I've been reading 2000AD and the Judge Dredd magazine since the beginning and for a long time now Ive been finding it hard to follow the strips, they just seem to make less and less sense to me. I'm not sure if it's my age (54) or if it's the writing, but I'm just not getting the stories. The only two strips I can follow easily are Judge Dredd and Sinister Dexter. Does anyone else have this problem?
I've been collecting both comics since they started and the collector in me does not want to stop buying either comic, but the Megazine has to go. It's £5.99 a month, £71.88 a year and I'm just reading the Judge Dredd story and nothing else, as it all seems too confusing.
It's a sad day for me and the Megazine, as I have very few comics left that I actually enjoy reading. I gave up on Marvel comics around 4 years ago, as their continuity is worse than insane. I now just buy the occasional graphic novel from Marvel, any Darth Vader comics and now just 2000AD, as the Meg, from next month, is being removed from my reading list.
What does everyone else think?
Tarantino
I think you're just getting old and befuddled. Sorry.
The Megazine has always been patchy for me, but I have never considered not buying it. It currently has its best ever strip, which has been pretty much a permanent fixture for a few years (Lawless).
Stuff like Blunt does nothing for me but there have been strips I liked even less like the Soul Sisters, the Straightjacket Fits and Calhab Justice.
I am still enjoying the Meg. Because it is monthly you do loose some momentum but I always go back and just scan trough the old megs to do some catch-up.
Why not wait until you have read the September Meg since this is a celebration issue. The meg is 30 years old.
Here is what is coming in the next issue:
More action and adventure in the future-shocked world of Judge Dredd! The Megazine celebrates its 30th anniversary this month with a bumper issue, and a brand-new line-up of stories – John Wagner and Colin MacNeil reunite for a Dredd tale that reflects on America Jara's legacy; a Mega-City One unlike one you've ever seen before in 'Megatropolis'; an alien cult encounter Judge Death in 'Deliverance'; travel back to the early days of the Judges in the gritty thriller 'Dreadnoughts'; and The Returners are back, fighting their way through Brit-Cit! Plus there's a very special complete Lawless story, a one-off Anderson, Psi-Div story from Maura McHugh, interviews, features and more – and in the bagged mini-trade, the first instalment of the serialized 2000 AD encyclopedia!
Well as old and befuddled as I am, the collector in me cannot not buy the 30th Anniversary issue.
Tarantino
Quote from: Tarantino on 04 September, 2020, 12:13:42 PM
I gave up on Marvel comics around 4 years ago, as their continuity is worse than insane.
I do not even believe the writers knows exactly what is going on in the Marvel-verse that is why we have some many reboots and re-imaging of characters. Who can keep track of the billions of characters and the weekly morphing of the characters ?
My first thought on reading this was - but Lawless that's a great example of a 'straight forward' strip with superb characters, craft and utterly wonderful.... and then I started to think about what's happened and I wonder if how straight forward a strip is is simply down to how invested you are in it.
If Tarantino isn't getting stories its not necessarily the strips, or him, rather the fact that there's not enough there, for whatever reason to pull him in anymore. Which is a shame.
That said give Lawless another go, its utterly brilliant... oh go on...
Honestly, I think 2000 AD and especially the Meg would do better to give more space to their recaps, but there you go.
I have found the same recently. The Order and Full Tilt Boogie were garbled for me in the comic, Blunt and the One I Skip About People Who Are Dead or Aren't or Something seem to meander.
I re-read Blunt 3 from start to finish when it reached its conclusion last issue and it made perfect sense, and was excellent to boot. But, I've always found it hard to remember what's going on from month-to-month. I've previously argued this is a problem with the Meg and a few months' ago argued that it should have less, but longer strips each issue. I've gone off this idea though, and agree with Indigo Prime that a better solution would be a more substantial recap. Seems an easy fix.
Keeping things straight in your head for the Meg is, of course, harder due to the larger gaps between issues when compared to the weekly prog. Maybe anthology comics are just better on a fortnightly or weekly basis, but I'd rather have a monthly Meg than no Megazine at all.
I agree with the OP that some strips can be difficult to follow, and I think it comes down to two issues.
1. Some writers deliberately employ a style that demands close reading, where there's little-to-no reminders of past events and your just expected to have the entire history of the strip in your head. It's a bit like The Wire in that it demands you read/watch each episode very closely rather than just casually gloss over like you could do with most 2000 AD material back in the 80s.
2. 2000 AD and the Meg doesn't seem to have a particularly effective editorial process whereby narrative aspects that get "lost in translation" get fixed. What I mean by this, is that with creating a comic strip, unlike say, a book, the original narrative intention get can get lost in the many stages of creating the strip, in a Chinese whispers kind of way. For example, the Cadet Dredd strip in the last regened strip had an issue where one of senior judges is meant to be absent when a decision is made to send in Joe and Rico, but this got lost somewhere. Consequently it was very hard to make sense of. Which is a shame considering it's the lead strip in an all-ages prog. That's a more glaring example the most, but often the art doesn't very clearly telegraph the narrative intent and you're left floundering a bit while you're trying to work out the intent. I think this is ultimately a process issue that could and should be fixed. I don't want to overplay this, and make it a huge problem, but it does definitely crop up more than it should.
