Meg 323 The Adjudicators.

Hawkmumbler · 22 April, 2012, 12:12:49 PM

Ah well, there's always next month.

Buttonman · 22 April, 2012, 12:25:50 PM

Quote from: Trout on 21 April, 2012, 06:51:21 PM
Letters from:

Ross Thrapnell, Merseyside; Grant Goggans, USA; Paul Harris, Kent; Michael Duffy, Blackpool; Antony Catton, Ripley; and Luke Williams, Llanelli.

No sign of Hawkmonger or Buttlickingman.

Oh well they might as well not deliver the thing now! F'kin English, Welsh and Yanks stealing our letters page and possibly our wimmen too!

Buttonman · 22 April, 2012, 12:28:47 PM

Actually I didn't write in this 4-week! Sorry Dreddlines Tharg, will do so for this outing ,in my usual hard hitting manner as soon as the beloved journal of excitement appears.

Proudhuff · 23 April, 2012, 04:33:29 PM

Quote from: pauljholden on 21 April, 2012, 05:23:58 PM
There's an unused page for Samizdat on my blog today, if you'd like to have a look... http://www.pauljholden.com/blog/2012/04/21/samizdat-squad/

Cheers
PJ !

Buttonman · 24 April, 2012, 11:00:19 PM

I wasn't too hot on the Dredd - thought it a bit broad and certainly not in keeping with anything we've previously learned about Justice Department. Oh for the days when Dredd would have booted Camble in the nuts and got on with kicking ass.

Strange & Darke was the pick for me - can't beat a beastiality orgy I always say.

Not joining the Kipling love in either - always found it a bit hard work and I for one wouldn't have it back.

Proudhuff · 25 April, 2012, 12:59:42 PM

Quote from: Buttonman on 24 April, 2012, 11:00:19 PM
I wasn't too hot on the Dredd - . Oh for the days when Dredd would have booted Camble in the nuts and got on with kicking ass.

I think he protests too much!!

and has a bum obsession: 'kicking ass', Butt'man...

SmallBlueThing · 25 April, 2012, 11:05:20 PM

For the first time in aaaages, the meg wasnt just worth the groats, but the best comic ive read all month. And, further, Strange & Darke was the best comic strip ive read all month. Please can we have much, much more of this, Tharg, and very soon? The Dredd was hugely entertaining- in a way that- dont shoot me- the prog's extended grimfest hasnt been for a while (though i hope the three stooges' imminent appearance may liven things up) and had some lovely panels of dredd quaking with barely-held-together pissed-offness. This is my favourite kind of dredd- like that brilliant bit in cycle of the werewolf, where he hilariously admits he'd kill people for being a bit pathetic, all the time sweating like a bastard.
Anyway, the back-up strips were pretty good too- samizdat started off well, and snapshot (though still reminding me of when marvel uk and dc tried to reprint 'adult' comics for the home market, resulting in huuge panels, outsized lettering and a quick read) wasnt as bad as last time. (cont)

SmallBlueThing · 25 April, 2012, 11:13:25 PM

(cont) though it's still my least-favourite read of the month.

Excellent interviews this time as well, with millar coming over as almost human. But alec worley needs to let himself breathe, allow himself to accept he's done it, and that 'hes worth it'. Or he may expire.

Oh, and the film reviews were tops this month, with a sensible review of the hunger games (which i'll never see, haha) that addresses the squabble re battle royale. Id go as far as to say that andrew osmond deserves a wider platform for his critiques, based on what he did with that particular movie.

Didnt like the cover though- what is it with meg covers? I really cant remember the last time there was a really good one, and yet the prog gets them regularly. Maybe its that horrible, atrocious, ugly logo squatting at the top like a six year old's homework.

SBT

radiator · 25 April, 2012, 11:48:30 PM

I really liked the cover. Would never have figured it for a Mark Harrison.

Very enjoyable Dredd this month - verging on silly, but it was genuinely funny, and it's always a treat to have Carlos on art duties. Haven't read the rest yet, buy the meg is on good form at present. Anyone know what the reprint is next month?

Taryn Tailz · 25 April, 2012, 11:53:52 PM

I'm sure it was mentioned on another thread that next months reprint will be "Tiger Sun, Dragon Moon" but im not 100% on that.

radiator · 26 April, 2012, 12:03:42 AM

Ah yes, that's right.

