2000 AD Online Forum

Hello all - first off, my apologies if this isn't the right place to put this! (I did do a search, but couldn't see an exsisiting review of the latest Meg). Unfortunately, I wanted to start with a bit of a moan about the latest issue...

1. There are no less than 18 pages of "features" in this issue!  Just my opinion of course, but I buy the Meg for stories and artwork... if I wanted a 7-page feature (not even an interview) on the career of Garth Ennis, I'd look elsewhere!  Likewise, the features on old War comics and Horror films... and The Dredd Files just seems completely pointless to me.  We could have had another two, even three strips in place of all this filler.  Again, just my own opinion here.

2. Judge Dredd: The Gingerbread Man, is fantastic, classic Wagner - funny and horrific at the same time, and with Flint on art duties you can't go wrong (I'm not a fan of the rather flat colouring though, when compared the colouring on some of Flint's previous work, Total War, Aliens, etc).  Great story - this is why we love Dredd and keep coming back after all these years!

3. Big Robots:  I'm enjoying this a lot, but it is definitely suffering from being chopped down into smaller installments, rather than the longer episodes it was originally intended to be.  Great stuff from Dave Taylor - the guy can draw a Mega City, that's for sure.  I urge readers to re-read this story in one go, once it's completed.

4. Blood of Satanus III:  Good Lord, where to start... this  is, as has been stated before, utter garbage.  Just my own opinion again of course; maybe somebody does think this is good?  The artwork is so bad I can barely force myself to read this, and when I do, I feel angry that I've just wasted several minutes of my life. I cringe when I see  "Next Issue" at the bottom of the last page, and realise there is yet MORE of this crap to come.  Possibly the worst thing ever published in the Meg (or 2000AD for that matter).


5.  Lights Out (Small Press):  I'm all for giving Small Press a chance to shine on the "big stage" - it's great to give raw talent a proper chance to impress! This one is a little weird, but enjoyable nonetheless. (I'd choose this over Satanus any day of the week).

6.  A 4-page reprint of an ancient Dave Gibbons-drawn Ro-Jaws story... why???  Again, 4 pages that could have showcased a new story, giving a new writer and artist a chance to do their thing.  I don't understand the point at all!  Budget, maybe?

7.  The Angel Gang - daft, but fun.  I would have enjoyed this series more if it had been in colour, but I realise the artwork is going for that McMahon "scratchy" feel,  a la classic Slaine, etc.

Well that's my 2 cents, thanks for listing!

We could have had another two, even three strips in place of all this filler.

Fine - you happy to pay for it? The "filler" is there because the publication cannot afford another "two, even three strips". It's not like the editorial team are rubbing their hands at the prospect of being able to give readers less new strip - they're delivering what the budget will allow.

At the moment, it's pretty much a choice between a 30 page Meg with all new strip, or something twice that length with features, interviews and reprint.

thats pretty much my view of the situation but blood of satanus 3 still feels like a waste of pages

A letter about Cottage Cheese I see.

::"Possibly the worst thing ever published in the Meg (or 2000AD for that matter)."

So, you never read Chronos Carnival, then?

It wasn't about cottage cheese, but contained said dairy treat nonetheless. £15 from each of you methinks.

Hello? HELLO?/b>

I was going to argue about this:

::"I think I'd prefer to read Dry Run to the current Satanus story"

But, I've stopped reading Satanus, and I did read all of Dry Run.  I guess life wasn't too short back then, and now it is.

Some good bits in this.

Park's exit is fantastic and I also like PJ with a bit of fatalist philosophy.

Anderson is okay, but there is too little happening in each installment.

Satanus - hurts my eyes - had to skip it.

Liked the end of Angel Gang as well. Didn't expect that.

Small press was an interesting mood piece.

I didn't realise Ro-Jaws had his own future shock showcase. Surely there's better reprint?

Will look forward to reading the Commando article as my dad used to read it. There are a lot of text articles in this issue though, almost overwhelmingly so.

I think I'd prefer to read Dry Run to the current Satanus story in the Meg

Steady on that man, no need for swearing!  

This month's Meg dipped in a puddle by the postie again but here goes.

Dredd vs. PJ. - Good as it goes, but is it just a bit convenient that Park is on duty with Dredd. Still, one of the best exits since Souster though.

Anderson - Pretty pictures, but nothing interesting happens here.

Blood of Satanus - An improvement. At least I didn't try to rip my eyes out pleading "Please make it stop!"

