With a certain amount of foreboding, given what's gone down on past review threads...
Dredd - Say what you will about Robbie on Dredd, but he's getting there. Slowly but surely, there's a definate improvment to be seen in his scripts. And I like the fact this was a self-contained tale; multi-parters drag over several months.
Thought the artist was Si Fraser at first glance - which is a pretty big compliment! Don't know who this guy is but I hope we see more of him.
A fun little story all in all, and I love the return to the days of old where you'd begin with a splash panel of some action moment that doesn't actually occur until later in the tale.
Low Life - Little to say about this as not a great deal happened, and it's still very clearly in 'slow-burn' mode. Still good stuff, and I love the return to the grit of the earlier Low Life tales before it became 'The Dirty Frank Show' (fun though that was).
Bob The Galactic Bum - Still going. Fairly inoffensive, but I find myself hoping it ends next month. Not really any of the creator's finest hour.
Anderson - Yikes. I admit I was totally thrown by the opening page of Tharg lambasting his droids. Thought I'd turned to the wrong strip.
Not sure how I feel about this one yet. It could be a little in-jokey for its own good. Nice art, but it doesn't quite feel up to Boo's usual standard.
All in all - Not a particularly overwhelming issue, unfortunately. Thank god for Dredd.*
*Disclaimer - The views expressed in the above review are those of the individual in question and in no way reflect those of Rebellion or its employees. So please don't have a go at me.
Tharg features in an Anderson strip? Well, I've not got my copy of the Meg yet, but that sounds a bit [censored], on the face of it.
*kzzzt*
Still, though - all that paper with things drawn on it at such a reasonable price. I feel lucky, oh so lucky etc.
Yeah, it's certainly an odd 'un. I won't say more, but I'm still not sure how I feel about it. This will need another few parts for me to see, I think.
And I forgot to say - Matt Smith throws down the baton for a letters contest, which should make a certain boarder very happy...
Ooooh clappity clappity can't wait.
Will the winners be ones with glowing reviews? Oh wait... thats negative conjecture....
++CENSORED++
You guys need to get out more..
Rufus... who stills buys the prog.
Just trying to lighten the atmosphere with a little dark comedy!
:)
I'm excited about Meg 273. I'm just speculating but the cover for the next issue seems to suggest that something we've been guessing on is happening.
SPECULATIVE SPOILER
The What's Your Pizen and Pizen Ball seems to suggest a reappearance by the Fink or rather his dangerous offsping.
Link: SPECULATIVE SPOILER
Yup, enjoyed the Meg this month. Quick run through cos I'm at work...
Cover - Second disappointng cover in a row, especially when you look at who produced it.
Dredd - Canny enough in both art and script.
Low Life - I loved this. Rufus and Rob Williams continue to shine here.
Anderson - Mental! However, I really feel this needs to be more than 6 pages from month to month. This definately featured my favourite Boo art ever, there was so much going on in every page. Class!
The Irving Droid interview was very enjoyable too. A nice peek behind the scenes.
Son of Fink next month and it's a Wagner script to boot. I can't wait!!!
With a certain amount of bravdo, given what's gone down on past review threads...
Dredd - Art was great/ story a holey, Spoiler:
Why didn't the thinkie thing just kill Dredd right out? What kinda way is that to used a Rick O'Shea bullet? (Rufus, I think you're right)
Low Life - enjoying this but being a Union man and A Wire fan worried who the baddies are going to turn out to be. Rufus doing the Biz too.
Bob The Galactic Bum : still loverly to look at second time around.
Anderson - Boo's art is great I'd love to see him on Savage full time
texty stuff: Book review relevent and interesting, frazer Interrogation ; more please!
Film review: should really be doing on line comics instead I say!
All in all - a visual feast!
*Disclaimer - The views expressed in the above review are those of the individual in question and in no way reflect those of Rebellion or its employees. So please don't have a go at me.
I'm sorry the first two installments of Low Life have printed so grey and dirty... I'm attempting to rectify this.
