Meg 214

[Leigh S]

Ah, this is looking good - it's always a good sign when I cant decide what to read first...


Anyone else get crime scene tape in their sub envelope?

[DavidXBrunt]

Yeah, a nice touch. Don't know what I'm going to do with it though.

Proper review later, I suppose.

[Trout]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!

I want it. I want it.

I WANT IT!

I mean my Meg.

Not gay sex, or heroin or anything.

I'll shut up now.

- Trout

[Proudhuff]

Mighty pretty mouth for a city fish...

[The Amstor Computer]

Just read my copy, so here's a few thoughts:

The Wagner/Kennedy/Flint Dredd story is fantastic - one of the best short Dredd tales John Wagner has written for a while. The art is lovely, and it's interesting to see how the two styles mesh.

The Wilderness Days crackles on. Lots of great moments in this episode - including a couple of not-so-subtle contemporary references.

Whatever Happened To Tweak?/The Blood of Satanus II - well, who woulda thunk it? Pat Mills turns out a couple of great Dredd stories here. They both hark back to his original vision of Dredd (the line from WHTT - "the Judge Dredd she talks about sounds very different from the Judge Dredd you met in the Cursed Earth" - seems to be Pat acknowledging how far Dredd has moved on from his early interpretation, but suggests that Pat still sees the more conventional "hero" as part of his character) but they're not just a nostalgia trip. Looking forward to the next part of Blood of Satanus (and I loved the creep in the zoom suit!)

XTNCT finishes on a high. I'm going to reread this tonight, but I still think it stands up as one of the better stories from the Meg this year.

Anderson returns, and on first impressions, this looks like it could be a good story. It's certainly far better than I expected.

The text features are generally very good. The Crime Files will make a great ongoing feature, and David Bishop's introduction to Satanus will have helped to bring new readers up-to-date, and given older readers a burst of nostalgia (one nitpick - "T. rex" is the correct abbreviation of Tyrannosaurus rex. Genus is capitalised, species isn't - what can I say, I'm a palaeontology geek :-))

Gordon Rennie's Almanack was pure filler, but still amusing - I particularly liked numbers 7, 9 & 12 :-)

And to end this on a high note - Apocalypse Soon has finished! Rejoicing in the streets may now commence (unless your name is Savvas Socratous)

[Tex Hex]

>>I WANT IT!

>>I mean my Meg.

>>Not gay sex, or heroin or anything.

S
P
O
I
L
E
R



Blimey. Stay clear of XTNCT then....

Which I think was a really good idea, but in the end I think all the cool ideas got in the way of the actual plot. Without the D'isreali art I might have given up on it.

[GermanAndy]

Perfect Meg.

DREDD: Great tale. Great artwork. Great lines. One of Wagner?s best this year.

JUDGE DEATH: can?t say I enjoyed every part, but this was a nice one. I am intrigued how this ends.

TOTC: one the one hand this seems reaching, as topics go, but it sure read intersting.

WHATEVER HAPPEND: As a latecommer I am very divided about Mill?s work, some I like, some I find boring as hell. This is a nice tale. And the artwork was great. I am a Weston fan, but this is the first b/w art I saw of him, and I thought it very good.

APOCALYPSE. Frankly never read it after the first to parts. Oh, it?s over. Shame.

BLOOD: Undecided about this. But the art was interesting. What has Migthen done before this?

SHORTSTORY: This remains to be read.

XTINCT. I have to read this in one sitting. Art was great, but the story lost me on the way.

THINGS TO COME: My,my - what a sharp pencil we wield, Mr. Rennie *g. More hits than losses though.

CHARLEY?S WAR: I like this. Fantastic art.

HALF-LIFE: What?s not to like about a story titled after Philip K. Dick? I am a big fan of Anderson by Grant and Ranson, und this is a promising and creepy start.

GOLD remains to be read. But I am curious to see what is so great about SD *g

And the goodies were nice. The calender is much better than last years one, and the tape, well *gg

[The Amstor Computer]

"What has Migthen done before this?"

He produced quite a bit of work for another UK comic called Toxic - you can find out more on this site if you have a hunt around. He worked on Pat Mills' "Accident Man", IIRC.

"GOLD remains to be read. But I am curious to see what is so great about SD"

If you want to see what made Strontium Dog so great, then The Galaxy Killers might not be the best starting point. It's a good SD story (the first of the longer SD tales, and the first in 2000AD, IIRC) but it's definitely not the best of the bunch. Makes a great Xmas pressie for older 2000AD fans, though.

[SmallBlueThing]

As I've got five minutes before my beard dries, here's a quick- very quick- "review" of what I thought...

And yes, I did get the crime scene tape. very cool, if useless.

Cover: Nice. Oldy stylee. Tweak! yay! Don't know who that is pretending to be anderson though, unless Cass has been on the pre-xmas pies since about, oh, June.

