Great cover by situ
Judge dredd the cop good story looking forward to how the ends next month
American reaper is back only 10 pages this month
Enjoyed anderson but the highlight for me was angelic great end and hope this comes back soon
Nice Jason Brindley double page art
Great issue and really enjoying this run of the meg
Quote from: moly on 11 April, 2015, 11:46:34 AM
Great cover by situ
Did you mean Siku?
If so, nice to have him back! :)
Image removed as requested as it was mahoosive.
Oops, that's a bit big. Sorry
(http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r182/Caliban_photos/359_zpsrhohyaus.jpg)
Yep siku, bloody predictive text
I thought it was a really weird Meg in some ways. Three pages of what used to be called pin-ups; eight pages of advertising reprint. I hope that kind of content structure and fairly sharp drop in new strip pages is a one-off and not the shape of things to come.
As for the strips, a strong Dredd, decent end to Angel, and fresh start to Anderson (even if she oddly looks about 25 again), but, good grief, when will American Reaper END? "To be continued." Gah.
Siku, wow, we are graced in this Meg! Can't wait to read the Dredd and Angelic strips (Angelic being a firm favourite). Z
Quote from: dweezil2 on 11 April, 2015, 12:05:27 PM
Quote from: moly on 11 April, 2015, 11:46:34 AM
Great cover by situ
Did you mean Siku?
If so, nice to have him back! :)
Awesome. It's a beauty as well.
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 11 April, 2015, 01:05:08 PM
I thought it was a really weird Meg in some ways. Three pages of what used to be called pin-ups; eight pages of advertising reprint. I hope that kind of content structure and fairly sharp drop in new strip pages is a one-off and not the shape of things to come.
As for the strips, a strong Dredd, decent end to Angel, and fresh start to Anderson (even if she oddly looks about 25 again), but, good grief, when will American Reaper END? "To be continued." Gah.
Ends next month to make way for all new stories in #261
Hopefully a precursor to more strip work for the house of Tharg! :thumbsup:
Tooth a Megazine and The Heavies squad this Wednesday.Ouch.
I'll second more Akinsiku in prog or meg preferably on Joe(big chin mr Ezquerra,I'll show you a big chin) or failing that you can get him stuck into book two of witch world Tharg.
Quote from: Batman's Superior Cousin on 11 April, 2015, 01:57:24 PMEnds next month to make way for all new stories in #261
Here's hoping. I thought it was done last month, but no.
Cover: Haven't seen Siku grace the pages for a while, very nice!
Dredd: Continues to be great, with both script and art being impressive.
Interrogations: Skipped as usual.
Fucking Ostriches: I used to just dislike this strip. Now I really fucking hate it. If you aren't gonna stop running it, could you at least consider giving us a break???
Poster: Nice 2 page art by Jason Brindley.
Holocaust Squad: Immediately felt like an old school strip....tehn I realised, it was an old school strip. Erm.....why?
Anderson: Nothing terribly new, but a nice start to the tale.
Angelic: Definitely the highlight of the prog, even if it wasn't the strongest episode of the run. Pretty sure Carter's using some photoshopped backgrounds, and meshing them with his penmanship, achieving a nice balance and even tone to the art....maybe he could show Langley how that's done. ;)
Decent Meg....slightly ruined by the never ending reaper nonsense, and too many ads, features, and the reprint pages. Surely they ain't short of submissions? I mean the Facebook page declared they were snowed under with submissions....so how about maybe print some of them? Plenty of budding artists/scripters would likely accept their first efforts being printed in the meg and they get no fee......a foot in the door kinda thing. I'd far rather see that than the bloody floppy reprints.
Great to have Siku back, but rather an odd face on Anderson and a wrinkly left arm, I thought...
Anyway, The Cop's been damn good from the start and keeps up the pace in this episode, the art and story telling really gels - I'll be sad to see it go.
The pin-up stuff - the bike and especially the Dredd themed election poster - really is part of the charm of 2000ad and long may it continue. Great touch at the bottom of the poster 'Russell Brand Block Democratic Fringe'.
