Megazine Volume 5 - The Odyssey

[Simon Beigh]

Meg 201 - Gold 001



This may confuse a few of you... Why am I reviewing Meg 201 again - I've already done it! Well... my Meg 201 wasn't complete - I was missing the Gold 001 re-print supplement that came with it. I finally got round to buying one off eBay, and have just finished reading it - so I can finish my full review at last!

The supplement was a reprint of Fiends Of The Eastern Front - a wonderful early serial by Gerry Finlay-Day and drawn by the legend that is Rey Carlos Ezquerra... There's a good introduction provided by Dan Abnett, writer of many stories for 2000AD, the Meg and many other publications. He fondly recalls... well... not liking it to begin with, actually! But he got into it and has used the story as inspiration for one of his own, also drawn by Rey Carlos.

Anyway, to the comic serial, and it's really rather good. A British Colonel and a German Inspector discover an underground tomb with a skeleton clutching a diary and some mysterious human-like figures drawn on the wall. The Inspector tells the story of Hans Schmitt, a soldier on the Russian Front in the Second World War whose unit encounter some mysterious fighters from Rumania (yes, that really is the spelling!). These fighters are deadly to their Russian enemy, but are never seen in the daylight and like to transport coffins around in their supply truck...

It's an excellent read. I generally like Finlay-Day's stories and with Rey Carlos' art, it's a real winner for me... It's not very 2000AD, no sci-fi elements, but there are some good tensions and a cracking adventure romp.

You can buy the collected story in a trade paperback which also collects later stories that were written. Partly why I wanted this supplement now is because the Meg is about to print a sequel (that's in Meg 245, folks, not the current one!) and I wanted to read the original story beforehand. Of course, I wanted to finally finish the Meg 201 review - so mission accomplished...

[Dark Jimbo]

Partly why I wanted this supplement now is because the Meg is about to print a sequel (that's in Meg 245, folks, not the current one!) and I wanted to read the original story beforehand.

As you'll discover, it's not really a sequel - more of a spiritual successor or something. Constanta is the baddie again,  and yet as you now know he [spoiler]died at the end of the original[/spoiler]; no attempt is made to explain this or reconcile the two series with one another, so it's unclear how they relate. To be honest I just wish Dave Bishop had used a different vampire and then the two series could easily exist in the same world.

[Spikes]

I've not re-read Fiends... in years. Time to dig out the old progs. Thanks for the write up - and reminder SB!

[M.I.K.]

Partly why I wanted this supplement now is because the Meg is about to print a sequel (that's in Meg 245, folks, not the current one!) and I wanted to read the original story beforehand.

As you'll discover, it's not really a sequel - more of a spiritual successor or something. Constanta is the baddie again,  and yet as you now know he [spoiler]died at the end of the original[/spoiler]; no attempt is made to explain this or reconcile the two series with one another, so it's unclear how they relate. To be honest I just wish Dave Bishop had used a different vampire and then the two series could easily exist in the same world.

Um... wasn't the bit when [spoiler]he died[/spoiler] set in the present, (around 1980ish) ?

[Simon Beigh]

Partly why I wanted this supplement now is because the Meg is about to print a sequel (that's in Meg 245, folks, not the current one!) and I wanted to read the original story beforehand.

As you'll discover, it's not really a sequel - more of a spiritual successor or something. Constanta is the baddie again,  and yet as you now know he [spoiler]died at the end of the original[/spoiler]; no attempt is made to explain this or reconcile the two series with one another, so it's unclear how they relate. To be honest I just wish Dave Bishop had used a different vampire and then the two series could easily exist in the same world.

Um... wasn't the bit when [spoiler]he died[/spoiler] set in the present, (around 1980ish) ?

Yeah - [spoiler]Constanta turned out to be the Colonel and the Inspector finished him off in the last episode of the original series. I guess there is a whole host of other adventures he could have in between times?[/spoiler]

[Dark Jimbo]

Yeah, I mistakenly thought that [spoiler]Constanta died at the end of Stalingrad[/spoiler] - turns out [spoiler]he 'escapes back to Germany'[/spoiler] so Stalingrad is plausible as a prequel. Still plenty else about the series that doesn't make much sense, though!

To be honest there's a few bits in the original series, too, much as I love it - poor Schmidt's final plan makes little sense. How the hell are those numbered silhouettes meant to help anyone identify the Fiends?!