It's most probably my fault... My monitor's calibrated, but something's going wrong somewhere!
Again...My apologies..
Rufus...
That must be frustrating...
Blame the printers Rufus, everyone else blames us!!
Nice work, I'm really enjoying it.
You lot wait till you see the rest of the Anderson artwork.....
Yours nursing a semi.......
I really loved the Dredd art.
Sleek Lawmasters and a good go at making the uniform a bit more practical.
I think he would be really suitable for a Hondo-cit based story.
- Steve
i'm still buying the progs too sod the message board politics its about the thrillpower maan!
hang on rufus,you still BUY the progs? wheres the freebies? do you realise thargs just getting the money back what he's paid you.
Frazer got freaked out by a bum? WTF?
I had the same reaction Art before realising that he was freaked out when he read it as a kid. I had a similar reaction to a script - Almaranda - really freaked me out.
Anderson has sort of chundered along for a while being all competent and nice but generally sort of there. Alan Grant knows the character, the world, how to write a proper comic and Arthur Ransome certainly knows how to draw but it's been sort of 'there' for awhile. Read. Forget.
But this latest strip feels fresh and exciting. Hopefully Aicer will be a usefull supporting character, there's certainly room for more of that sort of thing in Andersons life and the art appeals to me more than Boo's stuff ever has. Less 'cluttered' or busy for want of a mroe clear explanation, with sympathetic colouring. Alan seems to have provided him with just the right thing to draw (unless I'm wrong and Boo came up with the idea) and it all works.
Anderson looks mature but still foxy, which works.
And there was other stuff too.
I dunno, somehow I find it hard to imagine even Kid Fraz being freaked out by anything.
I've read half of it.
I didn't like the Dredd. Chopping out the brains of psi-practitioners was an intriguing premise reminscent of 'Heroes', which got me interested, but the payoff had me confused. What, so that he could turn himself, and them, into a little immortal psychic homunculus? What a weirdo! And yeah, if he's exploding judges' heads with a thought he should have killed Dredd when he had the chance.
Bob the Galactic Bum with its dated royal satire was even funny this Meg, so I've no complaints about it.
Anderson @ Hyven: Nice to see Anderson in a light-hearted adventure for a change. This has a bit of a 'Dream Palace' (Prog 26) feel about it, and Boo Cook's artwork is ideal for the tone of the story. This would seriously misfire if drawn in a more 'straight' fashion. The colouring is superb - very vivid and colourful.
I quite liked Dredd except for the 'kill Dredd now you idiot - the same time you explode everyone else's heads...duh!' moment. Could it be that Dredd is so psy-flat that he had some resistance...or maybe just a thick skull...possibly he was being protected by the psy-judge though.
good idea wod, but shouldn't the Psi be say that out loud for us non Psis?
Huffini
I enjoyed the two versions of the Lawmaster this month.
Although I think both of these rae even harder to turn than the original design. lol.
The problem I've always had with The Meg's text stuff is that save the interview and articles on comics its always seemed a bit, well pointless. If I want to read articles on movies, there's a million websites that will give me such articles for free. At least when it was Si writing, it was cool to find out what a high-profile 2000ad writer thought about movies, etc.
I understand that text is here to stay on cost grounds, but it doesn't have to feel like 'filler'. When TPO or its sequels were running, the text articles were the first things I turned to in the magazine. They felt like articles that I could get nowhere else and so I didn't mind paying for them.
How about dedicating all the text stuff on comics - for example a proper review section for small press comics or long-form analysis of classic comics. Or reverting to Barnes' strategy of getting creators to write about their passions; for example a monthly Pat Mills column would be a fantastic read.
