A Prog and Meg breakfast treat for me today. Lovely Barry Kitson cover with plenty of bad guys to sort through.
(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c118/button71/IMG_2168_zpspwjheuah.jpg)
Dredd and Beeny start out on a new Total War battle - interesting that the City's population is already up to 72 million - that's a power of shagging although Dredd puts it down to refugees - topical!
There are four letters none of which were mine!
Andrew Honan, London :7th - last Meg 341
Alex Frith, London : 18th - Last Prog 2013. Remains at Number 12 on the all time Beast List.
Christy Law, London : First
Kevin Hennessy London, actually Co Wicklow : 2nd , previous M169 V3.66
The population figures always facinate, we had posted in the forum earlier in the year on post chao pop growth. Z
Using Wikipedia's list of countries by population, the Meg would have been 28th in modern times, sandwiched between South Korea and Colombia. Already, it's leapt to 20th, between Turkey and France. Even so, its population density must be really weird. Very low as a whole, but with heavily concentrated areas of people, due to the safe area zoning.
Only read the Dredd so far. A good start. I do kind of wish Matt would at some point tell artists what ethnicity Beeny is supposed to be though. (EDIT: as in, her skin tone varies wildly between white and deep Hispanic tones, which is a bit weird in collections that prominently feature her.)
I'm going to be awful and say I really like that Beeny's skin colour is constantly in flux. It's probably not the intention, but it screams 'totally not important' to me. While Amy is technically a second-generation Puerto Rican immigrant of mixed (and deeply confused) parentage, and that does matter to the character, 'race' just isn't a thing in MC-1, and especially not in Justice Dept. In a city full of mutants, robots and aliens to act as the 'other', do those slightest of phenotypical variations even register?
Can't wait to read more Total War!
Regarding Beeny, it doesn't bother me much. I've grown used to it. I've seen DeMarco Guthrie seemed to switch back and forth pale/dark complexion and recently Maitland looked a bit more pale than before. For me it's a bit like Dredd's chin changing size or Anderson looking older/younger from time to time.
Yep it is the essence of Beeny's charachter not the epidermal pigmentation which is the facination. On Dredd's chin, C McNeill is taking it up to Desperate Dan levels. Love it Z.
Uh exciting the first time I've had a double header with my shiney me Digital Sub BUT... its not on the app. Can any digital subbers say when it normally shows up?
The earliest I'm able to get the meg and prog digitally are on Wednesday mornings on the 2000ad online shop.
The apps usually gets them later during the same day.
Digital delivery day is Wednesday.
Quote from: Apestrife on 17 October, 2015, 01:35:53 PM
DeMarco Guthrie seemed to switch back and forth pale/dark complexion and recently Maitland looked a bit more pale than before. For me it's a bit like Dredd's chin changing size or Anderson looking older/younger from time to time.
Characters get more boobs, more pecs, and more feet depending on which artist depicts them; I'm not sure why melanin should be any different. Issuing a colour chart prescribing characters' skin tone seems like a weird, retrograde step - as TordelBack says, in the fictional universe (and in our own) there are more important aspects to people.
I blame Weather Control. With all that's gone on it's been on the fritz lately causing everyone to look paler than usual.
Quote from: Colin_YNWA on 17 October, 2015, 02:49:45 PM
Uh exciting the first time I've had a double header with my shiney me Digital Sub BUT... its not on the app. Can any digital subbers say when it normally shows up?
Not until Wednesday I'm afraid. Welcome to the frustration club, we have stress balls.
Ah cool, thanks for the replies, for some reason thought the subs would land on Saturday like the physical ones. No biggie.
A great Dredd : Total War going great guns. Other tales leaving me cold.text pages later.
Superb Cover and Total War story - feel rather like Proudhuff on the rest.
Although I did like the bit on 2000ad/Vertigo contributing artists.
I haven't read it all yet but a big thumbs up for Lawless which just seems to get better and better.
Regarding the cover, have any of those villains actually been in a Dredd Megazine story in the last 25 years? I was expecting from the cover some kind of article about the ups and downs of the last 25 years but no such thing is there as far as I could see. It would have been pretty interesting to me as a new reader to read a bit of the history of the megazine.
So chuffed to see a Barry Kitson cover, especially as it's great. He was doing a lot on Dredd when I got into the prog and met him as a child about 30 years ago at a drawing workshop in Norwich. Good stuff.
