Megazine 289 - Armitage Shanked?

[Goosegash]

The supplementary Armitage reprint was new to me as I wasn't getting the Meg when these first appeared. Easily the best Armitage storyline in my opinion, but the artwork is so dark it's hard to tell what's going on a lot of the time. Page four apparently depicted a fight between 2 cyber-beasties, but I couldn't make much of it out, and Treasure Steel regularly disappears into the background. Is this a reproduction problem, or was it like this originally?

It was definitely a problem with the original printing, the art was just too dark for the poor quality paper stock. I was hoping they'd be able to fix it in the reprint, but sadly it seems not.

A little while back I was messing around with some scans in Paint Shop Pro, and by fiddling around with contrast and brightness I was able to coax a little more detail out of a couple of the murkier pages. Might give it another go next time I've got a couple of hours spare...

[Dark Jimbo]

Dredd - Slight but enjoyable story, great art. Always a pleasure to see Walker again. Like the new Koburn-alike character, just hope this story is not going to be an extended introduction to yet another new Dreddverse supporting character.

Black Mueseum - Little too much of a straight Lovecraft 'lift' that didn't really bring anything new to the table, but for all that it was competently written and quite entertaining. The art was great, if hard to make it out beneath that heavy grey murk!

Darren Dead - Hilarious, vibrant, day-glo, madcap fun. Rob Williams can write dialogue like nobody else, and like all the best Dreddverse spin-offs (namely Devlin Waugh) you wouldn't necessarily know it was set in the Dreddverse. Most importantly of all for a Meg strip - it didn't outstay its welcome. Three parts, that's your lot, job done. Cracking.

Armitage - Want to like this more than I do, but confusion and fatigue are setting in. Are we supposed to know who that assassin chick is? I assumed we'd get an introduction this issue, but Armitage already seemed to know her. Is she a character from a previous story? I'm feeling increasingly lost.

Armitage reprint - Enjoyed the story but had a job to make out what was happening. Charlie Adlard has come a loooong way.

And, of course, the Ron Smith interview, which was worth the cover price alone. I must confess to a little surge of pride to know that the messages we sent him were so well recieved. A little bittersweet, though, to know that he'd assumed he still wasn't particularly well thought of at Tooth.

This month's Meg felt a bit of a brisker read than past months, a little punchier and less hard work, and then I figured out why - the bloated corpse of Tank Girl was missing. Sorry, I've tried hard to like it, but it's just not for me. If it never comes back I wouldn't miss it.

[Mike Gloady]

Agreed about the lack of Tank Girl, Jimbo.  A brave attempt and popular with many here, but not me.  Still, if only ONE of the strip slots were to be occupied by something I don't like but is popular with a large swathe of other readers then I'm happy with that.

I've no idea what the dudes at Rebellion think of Ron Smith, but I reckon the fact they're interviewing him for a landmark two-part interview suggests they understand he's an important artist and well loved by the fans.  Glad he felt the support from us here on the boards too.  Good man, Ron Smith.  That Krill Thro Thargo is in the post, I'm sure.

[James Stacey]

Agree the Ron Smith article was worth the entry alone. I also love the fact he looks like one of his own characters with those bushy black eyebrows. Much as I admire Rufs artwork, the prog seemed richer without tankie. A full sweep of Dreddworld strips sits well for me in the meg.
Back to Ron Smith. Has his colour strip (News of the world?) of the Dredd film ever been reprinted. Not a fan of the film but like the look of the colour Dredd artwork

ta
J

[vzzbux]

The Ron Smith interview has to be the best one yet. Totally agree that he needs a trade.






V

[Mike Gloady]

Absolutely.  And can an "Al Ewing Collection" be far behind?  He's doing a fine job of being the go-to writer for Dredd when Wagner's busy after all.  Rennie too?

The interview was the first thing I read, before even Dredd.  High praise indeed, well done Michael Molcher - they're ALWAYS very readable and well-written, but THIS one was amazing.  Congratulations sir.

[vzzbux]

Back to Ron Smith. Has his colour strip (News of the world?) of the Dredd film ever been reprinted. Not a fan of the film but like the look of the colour Dredd artwork

ta
J

I have the Ezquerra one but never new about the Ron Smith adaption. I want it now...





V

[TordelBack]

Haven't read it all yet, but...

Glad to see I was right in my Armitage predictions [spoiler]re: Steel and Manchester.[/spoiler]   Buoyed on a tide of worthless self-congratulation, i enjoyed this episode, which gives the fingers to the 'what's the point of all the Steel domestic rubbish?' argument.  Still, seeing Adlard's early B&W in the reprint made me a bit cranky with John Cooper.  The linework itself is grand, but way too much grey shading, way too much panel re-sizing.

Dredd was pretty good, but I'm not quite sure what kind of Helltrek this is, heading for a fort with a military leader.

OTOH Darren Dead was awesome.  Well done Rob and John, more please.

The Ron Smith interview continued to be the best feature in ages.  Molcher has my thanks for a fine piece of work.

[I, Cosh]

I can't wait for the Darren Dead/Dirty Frank team-up.

[Mike Gloady]

Keep your filthy sexual fantasies out of this, Cosh!

