The Meg

[Oddboy]

Last year's Megazine was on a high, the new format has brought in a duller Meg it really has.

[DavidXBrunt]

Okay, so those pages could reprint something else. But why is a reprint preferable to something new? I don't see how that works.

The stories so far have been ogood stuff, Gordon and Jonathon Clements tales being enjoyable, and Da Bish's would have been just as good if it weren't for the really odd punchline.

And can you prove that reprints would be cheaper?

[Matt]

I also like the text stories. I think the ones printed so far have been really good. Mind you the novels were really good when they started but they soon got to the standard of The Hundredfold Problem.

[Proudhuff]

Ha, must agree with Odd boy, damn!

It does seem to be dipping a bit, Dredd is fine but the problem with Darkies mob, Devin, Pat Mills latest is there doesn't seem much progress from month to month, Devlin for example is a great character but its just been one subaquavampire slug fest each month, as Ian Dury would say 'What a waste'

[IndigoPrime]

I agree with most of this: Devlin is a huge disappointment, although it does suffer from only having six pages per month. It would have worked better in 2000AD and will probably be good when collected. Pat Mills' latest is, well, crap. It has good ideas, but his current ideal seems to be to take a one-to-two-part story, stretch it over six-to-ten parts, and call it a "book"... So much for fast-paced thrills...

[thinky]

i like the middenface stories... even though we know his 'present' (as it were), i'm relly enjoying the short stories that piece in the empty bits.

middenface's character is really developing, and what's not to like about B&W Ridgway?

yttim?

[W. R. Logan]

>Is it just me or is the art on Dredd in the Meg this month pish?

Pish.

Dont get me started on Dredd artists. I've gone on for years that Dredd is Britains best comic character and deserves the best artists. A small number of the best knocking out pages with maximum thrillpower. These days a trained monkey would get a shot.

La Placa Rifa,
W. R. Logan.

[thinky]

that's a bit harsh

[W. R. Logan]

>Think about it. Text. In a comic.

no text in a comic, you?ll be saying that there should be no pics in books?

couldn?t care if it was in hieroglyphics, my only care is if it entertains.

La Placa Rifa,
W. R. Logan.

[Huey]

"Dont get me started on Dredd artists. I've gone on for years that Dredd is Britains best comic character and deserves the best artists."

Totally agree. IIRC Barry Kitson talking about "Oz" said that the editors were trying to get THE best artists on that epic. There did actually seem to be some thouht as to who got what episodes.
Many of the epics since then have had a different approach. We've even seen some newbies cut their teth on Dredd during an epic. then they improve and are shipped off to lesser thrills.

as for the character profiles: I'm not sure 1 page can really do any character justice. It's not long enough to really be informative. I'd rather a behind-the-scenes look of the length of a TPO on each character covered.

[W. R. Logan]

>that's a bit harsh

Read some of the latest Dredd stories and tell me who the artists are. Then tell me where they've appeared before and where they made their name.

La Placa Rifa,
W. R. Logan.

[Alan Barnes]

"I think the gap between issues is responsible for the loss of impact in certain stories. I haven't been able to follow Family at all and guess I'll have to read it all in one sitting before i can even judge it for myself. As for the Meg as a whole I think it's better then ever before. Go back to those first early issues an you'll see what I mean, for every America & Young Death you had a MegaCity Times, Chopper: Earth Wind & Fire, and Soul Sisters. i think that the Meg has got the right mix at the minute."

I don't completely disagree with the idea that the 6-page serials lose a lot of their impetus - 6 or 7 months is a very long time for any one story to be kicking around. A bargain of necessity, really: I wanted to go up to five different stories simply because whatever you commission, the chances of any one reader enjoying ALL the stories running are remote. And enjoying three or four out of five stories is a far better 'hit ratio' than one or two out of three. There's a reason for the classic 2000 AD/Meg line-up being five stories - it's what works!