Reaper continuing probably isn't enough to make me cancel my subscription if I'm honest, but it's about the only thing that makes me consider it...apart from perhaps lots of pages of advertising reprint..
Anderson, mmn rather lukewarm about this - and I love an Anderson story normally - the one Michael Dowling illustrated recently was superb. In the current story - given the obvious danger - why wouldn't she simply ask for back-up? It's not like she's got anything to prove, and it's a reckless way of testing the cadet if that's her intention. It's got potential though..
Angelic's been the stand-out for a while, a well crafted story and superb art. If Carter is using a combination of drawn and digital (which he probably is), he does it beautifully. To my taste, the introduction of digital in line work and especially colouring, has meant a loss of texture, depth and life in comic strip art. I know I probably sound like a bit of a luddite, but it's personal taste I suppose..
As a long term Meg subscriber and also a subscriber to the mega Collection I found the 8 pages of Holocaust 12 really annoying.
I don't normally complain about things like this but I just wondered whether anyone knows why this was included and if it is going to be a regular thing? It wasn't an advert and it wasn't a story, it felt more like a gap had been plugged with anything to make up the page count. Whether that was the case or not, that is how it felt.
That evidently is the reason. It does seem a pity as was posted earlier that 7-8pages couldn't be used as a new writer/artist showcase. However I must point out I know very little of the editorial/financing setup of the Megazine and that over my 2 years reintroduction to it, I have found at least 2 good strips per month. Z
FECKIN' OSTRICHES AGAIN!!!!????
I was so certain it finished last month for fucks sake!
Is reaper not over yet??? FFS!!! Z
No, it's over.
However Reaper Files has taken it's place.
:(
Bah, that sucks. Z
It does. Wasn't so bad when it was other artists doing the Reaper Files at least....but now we are back to the Jackie photo-strip format. Balls of the donkey doth it sook.
Quote from: Geoff on 11 April, 2015, 03:45:14 PM
Anderson, mmn rather lukewarm about this - and I love an Anderson story normally - the one Michael Dowling illustrated recently was superb. In the current story - given the obvious danger - why wouldn't she simply ask for back-up? It's not like she's got anything to prove, and it's a reckless way of testing the cadet if that's her intention. It's got potential though..
Not having a copy of this Meg yet, but cadets do tend to be put in dangerous situations during their assessments...
I love the gruesome face-change surgery picture in The Cop!
Reading this thread it seems Reaper in some guise is embedded semi-permanently in the meg. Some of the other reports as to content have me considering whether to go prog only.
Sorry for moan. People like me tend to annoy me.
Reaper finishes for good in one episode. It says so in the Editorial bit.
The Meg is currently hurtling towards the floor again folks - I've just paid top dollar for 9 whole pages of poorly reproduced reprint of Holocaust 12 (including a Bishop-esque banner) that doesn't even stand up on it's own in this sort of context. Ed says that he wants to concentrate on the Tooth archive and then fobs us all off onto a 3rd party part-work by publishing a part reprint of a bloody reprint that looks as if it's been through the wash via a dirty protest. On top of that there's a patronising page compelling people to vote in the general election in case they are too stupid to understand what the whole process is about.... wtf is that all about then?
Pull your finger out Mr Smith as I'm not impressed - this is a lazy stunt for £5.70 of anyone's money. Let's get back to basics and remember that a decent Meg is possible within the usual constraints as long as you can find decent writers instead of some of the lazy bollocks that seems to have become entrenched of late. (Hell, if you're stuck for page count then dump the little comic and reintegrate the reprint into the main body again as much of it is shite that you know you can't even sell off to the 3rd party mugs because it's so weak!)
And please, no more fucking Ostriches - shift Mills and Langley over to the weekly as it just doesn't work with one episode every month. I want Dredd, lots of Dredd kicking the shit out of things being the nasty bastard he is - how hard is it to actually do that in the wake of Chaos, Dark Justice, Enceladus etc when you have so much material to work on?
I'm not happy.
