Meg 293 - Devil Child

[Batman's Superior Cousin]

Yay, bagged the first Meg thread of the year!!!

Cover - Nice cover of Stan Lee's daughter.



Judge Dredd - Dog Soldiers starts off nicely, looking forward to where its heading (though I don't really think [spoiler]the Meg giving Dredd the coordinates to the villains hideout doesn't count as having "one or two friends"[/spoiler]).

Tempest - [spoiler]Tempest is now breaking into Iso Block 666 after the villains daughter uses the Hand of Unmaking on a poor sap[/spoiler].

Tank Girl - Meh, a flashback to TG's army days.

The Lost Cases - Dredd tackles some juves doing Block Mania after [spoiler]a Reverend of Grud persudes them to steal some Sonic Handguns from the judges[/spoiler]. Also, nice deaths from the villains to everybody including [spoiler]Judge Finbow[/spoiler]'s.

Interrogation - Interviews from Mike Carey, George Romero & [spoiler]James Cameron[/spoiler].

Various articles about Sitges Film Festival & about comics on the iPod while the movie reviews are about Avatar, Sherlock Holmes, The Road, Carriers & Ninja Assassin. Also, Buttonman will like the fact that there is a letters page.

Haven't read all of the reprint yet but its all Rogue/Friday stories.

[Dandontdare]

Tempest IS Roger Godpleton!

[I, Cosh]

Tempest IS Roger Godpleton!

That's what I thought too.

[Proudhuff]

your mum 

[Trout]

I know we do this conversation a lot but... Robbie Morrison Dredd. It's just not quite right, is it? My biggest gripe was "They're no loss." Where is his sense of injustice? They've just been killed!

Anyway, I enjoyed the Meg overall, with Tempest the best bit.

- Trout

[SmallBlueThing]

I tried to read The Meg last night- started off well with the Romero interview, then fell apart for me with the hatchet job of Survival of the Dead (along with, it seems, most every other film at Sitges!) which was an abomination of a review. Then the middle pages of the magazine fell out- a thing that would usually cause me to leap up, trudge through the snow and buy a new copy- instead I found myself not caring.

I tried to read the main Dredd, but managed two pages before it bored me to death. Tank Girl shocked me by still being there, I looked at Tempest but couldn't face it, and read PJH's Lost Cases, but it didn't "feel right". Nice art though.

I was, though, heartened that they printed so many letters complaining about TG- without the usual pissy response, and that they censored Romero's "fuck"s. Is this the start of the Meg and the prog pulling back on the swearing? I hope so.

I'm not fussed about the Rogue stuff, but I might give it a read later. Not the best £5 I've ever spent, and I thought the cover was massively underwhelming, but despite all that, a few green chutes of hope is enough to keep me buying, for now.

SBT

[Trout]

I thought the cover was massively underwhelming

Yeah, me too. Sorry. I like his stuff inside the Meg.

[TordelBack]

Not a great Meg - the articles were probably the strongest aspect, never a good sign.  It occurs to me that if I skip the next two I could afford the The Dead Man trade, and then come back when Lily Mackenzie makes her debut  -tempting.  Certainly next month's Breathing Space GN seems feels like it originally appeared about a year ago (I know it was a decade), so that's not essential.  Anyone know what the one after that is?

The strip highlight was the delightful Tempest, which started with that lovely quote from MJ Hibbett which had me humming along all day (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfCdNrRNS4g) and then proceeded to make proper use of both the Undercity location and its two principals.  Neat, and really well drawn by the massively improved Davis-Hunt. I have high hopes that this story can redeem the Deathfist brand.

Second place was, errr, Tank Girl.  Sorry folks, but I've become a bit of a fan.  I even took the Cream of Tank Girl book out of the library a while back (very good read), and I used to hate TG back in the Deadline days.  And Rufus' art here is stonkingly good.

While fairly inoffensive the main Dredd story is doing nothing for me so far, and nor are Grant's Lost Cases, although the art on both is fandabiduzzy - strong flavours of Talbot from Leigh and a glorious synthesis of McCarthy and McMahon with a tip of the hat to Ron Smith from PJ.  I love Leigh's mummified Dredd, and while after so long on Defoe it's good to see that he's not just a one-trick pony, I think the dark colours may not have suited his dense style.   I will admit that the Lost Cases are better than I was expecting, but still feel fairly pointless - something like Ewing and Marshall's Christmas Dredd flashback would be far more welcome.

The Rogue Trooper padding stories in the War Machine GN were so utterly pitiful that I actually started disliking the godly Chris Weston by the end.  Is Tharg trying to remind us why Rogue isn't in the Prog anymore?

As to the articles, the Mike Carey interview/profile was a good read, the Podcast piece was nice to see, and I'd never heard of the Sitges festival despite being a big fan of the town itself, where we camped while visiting nearby Barcelona some years back.  Seeing as I know that I want to see nearly all the films in the film review column, I decided not to read that.  

Solid as most of the text stuff is, I know I wouldn't buy it if it was in a magazine without comic strip - and  the bottom line there is the only strip I'd be sorry to miss next month seems to be Tempest, and maybe Tank Girl.  When money's as tight as it is at present, it's quite hard to justify the purchase.

[radiator]

Certainly next month's Breathing Space GN seems feels like it originally appeared about a year ago (I know it was a decade), so that's not essential.  Anyone know what the one after that is?

Breathing Space was around 5 years ago I think - good for me as I missed it first time round, but I expect they'll be a bit of a row next month as I can see how people might feel a little short changed. Month after that is The Best of Pulp Sci-Fi, apparently.

[TordelBack]

Also not essential -thanks for that Radiator.  The Dead Man beckons.

[Jared Katooie]

I know we do this conversation a lot but... Robbie Morrison Dredd. It's just not quite right, is it? My biggest gripe was "They're no loss." Where is his sense of injustice? They've just been killed!

I really hate Morrison's Dredd so much. I thought he had done his worst in that story where Dredd [spoiler]switched off the life-support on a comatose woman[/spoiler], but nothing can compare to the truly horrendous ending he wrote for "Street Fighter", where [spoiler]Dredd arranges for Lee Walker to travel in the same catch wagon as Ty Vendrell, so that Walker can kill him[/spoiler]. Even a moderately gifted dolphin could figure out that there is absolutely no way Dredd would EVER do that.

Breathing Space was around 5 years ago I think - good for me as I missed it first time round, but I expect they'll be a bit of a row next month as I can see how people might feel a little short changed. Month after that is The Best of Pulp Sci-Fi, apparently.

I basically hated Beathing Space, but for some reason I'm considering picking up The best of pulp sci-fi, which was harldy a top-class series.

[Michael Evans]

Tank Girl is still there? Can't it have a nice long rest now, please.

[Trout]

I liked Tank Girl even more this month. It had more of a story to it than recent months and the art is just delicious.

[locustsofdeath!]

When do I stop the Meg? With money getting tight, I had held on hoping the lost cases would be brilliant...well not so far, but we're just starting. I hate to stop, but I don't much care for reading the Meg. It's like I'm buying it just because...bah.

[stacey]

I've only read the podcast article so far, fabulous and thanks so much to Alec Worley for the mention of Small Press Big Mouth. Totally unexpected, was exciting enough to see my mates in the Meg to have a lil mention ourselves - I nearly passed out with Thrill Power Overload!