Meg 244: Back from the Dead

[Buttonman]

Put my great musings on the 2000ad review site and don't want to be accused of double posting, so I'll just stick in the cover for those who are presently going without...http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c118/button71/megz.jpg">

[thrillpowerseeker]

Good news and bad from this months meg..

Good news..
Quality Dredd story
Heatseekers Ditched
Tales From the Black Museum was real nice surprise

Bad News
Charleys War has stopped(for now)..not for long I hope..
Koburn ending was a bit lame after a good story..


Worst thing though was the Post lady didnt push the envelope right through the letterbox and of course it pissed it down with rain today so the bottom end of Meg is wrinkly..3rd time this year!

[the3rdman]

Charley's war is the only thing i ever skip from either tooth or meg. Its pants, leave it out!

[GermanAndy]

The content:

Dredd: I liked it. It was a fun tale with some good jokes, Rennie channeling Wagner :-). Priceless the scene with Judge Elster in the talk show.

The Rogue article: Very interesting. A good guide what to buy of the reprints and what not.

Charlie?s War: How many parts are missing?

Koburn: Bit of a weak ending. Clever idea, sure, but it lacked somewhat punch.

Pricking: Liked the art.

Black Museum: An okay tale, and I have to say I am intrigued how this will be a series. A Tales from the Crypt style of tales can be nice, but it also can be boring. Well, we will see.

The new format:

Well, I was disappointed. The Meg has gone from a real magazine to an thicker weekly. This is not good. Not good at all.

[pauljholden]

eh? what's this? the script/art/colours creator credits have been replaced - no more barmy photos? bah.

(I quiet liked my male blow up doll face they used...)

- pj

[JamesC]

I really enjoyed this months Meg. I thought all the stories were entertaining. Love Koburn, best Dredd for ages, promising start for Black Museum. I quite enjoyed the small press piece, it had nice art and conveyed mood well but it didn't really feel like a story if you know what I mean.
If the scripts and art stay this high quality then ?2.99 is great value in my opinion. Most US comics are over two quid these days and take no longer to read than the single Dredd story in this Meg!

[Megadeth]

Yeah my US comics work out at ?2.00 for the $2.50 ones and ?2.25 for the $2.99 ones so for me ?2.99 for a double sized prog sounds lie great value to me.

[Pete Wells]

An EXCELLENT Grennie Dredd! I loved Marshall's art, some of the best depictions of the Lawmaster I've seen in a long while. I really enjoyed Koburn too, I thought the ending was just fine.

I enjoyed Tales of the Black Museum but I'd NEVER have guessed that Wagner wrote it. I thought the art was suitably spooky but would have liked it more if it had been a bit more Dredd geek friendly. By that I mean I'd have liked to have seen lots of background stuff from MC1'a dark past like Orlok's badge, Chopper's board, Call Me Kenneth's head or a Mark Millar script.

The thing that really did make me laugh was how totally camp that forthcoming Cliff Robinson Dredd cover is! A big leather man holding out his truncheon asking if we can handle it? I'm pleased I subscribe 'cos I'd hate to buy this from the newsagent!

Pete.

[Dudley]

Dredd - I like these new creatures, and they are much better than Gribligs, who simply have sex all the time.  A good, no, a great story and potentially a superb returning villain.  Also, really good art from Paul Marshall.

Koburn - Just sort of ended, really.  Hint to writer: if you're going to set up an unkillable supervillain, at least work out an interesting way of putting him down before you put pen to paper.

Tales from the Black Museum - while it only scored six out of ten on my thrillometer this time, I'm very hopeful for the future episodes.  Shaun Thomas's Black Museum, with the big scary eagle, is awesome.

Small Press - I tried to script doctor this two years ago, and I note that the writer didn't take any of my suggestions on board.  Ah, well.  I also note that there are three spelling mistakes in the space of five pages, which is desperately annoying and unnecessary.  The art is wonderfully atmospheric and very promising, but I felt that occasionally it strained for effect at the expense of clear storytelling, which meant that at the beginning of page 4 I felt rather disorientated.  The ending, however, is a real killer.

