With Lazarus Churchyard leaving the Meg this month I was wondering what other reprint material the readers would like to see. Personally, I want to see more Dredd stuff. I'd even like to see Wardog ditched in favor of Dredd reprints (I hate this strip & feel that it doesn't have a place within the Meg). My first choice would be Midnight Surfer. It's a classic & needs to aired again soon, either in the Meg or as a Titan graphic novel.
I'd love to know what the reprint policy is at the Meg because it seems rather confused to me. Take this months issue for instance. We have Flesh, which although its a classic, hasn't aged very well & seems a tad bit immature when placed alongside Lazarus Churchyard. Okay, Flesh is a kids story but then why print it alongside such an adult strip as Lazarus? Sometimes I get confused by the assumed age of the Megs audience. Are we aiming at a younger audience with Flesh & Wardog or an adult one with lazarus? I only ask because this issue really made me question the Megs audience. I couldn't believe the same issue used the word cunt alongside a dinosaur strip aimed at kids. The two just seemed to jar. So who does read the meg?
Four year olds with foul language!
scojo
My vote for Meg reprints goes to Dark Horse's Aliens. Book 1 (in B&W), Book 2 (fantastic art!) and Earth War.
As for the age of the readership there's a letter from an 11 year old in this month who liked Lazarus because of the swearing - I'd say that 11 year olds shouldn't be reading stuff with adult content but then it's probably no different to what he hears in the school playground, not to mention what happens around the back of the bike sheds...
Mark
Mark,
I think your Aliens suggestion is brilliant.
I haven't read any of them but would love to see it in the Meg.
And what with the rumoured Dredd versus Aliens story, it makes sense too!
scojo
I bet said 11 year old doesn't show the meg to his mum. I remember leaving the first issue of Marshal Law around my bedroom & when my mum looked at it she went mental. She even phoned the comic shop up & had a go at the hapless owner for selling pornographic comics to kids. Needless to say I learn't to hide issue 2!
MATT (who no longer lives with his mum)
for mine, Lazarus Churchyard has aged much less well than Flesh. It's so lame - the worst was the reference to Lydia Lunch. Perhaps it's just that I've lived through the eighties once already and don't want to do them again via a pretentious comic.
Flesh is the real deal - classic stuff.
I'd like to see Canon Fodder reprinted, me.
I must admit Floyd, I started to read Lazarus in issue 1 of the new Meg but gave up half way through.
I couldn't stand it!
I think 2k and the Meg always pride themselves on telling simple non pretentious stories (well apart from John Smith's work I mean!) and Lazarus The Graveyard just does not seem to fit in.
Maybe I should try again to fathom it all out!
scojo
Canon Fodder is a good suggestion, but some classic dredd would be great, none of this daily star crap, but stuff like The Apocalypse War. That's one i would start buying the Meg again for.
Doc the war marshall
"none of this daily star crap"
Doc,
How could you say such a thing!
For crimes against fun Dredd stories I sentence you to explain Lazarus Churchyard to me in under five sentences.
scojo fighting the sovs
Erm.......... shit, you got me there. How about.... it involves a guy... clalled lazarus... whose second name is.... oh who am i kidding, i've never read a panel of it.
Doc the ever-ignorant.
Howabout rebellion getting the rights to the old ipc chaaracters eg charlies war any old action stuff any valliant stuff etc etc. I wouldnt mind seeing some of the old stuff from toxic either.
I agree with scojo; I likedd the Daily Star Judge Dredd reprints. Are there any more, because if there is, I wouldn't mind having them in the Megazine. Another point - why did the Preacher strip stop appearing in tthe Meg. I thought there was going to be more - I like Dillon's artwork.
me, i'd love to see milligan & mccarthy's karmanaaut extraordinaire rogan gosh back in print.
hewligan's haircut too; hey, what about 'sooner or later' & 'swifty's return' whilst milligan's belle de jour with x-force.
the toxic suggestion is grand, but how many of the storyline actually reach completion? (poor, beautiful 'mutomaniac' disappeared after only 4 episodes).
i remember reading somewhere that there was an unpublished big dave story; it would be sweet for that to finally see the light of day in the megazine.
thems some of my thoughts, anyways.
steven l'enfant terrible
ps, is it just because he looks like neil gaiman that you guys won't have a bar of lazarus?
I'm all for Daily Star Dredds over any other reprint for a number of good reasons
It's the only reprint that's unlikely to have been seen by the majority of the readership, and is impossible to get hold of. I can go to my local comic shop for old issues of 2000AD and the numerous reprints of that material. You can't get hold of the Daily Star Dredd for love nor money.
It's like the missing episodes of Doctor Who, except that the Megazine could actually reprint these lost classics!
They are by Wagner and Grant and the stuff we've seen (and the few stories I cut out of the paper at the time!)are as good as anything they did in the regular comic strip at the time.
I admit that some of the older Daily Star dredds were good, the ones in 1985 where they had a bunch of one-offs were pretty brutal acutally, but i didnt really enjoy that two-parter where dredd and that mutant horse went off to save some cursed earth villagers. They reprinted that a while back and i can't say it was particuarly gripping, nor did i like the art.
Speaking of getting hold of the older DS dredd strips, i recently had possesion of a whole collecction of them in a kind of annual thingy that i friend loaned me. No idea where i got it from, but to show its age, it advertised the Galaxies greatest comic at 24p....
doc the ever-vigilant-of-vengeful-scojo
The Daily Star Dredds with Ron Smith on pencils were all published in 3 collected volumes in the mid eighties before coming out as one hardback edition. If I remember rightly, each volume was only ?1! I remember walking miles to the nearest newspaper shop to me that sold them. I still have mine & would be happy to scan the strips If Wake would want to include them under Thrill Viewer.
MATT