Quote from: Butch on 17 October, 2015, 06:06:15 PM
Characters get more boobs, more pecs, and more feet depending on which artist depicts them; I'm not sure why melanin should be any different. Issuing a colour chart prescribing characters' skin tone seems like a weird, retrograde step - as TordelBack says, in the fictional universe (and in our own) there are more important aspects to people.
Right that!
Read the Total War story this morning. Can't go wrong with Wagner and McNeil on Dredd. Brilliance.
Lawless was also fun. The fight between Lawson and Lawson felt old school, in a good way. I wonder what the hints of something bigger a comming will lead to.
Great meg to read to the morning coffee :)
Only read Lawless so far...just had to dive in after last month's cliffhanger. Even read it before the Prog, and that almost never happens.
I was hoping the other Lawless who turned up [spoiler]really was the real Lawless and was a little disappointed with the reveal happening so soon.[/spoiler]But I guess that would have taken the story in a totally different direction and we just have to trust Dan Abnett, who is consistently one of the absolute best Meg and Prog writers.
Great cover by the way. Great to see Barry Kitson back after so long. Lets see a strip with him. Always loved that Anderson one he did way back when.
So I've just read Freaks from last month and Faces from this month. Freaks was a new one for me but I read Faces when it was released originally in the prog. I noticed a little problem though and was wondering if I'd just missed something. At the end of Freaks General Stunal is being tortured by The Beings and his entire skeleton structure had been changed but yet in Faces he's back to his normal aggressive self wanting to conquer Earth. What happened to The Beings and how did Stunal get back to normal? Am i just being stupid?
Other than that Wagner and Macneil on Total War is brilliant to see. We are lucky to have Macneil in both the prog and the meg at the same time at the minute. Loving Demon Nic and think it will be even better in one big read and Lawless is one of the strongest things to grace the Meg in recent times. The artwork is immense.
Quote from: petesbeats on 23 October, 2015, 04:00:22 PM
So I've just read Freaks from last month and Faces from this month. Freaks was a new one for me but I read Faces when it was released originally in the prog. I noticed a little problem though and was wondering if I'd just missed something. At the end of Freaks General Stunal is being tortured by The Beings and his entire skeleton structure had been changed but yet in Faces he's back to his normal aggressive self wanting to conquer Earth. What happened to The Beings and how did Stunal get back to normal? Am i just being stupid?
I couldn't remember anything about
Faces when I started, but I did recognise the maze once they found the bus. So much for Woolf's character progression in the first story...
QuoteOther than that Wagner and Macneil on Total War is brilliant to see. We are lucky to have Macneil in both the prog and the meg at the same time at the minute.
Yeah - Colin's been a bit busy lately, hasn't he? Or possibly he drew one of the stories some time ago and it's only just being published now (as it follows from
Day of Chaos and
Dark Justice my money would be on the PJ story having been held for some time).
Read this on the bus today but was so distracted by my Asterix book I forget to add my thoughts. Really enjoying the Meg, 3 absolutely blinding stories and one hohum.
The Ho hum being Storm Warning its okay but all a bit... rigid and forced, like its trying really hard to be interesting and sharp, but doesn't quite have the wit and freshness to be so.
Everything else is blindin' John Wagner, Colin MacNeill, Total War I mean Dredd is a no brainer isn't and lives up to it billing. Have to say just as he is in the Prog Chris Blythe really is doing something quite special with Colin MacNeill's glorious work.
Lawless is also quite fantastic, everything about it just oozed western atmosphere and I was genuinely wondering what was what. Lovely end to, to a fantastic strip this month.
Finally Demon Nic doesn't seem to be everyones cup of tea, but blimey I can't imagine why as its quite superb, and this week even more so than normal. Art is glorious, layouts innovative and from my perspective easy to follow and aid to story wonderfully. Everything about this series is just great.Shame it doesn't seem to float others boat as much as mine.
The text stuff was fine, nothing stella this month, but a pleasent enough distraction.
Liking this.
Enjoyed it all, but don't WH Smith make it hard to find, almost like they're trying to hide it!
As many have said, it's great to have Wagner & McNeil on Dredd duties... but having two rather large character and plotlines running is a bit rum timing I my most humble of opinions...
