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Meg 347

Started by Banners, 12 April, 2014, 09:07:07 PM

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Quote from: Richard on 18 April, 2014, 11:58:02 AM
the series was redeemed a bit by Paul Johnson's art (except in the one-off story). Whatever happened to him?

Dunno, but I'd love to find out.
He had a very, very unique style.

8-Ball

My tuppence on the new Meg:

Judge Dredd - Rad To The Bone (Part One): Having flicked through it I find myself agreeing with everything Skullmo said. I would like to add that I wasn't much taken with Boo Cook's art on this. Seemed a bit rushed to me.

Something about Godzilla. Not my cup of tea.

Amazed by the fact that Matt Smith wasn't too keen on Mike Dowling's portfolio. Madness.

Demarco, P.I. - The Whisper (Part Five): I love the character of Demarco (I have had a thing for redheads with freckles ever since encountering Peppermint Patty in the Charlie Brown cartoons) but Steve Yeowell is the wrong artist for the character. Whoever made the editorial decision back in the day that solo Demarco stories should be in B&W made the wrong call. It just leaches away all the vivacity from the character.

Tales From Mega-City One - The Irrational Lottery: Old school mega-city madness. You can just imagine Ron Smith or Cam Kennedy providing the art chores.

Looking forward to seeing what Declan Shalvey does with Dredd (if it ever happens).

Anderson Psi Division - Dead End (Part Five): How long has Shenker been in charge of Psi Div? He must be giving Chief Judge Goodman a run for his money in terms of tenure. Anyway, a cracking read and the sequence with Juge Loran rounding up his "perps" is brutal.

A good Meg, well worth £5.70. And yes, I didn't notice the price increase until I read the Editor's Letter.
Whatever happened to Rico, Dolman and Cadet Paris? I'm sooo out of the loop.

Frank

Quote from: Richard on 18 April, 2014, 11:58:02 AM
the series was redeemed a bit by Paul Johnson's art (except in the one-off story). Whatever happened to him?

I liked Johnson's style, although it was better suited to adding atmosphere to cover images than conveying character and dynamic action in a strip, and he never really found a continuing series to make his own. I suspect Johnson is the author of his own Wikipedia entry:

QuotePaul Johnson orbited the peripheries of the British comic book industry in the early Eighties, self-publishing and appearing in influential but short-lived publications such as Psst! and Escape Magazine. His first major comics work was the graphic novel London's Dark but he came to international attention when he painted the art on The Road to Nowhere, The fourth and final chapter of The Books of Magic mini-series, written by Neil Gaiman and released by DC/Vertigo in 1993.

Unlike most of the Brit-pack artists from the Nineties, Johnson found recognition abroad first with work for Marvel Comics (Interface, Hellraiser, Children of the Voyager), DC Comics (The Books of Magic, Mercy, Invisibles, Legends of the Dark Knight) and Dark Horse Comics (Aliens) before working in Britain's home-grown industry for Crisis, 2000 AD, and the Eaglemoss publication Spinechillers.

In 2000 Johnson was awarded a grant by the Arts Council of Great Britain to run a series of comic book workshops with Ed Hillyer (AKA Ilya) at Great Ormond Street Hospital, resulting in the publication of Hospitales, which was distributed free of charge in hospitals across the UK.

In addition to his interest in comics, Johnson was also obsessed by contemporary music, and wrote regularly for the IPC music magazine Uncut from 1999 to 2004.

Hugely impressed by the work of European Bande Dessinée artists such as Moebius (AKA Jean Giraud), Hugo Pratt, Alberto Breccia and Lorenzo Mattotti, Johnson struggled to find work that interested him as most commercial publishers failed to make the jump from producing superehero comics to the more esoteric genres of their continental counterparts.

Disillusioned with the opportunities available to him, Johnson retrained as an acupuncturist and herbalist. He is now in private practice and lectures regularly at LCTA, England's largest college dedicated to teaching Traditional Chinese Medicine. He is the chief presenter on How To Locate Acupuncture Points - The Definitive DVD, released in 2008

8-Ball

Quote from: Eightball on 18 April, 2014, 04:38:10 PM


Anderson Psi Division - Dead End (Part Five): How long has Shenker been in charge of Psi Div? He must be giving Chief Judge Goodman a run for his money in terms of tenure. Anyway, a cracking read and the sequence with Juge Loran rounding up his "perps" is brutal.



Jeez, Judge Loran. That's what I get for flicking through the Meg whilst trying to type.
Whatever happened to Rico, Dolman and Cadet Paris? I'm sooo out of the loop.

staticgirl

The comic industry's loss is herbalism's gain, I hope. Bit of a shame though as the art was good.

8-Ball

Quote from: staticgirl on 19 April, 2014, 05:31:22 PM
The comic industry's loss is herbalism's gain, I hope. Bit of a shame though as the art was good.

I remember being impressed with his work on the Return of Rico remake from the mid-nineties. That was lush. I can't wait to see it again in a future Case File.
Whatever happened to Rico, Dolman and Cadet Paris? I'm sooo out of the loop.

DrJomster

Yet another great Meg!

Loving Anderson. You really feel it as the script's hitting its key moments. Awesome stuff! The art really suits the story too and is superb. This is so good, I'm off to buy some digital Anderson Case Files which have just come out. Right. Now!

Special shout out for Tales from Mega-City One. Excellent MC1 madness and brilliant design work on the game show host. Loved it!

Roll on next month!
The hippo has wisdom, respect the hippo.

