MEG 294 : Law Vs Claw

[Mike Gloady]

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.

[TordelBack]

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.

[artdroid Roach]

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.

[Mikey]

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.

[Proudhuff]

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? 

[Mike Gloady]

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. 

[Dandontdare]

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.

[COMMANDO FORCES]

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.

[I, Cosh]

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.

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.

[Mike Gloady]

A Dreddworld/Wu Tang crossover isn't that common, but you're right.  Made me smile. 

[Trout]

Bump.

[Proudhuff]

[James Stacey]

[dweezil2]

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.