No thread for this yet?
Bagged!
Well, it's hard to add anything to that really, Hegel. You've covered pretty much all the bases already, and your review of the contents says pretty much everything I could have done, though much more succintly. Your thoughts on Dredd were particularly interesting, I thought, and probably warrant a discussion thread all their own. Otherwise, you've proved yourself a fair and just reviewer, taking the time to articulate why some of the thrills were not to your taste so as to be sensitive to creator's feelings, as well as lavishing praise where such was rightly due.
I'm not sure it was strictly necessary to critique each and every letter in Dreddlines, but your thoroughness is to be commended and I suppose if a thing's doing properly it's worth doing right. Just be careful you don't step on Buttonman's toes - likewise Pete Wells' covers blog, although your detailed breakdown of this month's cover and the wealth of scans you provided of same will certainly give him a run for his money! A cracking read overall, I can only wish all Meg review threads were as detailed and downright thought-provoking as this. I salute you, sir, for services to Thrill-power.
Hmmm slight hint of sarcasm there? Naw, thought not.
Only had a flick through but a disappointing Dreddlines with only 3 letters, one of which from The Cosh. To take Dark Jimbo's lead : it's really great, best letter ever, Covered every base in a witting and insightful way.
Bah!
Look at this over looked potential classic. Best Tag line ever too!
Meg 321 : Dusty Win!
Dear Dreddlines,
My subbers copy of Meg 321 came 3 days early but without the bagged book which appeared a couple of days later. I understand this was an error but I quite liked the longevity it gave my purchase! I'm not always the biggest fan of the bonus book, but I certainly missed it when it wasn't there. No doubt the cost of postage would make this double whammy (sorry) uneconomical but it does suggest a staggering of the content is no bad thing.
This issue itself was a mixed bag - as always! The cover was a bit of a puzzler for me. If I had to come up with a cover I'd have Judge Dredd on a large, futuristic ride on lawn mower shouting 'I am the lawn' and the strap line would read 'Your Arse is Grass' - you can have that one on me. You do have to wonder the thought process behind the 'sexy' ostriches idea. Did you spot a niche market of 'orny ornithologists? I know we can't have Dredd shooting the place up every month but I feel this was a bit too much of a departure from what we'd expect.
The Dredd wasn't too memorable with the 'Jeremy Kyle' thing been seen a few times before. Hopefully it'll develop now that the big man has finally shown up in the last page. It does seem a bit incongruous with established continuity that the Judges would allow a depiction of one of their finest as seen here but let's call it 'satire' and move on.
Armitage surprised me by being my pick of the Meg this issue. There were a lot of nice touches and things pulled together for a satisfying finale. The idea that Dredd has dangerous booby trapped blood seems entirely appropriate!
American Reaper bowed out (for now) with another 20 pages of fake ads and dazzling graphics. I loved this when it started but like a relative visiting for Christmas it outstayed its welcome by February. It's great to look at but the glacial pace of the story doesn't justify it's massive page count.
We finished up with Strange and Darke and this creepy treat is one I'll never tire of. I do think the Inspector is a bit too strange looking and it does take you out of the story which is largely anchored in the real world, but hey killer sheep - what do I know?!
All the best
BM
Ha - yeah sorry. I got distracted and then for some reason thought I could edit my original post a few minutes later.
Anyway here goes.
Dredd - Decent text book stuff. The meat and potatoes of mega city one stories, which is no bad thing.
Black Museum - A fun little tale. Awsome D'israeli art elevating it a few notches too. D'isreali has always been great but has just been getting stronger and stronger over the last few years.
Snapshot - I really liked this opener. The dialogue was well paced and interesting and the set-up was well paced. I look forward to the next episode.
Strange and Darke - Definitely the highlight. Great throbbing story with wickerman overtones but which stands on it's own. I'm adoring the art too - both MacNeil's drawing and the really warm and vibrant colour pallet. Great stuff.
