As a long-time comic book collector, I have a few hard and fast rules about what to buy. One of the oldest is, “If you see a 2000 AD collection, buy it.” So when I saw Judge Dredd: the Restricted Files 02 on the shelf this week I bought it, despite the somewhat high price tag — £19.99, or about $32 American. It was absolutely worth it — 320 pages of Judge Dredd stories from the various annuals and one-shots from 1985 to 1990, all written by John Wagner and Alan Grant, with art by Carlos Ezquerra, Cam Kennedy, Steve Dillon, Kev Hopgood and many others. Not that I was surprised by the quality, mind you. Britain’s long-running comic company produces some of the finest books you’ll read — the problem has always been finding them in America.

Back in the 80s, Quality comics published monthly versions of 2000 AD’s most popular books, and even the terrible print jobs couldn’t detract from the glory of having regular access to Rogue Trooper, A.B.C. Warriors, Bad Company and ol’ stone face Joe Dredd himself. Then it was Fleetway publishing the books, and then they disappeared until the mid-90s when DC worked out some sort of rights deal in America. DC had the nicest versions yet, but try to find one now.

And then out of the blue on Wednesday, there’s a new collection with the best printing I’ve ever seen for a 2000 AD product, with nice heavy paper and good color separation (although some of the stories are in black and white — sometimes changing right in the middle of a story from one to the other; that may be a printing mistake) and gutbustingly sardonic stories about Mega-City One’s greatest lawman. In addition to many fine examples of the classic Dredd storyline — a weird crime is committed, Dredd solves it through a piquant blend of smarts and judicious use of his Lawgiver –you get oddball stories like a full-on Judge Dredd musical, a group of Judges dressed as Father Christmas facing off against a gang of burglars dressed as Father Christmas while a sniper dressed as, you guessed it, Father Christmas, picks ‘em all off, a thoroughly entertaining Dracula story in Mega-City One’s vacation coast complete with an appearance by Judge Helsing, and a tale I’ve long wanted to read and own and pet on the head and call George: Dredd raiding a party of headbangers while the lyrics to Anthrax’s Judge Dredd-inspired song “I Am the Law” provide on-the-nose narration, and now I have it. I couldn’t be happier.

Or at least I thought I couldn’t, until I checked out www.2000ADonline.com and discovered that The Galaxy’s Greatest Comic has an American publishing deal in place to get their graphic novel reprints in my sweaty hands, and at a much lower price than the import versions. Specific release dates are vague, but some digging around in 2000 AD’s forums reveal that due this month are Mega-City Masters 1, a 240-page Dredd collection, and Alan Moore’s sci-fi bildungsroman The Ballad of Halo Jones. (The fact that a volume containing the entirety of Moore’s beyond cult-classic comedy D.R. and Quinch is already out and I don’t have it would cause me a great deal of psychic pain, except that it’s almost within my grasp. And also, Pat Mills and Kevin O’Neill’s dark sci-fantasy epic Nemesis the Warlock is next on the schedule — I’m giddy with anticipation). All of these collections range in price from $16.99 to $19.99, and that’s a bargain considering I’ve waited more than 20 years to see how some of these stories end.

-Paul

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