But, even though things are not quite perfect as I'd like them to be, I still enjoy the Meg a great deal, and urge the OP to at least continue until the new jump-on bumper issue next month. And maybe change the way you read it. For example you could just wait until each series is finished and then read them in one fell swoop, that might work better.
The funny thing is, comics used to deal with this with caption boxes.
[While Judge Fred dealt with something elsewhere, Judges Julie and Frisco looked at the tactics screen]
These have fallen out of fashion almost to the same degree as thought bubbles, and can be a hard thing for an editor to insert. After all, they already know the story and so won't see the problems. This is a failure of modern-day production chains that have dramatically lowered the number of people working on publications.
Caption boxes feel like comments in computer code. Definitely a good thing, but if you can impart the same info with better art direction/code design then that is even better.
I do hugely miss recap caption boxes back from in the old days, though. I'm currently doing a read of old prog and I'm on prog 195. The first panel of each strip has a perfectly serviceable recap caption box filling you in on exactly what you need to know for understanding the episode. I get that the focus on GNs is why we no longer get this, and the 90s idea of having a whole page given over to a title page and recap seems a little wasteful of space. Again, I think the best solution is probably to make the recaps at the start of the Meg/prog more useful
I have changed the way I read both the Prog and the Meg in recent months. Partly to address this issue, partly driven by late delivery of some Progs.
I now do a re-read of previous episodes in a run and reading them in blocks of each story in turn, rather than a complete Prog or Meg, and then the next Prog or Meg.
It takes more time, but makes everything more understandable.
To be fair you don't have to be old and befuddled to not follow Marvel comics these days. Most of it is incomprehensible tripe - I recently gave up on Hickman's X-men titles. The only Marvel title I read is Al's Hulk comic.
Honestly, even that one baffled me. I loved the first HC (1–10), but the second (11–20) seemed to assume a lot of existing knowledge about the MU/Hulk history. I found it quite hard going compared to the first book, to the point I'm wondering whether to call it a day or 'risk' the third HC when it rocks up.
I have basically given up on the Marvel stuff (at least the Star Wars stuff is better than the current movie stuff). The DC stuff is close by still trying to enjoy Batman. All the Marvel/DC is more about the big events plus the million characters cast fighting for their one panel in the sunshine. Most off these events does not make sense. How many times do they want to destroy/rebuild/reset/restart the universe/multiverse/omniverse/darkverse/or whatever verse ?
I do find I get more befuddled than I used to, but I'm fairly sure that's just me. Doesn't happen all the time, just for a couple of current thrills across the Prog and Meg. Re-reading is the answer. Like back in the day, when you'd pour over every prog several times and lock it into the memory for decades! The detail I remember from about prog 130-300 is a fine thing for example, at least in my books!
I'm two years behind on current Meg, but for the other half of the discussion - I find I would like better catch-up clues. We do sometimes get a "previously on...", which is very helpful. The worst offender for me is Dredd, because you often get a different author, who has their own stable of characters, but they only get like one turn a year (or two) to present them. Who even is Judge Krupke?
As for Meg content (from my 2018 perspective), it's actually strong. We just closed out a Cursed Earth Koburn, the Dredd [movie] Dead World piece (which was an interesting alt-take), The Returners is really good so far, there's the Bad Company / Chopper crossover (not my favorite) and I'm really enjoying the Dredd/Razorjack crossover.
Looking into my crystal ball, I'm pleased to see Devlin Waugh, Strange Brigade, Storm Warning, Lawless and The Torture Garden coming up. Not so enamored of more Blunt, but it's an anthology - and I didn't hate the first series. Oh - and I'm really looking forward to the Operation Overlord floppies.
Does it really go that badly downhill in the year after that?
(I'm not so keen on the Treasury of British Comics malarky. There was a reason I got into 2000 AD - it was better than anything else on the market. So, the TBC is everything else that was on the market. So, by definition, it's all worse than 2000 AD. It's like a historical curio. Like Citizen Kane - sure, it's genius and all that - but I'd rather re-watch Aliens. All day. Or this (https://youtu.be/UtjGTrVwRr4).)
Quote from: Funt Solo on 04 September, 2020, 11:02:38 PM
Does it really go that badly downhill in the year after that?
With my fan hat on: no. The headline Dredd strip is never less than readable, and Lawless maintains a semi-permanent presence that really keeps the quality up. The other strips that rotate in and out almost without exception have great art and the stories may or may not be to your taste, but I'll single out the Devlin Waugh revival (with obligatory sad footnote about the lack of John Smith) as having been surprisingly successful. The Ales Kot/Mike Dowling (and very recently Patrick Goddard) stuff, in particular, has been great.
With my non-fan-but-still-a-fan hat on: I think Lawless takes a break after the upcoming anniversary issue but, if it does, there's something from Ken Neimand and Dave Taylor that I think you're going to like
a lot.
Ken Neimand - an anagram of "Naked In Men".
I can't imagine ditching the Meg, Dredd is always solid, and Lawless is superb, but I don't devour it like I used to. I have read all the way through some awful strips since 1977 with the attitude of "I may not rate this, but it's in the comic I paid for so I'm damn well going to read it". Only recently have I started actually skipping.I struggled through Blunt 1, but doubt I'll ever read the rest, and I abandoned Pat'n'Clint's Moody Movie Storyboard about halfway through.
My failing memory may be to blame, or maybe the trend away from self-contained episodes with a wider arc, to more continuous stories designed to be collected, but I do find it harder to remember what's happened after a month. As a consequence, I've parked a few stories - Returners, Devlin Waugh - for a re-read at some undefined point in the future.