Good meg this month. The only annoyance is the 'free' music track that I can't get to because I don't have a fancy phone to use the QR scan thingy. I am disappointment.
Not sure i can compete with the op but I really enjoyed the meg this month. The old school Dredd was still a little odd to my eyes but a spanking good story none the less. Strange and Darke is shaping up really well and shows Wales as an interesting counterpoint to the big meg. I quite enjoyed the tftbm, although the story was fairly predictable (I did like the RK-la bot), and Snapshot makes for a very interesting opening episode. Little bit heavy on the references but most of them made me smile. There was even a letters page that said lots of true things about AR. All in all a top read. Even Purgatory which I'm part way through isn't sucking as badly as I remember. Maybe it's just reading it in the sun in the garden doing it.
So, what the hell do I do with this 'QR' code and how do I download this Drokk track? I don't think my Blackberry can do anything with these (or if it does, I don't know how).
I liked this Meg a lot. What a difference the absence of American Reaper has made.
I'm still loving Strange and Darke but my highlight was the Black Museum story. D'Israeli can do no wrong and it was a great tale by Moore and Reppion. Snapshot was just delicious stuff, too, especially the art.
- Trout
Figured it out. Had to download a barcode reader from the app shop. The track sounds pretty good. Like a modern day version of the Terminator score. I'm looking forward to the whole album.
Haven't read the Meg yet. I'll be back...
Meg 322 out for subs today? I got the prog not the meg it seems if that is the case xD
I got the meg but no Prog so it balances out.
Jock is back everybody, we can all relax now. This is comic art as Grud intended, absolutely peerless.
See, you knew I wasn't really gonna cancel my subscription - I just had to give Snapshot a go, and it's all kinds of aceness.
However, if AR does rear it's mis-shapen head again in the Autumn, I may well bow out.
I don't usually read the Meg floppy, but this month I foolishly thought I would give it a try. I don't really remember Purgatory from the first time around.
What utter, utter tosh. Why are they all indestructible? Why is it so incredibly violent, but has no actual storytelling? Lots of bad people kill one another. It has no more depth than that.
- Trout
American Reaper and Snapshot should swap artists.
Actually, thats not entirely a facetious comment... photo story would suit Snapshot better than Reaper, and Reaper would get a neat makeover.
Snapshot storywise so far seemed a bit generic and at turns silly... if Pat had had the lead blabbing his name to the mystery voice at the other end of the phone, we'd have never heard the end of it.
Quote from: Leigh S on 24 March, 2012, 08:40:17 PM
if Pat had had the lead blabbing his name to the mystery voice at the other end of the phone, we'd have never heard the end of it.
I think that's fair comment. Poor old Pat's got so much form for destroying the sense of disbelief that we do tend to jump on his mistakes a bit.
Heh - true enough. I suppose I'm the kind of person who finds 60s batman more credible than Nolan Batman, because all pretence at reality is gone, and I can immerse myself in this alternative universe. When something crazy happens in Pats stuff, I can accept it as Pat-speak. This stood out for me more by being in a story set in the "real" world albeit one where Warrior is a rare import - I bet Dez still has a warehouse of them!
Quote from: King Trout on 24 March, 2012, 08:17:01 PMWhat utter, utter tosh. Why are they all indestructible? Why is it so incredibly violent, but has no actual storytelling? Lots of bad people kill one another. It has no more depth than that.
Yup, and what follows is just as bad. Funny also how Grice goes from weedy conspirator to generic Millar muscleman, and Titan shifts from hard-as-nails penal colony to a sadist governor's paradise. Also: the revised and simplified 'masks' were a disappointment both then and now.
Elsewhere:
Dredd: middling. Black Museum: amusing. Snapshot: intriguing. Strange and Darke: fab.
Was chuffed to see San Francisco in Snapshot, where we went to on the trip of a lifetime last year. Found a great little comic shop near our hotel in The Mission, which seemed similar to the one shown in the strip. Don't know if it's based on this shop in particular?
