Hurrah a shiny new Megazine with a lovely letters page and a most welcome Complete Nemesis. Only drawback is that Tom Proudfoot got some of his dazed ramblings in too.
Some cracking wolfie action in the lead Dredd and the best Lost case so far.
Oh and someone asks for 'Creep' to reprinted - I thought that had been sealed in concrete and chucked into the Atlantic?
and best of all, no Tank Girl!
Hey, the Lost Cases is fairly picking up. That was pretty good stuff - emotive and twisty, with strong art. Nice.
Tempest is still packed with insane ideas and great storytelling. I'm not a Bob Burden fan and I think his story could have had a full page trimmed from it.
As for the end of the Robbie Morrison Dredd: ooooo...kay. Um, no. It doesn't work for me. I didn't find the characterisation believable - put it that way.
I'm saving Breathing Space for later. The Meg supplements are definitely getting better. I liked this the first time around.
I'm also looking forward to the Sean Phillips text piece.
A decent Meg.
- Trout
The meg does seem to be on a steady upward trajectory at the moment. A reasonable Morrison Dredd that poses some questions about how Dredd copes with the ambivalent nature of the role of law in the cursed earth. For my money it was wrapped up a bit quicker than it could have been. A bit more depth and tension might have made for a more interesting story. Certainly this period of enforced exile is providing an opportunity to flesh out the CE which for my money has been a highly underused resource for a loooong time.
Byrne's twisted tale is his usual fare. Not bad. The ending did elicit a brief chuckle.
Tempest is finally growing on me. Last series did not do much of anything, this one however has a bit more going for it. Best line of the meg award goes here: "permission to defecate, sir". Elegantly put!
Had been a bit dubious about the last couple of lost cases and whether the series would deliver on its initial promise. A better one but still not ticking all the boxes for me. Maybe because the central conceit is so similar to that of the Dredd, sometimes the situation requires flexibility. David Roach's artwork still tends to vary although not as badly as it did when he was drawing Anderson back in the day.
Still struggling to get excited about the reprint supplement [no, it is NOT a graphic novel! ;) ] but would have to agree with the above comment that we have seen some better ones recently. Since the rest is more worth the cover price than it has been for a while I am less inclined to grumble.
Quote from: The Cosh on 30 January, 2010, 01:04:54 PM
and best of all, no Tank Girl!
... and a second from me!
Breathing Space makes even less sense than I remember it making when it first appeared in the weekly.
The best thing in the Meg this month was the Lost Case.
Enjoyed the Hellblazer and werewolf articles too.
Top stuff this month.
QuoteOh and someone asks for 'Creep' to reprinted - I thought that had been sealed in concrete and chucked into the Atlantic?
maybe we should consider that fate for whoever asked for creep to be reprinted
Quote from: Buttonman on 30 January, 2010, 12:44:15 PM
Hurrah a shiny new Megazine with a lovely letters page and a most welcome Complete Nemesis. Only drawback is that Tom Proudfoot got some of his dazed ramblings in too.
Zat zounds like a challenge, Care to 'ave a smell wagur?
I'm not a Meg buyer but I just noticed there's a Bob Byrne tale in this one. Have they been moved over to the meg as a deliberate step or was this just to fill a slot. I quite enjoy the Twisted Tales as an alternative to Future Shocks etc when we have a gap between series in the prog, and feel a bit betrayed by them running in the Meg!!!
Not all the way through the Meg yet, buta quick comment on the "Free" Graphic "Novel". Breathing Space seems to me to have appeared just yesterday, but I enjoyed the re-read all in one place. Very nicely atmospheric if still confusing in places.
And then I turned the page.
That Dredd was appalling. Just appalling. Not only did Dredd come across like a vindictive moron, but Millar somehow screwed up the characters and concept of Mr Ben and the Shopkeeper. That must take some doing. Even Doherty, ultimately reliable Doherty, seemed to lose heart before the end. Why would anyone bother reprinting this crap?