[Colin Zeal]

Thought this was one of the best Megs since I started buying it a few months back. Nice to see Tank Girl take a breather. Hopefully it will be a good while before it comes back as it just wasn't my cup of tea at all.

Hadn't been wildly impressed by Darren Dead so far, but this final part was excellent and has me in stitches. Fantastic work by the writer and artist. The interview with Ron Smith was also really well done.

Armitage: This is the first run of Armitage I've ever read, so it's a bit difficult for me to comment on it. Although the reprints have helped a bit, I still don't know much about the characters and the background to the strip. something has happened to the Council of Five (I think they were called) but I don't know what or how big a moment it was. Basically I just don't know what's gone on previously and am paying the price for it. Artwork is nice though.

[SmallBlueThing]

After the slagging the Meg has recently received here and elsewhere of late, it was very heartening to finish it last night and feel (for the first time in ages) that it was money well spent.

Let's get the obvious out of the way: It was better because Tank Girl wasn't in it. The Black Museum story was very welcome- lovely renditions of Dagon-esque meanies. Much more satisfying to have this- a strip that I will come back to from time to time, I feel. I must've been in the mood for a bit of Lovecraft, cos this really hit the spot.

All the other strips were top notch too- Dredd was very entertaining, Darren Dead made me laugh out loud when the panda got in the coffin, and Armitage made up for several slow instalments with an episode that really kicked into gear- the stuff in Manchester was excellent, with again brilliant art.

Mr Ron Smith though, was the highlight of the issue- with an interview that left me shaking my head at the life he's had, and all that he has done. Glad that it didn't gloss over recent events, and that it put them in perspective. Horrified that there are n i n e t e e n  y e a r s of Daily Star strips that need collecting- especially that brilliant-looking movie adaptation. Rebellion need to get their act together on that and get them out in Case Files style books asap. Before I have a panic-induced nerdiac arrest.

The video nasties article was okay- nothing that I don't have in one form or another anyway- but the slightly sneering attitude to the whole phenomena and to certain films in particular was a bit galling. Zombie FleshEaters being a "clunker" for instance- whatever one of those is. Er... no, basically.

Ditto the overview of the Alien films- My take on them is that Alien is fantatsic, Aliens is a horrible, horrible mess made by one of the most emotionally-detached film-makers ever to crawl out of Hollywood, Alien 3 is a flawed nihilistic masterpiece and the others don't exist. So I was never going to like the article really, was I?

Didn't read the film reviews- have no interest in any of the films covered.

Letters! Yay! But good point about the lack of answers.

Cover: I still can't get past the Meg's hideous cover-design at the moment. Over the past twenty years it's certainly tried out a few different styles, but the current one must be up their with the very worst of them. Remember when it first appeared with a spine? THAT's what it should look like. Only with the proper Dredd logo. And less copy on the cover, too.

I've said elsewhere that the Meg is continually on a warning, as far as I'm concerned- this issue went quite some way to getting it back in my good books. So that's cool.

Didn't read the Armitage floppy- it's on the side for me to pick up later, but (like Harmony last month) it's unlikely that I will.

SBT

[nomohican]

Cover - Great image from Simon Davis combined with a fantastic pun.

Dredd - Great art here. Some good writing from Morrison too. The judge turned bounty hunter seems like a promising character. I'm still hoping Koburn turns up at some point in the tour of duty arc.

Tales of the Black Museum - Really enjoyed this, mainly because it's been so long since I've read any Lovecraft. This has me wanting to dig out a couple of his books.

Darren Dead - A cracking comedy story. A good conclusion, heres hoping that it returns soon.

Armitage - A good episode, nice to see the various story threads coming together. The Manchester Badlands look suitably derelict and menacing. Looking forward to the next episode.

Oh yes, the Ron Smith interview was great. Actually read it before the strips, which is a first for me.

[longmanshort]

AFAIK Ron's Dredd adaptation never saw print, since the movie flopped. The panels in the feature were a bit of a 'world premiere'.

And thanks for the kind words guys. Glad you enjoyed the feature. As I've said here and elsewhere, it was an honour to meet Ron.

M²

[SamuelAWilkinson]

Corking Meg! Given time to think about it, I normally don't get my money's worth out of enjoyment out of the monthly, but then one like this comes along and resets the cancellation clock.

Fun Dredd, though I can't remember the villain, despite being in some of the reprint material a while ago. What was his general thing, then?

Black Museum good, with some lovely art, and no chance of reminding me of HP Lovecraft 'cause I never got round to reading any.

Even Darren Dead, which was always a bit meh for me, came through. Star of the Meg has to be Armitage for my money, though, especially future Manchester, where, I note, it was raining.

Armitage - Yup, enjoyable enought though the flat caps and black pudding thing really pissed me off. Us simple folk oop north really don't do that so please just stop it, we tend not to breed pigeons either!

Yeah, but if we're going to be like that, Irish people don't really subsist off potatoes and drink only Guinness, South Americans aren't all corrupt moustachioed sombrero-wearers, Russians aren't always evil scheming commies and Scottish people don't live in a horrible desolate wasteland. Wait, forget the last one*. I quite liked the little flat caps gag, as well as the bit about none of those Southern bastards knowing (or caring about) the difference between Yorkshire and Lancashire.




* I kid, I kid. Some Scottish people now live in England instead.**


** Please don't post me any poo.