This is the first time in a looooooong while I can actually say I liked Tales From The Black Museum. Apols to previous people on it - just my view. This one was brilliant though and definitely the best thing in the Meg for me. Love, and I mean LOVE, that artwork.
Snapshot coming in raises the game of the Meg this month considerably for me. Looking forward to seeing how this develops.
Strange and Darke continues well. Wasn't expecting that speech bubble in the last panel! Crikey, he's going to be busy!
Dredd sadly didn't really work for me. Too old school but without enough edge for my tastes. An ironic state of affairs given that this is the Judgr Dredd megazine.
Overall though, yep, I'm one happy subscriber. My only problem now is that it's a month till the next meg!
Great megazine this month, I thought.
Dredd was probably the weakest, and I was interested to see Purgatory again, not having read it since it was first published.
The near indestructable nature of Khurtz is ridiculous - a line that they undergo some kind of modification to toughen them up to survive Titan would have helped a little bit... apart from it just being Millarworld.
Contest to win one of the Lawgiver MK II replicas as well...
It'll heal!
Uh, no, it really really wouldn't. Etc.
Still, at least the Time Twister wasn't awful. If I wasn't some kind of Meg completist, I think I'd happily shred this floppy.
I suppose the fact we're getting Purgatory in the floppy means the next Case Files is due to reprint Inferno. 1993 wasn't the best year to be reading Dredd...
Yeah, it says at the end of Purgatory that Inferno will be in CF 19.
I'm weirdly looking forwards to that.
We need Wagner and Flint to do their own Titan story to wipe the memory of Purgatory.
Quote from: JOE SOAP on 26 March, 2012, 09:38:02 PM
We need Wagner and Flint to do their own Titan story to wipe the memory of Purgatory.
Here's hoping. Otherwise, I can only see myself going down the repressed memory route. It should have been glorious. It should have been Papillon. It isn't even Escape From Los Angeles. Hell, it isn't even escape from Godalming.
Quote from: JOE SOAP on 26 March, 2012, 09:38:02 PM
We need Wagner and Flint to do their own Titan story to wipe the memory of Purgatory.
Well, Sinfield's recently joined Ramos there, so it could be the perfect time...
Dredd: Meh. Not sure why this was a two parter, or what has happened to gary erskine's art. Didnt like this one at all.
Black Museum: good stuff. Hotdog run stories always hit a particular spot, and this was no exception. Excellent start from the moore and reppion droids, and that artbot has a big future, whoever he is.
Snapshot: Meh. Isnt this just an episode of CSI with comic nerds? I read comics to see stuff that i cant in other media, so as a result this just seemed stale. Im not a huge fan of jock's art im sorry to say, but i can appreciate it tells the story. Not for me, though.
Strange & Darke: Very good stuff, and the highlight of the meg. Wearing its influences proudly, cracking along, and beautifully drawn. Last page alone worth the price. Second-best of tharg's output this month, tied with this week's dante in the prog.
Purgatory: as bad as i remebered, and yet, and yet... there's a place for this kind of laugh-out-loud violence in dredd and simplistic storytelling. Meh.
(but i liked it)
SBT
Dredd: doesn't do it for me, story a bit light and Gary's Dredd seems base on a young Joey Ramone!!
Black Museum: any work by the big D'i is welcome in my world, a fine story with only a couple o wee plot holes
Snapshot: I love Diggle and Jock's work especially together,but shirley a bit pish ripping at 3 or 4 panels a page? this whole thing could have been done in 3 pages of seven panels.
Purgatory yes it is.
QuoteWell, Sinfield's recently joined Ramos there, so it could be the perfect time...
I do wonder if we'll see Sinfield again. I asked John Wagner last year if Sinfield's 'son' March would be returning (surely he has an axe to grind with Dredd) and he said that he probably would, but not for the time being.
Dredd - Nice little 2 parter, I enjoyed it.
Black Museum - All good until the boy sprout fired a lawgiver without blowing his own hand off. Leah Moore needs to do a bit of homework, methinks.
