Meg 305

[Robin Low]

I found it very interesting to read the early Gronk again stuff in one go - I appreciated it much more than I did at the time,

I was pleased to find that I still like it - it's not just nostalgia.

It's interesting how much of a bastard the Gronk comes across as, killing people left, right and centre (I'm sure this gets toned down a lot in subsequent stories.)

I think that's true. The Gronk is certainly more relaxed once Hogan takes over, but I suppose that is after the Gronk has had his revenge.

Dobbyn's art is great fun too (but wait till 'The Darkest Star', he has some phenomenal pages in that.)

It's just stuffed full of action, humour and creativity, working very well with a script from Ennis who manages to make it funny without being scatalogical, and violent without just trying to shock. I love the scene where the ship's crew decide the Gronk is probably just sleeping with his eyes open. There might be a few two many "number fours cartridges!", but spread over several issues you probably wouldn't notice, only in a collection.

I reckon the exact moment it all really starts to work is Part 2 of 'How The Gronk Got His Heartses' - the idea of the Gronk protagonist suddenly gains an extra level, and the last two pages are wonderful. (I may be biased 'cos I own the last page though... and the cover to the collection.)

This still has to be Ennis's best story in 2000AD - I'd say his best ever, but I've not read anything by him for years now. It feels like he's just telling an honest story - no cheap dirty jokes, no gratuitous sadism, no point-making, just a bitter-sweet interlude in a tale of vengeance.

Regards

Robin

[Greg M.]

This still has to be Ennis's best story in 2000AD - I'd say his best ever, but I've not read anything by him for years now. It feels like he's just telling an honest story - no cheap dirty jokes, no gratuitous sadism, no point-making, just a bitter-sweet interlude in a tale of vengeance.

The closing narration actually reminds me enormously of one particular chapter in 'Watership Down', or more correctly the film adaptation – the rabbit creation myth section, where Frith (God, also depicted as a stylised sun just as in the Gronk story) tells the ur-rabbit "All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies...." Irrespective, it's a wonderful moment in 'Heartses'. I find that I do agree with you on the honesty of the story – what I dislike about much of Ennis's non-2000AD work is the contrived effort to get in something crude for, as you rightly say, a cheap laugh. Not that I'm opposed to good dirty joke, of course, but it gets a bit tiresome when you want a solid narrative instead of an endless series of gags about someone getting bummed.

[Robin Low]

This still has to be Ennis's best story in 2000AD - I'd say his best ever, but I've not read anything by him for years now. It feels like he's just telling an honest story - no cheap dirty jokes, no gratuitous sadism, no point-making, just a bitter-sweet interlude in a tale of vengeance.

The closing narration actually reminds me enormously of one particular chapter in 'Watership Down', or more correctly the film adaptation – the rabbit creation myth section, where Frith (God, also depicted as a stylised sun just as in the Gronk story) tells the ur-rabbit "All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies...."

That's an interesting point. I haven't seen Watership Down in years, but now you mention it I do remember the stylised sun and those words. Not sure what to think about that - do we see it as homage or simple plagiarism? Not that my feelings are going to change about the story itself - if you are going to nick ideas, at least do something good with them (and for all I know Richard Adams might easily have nicked those same words from some other folk tale or animal fable).

On an artistic note, I find my self constantly looking at the Gronk's feet and arms and hands. The feet are, well, just fascinating to look at in their own right, and the arms and hands are weird, but Dobbyn makes them look entirely natural and believable. Just look at the way they hold the gun on the cover, or that bucket of water he throws over Feral at the start of part 6.

Regards

Robin

[Greg M.]

That's an interesting point. I haven't seen Watership Down in years, but now you mention it I do remember the stylised sun and those words. Not sure what to think about that - do we see it as homage or simple plagiarism? Not that my feelings are going to change about the story itself - if you are going to nick ideas, at least do something good with them (and for all I know Richard Adams might easily have nicked those same words from some other folk tale or animal fable).

If it's intentional, I'm happy to think of it as a charming little nod of the head to a great children's novel. After all, folk tales are an oral tradition: the inclusion of words or elements from a previous tale of small, furry heroism creates a kind of line of continuity stretching back through the ages and emphasising the telling and re-telling of such tales and their mythic power.

On an artistic note, I find my self constantly looking at the Gronk's feet and arms and hands. The feet are, well, just fascinating to look at in their own right, and the arms and hands are weird, but Dobbyn makes them look entirely natural and believable. Just look at the way they hold the gun on the cover, or that bucket of water he throws over Feral at the start of part 6.

As for the Gronk's arms... I think the trick to their naturalistic quality is that they seem to work in conjunction as two sets of pairs, so that at any time two of the arms are usually doing something similar. This seems realistic to me, in that they're not depicted as weird tentacles operating entirely independently of each other (think about the trouble most of us have rubbing our stomachs and patting our heads at the same time.) The pairing seems to alternate between both the left arms doing something similar and both the right, or both the top two and both the bottom two. There's obviously a lot of thought gone into them.

What I've just noticed (and it may just be the print quality of the reprint or the light I'm reading this in) but after the Gronk is resurrected, he changes colour. He's depicted as quite pale pre-heart attack, but afterwards he's painted in much redder tones, as if to symbolise his rage. Nice touch.

[Robin Low]

What I've just noticed (and it may just be the print quality of the reprint or the light I'm reading this in) but after the Gronk is resurrected, he changes colour. He's depicted as quite pale pre-heart attack, but afterwards he's painted in much redder tones, as if to symbolise his rage. Nice touch.

