Dredd - and my lack of nerd cred.

I have just watched the documentary "Future Shock:The Story of 2000AD" which is frankly wonderful. I was spurred into reading this by my purchase of "Be Pure, Be Vigilant, Behave", which I am now even more excited to receive and read, as I had absolutely no idea of much of the behind the scenes stuff that went on at the only comic I have ever bought with any kind of regularity. (Even if I haven't brought a new prog in many years.


Not knowing about this stuff maybe says a lot about me and my own fandoms - I like lots of things, and have a decent grip on the minutae of much of the stuff that I do love but there are huge gaps in my nerd credentials.


Examples of these omissions -


I have only ever read one HP Lovecraft story, and no Conan ones at all.
Star Trek episodes, except those on at tea time in my youth, are a closed book to me.
I have only ever watched Dr Who with Tom Baker or Peter Capaldi.
Walking Dead, Farscape, Buffy - again, a mystery to me.
Almost all "Appendix N" literature - nope, not been there.


The list goes on and on, these are just some of the highlights. Does this make me a bad person? Will my opinions be ridiculed and dismissed because I am not a proper geek? Who knows, I guess it doesn't really matter and in certain cases I am trying to fill in specific blanks. (I watched, and loved, Firefly and BSG is wonderful though I am only trawling through it slowly).


But back to 2000AD. I have always loved it and have been up and down in my immersion levels over the years. I was always a Dredd fan rather than the other strips because I liked the whole Mega-City/ post apocalypse dystopian future thing. (Even when I didn't know what dystopian future was).
I had loads of the old Titan Trade paperbacks in my teens (because they were often advertised in White Dwarf) and am currently having a shot at buying up the Judge Dredd:complete Case Files Series as they are a decent way back in.


Few other bits and bobs.
The blockbuster movies - nice and easy this - pretend the Stallone one hadn't been made and just wish they had have used slightly different language in the Karl Urban one. (Fuck instead of Drok just grated on me a bit).
Favouite story arches - Cursed Earth/Apocalypse War always fun, Democracy was interesting and the Judge Anderson/Orlok the Assasin/Hour of the Wolf was a goodie too. My most loved though are the Chopper tales - from scrawling right though many Super-Surfs - wonderful stuff.


So that's kind of it for a hasty blogpost - let me know if there are any story arcs to hit up so I can get the right books and your own background in the Universes favourite comic.


Until the next time (still, possibly, a review of a charity shop find that hasn't happened yet!)


Carl