Well this months Meg was what I can only say consistently good and it's a pleasure to say , too often The Meg has swung wildly in quality (Resulting sometimes with the Main Dredd strip being the only thing worth reading) but in the last few months the Meg has started to become once again consistent in it's entertainment value
Dredd: Mindripper is a nice Skilfully told script from Morrison with outstanding art from Neil Googe
Low Life : is as Rufus says "A little bit gray" but seriously I thought it was deliberate and fantastic choice perfectly suited to the excellent script so far ( Especially with that explosion sequence at the end)
Anderson: I'm not sure where this is going , with a self reference I haven't seen since Thargs head Revisited, this could be genius or it could be a mess ..however I'm Enjoying it so far!
Artcles
Frazier Irving, Genuinely Interesting but most ..hell all of the interrogations have been fascinating to read
Same for Studio Space which I will most likely buy
As for the Cinema Reviews , Who's writing it now if it's not Simon??? there was no name on it , not that it was badly written , just odd not to see a byline.
Overall..I haven't felt like this in a long time but it reminded me of TOOTH from the Mid Eighties seriously it was that good! no one story was great but all were of the same high quality this month that it was hard to find a stand out , now if you can keep this up I for one will be very happy
Just one thing and I have to Mention this..I have been reading the Meg ever since it was relaunched eight years ago , I have been reading tooth since 1977 so I think it's safe to say I am a fan however I have been away from this board for a few weeks and have only caught up with what happened...and I will say this I have bought the product and that does entitle me to criticise it if I am not happy with it .and to praise it when I am ( Anyone who has read my Meg Reviews knows my opinion of The Godawful Satanus saga and Black Siddah before it ...you also will know the love I have for Savage and for Charleys war and will read anything Mills has ever done at least once) but to threaten to close down the forum because one person wrote something stupid ( Bollocks is not a valid arguement or critique unless you can back it up with imperical evidence) is a trifle harsh ..If the creators are upset than they should remember this we read your work because we are your fans and it is you who are responsible for bringing something special into the lives of every single person who is a member of this forum and I ( Along with I reckon 99.9 per cent of the readers) am and will always be truly grateful for your talent.....
( However I am going to still say it when I don't like a story , but it will be more concise than the word b*****ks)
On a different point could some one on staff answer me a quaestion? will the Meg be reprinting the Rest Of Charleys War or will I shelve out the money on the New Titan reprint? Just wondering because if the Meg was to continue than it would soon hit what I consider to be Mr Mills finest moment , his coverage of the British Army Mutiny.
Just one thing and I have to Mention this..I have been reading the Meg ever since it was relaunched eight years ago , I have been reading tooth since 1977 so I think it's safe to say I am a fan however I have been away from this board for a few weeks and have only caught up with what happened...and I will say this I have bought the product and that does entitle me to criticise it if I am not happy with it .
No offence but people keep saying that. I don't think its the criticism they have the problem with, (After all constructive criticism can be an aid.) just the way those criticisms are expressed. I.e. give reasons and be respectful. I don't mean that in a suck up way, just bear in mind the effort that was taken by the writer/artist in creating the strip, don't be detrimental or, well, rude. It's just that old adage about treating others how you'd like to be treated really.
( However I am going to still say it when I don't like a story , but it will be more concise than the word b*****ks)
Exactly. That is fine.
Apologies for beating that old horse.
"more concise than the word b*****ks"
What is there that's more concise than that?
Balls.
I'm still an editor of Futurequake, according to my CV...
And you've still got the chops, baby!
Brevity is the essence but not the entirety of concision. Balls is more ambiguous than bollocks, which, in turn, is more emphatic.
What about 'Cobblers'?
Can you describe something as being "plums"?
Indeed, Usher, though I'd contest your assertion that "balls" would be ambiguous in the given context. However, since the testicular referent is not necessary to the metaphorical meaning, would "tosh" serve as a replacement example of concision?
No-one under the age of 80 says 'tosh'.
:p
Byron said 'What I did with my brains, I will spend on my bollocks'.
and we all knew exactly what he saying!
Frankenhuff
Tish pshaw!
Usher, at the risk of going off-topic altogether, I give you... a youthful style icon using the word "tosh", yesterday...
Link: "The Sun's story is tish and tosh"