One odd thing I've noticed, is that when the prog is fielding a weak team, the Meg seems to step up it's game, and vice versa - currently, the prog's on top by some margin, but in recent years, it's been the other way around.
As for Marvel, I was an addict, a True Believer, a FOOM, but when they magnificently destroyed the entire universe (and all the other alternates like the Ultimate universe) after a couple of year's build up, it was my excuse to jump ship. It was like I had finally reached the last page of a single book I had been enjoying for decades -sad, but satisfying. I haven't invested at all in this new mash-up reality and it's such a weight off my shoulders (and wallet). I can walk past an Avengers crossover without needing to have it! I still buy the odd book, like the magnificent Immortal Hulk, but I feel liberated from the continuity.
Jim's summary of the state of the meg is how I feel. Some of the strips might not be up your alley but I can say that the art in the meg is always off the highest quality. Lawless is one-off the best ever comic strips I have encountered irrespective the publication.
Quote from: Magnetica on 04 September, 2020, 04:23:24 PM
I have changed the way I read both the Prog and the Meg in recent months. Partly to address this issue, partly driven by late delivery of some Progs.
I now do a re-read of previous episodes in a run and reading them in blocks of each story in turn, rather than a complete Prog or Meg, and then the next Prog or Meg.
It takes more time, but makes everything more understandable.
I subscribe digitally and I literally edit my comics so that all the stories are in sequence. Generally I wait until a jumping on point before sticking them all together and going back and reading them. I was struggling with the episodic format too until I did this, my memory these days can barely remember 5 mins ago let alone several weeks (or months), having young kids seems to have wrecked it! I've been really enjoying it, and the editing process is quite enjoyable in a nerdy collectors way too.
I do not have the patience to wait. If it is available I read it, I do download them so that I have a quick reference. I do go back quite often to catch-up with what is going on. The digital format gives you other advantages to do these type of things.
I've already talked about the problems with keeping up with the Meg's stories month on month, but as the state the Meg's roster itself, in the two years since I've got back into 2000 AD after a nearly 30 year absence, the slate of stories in the Meg has been very solid indeed and has often, for me, trumped the weekly prog. Not recently though, but that's because the prog itself has been very good, rather than a decline in quality of the Meg.
Lawless has been the single best thing for me, over both publications, by a significant margin.
Blunt is very good if you read it wholesale. It got a bit trippy and weird in the first two arcs, but Blunt 3 is very tightly plotted and deals with a single premise very well: how do we get out of here?
The Torture Garden was also a very decent read that works much better read in one sitting. Lawless, Blunt and the Torture Garden together also give you a sense of an entire Dredd galaxy, really expanding the whole world building of Dread.
Ales Kot is doing fine work on Devlin Waugh, and is turning into a real find for Tharg. Also, he doesn't seem to get talked about much, but Patrick Goddard is one hell of an artist. He doesn't have a very idiosyncratic style so it maybe why he doesn't get much attention, but he's one of the best for me, and it's always easy to follow what's going on with his work - crisp and clear. His work on Waugh, Aquila and Anderson has been stellar.
The Dredd strips in the Meg I may actually prefer than the prog ones. They're a bit more "let's just get on with telling a good action story without much fuss". Kind of like a Detective Comics Batman story.
Those 5 have been the standouts for me, over my 2 years. Diamond Dogs was ok, and I liked it more than Skip Tracer. The huge panel sizes in The Returners annoy me as it means there's not much happening each month, but it's fine when all read together. Tales from the Black Museum seems to have a better hit rate than it's prog counterpart, the Future Shock. Storm Warning is an easily digested police procedural with a supernatural twist and handsome art. Many of the written articles come over as promotional material for other Rebellion ventures, and I'd probably like more articles on older 2000 AD matters, but I guess all those tales to tell have already been told many times. As a newish reader, I have the advantage that the Floppy content is all new to me, and it's generally been great.
The Meg is always destined to be the optional extra for the committed 2000 AD fan, but it's been going for 30 years and that's an amazing achievement. I hope it gets to take centre stage out of the prog's shadow during the 30 year anniversary year.
And, though there hasn't been much of either, Meg Anderson has been head and shoulders better than prog Anderson.
I really can't fault a lot of the logic here. Quite a bit of it crops up from time to time as we see changes to the content of the Meg and Prog. Like many others there are periods when I relish every single strip and look forward to the next month / week. Then there are times when it is a little more patchy for me and there might be more content that I could quite happily leave alone. On balance it tends to be more toward the former and when it is the latter it tends to be only the one or two strips that I just skim over.
The reprint issue is almost as old as the meg and has never really found a satisfactory conclusion. I appreciate that for newer readers it is a tidy introduction to the vast back catalogue of Tooth strips in handy form. Now that it is more frequently interspersed with tasters from the wider IPC catalogue I find myself begrudging the floppy far less.
I do get the point as far as this choice is concerned though. The point that Tooth has generally been the best offering from IPC for many of us is valid. Then again there are some hidden gems in those other titles that we've missed over the years. Plus Rebellion get a chance to test the waters and grow the UK comic market possibly.