If this 8 pages of reprint is gonna be a regular thing then i am done with the meg i thought the whole point of the floppies was to stop this kind of thing
I buy the mega collection....I don't want to pay nearly six quid for a preview of something i am already buying
Were there 40 pages of new strips? Then why complain? I'd rather read a reprint than a text piece about some Marvel UK revival or some such.
Because out of 40 pages of strip i only enjoyed barely half of it thats not worth six quid
I can only afford to get so much a month now and two mega collections is really eating into what i can afford. The meg is not worth the money at the moment
Quote from: The monarch on 16 April, 2015, 07:41:54 AM
I can only afford to get so much a month now and two mega collections is really eating into what i can afford
The Mega-Collection is not mandatory?!
Quote from: Judge Brian on 16 April, 2015, 07:10:30 AMWere there 40 pages of new strips?
Not far off. I did a bit of sanity-checking for the past six months of Megs:
359: Dredd 10 + Ostriches 10 + Anderson 9 + Angel 9 = 38
358: Dredd 10 + Ostriches 20 + Angel9 + Mean 10 = 40
357: Dredd 10 + Ostriches 17 + DeMarco 9 + Angel 9 = 45
356: Dredd 10 + Ostriches 20 + DeMarco 9 + Angel 9 = 48
355: Dredd 10 + Ostriches 18 + DeMarco 9 + Dredd 10 = 47
354: Dredd 10 + Lawless 9 + Tales 10 + Dredd 10 = 39
I lack time to count further back, but were 355–357 anomalous in strip count? (354 might suggest so.) Regardless, the Meg's stretching my patience right now too, so I hope it'll be something I enjoy more come the strip refresh (assuming we don't get Ostriches Redux).
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 16 April, 2015, 10:25:37 AM
I lack time to count further back, but were 355–357 anomalous in strip count?
Ostriches has always had a significantly higher than average page count, even compared to the other stuff in the creator-owned slot. Paul Grist's
Demon Nic will be filling that space, along with a new series of
Lawless.
Personally, I'm still quite enjoying the Meg at the moment. Ewing's farewell to Dredd continues to impree and
Angelic has been a great little series, and finally makes its playing around with continuity explicit, Spock-style. More soon Tharg.
I was a bit surprised when I first heard we were going to be getting a non-Grant
Anderson story but I needn't have worried as this was a tight, engaging start from Beeby and also nice to see Mr Currie toning down the tits in his art.
Quote from: Fenscape on 16 April, 2015, 01:54:15 AM
The Meg is currently hurtling towards the floor again folks - I've just paid top dollar for 9 whole pages of poorly reproduced reprint of Holocaust 12 (including a Bishop-esque banner) that doesn't even stand up on it's own in this sort of context. Ed says that he wants to concentrate on the Tooth archive and then fobs us all off onto a 3rd party part-work by publishing a part reprint of a bloody reprint that looks as if it's been through the wash via a dirty protest. On top of that there's a patronising page compelling people to vote in the general election in case they are too stupid to understand what the whole process is about.... wtf is that all about then?
Pull your finger out Mr Smith as I'm not impressed - this is a lazy stunt for £5.70 of anyone's money. Let's get back to basics and remember that a decent Meg is possible within the usual constraints as long as you can find decent writers instead of some of the lazy bollocks that seems to have become entrenched of late. (Hell, if you're stuck for page count then dump the little comic and reintegrate the reprint into the main body again as much of it is shite that you know you can't even sell off to the 3rd party mugs because it's so weak!)
And please, no more fucking Ostriches - shift Mills and Langley over to the weekly as it just doesn't work with one episode every month. I want Dredd, lots of Dredd kicking the shit out of things being the nasty bastard he is - how hard is it to actually do that in the wake of Chaos, Dark Justice, Enceladus etc when you have so much material to work on?
I'm not happy.
Please moderate your tone and language when discussing our staff and creators, thank you. Criticism is more than possible without getting personal.
The mega collection is kinda mandatory as I enjoy them and feel they are well worth the money
'patronising page compelling people to vote in the general election'
which is the kind of thing the prog/meg has always done and it gave me a chortle as did the Brand Block, lighten up ITS A COMIC.
