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Meg 238 - Bastards... and a tooth crossover

Started by Bad Andy, 17 October, 2005, 05:01:27 PM

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Bad Andy

Surprised to get the new Meg through the post this morning (once again in the same envelope as tooth - does anyone else get this) and the front cover looks real nice in the flesh (paper?).

Not read it yet, so don't know who the bastard is  but the rundown includes

Dredd - Blackout
Shimura - The Harder They Come
Anderson PSI - Lucid
Simping Detective - Petty Crimes
Charley's War

...and interestingly a second Dredd story involving Giant and Guthrie which is the second part of a bonus Dredd story in this week's tooth.

Another cross-promotion fellahs (and ladies). Time to buy both publications.

Trout

I flicked through the Meg in the desperate hope of finding out who the returning bastard was, but couldn't tell, annoyingly.

I'll have to read it properly.

Although

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There is a character - not necessarily Mean - who headbutts someone with a loud "BOK!"

- Trout

Bad Andy

Well that was a huge surprise.

And I don't mean who has returned.

I'll leave it to yourselves to find out.


Bloody hell.

user2000

Hmm, there seems to be a slight problem with some of the pages missing again.... :(

Creeping closer to the front page, it's the back page!

Dunk!

?4.50 and less pages?

F**k that.

Thrills for the loyal and/or the completist.
"Trust we"

Leigh S

Less pages again?

To be honest, I can't work up much righteous indignation about this.  The Megs been a lot less value for money in the past when half of it was reprints I already owned.

And it's not like a precedent hasnt been set - remember those 8 extra pages of 2000AD that slipped away after half a year?  At least the content you do get in the Meg is mostly lovingly crafted stuff.

Plus - if it was a choice between paying more to read stuff I'm less interested in, and not reading that stuff, then less quantity and more quality shuld always be the way to go IMO.  I doubt Rebellion are doing this out of greed, but out as the best way to keep the Meg afloat.

Trout

Too true, Watcher.

My brief glance at the Meg got me quite excited about it.

There's a wide range of strong stuff again.

- Trout

Artificial Idiot

I've only read Blackout and Burned Out, enjoyed them both. Although still don't know who the bastard is, unless that bloke is some well established villain who I've never met before.

Burned out was a good story. Didn't mind the cross-over element at all.

Waddie

The bastard's in the Shimura strip, not Dredd. Speaking of which...

Spoilers












Did he actually kill Giant?  I can't tell.

GermanAndy

As it is relatively early on the day:

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I like Barnes editorials, a few words about the "crossover", which I have nothing against as I get both via subscrption. Now if the would do a crossover in a THIRD magazine, that would be another case :-)

Dredd: Cam Kennedy on the art, Wagner writing, what?s not to like? The plot isn?t new, and on the whole I have a few reservations in the portrayal of the Judges, how seemingly easy the sectorhouse is overrun - but this is more a problem of this particulary Meg. More on this later. But all in all an enjoyable Dredd.

Shimura: After knowing only Clarks art on Shimura this was quite different, but I liked it. As not knowing the villian, his name gave me a chuckle. Poor Giant, getting stomped again.

The Prisoner -Article: Really well written and informative. I only have a hazy recollection of this series, they never re-run it hereabout, and frankly the Video or now the Dvd was too expensive, not that much interested, but it was a great piece of work. the article, I mean.

Anderson: I love Anderson, but I have to confess that it reads better in interrupted series. I liked the story, which was basically set-up - the "dream-loving" was funny, so this is how at least PSI-Judges circumvent the celibacy-thing :-) -, Ransoms art fine as ever. But I can?t work up much enthusiams for it. It?s Anderson, again.

Simping Detective: Same reservations here. Has this series to be in every Meg?
But Granny Duck from SJS was fun. Art on spot as always.

History of the Meg:
I like this kind of articles, so no complaints. for a relative newcomer like me a little bit backstory can never hurt. Interesting was the bit about the letter-pages. Frankly I never or at least seldom read them today, because I browse the net-forums, but to read that Bishop actually fueled the then flame-wars to keep things interesting is kind of wow.

Charley?s War: Like it.

Cult Telly: so so. Morris doesn?t like spoilers. I don?t know, I guess the age of spoilerless is over. And if you really, really don?t want to be spoilered, don?t read newsgroups and websites.

Cult Films: A fair assesment of Meyer?s movies, I guess.

Orient: Godzilla? Isn?t this the wrong column? :-) Nice article, at least I couldn?t relate more then most of the times, but on the whole this a column I could do without.

