Meg 309 - Tripping the Psight Fantastic.

[Dandontdare]

Having been the other side of the desk at Mam Tor I can only take my hat off to the people behind it.

Mam Tor? I only know this as a (beutiful) hill near Edale overlooking the Hope Valley. I'm guessing you mean something else, as I didn't see any desks last time I was up there!

Ha ha! Well being a Derbyshire produced art droid myself it's only natural I would name my publishing company after a landmark that always held both an evocative sense of place and history, and great memories of my youth. Mam Tor is also a publishing house: www.mamtor.com I set up with my wife in the early 2000s, and we also produced two well-received anthologies.

So mystery solved!

Best,

Liam.

Aha, that explains it! That area is a regular camping spot for me and my friends, I shall now think of you every time I slog up that hill for the stunning views over Hope and Castleton

[SmallBlueThing]

Liam! while you're around and talking about mam tor- did four feet from a rat ever go to ish 3? I have the first two and really enjoyed it. After a couple of months had passed, and i was next in forbidden planet, i asked for it and the staff looked at me as if i was mad. 'The freebie comic you used to give away at the tills', i said. 'You mean this?' he replied, holding up an A5 leaflet...
SBT

[Liam Sharp]

Liam! while you're around and talking about mam tor- did four feet from a rat ever go to ish 3? I have the first two and really enjoyed it. After a couple of months had passed, and i was next in forbidden planet, i asked for it and the staff looked at me as if i was mad. 'The freebie comic you used to give away at the tills', i said. 'You mean this?' he replied, holding up an A5 leaflet...
SBT

Short memories...

It ran to four issues and was loads of fun - Dave Kendall's fantastic and terrifying wraparound cover of a zombie XMas was AMAZING. Issue three was the funniest, with a brilliant Boris Johnston spoof, dreaming he was an old Empire big game hunter and hero... You can see the rest online still I think. Try www.fourfeetfromarat.com and see what comes up...

Best,

L.

[SmallBlueThing]

Cheers Liam! Are three and four available as printed comics, or "just" pdfs? I'd be quite happy to pledge that fiver, by the way. Do you know if that offer is a) still current, and b) close to getting a thousand yet?

SBT

[Liam Sharp]

Cheers Liam! Are three and four available as printed comics, or "just" pdfs? I'd be quite happy to pledge that fiver, by the way. Do you know if that offer is a) still current, and b) close to getting a thousand yet?

SBT

Frankly I told Mother the pledge method wouldn't fly - but they persisted! And no, nowhere near. I hope anybody whoDID pledge got their money back. That was very much Mother's thing, not Mam Tor. Will check if we have copies. I know we were very short on one of the four. If I have them we can send them to you if you post us an envelope. Will let you know!

Best,

L.

[SmallBlueThing]

I'll hold you to that Mr Sharp- it'd be nice to finally get them all. There was some quality stuff in the first two. Cheers, sir, very kind and much obliged!

SBT

[Keef Monkey]

Was that a gag about the Ma-ma Dredd thing in the queue? That's pretty obscure

It's that all the other Dredds lined up have home-made costumes. They don't know he's not an actor, and they don't think his costume is real. They're pissed off because they think he's jumping the line...

It may be my art that's killing it rather than John's script here if it's not terribly clear! Sorry about that!

Was clear as day to me, didn't see a problem with it. I thought it looked brilliant myself.

[Liam Sharp]

Was that a gag about the Ma-ma Dredd thing in the queue? That's pretty obscure

Was clear as day to me, didn't see a problem with it. I thought it looked brilliant myself.

Cheers! Appreciated.

[O Lucky Stevie!]

Okay, Stevie's a bit behind on his progs & megs, but here's his 2 cents worth on what has read so far:

Dreddlines – Stevie concedes Judge Pal's point that yes, the House of Tharg does publish horror strips. In fact, for the most part, Stevie has quite enjoyed these too. But the number of Meg articles devoted to the genre does feel rather disproportionate. Anyone else keen for the occasional article on written SF, what with it being the engine of the genre & all?

