Messages

Here's what the thrill-meter reports this time out...

2000 AD PACK #22 MAR 2011
By Various. Artist Various. Cover by Na.

(W/A) Various 2000 AD is the UK's award-winning cult SF anthology title! Wanted criminal Deller has the object of his vengeance in his sights in the explosive finale to Judge Dredd: Served Cold; the Couch Potatoes are back in Persistent Vegitative State; Gene the Hackman fights his way out of the Aux compound in Kingdom: His Master's Voice; there's murder in the skies at the climax to Ampney Crucis Investigates: The List of Ten; the fate of Hell lies in the balance as Lucifer faces his final reckoning in Necrophim: Civil Warlord; and take a trip back to the Cretaceous Period as those dino-wrangling cowboys return in Flesh: Texas.

(NOTE: 2000 AD pack includes issues #1723-1727.)

JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE #308
By Various. Artist Various. Cover by NA.

(W/A) Various More action and adventure in the future-shocked world of Judge Dredd! The zero-tolerance lawman has trouble on his hands when a sector explodes inot war in 'Bad Night in 95'; the rebels are counting the cost of their battle with Mega-City forces in 'Insurrection II'; the East-Meg dead must be stopped in the finale to Samizdat Squad: 'Black Flowers'; plus all the usual interviews and reviews.

MEAN MACHINE REAL MEAN TP  (Simon & Schuster edition)
By John Wagner, Alan Grant. Artist Various. Cover by Unknown.

(W) John Wagner, Alan Grant (A) Steve Dillion, Greg Staples Born and raised in the Cursed Earth as a member of the notorious Angel gang, Mean Angel (aka 'the Mean Machine') is one of the most dangerous criminals to ever plague Judge Dredd's Mega-City One. With his mechanical claw and head dial, which amps up his anger and aggression from Mean to Brutal, Mean Angel is one of Judge Dredd's toughest adversaries - a head-butting pyschopath with a penchant for destruction!

TAXIDERMIST TP
By John Wagner. Artist Various. Cover by Unknown.

(W) John Wagner (A) Cam Kennedy, Steve Dillon In Mega-City One, aged citizen Jake Saradini practices a delicate human art. Human Taxidermy is a highly-skilled craft and has been a sport in the Mega-Olympics for several decades. Saradini used to compete international, has even won a bronze medal, but that was long ago. In 2116, the Mega-Olympics comes to Katmandu, Nepal. All the typical sports of the 22nd-century are represented: insulting, staring, housework, mountaineering, sex, and, of course, Human Taxidermy.


(No note as to what the bagged freebie with Meg 308 is this time!)

Hell, even I've read the prog, and I'm always last.  Least I used to be.

It's great, isn't it?  Even Rogue, which, no offense, Staz, I was not looking forward to.  But color me converted because script and art on that story were fantastic.  I enjoyed the heck out of most everything this time out.  It's a very, very good prog, with Shakara, Kingdom and Ampney off to terrific starts.  Well, and there's Necrophim.

Well, perhaps instead of "jump," I should have said "fall from one level to one beneath you," which Goldeneye would not let you do.  Revisiting some of the GE multi-levels in Perfect Dark - the Egyptian temple and the Complex - turned okay arenas into amazing ones.

Well, I'm going to have to put on my old fogey hat and disagree with you, Radiator.  It's the beautiful simplicity of Goldeneye's control that makes that a classic.  One joystick, move forward with your thumb.  The reason I could never enjoy Dredd vs Death or Rogue Trooper is that I can't adapt to the modern dual-stick style of moving.  Consequently, the last FPS that I enjoyed was Perfect Dark, which uses the same system.  Every other fun-looking shooter that I have tried to play - all those PS2 Bond titles, later Perfect Darks, Halo - I cannot adapt to.

Doubly controversially, I have never understood why multi-Goldeneye is thought so fun.  Most of the levels are awful and you can't jump.  But Perfect Dark's multiplayer is a complete blast!  I never get bored of that, while the actual game has many levels of confusing mess.  Particularly that awful crashlanding level.

Could somebody, somewhere, please get Clickwheel up and running again, so we can download progs 1714 and 2011?   

They did your "fattie named Max" in the Land of the Lost movie, where they gave the villain the name "The Zarn," who was a totally different character in the original TV series.

I heard a whisper about this last month, and am very, very pleased to see it announced!  Great work, Rebellion droids!

Just to clarify one point there... the difference between the US Heavy Metal editions of Requiem and the UK Panini editions is that each US book reprints three of the 48-page episodes, and each UK book reprints only two.

I'magowith:

1st: 1675
2nd: 1690
3rd: 1713

Last time I posted a review, I wasn't entirely pleased with a Dredd Case File.  This time out, it's Fiends of the Eastern Front, and I'm a lot happier with both the presentation and the content!  Nicely priced and ready to be picked up for everybody on your Christmas list this week!  Check it out and spread the word!

Actually, at the risk of adding to one of these threads that, all too often, goes "pear-shaped," I didn't like Age of the Wolf at all.  It was the only thrill of the year that thudded for me.  Jon Davis-Hunt's style looks better and better, but his storytelling frequently left me confused, and the one or two jumps in time between episodes didn't help either.  It ended feeling nebulous and odd, and what I thought was going to be an exciting urban thriller with werewolves turned into something about destiny and myth, two subjects that rarely excite me.

The only other disappointment of the year was this last run of five weeks of Future Shocks.  Tharg didn't print the letter where I suggested it, but I really would like, now that we're firmly back in the early nineties' fashion of each ongoing series getting a single story every 12-18 months, a return of the one-off prologues that we used to see, trailing forthcoming adventures.  Or, alternately, turn the focus on a supporting character for a one-off.

It really could have been nice, rather than five Future Shocks, to have had two, along with, for example, a Defoe one-off focusing on Ezreel Tonge and recap episodes of Kingdom and Necrophim before starting the new adventures.  But that's a "missed opportunity" disappointment, and not a "this strip didn't work for me" disappointment.  Even Sin Dex has been greatly improved this year, a fine one for thrillpower!

So yeah, I'm with the OP in not liking Age of the Wolf, but not liking Dante, that's crazy talk.

Really, Clickwheel?  Digital copies are late too?!

If this is the last of Langley on Slaine, can we please, please retire the character for a few years?  Like, forty or fifty?

But you know what would be awesome?  Langley on Black Siddha.  Think on that.

I'll switch to D.R. for a change.  Thanks, KevLev!

Early in Andy Diggle's editorship, 2000AD was on the up, the only 'bogus' strip being Bisoon.

IIRC, Diggle rejected Bison, and was bemused to see that Matt reconsidered and commissioned it.