I'm also the same as many others in terms of the diversity of my comic reading these days. TBH Hickman has finally killed off my long term affinity for x-titles. A combination of non-dimensional characterisation, bloated publishing schedules (an insane number of titles and many of them bi-monthly), mediocre writing and artwork, high pricing, exchange rate issues and Covid-19 have pushed me to the point of paring down to my Tooth / Meg subscription. As for GN's, it tends to be old and obscure titles acquired second hand. Not to mention a lot of re-reading of ones from a while back.
Is the Meg worth giving the push too? Personally I'm in the 'no, keep with it' camp. Some of the future stuff looks enticing. I can give the Returners a miss. Blunt may well be worth going back and trying again. Waugh tends to wear its puerility a little too much for my tastes (Tittivilius ...) but is generally an okay read. Lawless is outstanding. Aye, overall there is plenty to like.
I've found it hard for a while to get into the Megazine. I remember the early years when it was something special; you'd spend a month looking forward to the next one. When it went bi-monthly it was still quality stuff, despite the occasional try-out filler strip (how's O'Rork these days?).
Its Preacher-filled days weren't great but it came into its own again with the 100-page relaunch. Nowadays, though, I don't really care about it. The Devlin strip is good; and an incredibly confident approach from a new writer on the strip, Lawless is great of course and Dredd is usually good. Most of the rest of it, though, isn't really doing it for me.
And it's expensive in Ireland - very bloody expensive - if you want to buy a physical version. But I'll stick with the digital version for now.
Yeah I'm in the 'sometimes it's hard to rememnber what's going on from episode to episode' camp - but I'm also in the 'I really like 80% of all the strips' camp, so no question I'm sticking with the Meg. Frankly it would have to get really bad to be as difficult to follow as the later half of Volume 2 of the Meg (Maelstrom, Shimura, Calhab, Pandora - I'm looking at all of YOU) - and it was fortnightly in those days!
I've found I enjoy letting episodes wash over me, and if I liked something enough it's usually possible to get hold of a collection to read it in one go, which often does iron out any 'what's actually going on' problems.
But you know, I'm keen for Tharg to push his drioids to put more caption boxes and thought balloons into their work. 2000AD has ever stood apart from the crowd, and this is a good way to do it. Plus with today's software it ought to be easy anough for the collections editor to just remove any 'recap captions' from panels for a collected edition.
I still think the Megazine's on the same high it's had since Volume 4!
Like Jayzus, I find the Megazine's physical price-point as just too high for me, and I've never been the biggest fan of the monthly format. I've been picking it up digitally and irregularly lately, but i still struggle to be engaged with a lot of the material. It probably doesn't help that I have a deep-seated grudge against non-Smith Devlin Waugh (and Indigo Prime), regardless of how good the new team is, and feel pretty I'm much done with Anderson.
The last run I recall being really addicted was in the 360-370s, with things like Demon Nic, Realm of the Damned, Storm Warning etc. - and even then I was mainly getting it in delayed chunks from online sales. These days I tend to get most out of the floppies, which seems a bit daft: part of me feels that I'd get as much out of just saving up for future collections.
Quote from: TordelBack on 07 September, 2020, 11:06:14 AM, and feel pretty I'm much done with Anderson.
I hate to say it, but I'm in this camp too, and have been for a long time. The problem with Anderson is that it's rare that something important happens in the strip, and when it does, it's pretty much forgotten about in the Dreddworld.
Satan, for all its hype and, of course, beautiful artwork, didn't really make any difference to anything - the only thing I really remember was the devil walking up to the city and talking to Anderson. (Dredd [spoiler]admitting he saw Anderson as a friend[/spoiler] was by far the most interesting part of it).
Then things like the Justice Department [spoiler]nuking many of the Meg's own children[/spoiler] are never mentioned again (except once in an Al Ewing Dredd, fair play to him).
To be fair, the last story you mentioned is best forgotten about.
Childhood's End was the last great solo-Anderson story, although she does work well as a supporting character in things like Dark Justice or Judgement on Gotham.
Stories that work well (that are set in the Dreddverse) remove themselves from MC-1 continuity and/or Dredd continuity and just do their own thing. Like Insurrection, all the Deadworld stuff, Lawless, Devlin Waugh, Cursed Earth Koburn, Storm Warning and so on.
---
Can we agree that there should be a moratorium on any plot that involves a secret cadre of Judges hidden within the department after a years long plot to take over the city? We've had the Judda, that fat bloke from the Cursed Earth in Dragon Blood/NWO, the secret nasty ninja Judges from Trifecta, the secret nasty invisible Judges under the control of magic cupboard-nerd, the secret nasty Judges where Dredd summarily executed their commander in their magic block-base and there's probably a group I've forgotten. It's getting to be like the RPG Paranoia, where everyone's a member of a secret society.
Also: no more Titan break-outs. Just nuke the site from orbit. How about a Judge serves their time on Titan and then returns to the city on the scheduled shuttle. (And then seeks revenge...without shouting and drooling or throwing any Chief Judges off the West Wall.)
I can't tell if you're being sarcastic there Funt, but you've described the exact plot of 'Return of Rico...', the precise reason why writers can't use that plot formula!
On Anderson, I rather get the impression that post-Grant writers are seriously upping the Psi abilities of the characters. I guess it allows for newer stories, but I always like how underpowered Anderson and her dept were - vague hunches, predictions that were often only half-right, gleaning clues from the new-dead far more eaaily then the still-living. Or Juliet November, who could barely stop small fires from breaking out everywhere she went. Some of the most recent strips are dangeerouslty close to 'What if the X-Men were Judges' (and if they leaned into the fact that Psi Judges are mutants I would mind this a lot less!)