This was my first reading of Breathing Space and I'm glad it wasn't just me that was a bit confused in places. It seemed like it was missing a few panels that would have explained things a bit better. I'm glad they dropped the cape from the Marshall outfit though.
I hadn't read Breathing Space before either. Was a bit confused by the jumping about with no real indicator, but it all held together into a good story in the end.
Liked breathing space first time round and still liked the re read.
V
Breathing Space was a great idea for the reprint, not least because I enjoyed it a lot!
Cheers
- Trout
Did anyone notice that the penultimate two panels in the Lost case were a direct lift from the Apocalypse War? Just chck out the 'R' in 'Traitors' to be sure it isn't a coincidence. homage to the best epic ever - like it PJ.
AS for the wagur Tom you really shouldn't take all your methadone at once! Right it's on and happening on Channel here. Current score is One cracker to one filler - do keep up!
Leafed through just now.
NO TANK GIRL?
Can my eyes be deceiving me?
I'm buying 20 copies and hoping the message sinks in.....
The Creep? REPRINTED? Please Cod no. Awful, just awful. Not TG awful, you understand. But close.....
A more in-depth discussion of the contents once I've fully digested them. Begin holding your breath.... NOW.
Well, I've read the whole thing now, and it was an improvement on past months.
The second part of Dredd was better than the first, although I'm never fond of Dredd having heart-to-hearts with his pillion passengers, particularly when it's about their tragic childhoods. Still, I enjoyed the bad guys, and the Cursed Earth rail network idea is pretty cool. Gallagher's elephant-skin art is terrific, reminiscent of those all-too-rare Talbot Dredds, but I wish the colours had been a bit lighter over those dense inks.
Tempest is just barmy goodness - the character is a clever foil for post-Shimura Death Fist. I like.
The Lost Cases... the art is great, the story good. I'm still not sure if I really care for the concept. It's certainly a lot better than I expected this series to be, and is Grant's best work since Half Life.
Twisted Tales... well, I think the sun shines out of Bob Byrne's pert little bottom, but this one didn't do much for me. And I miss Tank Girl, which I was really enjoying.
The Sean Philips interview was a good read, his views on Vertigo were very interesting.
The Hellblazer stuff was interesting, but blimey there was a lot of it.
Oh, and the film review column was the first one I've found interesting since Alec was replaced.
All in all, the Meg wins a reprieve for another month.
For the very observant Button man- it was the whole of the last page which was lifted from Carlos' Apocalypse War. Since we were dealing with the hidden story of the punk thrown into the pit - and since Alan had asked for it in the script I actually inked over Carlos' original drawings for the series ( which I had traced down , repositioned, extended etc...). You could say it was me inking Carlos - though without his permission I'm afraid- hey, I admit it, it's meant as a homage. The whole strip was based on Carlos' designs and I really had a terrific time drawing it.
I know a few readers are still not entirely convinced by the concept but from my perspective at any rate I love it. I boight Prog1 fresh off the shelf when I was 12 and read all these classic old stories each week as the comic came out. To get to play around in those settings and with those characters is such a lot of fun I really hope more stoies get commissioned.
Thanks for the kind words about the strip - I do appreciate them.
Cover - nice. I like the Dog Soldiers a lot, they look suitably snarly and dangerous!
Dredd - overall, not a bad two parter (see my comments above). I could have taken a third episode I think, it seemed over very quickly.
Tempest - good fun! I find myself being really charmed by the main character and any excuse for chop socky is a good excuse! Enough intrigue to keep the thing interesting too.
Twisted Tales - I really liked this as I have with Byrnes other stuff in the Meg. This one put me in mind of Burroughs, it's like something unpleasant seen out of the corner of my eye (in a good way).
Lost Cases - these are working well I think. I was also not enamoured of the concept intially but so far they've been great. If it keeps up, it'll make a nice GN.
I liked the werewolf feature, wasn't fussed on the Constantine one and as ever enjoyed the interview. Breathing Space was enjoyable again, especially for Doherty's art - great atmosphere (no pun intended).
M.
