Review by Frank Plowright

This first of two Steve Dillon collections in Titan’s original black and white Judge Dredd reprint series opens with a story polarising Dredd fans. For every fan that loves ‘Cry of the Werewolf’ for Dillon’s lively rendition of the werewolves gleefully going about their savage business, there’ll be someone else who feels Alan Grant and John Wagner padded it considerably.

It opens with Dredd commenting how a full moon always brings out the crazies, and the Judges being unprepared for the type of crazy about to be inflicted on Mega-City One. Thematically, a story of the Judges attempting to control what’s in effect an eccentric virus is a story that had been run before and would be run again, but a strength is Wagner and Grant providing Dillon with such great visual images. You’ve got to cheer at Dredd head-butting a werewolf, and time after time Dillon supplies a full on look down the throat of a slavering beast, teeth and snout in our faces. As noted, though, while the final chapter has the full dose of thrill power, getting there takes too long, and the ending is then on the abrupt side.

The length only leaves room for one further story, the two chapters of ‘The Wreckers’. Again, there’s some nice art from Dillon, especially the moody spread opening the second part, poorer for muddy black and white reproduction. However, it’s a bread and butter story about the Judges dealing with people deliberately causing fatal accidents in order to rob those then trapped.

Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 07 opens with the werewolf story and closes with the Wreckers, and the second Titan Dillon collection is volume 20.