Meg 2.05

[longmanshort]

My word, Pat Mills really did let rip in TPO didn't he!

"Creator-baiter"? Sounds like some pseudo-homosexual Deep South American white trash night time nefarious activity, if you ask me!

Though, TBH, considering the recent quality of Pat's stuff, you can't really blame Mr Diggle for getting his scalpel out!

Link: The Upsetting World of Longman Short

[Leigh S]

Yeah - potentially the most interesting comment from Pat is his bold claim that we'll start to see better stories from him.... The recent Slaine - pre or post Diggle? Theres certainly no sign of improvement there.

In fact the best Pat stuff IMO has been some of the humour in the ABC Warriors run (the trible stuff was classic Mills wordplay) and the Deadlock series.  Mills might have found Diggles approach frustrating considering he considers himself above the kind of editing he was so fond of in his day, but to my mind, the writing seemed much better (certanly less boring Khaos lectures and a few more fun ideas).

 

[thinky]

having been away from 2thou for so long, i reserved judgement on Slaine (which i never really took to in the first place). The last series defitely seemed like the writer was going through the motions and i found it boring.

From all accounts Andy Diggle dared to challenge the old-school, and the old-school in turn decided to have a (unedited!) whinge about it. shame.

[thinky]

oh, and Black Siddah is pointless, and is shown up by the rest of the issue. lovely art though - very Sean Phillips. at least to my 'still stuck in the 90's' eye

[Mangamax]

Reckon the Deadlock tale was the best thing Mills has done recently, with a bit of dialogue easily in my top ten 2000 AD sound bites:

"... nothing can stop me cleansing the galaxy of all alien life-forms... with their offensive personal habits, unspeakable appendages and strange wobbly bits"

[Art]

Ooh, you guys are going to hate me for this, but I have to say that I'm enjoying "Monkey" way more than the last few Wagner Dredds in the Meg.

[DavidXBrunt]

But I've just looked in Meg 2.05 and I can't see any quote from Mills. All I can see it Devlin Waugh and the Soul Sisters...

[DavidXBrunt]

Sorry.

[Tiplodocus]

Enjoyed the Meg again.
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DREDD: MONKEY IN A HAT - this tale is going nicely, like the little character touches in the dialogue in particular the "You in a hurry to get old?" and the "All?"/"All" exchange.  I wasn't quite sure about the scenes where the Monkey shows how eveil it is by shooting the Judge - I could see the need for the scene - after all, so far the Monkey has made nice if stupid laws - but I'm not sure of the way it played out. I think Higgins art is great.

Apocalypse Soon - fun if slight. Reminded me of the story about the time Peter O'Toole appeared on The Letterman show(?)

Young Middenface: Loved this.  The art is beutiful and the story has resonance beyond the usual action adventure stuff.  I really loved the "But a man needs to have blood on his hands..." from Bonnie Charlie - a few armchair war fans could do with reading this.

Darkies Mob:  There's a monkey, but I can't see the hat.  Still solid enjoyable

Slaine: OKish but I don't seem to recall all of the preachy stuff when I first read it. Maybe I just ignored it in favour of the action story.

Black Siddha: Again I'm enjoying this despite myself. It is a different character ste/backdrop to that which we are usually served up and that has to be welcome even if it looks like it may end up like the usual rant at times.

Interrogation Cube: Odd that Ridgeway likes his science fiction books to be "technically accurate" but his film choices are quite the opposite.

Thrill Power Overload:  Enjoyed this series immensely. Thanks to Bish-Op for writing it and Mister Barnes for publishing it.  I felt a  bit sorry for both sides in the Diggle/Mills thing. I had a similar run in with a boss once where they thought I was being evil and manipulative and I'm not sure what I did wrong.  It's a pain when someone that you respect and woiuld like to work for ends up at loggerheads with you. Also, In twenty years time I look forward to hearing the full story about sub-editing/rewriting Dante?  Incidentally, are the two Dante books that got swapped about now irreversably set that way? COuld it be that when they are relased as trade paperbacks, they are restored to the correct order?

Family: Still don't know/care who anybody is in this.  It's a shame because you can see the effort that has gone into making the premise engaging but the chgaracters just haven't clicked for me.

Devlin Waugh: Good solid adventure, hooror, gore fest.

Overall, I really enjoyed this issue.  More pelase.

[Slippery PD]

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Dredd - Im with Art here. Im liking this. Hopefully its Ennis finding a "Dredd Touch"  And the art, thank you very much its brilliant.
Appocolypse Soon - Good throwaway filler.
Slaine/Darkies Mob - Im beginning to like Darkies Mob more.  However much I like Slaine.
Middenface - MORE RIDGEWAY!  and the story is pretty good too.  Some of the parallels are great, highland clearances, bonnie prince charlie.  Im rather glad Im Scots!!
Blck Siddha - Well we are now out of the "introduction" period, Id like to see the gust of this story.
Family - I think the opposite is possibly true.  We never had an "introduction" period.  But Im actually beginning to get into it and I really like Si Frasers art.  Brilliant
Devlin - is still too short!!!

Yer Slippo

[Trout]

I really enjoyed the Ennis Dredd, Darkie's Mob, Young Middenface (wins me points! yea!) and Devlin Waugh.

I can't get into Black Siddha and I've read the Slaine stuff many times before, so I skipped it.

I was enjoying Family, but I find it hard to follow in this short, episodic form. I'm sure I'll enjoy it more on an intensive re-read.

But the comments on this thread are telling - TPO was the best part of the Meg, wasn't it?

Fascinating stuff.
Clearly, with the magical gift of hindsight, Dig-L is wishing he'd been a bit more diplomatic with Pat Mills.

However, how much can you pander to the arrogance of such a man before something has to give?
"Pat Mills characters" - ? Where did that come from?
Why does this man think he has more rights than everyone else? I'm all for creator rights, but if he wants to invent some that don't exist, then that's terrible hypocrisy from a man who once wielded a blue pencil with such ferocity.

Given the quality of his recent work - I've liked one episode of Slaine in the last ten years - I reckon Mills should just do an Alan Moore like he's clearly threatening.

Just how much of a loss would he be?I await the new ABC Warriors with interest. Has he put his talent where his mouth is? We'll see.

- Trout

[Jared Katooie]

Is young middenface back then?

The last series was fantastic...

Probably shouldn't read spoilers but I'm fed up of waiting!

[longmanshort]

I felt that way after episode one and DEFINITELY feel that way now. A much "meatier" Dredd than usual from Ennis and he seems to have picked up that terse, blunt Dredd that Wagner normally does so well with (and did so with Sin City etc) and some PROPER cliffhangers for once! Looking forward to the rest.

As for TPO. The best of an excellent issue. It will be missed!

In terms of the Mills vs Diggle row. I'd side with Diggle any day of the week. Despite some great stories in the past Mills, it seems, has shot his bolt!

Link: The Upsetting World of Longman Short

[paulvonscott]

Hmmm... can't wait to read it.

[Smiley]

Explosive decompression as a weapon! How cool is that?