The Judge Dredd Mega-Collection

The Judge Dredd Mega-Collection is a odd collection of optional reading. It probably is where Grant and Wagner through story ideas that couldn’t sustain a whole prog. Each story is only a page long, usually being about 10-12 panels. These short stories were not published in 2000AD, instead they were published in the Daily Star a British newspaper. This volume featured all the stories published from the start in 1981 and runs through 1985. While this volume was published in 1990, as far as I can tell it is still to this day the only comprehensive reprint of the daily star strips.

They all follow a similar format, having a short establishing plot, some action and a one-liner/punchline at the end. The short format of these stories leaves little to no time to breath. As each adventure gets straight to the point. Interestingly there are a few multipart stories in here running up to four installments in length (Which while rare is interesting because it brings the story up to the length of an average prog.

Part of the fun here is the world building, many of these issues show us a quick blurb into a minor element of the mega-city, sometimes the concepts in these progs get revisited in a longer story down the road and sometimes these strips are simply revisiting concepts in the main strips. Most of the stories hold up fairly well which is a nice surprise. Most of these stories highlight the quirks of mega-city one citizens which is always a joy when they get the the spotlight instead of our hero Dredd. 

At the end of the day it is important to acknowledge that only so much can be done in these strips, they are fun adventures for what they are and good reading for longtime Dredd fans who would enjoy this content, but it is non-essential reading for a casual fan.