Snapshot - I like the premise, although it seems to be a non SF story. Good start, nonetheless.
Strange & Darke - Great little story, and I love MacNeil's colourful art.
The Parkhouse interview was good. I like his art, though not his writing so much. The Big Dave pic is brilliant. Is this a new guy on the film reviews? I usually like reading them, but this was horrendously stretched out to fill 3 pages and very dryly written.
oohh... short story comp with an actual prize! Thinking cap is ON.
Oh, and the bonus stuff: Purgatory was arsom and stupid all at once. How camp is Khurtz! the Janus strip was rubbish, partly because the dialogue, with Janus even THINKING "like", was crap. The Time Twister is one of the best. Who is JM Teed?
Quote from: Alski on 28 March, 2012, 01:53:55 PM
Black Museum - All good until the boy sprout fired a lawgiver without blowing his own hand off. Leah Moore needs to do a bit of homework, methinks.
Look at how he fires it. She has done her homework
That's me told! Durrr. :lol:
@Radiator - when did we actually see March? Does he appear in Mega City Justice?
Yes - he appears in the stories Interlude: Mega-City One and The Talented Mayo Ambrose.
It's alright Alski, that was my first thought about the firing of the lawgiver too. I was already ten lines into a 'dear tharg, why-oh-why-why-oh...' letter, when i went back for another look. Panel should have been bigger, is my opinion. And i think that's the very first time ive ever had an issue with a single thing d'israeli has drawn.
SBT
I downloaded that track and was slightly underwhelmed to say the least. Let's hope the album is better when I listen to it in one continuous go!
Quote from: radiator on 28 March, 2012, 02:51:12 PM
Yes - he appears in the stories Interlude: Mega-City One and The Talented Mayo Ambrose.
Is that the episode where he comes with a side helping of salad?
Mix him with ketchup you get council estate Mary Rose sauce
As a straight thriller at the moment Snapshot seems a bit out of place in the Meg but it was good all the same. It is very uncompressed though. Is it going to take forever to show any movement in the plot?
I LOVE Strange and Darke. It is so up my street it lives in my house.
I liked Tales from the Black Museum too. The art was predictably cool and the story was nice and dark.
I didn't get interested in the Dredd story although I felt a twinge of regret when the Transexual criminal got his/her just deserts as I quite liked him/her...
I didn't realise Steve Parkhouse had been working since the 60s. He seems to have had a bit of a difficult career at times. I seem to have missed most of the stories he drew - I only remember Big Dave and I remember thinking that if that story had been in its own comic it would probably had had massive cult status but 2000AD was full of edgy prankish post-modern media aware stuff at the time and it just seemed like it was shouting to be heard. Great art though.
Snapshot, loved it, lovely art and a snappy fast paced story, looking forward to more.
Strange and, I didnt read last months yet, for no particular reason, so I have to catch up.
Dredd, fine, but a bit of a filler feel. I think if that if thar story was in the prog it would have been done over one week. Id love the Meg stories to have a purpose or theme. Like to explore early Dredd world, or have a look at his time on Luna one, just something rather than a series of OK Dredds.
Tales was fine, I did get a bit lost in the middle, I found some of the panels confusing but OK overall the art itself lifting the story.
The Parkhouse feature was good, and I didnt read the Film review, I rarely do.
I read the floppy too, I usually dont read the floppy until I have nothing to read, and its great stupid fun. The art is stunning pre computer Carlos art, that gives it 5 out of 10, 5 out of 10 isint bad for early 90s 2000ad! Janus was ok again the art making it readable.
David
Thoroughly enjoyed this issue - much better now that AR has finished, although Snapshot seemed a sparse plot for such a page count, it is much better than the previous incumbent of the creator owned space.
For me the highlight of the issue was the interview with Steve Parkhouse. One of my all time favourite artists and someone we just don't see enough of these days. His Resident Alien strip is by far the best thing in Dark Horse Presents... and I'm looking forward to seeing it as a standalone comic
A word about Purgatory - yes, it's pants story wise, but man alive that Ezquerra fella can draw. The art is on fire and manages to raise this one trick pony to readable.
