Meg 215

[Krustabi]

For some reason, my local newsagents had it a day early.

I'm not going to give a full review, but I liked Anderson, I find Dredd files interesting, and Dredd was great, but I had a problem with the "I have a baby" line.

Yours squeamishly, Krustabi.

[Matt]

More Simon Coleby please Alan. This months Dredd was fantastic. And can we have another epic soon?

[paulvonscott]

Heh, just back to say that was a FANTASTIC Dredd.  Really, wow.

I'll be honest I didn't like Colby on Rogue Trooper, and I thought that I didn't really like his art style at all.

What a turnaround, I'm trying to work out if the styles been adjusted, making it less spiky and angular and more craggy, but either way it really suited this brutal dark story.  A+ old chap.

Look forward to seeing his next strip now.

[SmallBlueThing]

"i liked brats bazarre though (was good, and never finished either by the way)"

Don't know if you knew about this, but a follow-up series of Brats Bizarre was published by Epic Comics (Heavy Hitters imprint) May-Aug 1994. Four issues, written by Pat Mills and Tony Skinner, pencilled by Anthony Adhikary, inked by Colin Fawcett and Paul Scott. I have #4, and it's not that wonderful, missing the art of Duke Mighten.

This leads me on to the subject of strips that first appeared in Toxic! and were then continued elsewhere. How many are out there, and does anyone have a checklist?

Steev

[paulvonscott]

Death.  Okay, Death is no longer scary whoelsale and NEVER will be.  Death has been revealed to be a fairly petty character for all his horrendous crimes and the guise of ultimate evil is well blown, no matter how many kiddies he despatches (I always thought that was a cheap shot at making him evil again anyway).  Now that's out of the way, I'm just going to enjoy this as a fun romp.

Anderson is the better strip, here Sidney is quite scary.  I'm absolutely loving this, top marks.  Really horrible atmosphere and suspense.  Who'd have thought Anderson in a coma could be so much fun?

Satanus.  I agree, some fairly crass and dodgy lines in this.  They had also invaded Tweak last issue.  A shame because they only detract from the story.  This feels a bit watered-down Pat Mills to be honest.  We're seeing a lot more work by him and I assume he's still doing the business for Europe, I hope he's not stretching himself too thinly here.  I'm expecting Savage to be nothing less than brilliant.  I'm a big fan of Pat Mills' work, but I find him completely exasperating a lot of the time.

Maria.  Well, that was sad and probably the right way to finish it, nicely done.  Liked the artwork a lot.

Not going to comment on the filler and reprint, I'm saving all that for later.  Best Strip was Dredd, that Anderson one is the issues big clifhanger.

Cheers everyone, there wasn't a bad story in there.  2000AD and the Meg have confirmed the belief I had at Dreddcon that they were going to hit new highs this year.

[paulvonscott]

"inked by Colin Fawcett and Paul Scott"

Would all other Paul Scott's (especially the ones who are more succesful than me) kindly FUCK OFF!

Cheers :)

[stront692]

i ve got as many as there are i think

they are all crap without the original artists

and in the blue corner from dark horse

accident man - 2 issue miniseries

sex warrior 2 issue miniseries


apocalypse presents reprinted reprinted the stuff for the usa (lasted 7 issues)

im not sure if the bogie man stuff counts but there is 4 issue mini from fatman press prior to toxic

an annual from them too, straight after toxic (was solicited, not sure if published)

marshal law was epic beforehand and moved over to DARK HORSE briefly, i think they have buried the character for the time being as all uk creators have this loathing of superheroes (the americans dont get it, they like the superhero angle, they just think our pisstakes are a different 'cool' angle)

in the red corner from TUNDRA and ATOMEKA UK we have all the stuff that was going to appear in the UK adult comic market from the 90s

which is endless

[The Amstor Computer]

Matt:

"The Blood of Satanus storyline is bloody awful, that dialogue about stealing pens was shit. It was nearly as bad as last months Whatever Happened To Tweak."

Although I thought that line about crime was atrocious, I didn't actually mind the rest of the strip. It wasn't as good as the first episode, but it's certainly not deserving of some of the abuse I've seen heaped on it. WHTT was also a solid Dredd short, with only a couple of off moments.

Dudley:

"the Crystal Skull cliffhanger"

...which may be resolved in an upcoming Dredd story by Alan Grant & John Burns (can't remember who suggested this, but it was a good idea)

"the Charles Darwin block cliffhanger"

What was this? I can't check my progs & I don't remember any cliff-hanger at the end of this story.

Gordon:

"was I the only one who found the layout a bit confusing in places?"

No - though I found the colour-coding of strips helped slightly. It's readable, but it feels like someone's worked very hard to ensure it isn't.

[Trout]

I want to add my voice, possibly repeating myself a little, on Simon Coleby.

The man's work is hitting new heights, and seems to be benefiting from having darker scripts to illustrate.

I felt his more "cartoony" work was very, very poor; in fact, it was symptomatic of much of what used to be wrong with 2000AD.
There was no pilot on board. Everybody was flying separately and the mood of the comic as a whole wasn't being steered, or so it seemed to me.

Now, artists appear to be properly deployed, and Coleby's enjoying a significant renaissance as a result.