Dredd: Funny, clever, great art. Exactly what I wanted from my Xmas Dredd. A seasonal classic.

Death: Can't wait for this to be collected- or finished, so I can read the whole lot together. Some parts have been dissappointing, but this wasn't one of them. Despite Wagner's protestations, Death is still a comedy character though.

TOTC: Um... filler? if this is the best they can come up with to fill the text pages, then can we have more strip please?

Tweak: YAY! Pat Mills rocks! (Did you see what I did there?) Marvellous. A shame it's not a Tweak series though.

Apocalypse Soon: Goodbye. Don't call again.

Satanus Bloodline: Probably interesting, but not to me.

Dredd: B.O.S2: Pat Mills, again, delivers up a slice of classic strip. And Duke Mighten, whom I fondly remember from Toxic!, has developed into one of the clearest and innovative storytellers I've seen in the Meg this year.

Bernard: Don't know, haven't read.

XTNCT: Don't know, as I gave up on this months ago.

Rennie: If he weren't such a damn good writer of Dredd and Cabbies, I'd question why we have to suffer this each month. Obvious, unfunny and wide of the mark in several places.

Charley's War: As ever, the best thing in the Meg. Although it shouldn't've been there, according to last month's closing caption. No 'to be continued' caption here, either, and no response to the letters praising it, either. Does this mean anything? Drop it and regret it, creeps!

Anderson: Surprisingly, my second favourite thing this month. Doubly so as I don't ordinarily like Anderson and loathe Arthur Ranson's art. Grat opener though.

Stronty Gold: Will get around to it, eventually, no doubt.

Calender: Oh. Great.

All in all, a better than average issue. I will sleep more easily knowing that Charley Bourne is back next month though...

That's it, beard's dry, I can go and shave around it now.

Steev

[madgirl]

Just read Dredd. What was John on when he wrote that?

[The Amstor Computer]

"Just read Dredd. What was John on when he wrote that?"

Don't know, but if it results in strips like that, he can carry on taking it :-)

[Oddboy]

Dredd was great, yay!
Death coming on very well, yay!
Tweak - a bit so-so. Marginally entertaining, but not really good enough to be worth it really.
XTNCT - still need to read some of the previous parts, so I skipped it for now.
Satanus - Pat Mills seems to be on form with this one, (about bloomin' time)
Anderson - Exxxxcellent! Ranson really does a recongisable Doherty Sidney portrait.

[paulvonscott]

Well, this seems to have hit the shelves a day before the Prog, staggered thrill power, very wise.  So, my presents this years...

From Pat Mills and co. came two very nice Dredd stories plus the incomparable CW!  A relief for me as Pat's tastes often seem to have diverged from my own over the last ten years and I was worried where these might go.  But no, very pleased, thank you.  I could maybe have done without the Tweak swearing mind!  Twaaat.  Heh heh.

From Alan Grant and co. came Half Life which looks really very promising, I wasn't looking forward to seeing Cass again, but I enjoyed this episode a lot.  Deadworld's pretty grim ain't it!  And nobody does oppression like Mr G.  While I have sympathies with the politics of Apocalypse Soon, the satire was a bit heavy handed for me, Doomlord did it better (didn't he always though!).

From Wagner and co we had the fun turkey story, which was about as Christmassy as you could get, lovely!  Plus Death settled into a more moody moment this month.

Xtinct, well some deviation at the end but it has been an interesting strip.  I really liked the basic premise, I think I wanted a more straight, serious and scary story exploring the ideas raised, but there's no reason it should have been anything other than what it was.

Sorry to sideline the artists, but there simply wasn't a less than excellant doodler in the batch this month.  Flint (Mr 2000AD for the 21st century) and Kennedy make a great team.  Duke Mighten (a new one to me.  Fake name, fake name?) did a cracking job, and shows you can still show off your style while drawing a clear crisp Dredd.  Weston and Ungara - just lovely.  Irving, he's okay I guess ;) breathtaking last scene.  I've overlooked Shaun Thomas on A.Soon, but looking at his God, you see just how nice this stuff is.  A slight step away from the Bisley and cartoonish moments of A.Soon and I'd like to see him on another strip.  !  D'Israeli is just superb and we should feel lucky he's on board.  Ransom is well used here, it's so grim, Greg Staples does a stunning cover that sums up 2000AD for me (even the chins are spot on) and Colquhoun was a master.

Merry Christmas!

[Floyd-the-k]

Yes,me too. Still haven`t read it yet.  
Floyd (anticipatorily)

[Darryl]

Ok, am I  the only a little peeved at the price hike? THREE POUNDS for a SD reprint? THREE FECKING QUID? not really worth it now! had to get my local newsagent to put me tooth behind as i didnt have enough cash on me!

Havent read it yet tho, havent had chance....