Don't get me wrong, I adore their work and I'm even lucky enough to have a McNeil Dredd on my wall, but there is something a bit manic about having two huge plotlines running at the same time, especially just after Enceladus and all the crazy shit that went down there...
Dredd has been brilliant in both Meg & Prog recently, but some breathing space and realistic schedule of events wouldn't go amiss... what next? Judge Death?
;)
A really excellent Meg, particularly the Total War story!
Really excited after seeing that teaser image for the new movie Dredd story Dust, too!
Hope that lovely Ryan Brown image makes it to the cover!
Quote from: Old Tankie on 23 October, 2015, 08:17:32 PM
Enjoyed it all, but don't WH Smith make it hard to find, almost like they're trying to hide it!
You need to rectify that for them ;)
A really good Meg for me too! Roll on the next twenty five years!
So that was what seems to be my annual foray into Megland, and it was pretty damned good.
I was initially delighted to see that Freaks was in the floppy, and then I realised it was Faces and my heart sank. Did not need to be reminded of this incoherent disaster, even if much of the art is lovely. However, the scene where Kilquo distracts a guard with her bewbs is surely a low-point in the Prog's 'recent' history. No point reprinting this stuff if it just mucks up the original by association, Tharg. I mean what's next, the Harlem Heroes reboot? Oh.
Luckily this was the only disappointment.
Dredd was a great read, two Wagner & MacNeil episodes in the same week is a crazy treat, even if the 'Statue of Judgement steps' scene may have been trotted out once too often for my tastes.
This was my first exposure to Demon Nic, and I loved it. Beautiful pages, intriguing structure, lovely character designs - yeah, want to track down the rest of this.
Also my first go at Storm Warning, which on the basis of this single outing has a Dr Who/British TV SF vibe emphasised by the Judge 'Kneale' name, but I haven't a notion what's going on. Like the giant gauntlets, mind.
This'd only be my third-or-so ever episode of Lawless, but despite dropping into the middle of something ostensibly confusing, everything here is crystal clear. And blimey, so much character in that wonderful art! Really will have to catch up on all of this story, very enjoyable.
Articlewise it was very nice of Tharg to give Vertigo a multi-page advert in the guise of an alumni yearbook, but flip me if it didn't pique my interest in more than a few comics I hadn't heard of yet, so good stuff.
Very solid very healthy megazine, hard to believe this is the same comic that was dying on its feet 15 years ago. However: €9.40 in one go, bloody hell. Time to go digital.
Quote from: Tordelback on 30 October, 2015, 05:41:58 AM
Very solid very healthy megazine, hard to believe this is the same comic that was dying on its feet 15 years ago. However: €9.40 in one go, bloody hell. Time to go digital.
Yeah having returned to the Meg after a long, long absense, getting it digitally the price is very good in that format (I've got a 12 month Digital sub which works out at about 3.50 sterling an issue) in hardcopy and not really having an interest in most the collections that come with it I find it a bit too pricey. If you want the collection then its great value, but if not it did push me out the market for a long time after my return.
Quote from: WhizzBang on 19 October, 2015, 09:43:05 PM
I haven't read it all yet but a big thumbs up for Lawless which just seems to get better and better.
Regarding the cover, have any of those villains actually been in a Dredd Megazine story in the last 25 years? I was expecting from the cover some kind of article about the ups and downs of the last 25 years but no such thing is there as far as I could see. It would have been pretty interesting to me as a new reader to read a bit of the history of the megazine.
I suppose the history is regarded as having been covered in David Bishop's "Fifteen Years, Creep!" retrospective, although even that was a decade ago!
I had no qualms with the content of this issue, but I did feel it was a little sad that there was nothing in it to commemorate such a big anniversary other than the cover. Perhaps they just felt that as it's been plodding on consistently for so many years there's nothing really much to say.
Quote from: Goosegash on 07 November, 2015, 11:57:16 AM
Quote from: WhizzBang on 19 October, 2015, 09:43:05 PM
I haven't read it all yet but a big thumbs up for Lawless which just seems to get better and better.
Regarding the cover, have any of those villains actually been in a Dredd Megazine story in the last 25 years? I was expecting from the cover some kind of article about the ups and downs of the last 25 years but no such thing is there as far as I could see. It would have been pretty interesting to me as a new reader to read a bit of the history of the megazine.
