Judge Dredd - Blaze of Glory


 

 

Fast, furious and hysterically funny stories from the pen of Al Ewing (Marvel's Immortal Hulk), chronicling the highs and lows of Judge Dredd, Lawman of the Future. This action packed collection has an exclusive Liam Sharp (Green Lantern) cover.

"I’d struggle to overstate how much I enjoy and admire Al Ewing’s work [...] A typical Ewing story is technically ambitious, ethically astute, and intellectually playful. In short; great fun." - Sequart 

Go on patrol and see Mega-City One - and beyond - through the eyes of Al Ewing (Immortal Hulk), one of the most original writers in comics, as Judge Dredd dispenses justice to mutants, laidback religious cults, the Sex Olympics and Santa Claus. But when polite ex-stripper Zombo appears in his dimension, has old Stoney Face finally met his match?

Collecting many of Ewing’s outrageous Dredd stories for the first time and featuring an all-star cast of artists, including Liam Sharp (Green Lantern, Wonder Woman), John Higgins (Dreadnoughts: Breaking Ground, Judge Dredd, Watchmen), Simon Fraser (Judge Dredd, Nikolai Dante) and Ben Willsher (Roy of the Rovers, Judge Dredd), this is an essential collection for fans of the Law


Before Al Ewing was a shining star in the Marvel Universe, with the likes of The Immortal Hulk, he was an up and coming at 2000AD comics. 

Blaze of Glory collects a number of his Judge Dredd strips which showcase his biting satire, dark humour and gratuitous violence which were the mainstays of his tenure of the stoical lawman. 

 The book collects twelve different stories, all standalone tales, each one with different themes and settings. Sometimes Dredd takes the starring role, at others he is on the side-lines and is a mere bystander to the events happening on the page, for instance in the tale The Sex Olympics, which is a show that can be best equated as Strictly Come Shagging! 

The stories themselves are full of humour, pathos and irony that very rarely ever end well for the perp as Dredd meters out justice, Mega City One style. However, there is always the fair side of Dredd at play here, and at times he can be thoughtful in his decisions. The artwork by the various artists at work on the stories also has that undertone of poking fun. One prime example where this is showcased is in the Sex Olympics, where the main protagonist has been given a life changing diagnosis of chronic impotence, sits on the sofa, with a very prominent bowl of sex toys replacing a bowl of fruit in the foreground. 

There is a hard satirical edge throughout the stories, particularly the lead story ‘Blaze of Glory’ which quips at the great British tradition of having the James Bond films on rotation every Christmas. Blaze of Glory does its level best to have a go at the whole franchise by sniping at the lead character and his different facets 

There is a crossover in the book with another of Al Ewing’s characters, Zombo, which he worked on with creator Henry Flint, which in all honesty is just as batshit crazy as the Zombo strip itself. 

The artwork itself complements the stories, form the comic strip style of some of the stories, to the sepia-stained tale A Home for Aldous Mayo and the photo realistic panels of Blaze of Glory. 

Also of note are the letterers in each of the story. I never once lost the text throughout the books. There were good clear font styles in each of the stories which added to the narrative. I know that these mainstays of the comic industry rarely get mentioned, but they are just as important as the art and the story. And similarly, a shoutout to the colourists who have all added their individual style and vibrancy to the tales that makes the 2000AD comics a joy to read.




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