Meg 462 - In the public eye

[Colin YNWA]

The Prog and the Meg more often than not are great artistically, but sometimes an issue just sings and this is one of those. Artists I already like producing work that is the best I remember them doing.

Case in point Mike Collins on Dredd, I've always liked his work but he its another level. Ably punched up by some great colour work by Jim Boswell. The story is pretty good too, if clearly setting things up for future fun. Really nice Dredd, but stella art.

[Colin YNWA]

The Prog and the Meg more often than not are great artistically, but sometimes an issue just sings and this is one of those. Artists I already like producing work that is the best I remember them doing.

Case in point Mike Collins on Dredd, I've always liked his work but he its another level. Ably punched up by some great colour work by Jim Boswell. The story is pretty good too, if clearly setting things up for future fun. Really nice Dredd, but stella art.

So shall I finish that - sorry - hit 'Post' by mistake. Anyway as I was saying...

Spectre continues to improve week on week and Dan Cornwell, well he's as good here as he's ever been. Can't say its his best as he's always so damned good. Great episode.

Mega-City 2099 is another artistic triumph, there was me thinking Jake Lynch had found his perfect strip in Proteus Vex and he wasn't going to top his work there. Then he does this. Perfect balance of new fresh style and reflecting and respecting the era he's trying to capture. His designs for the various elements of the city are sublime. Again the best work I remember by him.

I've enjoyed Rob Richardson's work as he's started to break into Tharg's kingdom but on DeMarco we again see an artist do his best work yet. Just fantastic, clean lines yet keeping it earthy and grounded. Brilliant job. Decent if not yet earth shattering story too. Looking forward to this one developing.

Then Lawless, sweet, sweet Lawless. Christ this is magnificent. Not sure its the best Phil Winslade as ever done but he's as astonishing as ever. I do wonder if he did move up a level would my brain simply explode? Fantastic build up to what I assume will the a final showdown, masterfully cranking up the tension. Oh I do love this strip.

As before Rogue Trooper IDW reprints really level up the additional material, the series has a good ending and its a shame there wasn't more. The text pieces are solid and if you've not read the Johnny Red strip its a real treat.

Great Meg.

[Proudhuff]

A weighty tome with a fine heft, nice cover by Lex with Dredd, Rogue and Johnny Red all my top stories. Lawless doesn't hold any surprises, Demarco has a low noirstyle intro while Spectore seems like something from a 70's Lion annual. 2099 seems instantly forgettable, either that or I didn't read it, not sure which!

Over all a good read with some reasonable text bits.

Got my Axe badge through the post too.   

[Richard]

Excellent art on Lawless this month.

[Bad City Blue]

I don't get Mega City 2099. It just votes over like annual stories ftom the early days and of similar quality

[Funt Solo]

I don't get Mega City 2099. It just votes over like annual stories from the early days and of similar quality

That may be rather the point. Like an homage, sort of thing.

You *could* blame Mills, who revisited his The Return of Rico story from prog 30, in 1995, with a longer retelling: Flashback 2099: The Return of Rico (from progs 950-952).

N-AI-mand knows their Dredd lore, and seems to want to swim in the historical pond a little, and explore the early vision of the Mega-City.

[Barrington Boots]

As an irregular Meg buyer, this was a superb issue. The Rogue reprint aside, everything in it sparkled. Very enjoyable read.
The 2099 story was slight, but I assume that's kind of the point. It easily could be a 'lost' story from that era of the prog and brilliant stuff from Jake Lynch.

[IndigoPrime]

I wasn't as keen on this issue as Colin. A good issue, for sure, but not fizzing at the dizzy heights of last month.

The lead Dredd was solid. I liked the art. The premise worked. Feels a bit "well, maybe this could be a thing we continue", although I hope it's one-and-done.

Spector ramps up the stakes. I'm still finding Smurfette Stevens a bit weird, but it's a good enough yarn, if a bit dated. The same goes for Mega-City 2099, which I'm starting to think made a better one-off than an ongoing series. This one would have worked just fine as a standard Dredd. Nice art, though, and a gruesome end for the villain.

It felt like there were a lot of text pieces in this issue (or maybe that was just me), but all of them were good reads. Bit of a whiplash transition to the Punks extract though.