Quote from: Molch-R on 16 April, 2015, 11:33:58 AM
Please moderate your tone and language when discussing our staff and creators, thank you. Criticism is more than possible without getting personal.
It's a sad state of affairs when the mod is happier pulling people up on their tone rather than spending time addressing the points that they raise. The last few Megs have been poor and I won't apologise for my comments - would you prefer that I make some sort of sanitised reference to the JD Megson block instead in order to get the message across because a bunch of grown-ups are too precious to take it on the chin when it really matters?
Bottom line is that the readers pay the wages of the staff and creators - ignore us at your peril and a quick scan of the comments from some of us over the last few editions easily proves that I'm not the only one who thinks that things are on the slide. Amongst others, I believe that the editor made a gross mistake by making a decision to reprint (a very poor quality scan of) Holocaust 12 and I simply won't believe this was the best material available to make up the page count at a premium price.
Do please let me know if you're now too 'niche' to accept my comments however I choose to frame them - I have every copy of the Meg ever published and if you think you are more passionate than I am about it then you'll just have to find a new reader to fill the shoes that I feel like abandoning right now - best of luck with that.
As I said before, I'm not happy.
-Steve
Gotta say he does have a point.
Nothing like a set of balls....to be fair.Molch R is just as passionate (I seen the guy in Dublin). Z
Molch-R can be as passionate as he likes and I get that but the difference is that if he's on the payroll and it takes someone like me to point out the obvious then either my observations are addressed and things pick up or I just stop buying the publication - he doesn't have an automatic right to the money in my wallet no matter how fondly I recall the hours and hours I spent at school endlessly tracing around that amazing cover Brett Ewins did on Tooth 472!!!
Pride always goes before a fall.
-Steve
Quote from: Fenscape on 16 April, 2015, 11:03:27 PM
It's a sad state of affairs when the mod is happier pulling people up on their tone rather than spending time addressing the points that they raise. The last few Megs have been poor and I won't apologise for my comments - would you prefer that I make some sort of sanitised reference to the JD Megson block instead in order to get the message across because a bunch of grown-ups are too precious to take it on the chin when it really matters?
Bottom line is that the readers pay the wages of the staff and creators - ignore us at your peril and a quick scan of the comments from some of us over the last few editions easily proves that I'm not the only one who thinks that things are on the slide. Amongst others, I believe that the editor made a gross mistake by making a decision to reprint (a very poor quality scan of) Holocaust 12 and I simply won't believe this was the best material available to make up the page count at a premium price.
Do please let me know if you're now too 'niche' to accept my comments however I choose to frame them - I have every copy of the Meg ever published and if you think you are more passionate than I am about it then you'll just have to find a new reader to fill the shoes that I feel like abandoning right now - best of luck with that.
As I said before, I'm not happy.
-Steve
So I can see. As I've already mentioned, you are free to voice your opinions but personal attacks on 2000 AD staff and creators are beyond the pale on this board. Thank you.
Fenscape, we all have deep set issues with parts of the Meg at the moment. It is still worth a couple of quid (to be fair a fiver is excessive) for the two or so strips we get every month which are very decent.
I'd say Molch R was disconcerted over the mention of a direct contributer/s and the robust language.
Your posts post his intervention are the better and more relevant for his intervention surely. Z
Quote from: ZenArcade on 16 April, 2015, 11:36:09 PM
Fenscape, we all have deep set issues with parts of the Meg at the moment. It is still worth a couple of quid (to be fair a fiver is excessive) for the two or so strips we get every month which are very decent.
I'd say Molch R was disconcerted over the mention of a direct contributer/s and the robust language.
Your posts post his intervention are the better and more relevant for his intervention surely. Z
Happy to take that one on the chin ZenArcade and thank you for the compliment. Let me know your paypal address and I'll send you £5.70 as you've given me more value for money this month than he did.
Good man, the money is an irrelevance for me thankfully.....alas not for ever so many others. keep faith, the guys are, I feel, really shifting the Prog and Meg forward (I have serious reservations about the reprint but sure..).