Good to see Jock and Diggle back at the house of Tharg, but this first episode didn't set me thrill circuits aglow, I think my expectations were maybe a bit high. But I have plenty of faith that it'll grow and am looking forward to it. I think the creator owned slot has been great and long may it continue.
The Black Museum tale was a wee cracker but Strange and Darke hasn't gelled with me for some reason.
M.
freebie utter rubbish.
That said okay prog Dredd fine, newby tale Snapshot has only just got going so too early to really tell, Black Museum was okay if hardly "horrifying", Strange and Darke still the best in Meg.
Quote from: Proudhuff on 28 March, 2012, 10:48:52 AM
Snapshot: I love Diggle and Jock's work especially together,but shirley a bit pish ripping at 3 or 4 panels a page? this whole thing could have been done in 3 pages of seven panels.
From the size of the lettering I suspect that this was written for printing in US smaller format comic books.
Quote from: A.Cow on 01 April, 2012, 03:39:55 PM
Quote from: Proudhuff on 28 March, 2012, 10:48:52 AM
Snapshot: I love Diggle and Jock's work especially together,but shirley a bit pish ripping at 3 or 4 panels a page? this whole thing could have been done in 3 pages of seven panels.
From the size of the lettering I suspect that this was written for printing in US smaller format comic books.
That makes sense, well spotted
Cover: Edgy and full of deph. Very good. ****
Dredd: Odd two parter. Didn't really like it alot, still nice with decent art. ***
TfTBM: Surprisingly good. D'isralie can do no wrong of course and the story was fun and light. WTF moment when the kid used the Lawgiver. Looked closer, realised my mistake, i'm a happy person. ****
Snapshot: Great opening, loved it. The two leads are people I could easily imagine being members of this site. Jock can do no wrong either! ****
Strange and Darke: DROKKING LOVE IT! Story, so simple yet so effective. Art, McNeil can DO NO WRONG! (XD) If this isn't a semi regulare up there with Koburn and Armitage, i'm gonna throw a tantrum! **** and a 1/2.
Purgatory: oh dear. Miller, you one dimensional thing. Essentialy Colditz in space there more hate in this movie than A Serbian Film and Cannibal Ferox put together. Khurts was fun at first but turned into a typical Miller indistructable man. Grice, jackass. Bundy, bint. Strucker, ass hat.
Esquareas art and designs save it however. ***
Janus: Pants. Janus is anoying. ** (And that is once agin only due to the king).
Time Twister: Fun, light, not intended to make you think for more than a few mins. Great stuff. *** and a 1/2
Newsarama has a nice review for Megazine 322 here
http://www.newsarama.com/comics/best-shots-comic-reviews-120402.html (http://www.newsarama.com/comics/best-shots-comic-reviews-120402.html)
Scroll down nearly to the bottom.
The cover is great but the Meg should perhaps rethink their logo; it kind of crashes into the image. And the various bylines don't always help.
Dredd: Good fun. Nothing against this particular story but the Meg Dredd's are beginning to feel a bit too filler. It would be nice to have something a bit more substantial rather than just another 'adventure of the week' type story. The longer format should allow for stories with more depth than the weekly but it's rarely been taken advantage of in the last few years.
Steve Parkhouse: Some really wonderful examples of his art and a nice interview too. I read his new series Resident Alien with Peter Hogan in DHP and it's really good stuff; reminded me of Concrete a little bit. Definitely worth checking out. I went and bought Angel Fire after reading this too.
Black Museum: I really enjoyed this. Great idea, well executed and with some wonderful D'Israeli art. Short and sweet.
Mars Attracts: Interesting article. I haven't seen John Carter yet but I would like to give it a watch, seems to have divided people quite a bit.
