of storytelling. No fat, no “decompression”, they get to the point and keep you entertained on every page.

Needless to say — recommended! My favorite ALOL moment of the book --

I love Judge Dredd! I had a lot of those comics when they were first reprinted in the '80s.

Killer cover by Bolland --

It's generally Bolland's artwork that gets me to stop and look at Judge Dredd material.

I mean, I have enjoyed some Dredd stories over the years, without or without Bolland, but there's just so
much of it out there that I've never seriously considered trying to collect it.

According to Amazon, there's 37 volumes so far of JUDGE DREDD: THE COMPLETE CASE FILES, so even if Bolland drew all of them, it's a pretty daunting hill to climb!

The other artists are all very good, especially in the storytelling department, but Bolland really just leaps out -- not just because of his quality, but also because the others have a much looser and exaggerated style. Carlos Ezquerra, Mike McMahon and Ian Gibson were all great, pumping our killer stuff:








But next to those guys, the lighter line weighs and extremely meticulous rendering lines of Bolland really seem like a sharp contrast: