Andy Naylor reviews Judge Dredd: The Cam Kennedy Collection Vol. 1…
Return to the legendary tales from Mega-City One in this first collection of tales illustrated by Cam Kennedy! Reprinted in classis black-and-white, this collection features stories such as ‘The Suspect,’ ‘The Falucci Tape,’ ‘Something Abnormal About Norman,’ and more.
Judge Dredd: The Cam Kennedy Collection features classic reprinted Dredd stories with artwork by the famous Cam Kennedy starting from 1983. This is not a new edition, like some recent reviews I’ve done for Flickering Myth, but more a ‘best of’ by arguable the greatest Dredd artist to date.
The forward is written by none other than Judge Dredd creator John Wagner, and offers some understanding into why Wagner selected Cam Kennedy to draw some Dredd comics in the first place. It’s a funny, insightful and worth a few minutes of your time before you dive head first into some of the best Dredd stories you will ever read.
There are far too many story arcs to even possibly begin to review, so instead I shall concentrate on what this anthology is most about – Dredd art. Personally, I love Cam Kennedy’s style for Judge Dredd. He draws the lawman himself as a big, physically imposing Goliath of man, never forgetting for a second the patented Dredd grimace in every drawing. I don’t recall a scene where another character rises above Dredd’s shoulder. It gives him such a commanding presence and adds to the aura of the man.
The world of Mega-City One always looks impressively futuristic, yet harsh and bleak under the careful detail of each panel. At times the use of a sympathetic background to compliment the story enhances it beautifully but subtly, the standout example being the story ‘Dr. Bob’s Animal Bestiary’. The miserable atmosphere drawn adds to the hopeless misery of the situation that some of the characters are in.
All in all this is a wonderful edition to any Judge Dredd fan’s collection. The only downside is that many, if not all of the stories, appear within other collections – namely the Judge Dredd Case Files, which are, in my humble opinion, the must buys for any Dredd fan. Nevertheless, this is an outstanding book for Judge Dredd and Kennedy fans alike.
Andy Naylor – Follow me on Twitter.
Originally published July 17, 2013. Updated April 10, 2018.