Quote from: AlexF on 07 September, 2020, 06:22:40 PM
I can't tell if you're being sarcastic there Funt, but you've described the exact plot of 'Return of Rico...', the precise reason why writers can't use that plot formula!
Can I pretend I was being sarcastic? :)
I have other great original plot ideas: how about a crazed sea pirate that launches nukes at the city, but it turns out to be the secret plot of a foreign nation? A simian runs for mayor? Dredd gets taken over by an alien parasite?
What about pitting Dredd against an alien superfiend with a death obsession who kills millions, then the very next year against a different, unconnected alien superfiend with a death obsession who kills imillions? Just a thought.
Nah, JBC: that would never work. Make the second death count in the billions, though, and I think you're onto something.
Here's one that's too stupid to get printed except maybe in a fanzine*: what if the city blocks came to life!!!
*Fanzine peeps - no offense intended!
Quote from: Funt Solo on 07 September, 2020, 10:11:03 PM
Here's one that's too stupid to get printed except maybe in a fanzine*: what if the city blocks came to life!!!
..and one of them could look like a giant naked chick. For the lads, and all.
The Meg has always been problematic for me. I've bought it since #1 (and how I wish that "#" could be replaced with "prog", but they never really went with that, did they), but it has never been close to my favourite purchase of the month. It just never seems to have been done quite right- if i were to take a pair of scissors to my four boxes of Megs and snip out all the extraneous material- reprints, crap strips I'll never again read, etc- i reckon i could shove the remaining magazines into a single box. Maybe that's being unnecessarily unfair, but it seems like that.
At least until recently. These last few years, I've come to love the Meg- Lawless, predominantly, has raised the game a lot and the light it shines has made me pay more attention to the rest of the content, and there is a lot to like.
Would I ever stop buying it? Nope. That one Wednesday a month when the prog and Meg sit beside me on the sofa awaiting my eyes has become rather special to me. A good hour and a bit of escapism, as opposed to the mere twenty minutes I get on all other Wednesdays.
I'd love to see it changed though. I've made my feelings clear elsewhere about us being WELL OVERDUE a redesign for both comics, but I think the Meg especially could do with a bit of spit and polish. I'd start by using the classic Dredd logo and a better paper stock for the cover. The bagged reprints leading to the higher price point than we would perhaps like- well, I can deal with that. The Meg is no more expensive than most other magazines aimed at older readers on the shelf. Even games mags are in the five to ten quid bracket. It's just a shame that the bag stops anyone actually seeing what they are getting and no doubt deters the casual buyer.
...and on that note, am I the only one who carefully clips the top of the bag, slides the mags out and then equally carefully *folds the bag and places it in the middle of the Meg, for posterity*?
SBT
You keep the bag?
Quote from: SmallBlueThing(Reborn) on 08 September, 2020, 02:11:39 PM
...and on that note, am I the only one who carefully clips the top of the bag, slides the mags out and then equally carefully *folds the bag and places it in the middle of the Meg, for posterity*?
SBT
Probably - though I do put the floppy back in the bag afterwards (though as the bag is bio-degradable, as good as the design on the front I suspect it'll eventually get used for composting.
I keep the Megazine and the floppy together, not separately, so I keep them in the bag (also useful for keeping the card with the cover on it that we get now). But I wouldn't keep the bag if I was storing them separately!
Well, this thread has really opened my eyes. All this bag retention! They'll be someone who's kept all his newsagents receipts from when he bought his prog in 1982, mark my words. And then where will we be? :o
Quote from: Richard on 08 September, 2020, 03:46:39 PM
I keep the Megazine and the floppy together, not separately, so I keep them in the bag (also useful for keeping the card with the cover on it that we subscribers get now). But I wouldn't keep the bag if I was storing them separately!
Fixed that.
Quote from: The Enigmatic Dr X on 04 September, 2020, 02:17:46 PM
I have found the same recently. The Order and Full Tilt Boogie were garbled for me in the comic, Blunt and the One I Skip About People Who Are Dead or Aren't or Something seem to meander.
This^^^
There's always been strips I've skipped or speed read, but I dont think there are more now, however there are more that seem to meander, endlessly repeat( I'm looking at you SinDex) or are obvious TPB in the making: Slaine etc.
Quote from: Proudhuff on 09 September, 2020, 01:35:02 PM
Quote from: The Enigmatic Dr X on 04 September, 2020, 02:17:46 PM
I have found the same recently. The Order and Full Tilt Boogie were garbled for me in the comic, Blunt and the One I Skip About People Who Are Dead or Aren't or Something seem to meander.
This^^^
There's always been strips I've skipped or speed read, but I dont think there are more now, however there are more that seem to meander, endlessly repeat( I'm looking at you SinDex) or are obvious TPB in the making: Slaine etc.
Forgive my ignorance but what's TPB?
Trade paperback. As in, a collected (softcover) edition.
Quote from: Funt Solo on 05 September, 2020, 12:12:24 AM
Ken Neimand - an anagram of "Naked In Men".
also an anagram of John Inman
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 09 September, 2020, 01:48:50 PM
Trade paperback. As in, a collected (softcover) edition.
Ah, I see. Thanks.