All hail the New Flesh – delicious stuff. Think that Carl Critchlow would agree with you on Legend of Shamana there Pat. More of this type of thing please.

Earning Your Stripes – the board getting another drubbing from a droid but it's all in context. In fact, with a fancy display of finger work, our boy Molcher whips out the banjo for a cheeky wink & a "Turned out nice again!" at the end.
Love to see Mr Campbell back in the prog, or failing that, an ongoing Punisher title with that Mr Williams they're so keen on.

Knowing the Score – snut, that's one for Stevie's want list.

Dredd Set -- Stevie's a touch unsure as to the reason why Dredd saw fit to take Krelb with him to The Hater's hab, but that may be down to being distracted by Yo La Tengo playing in the background whilst reading. However, nine actors playing Dredd are murdered before it comes to the Justice Department's attention? They really should keep a tighter reign on their out-sourcing.

[chris_askham]

Only just finished this, and I really didn't like the part of the Flesh feature where Pat Mills blames the readers for the absence of Ramon Sola's artwork on the new strip. I think that kind of background info could quite easily have been omitted from the interview. Completely unnecessary, especially when we're constantly being told on the board how positive we're supposed to be.

[BPP]

Only just finished this, and I really didn't like the part of the Flesh feature where Pat Mills blames the readers for the absence of Ramon Sola's artwork on the new strip. I think that kind of background info could quite easily have been omitted from the interview. Completely unnecessary, especially when we're constantly being told on the board how positive we're supposed to be.

Sola's artwork got a VERY negative response at the time of publication - certainly on 2000adreview if not here (I voiced an opinion that it was great). As Pat tells it Sola would have wanted to do more but backed away upset by the criticism. That is perfectly legitimate to recount. Its a point I've heard Pat make several times and one he adheres to vehemently. Pat often is generous about readers views (often saying things like 'well they didn't take to it - fair enough'), but when it comes to Sola (or Hicklenton, or an artist Pat KNOWS has done so much for comics and for 2000AD) its pretty fair of him to say 'Readers, hold the fuck up a minute'. More relevant is that he is telling it in the context of why he has at this juncture returned to Flesh and as such it is, to me, an interesting and relevant adjunct to the topic.

Mill's always champions his artists - he is hyper enthusiastic and often takes the heat of any negative reaction on his own shoulders - and astoundingly generous position and a boon for 2000AD's quest for new talent. A corollary to this is that he defends those artists to the hilt and wont mince his words. He really is an astounding civil man (for a leftie anti-christ corrupter of the nations youth that is).

[DrJomster]

Now that the clickwheel version is visible...

Enjoyed this Meg. Much has already been said however in brief I really liked:
- Numbercruncher. More creator owned material please if this and Lilly are the benchmarks.
- Insurrection. Gorgeous art, really gorgeous. The initial scene cutting through the wall. And the firefights... Very, very nice. Good turn in the script too.
- Liam's Dredd art was very good indeed.
- The cover was very eye-catching too. Probably a bit better than the strip itself, something that interestingly seems to have just happened in the Prog debut of cadet Cass, although obviously I'm more than happy to see the nam Ezquerra appear in either the prog or the meg!
- loved the Lawrence Campbell interview from Mike Molcher. Those 2000AD boarders, you've got to watch out for them...

[Steve Green]

Re the Ma-ma dredd thing, I only meant it was obscure because it was an in-joke at the expense of whoever had Ma-ma Dredd as a character on the IMDB listing.

I wasn't having a pop. I like these kind of things, was just surprised to see someone pick it up.

[Mardroid]

I liked this Meg generally speaking. I find myself a bit lost with Insurrection, but I think that's largely due to a)missing the first series and b) having a mind like a sieve.

As for Numbercruncher, I'm enjoying it a lot. I'm a bit confused as to when the chap did the second deal with that other agent though. It seems to have happened during the course of his second life. I thought these deals were only made after you had died. Maybe that's just information that will be filled in later though.* There's obviously a big chunk of time we haven't been privy too, what with following Zane's POV.

*Or maybe I'm just being very very thick, and just missed something.