Small Press - Had to read a couple of times to get. Art was OK though.

Robo-Tale - Hadn't seen before. OK for a retro-thrill.

Angel Gang - I've enjoyed this. Didn't see the end coming. Laughed at what Junior wanted to do in page 2 panel 2.

This is the worse Meg for a long time, why is it when the prog is going great the Meg dips and veraversa?

Dredd the only saving grace great art work great story but from here it just plummets:

Anderson: Kev O'Neil should sue.

Bloody dino Crisis: Pat give up on the dinos please, that art, gives one hope for your own scriblings, Small press a relief after that.

Angel Gang: cant bring myself to read this gave up on any Mean/angel stuff in the 80s

Other stuff padding and fillers, Why is there some perceived link between shite horror films and 2000ad? i don't see it myself

overall what a disappointment
as they used to say at school:

Must try harder/ easily distracted.

Mr Huff-Chips


A

Argh! I was all geared up for an eloquent dismissal of Blood of Satanus III, but this month's epsiode actually got better! How annoying is that? I can't even trust it to be consistently bad! ;-)

The story's a lot easier to follow, and the art's much more structured. I'm not entirely sure who all the characters are, but it seems to work as a Dredd-fighting-monsters story.
Pretty much the only bit of art that didn't work, IMO, is the slightly childish drawing of Dredd punching the bad guy.

That said, it is very badly flawed, but mainly in dialogue terms.
"A thousand faeces."
"Oh my goodness! Dark matter! I'm having a spontaneous emission!"
There's lots of silliness in plot terms, too - why does being a country singer make you a good fighter? - but not so much that the story's destroyed.

If it wasn't Dredd, it would work a lot better. Why do we need the twin sins of Dark Satanic Mills - politics and dark matter - in a Dredd story?

Bad, but not terrible.

As for the rest of the Meg:
I loved the Dredd, for story and art. Maybe for Mayor is a great idea!
The Angels story had a satisfying ending, and I'd like to see more of this sort of thing.
The Anderson story is just about holding my attention.
The reprint was good fun.

As usual, I'll read the text at my leisure, but I want to congratulate Byron on his excellent piece on Commando. George Low, who's a lovely man, retires next month, so it's timely to have him in this impressive series of comics articles. The piece read well and was concise and informative. Bloody well done!

- Over and Trout

cover scan please?

George Low's a very nice chap, and amzing to think he's been doing the same job for so long, yet is still so enthusiastic about it all. Be sorry to see him go.

Also, had to say I really enjoyed the piece on exploitation films - I know the film articles aren't everyone's cup of tea (including mine), but that was good fun, and set me off thinking about some of the taglines that *weren't* featured, such as:

'She Escaped Death. Now It Wants Her Back!'

'Revenge Has No Face!'

'By Pick, by Axe...Bye Bye!'

"why does being a country singer make you a good fighter?"

If'n you'd played summa them dang backwater C&W fleapits, then ya wouldn'ta needed ta ask, boy...

In Big Robots who is the big white dog which comes out of the Hall of Heroes?

Dredd's going to put the bad spelling and link it with the south am worm things and shorten the onlygood story in the meg at the moment!

Argh! I was all geared up for an eloquent dismissal of Blood of Satanus III, but this month's epsiode actually got better! How annoying is that? I can't even trust it to be consistently bad!

That's happened to me with several recent Mills anti-classics, including BOS II, that fucking scary Black Siddha story where he just ranted about psychiatric care for six months and Savage Book one. Damn you Pat, damn you to Hell.

P.J.Maybe's a lot of (very dark) fun, but are both he and Dredd supposed to be dense?

Maybe's murdering the Judge because he'll mention the expensive robot, which is a tenuous link to him.

He does that by exposing not only his actual identity (which the script discusses), but also by using his poor spelling trademark (again, the script mentions this) and his deadly robot trademark - never mind the South Am connection of the worm things.  

For someone of Dredd's experience, wouldn't that be a big neon sign saying "P.J. Maybe" in twenty foot high letters.

Mind the oranges, Marlon.

I was thinking the same - robot bug plus bad spelling plus extravagant murders surely can only equal one man. Still, it's always seemed that PJ likes to sail close to the wind, and constantly thinks hes that much more intelligent than the Judges.  Plus, if its a choice between killing someone and risk, and not killing them... really, the robot thing seems more of an excuse for PJ to justify "just one more murder" than it makes sense in covering his tracks

"Other stuff padding and fillers, Why is there some perceived link between shite horror films and 2000ad? i don't see it myself "

Yeah. And they keep foisting ANIME and MANGA articles on us as well.

