The Judge Dredd Megazine

[Will I. Cooling]

"Can anyone name me a good Dredd world story "

Missonary Man (which you mentioned)
Devlin Waugh (again you mentioned)
Judge Anderson
Chopper
Mean Machine
Lenny Zero
Judge Hershey
Holocaust 13
Judge Death

And I've that Shiruma, Armitage, Young Death and Return of the Taxidmist were good but I haven't read them.

Will

Will

[Will I. Cooling]

I agree with the idea that the Meg needs five comic strips but personally I think you can include the two reprints in that so that leaves you two reprint stories, a 14 page Dredd a 10 page Dredd world tie in and then a 10 page original story.

On the Dredd personally I would like if we could get a permant artist/writing team my personal choice would be Gordon Rennie and Frasier Irving (just so the Meg's Dredd is different to 2000ad plus I want Gordon to have a run on Dredd).


Still the meg's great.
ALSO NO TEXT STORIES!!!

Will

[Tu-plang]

A big no to Dredd going into the American format, it does quite alright in the British format without it needing to conform to US standards.

A few people have said that they'd rather no reprint, less pages and lower cover price, but I think it'd be more of a case of no reprint, less pages, same cover price.  The reprints are dirt cheap to include and there to balance it out so we're not buying 60 pages a month for 4 pound.

I think the Meg is currently building up it's amount of original strip (it's something like doubled in the past year or so), and this will help with the flow of strips, longer episodes etc. but I'd be sad to see the reprints go completely.  They add a lot of variety, and there's a lot to choose from in the archives so we can (nearly) always bet on getting something good there (don't know abot that f*cked-up Slaine strip though... why's that there?).

And as for feature material, there's plenty of ideas out there.  Just look at Doctor Who Magazine.  The show's been off the air since 1989 and still DWM pumps out about 56 pages of good stuff every month.

Good feature ideas (some of them shamelessly nicked from other peoples ideas on this very post):

-Monthly round up of what else tooth creators are doing ATM, i.e. reviews of their American comics.  I like that one, whoever said that.

-Not Quite Thrill-Power Overload! - A History of the Megazine.  David Bishop is obviously very close to the subject.  It's been though some turbulent times and could be interesting.  Possibly.

-Feature on the big comics boom of the late 80s early 90s.  I don't know if there's much there to do, it I'd be interested to know just what the hell happened.

[Rio De Fideldo]

Two points

1)I'm all for an investigation into individual characters and also classic stories in the TPO slot.


2)My big problem with Judge World Stories is that the Judges are all cut from the same cloth as Dredd except they wear a kilt/are a samurai/are Insepctor Morse.

I always thought it would be more exciting to have stories which explore the life of the Meg through the eyes of other characters and not just Dredd.

Often the best Dredd stories have been those which show the impact of Judges on citizens and what its like to live in Mega City One.

What about a Dredd meets Indiana Jones style archaologist hunting for rare artifacts,coke cans, wellies in the Cursed Earth? Or a Private Intimidator who thumps people for a living.What happens to Judges once they've finished their sentence on Titan? How about a story about someone who is targetted by the Hunters Club?

Sky Surfers

Bat Gliders

Ugly Balls

More alien 'Trapper' Bounty Hunters

You'd think after 25 odd years there was plenty of continuity to explore without having to follow the adventures of Judge Alaska/Africa/Italy/Egypt etc.

[sindex1996]

Missonary Man - very good
Devlin Waugh - pretty good
Judge Anderson- good ish untill recent years, now a bit preachy
Chopper - in the meg it has been poor and maybe even distroyed the character
Mean Machine - poor in the meg
Lenny Zero - pretty good, will it continue?
Judge Hershey - Her solo stories did nothing for her. Just another Judge with generic stories that could of been anyone.
Holocaust 13 - didn't read, couldn't get into that
Judge Death - one good story Boyhood of a superfiend. that was 13 yrs ago

Very few hits by using Dredd's world IMHO

I think cutting one story and going for longer installments and we really need a replacement for TPO.

I think it's time for a someone to go back to attempting to tell the story of Dredds world also, from now to 2099.
Maybe short books, not linked but individual stories of that time with a very distant link of some sort that can pull it all together in the end. Hard to do and make it interesting or relevant but it can be done I'm sure.
just no cheesy links (like a young distant realtion of a Dredd world main character. Theres plenty to focus on with Booth and The birth of the Justice Dept. and the War etc.

[DavidXBrunt]

I'd say there's a difference between Dredds world stories and Dredd spin-offs.

Armitage and Devlin Waugh are in the former and Anderson and Mean Machine in the latter. I'd imagine that The Watcher was discounting the spin-offs when he talked about the stories.

[Will I. Cooling]

 

Ah come on they were good, fun one offs, the Auzzie vid was funny. Nice Kev Walker art too.



Now there's a question. Andy?



Vaguely remebring them as being pretty good and developing her character as a dem sympathetic Judge.



Again dimmly remebr it to be a fun read with GREAT art by Murray.
 


The Iriving six parter was billed as "Judge Death" too.




Love to see that although the question must be who would write it Wagner Dredd's creator or Mill who created the vast majority of the backstory?

[Will I. Cooling]

Also another idea for the Meg why not do a deal with one of the American publishers to do a 24 page Dredd comic in the meg with them going 50/50 on the costs. THen you can put the 24 page story in the meg but only pay for 12 of the pages leaving room for three 8 page back up stories.

Will

[Art]

Of course, that assumes creator fees are the bulk of the costs...

[Oddboy]

But Frazer's My Name Is Death was run in 2000AD rather then the Meg...

[Will I. Cooling]

But the sequel's going to be in the Meg

Will

[Oddboy]

I do wish they'd stop swapping them about!
The Megazine will never have it's own identity if stories keep jumping back & forth... Missionary Man, Devlin Waugh, Anderson, Durham Red...

[John Caliber]

It's a marketing tactic, to launch the 'Death' sequel in the Meg, knowing that it will garner a lot of interest from 2000ad readers previosuly exposed to the concept, and hopefully get more of them buying the Megazine; sounds like a good idea to me, as long as it is followed up by strips of equal or better quality to maintain the increased readership.

- John

Link: http://www.btinternet.com/~j.caliber" target="_blank">Judge Dredd Justice Central

[Nice Tom]

I recall reading about this proposed Dreddworld story called Blockers which was going to be like a sort of MC1 soap set in one of the blocks. I think this actually sounds like it could be fantastic- with a large cast of characters, you could have a really flexible format with loads of potential for writers, artists etc.

[Smiley]

The Blockers ended up in the Dredd Mega-Special '88 with a cast including a deranged Apocalypse War vet, a telly addict and a psychopathic juve (all living in Adolf Hitler Block IIRC). It was alright but didn't have much going for it, nothing you couldn't get in regular Dredd at least.