And above all else, stay here and contribute not detract. We need energy, stridently and verve, but in its measure. Regards Z
Quote from: ZenArcade on 16 April, 2015, 11:55:41 PM
Good man, the money is an irrelevance for me thankfully.....alas not for ever so many others. keep faith, the guys are, I feel, really shifting the Prog and Meg forward (I have serious reservations about the reprint but sure..).
And above all else, stay here and contribute not detract. We need energy, stridently and verve, but in its measure. Regards Z
Cheers for that - the thing that REALLY worries me is when people start believing their hyperbole to such an extent that we might end up with a publication that looks and feels like Crisis did at the very end of it's days - when I leaf through the last 10 or so editions I can see a bunch of people who got so focussed with the direction of the brand that they totally lost the interest of their readership because it just turned into gibberish and nonsense. (Tbh, I lost interest when Hitler appeared on the horizon and it became obvious that people were 'touching themselves' whilst publishing Trip to Tulem and bloody Bible John - Jesus!)
The Meg seems to need dragging back to the core subject material from time to time. That time is definitely now.
My opinion on the Meg has always been that it should be a vehicle to display the world in which Dredd lives. Cop and Angelic have utterly achieved this in the space of a few months; little else has over the past years, but I will happily forget that if they pump out more like these two tales. Z
Quote from: Fenscape on 17 April, 2015, 12:11:07 AM
The Meg seems to need dragging back to the core subject material from time to time. That time is definitely now.
Yup. I know some of the Dredd-verse strips didn't work so well, (Red Razors immediately springs to mind!) but I really would prefer a poor 'other city' strip to a dull strip that has bugger all to do with Dredd. I always thought the purpose was to expand the tales of Dredd's world...and it doesn't really do much of that anymore, more's the pity.
It's only a matter of time before Dynosty turns up as a floppy - then you'll all be begging for Ostriches lol!!
Ach sure Dinosty wasn't all bad....it was never a good as Junker, but what was. Z
Read 'Dinosty' the other day and in a nadir 90's line-up where I'm finding the progs a chore, it's huge fun. It has cropped up in people's hoped-for floppy contents. I can now see why.
Quote from: Fenscape on 17 April, 2015, 12:11:07 AM
... the thing that REALLY worries me is when people start believing their hyperbole to such an extent that we might end up with a publication that looks and feels like Crisis did at the very end of it's days - when I leaf through the last 10 or so editions I can see a bunch of people who got so focussed with the direction of the brand that they totally lost the interest of their readership because it just turned into gibberish and nonsense...
Any chance you can explain what this swivel-eyed raving actually means? What hyperbole? What gibberish? Sure, I think Reaper is tedious shite as well, but it's one strip and it'll be over soon.
From Dead Zone to The Cop, Meg Dredd's been consistently head and shoulders above anything in the Prog for almost a year. In the same time, we've had the best Anderson story in a decade and a couple of debutantes - Angelic and Lawless - which were both entertaining and full of potential.
I guess we're not likely to agree: two decent stories out of four is break even for me, I've always preferred an even mix of Dredd/non-Dredd stories and New Adventures of Hitler was the second best strip in the whole run of Crisis.
Quote from: The Cosh on 17 April, 2015, 12:53:45 AM
Any chance you can explain what this swivel-eyed raving actually means?
Erm, when you put it like that, No. Go figure instead of trying to discount my posts in such a fashion. If you want reference material for Crisis then you can buy the complete set off me for £100 - it'll all soon come flooding back.....
Dinostys pretty damn fun i'ld certainly take it over harlem heroes anyday
I like Reaper, I'm sure a lot of people feel the same otherwise it wouldn't be returning!
I try to avoid being too negative about strips, it's all about personal taste. Nothing I've read recently (Prog and Meg) could be considered awful.
Cheers
I like Reaper too, and I am very aware it's not to everyones tastes, which is why anthology titles like the Meg and prog are to be applauded and supported. I'm also glad that Reaper will be moving out for a while soon as well. Having any single strip in for such a long residency can start to grate on anyone. Remember how well received Tank girl was when she first appeared in the Meg? Compare that to the shameful events that lead to Rufus saying goodbye...
