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Meg 410 Psilent Running

Started by Proudhuff, 16 July, 2019, 11:20:18 AM

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Proudhuff

Nice cover, that's the way to portray a female lead( see letters page in the Prog!)
Dredd: The Red Queen's moves continue and Dredd pulls off a couple himself, that's gonna smart in the morning!! I'm still having trouble getting into Lynch's elongated body forms and pencil necks but all's good with this strip.
Demarco: is eight pages of talking heads, difficult to carry off, I had a feeling we should have started with the end of that episode.
Diamond Dogs: more talking heads and one less  :o nice splashpage, in every sense of the word!
The Returners: a lot of set up going on, but I'm not really invested, some nice action but the colours feel a bit muted
Anderson: a good start and a fine selection of cadets, might have a bit trouble telling them apart when they are helmeted... speaking of which shouldnt they have white helmets and a half badge or am I misremembering ?
DDT did a job on me


BPP

Anderson - the scene with the head of PSI was weird - two judges who haven't seen each other in some time (and can barely know each other as the last time they met was when one graduated the academy) joking around like besties while the head briefs them on a dangerous mission.

Oh look, yet another female psi with cropped hair buddy for Casandra.

Not good people, not good.
If I'd known it was harmless I would have killed it myself.

http://futureshockd.wordpress.com/

http://twitter.com/#!/FutureShockd

broodblik

I enjoyed the latest Meg,

The Dredd story is my highlight this month. Good solid Dredd tale.

I was little bit unsure of Diamond Dogs but episode 2 nails it for me and it looks like something that will be quite enjoyable.

The Returners feels like it should have told us more story but it is not getting out of the gates.

The Anderson and Demarco stories both have solid starts.
When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

Old age is the Lord's way of telling us to step aside for something new. Death's in case we didn't take the hint.

Colin YNWA

Not so sure this month, nowts particularly bad but as a package didn't quite hit the heights of the Meg of late.

Dredd is action packed fun, but felt like action for no reason at this point in the story. Still Jake Lynch's art is stunning.

DeMarco just felt a bit flat on ever level. Lets see how it develops.

Diamond Dogs was pretty good, but felt like it had not connection with last time. Lets see how this one pulls togther.

The Returners, breaks the D them and is the best thing in the Meg. Last months episode felt pretty pedestrian compared to the last series as setup took centre stage. This week things feel into place, the intrgue cranked up and this is back to be a story I love.

Anderson is a decent set up. A pretty typical introduce the crew thing. I did like the reminder that Anderson is an efficent effective Judge for all her whimsy and soul and this has potential... just not got there yet.

The text stuff was pretty mundane if I'm honest.The feature on Speed the best of the bunch. The most disappointing thing was the floppie. Jez this stuff was in the prog only a couple of years ago. That's no time at all, really Tharg what's all that about. The only good thing about it (well actually the story was pretty good as I recall but since I only read it in the Prog recently I didn't bother!) is looking at Dyer's art. It reminded me how much I love his brilliant depiction of Anderson. She looks like a woman whose got all the strenght and experience of someone with 40 year experince on the streets. Just fantastic. Compared to the current depiction in both Prog and Meg its just streets ahead.

Anyway okay Meg but much room for improvement.

TordelBack

Hang on there Colin, the floppy is the Beeby/Dyer Anderson?  As you say, that ran all of 10 minutes ago, but I wants a collection nonetheless - may have to do one of my rare Meg purchases, the cover already had me wavering.  As I keep banging on about, the best version of Anderson since Half Life.

Colin YNWA

Quote from: TordelBack on 17 July, 2019, 10:40:13 PM
Hang on there Colin, the floppy is the Beeby/Dyer Anderson?  As you say, that ran all of 10 minutes ago, but I wants a collection nonetheless - may have to do one of my rare Meg purchases, the cover already had me wavering.  As I keep banging on about, the best version of Anderson since Half Life.

Well that being the case get yourself to the Meg as that's exactly what it is. If you do want it collected this is the perfect chance.

MumboJimbo

The extended Beeby-penned Anderson story in the floppy, as well as being very good, was rather useful actually as it helped me get fluent with Beeby's style, which I was struggling with in the current prog. Someone in another posting memorably defined it as "using narrative ellipses, as a stylistic choice", which is right on the money for me. For example a Psi Judge may verbally respond to a thought she had "heard", but the reader hadn't been made aware of. It's an interesting idea, as to non-Psi people, Psi judges would appear as a Joycean ragtag of non-sequitur. So we get to experience that too.

Blue Cactus

Enjoyed this month's Meg even with the loss of Lawless. Great cover by Dowling

The Dredd is a nice balance of action and espionage, Jake Lynch does some really good environments in this one with real depth (see p.3) and the action sequences really flow. [spoiler]Enjoyed the Bridge of PSI's and thought Dredd's line on when they come out the other side was such a classic Dredd statement that it made me smile.[/spoiler]

Demarco will have to wait and see, I've always wanted this character to have a bit more depth other than being a PI, since she has a history of making bad choices that kind of get her in trouble. I think her off-screen relationship with Jack Point, which is presumably still a thing even though that strip doesn't appear anymore, removes quite an interesting element of the character, as someone who gets attracted to people she shouldn't (a bit like Nikolai Dante). She seems a bit squeaky clean and bland, and although Michael Carroll had her lose her fortune it doesn't seem to have added anything to her character (other than that she now eats gristly kebabs!). But, this is only a first episode, so I'm happy to see where it goes.

Diamond Dogs picked up a bit, I wasn't too into the cockney gangster stuff last month but now we have a bit of flesh to the bones and it looks like it's going somewhere.

