2000AD books have always ticked out nicely but the DVD release of the movie Dredd has seen a spike in interest so I thought I'd point out a couple of releases in this week. Judge Dredd - Day of Chaos: The Fourth Fraction features an epic storyline that marked the return of original writer (we hope this catches on) SirJohn Wagner. Every Dredd book is going to throw the reader into the universe without any 'how the world got like this' preamble because it's taken from an ongoing weekly strip but Day of Chaos is great at giving us a Dredd story that shows him and his world in a way most people expect, even if you've only seen the film.
It should, however, reward both new and old readers as, although it's not vital to the understanding of the story (and there is a brief introduction containing the need-to-know), it leads on from events that took place waaay back in The Apocalypse War. Epic stuff.
If Day of Chaos focuses on the grittier side of Mega City 1, for the more surreal side - showing just how elastic the universe is and therefore giving us a glimpse of the enduring appeal - there's Judge Anderson: The PSI Files vol. 3. Written by Sir Alan Grant (come on Queen; surely for services to British comics!) and Marvel stalwarts Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning with stories from across the 1980's and 90's, Anderson's troubled persona has been a great counterpoint to Dredd - hence her appearance in the movie, I guess.
And finally, with all this Dredd-talk it's worth drawing attention to the fact that the 2000AD is primarily a great source for action sci-fi. The Ten-Seconders: The American Dream is set in a future where superheroes - or gods as they're called here - have raged war on the world and focuses on the few survivors, the Ten-Seconders; a name referring to their life-expectancy when they go up against a god.