Do I like everything that Tharg does? Nope, but I respect his authority. If Tharg was reduced to listening to the percentage of Squaxx here to make his decisions then it would be time to eat that cyanide poly-cup.
The message board is (in 'my' opinion) a good sounding board for the fans to share beefs, likes and thoughts. When we start to feel so entitled as to think we know better than Tharg we should take a break.
I really do not like Reaper at all, but I think, other than that, the Meg has been on fine form for a good while now.
As has been said above, the recent Dredd stories have been some of the best material we've seen in the past 12 months in prog or Meg, the most recent Anderson story was a blinder, Angelic is a bold and fearless take on characters that were previously somewhat mono-dimensional and the Tales of the Black Museum story featuring Mean Machine was excellent.
Not to mention Lawless, which, for me, is the best non-Dredd Dreddworld strip outside of Low Life.
Admittedly, I haven't read the floppy in months as it's either stuff I've read before and didn't enjoy or stuff I have no interest in reading. I don't mind too much though, as I tend to view the floppy as an extra. I would still pay the same price for the Meg without it.
I thought it was a bit of an odd choice to fill 8 pages with an extended ad for the Mega Collection, but I wouldn't have been any happier with another 8 pages of Reaper to be honest.
Despite my distaste for Reaper, I remain very much in favour of the creator owned slot in the Meg. Numbercruncher was fantastic, as was Lilly MacKenzie (more of that please), and I'm really looking forward to Demon Nic.
With regards to Fenscape's points: I'm very sure that our comments on this forum ARE read and taken into consideration by the editorial team to a certain extent, but to suggest that because you're a paying customer, your specific demands need to be met immediately is somewhat ludicrous.
Over the last 13 years, Matt Smith has shaped 2000 AD and the Judge Dredd Megazine into their best ever incarnations and heralded in the comics' best stories since the 'golden age'. Along with Molch-R who has raised the profile of the comic and characters to unprecedented levels of popularity and worldwide exposure, and Robo-Keef's fantastic work on the graphic novel line, I can confidently say that 2000 AD and the Meg have never been in better hands.
Apologies for the cringe inducing creep-fest, but that's just how I feel.
I think the main problem with Reaper for me has been its dominance combined with its lethargic pace. As those numbers I posted showed, it took up to a third of the Meg's entire page count, and that's just too much for any one strip, and especially one that's so divisive. (I do wonder how people en masse might have responded to it had the strip been pulpier rather than attempting to be a movie on the page. Six-page bursts, without the cinematics, and with, I dunno, Willsher or someone on art.)
(In terms of criticism in general on this forum, I'll echo Spaceghost, in that Matt Smith has been—and continues to be—a great editor.)
I like Reaper, it's different to pretty much any other comic out there and things like Lawless are great Dreddworld stuff. I also like the randomness of the floppy! Some of it is great, some terrible but always worth a read...
Quote from: Fungus on 17 April, 2015, 12:52:00 AM
Read 'Dinosty' the other day and in a nadir 90's line-up where I'm finding the progs a chore, it's huge fun. It has cropped up in people's hoped-for floppy contents. I can now see why.
I wonder how it would have fared if it had been judges on its own terms (instead of as a 'must use this material' when the comic it should have appeared in didn't materialise). Personaly I'd be happy not just to see it in the Floppy but for a sequel to appear (in the same format - painted art, around the 60 page mark and not
widescreen comics (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Widescreen_comics)
I think if Reaper had been much more compressed it could have been a fantastic cyberpunk tale as I liked Mills' concepts. The main middle-aged dad character pushed into terrible choices was great and apart from his 'son' and daughter, the other men and women were mostly interchangeable, which is a shame in a story of this length. Clint is an illustrative artist who produces works of great beauty (especially when they're robots - I love his work in the ABC Warriors) but I would have rather he provided the pin-ups and someone who packs in more storytelling and gestural drawing (as Clint does when he is working in pen and ink, now I come to think of it) handled the script. I got lost towards the end because I couldn't work out who everyone was and what they were doing.
