Well, that was fun. I enjoyed the 2000 AD zompocalypse and this Meg stuck the landing. It is perhaps more serious in nature. It's certainly more coherent as the random strips give way to a story thread. But I thought as a one-off it was rather good.
Also, the floppy was really something special: a book of Robin Smith cover roughs, with various notes, printed alongside the final art. The only down side was my cover appeared to be on back to front (which confused me for a bit). I'm very tempted to take the mag apart and carefully thread it back through the staples.
Anyway, good work, everyone. This breezy silliness was just what I needed this evening.
Cover and Logo:
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FdF3BGcWYAARzY-?format=jpg&name=4096x4096)
Indigo summed it up nicely. I enjoyed the meg segment more than the prog one.
Leigh Gallagher's art was pure joy to watch.
[spoiler]I know a lot of people are gonna say noooo they killed halo and dr and quinch....but i just say....canon fodder noooooooo[/spoiler]
[spoiler]Funny seeing zombie Manic 5's head on a pole, mind.[/spoiler]
[spoiler]We now that in the alternative universe the prog/meg will also stop to exists since Tharg's head is also on a pole or maybe only regen issues will be available [/spoiler]
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 20 September, 2022, 10:06:35 PM
Also, the floppy was really something special: a book of Robin Smith cover roughs, with various notes, printed alongside the final art.
It really was - best floppy for a while, really interesting how he even roughs the covers in the artist's distinctive style and the changes that are made between the stages. Some of the placeholder word balloons were hilarious
Quote from: Dandontdare on 21 September, 2022, 02:50:16 PM
It really was - best floppy for a while, really interesting how he even roughs the covers in the artist's distinctive style and the changes that are made between the stages. Some of the placeholder word balloons were hilarious
Just adding to the chorus here: yes, that was great and a fantastic insight into Robin's contribution to (arguably) 2000AD's most iconic period.
Worth noting that we've had more pages of comic strip in this issue than in any other recent issue.
Well all in all that was enourmous fun. It was interest to note the way the Meg played things very differently and went for a different tone to the Prog. In some ways that worked better, in some ways not. Overall though the zombie story was a fun and worthwhile experiment, one that I hope isn't used again for a while - well unless there really is a story to justify it.
As it is the fact that the Meg used the anthology nature of the comic to tell different aspects of the main story across all its epsiodes really worked. To one extent its a shame it didn't get to have the all out, no holds barred rampaging fun of 2000ad, which just allowed folks to run riot. One the other it made for a much more satisfying piece as a whole.
I mean the overall story was utter poppycock if you looked too close. And 2000ad's take felt more honest of pocking fun at the whole thing. Be to be far the Meg was a real rollercoaster and while in the surface took itself too seriously clearly had its tongue in its cheel throughout. By not looking to closely the whole thing was just great fun.
The art is absolutely great on the whole. I mean no one is Henry Flint in the Prog but it looks superb and I think we need to make special note of Conor Boyle - ex of these pastures on Delvin Waugh absolutely knocking it out the park. Just brilliant work and I hope Tharg gets him in the Prog or Meg again soon. I'll also notice another new (to me) artist doing a great job on Shimura, Kei Zama and Dan Cornwell shows that its not just Henry Flint that gets better and better each time you see his work. AMAZING stuff.
So yeah pretty happy with this playful experiment BUT looking forward to getting the Prog and Meg back proper next week and month.
As for the floppie, as others have said AMAZING and I'll be buying myself a physical copy of this one which I've pretty much never done before since going digital BUT for this one well worth it. JUST BRILLIANT and same we have something this good just as apparently we're about to lose the floppie. Nice, almost, send off.
My Robin SMith thing is also back to front, but I#m not compaiing as its a glorious thing - another one next month you say? Great!
Shame the floppies are presumably a thing of the past, as a Bolland drafts for the Eagle Comics would have been great - there are loads out there (though many I only caught on eBay and have long since lost that hard drive!)
I'm not normally a Meg reader. Do I take it this issue is similar to the prog ie a one off set of zombie stories with no other continuing stories? If so I may buy it.
Quote from: Southstreeter on 22 September, 2022, 05:25:42 PM
I'm not normally a Meg reader. Do I take it this issue is similar to the prog ie a one off set of zombie stories with no other continuing stories? If so I may buy it.
Yes. It's more of the same.
More of the same, but concludes the whole shebang.
I think the Meg worked better than the prog actually. The prog's stories had nothing to do with each other really. The Meg, while it's still an anthology of different stories, held together as a coherent whole storyline.
The whole thing worked much better than the attempt to do something similar in last year's Sci-Fi Special.
Swings and roundabouts I think and theoretically thats good - the Prog got to do something a bit different to the Meg. If we had had two publicatons doing the same thing it would have got a bit tedious - to be honest, while I found this more cohesive, I did find it suffered more from repetitiveness -whether that was due to being the second half or more due to the rinse repeat of finding a "team member" then hopping to the next one.
The ending also made a lot of the previous actions to save a few individuals a bit redundant, but that comes with the territory I suppose.
