DREDDCON: 1

Remember the good times when this event came onto the convention calendar, I have a tear in my eye just thinking about these. Anyway here's a sadly missed blast from the past!

Saturday

November 11th 2000

Posthouse Bloomsbury

Coram St

London

Admission £5 (£4 in advance)

This was the begining of the Dreddcon's and what a beginining it was! This was advertised in both 2000AD & the Meg, plus SFX & Comics International. The events ran from 12:00 until midnight (if you stayed for the party). I just stayed for the daytime events, mainly because I didn't want to carry a load of merchandise around with me all evening!

Events List :-

12:00 - Art Droids Panel

13:15 - Art Auction

13:30 - Tharg + New Droids

14:30 - Script Droids Panel

15:15 - Art Auction

15:30 - Dredd Panel

16:30 - Alan Grant

17:30 - Tharg's Pitch Fest

18:30 - Now That's What I Call Zarjaz!

20:00 - The Tharg Awards

22:00 - Party

Plus

13:00-15:00 - Colouring Masterclass

15:00-17:00 - Painted Art Masterclass

14:00- 17:00 - Portfolio Sessions


The above scan of the events may be hard to read but there was a list of guests and so here is that very list, remember not all turned up due to unforseen commitments (also the new droids are above in the 13:30 event and they include Laurence Campbell, John Charles, Patrick Godard, Steve Roberts, Wayne Reynolds & Ben Willsher among others tbc).
Main List :-

Carlos Ezquerra. John Wagner, Alan Grant, Alan Davis, Dave Gibbons, Bryan Talbot, Dan Abnett, Barry Kitson, Kev Hopgood, Steve Yeowell, Robbie Morrison, John Burns, Brett Ewins, Mark Harrison, Henry Flint, SB Davis, Arthur Ranson, Duncan Fegredo, John Higgins, Mike Carey, Mark Buckingham, D'Israeli, Colin MacNeil, Fraser Irving, Christopher Weston, Mike Collins, Peter Doherty, John Smith, Peter Hogan, Richard Elson, Jim McCarthy, Anthony Williams, Greg Staples, Cliff Robinson, Jock, The Mighty Tharg & many more....

I can't remember who was there and who wasn't to tell the truth, as it was all a blur to me.

There was also an awards ceremony (as seen above) and here is the voting form. Don't bother filling it in, as you are a few years late!

Well that's all for the first Dreddcon, I didn't take any photo's and there are none on BARNEY either but if you click on the title of this article you will see some shocking pictures of Judge (Wake) Dredd with way too many links in his chain, Judge Hershey, Judge Anderson and the bearded movie Dredd.
I can't really say much about the whole day as I don't remember much about it, mainly due to the high I was on!

By the way, here is my ticket for the event :-

Obviously I didn't write on it, what do you take me for!

By the way, if any of you were there, what happened and did you take any photos?

Mega City 1 - Book of Law

I came across this one day on the 2000AD forum and just had to get one! I enquired about the book and then followed the info that was given to me and went across to an old site that I used to frequent and found what I needed here on the MegaCity Justice forum.

I contacted Kevin Ericon and placed my order in for two, well I might use one and the pair only cost £50 from the US.

Not long after they arrived and I was very impressed with the quality, they look spot on compared to the one Stallone holds in the movie.

They measure 6.25" x 4.5" and contain 384 pages of lined paper, with random municipal codes printed across the bottom of each page.
There are 10 municipal codes in total and they are repeated. This kept the costs down on the production and it looks like some are actually taken from the film.

Code 213: Willful destruction of property. 2 years.
Code 310: Illegal possession of assault weapon. 5 years.
Code 457: Resisting arrest. 20 years.
Code 3613: First degree murder of a Street Judge. Death.
Code 7592: Willful sabotage of a public droid. 6 months.
Code 4722: Illegal use of city electricity. 2 years.
Code 5478: Jay-walking. 100 days to 2 years.
Code 6024: Illegal possession of sugar. 1000 credits to 2 years.
Code 2819: Driving under the influence of caffeine. 6 months to 2 years.
Code 2047: Illegal parking. 3 to 10 months.

