Wednesday 29 August 2012

Cry of the Werewolf Special!


September 18th sees the release of a brand new Judge Dredd collection - Cry of the Werewolf. The book features some classic Dredd tales of yesteryear, each with a spooky, supernatural air! Let's celebrate the release of the book with some appropriately spooky covers. Please note, some of these covers are Hi-Res so it's often better to right click and open the images in a new tab to see them in all their glory...

The first story, and undoubtedly the star of the show, is the Cry of the Werewolf. Written by Wagner and Grant and beautifully illustrated by Steve Dillon, this tale was first published back in 1983 and remains a fan favourite to this very day. This classic sees Megacity-One terrorised by a ferocious pack of werewolves. Naturally Dredd is put in charge of the case and, before long, the course of his investigation leads him to the Hellish Undercity in one of his most memorable cases ever. The story is choc full of classic Dredd moments with, what some would argue, is Steve Dillon's best ever Dredd artwork. 

The covers which accompanied this bona fide classic are shown below...

An American Werewolf in erm... America.
In the Lair of the White Wolf
R.I.P. Judge Dredd...
 
While I'm on with Steve Dillon, I couldn't resit posting a Hi-Res version of one (two?) of my favourite Dredd images ever. Absolute class! 
 
The Law loves YOU!
 
One character in Cry of the Werewolf made a real impact on the readers, despite appearing in only three and a half pages! That character was the grim Judge Prager, a judge who'd taken the Long Walk down into the deep, dank Undercity as opposed to the Cursed Earth. Nineteen years after the Cry of the Werewolf was published, Out of the Undercity sees Dredd reunited with Prager as they tackle a dangerous mutant uprising beneath the Megacity. 

This time the excellent Carl Critchlow is on art duties, here's one of my favourite covers from him:

Old Stony Face himself by the brilliant Carl Critchlow.
 
 This tale featured two covers, the first by the wonderful Cliff Robinson and Chris Blythe...
 
The Law and the Claw!

And the other by Trevor Hairsine...

A ripping yarn!

Which gives me an excuse to print this wonderful image from "The Three Amigos!"
 
"They're behind you!"
 
Out of the Undercity introduced a new villain into the Dredd-verse, the scarred mutant known as Mr Bones. The mutie and his gang resurfaced in the Dredd vs Aliens crossover, which gave us this beautiful cover by the Insanely talented Fraser Irving...

Acid house
 
Fraser is also featured in the book with his Megazine strip Asylum. This excellent artist is a master of the horror-themed cover, giving us such classics as this wonderful pastiche of Brian Bolland's seminal Killing Joke cover...

Ssssssssmile!

And this genuinely unsettling Judge Death promo image...

The sssentence is...
 
And because I indulged myself with one of my favourite Dillon images above, I'm going to post my absolute favourite Irving 2000AD cover below. This in undoubtedly a design classic...
 

The Hitman and Her
 
Asylum sees Dredd teamed up with Psi-Judge Karen as they track a Vamp-like killer who is feeding on impoverished immigrants in the Megacity. This tale featured a fine cover by the amazing Dylan Teague...
 

"Not tonight dear, I have a headache..."
 
And what horror collection would be complete without 2000AD's resident king of gore, the beautiful Leigh Gallagher? The collection features Dog Soldiers, which sees Dredd hunted by a terrifying pack of doglike mutants while investigating a bloody massacre on board a Cursed Earth express train.
 
"Down boy!"
 
As artist and creator of Defore and Aquila, Leigh has astounded us with some amazing horror covers in the past, including his nasty Zombie Babies cover of Prog 1643...

Perhaps Defoe should try singing a lullaby...
 

And the brilliant zombie croc cover of Prog 1701...

Give me a zombie and make it snappy!
 
This book is very, very highly recommended, order it today Earthlets!

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