Exterminator: I'm sure I've read that before somewhere, but I've no idea where. Quite fun, despite the clunky dialogue. And then Rogue ends. Bah. I bloody loved this series the first time around, and it's bittersweet here. Totally deserved another airing, but absolutely did not deserve to end after a paltry four issues. Reprint wraps up with Johnny Red, which is objectively very good, but I can't get into it at all.

We end with DeMarco and Lawless. Good art on the former. Too early to tell how the story is, even if the set-up works well enough. I hope Bailey does the character justice, because heaven knows she's been so poorly treated across multiple years in the Meg (although never quite again hitting the nadir of being scripted as Point's throwaway girlfriend). Lawless, though, ends as a kind of masterclass in everything that's good about the Meg. And I fear next week won't be a happy ending for everyone.

Lawless > Rogue Trooper > Spector > Dredd > DeMarco > MC 2099 > Exterminator > Johnny Red

[Le Fink]

And then Rogue ends. Bah. I bloody loved this series the first time around, and it's bittersweet here. Totally deserved another airing, but absolutely did not deserve to end after a paltry four issues.

Oh what, really? Man that's a shame, it was good!

[IndigoPrime]

As I recall, IDW cancelled the series before the first issue had shipped, based purely on pre-orders. I know people loved Garth's recent RT and also John Smith's Cinnabar. But this for me was the best outing for the GI, which is surprising given how awful most of IDW's 2000 AD strips were. I'd have been very happy had 2000 AD come to some kind of agreement with IDW, reprinted the entire run in the Prog, and then had the creative team continue it. At least it got another airing here, but it's a great shame there's no more of it.

[broodblik]

For me the ultimate Rogue will always GFD run up until Horst. Cinnabar was really great but for me this was never the same as the "original" by GFD. Ennis lates take on Rogue was also really good. The IDW Rogue was fine but not close to the "original".

[Colin YNWA]

I couldn't get on with the design of Helm. Incredibly minor point but it did my head in! Loved the Bagman redesign  bit Helm just looked so dated!

[Jim_Campbell]

As I recall, IDW cancelled the series before the first issue had shipped, based purely on pre-orders.

This, unfortunately, is down to the insane ordering system in the direct sales market. Because retailers have to order in advance, they'll have non-returnable orders for at least three issues of any series before they know whether or not it's going to sell. As a result, retailers will automatically cut their orders for #2 of a new title by 50% from the #1 number, and almost certainly by 50% again for #3. Keep in mind that when they're cutting that order for #3, no one has seen #1. Even if #1 is great, and everyone loves it, the retailers are locked into the 50% reduction in #2 numbers unless the publisher massively over-prints to meet re-orders, or does a second printing.

If, as a publisher, your pre-orders for #1 are marginal to begin with, you might as well cut your losses because those numbers aren't going to get any better.

(It's not only a mad system, it was made even more mad by the general uselessness of Diamond. I talked at length to one of the guys from Vault at NYCC a few years back, and he told me that they went to Diamond and said "We want to break this cycle of reducing orders — we're confident in the quality of our books and we're investing heavily to try and make them successes. We'll make #2-4 of any new series fully returnable so retailers can order decent numbers without fearing that they'll end up holding unsellable stock." Diamond's response was "Ehhh... yeah, that's a lot of hard work — we only do that for big, established publishers.")

[staticgirl]

Just popping in to say I think the Meg is having a rare old run at the moment> I am loving every single strip. It also helps that I used to love Johnny Red best of all the stories in my little brother's comic which I nicked after finishing my Bunty.

[JohnW]

I used to love Johnny Red best of all the stories in my little brother's comic which I nicked after finishing my Bunty.

In the days before there were any other comics in the house, I used to read my big sister's Buntys (although given my age at the time, "read" is probably too strong a word).
Perhaps the next crossover could be a 2000AD/Bunty special?
The Four Dark Marys, anyone?
Halo Jones, where we replace the robot dog with a pony or something?
And when you think about it, the earlier part of Portrait of a Mutant needs only the slightest tweaks to turn it into your classic blind-ballerina-with-wicked-stepmother story.