Megazine 248 - Mega-Death!

[paulvonscott]

Well, it's a groggy morning for me today, so nice to get a prog and a meg.  I was just wondering whether that was both landing through the door... it is!

Not read much of either but will do over my enforced tea break at the library this afternoon.

Cover, a marvellous cover, full of classic Dredd style, knockout colours and very well drawn by Teague.  Always great to see his stuff.

The reprinted Dredd story 'Where's Wally?' was great, I really don't remember reading this before (seriously).

Liam Sharp and Mam Tor, well, my sympathies to Liam who I was on the next stall to at Bristol, when literally it was the hottest thing there.  It was a commendable project, and my only criticism was that it was almost entirely art lead, and they needed  the calibre of writers to match the A-List artists.  But I don't think that's why it eventually stopped.  I just think (apart from 2000AD and the Meg which operate outside standard space time laws) there is a bit of a malaise in this country.  Which is a shame as we have some astonishing comic talent. Regardless, they tried, had some success, and they'll still be putting stuff out, so good fore them.

Garen Ewing's Rainbow Orchid, if you haven't read this, go visit his website, immeditately.  Smashing stuff.

And I'll read more of the meg and the prog later.

[Bad Andy]

The cover is FANTASTIC in my opinion. Dylan Teague is a cracking cover artist.

And kudos to the Dredd story. So many parallels on so many levels with what's happening, not just in Iraq, but with Israel and Lebanon too. Excellent stuff.

Not read the rest yet.

[Steve Green]

I loved the Kevin O'Neill interview - did any of the Mek-o-mania project see the light of day?

- Steve

[Buttonman]

I like the cover too although that plethora of missiles is a bit of an exaggeration - looked like a single to me!

Cover is reminisent of the Eagle Comics reprint of the Apocalypse war  but that eagle pecks ass!http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c118/button71/meg248.jpg">

[Buttonman]

Separated at birth! Eagle = Eagle Comics!http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c118/button71/dredd20.jpg">

[DavidXBrunt]

A lovely image for the cover.

Dredd - Liking this. The art veers between sublime and ridiculous. The story is one I'm enjoying and I hope it runs for a while and has repurcussions. The big number on the horizon implies just one more part though.

Fiends - I'm liking this. Like Savage before it this is a series that really shouldn't work anymore. Glad it does.

Black Museum - I liked the art and the central idea but there's a lot that didn't work too.

The features look good but I've not read them. I've not read last months Sidhe yet so I'm saving this months til afterwards.

[Eck]

Attack of the giant crayons!!!!

I have to say, usually I stay away from criticising art. It's just something I'm no good at. Nevertheless, this cover just didn't do it for me. Not only because of the crayon missiles, but because Teague seems to have half-baked two halves of an idea.

I'd have gone one way or the other. Either go full on symbolism and have an eagle attacking, or stick with the missile(s). It doesn't seem right with both of them.

[Dudley]

Double Molcher is forgiven as the second article is really interesting.  Not so sure about these warmed-over profiles of ex-2000AD greats' clippings, but then I guess they're never going to give an interview to the Meg (and I know they've rebuffed approaches from 2000adreview) so it's the only way to get this material.  But the Mam Tor feature was genuinely interesting and it's great to see it just after the Small Press section.  Could the Meg be planning to take over Comics International?

;)

The Dredd story is pretty good, verging on greatness.  Just want to see what the twist is before giving it wholehearted praise.  The lettering... I'm not sure.  Have done a separate thread on that score.

Fiends is a great script by David Bishop, let down by some pretty flat art from Colin MacNeil (I know, there's something wrong with that sentence...).  Where's MacNeil's sense of the dramatic gone?  

Black Siddha makes sense to Pat Mills.  Pat Mills is some kind of lunatic.  Pat Mills is also occasionally possessed of genius.  I'm not worthy to judge which this is.

The Small Press piece was a bit... bleh.

Tales from the Black Museum made me laugh.  My family works in the greetings cards industry and the rhymes are just spot-on.  But should this spot be there to make you laugh?  The best by far has been Si Spurrier's, and really that's the only one that tried playing it chillingly straight.  Pretty good art, though.

Overall, pretty goshdarn good.

[Jim_Campbell]

"I loved the Kevin O'Neill interview"

I have to admit I've only skimmed this issue, due to returning home late and slightly inebriated from a thumping Nottinghamshire victory over Northamptonshire in the Twenty20 cricket quarter finals.[1]

Loved Dredd (with reservations about the art in places); have given up on Black Siddha; will get back to you about the other strips ...

... But I had to mention the O'Neill interview. I'd completely forgotten about the chase sequence in Ro-Busters, but the mere mention of it brought the whole thing back.

I sincerely doubt there is anything harder to make exciting in a static medium like comics than a chase sequence, and I remember this one as being utterly exhilarating.

Why, to echo the article, no Hollywood studio has picked up on O'Neill as either a designer or a storyboarder is mystifying.

I genuinely can't think of another artist who has carried off either a chase sequence, or an extended fight sequence (Nemesis versus various Terminator corpses Torquemada inhabits - the finale to Book I [2]) the way O'Neill did.

The man's a genius. A demented genius, but that's the beauty of his work ...

Cheers!

Jim

[1] Ha! In yer face, Alan Moore! Your cricket team sucks!

[2] Is it? I can't be arsed to excavate hundreds of comics out of their boxes to check!

[Trout]

I enjoyed the Meg.

The Dredd story is getting somewhere, and I enjoyed Fiends a lot.

I don't read Black Siddha any more - life's too bloody short - and I like dth erest of the comic well enough.

Nice cover.

Note to Mr Rennie: "amongst" is a shit word. "Among" has the same meaning and is two characters shorter. :-)

- Trout McSub-editor

[skurvy]

I think the cover is a great piece of graphic design, it looks top fucking notch.

[paulvonscott]

You say 'Among', He says 'Amongst'

I thought we'd all agreed these words were das verboten!

Just to sum up why I liked the cover so much.  it's well drawn by Dylan Teague, whose artwork I always enjoy on strips.  He drew my very favourite episode of the Rennie Era Rogue Trooper, and generally has a nice clean style I rather like.

Now, not only does the Eagle represent The judges, but it also of course, ties in with the Eagle Awards.  Wot with being a big Eagle.

Okay, so the missiles look a bit crayola.  But there isn't too many or too few.  You need the missiles!

But the colours involved, the gold in the logo and eagle, and the blue/red missiles really made the cover a very stand out one.

Anyway, I like it.

Dredd, I'm not sure these sort of stories are what I want from Dredd, i.e. obvious parralels with our time, but it's very well written with it's multiple plot threads and I am enjoying it.

Fiends, more happens this week, which is good!

I remember being surprised by an 8 page small press strip, but an 8 page small press strip which is continued next week!?  Kerrrikey.  Not what I'd expect at all, but the unexpected is what this section should deliver.

Negatives, the pages don't taste minty, and generally I'm not really convinced by tales from the Black Museum.