Megazine 204

[GermanAndy]

Dredd:
I love Ennis? work, but this is not a very good beginning. The characterisation reads off, this Dredd isn?t very "young", and why establishing this early that Goodman is somehow posessed? When there isn?t a major surprise at the end of the road, this will be quite dull.

Family:
Is it me or is this hard to follow? I like the concept, but there are too much characters runing around. Who is who? and the constant switching of the story viewpoint doesn?t help either.

Juliet November:
Okay, Alan Grant can still surprise me. Didn?t see this ending coming. Even if the love-thing was a bit hard to swallow. Great artwork.

Bad Karma:
Can?t get into it.

TPO:
Great as always.

Time Killer:
This is fun, my, the Fabrey art was good. Only knew his covers. Hard to believe that this is the same writer who does Bad Karma.

Darkie?s Mob:
I don?t believe it. This was done for kids? "Take scalps"? Great stuff, still powerful as hell. If "Charley?s War" is half as good, I can?t await the reprint. If they do one.

Devlin Waugh:
Good story, great artwork.

Good MEG *g*

[Slippery PD]

Well my take,

Dredd -  Sure its full of holes, but it should be interesting.  Ennis deserves a break on his dredds, at themoment Im willing to give him one.

Juliet Novemeber - I hadnt liked this at all, but the end sure was a shock.

Family - Well its like the Soprano's on acid. It seems to have an older focus than many of the stories we have seen, but my one complaint!  The story is not clear, whether thats deliberate (by the normally outstanding Simon Fraser) or due to the sc ripting Im not sure.  Other wise very good, and it is becoming better asd the story progresses.

Bad karma - this has taken a swing now, wetheer that swing is good or bad Im not sure.  Lets hope we are not in for a mills rant.

Reprints - both are great.  

Waugh - good story and some very nice touches int it.  And well the Art is superb.

TPO - astounding as usual.

Ter Slippo

[Tiplodocus]

Odders,
Just intrigued that you thought that SIN?DEX stretching out an *old* joke that could have been told in two panels into a page long strip was a better use of SIN/DEX.  

It's a joke that requires timing (hard to do in a comic, even with elipses) and is an aural pun (again, hard to do when you see the one word WRITTEN down rather than hear it).  

I really would have been ashamed to send in an invoice for "writing" that page.

Liked the DREDD though I share the resaervations about him being so cocksure.  Liked Devlin, Liked the reprints, not read Family and Siddha yet which probably is my comment on them. I wanted to like Juliet November just because it was so different but I don't think I di in the end.

Here's a question for Tharg: Why must Future SHock submissions be five pages these days.  I'm sure plenty of the ideas he gets would benefit from being 2, 3 or 4 pagers like this one (or like the Apocalypse Soon tale).

I thought Rennie was right about Crisis even though Fair Trade coffee is really the only stuff you should buy these days.

[Oddboy]

Tips - I meant the series of 1 pagers in general rather than specifically this episode.
Also, the page wasn't just the joke that Finny told (if it was then yes, a couple of panels would have done).
What I'm saying is that keeping it short keeps it good - whereas stretching one joke over 5 pages a week for 3 weeks isn't so good.

[paulvonscott]

I'll give my view on this latest Ennis Dredd.  

On the continuity problems first.  Not a big deal, but by setting it in the present it might have got rid of the liklehood of them happening.  I haven't seen yet a reason in the strip why it should be set in the past, maybe they just fancied it which is fair enough.  But the story looks like it could have been set anytime.

So far, it's largely avoided being the epic I expected from the preview.  And what lies in the wreck is quite intriguing (evidence of what the spirit alien thing is and how it got there). I'm getting that early hellblazer feel, where I actually liked where the story was going, but not very keen on the actual writing.

Over a pint a few weeks back I stuck up for Higgins new style of art, and I like it here, but in places, some of it is getting too cartoony for me.  As a reader it jars me when I go from fairly realistially portrayed characters to cartoony ones.

As a story it doesn't inspire me to love it or loathe it.  Few niggles, few intrigues.  So I'm probably a bit indifferent, which as I'm not a fan of Ennis' work isn't too surprising.

Juliet November was a surprise, all light heartedand then, woomf!  Nasty.  Sadly I guess that means we'll see no more of her.  

I like how there have been a few Dredd spin offs like kleggs, november and monkey (despite my views on it), at least the Mgeazine is still doing part of what it was originally inteded to.  not that I'd get rid of the new features.

[mongor2003]

Pretty impressed this month.

Cover : Not the best, but certainly not the worst either.