Nice to see artdroid Roach poping his head in/up, and great to hear the background to how it all retro-fits into the A'War.
Surprised how few boarders are commenting on this megazine... is it the lack of TG? ;)
I'd start a THREAD dedicated to how happy I am about the lack of TG, but that sort of thing would be pointless. Rest assured, I'm just chuffed to bits I've finally got a Meg I can happily read all of.
Quote from: Proudhuff on 10 February, 2010, 03:09:42 PM
Surprised how few boarders are commenting on this megazine... is it the lack of TG? ;)
I've tended not to review the meg lately as there's only so many ways you can describe it as rather pricey, full of padding with one or two good strips per issue; but I actually thought this one was a distinct improvement.
The
Dredd 2-parter was good fun, I love the idea of the Cursed Earth railway. You really get a sense that the megacities, and the people on the fringes, are starting to reclaim large parts of the Cursed Earth since the original mega-epic in '77. Bit puzzled why Dredd would simply hand it over to the woman though - I think he'd be more likely to claim it for the city as a vital resource that needs to be 'protected'.
Glad to see the back of Tank Girl, which wore out it's welcome some time ago.
The
Bob Byrne Twisted Tale was good, but may be a little stretched - I think this could have worked with one or two fewer pages.
I'm really enjoying
the Lost Cases, and I like the way they incorporate classic panels.
Tempest is rollicking good fun, I love the concept, the character and the dialogue but some of the miraculous things achievable through mastery of martial arts are a little, shall we say, implausible?
The free reprint comic was also a cut above some of the ones we've had lately, an inetersting story that was baffling in installments but works very well as a self contained book (plus a very funny filler, that i think some people are taking a mite too seriously!).
As usual the text articles didn't interest me much at all. Even the creator interviews become very samey after a while - unless thay had some bizarre and unique route into the prog, I'm not that interested in "long time fan....went to art college...met someone or sent sample...big break...american work" etc. The werewolf one was the most interesting of the bunch, and as many people have said in the past, the film reviews are just out of place in this publication.
All in all, I enjoyed this meg far more than usual, lets hope the upward trajectory continues.
Quote from: Proudhuff on 10 February, 2010, 03:09:42 PM
Surprised how few boarders are commenting on this megazine
It was okay!
I have it sat by the bed but can't bring myself to read any articles lately, I normally get round to them in the end but sleep seems to override my reading these at this present moment in time (I will get round to them, I hope).
As for the strips, I devour these as soon as I get indoors. All are enjoyable in their different ways and I have no complaints, well except that we need more strips!
The 'so called' freebie, it feels as though I only read this in the Prog last year as it's still very fresh in my mind.
All in all I'm happy with my fivers worth of thrills.
Tempest was great. Dredd wasn't. Articles ignored.
No Tank Girl was great but what Tharg giveth with one hand he taketh away with the other. Ive fixed DDD's comment and I still think I'm being overly generous to Bob Byrne.
Quote from: Dandontdare on 10 February, 2010, 04:30:30 PM
The Bob Byrne Twisted Tale was good, but may be a little stretched - I think this could have worked with one or two fewer pages.
Nice to see David Roach back in action, just a pity there weren't any pretty ladies for him to draw this month. The Lost Case was alright, but I don't really like the idea of them inhabiting the space between panels in old stories. There must be plenty of scope just to tell a new story set during the Apocalypse War/Necropolis/whatever.
Moment of the Meg: "This is now the 37th chamber of the fighting heart." Nobody ever calls the Wu Tang Clan a bunch of geeks, but they'd all've loved that.
A Dreddworld/Wu Tang crossover isn't that common, but you're right. Made me smile.
Bump.
(http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:BT0AYymvq8aGNM:http://mrmen-books.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/MrBump.jpg)
(http://www.railbirds.com/gallery/2009/01/11614bump.jpg)
I like to devour my Meg slowly over a few weeks(not unlike the Sarlacc, but not over a thousand years).
So far, so Dredd and I really enjoyed part two of 'Dog Soldiers'.
Dredd's passing line raised a smile. Good stuff.