Saw this interview with Dave Taylor about his upcoming strip in the Meg :
https://2000ad.com/news/interview-dave-taylor-on-the-all-new-world-of-megatropolis/ (https://2000ad.com/news/interview-dave-taylor-on-the-all-new-world-of-megatropolis/)
Looks great so if you think off giving up just wait until you have read the 30th Anniversary Edition
Quote from: broodblik on 09 September, 2020, 07:03:28 PM
Saw this interview with Dave Taylor about his upcoming strip in the Meg :
https://2000ad.com/news/interview-dave-taylor-on-the-all-new-world-of-megatropolis/ (https://2000ad.com/news/interview-dave-taylor-on-the-all-new-world-of-megatropolis/)
Looks great so if you think off giving up just wait until you have read the 30th Anniversary Edition
To be fair, that looks like a belter of a Megazine. A Wagner Dredd and all - you don't know what you've got till it's gone (into semi-retirement).
It is always great to have a Wagner Dredd strip but it looks like we will get that less and less. Thus appreciate these times
Lawless pretty much makes The Megazine essential for me, anything else of quality is just a bonus.
Have to say, the 30th anniversary edition's lineup looks particularly strong, with Wagner back on Dredd, in an America continuation no less, I can't say that I would want to miss that for anything.
...although I have to say that keeping the price point at £5.99 when there is a floppy presenting archive material is understandable and even desirable. However, when it is used for promotional material like that one the other month with the yellow cover, or the upcoming "encyclopedia", that the blurb assures us will be collected in 2022 (and which I'm damn sure many of us will buy anyway), it does rankle a bit.
SBT
Be mindful that magazines got a colossal kicking this summer. Circulations were down by as much as 80%. I don't know what 2000 AD's balance is in terms of subs/newsstand, but I imagine Rebellion took a huge hit. This to me seems a smart way to double-dip with some commissioned content, thereby saving costs without reducing value.
Things could be a lot worse. These magazines still exist—not remotely a given. They're not full of reprint. (Even the mighty Phoenix cut back on new strip recently, reprinting old Starcat pages that had been 'remastered'.)
That is true, but as I understand it the archive material is also bought and paid for- and I would certainly not even remotely complain about seeing a years worth of old uk strips (even scanned directly from the paper copies without the expenditure of touching them up) as opposed to a year or so of bits of a book I would ordinarily be expected to buy. As it goes, I cant see how, on release, I'm not going to think "sod that, I've got all that sitting upstairs in a box."- like I do with many of the more recent collections of strips- after a year or more of thinking "I'm paying £5.99 for a comic that would be at least a quid cheaper if I weren't paying for something I'm probably going to buy again."
I understand why they are doing it, and maybe a single "taster" floppy would be fine- but the whole thing? I cant see how that's going to maximise sales of the eventual book *or* give monthly readers value for money. It's certainly soured the 100 page Meg 30th special for me- and made me look twice at the £7.99 price.
I'd have preferred Dinosty.
SBT
Quote from: SmallBlueThing(Reborn) on 10 September, 2020, 12:25:33 PM
I'd have preferred Dinosty.
The ultimate sanction! :lol:
Should clarify my earlier remarks about price: I don't think £5.99 is at all an unreasonable price for what you get, but by the time it arrives in Irish newsagents it's simply more than I can afford these days, unless I'm completely compelled into imprudence by unmissable content. Which I'm not, especially when the digital option is there, and with no time pressure.
Buying the Prog digitally has freed up enough cash every to get a digital Meg, or when I'm not inspired by fauxWaugh, a digital Special or new collection of material I've missed. I still don't like digital anything like as much as paper, but it works, and it's cheap.
My disastrous finances may in one sense be Tharg's problem, but they're in no way his fault.
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 10 September, 2020, 11:37:17 AM
Things could be a lot worse. These magazines still exist—not remotely a given. They're not full of reprint. (Even the mighty Phoenix cut back on new strip recently, reprinting old Starcat pages that had been 'remastered'.)
They also seem to have stopped commissioning new cover art as well. Instead using art from the interior, or previously seen art within a design. I have to be honest it doesn't often work, though to be fair once you're inside who cares.
The change I've noticed is the change in page layouts to suit reprints in a more 'Dogman' like format. If you look at the latest Bunny Vs Monkey trade (the one that does the original books 1 and 2) they are very much heading to break into that market I suspect.
I hear you, re finances. Something has to break soon- and having just "rearranged" all my boxes of comics and shifted thousands of books around... I may just decide to call it a day and start pumping what money I do have into something that doesn't take up so much space. Like, I dunno, cocaine.
SBT
Quote from: SmallBlueThing(Reborn) on 10 September, 2020, 12:25:33 PMI would certainly not even remotely complain about seeing a years worth of old uk strips (even scanned directly from the paper copies without the expenditure of touching them up
Rebellion won't want to put out any old shit. Additionally, straight scans without any repro work would like like utter crap. It'd be moiré city for any of the colour content.
Quote"I'm paying £5.99 for a comic that would be at least a quid cheaper if I weren't paying for something I'm probably going to buy again."
Only it wouldn't be, because the economics of magazines don't work like that. If the Meg dropped the floppy, its price wouldn't drop much, if at all.
QuoteI cant see how that's going to maximise sales of the eventual book *or* give monthly readers value for money.