This issue's biggest likes: Dredd Story, Anderson story, the fabulous Angelic story, the pinups (one beautiful and one of them funny - although I would have preferred just one pinup per issue to keep them special), the interviews (I've always liked them) and the floppy (I've enjoyed Black Siddha more than expected, there was a lot of humour in it and I liked that Harlem Heroes back in the day).
Not so liked: The cover (only because it features a female doing that comics crouch which annoys me, her face was cool and I liked the rest of the painting and design); the reprint Holocaust squad thing which didn't seem to be a classic (to put it kindly) and certainly didn't have me yearning to go out and spend more money on it and Reaper Files - I quite liked the Reaper Files in the past as they are shorter and more packed with incident but I just want a new story in a new setting now. It's all going to look extremely handsome when it is bound together, I'll wager.
Also. That Lee Carter. Years ago when I first saw his art I thought it was a bit stiff but now he is one of my bestist, most favouritist artists going. He does lovely sad eyes and amazing atmospheric landscapes (whether urban, rural or inter-dimensional). If he illustrated Dinosty II it would still be brilliant (but please don't).
Quote from: staticgirl on 18 April, 2015, 03:29:24 PM
Also. That Lee Carter. Years ago when I first saw his art I thought it was a bit stiff but now he is one of my bestist, most favouritist artists going. He does lovely sad eyes and amazing atmospheric landscapes (whether urban, rural or inter-dimensional). If he illustrated Dinosty II it would still be brilliant (but please don't).
Totally agree. To some extent, his posing looks like it's still developing to some degree, as occasionally folk look a bit.....static when they should be in action....but they are still brilliantly realised. The madness of the Indigo Prime stuff....the organic look of Seraphim....sheraphin? Sarah Finn?? You know.... the one with the angels n'at! All beautiful work. Met him at Sci-Fi Scarborough, absolutely lovely bloke, got a sketch off him which he spent AGES on compared to what I expected, it was cracking, ad cost me a mere fiver! A FIVER??? Couldn't believe it, such value!!
Some negative comments here and I want to make a positive one os that the Megazine staff can see the views are not universal. I am very much enjoying the megazine and do not regret subscribing one bit.
The reprint 'floppies' are all new to me ane I love them and only wish I could get hold of the previous Black Siddha, DeMarco, etc (eBay prices are very steep for megazine back issues to overseas buyers).
I am enjoying all the strips - even American Reaper which I think is actually a good script let down by the art style. I am guessing it has been a bit of an experiment that hasn't really worked out but they needed to stick with it until the end. I also enjoy the interviews with the writers and artists and think they make a nice change of pace to the whole package.
Keep up the good work.
Whats this about Holocaust Squad getting collected? I thought it was naff from the preview.
It's part of the current volume in the Dredd Mega Collection.
Quote from: The Cosh on 17 April, 2015, 12:53:45 AM
From Dead Zone to The Cop, Meg Dredd's been consistently head and shoulders above anything in the Prog for almost a year
I'd gladly pay a fiver per month for Flint's art, and
The Cop is so rich and rewarding it feels like a couple of years' worth of comics in five issues.
It's unfortunate that the best Dredd stories, featuring the top talent, are running in a comic most
2000ad readers rarely buy, but then Dredd's own title is probably where the best Dredd stories belong.
If that's a tricky balance to get right, the Dredd to-non-Dredd content ratio has puzzled Megazine editors since 1990, but this issue features 5 strips and 4 of them feature major Dredd characters
[1], so I'm not sure where calls to get back to core principles are coming from.
The only way the comic could be more Dredd focused is if it consisted entirely of actual Dredd strip. I'd only be in favour of that if the Meg shifted to serialising a single story per issue, giving top creators the opportunity to tell more complex stories and employ different pacing than the six page format of the weekly allows.
