2000 AD Online Forum

Am I the only one to have this?

(POSS SPOILERS!!!)

Cover, nice. Different enough to stand out on the stands?

Dredd: PJ Maybe is up to something, and I'm not sure if I'm guessing correctly. I trust Wagner enough to not try and work out too much.

Zancudo: Congrats to Si Spurrier for doing this. An excellent way of updating the classic series.

Not read anything else yet, pacing myself.

Bolt-01

I was wondering this meself.

Had time to read the strips last night, but wanted a re-read before reviewing...

Dan

Damn...I had this yesterday and could have started a thread...never mind.

I enjoyed Dredd and PJ...it's a good character that and a nice story.

Anderson made me laugh (is that the right thing to do)?

Not read much else yet.

Can anyone spot the boarder in Anderson?  I haven't seen it yet!

I'm guessing it's 'Dazzy Beatle', the small-time perp in the scene on page 4.  That face looks kinda contemporary for an AR character.

No idea who it really belongs too, though.

I had a flick and the winner is......

Hugh (Endginn)

Great likeness.

Bolt-01

Gordon - does your perp look like this?

I will reread tonight.

Erm...no.  But there's a guy on page 3 who's the spitting image of that picture.  Hurrah for the powers of the mighty lighbox!

Heatseekers is getting a lot better, it seems.

I want that cover.

I wonder who you need to badger to get that then...?

I could try and contact Colin for you, if you're serious.

Wake

If i had any money at all I would be serious, sadly I'm $kint at the momment. :( So, no need to bother. I wouldn't be able to buy it.

My mother just got in and i told her, and she said 'find out how much it is'. Does this mean she might loan me the money for it? Could be, if it's not too much. If you could find out the price I'd appreachiate it.

Max

re: Zancudo --

Am I possibly reading too much into the appearance of the ants? Is Si just having fun by hinting at a connection to Ant Wars?

It's certainly a great wee strip, and there are some marvellous moments from both Si & Cam Kennedy.

BTW - it's "Brock Hard". Don't spoil the crap pun! ;-)

Today I felt true Thrill Power Overload for the first time. I laughed like a drain.

In a fit of ego, I'm so buying that page.

Surely Barnesy will want it for his mum?

Highlights of the Meg:

Everything about the lead Dredd story (genius!)

The sheer inventiveness of ideas-heavy Zancudo

The fantastic dialogue of Devlin Waugh

The creepiness of the arachnid reprints.

I liked lots of other bits, too, especially the standard of art throughout, but these are my favourite elements.

Overall, it was another great magazine. I enjoyed it a lot.

- Trout

I want to applaud the decision to plug Usagi Yojimbo. I've been a fan of that strip since I was first introduced to it in the '80's. Sakai is indeed a master storyteller.

Bolt-01, wishes he had more of the books though :(

Bloody hell, man. There are 19 of them, apparently!

I'm not even going to start buying them. I have to pay for my new patio...

A quite exceptional episode of PJ Maybe (feat Judge Dredd) showcases John Wagner's ability to really make you care about a story.  I don't think we've seen pure storytelling on this level for many moons.  I have no idea what's going on, and I'm looking forward to next month immensely.

Devlin Waugh's psycho ninja badgers, cool dialogue and camp violence just edge out Anderson's beautiful art and robodog shows for second place.

A very well-written British icons instalment on a character I'd vaguely heard of but knew nothing about makes a high debut at number 4, and the really enjoyable Doctor Who feature powers into the sixth spot, making this my favourite Meg for features so far.  Between them in fifth place is Si Spurrier's excellent Zancudo.  The script here is wonderful, but I still don't like Cam Kennedy's art very much, even when it's at its absolute best as it is here.  

Bubbling under as worthy additions are Judge Dredd: Kiss/Return of the Spiderwoman, good as ever; Johnny Woo, which may well take off next time but isn't currently grabbing a great deal of my attention; the Snuff feature which was decently written although hardly telling us anything new; Orient: No Future for You with a historically detailed analysis that just didn't get me very interested; the Bryan Talbot interview which I felt was a distinct drop-off in quality from the previous interviews.

Bogie Man is beginning to get on my tits now: comedy should be funny and fast, this is glacial and substitutes "satire" of the weakest kind for actual humour.

Metro Dredd is the most predictable fanboy idea, played out in a really boring fashion.  If this was the standard, I'm amazed the contract lasted a year.

I agree with the letterwriter who says the Meg is lording it over the weekly at the moment.

And the cover ROCKS LIKE A BADGER.

Ahh Trouty, you are missing a treat. I've got the first 6, and then the 11th. After that nothing. However I might find one in Bristol.

Bolt-01

AGH!

Don't do that to me!

You're a father, too. You ought to be ashamed of yourself! Be more responsible!