But yeah, the six-page chunks cause everything to lose a bit of momentum, and that's to the detriment of the mag. So I'm not planning to run any more 6-page serials once 'Red Tide' concludes in the autumn - come the New Year (assuming one already-commissioned story in particular can be got up to speed), there'll be no serials told in anything less than 8-page chunks, with a few 12s and 16s thrown in, and of no more than 6 parts either (3 and 4 parts will become a bit more standard). There'll be a few series told as linked stand-alone tales, too (eg XTNCT, from Meg 209 on), and hopefully some meaty one-offs.

"All I would like to see is the Meg building up its own stable of characters. The loss of new Shimura & Armitage material is a real shame. Armitage in particular never got to see its full potential. I wouldn't mind seeing a return for The Inspectre which I enjoyed. "

Agree on the former point, which is why Bato Loco (from Meg 202) returns next issue. Devlin's back with us, and Juliet November has been swiped for the Meg, too. Middenface McNulty has been a Meg character as far back as volume 1. Also Johnny Woo (from 'Sino-Town', Prog 123-something IIRC) is back in a 2-parter beginning in 209, and I wouldn't be surprised if he made a few solo appearances after that ... ditto a new Carlos Ezquerra character who first appears in 211's Dredd. Plus there's Death by Wagner & Irving from 209: I'll try to stick some preview art up on the site in the next couple of weeks. One of the three old characters you mention may well make a reappearance - perhaps sooner than you think! And one other major Meg staple of previous years is back in its pages from 214 (Dec) ... but I'll leave you in suspense for a bit longer ...

Will that do you for now?

It's important for the Meg to experiment with characters, creators and formats, so I'm not going to apologise if the balance of elements over issues 201-208 hasn't been perfect. But if it hasn't been quite to your liking, I promise you that steps have already been taken. I know a significant minority of purists want to see the Meg full of Dredd universe characters and nothing else (if so, issues 214-218 will make you very happy!), so I will be pulling back on the non-Dredd serials a bit. That said, I think Family, Black Siddha and Bendatti Vendetta were all great in one way or another, and they all deserve to be seen again: there's a tradition of the Meg publishing other-world stuff which wouldn't happily fit within the pages of 2000 (eg Al's Baby), and I really want to see that continue. You need the courage to publish a few off-beat 'love em or hate em' strips which you know are going to divide your readership - Black Siddha being an obvious example (I warn you now, XTNCT's another) - partly for the sake of variety, and partly cos you'll never be able to please all of the people all of the time.

Sorry to be so long-winded and defensive. I'll bugger off now.

--Alan

[Trout]

I enjoyed Dredd and Middenface, loved Darkie's Mob and generally like Devlin and Family, although I agree with the pacing issue, to some extent.

I'm not reading Slaine because I've read it quite often before, and will get to the text story when I've got another quiet moment to myself.

Black Siddha is self-conscious and self-indulgent and I am less than keen on it, but the Meg's an anthology, and as long as there are Mills fans out there his stuff will be used. I'm not deeply offended by it or anything.

I loved, loved, loved the cover. It's beautiful, moody, eye-catching stuff and it put me in mind of the various DC annual covers done in a "pulp" way a few years ago, and a terrific Astro City GN: The Tarnished Hero. (Highly recommended as an excellent noir-ish tale!)

I've posted this without reading anyone else's posts, including Alan's, because I wanted to feel I was being entirely honest and objective. I'll go and read them now and add my vitriol, if necessary, later.
:-)

- Trout

[Trout]

"without reading anyone else's posts"

Apart from the first couple, of course.

- Trout

[Trout]

Back again

1) Alan - there's definitely no need to apologise for an informative and interesting contribution to what we were discussing. Thanks for the hints!

2) "anything less than 8-page chunks"
My champagne cork just popped! (oo-er)

3) "Death by Wagner & Irving" Woo-hoo!
The same for Devlin! I hope the old favourite is Shimura. (Praying it's not Armitage... As far as I'm concerned, his untapped potential was comprehensively tapped in Colin Dexter's novels. :-) "Lewis!")

Oh, and BRING BACK QUITELY!

- Trout