[1] rather than the tedious glut of anonymous judges from around the globe that clogged the arteries of the comic in the early nineties
Quote from: Butch on 18 April, 2015, 08:14:02 PMThe only way the comic could be more Dredd focused is if it consisted entirely of actual Dredd strip. I'd only be in favour of that if the Meg shifted to serialising a single story per issue, giving top creators the opportunity to tell more complex stories and employ different pacing than the six page format of the weekly allows.
I'd love that but it'll never happen.
Most 2000ad readers rarely pick up the Meg? Suppose that's right, the forum does constitute an unrepresentative group. Curious what the circulation is for both.
Quote from: JOE SOAP on 18 April, 2015, 08:27:18 PM
Quote from: Butch on 18 April, 2015, 08:14:02 PMThe only way the comic could be more Dredd focused is if it consisted entirely of actual Dredd strip. I'd only be in favour of that if the Meg shifted to serialising a single story per issue, giving top creators the opportunity to tell more complex stories and employ different pacing than the six page format of the weekly allows.
I'd love that but it'll never happen.
How awesome would a 'Commando' format Dredd monthly be. Pretty awesome.
I still don't understand why there were 8 pages of reprint from a Mega Collection in this issue. Anyone know?
Judging from what others have posted, it would appear someone failed a deadline/loss or damage to their pages, and there was a void of 8 pages, so they filled it with the first thing that came to hand.
That is just speculation though. I am trying to decide whether to renew my Meg subscription at the moment and although 8 pages of wasted pages may not be important to some I find it a bit cheap that it has just been dumped into the comic with no explanation.
These things happen, it's when it becomes a regular occurence you need to worry.
Quote from: Skullmo on 20 April, 2015, 03:50:12 PM
That is just speculation though.
True. I certainly hope that's the reason though, cause if it was always intended as 'content' rather than 'emergency filler', well that'd be a bit shit to say the least.
Quote from: James Stacey on 20 April, 2015, 12:03:04 PM
How awesome would a 'Commando' format Dredd monthly be. Pretty awesome.
Not Monthly, but I think of the Zarjaz fanzine as this
Was it a paid for advert?
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Quote from: Proudhuff on 20 April, 2015, 05:55:29 PM
Quote from: James Stacey on 20 April, 2015, 12:03:04 PM
How awesome would a 'Commando' format Dredd monthly be. Pretty awesome.
Not Monthly, but I think of the Zarjaz fanzine as this
I was thinking more of a long-format self contained story rather than the Zarjaz format (great though it is) of a number of shorter stories.
There pretty much is this longer format monthly Dredd comic already, isn't there? It's called Judge Dredd, and is published by IDW.
I'm not sure Rebellion would be in the business of putting out a competing product to something already produced by a licencing partner.
On a freelancer level, one Megazine-length Dredd story every month might be fine and dandy for the writer and artist creative team on it , but what about everyone else? There's not a huge amount of work in the UK comics industry, and removing the Megazine anthology format will seriously impact a lot of UK creators.
Some will drift away in search of other work, and the Megazine's traditional remit (admittedly not so strong these days, but it's still there) for finding and nurturing new talent will pretty much entirely disappear, with the same old lags hogging all the action in this 12 stories a year format.
I'm very sure this would eventually have a serious impact on 2000AD as well, as the talent pool available shrinks due to the change in the Megazine format.
All good arguments Gordon, which put me in mind of that astoundingly short-sighted poster who, earlier this year, kept insisting that - because he wasn't enjoying the Meg - they should just cancel the whole publication. Pretty sure he said the same about the floppy reprints, too. God forbid if he should ever stop enjoying the prog!
Sorry Gordon, I wasn't suggesting a megazine replacement. American Reaper aside, and thats a personal choice, its pretty much always great. Nor was I thinking of a IDW style ongoing series, but a stand alone single story type affair like the commando publications (or even the Dandy / Beano comic library format) It's not going to happen, I doubt very much it would be economically viable, just thought it would be cool
Great Meg.
Really enjoyed all the stories.
Even Reaper Files. It has, at its heart a very good concept.
The Cop is just superb. Really love Ben Willsher's art and the story is great.
Looking forward to next month.
Just like to add some praise to Rennie & Carters Angelic.
A terse gem.