At the recent WizardWorld Chicago comic event, news broke of a new Judge Dredd venture in the States. Dynamite Comics, probably best known in the UK as the publisher of Garth Ennis's The Boys, has secured the rights to publish all an new Judge Dredd comic aimed at the American market.

According to reports at Newsarama and Comic Book Resources, things will be a little different from the previous attempts to break the American market - which DC comics has now impressively failed to do with the character on two separate occasions. This time, the talents of Garth Ennis and John Wagner are reportedly being brought in to oversee the books - the former being given the bizarre job of "Americanising" Dredd, the latter as scripter. The initial comic will feature variant covers (by Alex Ross and Bolland) and potentially feature reprint material as backup. It's as yet uncertain as to whether we'll see this new material printed in the UK in any form. Further adaptations of 2000AD characters may follow, as well as more trades.

It's potentially easy for the UK fan to look on this with a cynical eye, and given the lack of any supporting imagery (the Ross picture has been around for a while) it does have a whiff of a comic equivalent of vaporware. However, early signs are positive as Dynamite seems to see the potential of the 2000AD characters a lot more than DC ever did. The inclusion of Ennis and Wagner in the announcement is also heartening. The former is a "big name" who has had a track record on Dredd and if they can get Wagner to participate without it impacting his work on the UK comic, all the better. Let's face it - anything which raises the profile of the Galaxy's Greatest Comic is to be applauded.

We'll do some investigation in the meantime, and see if we can get any more info from Rebellion or Dynamite.