Rogue Trooper article - Um.  Does anyone else feel that there's a whiff of propaganda here?  The new Rogue stories were not universally greeted as a success.  Gordon Rennie has said at various points that he was not having fun trying to write the character's new adventures.  There were many people who liked Tor Cyan, and irregular appearances are the editor's choice, not an inherent flaw.  The game looks really promising at the moment, but don't try and paper over the current strip's weakenesses.

Metro Dredd - crikey but these were utter pish, weren't they?

Charley - haven't read it yet.

Cover - S'OK.

Overall, great, and I didn;t miss the Heatseekers.  


Oh, and paper?  Sorry Wils, but now I've held the finished article I have to tell you that you DO sound like you-know-who.

[WoD]

Dredd - nice.  Well don Gordon...I like these stories.

Koburn - I liked the ending...if you have something unstoppable, then what do you do with it...it doesn't have to be flash, or clever, just practical and logical...more 'real' that way for me...and it was that or a nuke I guess.

Black museum - this art is great, loving it...

Charley - stopped listening to what 'Charley says' some time back, they could drop this and whack in some more small press stuff for me.

Small Press - I liked it, art was great, hope he's reading the board to get the feedback (all the way in NZ).  Story was good too.  I'm looking foward to seeing more of these.

Metro-pish...

Format change doesn't bother me, but I wan't to hear from the subs dept about how the price change affects me, and also how I'm going to be able to get a t-shirt instead of the blooming poster I got last time (the wife wouldn't let me put it up!!!)

[DavidXBrunt]

Subscription by direct debit appears to have dropped from 10.95 to 9.95 meaning a saving of 4 pence, and free postage. Factor in the fact that they're mostly early and you don't have to walk/drive/crawl on your belly like a snake to the shops and you still have a bargain.

[WoD]

how's that work out then...wasn't the old cover price 4.50 and the new 2.99...??

[DavidXBrunt]

I'm not an expert mathematician, I've not checked, I'm prepared to be wrong but...before the change we paid ?10.95 for ?11.50 cover priced comics. Now we pay ?9.95 for ?9.99. We still make a saving but it's now a negligable one. Perhaps the 45p difference is part of what helps this new format seem more profitable to Tharg. Perhaps I'm taling out of my hat. It has been told. And when I say hat I mean, of course, arse. Pity the tramp who found my mean beanie.

[IndigoPrime]

:: Rogue Trooper article - Um. Does anyone else feel that
:: there's a whiff of propaganda here?

It did feel a little like the honesty fairy was on a break during the post-Tor Cyan section. Frankly, I think Rogue's return has been mediocre at best?no worse than the White Fr1day stuff, but little better, and certainly not as good as the original Rogue. Even the Cyan stuff was at least on a par with much of the new stuff... However, no publisher's going to allow "and the reworked Rogue was shit, too, so just go read the old stuff and play the video game!"

Now Charley's War's done with, I'm looking forward to next month, where I'll actually read the whole thing! Hurrah!

[Leigh S]

Heh - just the post Tor Cyan bit?  Other than giving Fleischer a gentle ticking off, it refuses to accept the widely regarded opinion that Rogue post Traitor has languished in the waters of disappointment.  Shame the article didnt really tackle the root cause of this maliase in any significant way - what was it about the strip that defied the best and worst efforts of others to give it a new form?

Wagner saves the day for me here... After a lack lustre prog saved only by the inflatible armband that was ABCs, it was the Black Museum story that struck me as having the most thought put into it - clever idea to have the guide as an exhibit!

Otherwise, we have a competent but average gribligsy tale, and a competent but dull unkillable Millar villain tale.  

The typos in the small press are pretty annoying, and i'm pinning the blame on Tharg here - i'm more than interested in seeing whats coming up from them, but please read them before printing them - asking for some of the lettering to be resized to suit the printing size wouldnt have gone amiss either.