Snapshot: Hmm. Hmmmmm. I liked it but a few of the plot jumps were a little absurd. Would he really be that stupid to not realise that the guy on the other end of the phone might be the killer? I know it's required for the narrative but surely having the phone call scene first, followed by the discovery of the pictures, might have been a little more believable? It really did pull me out of the story. The 'wink wink' references were a little groan inducing but nothing too bothersome. And hey, at least it was an issue of Warrior, right? :D
Drokk: Big fan of Portishead so enjoyed this short little feature. I downloaded the song (get a barcode scanned on your phone, then email yourself the track. I couldn't figure out how to directly d/l it on to the phone). It's a bit too 80s sounding for my liking but I think it'd work quite effectively in a film if played around with a bit. Depends on the tone you're going for, of course!
Film Reviews: As much as I hated the inclusion of this feature back in the day, Andrew Osmond is a very good writer and it's always interesting to read his contexual analysis and thoughts on the films.
Strange & Darke: Yes. More, please.
Oh and how could I forget...
Inferno: I'll admit that I loved this story as a kid. It had ultraviolence, mad characters and great art and was worlds apart from the X-Men and Spider-Man comics I was familiar with at the time. But no, it really is crap. Nonsensical crap too: why would they feed the hippy guy his pet rat if he was secretly on their side the whole time!? Like a lot of Millar's work, it's actually a pretty good concept for a story but the execution is godawful.
Still, this is some of Ezquerra's absolute best colour art. The multi-coloured panel work is fantastic and the sheer dynamism of his art carries the whole thing. I do miss Ezquerra's old colouring; the new computer stuff just seems more flat and lifeless in comparison.
Judge Dredd - The Guile Show: Eh. Nice little story comes to an end. Not much to say to be honest, the writing held itself together nicely, although not really a fan of the artwork, it was the characters' faces that bugged me, they just seemed...plastic? Not sure how to word it but something was definately off, didn't do it for me. Still, as I said, story was pretty tight, and avoided becoming just a "Jeremy Skyle is a dick, geddit!?" type of thing.
Black Museum - Scouting for Bots: Probably my favourite strip in this months Meg. I've always been a sucker for D'Israeli's art, so a big kudos from me there. Now as for the script, I must say I'm displeased with what to me seemed like a happy ending. Black Museum stories should always be big buckets of misery and despair, but the action was great, particularly the panel with the judge lasered in half, made my week (I do love over the top violence) so all in all, kudos to Leah too!
Snapshot - Part One: This has the potential to either be very good, or very bad. The premise is bad, "nerdy comicbook geek is set down the path of adventure", which to me leaves either a goofy adventure where the substance is replaced with comicbook referential humour (the comic version of stoner comedy movies?) or just a crap attempt to direct an otherwise decent story towards an audience which is mostly composed of cynical assholes that pick everything apart and criticise it for no good reason (like me!). However, the dialogue is indeed well written and I can honestly say it has piqued my interest, I need to know what happens next. So, might turn out shit, but for the moment I'm hooked. Oh and of course, the artwork? It's Jock, no complaints here!
Strange and Darke: From the pirst issue I've had a pretty tough time getting into this, and haven't even got around to last months installment, gonna wait to the whole thing is finished and read it all in one sitting, for the moment, no comment.
----------
Now for the extra book...
So yesterday I sat down with my orange juice and tobacco, late at night, looking for a dose of thrillpower to send me off to the land of dreams and wonder for a few hours before I had to face reality and do grown-up adult things, such as go to a job interview and pretend I've always wanted to work for the Royal Bank of Scotland (I haven't). I decided to read through Purgatory. Let me start by saying I usually like Mark Millar. Hell, I even liked Wanted (a lot) and people are always telling me Wanted's a pile of crap.
I like almost everything Millar has ever written, and always felt that the examples of Millar's less stellar writing might not actually exist and everyone else in the world who says it does is just less intelligent than me. I mean most people in the world believe in God and watch Television, so I'm not averse to the naracissistic and elitist habit of feeling superior to everyone else when they hold an opinion I disagree with, however, in light of Mark Millar's writing, it seems I was wrong, he really can write some terrible shite. Now I feel bad, maybe I'm wrong about God, and Television!? Maybe Nadine Dorries is right about everything, maybe Jade Goody really was a national treasure! No, no I'm still right on those things, but I have had to reavaluate my position on Mark Millar's writing, Purgatory was awful.
