Meg 332 - Slaying Double!

[artdroid Roach]

Quality Meg!

I'm glad that American Reaper has returned, I enjoyed the first part immensely. The story is excellent and the artwork is striking/vibrant to say the least. Best story this month easily!

Regarding the floppies; I appreciate they're inclusion. Sometimes the reprints are of less than stellar tales, but it all comes down to personal taste, and I can't understand why so many of the so-called 'die hard' fans have a problem with them.

If you don't like it - don't buy it! Rather than get all 'Mary Whitehouse' about it! (if I don't like it, nobody should like it).

Cheers

There's been a lot of grumbling about how bad Disaster 1990 is but I've enjoyed it. A lot of the early 2000ad material hasn't aged well at all (that goes for the Dredd stuff too) but that doesn't make it bad, "Disaster" was good dumb fun IMO. I thought the post-apocalyptic world under water was novel and loved just how dumb some of the ideas were like how the University kept people away with their field of knock out gas.

I agree- I really liked seeing Carlos Pino's art collected together in one volume like that. The story's are perhaps not particularly deep, but it's good fun stuff nonetheless.

[artdroid Roach]

Wow!

I'm not exagarreting when i say that this months Megazine has been the best read since the Dredd Bumper Movie Special (#328). All the strips were rocking big time.

We started off with Judge Dredd: The Pits by Alan Grant and Jon Davis Hunt. It was a really great read involving Old Stoney Face and Judge Anderson, who go after a criminal ring that are stealing dead bodies from the Cursed Earth and selling it on the market as clothing/ fashion accessories! The artwork by Davis-Hunt was superb. The last panel in particular was great, showing poor old Cassandra at the end of her tethers...

Next up was Hondo City Justice: Revenge Of The 47 Ronin Part One; this was my first introduction to Hondo City and i have to say i really enjoyed it. The opening page was outstanding, giving us a glimpse into the history of the 47 ronin in feudal Japan. Robbie Morrison's writing coupled with Mike Collins magnificent artwork (and Cliff Robinson's superb inking) is a match made in Zarjaz heaven. The potrayal of the undead ronin in Hondo City 2135 AD was really cool, especially on page 6 with all their Sandman style speech bubbles and everything. Our protagonist, Judge Inspector Inaba has one hell of a case in her hands, especially where the undead ronin are concerned. Great opening, really looking forward to reading more of this strip.

American Reaper II Part One was up next. Written by Pat Mills and artwork by Cliff Langley and Fay Dalton - it was an absolute blast! I was apprehensive about the story because of the artwork - which is very photoreal, in fact it is possibly real, but my initial reservarions were totally blown away when i read the strip. The story is set in the future, New York 2062. Relating to identity theft wherin victims (mainly young) have their minds and personalities erased and their bodies stolen for rich, ageing/ dying donors. Special agents known as 'Reapers' are tasked with hunting down those that have illegally transplanted their identities, and take them down. It may sound quite far fetched (and believe me i couldn't help but grin when i read about people's consciousness or the 'soul' being transplanted from one person to another), but reading it was a surprise. You almost believed it could happen, and because of the style of the panels it almost felt like i was watching a live action film. Almost. The last couple of pages were really chilling, showing the ruthlessness of people driven by money, youth and long life. Pat Mills may not be firing on all cylinder's in the Prog right now, but here in the pages of the Megazine, he has firmly gotten the attention of this reader here. I cannot wait to read next months instalment.

Judge Dredd: Inversion was the last of the comic strips in this issue, and one i thoroughly enjoyed. But my enjoyment was more down to the outstanding artwork by David Roach. Rendered in black and white with grey tones and nice ink work.

As for the features Interrogation was a fascinating read, not least because Inversion's very own David Roach was under interrogation by Michael Molcher! It was nice finding out about Roach; his love of comics and his background. Such as collecting nearly 90% of British comics from well known ones to the obscure ones with his friend, and archiving them. Not to mention being an comic historian/ author aswell as artist on top of all that!



Some of the shots of his artwork were absolutely breath-taking to behold such as the one on the opening page (see above), which is for an upcoming Dredd tale entitled 'Witch's promise'. The level of detail in that panel is beautiful to behold. It was a great read. Normally i read all the Megazine extra's until last, but this time i read everything from start to finish, which made my reading of the last strip, Inversion - all the more enjoyable knowing that Roach was on artistic duties, and a story he mentions in his article too. That was really great.

Overall the Megazine was a really enjoyable read. In fact more enjoyable than this week's Programme if i'm honest and definitely the best since the Dredd Movie Special.

5/5

Mr Mabs, you've made my day! Thank you so much for such a kind and generous review. I should give a lot of Credit to Arthur's script which was wonderful and gave me so many interesting things to draw. I honestly think it's the best Dredd strip I've ever drawn and it's so rewarding to hear that it's gone down well. We artists tend to live fairly secluded existences- drawing away for days on end and when we send the work off we never know quite how it's going to be received so it's so pleasing to read comments like yours- thank you!