Hawkmumbler · 26 April, 2012, 06:40:45 PM

Cover: Silly. I like it. ***

Dredd: Even more silly. Great contrast to the doom an gloom of the prog's Dredd, they compliment each other very well.
I'm still loving "The Bugger"-"A Midget".

Carlos is as joy as always, and a nice piss take on Black Widows little-to-no artillery in The Avengers.
****

Samizdat Squad: Liked this in my early day's with the Meg, still have a soft spot for it. PJ Holden hold's his own once again. But what are they reffering to with Baba Yaga? The myth of the movie?
***

Snapshot: Still not getting THAT into it. Consistent if nothing else.
** and a 1/2

Strange and Darke: MORE NOW!
**** and 3/4 Only marred by the scene of the vicer bein jizzed on. WTF?

Interview's: Saw the name Mark Miller. Didn't read it.

Movie review: The Hunger Games is a piece of shite. Why did it get ****?

Letters Page: The house of Tharg is tillting the vote's on American reaper so it is!!

Harry Kippling: Not yet read, will update tommorow.

Future shock: Just, wrong. * and a 1/2

WhitBloke · 26 April, 2012, 08:33:05 PM

Quote from: Hawkmonger on 26 April, 2012, 06:40:45 PM
Samizdat Squad: Liked this in my early day's with the Meg, still have a soft spot for it. PJ Holden hold's his own once again. But what are they reffering to with Baba Yaga? The myth of the movie?

Isn't it just a reference to Baba Yaga's magic hut, which had giant chicken legs? That must have been fun for parties. Or was it Baba Yaga's magic chicken that had giant huts? Probably the first one but thanks for the nudge in the direction of the movie. Looks a little bit mental, so I think I shall have to track that down now.

metcalfecarr · 27 April, 2012, 11:28:35 AM

I really enjoy the Meg most months, and this was no exception.

Cover - I was sure this was Ben Oliver as I usually dont like Mark Harrison. Thanks for making me reassess the situation Mark.

I've never really been a fan of Carlos, his style did nothing for me, but lately I am becoming really appreciative of his work. Nice to see him doing something he rarely does with the superheroics of the lead strip. Some good ideas trying to do something a little more away from usual - have we seen a Justice dept PR division before?

Love Samizadt Squad but confused as to why Paul Marshall isn't drawing this one as artistically it's his strip in my eyes. I'm not complaining as I love PJs stuff, but it's very different to Marshall's. I'd like to have seen him do his McMahon inking rather than the grey washes though. Some good ideas from Arthur, I trust his writing as I've followed his small press stuff from the early 90s on so know he can match his ideas with everything else to make a balanced and fun tale.

Strange and Dark - Smith shoes why he's Britains greatest untapped natural resource, and Colin McNeill hits it out of the ball park with his more open style. Completely bonkers, just makes me want more Devlin Waugh and more of Smith in general.

Snapshot - I'm loving this in a Jason Bateman 80s tv movie kind of way. I'm not sure on Jock's computerised half tone thing he's been doing lately, but his art is as glorious as ever.

Read the interviews, at least Millar has the guts to admit his 2000ad was crap. Not fussed on the Hitch puffpiece, which looked like it was straight from the Image PR office's fax machine. i picked the book up as I enjoyed Ross' Turf, was ok but if this was version 3 or 4 then the others can't have been much cop as there isn't that much to it.

Kipling - didn't like it then, don't like it now. Not looking forward to next months floppy either. I'd like to know the selection process for the floppies as I'd prefer to see some older stuff like we had with Death Planet/Angel rather than the mediocre modern stuff. I would vote for Really and Truly, Slaughterbowl, Wolfie Smith and Mean Arena, Trash, Zippy Couriers, Armoured Gideon and Beyond Zero above stuff liek Snow/Tiger etc

Dark Jimbo · 27 April, 2012, 01:08:36 PM

Quote from: metcalfecarr on 27 April, 2012, 11:28:35 AM
I'd like to know the selection process for the floppies as I'd prefer to see some older stuff like we had with Death Planet/Angel rather than the mediocre modern stuff. I would vote for Really and Truly, Slaughterbowl, Wolfie Smith and Mean Arena, Trash, Zippy Couriers, Armoured Gideon and Beyond Zero...

Slaughterbowl, Mean Arena and Armoured Gideon Book I were all reprinted in the Extreme Editions five or six years ago, which reprinted most of the half-decent stuff from that era before morphing into the Meg floppies, so it's unlikely we'll see them again so relatively soon.

I'm amazed that anyone wants to see Trash or Zippy Couriers again, though...