More Coleby, Tharg!

- Trout

[Dudley]

"the Charles Darwin block cliffhanger"

What was this? I can't check my progs & I don't remember any cliff-hanger at the end of this story.

The Cliffhanger was that the Charles darwicn Block guys who were killing anti-evolutionists etc were being manipulated by a mysterious figure with some sort of murderous purpose that we never found out about.  At the end he took off his mask and vanished into the smoke, laughing.  We couldn't see his face, so all we know at the end of it really is "Bad man out there.  Very bad man out there."  Could do with some sort of ending at some point, maybe?

[paulvonscott]

Reading Charlies War again, I'm surprised at how many people don't seem to like it, although obviously many do.  I thought this weeks episode was terrifying.   When they flip the bomb in the catapult, you just want to scream.  And the Germans, pissed off, charging over and killing everyone, it was so violent.  Not gory or bloody, just violent.

And God help me, the worst part has yet to come!

Another thing, I prefer the new poster montage along the top, to just the roll-call of names.  It's like seeing a wall of concert posters.

I've said before I never liked the Old Meg, this new one is like getting a summer special every month.  And a good summer special at that.

[IndigoPrime]

2000 AD's been doing the "hide the logo" thing a lot recently, too, and it really pisses me off. It's bad marketing and ensures the magazine fails to stand out from the crowd. Ditto for this Megazine cover.

[Smiley]

All IMHO as usual...

My Brilliant Career was a great story let down by some so-so art.

Hadn't read Hit Man for years. Surprised at how well it still stands up. A solid no-nonsense thriller.

Didn't really take to the Maria story, seemed more arbitrary rather than moving. A bit cheap. And that Mean Angel looked well ropey.

Dark Matters was a bit of duff filler compared to the first excellent episode.

As for the Orlok line - surprised at how much stick this is taking. I assumed it was a nod to the first Blood Of Satanus story (which had something along the lines of "Petty burglars and beast men, they're both equal in the eyes of the law") so it didn't really jar for me.

The art on Death's Wilderness Days has dived in quality, hasn't it? Still, Rudi's fate was fun.

Charley's War was always great. I can see how the pace, obviousness and simplicity might wear out the post-Watchmen generation (ooh, get me) and how Mills notoriously preachy attitude since would count against the story's sentiment now, but... you cannot just knock this strip. It's heart-rending marvellous stuff.

FS - there's better ones than this to reprint, surely?

Interrogation cube made me chuckle as some of the b/g art on Angels was a teensy too similar to Garry Leach's style for my liking.

GR's chatlog, oops, column. Don't take it too seriously folks. That old McMahon pic of Dredd should be holding a wooden spoon, not a lawgiver.

Top Thrill by far is Anderson. Can't wait to see how this turns out.

[Steamboy]

just to comment on Charlies War, this is the BEST war strip I have ever read. I got into comics late in my teens and straight into 2000AD never reading commando and other war comics they always seemed so Pro-war and I was a little hippy peacenik.  This is how a war story should be donethe sheer tension and terror the soldiers feel just befor the battle of some' is so noticable in both art and text...when it finished on a cliff hanger and I realized I'd haveta wait another month to see it all start made me throw my meg down, I believe I was actually shaking with rage at the dumb ass commanders so sure of their artillery ready to send the decent men at the front to their death for nothing...poor Charlie such a believable 16 year old i feel so sorry for him knowing the horror he'll see befor the end of the series. Awsome I just wish I could put into words how this strip makes me feel.  All this is my opinion as a first time reader of the story so no rose tinted glasses here. hope it runs right through.

CU Krestel

[Floyd-the-k]

Here`s go-to-whoah review

rant about LOEG was a bit nerdy for mine. Does it really matter? It was redeemed by the editor`s excellent choice in letters. I must get out more
  My Beautiful Career was great stuff, very Dredd and terrific art. Nice black humour. Query, is someone in the magazine in AA? I notice a steady stream of AA storylines.
Death the Wilderness Days is excellent as usual. I don`t want it to end. Frazer Irving matches the story perfectly.  The look on the dog`s face as the missile goes down on Vegas was most memorable

the Dredd Files...maybe if I didn`t already know most of this stuff it wouldn`t seem like a waste of space. Then again, reading a half-page summary of a story to be told that it is "mediocre fill-in" prompts the thoughts (a) and this is...? and (b) if it`s mediocre fill-in, why spend so much time telling us about it?

HITMAN was great. I`ve already read it but it`s nice to read it in colour.
Charley`s War, keeps getting better..maybe it IS brilliant. Anyway, despite the obvious material (WW1 was a waste of life, war is bad) it`s really growing on me
Blood of Satanus; fun to read, good story, the sequence with the dinoguy procrastinating about meeting Dredd was great. I too found Dredd`s little speech (about all crime being loathsome)phenomenally cheesy, like a dream or a parody of Dredd.  Too bad
Nice little future shock story
Whatever Happened to Maria? - terrific stuff. It often doesn`t work, bringing a character back from years ago, trying to make them more serious...
Half-life...aaargh, what`s going to happen? The person who said (in effect) "Ransom is back!" was on the money!