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That needs inking, possibly colouring and publishing. Today, preferably.

While at uni, one of the people I lived with in the first year (we didn't have halls - only shared houses) ate, without exception, saveloy and chips every single night. When the chippy across the road closed on a Sunday, he'd walk to another one at the end of the street (and, every Sunday, would complain that their saveloys and chips weren't as good). But that wasn't the worst part. He'd finish his food and just leave his stuff lying around, and by that I mean knives and forks directly on the sofa.

Also, a lot of out stuff had gone missing a few months in, and the others in the house were wondering what was going on. When the saveloy-muncher was out, we sneaked into his room and found our washing-up bowl there... with over half our plates, and most of our cutlery. Nice.

Warrior's Dawn is a reprint with new trade dress.

:: Where does it get printed?

Neptune, due to fluctuations in the Galactic Groat.

Schedule-wise, as far as I know:

Empty Suns is out.
Kano is delayed by should be out imminently.
Red Seas and Dredd 09 are due at the very end of November.
Droid Life, Mandroid and Nemesis 3 are due in December.

Jon may be able to shed more light if these assumptions are incorrect.

"Not sure what people have against it, to be honest"

Bad points:
- The artwork is sub-bar for the artist.
- It looks almost blurred.
- The colouring is dull.
- The layout isn't remotely dynamic.
- The imagery isn't remotely interesting.
- There's no way it would make someone want to pick up the Prog

Good points:
- The pun
- They didn't cover up half the logo

I agree. The Dante episode was the highlight, but both Button Man and Dredd were pretty good (I've not read the other two strips yet, and I'm half wondering whether to save Red Seas for a single read). Droid Life was fun, too.

But that cover... oh dear.

"The Megazine Tank Girl stuff will be all new stories.. "

Here's hoping the Meg also includes in the first issue with TG some kind of overview of the character, for all us people less than familiar with the series.

"Apparently the producers of Lost, unable to hire professional writers have been forced to make up any old nonsense with no discerning direction just to keep the show going until the strike is called off."

Much like the previous shows, then. Oho!

I honestly don't know how I'd fix the Meg. The thing is, there is a strong foundation there. Dredd is usually strong and is at worst readable (well, if Mills isn't writing). The Meg has room for in-depth creator interviews that 2000 AD can't spare space for, and the brief nods to other comics and small press are acceptable in terms of potentially introducing readers to a wider market of comics and also in keeping costs down. (I've no idea what the Meg's rates are for copy, but I'll bet the page rate for text features is significantly lower than for a page of strip.)

The problems I have with the Meg of late have been: 1) 'bitty' stories (easily solved by upping the page count per story and possibly by keeping them shorter, perhaps running most of them over three or four months); 2) a possibly coincidentalâ??but nonetheless unfortunateâ??collision of rather naff stories (not least the dire Satanus, which seemed to be little more than Mills ventingâ??and from his 2000 AD stuff of late, everyone knows he's still capable of far better), and; 3) filler text features: the Dredd star-rating stuff has, for me, way passed its best, and the movie reviews are pretty pointless. By all means cover comic-oriented movies in a more feature-oriented way (interview the creators or the directors, or look at how something progressed from strip to screen), but reviews? There are hundreds of places I can go for them, and the Meg's aren't unique enough to warrant the page count.

I don't entirely understand why Mills gets such a bug up his arse about editors reworking stuff as they see fit. That's what editors should do (although they do so less and less often, in my experience)â??hell, it's what HE himself did for 2000 AD, once upon a time!

::  I didn't even realise the Meg was out this week I'm
:: so disillusioned with it

Funnily enough, FPI sent through a "your subscription is running out soonâ??resubscribe NOW!" notice to me a few days back. Looking at the dates in question (I have at least six months to run on all Rebellion stuff), it was somewhat premature, but it's rather telling of the current state of things that if I were resubbing now, there's no way in hell I'd bother with the megazine.

What I've read of this issue was average at best. Rennie's Dredd was mildly amusing, but in-jokey. Satanus was just dreadful, as it's been since the start (although at least the art was veering towards the quality we know Hicklenton's capable of), and the balance in the mag is really starting to grate.

I'm looking forward to the new line-up, but mostly because it won't be this line-up. Here's hoping the mag improves a lot, because otherwise they'll be one reader down at least.

"BUt really considering some of the bad press I had heard earlier about the Forbidden Planet Bookstore reputation for being reliable. To me lately they had been a last resort."

Bear in mind there are two totally different and unrelated-in-all-but-name FP online stores. In my experience, FPI (Forbidden Planet International) has  been of a generally high standard, its only downfall being really crappy online stock levels. (In other words, order ten things, only to then get a rather small package that has two items and a bit of paper saying everything else is on back order.) Service, however, has never been anything short of very good indeed, and the packaging is excellent.

FP, on the other hand...

"it is a foul hole these days"

You think? I always thought FP on Shaftsbury Avenue a pretty good store. It has helpful staff, decentish stock, and the toys are safely shoved into an area you can neatly avoid if all you're interested in is books.

As for Gosh, that place is really good (and an indie), and was the only place around that had the Usagi Yojimbo book I wanted. Which was nice.

:: their twin FPI should be pretty reliable

Aren't they now two entirely separate chains, but with the same name? In my experience, FPI (not Forbidden Planet) has a high quality of service. The only negative is that stock levels are not displayed, meaning you sometimes put in an order for ten things, only to get one and a bit of paper saying the other nine aren't in stock. However, for newer stuff, it's superior to Amazon, not least in the bullet-proof packaging. I've also received fewer damaged or dinged copies from FPI than Amazon.