Bloody comics pusher.

That Endjinn must have been chuffed to bits.

It must be quite appealing to see yourself in a strip of high stature.

Hey whats the idea with PJ Maybes apostrophes?do'nt twice as well
At first I was wondering if it was part of PJs language make up.

Am I on the right lines?

confused,
Manchester.

Has anybody else spotted there's no Dredd Files? Doesn't seem to have been missed!

Expert: I think John's making the point that even a spellchecker has'nt made P'Js English an'y bett'er.

Skurvy: Well done that man! I didn't notice that at all.
Hmmm. That's not a recommendation for the Dredd Files, IMO.

- Trout

Carlsborg - yes, PJ Maybe is a terrible speller. All the captions not written in CAPS LOCK are written by PJ, badly.

thanking thjose involved in the answers,

smiling pleasantly backing away,

'borg

S

P

O

I

L

E

R

S

At first I was confused by the comedy jock accents in DREDD because I thought Inga was still in South America but she must have gone to the CAL-HAB (I had to reread last month's to check).  As Dudley said, I have no idea where this is going but that's a good thing.

I'm really enjoying ZANCUDO - the narration is absolutely spot on, some great running jokes and the reveal of the old ones at the end was fabulous.

I've given up on Bogie Man (I loved the original) but still found time to chuckle at the DEKE AND BRODIE pun.  (That could be a clue in Gordon's Edinburgh based Dan Brownathon)

Devlin get's top marks for a laugh out loud moment when describing the boat race and the rather brilliant "Do we look like Girl Guides?". Tasty art, sparkling dialogue, flying ninjas and knob gags. Fantastic.

Johnny Woo - is there a backstory to this that I have missed? Is Woo's "deceased" wife going to turn out to be the sniper who failed to kill him? No, Rennie is much better than that so I've no idea where this is going either.

I'll be controversial and suggest Anderson is as deserving of a rest as Slaine and Sin/Dex.  Some of the Half-Life stuff was fun but, vaguely interesting as this linked tale is, it seems to have dragged on and on. And I don't like Ranson's art.  Don't think I ever have.  He just seems to get body proportions wrong from time to time and it always jars me out of the story.

Dredd: Great stuff, nice to see Inga doing more than her previous eye-candy mode. I was slightly confused when Rymes didn't get it first, as last month's cliffhanger hinted that she was in peril. (And I also thought that the lady who did die was Wally Squad, but obviously not). PJ is probably my favourite Dredd villain, but I don't know if I want him to survive this. I like this even better than "Total War", so that's saying something.

Devlin - Excellent stuff. Fast paced action, and great dialogue. I hope this doesn't degenerate into "Devlin & chums fight some minions, while the baddies look a bit menacing, and allude to their nefarious plot" every month though.

Bogie Man - I'd never read any of the prequels, so while I have enjoyed this for the madcap fun and lovely art, I feel as if I'm missing the point of many of the jokes

Johnny Woo - PJ puts in a stirling performance here, as all of the panels convey the hectic action & also feature lots of detail, but don't look crowded. Rennie could probably make any premise into a readable script, so I enjoy this, despite my ignorance of HK movies.

Bryan Talbot - I sometimes wish these interviews could be a bit more biting. Interesting bit about deadlines though.

I enjoyed all of the text articles, if Metro Dredd hadn't appeared, I wouldn't be able to fault this meg in any way.

Gah! due to a broken tooth (lots of PAIN by the way) I haven't managed to pick up either my tooth or meg this week yet!

yih, Im sorry Darryl but the word "gaylord" applies to you mostly today as I have a rotting wisdom tooth,a regular tooth ,so rotten I cannot bite up on it and a cheek chewing half-tooth which leaves me in constant day to day pain

And I still bought both Mags(tho I am yet to get round to buying the EE and Serenity series)

Ive also got a tonne of back progs and GNs to sought out

dont let me be your concsiounce tho, hang in there and buy your allocated reads as soon as possible and I think you will find....they help with the pain.

Love T'Noerth

Thing is, I've had the tooth out and so the pain is form a particularly nasty surgical extraction - not the tooth.

Do yourself a favour - don't put off going to the dentist kids - it's worth it in the long run.

I type this from my bed in hospital  - god loves laptops!

OK Daz,ill let you off.

why thankyou soooo much, I'll sleep better tonight!

good news is - Jules (me girlfriend) is bringing me my fix (of tooth and meg) tomorrow!

Just thought I'd add - I got out to vote!

tell yer - I must've looked like John Merrick!

1;hahaha

2;Awww

Normally I love Cam Kennedy's art, but it seems a bit lacklustre here. I don't know if it needs colour or more detail or what, just seems a bit below par.Otherwise, I agree with Dudley pretty much.
  The Orient thing got on my wick; if something is a complete dud, not worth your time etc, why bother telling us about it?  The Who thing was great fun and the feature on the other famous detective with rooms in Baker St was fascinating.

