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Meg 424 - Thirty Megnificent Years

Started by jrdd, 13 September, 2020, 02:39:23 PM

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Jim_Campbell

#45
Quote from: TordelBack on 17 September, 2020, 07:52:54 AM
but as a comedy conceit this was like a lead boot on an otherwise very lovely strip.

I'm not entirely sure why you think this is supposed to be funny, TB...? I'm pretty sure if it was meant to be, Ken would have put some jokes in it.

(Edit: by which I mean, it's clear the basic conceit is meant to amuse but Dave's deco-noir stylings wouldn't seem to be a good fit for 'comedy' and that doesn't seem to be where this is pitched.)
Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.

TordelBack

Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 17 September, 2020, 08:04:38 AM
Quote from: TordelBack on 17 September, 2020, 07:52:54 AM
but as a comedy conceit this was like a lead boot on an otherwise very lovely strip.
I'm not entirely sure why you think this is supposed to be funny, TB...? I'm pretty sure if it was meant to be, Ken would have put some jokes in it.

I assume it's meant to be funny,  because why else would you do it?  In the space of two pages there's Cal, Quincy, Slocum and effin' Fish. If that's not meant to be a gag, what exactly is it?  The idea of a noir art deco MC-1 I like,  even America and Rico as protagonists, but EVERY CHARACTER. It's like being hit over the head with Sc*j* script.

Jim_Campbell

Quote from: TordelBack on 17 September, 2020, 08:26:18 AM
I assume it's meant to be funny,  because why else would you do it?  In the space of two pages there's Cal, Quincy, Slocum and effin' Fish. If that's not meant to be a gag, what exactly is it?  The idea of a noir art deco MC-1 I like,  even America and Rico as protagonists, but EVERY CHARACTER. It's like being hit over the head with Sc*j* script.

Again, I'm not quite sure why you'd assume that. Lots of mirror/alt-universe stories in Star Trek/Stargate/et al play the actual stories completely straight — there's a meta-level of intellectual amusement for the viewer in seeing characters they know well play against type, or stick to type despite different circumstances. That was the vibe I got from the first page and, in the absence of actual gags, is what I assumed was the intent.

YMM, plainly, V, and I'm not going to try and convince you otherwise but, maybe, try to give it a chance with that more in mind?

(I recently had to restart reading a novel after a significant number of chapters because I realised that I wasn't enjoying it not because it was bad, but because I was reading it with the wrong tone in my head. Maybe that's not what's happening here, so feel free to ignore me on this.)
Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.

TordelBack

Well indeed, and I wouldn't ask anyone not to like it - there's a lot to like.

I like a Mirror Universe story as much as the next nerd (Angelic and Deadworld for example), it's the relentless shoehorning of every single name... Fish wasn't even a person, and yet here is, a Judge-analogue.  It's as if Indendant Kira git some Klingons to gang up on a hapless bloke called Kobayashi Maru. It's so persistent and silly ('Joe Rico') that it takes away from something that I would otherwise enjoy.

A tonal mash-up too far for me!

Jim_Campbell

Quote from: TordelBack on 17 September, 2020, 08:58:10 AM
A tonal mash-up too far for me!

Ah, well. Enjoy the pretty pictures, then! :-)
Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.

TordelBack

Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 17 September, 2020, 09:33:35 AM
Quote from: TordelBack on 17 September, 2020, 08:58:10 AM
A tonal mash-up too far for me!

Ah, well. Enjoy the pretty pictures, then! :-)

Ah you know me, in a few months I'll be insisting it's the best story EVAH.

The Amstor Computer

Quote from: broodblik on 17 September, 2020, 04:40:33 AM
Another article on what the meg could have been:

https://neotextcorp.com/culture/the-megazine-that-never-was/?ct=t(EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_19_09_02_COPY_01)

I find the concept of "Bad Company" quite interesting

There's some stuff in that article that looks very familiar, as well as a couple of pieces of art that I am pretty certain appeared for the first time like that in "Fantastic Adventures" (the Helltrekker design sketch and the Badlander art stand out, as I worked on scans of both to prepare them for print, and the Badlander piece in particular had to be assembled from multiple scans).

Ho-hum...

broodblik

Article about the meg:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/how-judge-dredd-megazine-is-celebrating-30th-birthday

It looks like we will be getting the encyclopedia until the 45th anniversary of the prog
When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

Old age is the Lord's way of telling us to step aside for something new. Death's in case we didn't take the hint.

Colin YNWA

Quote from: broodblik on 17 September, 2020, 01:16:35 PM

It looks like we will be getting the encyclopedia until the 45th anniversary of the prog

Which terrifyingly is less than 18 months away!

broodblik

I am going to miss the variety we got with the floppies.
When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

Old age is the Lord's way of telling us to step aside for something new. Death's in case we didn't take the hint.

JayzusB.Christ

I haven't said this for a very long time, but I really love this month's Megazine.  It feels again like it did when it started - something you'd look forward to for a whole month.

Dredd is great - I wish Colin had done the whole thing, and I don't know why they switched artists, but it's a Wagner Dredd, a rare treat these days.

Lawless - I really didn't like the idea of an all-singing strip; I always struggle to find a tune that fits and end up being taken out of the story.  But then... Wow.  What can I say?  The highest praise I could possibly give a comics writer - Alan Moore, look and learn.  (That League of Extraordinary Gentlemen where half the comic is a song without a tune - nahh.)

Really love the Mike Carroll story - makes a whole lot more sense than Armageddon: The Bad Man if we're building Dredd's world, and Kenneth Niemand's alternative universe Dreddworld is lovely (sorry, Tordelback, but I just can't see how this is supposed to be a comedy strip).

Deliverance starts off strong, and I haven't read the other two strips yet, but keep up the good work, Meg-Tharg, I'm buying the Meg after not doing so for a long time.
Quote from: broodblik on 17 September, 2020, 04:40:33 AM
Another article on what the meg could have been:

https://neotextcorp.com/culture/the-megazine-that-never-was/?ct=t(EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_19_09_02_COPY_01)

I find the concept of "Bad Company" quite interesting


Thanks for this; it's a fascinating article.  A Cursed Earth strip by Alan Moore - god almighty, what might have been.
By the way, broodblik, the first episode of the aborted Wagner / Ezquerra Bad Company was printed in an old Megazine.  Can't remember which number, I'm afraid. 
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"

broodblik

Quote from: JayzusB.Christ on 18 September, 2020, 11:08:23 AM
By the way, broodblik, the first episode of the aborted Wagner / Ezquerra Bad Company was printed in an old Megazine.  Can't remember which number, I'm afraid.

If anyone can remember or know which meg please share the no
When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

Old age is the Lord's way of telling us to step aside for something new. Death's in case we didn't take the hint.

Richard


broodblik

When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

Old age is the Lord's way of telling us to step aside for something new. Death's in case we didn't take the hint.

Max Headroom

Broodblik - This aborted story also appeared at the end of 'The Complete Bad Company' graphic novel which you may own or want to pick up.