Clever. I'd not spotted that.

Just been looking at your art collection and thought I ought draw everyone's attention to this beauty:

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=665844&GSub=102213

Regardless of what each of us thinks of the story, art as good as this is deserving of a large format book with expensive glossy paper. It is simply magnificent.

Regards

Robin

[Jared Katooie]

It's a crime that Nigel Dobbyn's work hasn't received the full acclaim it deserves.

Even if he does like the I.T. Crowd.

[Greg M.]

Just been looking at your art collection and thought I ought draw everyone's attention to this beauty:

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=665844&GSub=102213

Regardless of what each of us thinks of the story, art as good as this is deserving of a large format book with expensive glossy paper. It is simply magnificent.

Some of 'The Darkest Star' artwork is truly stunning, especially when you see the original - there's a lot of fine detail there. That piece was definitely one occasion where seeing it in the prog didn't quite prepare me for how lovely it would look "in person" - it's really gorgeous work. Paul Brown on CAF has a particularly superb piece that I'm suitably enamoured with:

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=632598&GSub=97852

So evocative and atmospheric - Lovecraftian in its delicious horribleness!

For those interested, Fatboydale has several Dobbyn pieces on ebay right now - I'd heartily recommend a page or two of Dobbyn for anyone's collection.

[zombemybabynow]

brilliant brilliant meg

[locustsofdeath!]

Haven't allowed myself to read Insurrection 2 yet until I reread the first part - any of you lads recall which Megs the first series ran in?

[Buttonman]

Haven't allowed myself to read Insurrection 2 yet until I reread the first part - any of you lads recall which Megs the first series ran in?

Barney says : Insurrection 6 episodes (Megs 279 to 284)

[Dunk!]

It's one of those rare occasions when i buy the Meg 'cos it's a mini 2000ad graphic novel - that I've wanted to reread for a while - with a free magazine attached.

Good stuff.

Keep it up and I'll probably get next months too.

[SmallBlueThing]

Superb Meg, with a Dredd that used the rhyming thing to the best advantage since that iso block 666 story, all those years ago. Nice art too. Lily, I want to see more of, Insurrection was groovy and the new thing was splendid. Good interviews, liam shap seems very grounded and pleasant- and having just enjoyed Grandville Mon Amour, the bryan talbot thing was most welcome. Pleasing to note there will be more.

Having appalling memories of stronts, i wasnt even going to bother with this... but the good things said here, and a spare half hour, resulted in me reading it, and blimey, it's a corker. Hugely enjoyable, and quite touching in parts. Looking forward to next month's now.
SBT

[Robin Low]

Having appalling memories of stronts, i wasnt even going to bother with this... but the good things said here, and a spare half hour, resulted in me reading it, and blimey, it's a corker. Hugely enjoyable, and quite touching in parts. Looking forward to next month's now.
SBT

Thanks for that - make me feel much better about banging on and on about it!

I suppose I should comment more on the rest of the Meg.

I quite enjoyed the Dredd story, even though it wasn't really a Dredd story. I have to admit that I wasn't interested in seeing Liam Sharp return, despite his fine line in busty women. In fact I think my original dislike of P.J.Maybe stemmed from his art. On the whole, though, I did like this, despite it being a bit a mish-mash of the photo-realistic and the oddly spongey, and perhaps a little lacking in movement.

Insurrection is the obvious other contender for best story. I have a long-standing problem with seeing MC1 Judges presented as villains (I prefer old-school tough-but-fair), but I'd have to force myself to dislike this stuff. It's a good romp that moves along at a good pace, with great art. I just find myself wanting to see Dredd arrive to sort everything out in a tough, but fair, manner.

Lilly Mac is a bit of any odd one. Nicely drawn, nicely told and very readable, but I'm left thinking, so what? Lilly goes to planet. Lilly meets brother. Lilly escapes planet. Cosmo is shown to be one decent lil dude. This might work better as a collection, and I suspect it deserves a second reading.

Too early to say much about Samizdat Squad, but the set-up is interesting. It does, however, suffer from a problem that has affected many strips in 2000AD for years now, namely that the central characters are not distinctive enough. Look at Dredd, Alpha, Rogue Trooper, the ABC Warriors, Slaine, Dante, Durham Red, Kano, Lobster Random, Sam Slade, Zombo - these characters all have very distinctive, striking images. They've been designed to stand out on a page or a cover. A mole and a sulky expression are just not enough for a lead character. True, there is Halo Jones, but I think she got away with it because female characters were rarer back them (and Ian Gibson was drawing her). It might be an unfair criticism, but I prefer comic characters to really catch my eye.


Regards

Robin

[JayzusB.Christ]

oddly spongey

Art review of the year!

Me, I really liked most of the Meg this month, which is unusual for me these days.

The Dredd made me laugh out loud, something that hasn't happened in the Meg or 2000ad since that faulty lawyer droid.

The Sov squad thing looks interesting. And me, I don't mind the film reviews - especially when they're about that video nasty thing for example, which I will watch and wouldn't have heard of otherwise.

But the Gronk... I hated it then and I hate it now, I'm afraid. And next month more of the same, with the wanton demystification of the Lyran race thrown in.    Not Garth's finest hour, in my book.

But all in all, a huge improvement in the Megazine. (Could do with one more strip, though - four isn't enough to wait a month for.)

[vzzbux]

Like the first Strontium Dogs GN, I believe this is all for the return of SD in the prog. Seriously looking like the Gronk will feature in the upcoming continuation of Alpha's resurrection.





V