Messages

Cover: Great.

Judge Dredd Regime Change: What a fantastic story, with some great art. The 'pin-head' Dredd art syndrome is less noticable in this issue, but there's still a couple of panels where Dredd's biceps are obviously bigger than his head! Nice to see an artist who can draw the Lawgiver MKII correctly as well. It's a pet peeve of mine when artists muck it up, as unlike the old MKI, there is reference material to work from. I really hope this story continues at it's present standard for at least another 2 or 3 issues.

Fiends: Colin MacNeil does gorgeous art, no doubt about that, but he recently seems to get stuck with these slower-paced stories, which as others have mentioned, don't work well at only 6 pages a month. The last Devlin Waugh story he drew for the Meg suffered the same problem as well. I'd definitely like to see Fiends get 12 pages a month instead.

Ian Edginton interview: facsinating interview. It dosen't mention if The Great Game will be published in the Meg or not though, only mentions Dark Horse. I certainly hope it gets published in the Meg.

Dredd Compulsory Purchase: Got this in one of the GNs and only re-read it recently as well, so I skipped it. Certainly better than Charlies's War reprint though. Don't get me wrong, I think the first few eps of Charlies War were good (not great as some say though). However, it gets very  repetative quickly (ok, Pat, we get war is hell) and I certainly don't want to see all 300 episodes or however many there are, reprinted in the Meg. Enough is enough already. The Meg & Tooth are Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror anthologies and I'm of the firm belief that a war story based on a real war just does not belong. I've got nothing against war stories, if they are of the sci-fi variety, such as The VCs, Rogue Trooper, Halo Jones book 3 etc, but I really don't want to see WWI, WWII, Korean War, Vietnam, War, Gulf War I & II etc stories in the Meg or Tooth.......OK rant off.

Black Siddha - Tried again, I honestly did, but I just can't follow this. In a couple of panels this month, I thought I was looking at SinDex.

Small Press - Mr Amperduke: Great story. Originally, I was a bit skeptical about this smallpress stuff in the Meg, but it seems to be working out nicely.

Tales From The Black Museum -  Haven't read it yet. The abstract art style put me off a bit, so I'm saving it until later.

20 Best GNs: Hmm.........only a few of those would make my personal top 20 list. Far to much Yank men-in-tights stuff on that list for my taste.

HiEx

Just got my Prog & Meg in the post last night.

Cover: Continues the recent strong run of covers.

Judge Dredd: Hmm.........yes, that's definitely not Dredd in the last few panels. He's obviously been either brain-washed or kidnapped by Aliens and replaced by a 'nice-Dredd'. Not a bad story, but I think John Smith hasn't quite got the character down yet.

VCs: Good ep. Nice to see that Kali and the other guy (sorry forgot his name)aren't dead yet. Looking forward to seeing how it all wraps up next prog. I'm hoping this isn't really the final VCs story. I'd like to see it continue, but with a different artist who can draw grittier war stories, like Hennry Flint or Cam Kennedy.

Red Seas: Saving this for later. I have to be in the right mood to face this.

London Falling: Didn't have time to read it yet.

HiEx

I'm all for having Carlos redraw Final Solution and wagner rewritting it so that Johnny doesn't die.

HiEx

Even though I've already got the SD: Early Cases GN, I'd gladly buy the same stories again, in a Case Files format book.

Anybody want to calculate if each SD: Case Files book held say 55 episodes each, how many books would we get in all?

HiEx

It is a bit of a problem, especially with the Stronty book and some of the Dredd Case Files also.

I've no objection to a two page spread being broken up to make it legible. Better than not being able to read some of the text.

Overall, despite this issue and some printing problems in my copy of Brothers of the blood, I've been very impressed by Rebellion's graphic novel line so far.

Would still like to see a complete set of Strontium Dog stories (including Starlord ones) in a Case Files format though.

HiEx

I used to order from Amazon all the time, but have completely given up on them for 2000AD graphic novels. They constantly list the 2K GNs as not released yet, when in fact they have been out for ages.

Much easier and quicker just to order from the 2000AD shop, plus they are much friendlier if you ever need to talk to anybody. Denise is a doll and always helpful.

HiEx

Very late review.

Cover. Great. I love anything by Cliff Robinson.