"The Orient thing got on my wick; if something is a complete dud, not worth your time etc, why bother telling us about it?"

I suspect it's because films like 2046 and Casshern have been getting rave reviews from other reviewers, and the reviewer felt a counterbalance was necessary.

Worth getting for the Dredd alone. I'd like to think there's more to it, that this poor sap's an elaborate decoy so I'll bite me tongue. Devlin Waugh and Judge Anderson have both been good fun of late, I like it when the silliness is upfront and the po-faced anguish takes a back seat. Zancudo's mildly amusing but reads terribly, like riding on square wheels. No flow at all. Struggled with Johnny Woo too, but mostly through nitpicking ("Ah, that's meant to be a rear view mirror! I get it now"  or "Blimey, this goes on for another page? I thought that trap was the cliffhanger?" and stuff like that.) but Bogie Man is pure comedy-Marmite joy. I love the way McNab thinks it's showtime then just decides to kick off on the crowd. Sexton Blake was unexpected, welcome and interesting. Enjoyed the Bryan Talbot piece a lot. Didn't bother with the other articles (sor-eh.)

Oh, and the Metro Dredd was rubbish. And that's by Metro Dredd standards.

Judge Dredd:
- top stuff, this.  I can't figure out quite what PJ Maybe is up to with his monsterus mashinashuns, but enjoying trying to figure it out.

Zancudo:
- I just love this.  The dialogue, the narration, the art, the setting:  love it all and it's OTT stylee.

Devlin Waugh:
- hysterical and beautiful.

Johnny Woo:
- I want not to like this (because it's so heavily influenced by contemporary movies) but I actually really enjoy it.  If the sniper is his wife, then that's incredibly predictable.  If it's not, then my expectations will have been over-turned yet again.

The Bogie Man:
- The (very) slow-burn build-up has actually paid off this month by throwing us into the incredible chaos and farce of the motorcycle display.

Curse of the Spider-Woman:
- F*ck, this is dark.  Brilliant.

Anderson Psi
- Someone else mentioned that they often get disturbed by Ranson's "people that just don't look right".  Yep.  I've noticed that as well, but I still love the art.  This story is very good, very layered - lots of insanity.  Plus the robo-dogs going mental:  which is an adventure opener from Slaughter Margin, one of the supplements for the original JD RPG (by the by).

Articles half-read as usual...may read them at some point but probably won't.

Altogether another corking meg that throws the gauntlet down at the feet of the factory production line that is the weekly.



 

'Bolt-01, wishes he had more of the books though :('

The article got me re-reading all my Usagi books at the weekend and then on a buzz looking on Amazon.co.uk to fill the gaps in my collection. Was pleasantly surprised to find a whole host of the volumes for 7-9 quid. Very good value, if just for the page count that most Usagi volumes run to. No Bristol for me, but I'll make do with the Samurai rabbit to keep up my spirits.

Judge Dredd had some very funny dialogue this time round. "Gie us a haun oot" and all that talk about "diddyheids", etc. Feel sorry for that philanthropist guy. What's the deal with taking out his heart? Am I right in saying PJ's is missing already from some time back? So is he going to get this guy's heart as a transplant? Then what happens to the donor? Heightened anticipation for the next issue, that's for sure.

Anderson Psi was my top story this issue because it's just getting so dark and freaky. Maybe this has gone on a bit long, but in my view it has only just got into high geer. In contrast to all of this epic to date I actually found part 2 of City of Dead quite chilling.

The Bogie Man, Devlin Waugh and Zancudo okay; Haven't read Johnny Woo yet. Not really expecting to enjoy it, sorry. The Bogie Man reads like something written for television, having knockabout comedy, a chase scene, stunts and a climactic scene at a big public event. Oh, and kneecapping.

Of the text features, I've read and enjoyed the Doctor Who one and I'm looking forward to reading the Bryan Talbot and Sexton Blake features. I didn't notice there was no Dreddlines either.

Usher: There was a Dreddlines. Right at the back.

Bolt-01

Sorry, I must mean Dredd Files.

"yih, Im sorry Darryl but the word "gaylord" applies to you mostly today as I have a rotting wisdom tooth,a regular tooth ,so rotten I cannot bite up on it and a cheek chewing half-tooth which leaves me in constant day to day pain "

Ahem...most unimpressive.

On the Meg...very good Meg save the awful fixture that I can't summon the energy/interest to read properly and the fact I've completely forgotten the first part of Spurrier's strip. Btw, its amazing how good MacNeil's art looks on Devlin now isn't it? It looks exactly the same, but at the moment its working by god!

Will