This is what the actual pages look like -

I'm sure you'll agree that it's not a bad fan made copy of an item from the film and who knows there me be some left, if you want one. Saying that I did see one on ebay the other day.

Titan Books - The Pocketbook Series

This series of 5 books from Titan came out in 1988 and they cost  £2.95. I think these are absolutely excellent, in fact I would put them up with the Case Files that are being published now, mainly as these are just miniature ones.
Obviously you can already see that book 1 is Judge Dredd Vs The Dark Judges. The other 4 are as follows :-

Book 2 Vs Otto Sump
Book 3 Vs The Fatties
Book 4 In Monkey Busines
Book 5 Vs The Midnight Surfer

Book 1 contains the stories Judge Death from progs 149-151 & The Dark Judges from progs 224-22 8. Stories by JohnWagner with art by Brian Bolland

Rear cover

Here is a picture just to show how it looks inside, as you can see nothing is different but the size. I didn't flatten the pages, as I like all the spines uncreased! I've also realised after re-reading these, that some pages are in the wrong order from the 'Dark Judges' story. It happens straight after Dredd and Anderson penetrate the shield surrounding Billy Carter Block!

Now for the rest of the series -

Book 2 contains the stories Sob Story from progs 131-132, The Ugly Clinic from progs 186-188, Who Killed Pug Ugly? from prog 203, Gunge from prog 280 and Smart Sweets from prog 436. Stories by John Wagner & Alan Grant with art by Ron Smith.

Book 3 contains the stories The League of Fatties from progs 273-274, Requiem for a Heavyweight from progs 331-334 and Magnificent Obsession from progs 440-441. Stories by John Wagner & Alan Grant with art by Carlos Ezquerra, Cam Kennedy & Ron Smith.

Book 4 contains the stories Monkey Business from progs 184-185, Portrait of a Politician from progs 366-368, Dredd Vs Krong from prog 5, The Ape Gang from prog 39 & The Trouble with Sonny Bono from Prog 208. Stories by John Wagner & Alan Grant with art by Carlos Ezquerra, Mike McMahon, Ron Smith & Ian Gibson.

Book 5 contains the stories Unamerican Graffitti from progs 206-207 & The Midnight Surfer from progs 424-429. Stories by John Wagner & Alan Grant with art by Ron Smith, Cam Kennedy & Brett Ewins.

You may have noticed that the first 4 have John Wagner's signature on them, that was from a DreddCon and I didn't have number 5 at that particular period in time. I will rectify this next time I see him, if I remember that is!

2000AD Hoodie

This was another purchase at Dreddcon 3 which was held in London at The Brewery in 2002. It's an extra large hoodie with the saying "2000AD The Ultimate Trip" on the front and a picture of Tharg on the back from the sixties, smoking a large joint! You can't quite see from this picture but it has a pocket at the front. Also the actual words on the front have a plastic/felt feel to them but the rear picture is a normal iron on transfer.

I think this was around the £15 price range but I can't quite remember, as I bought quite a lot of merchandise at this event. In fact I had two sacks worth and when I was walking back to the train station I was propositioned by a lady of the night. My reply was I'm married and anyway, do you think I would leave these lying around, or something along those polite lines!

2000AD Space Quiz Book

This was bought at a small comic convention in London, many moons ago. All I remember about it is that I didn't pay the full price of 65p. It was published in 1980 by Mirror Books and was compiled by Roy Preston. The book is 130 pages long and has numerous headings for the questions, as they are set in groups and they are :-

Commencing Countdown - Earth, Moon and Sun - The Solar System - Stars - Space Race - Astronomers and Astronomy - Spot the Difference - Seen on the Small Screen - Seen on the Large Screen - Books and Authors - Comic Book Characters - Music - Out of this World - What, Who, When, Where and Why?

The questions are reasonably easy for an adult but I reckon most children would find quite a few extremely hard to answer!

Just in case you can't read those words, here is a close up!

I was going to write down a few questions but thought better of it, mainly as I would pick the hardest ones but then again everyone would cheat!