The thing I found most interesting here was a couple of new and newish names here -I'll always applaud Tharg trying out new writers as thats the biggest problem 2000AD faces going forward - new voices that might enthuse me in the same way Al Ewing and Niemand did/have in recent years (though both mostly impressed working on Dredd rather than their own stuff, Zombo excepted, so still not the "Saviour" I think the prog needs)
Honor Vincent's Anderson isnt setting the world on fire, but it does tell the story clearly, as does Liam Johnsons Devlin Waugh.
However, the writing also remains my big issue elsewhere, where the thing just hits a wall.
Two glaring examples:
The Kill Dozer section assumes you read it as Alpha driving the Dozer, then being far away from it and blowing it up - theres a missing panel establishing Alpha as the driver or Alpha exiting the vehicle. Otherwise it is a muddied sequence that should ahve been rejiggered
Worse is the flashback(?) sections of the Armitage story, which I still dont really get - whats happening on the first page? When is that happening? They are holed up in MacHarrods which is a "facility" for state secrets? They have the ability to "see" who is teleporting in - its a stream you can reject? I think Mike Carroll is "the loveliest man in comics" TM, but this suffers from the same mangled storytelling that keeps shaking me off Proteus Vex. I've read it a few times now and I still cannot make head nor tail of the time line and the events or motivations... now they have the numbers on page 4... Anderson, Cain and Alpha, presuably? To get somewhere else, where tehy will be safe - Its clear to Anderson Armitages "people need him more"... but his people are gong to be wiped off the face of the earth with everyone else in short order - theres no bigger need than succeeding in their mission if that's the path they have decided is the only one left. Preacher Cain prays for their safety... for the next couple of days presumably?
Sorry to be a grinch on this one, but it was like a real roadblock in the narrative.
It doesnt help that I really am not a fan of the "Marvelisation" of 2000AD "IP" - so every writer has a go at every character, and this is designed to make full use of the ability to do just that. I prefer creatives to create their own new stuff and I like to see the old stuff written by their creators - call me a simple man!
It's an interesting exercise, certainly worked better than the SCi-Fi Special, but fundamentally, this isnt for me.
Looking forward to next months Meg for more Surfer and (to be a hypocrite) Waugh, if its more Kot, who has done the very rare thing for me and made someone elses creation interesting to me.
Over in the prog, it looks very Dredd world heavy - Hershey & Chimpsky and launching with Future Shocks, so only one other ongoing none Dredd story?
The Meg was fun.
The floppy was incredible. And, yes, my cover was on the wrong way too. But still, one of the best in a long time. Really interesting
I don't normally pick up the Meg ( cost of living crises, innit), but really enjoyed this story. Look forward to the inevitable trade.
I really have no interest in zombies so this whole event gets a big PFFT from me but the Robin Smith floppy was something special and worth my Meg monthly subscription on its own.
I really enjoyed the floppy too. I had always assumed that the artists just came up with the cover ideas themselves rather than working to a sketched requirement.
I was surprised to see the print edition is sold out in the shop.Ill have to traipse over to Smiths.
Quote from: Swerty on 25 September, 2022, 11:04:08 PM
I was surprised to see the print edition is sold out in the shop.Ill have to traipse over to Smiths.
Yeah couldn't find it on ebay either. Seems to be doing well!
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 26 September, 2022, 05:50:37 AM
Quote from: Swerty on 25 September, 2022, 11:04:08 PM
I was surprised to see the print edition is sold out in the shop.Ill have to traipse over to Smiths.
Yeah couldn't find it on ebay either. Seems to be doing well!
Well that it is a good sign and shows that the concept worked
It certainly shows that Rebellion are in the habit of printing fewer Megazines than progs and that they haven't fully anticipated how many extra folk are going to show up to read a story to the end.
(though it wouldn't surprise me if sales of 2000AD are up a bit as well)
I wonder how many folks were after the floppie too? I know I was?
How likely is it that they reprint this meg? Or Should I look on ebay?
Going for like £15 at the moment on ebay lol.
https://www.newsstand.co.uk/502-comics-magazines/3488-subscribe-to-judge-dredd-megazine-magazine-subscription.aspx
https://www.magazinesupermarket.co.uk/magazine/judge-dredd-megazine
Possible options. Can always call to confirm stock. (You're obviously paying for shipping, etc, but it beats eBay if you can't find one in WHSmith or something.)
Quote from: Richard on 22 September, 2022, 06:06:38 PM
I think the Meg worked better than the prog actually. The prog's stories had nothing to do with each other really. The Meg, while it's still an anthology of different stories, held together as a coherent whole storyline.
The whole thing worked much better than the attempt to do something similar in last year's Sci-Fi Special.
I thought the same - really enjoyed the way each story flowed to the next, with Niemand's alt-Dredd strips being the star of the show. Just horrific and brilliant. Devlin Waugh's story was a bit slight - he didn't really have a whole lot to do but tell the heroes which way to go, like a random character in a Fighting Fantasy book. I'm not quite sold on Steve Yeowell's Armitage or Johnny Alpha, but it was a nice little interlude.