Dredd: Burned out Pt.2:
I liked the tale. Good one from Rennie. Nice follow-up. Even if Critchlow has the tendency to make look everybody like Lobster Random. Every artist has his particulars, but with Critchlow I find this quite jarring.

I have no problem that Giant gets stomped on in one tale and is the master of his house in another. I even can rationalize that there is a difference between an "martial-artist", who nearly beat Dredd, and a bunch of drug-dealers.

But if there are three tales in one meg, in which two of them the Judges get mowed down like extras in an cheap Chuck Norris flick and in one you have the heroic lone Judge which does the mowing down, the pictures is askew. It undermines the efforts of the writers to give the Judge-system more depth. It is jarring to have them on page 10 and 20 as a bunch of incompetent targets, whereas on page 30 they are the elite-figthers.

On the whole - the stories as such - a good prog, and a better prog then the kind of disappointing 237.

But a little more flexibility in the series would be appreciated.

Artificial Idiot

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Am I the only one disappointed with the 'bastard'? If it is Stan Lee and this new guy in Dredd isn't Mean-Machine in disguise, then I'm a bit disappointed. Not so much because of who it is, but mainly because of the strip it's in. (Major spiler coming up here) a martial artist vs. a martial artist? And now that he's had a hair cut, they even look like each other. Sheesh.


Anderson was good though. Enjoyed the return of the Sisters of Death much more than the cover star.

Funt Solo

16% less Meg for the same price, with no explanation offered.

Pants!
++ A-Z ++  coma ++

The Amstor Computer

Seconded. I don't particularly mind a page-count cut, but I would like to have it explained by the Meg team.

I shrugged it off for the anniversary issue, but I would like to be told whether the shorter Meg is now the norm, and if so I'd quite like to know why the Meg has been cut back - especially as it's coming not long after a price rise, there doesn't appear to be any increase in strip pages versus text features and the paper stock remains the same.

Hopefully Alan's editorial next month will answer these questions, but I'm a bit disappointed that the change seems to have been snuck out under the cover of the Meg anniversary & redesign.

Anyway, on to content:

Both Dredd tales are fantastic, and I'm looking forward to reading the first part of the Giant/Guthrie tale (no bloody prog today...).

Rennie's Dredd story is particularly noteworthy, as it neatly demonstrates the direction Gordon Rennie seems to be taking with his version of Dredd. Other people have described it as "soap opera", but I prefer to think of it more in terms of TV shows like "The Shield", or BBC's late, lamented "The Cops". I don't know that he's yet demonstrated the range that Wagner has shown with the character, but I am fond of this version of Dredd.

Gorgeous Colin Macneil art is about all there is to recommend Shimura. This is tiresomely macho stuff with a terribly dull lead character, and Stan Lee's return (complete with more excruciatingly bad internal dialogue) definitely doesn't live up to the gorgeous cover.  More Dante, less of this.

Both Anderson & The Simping Detective are fun, and I'll look forward to more from them next month. I'm chuffed to see Ranson still on Anderson, and even if this particular episode isn't his finest hour, it makes me wish he was going to stay on for a while yet.

The text features look interesting - The Prisoner one, especially - but I haven't had chance to read them yet.

One final thing - and it's a moan, I'm afraid:

The opening Dredd story has simply gorgeous Cam Kennedy art - what a shame that it's had ugly sound effects simply slapped all over it. This has been a gripe of mine for quite some time, and this is a particularly egregious example.

If this is the best that the Meg/2000AD staff can do - whether it's due to time pressures, or any other reason - then I wish they would just cut SFX altogether. Any benefit they bring - and in this case, I don't see a great deal of benefit in slapping gunfire effects on a page filled with clearly-drawn muzzle flashes and bullet ricochets - is far outweighed by the way they detract from the artwork.

James

Anyone mentioned the pun/gag in the first Dredd yet?

"The only thing you'll get from me is my name-Jack Schitt!"

Laughed my ass off!

Funt Solo

Fatelock Bones reports:

Meg 237 dropped the reprint material and had the standard amount of new strip, editorial and text features.

Meg 238 sets a new precedent:  10 pages less new strip and 4 pages less reprint.  We still get the standard amount of editorial and text features.

Just the facts, ma'am:


Meg Tot Ed. New Rep Txt
234 100 013 054 017 016
235 100 012 052 017 019
236 100 012 052 017 019
237 084 012 054 000 018
238 084 011 042 013 018
++ A-Z ++  coma ++