Daveycandlish

Highlight for me, once again, is the Anderson strip.
I think we finally have a worthy successor to Arthur Ranson.
An old-school, no-bullshit, boys-own action/adventure comic reminiscent of the 2000ads and Eagles and Warlords and Battles and other glorious black-and-white comics that were so, so cool in the 70's and 80's - Buy the hardback Christmas Annual!

8-Ball

Quote from: Daveycandlish on 20 April, 2014, 08:21:55 PM
Highlight for me, once again, is the Anderson strip.
I think we finally have a worthy successor to Arthur Ranson.

I concur, I find those panels on the second page when she is in the Deep Probe to be very Ranson-esque. I also love how sparsely populated Mega-City One now seems. There's a palpable stillness emanating from the strip.
Whatever happened to Rico, Dolman and Cadet Paris? I'm sooo out of the loop.

Frank

Quote from: Eightball on 21 April, 2014, 06:01:28 PM
Quote from: Daveycandlish on 20 April, 2014, 08:21:55 PM
Highlight for me, once again, is the Anderson strip.
I think we finally have a worthy successor to Arthur Ranson.

I concur, I find those panels on the second page when she is in the Deep Probe to be very Ranson-esque. I also love how sparsely populated Mega-City One now seems. There's a palpable stillness emanating from the strip.

Aye, Dowling manages to make Anderson look like a striking woman, rather than an arse-flaunting sexpot. He maybe even wins out over the wonderful Ranson, in that his version of Anderson looks like a (slightly) older version of the same character introduced in the first Judge Death story, rather than a completely different blonde lady. Everything about Dowling's aesthetic, but particularly the subdued palette and restrained line he adopts here, indicates he's in perfect sympathy with the character and the kind of stories Grant wants to tell.


Magnetica

Overall pretty standard Meg this month.

Quite liked Tales from MC-1. This format is almost exactly the same as a lot of Judge Dredd stories i.e. something crazy happens in Mega City 1 and Dredd rocks up at the end of deal with it.

Spurred on by the discussion of Titan and Dredd getting old, I was thinking the other day, that to continue the strip for the long term there are a few options:

1) have Rico or Dolman replace Dredd, make up some reason why he is the forced to use the name badge "Dredd" and then carry on as normal, by and large ignoring the fact it isn't the original Dredd anymore

2) do a "Taggart" - have some other Judge become the lead character but still call the strip "Judge Dredd"

3) Change the name to "Mega City Tales / Tales from MC-1" and have a generic Judge turn up to deal with the situation. Indeed right at the start  (i.e in 1977) Dredd was meant to be the faceless embodiment of the law (hence we don't see his face) - so it's kinda the same thing.


Quote from: Eightball on 18 April, 2014, 04:38:10 PM

Whoever made the editorial decision back in the day that solo Demarco stories should be in B&W made the wrong call. It just leaches away all the vivacity from the character.

I quite agree. Indeed it was pretty much generic PI in this strip. Please lets get back to colour for Demarco, preferably drawn by Ezquerra.


Interrogations / text articles.

I like these when it gives an insight into how some-one came to contribute to 2000AD and gives an insight into their mind set (Mike Dowling this month, Hilary Robinson last), but they hold no interest for me what-so-ever when it is non 2000AD or Meg related. This might sound strange but I am not a generic comics fan, I am a 2000AD and Megazine reader; I don't buy other comics (expect the IDW 2000 AD related stuff) and find myself skimming  / skipping these articles when not Prog or Meg related.

I understand why the text articles are there, but would have thought there are plenty of 2000AD & Meg contributors who have not yet featured in an interrogation.

Fungus

A disappointing megazine - sorry to say. Ordinary, Underbelly, Insurrection are sorely missed.....

Concentrating on the positives, Boo Cook's art is a joy, like Ian Gibson on a sixpack of Red Bull.

And Paul Johnson's art was great in the floppy. Painted art in the floppy is common enough but not of this quality. Top-notch.

Errata: The Irrational Lottery, page 6, panel 3: speech balloons are swapped. I did wonder where the blame may lie on this, script or art or letterer, but then I stopped wondering and did something else.



I, Cosh

I'm still thoroughly enjoying this Anderson story. It's taken it's foot off the gas a little in the last couple of episodes but it still has a satisfying weight to it and I'm loving Dowling's take on the character. His airy colours are a delight. As for where the story goes from here, well Chief Schenker seems determined to keep Anderson isolated. Could it be our man Algol Rey (hey, no idea what it means, but his name is an anagram of allegory!) has been hiding in plain sight messing with Anderson's head all along? Would this poke a retrospective finger in the eye of the nitpickers who complained about the conitnuity misstep of Schenker being chief during Rey's first appearance in that Cadet Anderson story?

As an aside, I assume I'm the only person in the world who thought the absolute best thing about this Meg was the news of more Rex Royd.

Entertaining Tale of MC1 and always nice to see Boo Cook on Dredd.
We never really die.

Steve Green

I absolutely love Mike Dowling's stint on Anderson, beautiful colours and a real air of melancholy and tension from the script and art.

DarkDaysBish-OP

Quote from: Richard on 15 April, 2014, 06:04:56 PM
In the supplement, I quite liked the idea that there is done sort of secret conspiracy within Psi Division, and think its a shame that it was never followed up.

I vaguely recall Grant [& Mark?] proposing a longer Janus story that would act as a finale for the various plot threads with that character's stories. Something about a God Judge or a Judge God.

For better or worse, I turned it down.

davidbishop