Dredd: Moving along nicely, but what's up with the Judge on pages 4 & 5 that has a hook in place of his right hand. Hello, a HOOK! This is the 22nd century, not the 16th, why with all the advanced technology available does he have a hook? We know from several previous stories, that the many Judges who lost their right hands to booby-trapped Lawgiver MKIIs in the Doomsday saga had theri hands replaced with functioning  robotic hands. Is Justice Department so low on funds now that all it can afford for this poor judge is a hook?

VCs: Good episode.

Red Seas. Pace flagging a bit in this ep. Art is more sketchy and unfinished looking than usual.

Harry Kippling: Top Hole, old chap. Best thing in the prog this week. More please. It's nice to have a bit of back story.

London falling. 2nd best thing this week.

HiEx

Cover: Fantastic.

Dredd: Coming on nicely. A minor niggle in that the Lawgiver doesn't look at all like a MKII. Nice to see those dirty Sovs back in action again. My enjoyment of the story may be spoilt slightly by my impatience for Origins to start. Hope the Bungee guy gets taken out by the Sovs next week. I've never liked extreme sports weirdos and the guy has shown himself to be pretty stupid as well.

Kipling: Best thing in the prog this week. I'm lovin it! Fantastic art from Boo as usual (give him more Dredd to draw please).

VC: An improvement over last weeks episode. The pace is picking up and I'm actually looking forward to finding out what happens next. For a gritty war story like this, I'd really love to see either Henry Flint, Cam Kennedy or Colin Wislon on art duties though.

Red Seas: Storywise, 2nd best thing in the prog, but I still can't get into Yeowell's art. Never have been able to. As others have mentioed, great Dinosaur shiruken action.

London Falling: Strong continuation from last week, but art is a but blurry in places.  Looking forward to seeing what happend next.

Overall: Best prog in a while, no real weak stories.

Hi-Ex

Spectrum games.

Hi-Ex

Miami Vice, best TV series ever!

80's Hawkwind, Iron Maiden & Fish-era Marillion! Got me through my teens they did.

Hi-Ex

Cover: Nice.

Dredd: I also noticed that BOING was mentioned by the journalist, but the two extreme sports weirdos seemed to be bungee jumping, not using BOING. Was this a case of the artist misintepreting the script, or just the journalist being a typical journalist, i.e. not knowing his arse from his elbow and getting the details wrong in typical journalistic fashion? Anyway, the first part of the story hasn't really got me hooked.

London Falling: Liked  both the story and art a lot. Looking forward to reading more of this. I think the art suits the story perfectly.

Red Seas: Not usually a fan of pirate tales or Yeowall's art, but the recent story arc and this latest episode is intriguing

VCs: This latest book is not really doing anything for me.

Roll on Prog 1500 & Origins!

Hi-Ex

The story 'It's Happening on Line 9' has been reprinted at least once in a graphic novel.

I'll have to check when I get home, but IIRC it was in one of the 4 vol set of Fleetway's 'Judge Dredd's Crime File' series.

Hi-Ex

Sigh.......my subs envelope arrived in the post, feeling so thin. Can this really contain both a Prog and a Meg thought I. Still not used to this reduced size Meg-Lite yet I'm afraid, It just doesn't feel right.

Anyway, fantastic cover from Rufus. More please.

JD Regime Change: Interesting first episode. Enjoying the story and most of the art, except for the way Dredd is drawn. The already mentioned Judge Thrudd comparison is extremely apt.

Fiends: Also get the feeling that this is going to be better read in one go when it's finished. I'd completely forgotten what happened last episode. MacNeil's Constanta looks very different from Ezquerra's version.

Alan Moore article: The main article itself was a good read, although didn't really contain anything that hasn't been published before.

Top 20 facts about Moore: What a complete waste of 3 pages. Neither funny, nor informative. Booo!

Dredd Reprint: A good story, but read it many times before. Still anything is better than the dire Charlie's War.

Black Siddha: Never a fan of this strip. Glanced though it, bit confusing thise week.

I Married Ghost Girl: Enjoyed this.

Tales of The Black Museum: Average.

Hi-Ex

Yep, dies in the 'Any Confessions' story in Prog 201 (28 Feb 1981), illustrated by Ian Gibson.

Hi-Ex

Looks like I'm the only one to notice that the pistol on the cover is obviously a copy of the pistol Harrison Ford's character uses in Blade Runner.

Do I win a prize? :-)

Graham