Judge Dredd: The Restricted Files 04

Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files + The Restricted Files+ The Daily Dredds

by John Wagner, Alan Grant, Mark Millar

Mega-City one: an especially violent city of the future that requires a special kind of police force - the Judges - to maintain law and order. toughest of them all is Judge Dredd. He is the law! Featuring rare thrills from 2000 AD annuals and specials released through the mid-'nineties into the new millennium. Experience some of the most outrageous Dredd stories ever published, including the rib-tickling 'Mr Bennet joins the Judges,' by Mark Milar (Kick-Ass), and the very english 'Dredd of Drokk Green.'

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels

272 pages, Paperback

First published August 16, 2012

About the author

John Wagner is a comics writer who was born in Pennsylvania in 1949 and moved to Scotland as a boy. Alongside Pat Mills, Wagner was responsible for revitalising British boys' comics in the 1970s, and has continued to be a leading light in British comics ever since. He is best known for his work on 2000 AD, for which he created Judge Dredd. He is noted for his taut, violent thrillers and his black humour. Among his pseudonyms are The best known are John Howard, T.B. Grover, Mike Stott, Keef Ripley, Rick Clark and Brian Skuter. (Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Jeffrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok this was a strange one as far as Judge Dredd is concerned (Even for Judge Dredd standards)

However this part of the Restricted Files is made up of short stories, specials, and annuals so it can't really be judged (pardon the pun) on the same degree as the normal Case Files.

Now reading through this I came out visual awed by how ugly some of the art was by some of the constantly shifting artists (Brain Bolland they are not). Though certainly colorful some of the art styles are psychedelic to just plain childlike without much of a story reason for them half the time.

On the up side most of the stories were quite fun with 2 stories written by Alan Grant and John Wagner making them stand out among the crowd.

There are also a lot of fun choose your own adventure type stories and what if? kind of stories that change things up a little.

Some stories however are just plain boring and without a proper Dredd story arc (this being one shorts) there's no real sense of connectivity besides watching Dredd being Dredd which is good enough for the most part but nothing special.

So overall I would say only pick this up if you're a fanatical Dredd head like myself but if you're new to Judge Dredd you're better off starting somewhere else.

[Nick Boldrini · Rating 2 out of 5]

A few too many "alternative" stories to really interest me

[Rachel Redhead · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hope they do another book like this soon :)

[Keith · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Restricted Files collections have been a bit of a mixed bag by their very nature, some great moments, some okay, some...not good at all moments. There's still some good stuff here but it seems a bit front-loaded, after the mid-point of the book the quality seemed to drop off and it was a bit of a slog to get through. There's a great chunk at the back of bonus material which makes it a bit of a must-have for the hardcore, for everyone else this really isn't Dredd at his best.