Meg 281 - Bullet Time

[The Cosh]

An effective take on the familiar notion of Dredd looking hard and pointing his gun at us on this cover, which I didn't recognise as the work of the elusive PJ Holden. Good show.

Al Ewing's Dredd wraps up nicely this month. This has been a great, zingy tale with enough action, throwaway background ideas and proper Dredd bits (no, not his cock) to let me know I really want to see more from this droid soon. Maybe it's the colouring, but the art seemed looser and more cartoony this week. Not necessarily a bad thing where exploding fatties are concerned.

Citi-Def continues to be mildly entertaining, with the same caveats as Marauder in the Prog. Certainly a much better effort from Tony Lee than Stalag 666 was, so here's hoping the forthcoming Necrophim is another step up in quality. The art is decent and generally fits with the tone of the story but I do find it a bit jarring when we cut to the women-chained-up-in-a-meat-locker-waiting-to-be-brutally-raped scenes.

Tank Girl has a lovely big double-page centrespread, but I agree with her sentiments about having to go through it all again. The little interlude segments have been amusing, but all the driving around between them is boring.

Insurrection also has corking splash page, reminiscent of Mr MacNeil's lovely depictions of fire and explosions in the otherwise dreadful Song of the Surfer. Abnett does this sort of space opera stuff so well (Atavar, Durham Red, Kingdom) that he'd have to go out of his way to make a hash of it and, so far, he hasn't.

Even the film reviews were good this month: three interesting sounding movies, only one - good, bad and weird - that I'd previously heard of and this is the first proper review I've seen of that. I realise this column is necessarily a slave to release dates and so forth, but if it was like this more often it'd be a welcome presence in the Meg.

I've only read the first Pussyfoot 5 story and, so far, it seems like John Smith going out of his way to make his stuff more accessible. Lovely colours from the pen of D'Israeli too. Good stuff and I'm now off to read the second half over brunch.

Less good news elsewhere. We knew there was going to be a big jump in price for the colour Case Files, so that's fair enough, but £17.99 for the new Dante volume seems pretty steep.

[Leigh S]

Shame about the Venn diagram! I'm assuming it shouldnt be concentirc circles there, but a series of individual circles with a small area of cross over - hence the venn diagram reference, yes?

Agree about the Citi Def meatlocker stuff - if this is what Tharg is referring to in his editorial when he talks about "intelligence",  give me the "stupidity" of (for ecample) Ace Trucking anytime

[Leigh S]

Forgot to say, the venn diagram mightnt be very Vennish, but the tube map version of Megacity one shown underneath is quite inspiring....

[IndigoPrime]

Less good news elsewhere. We knew there was going to be a big jump in price for the colour Case Files, so that's fair enough, but £17.99 for the new Dante volume seems pretty steep.

That's what happens when Sterling crashes on the currency markets, folks.

[Dark Jimbo]

Less good news elsewhere. We knew there was going to be a big jump in price for the colour Case Files, so that's fair enough, but £17.99 for the new Dante volume seems pretty steep.

That's what happens when Sterling crashes on the currency markets, folks.

Thank God for the Waterstones 3 for 2 on Graphic Novels.

[pauljholden]

Have I become elusive? hmm... I suppose I have, soz. Anyhue, if you want to know what I'm up to you can find me on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/pauljholden or my blog http://www.pauljholden.com

And... you might be interested in my latest blog post - cus you can see various sketches for the current Megazine cover (http://www.pauljholden.com/wordpress/?p=2452)

Cheers

-pj

[IAMTHESYSTEM]

I was looking at the Megezine cover in the local newsagent thinking that's mega. Cracking stuff Paul. I'll buy it next week when the last of the ghastly bills have been paid off assuming I make it through the arctic blizzard that's about to descend upon the country.

[The monarch]

Thank God for the Waterstones 3 for 2 on Graphic Novels.

is that still on?

[Dandontdare]

It's a never-ending promo! Before Xmas it was on ALL GNs, but most of the time it's only the stickered items - If there's just 3 you want on any given day, you can bet one of them isn't included! But it's great for things like the casefiles if you buy 'em 3 at a go.

[Proudhuff]

Jing no much interest in this month's Meg? Anyone else read it yet?

Great Dredd cover: sez on the tin!

Al Ewing's Dredd's spot on, doesn't over stay its welcome, lots of luverly background details both in the art and script and an understanding of MC1 and JD that few can match.


Citi-Def If you'd told me about this before hand I would have said I'd hate it, but its the opposite, the story and art are well matched, the gungo-ho guys are just the right side of stupid  and there's a lightness of touch to the script that's very appealing.

Tank Girl Noooo, not a return leg! I thought the length (ending this month) was just about right for this tale.


Insurrection  I Know i Know, I'm a pedant, but how many SJS Judges are there!!! How come they couldn't bring that kinda firepower to bear in the fisticuffs with the Sovs/Satan/the Walking dead/Narcos etc?  If it wasn't for that (fanboy gripe) its great stuff, loving the driod/monkey bits especially.