I suppose the history is regarded as having been covered in David Bishop's "Fifteen Years, Creep!" retrospective, although even that was a decade ago!
I had no qualms with the content of this issue, but I did feel it was a little sad that there was nothing in it to commemorate such a big anniversary other than the cover. Perhaps they just felt that as it's been plodding on consistently in the intervening time since the last history feature that there's not much more to say.
After finishing Megazine I have to say I'm kinda disappointed... Last couple issues was all about Lawless for me and this story became my favourite part of Meg. But short from #365 just don't work for me very well. I'm not sold on this clairvoyant thing. This whole twist feels too forced for me. I still interested in story behind Meta and I hope next part of her story will be better.
Can anyone help a noob identify the pile of perps?
1: Fire
2: Whose foot is this?
3: Zombie Judge from Judgement Day?
4: ?
5: Death
6: Whatsisname from Pirates of the Black Atlantic?
7: ?
8: Mean Machine
9: Trapper Hag?
10: Fink Angel
11: ?
12: Cadet Kraken?
13: Owen Krysler / The Mutant
14: Stan Lee / Deathfist
15: Pa Angel?
16: Cal
17: ?
18: Fear
19: Rico
20: Sov Judge?
21: Mortis
22: Don Uggie Apelino
23: Father Earth
24: Call-Me-Kenneth
25: Judge Kitson
(http://i66.tinypic.com/prvqa.jpg)
1: Fire
2: ?
3: Zombie Dredd
4: Whitey
5: Death
6: Captain Skank
7: ?
8: Mean Machine
9: Trapper Hag
10: Fink Angel
11: Sabbat the Necromagus
12: Cadet Kraken?
13: Owen Krysler / The Mutant
14: Stan Lee / Deathfist
15: The Dead Man?
16: Cal
17: ?
18: Fear
19: Rico Dredd
20: Sov Judge?
21: Mortis
22: Don Uggie Apelino
23: Father Earth
24: Call-Me-Kenneth
25: Judge Kitson
Zombie Dredd is from City of the Damned and sequels. 2 and 17 could be almost anyone, and 7 has me stumped completely!
Re: 15 - does that arm belong to the same person as the hat (Dead man)? There's something on the wrist, so I'm not sure - maybe it does belong and neither is Dead man, or maybe it's something else?
I didn't recognise Whitey - that's been bugging me!
7 is Orlok surely.
Quote from: The Cosh on 13 November, 2015, 12:09:58 PM
7 is Orlok surely.
Beat me to it, but of course Jimbo isn't all that familiar with The Sov Assassin.
Throwing it out their but could 2 be Toots Milloy is traditional witch garb, silk sock's and all?
Double post but could 17 be a Mechanismo?
Quote from: The Cosh on 13 November, 2015, 12:09:58 PM
7 is Orlok surely.
D'oh! Of course - really obvious now you've said it.
The most glaring omission here is no PJ!
Everyone on the above cover is dead, or at least ambiguous (Trapper Hag is supposed to still be alive, and i've always somewhat suspected Orloks death was too easy). PJ is probably the only long standing Dredd rival whose still kicking (Death and co. as well).
Soooo, that's the Dredd advent calendar sorted. :D
Surely the Dead Man can't be right. These are all villains defeated by Dredd, not alter-egos.
Quote from: Timothyjacobs on 16 November, 2015, 11:41:20 AM
Surely the Dead Man can't be right. These are all villains defeated by Dredd, not alter-egos.
Also, hand not burned or bandaged. Other villains in hats?
Quote from: Greg M. on 16 November, 2015, 02:57:41 PM
Quote from: Tordelback on 16 November, 2015, 01:20:30 PM
Other villains in hats?
Phantom of the Shoppera?
Not a [spoiler]robot[/spoiler] hand either.
Other hatteratti: Missionary Man - isn't a villain (well, not really) ;did Pa Angel ever wear a hat, or was that just in the movie?. Rico, Fink and Link's hats were different (also, some already present).
It's a minor character and the hat's the wrong style, but there are no other Cursed Earth baddies on that cover and Kitson's copy of The History Of Justice seems to end with The Apocalypse War:
(http://i.imgur.com/nkiJ9nL.jpg?2)
I can't think of any other combination of that hat and that coat on a Dredd villain prior to 1982, but it's possible the hat belongs to one villain and the coat (and human hand) to another ...