Some people will like what they've read and 'upgrade' to the book. Plenty of people who don't read the Meg will buy the book. Some people won't do either. But it seems a reasonable way to deal with the current scenario, which is essentially nightmarish for publications right now. (Seriously, I don't think many people know just how many magazines are teetering on the brink. I'm NOT suggestion 2000 AD/The Meg are, note, but things are really bad right now for a lot of names—even big ones.)
Quote from: TordelBack on 10 September, 2020, 12:44:59 PMI still don't like digital anything like as much as paper, but it works, and it's cheap.
And it's still money going to Rebellion.
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 10 September, 2020, 12:50:19 PMThey also seem to have stopped commissioning new cover art as well.
I'd not noticed, but mini-IP doesn't really give me a look in these days. Sometimes, I get to read BvM with her, but that's about it. Sigh.
QuoteThe change I've noticed is the change in page layouts to suit reprints in a more 'Dogman' like format. If you look at the latest Bunny Vs Monkey trade (the one that does the original books 1 and 2) they are very much heading to break into that market I suspect.
Quite possibly. Makes sense, given the facings in bookshops, and the lack of love The Phoenix volumes tend to get. But I like their skinny mini-trades. (Mind you, I'd also buy the heck out of an Image-style BvM HC...)
re: reprint.
Even a basic "scan, remove obvious damage and adjust levels" pass to make scans of printed B&W line art ready for use adds up to a significant amount of time (and therefore money) when you're talking about a few hundred pages a year. Obviously it's less than the kind of full repro work Rebellion have been doing on their Treasury books, but it's still going to cost and there's a good argument that "poor" repro will turn people off exploring the archive material further.
The floppy is a definite value-add for me with the Meg, and I'd be a bit frustrated to have it turned over to a serialised encyclopaedia. Would prefer to see it continue to be used to collect Rebellion-era prog/Meg material (which should be stored digitally and about as low-cost as you get - already bought and paid for, no repro required etc.) but there's likely a limit to how much you can raid that with competing demands from the graphic novel line, or the simple limits of page count in the floppy. Reprints of material from the older archives would be great, but the repro costs probably make that difficult - I wouldn't mind seeing more "sampler" issues like the recent Vigilant one though, reprinting bite-size samples from existing Treasury reprints.
I like samplers. I thought Matt Smith's Nemesis floppy was great, but must have been a shit-ton of work. I'm not that excited about the encyclopaedia, but, hey, it's new material and the mag still exists. I'll take it.
Whatever they need to do to keep the Meg afloat in a crisis is fine by me.
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 10 September, 2020, 02:17:47 PM
I like samplers. I thought Matt Smith's Nemesis floppy was great, but must have been a shit-ton of work. I'm not that excited about the encyclopaedia, but, hey, it's new material and the mag still exists. I'll take it.
I'd have to check, but I think that was already written for the Hachette collections, so not much further work needed to be done (as somebody who owns both I'm not complaining).
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 10 September, 2020, 02:17:47 PM
I thought Matt Smith's Nemesis floppy was great
Snigger.
But yes, me too. I much preferred it to paying for strips that I already have. But as you say, it's a heck of a lot of work, probably without much reward.
Personally I'm chuffed about the Encyclopaedia its the sort of thing I love. Though to be fair it'll probably just end up as a preview of what I'll end up buying anyway when its a lovely HC. I can defo see why if its not your thing it'd piss you off though as it will be here for a while.
That said hopefully it will buy them the time they need to look through the Treasury and decide what to do with some of the content there. What to save for eventual trade release and what can be used for floppie. And scan it all and touch it up, whatever needs doing. Then when its done we will get a load of stuff from the Treasury. That's my dream scenario.
Quote from: sheridan on 10 September, 2020, 03:15:37 PM
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 10 September, 2020, 02:17:47 PM
I like samplers. I thought Matt Smith's Nemesis floppy was great, but must have been a shit-ton of work. I'm not that excited about the encyclopaedia, but, hey, it's new material and the mag still exists. I'll take it.
I'd have to check, but I think that was already written for the Hachette collections, so not much further work needed to be done (as somebody who owns both I'm not complaining).
Nope. It was written for an intended series of monographs that ended up not going ahead.
Sorry, what encyclopedia are you discussing?
The one that will be published starting with Meg 424:
https://2000ad.com/news/the-2000-ad-encyclopedia-starting-in-judge-dredd-megazine-424/ (https://2000ad.com/news/the-2000-ad-encyclopedia-starting-in-judge-dredd-megazine-424/)
Quote from: The Amstor Computer on 10 September, 2020, 02:14:20 PM
The floppy is a definite value-add for me with the Meg, and I'd be a bit frustrated to have it turned over to a serialised encyclopaedia [...] I wouldn't mind seeing more "sampler" issues like the recent Vigilant one though, reprinting bite-size samples from existing Treasury reprints.
I loved the Vigilant characters floppy, one of the most enjoyable comics in ages. Floppies are a big pull for me as a sporadic buyer, if I see there'll be reprint I like I'm more likely to pull the trigger, and with some exceptions they're usually a good read even if they weren't an initial draw.
However, the Encyclopedia idea is intriguing, especially as having a digital version handy wouldn't preclude buying an eventual printing.
The floppy for me is a very positive thing about the meg. I really like it when the reprint material is from stuff I never had access to like Tornado and even Starlord. I also think when stuff like Operation Overlord was printed as a original rather than a reprint, this is when it becomes full value.