[Mabs]

No problem at all Mr. Roach! It was an absolute pleasure discovering your art and when i did, i wanted to spread it to all four corners of the internet, sharing with others about my find! I just hope we can see more of your outstanding artistic output in the pages of the Megazine and Prog soon. Thank you! 

[The Prodigal]

No problem at all Mr. Roach! It was an absolute pleasure discovering your art and when i did, i wanted to spread it to all four corners of the internet, sharing with others about my find! I just hope we can see more of your outstanding artistic output in the pages of the Megazine and Prog soon. Thank you! 

I echo this and may I say how pleasing it is to be able to thank a man for his incredible talent and to get a sense of his incredible down to earthedness (sorry Tharg) despite the wondrous artistic gifts he brings to the table. Hugely uplifting all round.

Thank you sir.

[Hawkmumbler]

No problem at all Mr. Roach! It was an absolute pleasure discovering your art and when i did, i wanted to spread it to all four corners of the internet, sharing with others about my find! I just hope we can see more of your outstanding artistic output in the pages of the Megazine and Prog soon. Thank you! 

I echo this and may I say how pleasing it is to be able to thank a man for his incredible talent and to get a sense of his incredible down to earthedness (sorry Tharg) despite the wondrous artistic gifts he brings to the table. Hugely uplifting all round.

Thank you sir.

This is exactly why I love 2000AD. There's an interacting and kinship between writers and artists and there readership that seem's to be lacking elsewhere.

[Dandontdare]

But, st the risk of sounding a bit out of the loop... what's an AAA Droid?

Slightly smaller than an AA droid

b'dum tish!

[Link Prime]

Loved David Roach's art this month, and the promo for Witch's Promise was great.
Hope we see more of this AAA Droid this year.

Wow- thank you so much Earthlett. It does seem to be my month- with 2 Dredd strips and an interview. I hope to do some more as soon as I can. But, st the risk of sounding a bit out of the loop... what's an AAA Droid?

You're very welcome David. The 'AAA' ("Triple A") is in reference to the high regard I've held your work since 'Purity's Story' many moons ago.
It's very nice of you to pop into the forum- keep us posted on any upcoming work!

[artdroid Roach]

If I come across as humble that's probably because I have more to be humble about than most! But again, thank you for all the praise- it's really heart-warming I can tell you.

[artdroid Roach]

Loved David Roach's art this month, and the promo for Witch's Promise was great.
Hope we see more of this AAA Droid this year.

Wow- thank you so much Earthlett. It does seem to be my month- with 2 Dredd strips and an interview. I hope to do some more as soon as I can. But, st the risk of sounding a bit out of the loop... what's an AAA Droid?

You're very welcome David. The 'AAA' ("Triple A") is in reference to the high regard I've held your work since 'Purity's Story' many moons ago.
It's very nice of you to pop into the forum- keep us posted on any upcoming work!

Wow- that is going back. I was only 21 when I started drawing for 2000Ad... and I think it shows! i'll definitely let you all know when I'm next doing something for the Mighty One. In the meantime if anyone would like to join me on facebook you can see the vast amount of interesting artwork I post there ( most of it not by me you'll be relieved to hear!)- you might find it interesting.

[Mabs]

Wow- that is going back. I was only 21 when I started drawing for 2000Ad... and I think it shows! i'll definitely let you all know when I'm next doing something for the Mighty One. In the meantime if anyone would like to join me on facebook you can see the vast amount of interesting artwork I post there ( most of it not by me you'll be relieved to hear!)- you might find it interesting.

Will do!

[Eoin_McLove]

Enjoyed the Meg a lot this month. Probably more than I enjoyed the last Prog I bought (1818).

The Pits was enjoyable enough, I loved the [spoiler]double bootknife to the third guard's head and throat[/spoiler], but the ending made me wish that Anderson could get a break eventually.

Hondo-City Justice was a right rollicking yarn, full of [spoiler]undead samurai[/spoiler] and ritual suicide. Probably my favourite thrill of the month, I look forward to more of this!

This was my first time reading American Preacher, and it doesn't seem to be particularly well thought of around here. The story seems exciting enough, but I'm not really sure about the artwork, there were bits that I thought worked quite well, like the guard being beaten by the Reaper, but then there were parts where the emotions on people's faces didn't seen to match the dialogue (the daughter: "I'm so SICK of hearing this!" with a completely calm face.)

Inversion, the second Dredd story was good, with some nice black and white art from David Roach, who is interviewed elsewhere in this month's Meg. I liked the idea of [spoiler]growing old in mid-air as a result of hitting a 'zone of dimensional distortion'[/spoiler]. Basically wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey. The 'Griff Rhys' on the side of the building on the first page made me think of Super Furry Animals, whose lead singer is called Gruff Rhys (note the spelling), which is always nice!

Also, there's a nice interview with David Roach where he talks about his obsession with recording every British comic ever produced.

All around a very good issue!