New Prog and Megazine

[Leigh S]

Prog first

The good news: The cover's nice - much better than the standard pose covers we see far too much of these days.

Dredd:  Possibly the worst art ever on Dredd?  It's  incomprehensibly bad - like something drawn on the back of a toilet door.  A hideously advanced case of  Regressive Bisleyitus, that I'd hoped we'd seen the last of a long time ago.  NO MORE!

Future Shock:  "There are an infinite number of tales waiting to be told", apparently.  So why this shit ever made it into the comic I cannot fathom.  Inpenetrable art from McCarthy doesnt help, but the story is such an old cliche.  Once again this old cynic's head was shaking in disbelief...  

Luckily the Scrap remains interesting, though Rogue still appears to be going nowhere at present - another bunch of near identikit norts appear. The setting is "Nu Earth" enough, but theres an intangible feeling of something missing.  The swearing still doesnt help...


The Megazine, thankfully, is a revelation.  Good strips for McNulty and Durham Red.  Scarlet Traces is just fine and makes the Megazine an even meatier read.  As PVS said, the TPO article seems very - erm - tactful this month, not commenting on McKenzies plethora of writing credits, or on the Fleischer factor..... but I foresee interesting stuff next month hopefully.

[Slippery PD]

Heres mine:
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P
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Cover - Didnt do much for me I have to say
Dredd - I agree with Watcher, the art was pretty poor.  The story, however, I liked.  Pretty tongue in cheek and had another of those references to present day (child deliquency).  Although my one gripe is that I would have loved to have seen Dredd getting badly hurt by the kids :-)
Future Shock - A filler, did nought for me, at all.
SinDex - I dislike SinDex, they leave me colder than a dead fish in ice.  
the Scrap - Nice little story this.  Lots to kep you interested, nice parallel story line running in this episode.  My favourite new strip for a while.
Rogue- Some souther soldiers die, rogue comes to the rescue.  Thats it.  The place is very nu earthy.  But I really want the Biochips to come to life, Mad Bagman, Gunnar losing it when killing, Helm pinnig over Venus.  

The stories seem t be lacking something,could be character.  Wether that is Nu-Earth (fort neuro) or the biochips (Bagman blues) I cant really say.  

- Yer Slippo

[Leigh S]

Yeah the story is quite funny - If they'd merged this with the similarly themed McMahon one from a couple of weeks ago, and let him do the art chores, it could have been a little gem...

By the way, sitting here reading my original post I apologise for calling the FS shit - that's a little harsh even by my own hateful standards! :)  It is however, not what I expect in my weekly  - If this is the best that the slush pile can throw up, I can see why Tharg is calling it a day with unsolicited stuff, though there surely is to God better stuff out there?  

[John Caliber]

Hmm - the Megazine is so superior to 2000AD these days it's almost not worth bothering buying the latter any more, save for the occasional Dredd. Ho-hum.

- TCC

[W. R. Logan]

>The good news: The cover's nice - much better than the standard pose covers we see far too much of these days

Have to disagree, not just because of my dislike of sin/dex but the cover art is just shite!

La Placa Rifa,
W. R. Logan.

Link: Class Of '79 Yahoo Group

[HiEx]

Still waiting for prog 1310 to arrive by post, but from reading all your comments, is it safe to say that prog 1310 is a bit of a Bison then?

HiEx

[Matt]

The latest prog doesn't cry out to be read. I guess we'll have to wait until prog 1313 for anything of interest. my money is on Judge Giant or Max Normal returning to Dredd. If it's only bloody Mrs. Gunderson I'll be well hacked off.

[Leigh S]

I pretty much hate Sin Dex these days as well, but I crave any cover that isnt a bog standard portrait of one of the characters - And I'm noty normally a huge fan of Peter Dohertys work either, but the cover worked for me in terms of actually showing something happening - not the greatest cover ever, sure, but better than the string of deadly dull character shots that 2000AD has had for a number of years now - comic covers should show weird and wonderful things happening to entice readers in - some guy (or gal) staring moodily out of the cover isnt particularly intriguing....

[Art]

Still waiting for prog 1310 to arrive by post, but from reading all your comments, is it safe to say that prog 1310 is a bit of a Bison then?

Au contraire, the prog is saved by the presence of The Scrap, which is turning out to be very, very good indeed.

[paulvonscott]

I like the scarp and I enjoyed this weeks as fought of beer/wine induced uncosnciousness.  

I think it's going a bit far up Spurrier's Plumbing to say that the whole prog was worthwhile for scrap alone, but with a Jokey (although for me enjoyable) Dredd it was the strip that had the most about it.

I liked how even the computer was a reject from the overworld.  But why was it rejected?  Was that a false war test and it failed, or was it a real war or was it they were worried it was trigger happy? Wasn't very clear to me, but then this prog seems to have had that effect on me.

[roystead]

On the prog - Scrap is *really* looking good so far.

The Future "Shock" was a bit...Well, put it this way: Does anybody else remember a TV series called "Roald Dahl's Tales of the Bleedin' Obvious"?

I enjoyed the Dredd, Rogue was an over-long set-up episode in which nowt really happened and I breathed a sigh of relief that the current SinDex arc is finally finished (which I say as someone who's quite enjoyed a lot of SinDex, but this arc has been utter shite).

On the Megazine strips - the entire thing was excellent, with special mentions to "Scarlet Traces" and This issue's Scarlet Apocrypha.

Finally, Thrill Power Overload. This was the first installment of this series which left me with a "so what?" feeling. It told me nothing of interest, and felt like a mere listing of which stories started and ended in which progs. Where's the gossip? The behind-the-scenes intrigue? The back-biting?

Where, in short, are the tales of Maxwell which were vaguely hinted at ("buying my silence..."?) but not actually revealed. Even the Wagner anecdote with the Dredd memorabilia was told better in the Mega-History book. Ah, Bish-OP, I expect so much more from your histories. I hope next month's will be more revealing...

Roy

[Matt]

I suspect that seen as Alan McKenzie refused to be interviewed Bishop didn't have a lot to go on. As for Maxwell, he maybe a long time dead, but I'm sure his estate would soon start libel procedings for any ancedote that couldn't be backed-up. Something I'm sure The Meg would rather avoid.

[roystead]

You can't "libel" someone who is dead - libel law applies only to the living.

[Matt]

...alright, but they'd do some kinda legal thingy.

[Matt]

A corporation can sue for libel if you say they've been up to dodgy business practices.