The ending of the whole show was great ([spoiler]though isn't the whole multiverse infected with the zombies, rather than just one planet in one universe?[/spoiler]).
Picked up the last copy in my newsagent.The floppy is wonderful and great to see Johnny back in the limelight.More events like this pls.
Controversially I'll say I slightly preferred the Prog to the Meg. The tongue in cheek, chaotic nature of the former suited the provided more scope for fun and invention, while the serial form of the latter meant at times it read like a Strontium Dog tale (which is no bad thing but perhaps not the order of the day). Not having read any Diamond Dogs it was nice to see James Peaty serving up something so much better than Skip Tracer.
Anyway, shocking as they were, the contents of the Meg pale into insignificance compared to those of the floppy. I still can't quite get my head around the idea that dozens (scores? Hundreds?) of the prog's most iconic layouts were originally sketched by Robin Smith in layout form. Mind blown.
(My cover was on the right way, BTW)
Quote from: norton canes on 29 September, 2022, 04:12:37 PM
Controversially I'll say I slightly preferred the Prog to the Meg. The tongue in cheek, chaotic nature of the former suited the provided more scope for fun and invention, while the serial form of the latter meant at times it read like a Strontium Dog tale (which is no bad thing but perhaps not the order of the day). Not having read any Diamond Dogs it was nice to see James Peaty serving up something so much better than Skip Tracer.
Anyway, shocking as they were, the contents of the Meg pale into insignificance compared to those of the floppy. I still can't quite get my head around the idea that dozens (scores? Hundreds?) of the prog's most iconic layouts were originally sketched by Robin Smith in layout form. Mind blown.
(My cover was on the right way, BTW)
I have cover envy!
Finally managed to read this beast! I had the Meg from day one as a subscriber but took me ages to find a copy of 2000AD to read first. Turns out that really wasn't necessary...
I'm a fan of this sort of silliness. I didn't especially care for the overarching plot of Alpha gathering characters and ending up in MC1 with a few of them, it made entirely no sense. But also so what? I DID get a big kick out of seeing returning favourite characters being themselves in this weird situation. Preacher Cain stuck out the most to me as a fun character in his own right. Frankly his Bible-thumping + Pistol-shooting schtick made more sense in this apocalyptic context that most of his own adventures. Rennie set him up real well in his segment and others took the baton nicely. Cadet Giant was the best, though.
Also fascinating to see so many artists having a crack at Johnny Alpha. Many have said before how Carlos designed him to be more or less impossible for anyone else to get 'right' but people gave it a good go here, especially Leigh Gallagher. How much was this whole exercise prompting us to consider future Stront stories without getting too upset..?
As a plot exercise, worse than Judgement Day. As a character-based romp, top marks!
My floppie also came with the Bolland Annual cover on the front. Frankly, if I was someone doing the actual stapling, I'd have assumed that WAS meant to be the cover, even if it doesn't make as much sense as the 'real' cover. Delightful to see which artists run with the idea almost exactly (Dillon), which ones add loads of detailed embellishments (Ron Smith), and which ones almost determinedly do their own thing, while still respecting the basic layout concept (Bolland, but I loved O'Neill's trolling way of ensuring each Dark Judge was NOT in the position Robin S had proposed!)
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 21 September, 2022, 08:44:17 PM
Well all in all that was enourmous fun. It was interest to note the way the Meg played things very differently and went for a different tone to the Prog. In some ways that worked better, in some ways not. Overall though the zombie story was a fun and worthwhile experiment, one that I hope isn't used again for a while - well unless there really is a story to justify it.
As it is the fact that the Meg used the anthology nature of the comic to tell different aspects of the main story across all its epsiodes really worked. To one extent its a shame it didn't get to have the all out, no holds barred rampaging fun of 2000ad, which just allowed folks to run riot. One the other it made for a much more satisfying piece as a whole.
I mean the overall story was utter poppycock if you looked too close. And 2000ad's take felt more honest of pocking fun at the whole thing. Be to be far the Meg was a real rollercoaster and while in the surface took itself too seriously clearly had its tongue in its cheel throughout. By not looking to closely the whole thing was just great fun.
The art is absolutely great on the whole. I mean no one is Henry Flint in the Prog but it looks superb and I think we need to make special note of Conor Boyle - ex of these pastures on Delvin Waugh absolutely knocking it out the park. Just brilliant work and I hope Tharg gets him in the Prog or Meg again soon. I'll also notice another new (to me) artist doing a great job on Shimura, Kei Zama and Dan Cornwell shows that its not just Henry Flint that gets better and better each time you see his work. AMAZING stuff.
So yeah pretty happy with this playful experiment BUT looking forward to getting the Prog and Meg back proper next week and month.
As for the floppie, as others have said AMAZING and I'll be buying myself a physical copy of this one which I've pretty much never done before since going digital BUT for this one well worth it. JUST BRILLIANT and same we have something this good just as apparently we're about to lose the floppie. Nice, almost, send off.
Says it all ^^^^
Yep, really enjoyed the crosover story but that Floppie has to be one of the best things ever!