MEG 301 : CUTTING CLASS

[Buttonman]

Top notch offering with that lovely Frank Quietly cover. The Hondo effect extends to the free post card in the shape of Jason Brashill's seminal Meg 2.74 cover of Shimura.

The bagged book is a Mick McMahon collection that is mostly the lamentable 'Howler'. I thought this was a pile of toot the first time around and it's still a pile of toot now!

The Dredd is a quality effort by Gordon Rennie and Graeme Neil Reid. One of those touching human spirit affairs although how a normal man would keep up with a 10 second 200m seems a bit far fetched.

Carlos' interview continues with his romance comics and Battle phases with the 2000ad stuff next issue. He's still puffing the cigarillos in this episode so it must have been done a few months back.

Still to read the rest but plenty of meat on the Meg bones.

[I, Cosh]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

[Buttonman]

Get with the prog(ramme) Cosh - mine was up for 6 minutes, but enough about yer Ma!

I got mine at 11am but the lack of e decent letters page meant I was sloth like in getting my musings together - moved like Aaron Johnson in comparison to Cosh though!

[Trout]

That's a hell of a cover.

Honourable mention for the all-Scottish team on story and art for Dredd, especially Graeme Neil Reid, who's an excellent artist who thoroughly deserves it.

Good story, too. Understated and emotive.

I'll read the rest of the Meg in little bits, I expect.

- Trout

[I, Cosh]

Get with the prog(ramme) Cosh - mine was up for 6 minutes, but enough about yer Ma!

Pfft. I started mine long before that. Just goes to show that, like the pearls they're named after, my words of wisdom take longer to congeal from the hot fat of my mind than that swill you cranked out! Anyway, in order that future generations not be deprived of my insights, I bow to your thread mastery and reproduce it here.

Slow response to the latest Meg? Surely a welcome respite from the usual ramblings of Messrs Proudfoot and Watson can't be the reason?

A good one-off Dredd from Rennie gets things off to a flying start. Funny that both this week's Dredds have a running theme. This must almost double the number of stories about running! There was that one where the guy got shot for being determined to beat his best time (Spoiler) drawn by Duncan Fegredo or Sean Phillips or someone else old-and-good-who-you-thought-you'd-never-see-in-the-Prog-again. Then there was The House on Runner's Walk. Which wasn't really about running, but mentions it in the title. If you extend to stories about people who are on the run, then the count would go up significantly. Come on Tharg, get some new material. You can't keep feeding us this same old stuff.

Everything else carries on well from last month, although it's predominantly good art buoying up decent stories. Armitage was unexpectedly short with a decent twist. Inaba seems more fun without Shimura being all broody and honourable and Anderson is still enjoyable but I rather wish they'd stuck to the short-haired remodel she got a few years ago.

I haven't read any of the articles as I haven't needed a shite yet.

[blixab]

I enjoyed the Meg today.

Nice Dredd story but also about athletics. Maybe they thought it was flavour of the month with the recent European Athletics Championships!!

Liked the Armitage story but thought it might have at least extended to the next Meg.

Enjoying the Carlos interview and looking forward to next month's finale.

As for the bagged Mick McMahon I thought this was total tosh. I'd have preffered it not to have been included. Can see why the Meg struggled in Vol2 if this was the kind of stuff published. Anyway, only my view and hope that next months offering is better fayre than this...

[Proudhuff]

well that little bundle is well worth six quid...

Great line up of leads, even Anderson is 'cooking' with Boo on artwork only slight duffer is Armitage which again, like previous stories, could have been done and dusted in a fivepager in the Prog.

For the first time for me the text articles (excluding the Interrogation) are a bit of a let down, Flash Gordon and Futuramma have never done it for me but I'm glad the Film review warns us of the Airbender

[Jim_Campbell]

fayre

There's no such word! And even if there was, you meant 'fare', not 'fair', of which 'fayre' is a faux-olde-worlde bastardization.

Hah!

Jim

[radiator]

As for the bagged Mick McMahon I thought this was total tosh. I'd have preffered it not to have been included. Can see why the Meg struggled in Vol2 if this was the kind of stuff published. Anyway, only my view and hope that next months offering is better fayre than this...

Knew these sorts of comments would appear - I for one love this little collection - worth the £6 on its own for me. McMahon is a genius, but I can completely understand why some would dislike the artwork on Howler - it's probably his most extreme stuff. It's about as abstract as comic art can get while still telling a coherent story.

I like a variety of artistic styles in the prog, but I would always take something like this over the usual bland, quasi photo-realistic style of the majority of comic art.

[Proudhuff]

As for the bagged Mick McMahon...

I for one love this little collection It's about as abstract as comic art can get while still telling a coherent story.

seconded

i loved it too, it took a wee bit to 'get' the feel then after that Brill! still wouldn't want it in every prog week in week out. Having said that the Last American was a joy to read too.

[Trout]

Me too. McMahon rocks.

[Dandontdare]

I also loved Howler - I thought Mcmahon's new cartoony style worked really well for such a crazy villain. It didn't fit quite as well on the subsequent stories, but still one of the better GNs, which have been decidedly hit and miss - Balls Brothers next month anyone?

[I, Cosh]

I read Howler for the first time ever last night and I thought it was great. A real fun story. My only criticism is that you should've been able to see through the holes in the letters on the big pages.

Never heard of Chris Standley, but he seems to have been a lucky badger. Getting his scripts illustrated by Pete Doherty, Jim Murray and McMahon.

[PsychoGoatee]

Anderson is still enjoyable but I rather wish they'd stuck to the short-haired remodel she got a few years ago.

I prefer the long hair myself, oh yes! Boo Cook knows the score.

[Kev Levell]

Just got Anderson left to read... really enjoying the Meg's new line up. I got a letter printed too! Wahoo!