One thing that strikes me about some of the text articles is that even when they are about subjects I *AM* interested in (Garth Ennis, Commando) I don't find that the articles actually interest me.  e.g. Tharg's little line about Clint Eastwood progressing from WHERE EAGLES DARE to FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS set me thinking about the journey and our attitudes to how war is portrayed than anything in the Commando article (maybe that wasn't the point of the article but I'd have found it more interesting if it was).

DREDD - great yet illogical.

ANDERSON - great yet spaced      out    too     much

ANGELS - Great yet should have been punchier

ROJAWS - Great yet familiar

SATANUS - Great pile of shite.

Plus, there's an article on Commando before there's been a retrospective on Starblazer.  Uhm - or am I talking shite?  Has there already been a Starblazer article?

++wouldn't that be a big neon sign saying "P.J. Maybe" in twenty foot high letters.++

But Funt, didn't the last time PJ appeared everybody was convinced by some of PH's clever ruses(sp) that he died? and these almost convinced old Stoney-Pus himself.

The other idiot-huff

Now see, I enjoyed the articles again.  All were on subjects I find interesting, all were well written, some told me very little I didn't know but in a pleasing manner, some were all new to me.  Seems about right as mixes go - apparently I want a bit of a magazine, instead of Necropolis reprints (although I'd trade 'em all for more Charley's War!).  

I would be a little dubious about the editing process here - there are at least two factual errors in Matthew Badham's Ennis article (Chopper 'apparently died' about an inch from the finish line of Supersurf 11, not several metres away - part of the genius of the story is the "did he/didn't he" angle) ; Alpha's death was not 'retconned at the turn of the millennium' - at least, I sincerely hope not).  It might be a sign that Matt Smith is totally run off his feet editing both comics (and getting married), and these are small things, but I reckon if you're going to do self-cannibalising nerdy articles, they should at least be accurate.

Of the stories, Dredd was just stonking in every way, Angel Gang had an excellent conclusion and I'd like more of this fascinating balancing act (although how did that Grimzci bloke have all his fingers if they were eaten, and when did Roberts abandon he McMahon pastiche (no harm)?), Anderson was fine (but suffering the death of a thousand cuts), the Small Press pretty good, Satanus was well... I haven't managed to read it yet, but I will, promise.  

Throw in a great cover (has Robinson arrived at some amazing new level or what?), and I got damned good value for my â?¬5.29 - a price that would barely buy me one Amercian 24-pager.

I suspect the author of the Ennis article has only read the Marvel Knights punisher GNs and not the later MAX Punisher, which is dark as hell and not nearly as cartoonish. No marvel character cameos either.

"Unfortunately, I wanted to start with a bit of a moan about the latest issue... "

I have to say that this issue may mark the end for me. There was literally nothing I wanted to read in here. I forced myself to look at some of the pages, because I paid for the damn thing. I barely flicked through last issue, put it to one side with the intention of going back to it, and never did.

Frankly, when I couldn't give a toss about a new PJ Maybe story (it is a PJ maybe story isn't it? That's how little attention I've been paying) with art by Flint, then there is something drastically wrong.

Everything else is downhill from there. For obvious reasons, I have a vast well of affection for the Meg, but for well over a year now I've felt like I've been handing over my cash every month just to keep the title alive, not because it's really offered anything in return that justifies its existence.

Plus, I'm a bit strapped and, for the first time since it started, I'm genuinely considering saving the money.

Bear in mind that I've been more loyal to the Meg during its lifetime than 2000ad, since I don't believe that I missed an issue, even when I stopped buying the weekly during the dark McKenzie days.

Sorry to come over so negative, but I'd rather read more reprint than Satanus, I'm unconvinced by the small press offerings, and the reprint is all stuff I've read before and remember clearly.

Cheers

Jim

Hang on in there Jim!

Read PJ Maybe and the small press this month, which I thought was pretty effective, definitely one of the more interesting ones.

Must be better to come for the Meg though.

Hang on in there Jim!

Read PJ Maybe and the small press this month, which I thought was pretty effective, definitely one of the more interesting ones.

Must be better to come for the Meg though.

Wanna know all about PJ Maybe?

Link: Ahem - I pimp, therefore I am