Enjoyed The Returners, they do like a full page splash in this strip which means you get a bit less story each month but it has lovely art (not a traditional 2000AD style if you know what I mean, but it's vibrant, clear and adds a lot of variety to the Meg so I'm all for it).

The text features, I agree with Colin, quite often these feel like basically an advert for another Rebellion  publication or follow a similar pattern of how a creator got started, what they've worked on and who influenced them. Maybe something that followed a theme through certain strips, like part of last year's Nemesis monograph, or similar, might give us a bit more depth/interest?

Unlike some I enjoyed this Anderson episode a lot; for all we know Cass was a mentor or helped out with Corann at the academy, they may be very close? Plus as PSI's I think they intrinsically feel more kinship/empathy or are on the same wavelength. I enjoyed them playing off each other when talking to the cadets too. Anderson has the right balance of humour to counteract the grimness of her life and seriousness, and I think Goddard draw her well - most of the time she looks a bit more like the age she should be (taking magic Judge bodily revitalisation tech into account) and looking at her facial expressions throughout the strip she feels like an experienced character with layers and history. The opening couple of pages worked really well as a set up/action sequence with Goddard doing a great job as always and Mather's colours giving the Cursed Earth a distinctive feel. I enjoyed the noob cadets introducing themselves too. Ok, the set up of the story is a familiar one and I found the final three panels a little hard to follow, but I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes.

If I have one criticism it's that the Cursed Earth never seems quite as imaginative these days as it used to - it used to seem like there could be ANYTHING out there but these days it tends to be gangs of raiders, the odd cult, and mutie townships. I've probably forgotten some significant stuff in that assessment so apologies to any writers who have come up with stuff that's slipped my mind!

The floppy... well, this was a good story as I recall and I don't mind reading it again. But I'm in the camp of preferring reprints of older stuff that's never going to end up in a graphic novel, whether from 2000AD (especially the point that I wasn't reading the prog, cos I'm selfish - I'd happily read Kola Kommandos or Moonrunners or some of the other stuff no one likes much cos I've never laid eyes on them!) or the wider Rebellions archives.

THARG! PLEASE REPRINT SHADOWS!!!!!!

Blue Cactus

I should say my criticism of the Cursed Earth is nothing to do with McHugh's new Anderson story because we don't know what she's going to do with the setting yet.

Frank

Quote from: Blue Cactus on 21 July, 2019, 04:58:26 PM
... the Cursed Earth never seems quite as imaginative these days as it used to - it used to seem like there could be ANYTHING out there but these days it tends to be gangs of raiders, the odd cult, and mutie townships. I've probably forgotten some significant stuff in that assessment so apologies to any writers who have come up with stuff that's slipped my mind!




I thought DeMarco hooking up with Point was Tharg tying a bow on the character and signalling she was being packed away in the same drawer as Gort Hyman or Judge March, but it looks like it was the other half of that couple Tharg mothballed.



MacabreMagpie

#11
Quote from: Blue Cactus on 21 July, 2019, 04:58:26 PM
Demarco will have to wait and see, I've always wanted this character to have a bit more depth other than being a PI, since she has a history of making bad choices that kind of get her in trouble.

Shameless self-promotion since I'm on it too, but thought you might be interested in writer Laura Bailey's thoughts on Galen's past and her approach to some of the things you mention in the most recent Thrill-cast episode: https://2000ad.com/post/5612

--

That Dowling cover really pops with the logo and text! A rare example of a cover that I think looks better with the full graphics than without (which is how they should work, really).

Blue Cactus

Quote from: MacabreMagpie on 21 July, 2019, 06:07:43 PM
Quote from: Blue Cactus on 21 July, 2019, 04:58:26 PM
Demarco will have to wait and see, I've always wanted this character to have a bit more depth other than being a PI, since she has a history of making bad choices that kind of get her in trouble.

Shameless self-promotion since I'm on it too, but thought you might be interested in writer Laura Bailey's thoughts on Galen's past and her approach to some of the things you mention in the most recent Thrill-cast episode: https://2000ad.com/post/5612

--

That Dowling cover really pops with the logo and text! A rare example of a cover that I think looks better with the full graphics than without (which is how they should work, really).

Thanks MM, I'll have a read!

AlexF

Quote from: Blue Cactus on 21 July, 2019, 04:58:26 PM
Unlike some I enjoyed this Anderson episode a lot; for all we know Cass was a mentor or helped out with Corann at the academy, they may be very close?

You are correct!
Cass was indeed a mentor, some might even say grud-mother, to young Corann. Is she not one of the twins from Triad, and its much-unloved follow up tale Crusade (which itself tied up a dangling plot thread from Engram). The ghost of her twin sister (Lesley?) appearing at the end of this episode was a lovely touch.

A proper good Megazine all round this month, with expert-level Dredd, and much better second episodes fro Diamond Dogs and the Returners, although in both cases I feel there's excellent art carrying a slightly less excellent story.

I should probably put this in the Prog thread, but as one of the people called out for complaining about young, sexy Anderson, it was the 'young' bit that bothered me. Dowling nails not-young but still sexy Anderson to perfection on the cover!

TordelBack

Quote from: AlexF on 23 July, 2019, 10:37:02 AM
Dowling nails not-young but still sexy Anderson to perfection on the cover!

S'right.  This is far more the thing - I think single images like the Tula Lotay prog 2137 cover are perfectly fine as a cover/poster, but it's very much Kate Winslet from Titanic (aged 22), when the strip itself should be closer to Kate Winslet now (aged 44, allowing for the clearly slowed ageing of 22nd Judges), random dated example from Google:



...which is pretty much where that cover is. 

Note: I am not advocating for Anderson to be modelled on Kate Winslet, nor am I expressing any particular salacious interest in Kate Winslet. It's just the resemblance to the Tula Lotay cover that struck me.