I think I can sum up everything I hated about Purgatory, simply with the hippie judge...
First Appearence: Teases the crippled woman. Plays with a rat. Watch out, this guy is obviously mysterious!
Second Appearence: Hints at getting back at guards, feeds rat own blood, stand by idly whilst guards harass crippled woman, say nothing of any value apart from said hint. Watch out folks, we got a wildcard character here!
Third Appearence: Suddenly decides to feel bad about crippled woman's plight, begins murdering guards, beaten to ground and forced to eat pet rat.
Fourth Appearence: Joins friends in rebellion by killing more guards. Not a hippie anymore!
Fifth Appearence: Forgets about all the judges and guards he just killed and claims he's a pacifist when faced with the prospect of killing more people. Because he's a hippie, geddit!?
Sixth Appearence: Forgets he's a pacifist and helps Grice torture a judge for info. "Don't be a slave to the system!"
Seventh Appearence: Complains when Grice kills a wounded friend for slowing them down. I don't get it, is he a hippie again now?
Eighth Appearence: Shoots Grice in the neck, claims he was always on the judges side, and was waiting to become a Titan Judge himself. I guess once his sentence was up, they were going to overlook the fact he killed a bunch of their guys and welcome him aboard, that's usually what happens; when people kill your co-workers, you hire them. I guess we're also overlooking the fact that despite his ten years nearly being up, he was willing to risk a longer sentence by killing all those guards, in order to help Grice, so that he could kill Grice, so as to...
...you know what, fuck you Millar, this was awful. All the characters were one dimensional dicks, except for the hippie, who was a schizophrenic pointless lead up to a terrible ham handed joke "never trust a hippie!? Hahaha oh my sides!". The only character I was genuinely interested in seeing more of was the crippled woman, however unless I'm mistaken, she just vanishes after the riot begins and nobody seems to notice nor care.
This review quickly turned into Millar hatred it seems. I didn't read any of the movie reviews or articles.
We need another Titan based strip. Scripted by Wagner and art from Wilsher. You know it makes sense Tharg!
Quote from: Hawkmonger on 05 April, 2012, 08:51:08 PM
We need another Titan based strip. Scripted by Wagner and art from Wilsher. You know it makes sense Tharg!
Might make for an interesting recruitment drive in Insurrection? :o
Review of resident Alien here for fence sitters.
http://www.darkhorse.com/Blog/929/interview-paul-hogan-about-resident-alien
Been catching up on my Megs, and I might as well review this one since it's still technically the latest:
Dredd - Nothing special, but a perfectly acceptable old-school Dredd story. B
Black Museum - A solid little tale with some nice D'israeli art. Found the action a bit confusing in places; too many cadet characters and sometimes a bit tough to work out where things are happening in relation to each other. Asking the artist to do too much with too little canvas, I think - it could have done with being scaled down in scope a bit or extended a couple of pages to be clearer. But nothing really wrong with it. B
Snapshot - Found the dialogue between the lead character and his comic shop buddy in the beginning a bit irritating and too self-consciously 'witty'. Picked up a lot once the actual plot got going, though, so I'm cautiously optimistic. B-
Strange & Darke - Loving this. Beautifully atmospheric. And the sheep toys cracked me up. There's some slightly awkward positioning of the dialogue balloons in the panel at the bottom left of page four where I read them in the wrong order, but beyond that I have no complaints. A
Very high quality Meg, although the text features seemed less interesting than the last few months, aside from the Steve Parkhouse interview. The reprints, on the other hand...
