Meg 211

[malkymac]

Once I had reread it I thought it was excellent. I especially liked the last couple of panels where Raptor thought he had done them all a favor. Great stuff, keep it up.

[longmanshort]

I must confess that I don't really like the Death photo image - doesn't really do it for me. Whereas the other one ... when i saw I actually felt a little afraid ... in the same way as when I saw Fraze's pic of death reaching for that baby or when he killed that pregnant woman. It has a hypnotic voodoo swirl of faces, the ever-growing litany of Death's victims, and the painted feel gives it a blurry, frightening streak. Death too looks much like the fiend he is. To be honest, I've never been particularly impressed with the Death as black comedy thing. Young Death was great, don't get me wrong, but I think it's just gone overboard a bit. Maybe after Necropolis there was nowhere to take the character but this latest story I think begins to take him further - showing that it's not just quick endless slaughter, but he's now also enjoying torturing them as well!

As for the rest of the Meg...

Devlin
I have to really force myself to read Devlin and must keep referring back to past issues because I can't make who's who and where they are. I know Smith is capable of faster pacing than this, but this appears to merely be ticking along.

xtnct
Disraeli is one of my all time favourites and with Leviathan in tooth, this is a real treat. When I heard Paul was doing the script, I must admit feeling cautious because (no offence Paul) I wasn't overly keen on his Doctor Who stuff. But it's proved me wrong - original, witty and striking. Probably the best sf we've had in the meg for a long, long time. Nice one.

Charlie's War
Have yet to read

Harry 20
I absolutely love this and it was the first thing I turned to this month. I'm so keen to find out how he escapes - a feeling I've not had from a tooth story for a while.

Bendatti
Again, have to keep referring back but may well just read it all in one go

Article
Makes good lunchtime reading!

Dredd
Hotdog Runs - my favourite! Mr Rennie's on a bit of a roll!

Nine out of ten - top!

[Tiplodocus]

Well, this morning I tore open a big white envelope in frenzied anticipation and must admit I was very disappointed.

It wasn't my Meg at all but a contract that'll keep the kids fed and clothed for another few months.  

As well as thinking "That's not fair, where's my Meg?" I also thought "I really have to get my priorities straightened out..."

[SmallBlueThing]

Back from two weeks of inlaw hell, and only the thought of being able topost this has kept me going...

Cover: Preferred the Bollandaise one, as the other one made my eyes hurt, but dissappointed in both to be honest. Not with Mr Irving, but rather that the double cover malarky should've been done a couple of issues back to mark the start of the strip and this month's should absolutely definately positively have had a Charley's War cover.

Am I the only one pissed off that my subs copy is different than the two newstand editions (in that it has two covers), and am therefore battling the urge to track down the other two to "keep the set complete"? And- are we sure ALL subs copies had cover 'b' at the front?

Right, this'll be brief.

Dredd: Marvellous. Rennie again out-writes Wagner. Carlos brings the eighties back in style and Steev giggles happily.

Bendatti, Devlin: yeah yeah yeah. Ho hum.

XTNCT: haven't been over keen so far, but really got into it with this one.

Harry 20: have read so many times, I barely concentrated. Great stuff though. The "I'll pass for Toad" panel still cracks me up.

Apoc.Soon: I'm with the naysayers.

Death: Lovely episode. Genuine and scary/ disturbing. My favourite so far.

Have I forgotten anything?

Oh yes, the small matter of Charley's War. I've never read these introductory strips, so this is all new to me- and while I can honestly say that it gets much, much better as it goes along, these were incredible, wonderful stuff. Top marks to rebellion for doing this and, if anyone's reading, PRINT THEM ALL. When Harry20 ends, double the page count. Fuck the 2000ad archives stuff and the proposed Euro-strips, bugger off Bendatti and Devlin, use the page count for Charley. This is the best thing the Meg has ever done. And that Porteus guy from the letters page can bugger off too.

Pat Mills's intro stands as a testament to why he's my hero. He's a real writer, in the truly artistic sense. I'd pay to read his shopping list, because I know it'd be written with honesty and written from the gut- which cannot be said for a lot of the wannabees faffing around the Nerve Centre at the moment. We need more Pat Millses, or the future is  Sonny Steelgrave shaped.

Aoplogies for the rant. I go.

Steev

[Tiplodocus]

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Annoyingly, my subscription has just run out so I never got both covers.  

I went or the Killing Joke cover myself.

DREDD:  I thought this was an absolutely spot on DREDD.  Funny script, cool characters, great art.

DEATH: Not so fond of this though it does have it's moments.  Odd that injecting "established" characters from the film medium in this story grates whereas inserting an old BATTLE character into DREDD makes me feel all gooey inside.  That last sentence sounds quite rude if you read it right.

DEVLIN: Hope this ends soon so I can reread it. At the moment, I don't care about the seemingly ever changing roster of supporting characters enough. However, there are some premises that intrigue me and I think it may benefit from a second reading.  The fact that I feel compelled to read it again because it wasn't particularly clear is a bad thing by the way (as opposed to WANTING to read it again because it's so rich and dense and I feel I will learn something fresh on rereading).

BENDATTI: Well at last we are learning something about the characters but I fear it's too little, too late for me. And I can't help thinking it's been a bit drawn out.  Compare this to Charley's War where you know lots about the characters after only twenty or so pages. BENDATTI just looks like an excuse for some pastelly art. And was it just me but I thought it was unclear what happens with the gun at the end? Does 'tache give it to Faulkner so that Faulkner can shoot the baddie or shoot himself?  If I understood the characters better, maybe I'd be able to figure it out.

CHARLEY'S WAR - Very good stuff - and challenging not just in subject matter but in the choice of story ideas as well ("Let's have him stuck in a shell hole for a whole episode doing nothing").  I probably read some of this when I was younger but can't remember it.  I like the way that Charley is actually so thick. Does this predate Forrest Gump?  I like the way the Germans have been characterised so far - very differently from the Japanese in Darkie's mob. Odd that they were both products of roughly the same time.

HARRY TWENTY: Enjoyable pulpy reread but I wouldn't want a Meg full of it.  Artwork is lovely and Gerry Finlay Day is just a genius with good bad names - Magnifico 7, indeed. Incidentally, where did the tradition of having people pretending to be Napoleon in asylums start? What do you reckon - useful story telling short cut or lazy clich??

Oh and I quite like Apocolypse Soon even though there's a lot of room for improvement.

[Tiplodocus]

How could I forget about XTINCT.  It was great - slightly ambiguous but very clever way of showing a different world view.

[Oddboy]

Dammit! I've just realised I haven't read half this months Meg!