I am looking forward to the Encyclopedia.
Quote from: Cyber-Matt on 10 September, 2020, 07:00:28 PMNope. It was written for an intended series of monographs that ended up not going ahead.
I did find it odd just that one appeared. A pity the series didn't continue. It was a good read.
Quote from: broodblik on 10 September, 2020, 07:09:44 PM
The one that will be published starting with Meg 424:
https://2000ad.com/news/the-2000-ad-encyclopedia-starting-in-judge-dredd-megazine-424/ (https://2000ad.com/news/the-2000-ad-encyclopedia-starting-in-judge-dredd-megazine-424/)
Ooh ... thanks, brood, that looks interesting. I was daydreaming about doing an A-Z to replace the out of date TBTHOT (http://www.2000ad.org/thrillpower/), but wanted to finish my Stages (https://2kstages.webnode.com/) project first. And that'll probably take me years, so ...
It is always nice when other people do your "work" for you.
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 08 September, 2020, 02:46:28 PM
You keep the bag?
:lol:
(I'm laughing, but I have a Forbidden Planet paper bag from circa 1982. And that free pencil. And my progs are individually bagged. I had to get rid of that Hubba Bubba, though - it was doing an entropy gig on its own prog - the parasite!)
I'm looking forward to the encyclopaedia too actually. Some nostalgia, some things I didn't know about hopefully. Should be good!
Quote from: Funt Solo on 10 September, 2020, 08:02:12 PM
Quote from: broodblik on 10 September, 2020, 07:09:44 PM
The one that will be published starting with Meg 424:
https://2000ad.com/news/the-2000-ad-encyclopedia-starting-in-judge-dredd-megazine-424/ (https://2000ad.com/news/the-2000-ad-encyclopedia-starting-in-judge-dredd-megazine-424/)
Ooh ... thanks, brood, that looks interesting. I was daydreaming about doing an A-Z to replace the out of date TBTHOT (http://www.2000ad.org/thrillpower/), but wanted to finish my Stages (https://2kstages.webnode.com/) project first. And that'll probably take me years, so ...
Funtster, I too have been dreaming of doing this when my own unfinished project is completed - if the encyclopedia isn't quite doing that job, let's make it a reality.
OK, so the latest Meg just arrived and that Encyclopedia looks to be doing EXACTLY what we want in terms of updating 'Touched by the Hand of Tharg'.
I guess it's a little hampered by spacing issues, so inevitably smaller strips get less space for the author to wax lyrical about whether the strip is any good or not.
Don't know if I'd want to buy a collected book of this encyclopedia, but I'd love to see it all online somewhere! And it'll be fun to flick through month to month for the next year.
Quote from: Tarantino on 04 September, 2020, 12:40:49 PM
Well as old and befuddled as I am, the collector in me cannot not buy the 30th Anniversary issue.
Tarantino
I wonder did you do this and if so has it had any impact on your decision. I thought it was a great issue and the stories coming out look really good and curious as to whether its tempted you to stick around?
It's one hell of a comic alright. That Lawless episode is no-kidding insane, and the Returners actually made some kind of sense. Impressed that the strip is 100% Dreddworld, but I'd still like the creator-owned spot back: those have been highpoibts for my Meg experience. I'll be back on board (digitally) until America 3.5 is done, then we'll see how well the rest has grabbed me by then.
The Encyclopedia is a bit less...nerdy... than I'd maybe hoped, but I did enjoy remembering A.H.A.B. Just not sure it's as good value (to me) as, say, a floppy of material I've forgotten.
When Broodblik introduced this month's Megazine here, i thought it looked amazing - it didn't disappoint. I'll be buying it again for the time being.
I'm more than happy with the encyclopedia - I just couldn't get on board with paying extra for strips I already have.
Now, someday I'd like to see the Meg come with a sort of Dreddworld Atlas, with descriptions of the major events of each region and reprinted illustrations to go with them.
Quote from: JayzusB.Christ on 18 September, 2020, 10:42:11 AM
Now, someday I'd like to see the Meg come with a sort of Dreddworld Atlas, with descriptions of the major events of each region and reprinted illustrations to go with them.
This is a great idea.
Quote from: broodblik on 18 September, 2020, 10:56:22 AM
Quote from: JayzusB.Christ on 18 September, 2020, 10:42:11 AM
Now, someday I'd like to see the Meg come with a sort of Dreddworld Atlas, with descriptions of the major events of each region and reprinted illustrations to go with them.
This is a great idea.
Yes, yes it is.
I like what I've seen of the encyclopaedia so far (but share concerns about the formatting with the large area of empty space), but would maybe have preferred a Dreddverse-only version that went into more depth about the recurring characters in Dredd and what they'd done in the stories. For example 3 pages' worth of DeMarco. Maybe this info could have a spoiler-free intro and then a longer spoiler section detailing their character arcs.
Just read the latest Megazine. Quite frankly it's the best issue in years. So a strange one to the place to stop getting it.
I agree. I just renewed my combi sub and this month's Meg is amazing.
Quote from: Tarantino on 04 September, 2020, 12:40:49 PM
Well as old and befuddled as I am, the collector in me cannot not buy the 30th Anniversary issue.
Tarantino
and?
Can we vote to change the title of this thread to:
"O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! The Megazine is here to stay!"