Purgatory - Just ugh. So incoherent and stupid. What's with all the outright torture? I have no problem believing that the Titan prisoners would be treated pretty brutally, but it's still a Justice Department run prison, not a torture camp. Plus I just can't believe that any of these prisoners could possibly have qualified as Judges in the first place. (Or the prison guards, for that matter. And what's with the hippie claiming he can become a Titan Judge when he's served his time? ...That is not how prison works.) And how did the guard commander survive being plunged into molten slag without- aargh, you know what, I don't actually care. Even Carlos Ezquerra can't save this, although I salute his professionalism in trying with such dedication. E+, and that grade represents just how much the art does to elevate it.
Not a good advertisement to encourage me to pick up case files 19, I must say.
Janus: Psi-Division - Wow, that, like, completely forced and unnatural verbal tic that doesn't match any other aspect of her speech isn't, like, wholly annoying or anything. And unpunctuated word streams was not a good choice for rendering psychic communication. Lovely haunted cityscape by Caros, though. This gets a D, mostly for being less awful than Purgatory.
Time Twister - A nice little palette cleanser at the end of all that. The confession was a hell of a plot device (surely that would be admissable to have arrested the guy?) but the twist was cute, Ezquerra in black and white is always a delight, and I am inclined to be charitable after what I just slogged through. B
I think, all in all, I'm going to consider this a study in just how much quality standards have climbed since the 90s. Nothing I've read in recent years, even the stuff I've disliked, has ever been anywhere near as poor as the stories in this reprint.
The funny thing is, Titan seemed a much scarier place before Purgatory: an endless, unremitting, brutal, repetitive hell for bent Judges. Purgatory just turned it into a nonsensical Millar parody, with his typical disregard for what went before. Some kind of story about Grice conniving his way out of the version of Titan we'd seen before could have been exciting and made sense; instead, we got indestructible musclemen, stupid set pieces, and a plot that barely made any sense at the best of times.
I don't know about a poor advert for the next Case Files, but it's a poor advert for the Meg in general. On the plus side, it certainly shows curation evident in the trades line: Dead Man got its own book, but Purgatory ends up as a floppy in the Meg.
Quote from: a chosen rider on 19 April, 2012, 11:39:08 AM
Strange & Darke - There's some slightly awkward positioning of the dialogue balloons in the panel at the bottom left of page four where I read them in the wrong order, but beyond that I have no complaints. A
I rechecked the lettering guides I did for this episode. This is most definitely the letterers fault.
Bloomin' letterers, grumblegrumble...:D
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 19 April, 2012, 12:04:31 PMThe funny thing is, Titan seemed a much scarier place before Purgatory: an endless, unremitting, brutal, repetitive hell for bent Judges. Purgatory just turned it into a nonsensical Millar parody, with his typical disregard for what went before. Some kind of story about Grice conniving his way out of the version of Titan we'd seen before could have been exciting and made sense; instead, we got indestructible musclemen, stupid set pieces, and a plot that barely made any sense at the best of times.
Very true. Yet another thing that bugged me, which I decided was almost too small to mention compared to all the other flaws, was the fact that all the prisoners had the Titan face modification for working in a vacuum, but none of them were ever sent out onto the planets' surface! I guess in the Millarworld version, the guards just sealed the prisoners' faces up for fun?
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 19 April, 2012, 12:04:31 PMI don't know about a poor advert for the next Case Files, but it's a poor advert for the Meg in general. On the plus side, it certainly shows curation evident in the trades line: Dead Man got its own book, but Purgatory ends up as a floppy in the Meg.
Yeah, some slightly unfortunate scheduling for the first same week digital Meg, really. Lucky the new material was all strong to compensate. And it is nice to see Rebellion looking out for the quality standard of the trades instead of trying to make money from rubbish early work by creators who've since become big names.
Quote from: Colin MacNeil on 19 April, 2012, 01:07:14 PMI rechecked the lettering guides I did for this episode. This is most definitely the letterers fault.
Bloomin' letterers, grumblegrumble...:D
Aw. Now I feel bad. Nobody compliments the letterers when they're doing it right the other 99% of the time. And it is very nice lettering! :)