MEG 319 - AMERICAN REAPER: DON'T TRY CHEATING HIM.

[Pete Wells]

Blimey, this flopped through my letterbox today, what a fantastic surprise!

I've had a quick flick through, behind Clint Langley's half cool, half not so cool (you'll see what I mean) wraparound cover there's a great twisty, turny time travelling Dredd tale which should give us older readers a buzz by Mike Carroll and the wonderful Nick Dyer. Dredd and Armitage continue their investigation which has an eye popping final page! American Reaper will continue to polarise the readership, especially as this episode erm... guest stars novelty rock act, The Darkness!?! Finally John Smith and Colin MacNeil's Strange and Darke debuts. As you'd expect, the script is crackers (though presently its reading more like a Grennie script than a Smith) and Colin's artwork is beautiful. The colours by Len O'Grady and Dee Cunniffe are outstanding - s'nice!

Add to this the movies and an interview with the fantastic Simon Jacob and there's yer Meg.

I'll do a proper review when I've had a proper read. Hmmm, the Darkness?

[James Stacey]

American Reaper will continue to polarise the readership, especially as this episode erm... guest stars novelty rock act, The Darkness!?!

Ohh well done Pat. Something to switch mild dislike into actively ignore.

[Greg M.]

That's.... bizarre. I'd considered making this the issue where I got back on-board with the Megazine, given that I'm keen to read any new peculiarness from the mighty pen of Smith, but given my profound loathing of The Darkness, I'm almost having second thoughts. (But not really. The lure of new Smith is too strong...)

[radiator]

Also  worth mentioning that this Meg comes bagged with Durham Red: Island of the Damned - a great little story and - imo - by far the best solo Red series. Lovely Ezquerra art, too.

[JUDGE BURNS]

wow...My Meg just arrived....soaking wet as usual, thankfully its bagged so no damage to it at all.
incidentally I had prog 1764 thru my door on xmas eve.

[vzzbux]

Looks like the brain child is back in Dredd.





V

[Keef Monkey]

Overall a great meg (although I haven't read the floppy or the articles yet, and of late am finding I often don't ever get around to the articles), but the whole Darkness thing threw me, in a very bad way. It just seems so horribly out of place and left me wondering if it's part of publicity for their comeback and so a money-led decision? This seems suspiciously like American Reaper jumping the shark, which is a shame as I've been enjoying it a great deal, so it's a shame to see it cheapened like that.

[locustsofdeath!]

Also  worth mentioning that this Meg comes bagged with Durham Red: Island of the Damned - a great little story and - imo - by far the best solo Red series. Lovely Ezquerra art, too.

Yes. Couldn't agree more. Whilst I read and moderately enjoyed all of Red's subsequent adventures, this is the only one I truly enjoyed. The rest were big, pretentious affairs that took Red far from her roots (yep, I know). Finally a floppy I'll enjoy.

[Leigh S]

Overall a great meg (although I haven't read the floppy or the articles yet, and of late am finding I often don't ever get around to the articles), but the whole Darkness thing threw me, in a very bad way. It just seems so horribly out of place and left me wondering if it's part of publicity for their comeback and so a money-led decision? This seems suspiciously like American Reaper jumping the shark, which is a shame as I've been enjoying it a great deal, so it's a shame to see it cheapened like that.

Yeah, my feelings too, though I am assuming it wasnt so much a money thing, but a "if you have to phot ref these things, you will have to end up here" kinda thing.  You need a band to photo, so it may not be unreasonable of that band to try and wrangle some free publicity out of it!

[The Cosh]

Foreword. In the interests of promoting a positive outlook for the New Year, please imagine this is actually my last unconstructive and mean-spirited post of 2011 which was delayed by the public holiday.

Holy Christ! It hadn't occurred to me that there was a way American Reaper could get any worse.

The Dredd story starts off with a pretty decent premise but doesn't do much for me. I can see the attraction of referring back to older stories: it gives a little hook for the writer to spin off from, affords the long-term reader a smile of recognition and preserves the illusion of MC1 as a living interconnected setting. However, if I'm honest, I'm getting a bit fed up with it and I think the newer writers should be looking to build up a larger catalogue of their own villains and crazes and crimes before looking backwards.

I'm not a big fan of Nick Dyer's art either. Nothing to do with it being "cartoony" or whatever. It's just a personal, subjective dislike of his style, particularly the massive eyes.

Strange and Darke may not quite be vintage John Smith yet, but it's certainly the strip I enjoyed most. While it starts from the same point as the new Indigo Prime - heading off on a mission with a new recruit the ropes who needs everything explained to them - it seems to be far more of a straight story than IP. Maybe it's the down to Earth gorblimeyness of the Strange himself but it reads to me like a deliberate attempt to write something more approachable. Whether it continues in this vein or shoots off at a weird angle next month, I'm looking forward to more.

Interesting to see Colin MacNeil's art looking quite different to his normal Dredd style too. Some of this is definitely down to the colouring but I'm not qualified to say how much.

Weak Meg all round.

[A.Cow]

Holy Christ! It hadn't occurred to me that there was a way American Reaper could get any worse.

Pat & Clint must be still crying with laughter after persuading Trudy Styler to cough up real money for option rights.

Biggest practical joke since Viv Stanshall & Keith Moon's trouser-separation antics.

[Zarjazzer]

Liked the new one Strange and Darke with excellent art,skipped AR as it's not really doing anything for me,Dreddy was fine but Durham Red freebie was the highlight. haven't read much of this stuff and it seemed really good. Shame it seems (according to other boarders) that it didn't continue in the  same vein. (Ow! )

[mygrimmbrother]

Loved Strange & Darke, a very British BPRD it seems (even more so than Cabs). American Reaper was an embarrasment though.

[Lee Bates]

Does anyone know how many episodes we can expect of American Reaper? I'd like to be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

[radiator]

I think there are two more episodes - it was mentioned in last month's issue that we were at the halfway point.

Can't wait for Diggle and Jock's Snapshot, which is presumably going to take it's place - looks to be much more my cup of tea.