Film review:  this is perhaps more useful than than the regular blockbuster type of one

I've tried to read the first Pussyfoot 5 but its all too wordy and the text seems cramped, has the page been shrunk to fit?

[+rufus+]

Jing no much interest in this month's Meg? Anyone else read it yet?

Great Dredd cover: sez on the tin!

Al Ewing's Dredd's spot on, doesn't over stay its welcome, lots of luverly background details both in the art and script and an understanding of MC1 and JD that few can match.


Citi-Def If you'd told me about this before hand I would have said I'd hate it, but its the opposite, the story and art are well matched, the gungo-ho guys are just the right side of stupid  and there's a lightness of touch to the script that's very appealing.

Tank Girl Noooo, not a return leg! I thought the length (ending this month) was just about right for this tale.


Insurrection  I Know i Know, I'm a pedant, but how many SJS Judges are there!!! How come they couldn't bring that kinda firepower to bear in the fisticuffs with the Sovs/Satan/the Walking dead/Narcos etc?  If it wasn't for that (fanboy gripe) its great stuff, loving the driod/monkey bits especially.

Film review:  this is perhaps more useful than than the regular blockbuster type of one

I've tried to read the first Pussyfoot 5 but its all too wordy and the text seems cramped, has the page been shrunk to fit?

Return leg? Do you really think anything would go to plan in a tank Girl script?  

[George Dread]

Well I've read a load of it and i've not much to add to what I've already said about the strips.

Dredd continues to inspire in story and art. Nice to see a classic fall from a great height panel.

Great overhead splash from Martin, Dayglo and Bowland in TankGirl. Like the totally irreverent Chunky morph!

Excellent cartoony action from Tonly Lee and jackedemus, with Bowland again giving masterful Parkhouse and Deville a run for the money. Good to see a uniform wedged in there.

Spacewar big screener Insurrection tapping some wonderful ideas from its contributers. Those are shocking helmets on the SJS ground troops.

And letters and Free GN are linked by the word, WARGASM, which I found a tickle.

Like the art in GN, story? I had to tackle it a bit but I put it down to my out of touchness and incoming flu.

Ed berridge caught my eye with his feature on the Wire.

An insight to John Higgins is yet to be digested but his personal stuff looks rad.

Good to see Holden on the cover. It pleasantly surprised me. Great Dredd, PJ.

[W. R. Logan]

JUDGE DREDD: Liked Al's grip on Dredd just didn't like the storybut look forward to seeing Al on Old Stoney Face in the future

TANK GIRL: Never been a Tank Girl fan but Love Rufus' artwork so make sure I look at it purely for that.


INSURRECTION: Ive always like the idea of off world Judges but a bit like the normal SJS character they all come out of the same mould, so I always find myself looking forward to a new off world Judge story than I do when it appears


CITI-DEF: This has got to be one of the worst stories ever, both in terms of art and story, the Megs had many a story that I wouldnt even class as filler and this is easily one of them.

If I didnt have the Meg on subscription I'd have probably stopped reading it a while a go and whilst the contens arent thrilling me then I dont see that changing soon and no matter how many editorials justify the amount of text and features in the Meg they're never going to win me over.

[W. R. Logan]

JUDGE DREDD: Liked Al's grip on Dredd just didn't like the storybut look forward to seeing Al on Old Stoney Face in the future

TANK GIRL: Never been a Tank Girl fan but Love Rufus' artwork so make sure I look at it purely for that.


INSURRECTION: Ive always like the idea of off world Judges but a bit like the normal SJS character they all come out of the same mould, so I always find myself looking forward to a new off world Judge story than I do when it appears


CITI-DEF: This has got to be one of the worst stories ever, both in terms of art and story, the Megs had many a story that I wouldnt even class as filler and this is easily one of them.

If I didnt have the Meg on subscription I'd have probably stopped reading it a while a go and whilst the contens arent thrilling me then I dont see that changing soon and no matter how many editorials justify the amount of text and features in the Meg they're never going to win me over.

[Tiplodocus]

Dredd story was OK. CHaracter and everything seemed spot on but the resolutions seemed a bit "Computer, tell me who could possibly have committed this crime?"

Citi-Def is half good fun and half, er, not. I really don't like the art but it suits one half of the story (the fun bit).

Insurrection continues to wow me - absolutely love the art.

I can't rmember if I like Tank Girl or not - it often makes me chuckle - but I definitely like the art.

Enjoyable text features but I thought the comic character DEATH thing spent too much time talking about INFINTY INCIDENT CRISIS WAR type crossover epics.

That chap that wrote the last letter in the Meg (the "Stop your moanin', you f**kers!") one was just incredibly rude and read si if he were generally ignorant and intolerant.  It's playground/internet level stuff so why does Tharg print it. I know, Iknow, because that's all he received.  

Buttonman will have a fit but I still think a "CHOICE CUTS FROM THE FORUM" piece (like they do in EDGE) would be a good way of getting short, sharp, witty criticism into the letters column. Just because we don't stick a stamp on it, doesn't mean it's not valid crit.