Dredd : Nice, I think Dredd actually Does come off as being younger. He's certainly more "do things by the book" than he is now, I mean, can you really imagine him shooting a little kid now?

Juliet November : Excellent, I love the way this has gone from a Bridget Jones chick flick into Carrie on acid. Nasty.

Black Siddah : For some reason I really like this, Hoping it'll turn into a "Bollywood" superhero as opposed to a mystical rant.

Family : Excellent art but the storys starting to piss me off a bit now. Who are these peolpe ? Why should I care about them ? The characters need fleshing out a bit otherwise this is going to lose its way which would be a shame cos its got potential.

Devlin waugh : Brilliantly atmospheric but is it just me or is the art looking a little muddy this month.

Sinister dexter : Cheesy fun.

Apocalypse Soon : More please, Death and Famine with the Nachos was laugh out loud funny, Lets just have a few more pages next month.

Daily star Dredd : Nice to see these again, once again, more would be nice.

Slaine : Shit-hot. Love it when Slaine bitch slaps the guy. and the story of "pluke" was one of the funniest bits of jet-black comedy i've read for ages.

Darkies Mob : This just gets more OTT by the episode, Absolute classic stuff.

TPO : One episode left - this will be missed.

All in all, a wonderfull evenings entertainment.

[Wake]

I'm quite liking Garth Ennis' story so far, but IMO it is badly let down by the artwork. Partly this is because I don't like the style, but mostly it's because the judges bear no resemblance to the judge of 2099. Remember this is just 3 months before prog 2, and they aren't armed with Mk1 lawgivers, and seem to be wearing a uniform which looks like a cross between the movie and the DC Dredd series.

Classic artists aside, this would have been an excellent opportunity to give Rufus Dayglo a shot.

Link: Courtroom by Chris Lowder as drawn by Rufus

[ukdane]

How camp does he look?

[DavidXBrunt]

I posted a long review earlier. Where's it gone?

But to answer Oddboys question about 'Apocalypse Soon' - Yes, it is a reprint. It's a reprint of a chapter of Pratchett and Gaimans 'Good Omens'.

[paulvonscott]

Yeah, I'd also like to see some Rufus Dredd appear in the meg.

[Leigh S]

Anyone else notice the "from an idea by John Higgins" at the bottom of the first page?  Does this mean we can't slag it off anymore.  I'm confused...

[paulvonscott]

No, it means we aren't allowed to like John Higgins, I think :)

When did Higgins change his style?

[McNulty]

Okay, I want to talk about the Dredd.
Firstly, I will reiterate some of the concerns others have voiced. This story is set in 2099, but it just doesn't have the feel of the early Dredd stories. For one thing, if you read the early Dredds, the citizens were by and large in favour of the Judges, who were considered as their protectors. I certainly wouldn't have Dredd of this time pointing a gun at a young boy whose Dad's just been shot dead in front of him. And there wasn't any of those pervy bondage gangs running about in those early Dredds either.
The uniforms might be different, and the guns aren't the mk 1 Lawgivers, and the West Wall shouldn't even be there. Am I being too pedantic? I don't think so. If you are writing a story about Judge Dredd's past, then you should keep the spirit of those times in mind.
I don't want to be too damning, so I will reserve final judgement until I've read the entire story.

Link: The A-Z of Cal-Hab

[Tiplodocus]

Thinking back about the DREDD though, maybe his cocksure attitude is right.  There were stories where CJ said "Send in the riot squad" and JD said "Bollocks to that! (I'm in Ennis mode now). I'll take them on myself".  EG: The very first Dredd with Whitey and that Punks Rule thing after Judge Cal. So him being all cocky and stomping into the affected area would be OK.  All the other stuff (wrong lawgiver, etc) I can't say I'm bothered about.  I am enjoying it, I like the hook of "What's in the desert?" But WILL there be a compelling reason for it to be set in the past?

Odders, you are right - Sin/Dex jokes are better at one page than 5.

And I'm with PVS - I'm sure I can remember a panel of the bloke tugging at the airlock in the Future Shock - are we sure there isn't a page missing?

Finally read Black Siddha and Family; enjoyed the former most (a lot is explained but not a lot happens) and I've come to the conclusion that like Bernadette's Vienetta, I don't care about any of the characters in Family. Which is a shame.

I always like it when people review things as
"It's like Jackanory on acid"
or
"It makes Se7en look like 3 and a half".

It sounds like very lazy tabloid film reviewers desperate to get mentioned on the video box.

[Wake]

I've just dug out Prog 52. Solo Flip is a 3 page FS. The Megazine reprint is missing page 2, where the guy goes stir crazy.

How many pages are in the reprint in Quality Time Twisters 14?

Wake