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Mega(zin) marathon

Started by Smith, 09 January, 2017, 06:04:55 PM

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Smith

210
Bendatti Vendetta is back.Because somebody asked for it?Xtnct starts.Dredd travels to Hong Tong to team up with Johnny Woo.Oh yeah,that guy. :|
The standout is probably Judge Death Wilderness Days,which is kinda Judge Death hanging out around Cursed Earth.
In reprints,we have Harry Twenty on the High Rock,which is pretty good,I guess.Its considered a classic,right?

Dandontdare

Quote from: Taryn Tailz on 15 February, 2017, 12:06:22 AM
Quote from: Rogue Judge on 13 February, 2017, 11:25:23 PM
Quote from: sheridan on 12 February, 2017, 03:25:03 AM
Quote from: Rogue Judge on 11 February, 2017, 06:51:57 PM
Ah, that makes sense. Now days it would likely be a digital download. I listened to the audio drama The Day the Law Died on YouTube recently and it was really well done.

Then days it was a digital download (as well as available in CD form).

Big Finish - some still available!

Thanks for the link, and a good price at that. Is it based off any of the Wagner/Grant stories, and have you given it a listen?

And, no, the Big Finish audios are all original stories.
Number 16 on that list (Pre-Emptive Revenge) is s direct sequel to Judgement Day featuring Dredd & Alpha together

Smith

214
Well,some things lasted a bit longer then they should.
Harry Twenty was pretty good.Charley's War is reprinted.Great war comic.
If there is a reason why I like the world of Judge Dredd its because everything goes.You want nazi mutants?You have nazi mutants. :) Also,the first appearance of Cursed Earth Koburn.Then there is one about Sex Olympics.To keep it short;it ends with a kids watching his parents perform on TV.That's not funny.Then the one about smart turkeys.Chicken Run by the way of John Wagner?
Judge Death kills some teenagers,then ends up in Vegas for a boxing match,then finds a nuclear silo.The whole things is just so random.
Just to mention that 2000AD Extreme started.Issue #1(the only one I have) reprinted Dead Reckoning and some other Judge Death material to tie into the upcoming game.
We get adds for WH40K Fire Warrior.Fire Warrior.Who needs Halo?Yeah,right.
Whatever Happened to Tweak is exactly what it sounds like.There will be a few more Whatever happened to X stories IIRC.
Blood of Satanus 2.Why not? :)
Anderson Psi-Division Half-Life starts.It was a good story,but it lasted way too long.At least that's how I remember it.It takes up the better part of Psi-Files 4.

AlexF

I've just recently re-read Blood of Satanus 2 in my own, very slow, Megazine re-read (you'll be overtaking me in about 2 weeks at the pace you're going - I started maybe 5 years ago...).

Anyway, it's freakin' hilarious.
Satanus hates us! Satanus Hates us!
SATANUS DEFINITELY HATES US!

When Pat Mills goes off on one he really goes for it, and there's delight all round. Coupled with nonsensical plot mystification. Can't wait to read Part 3 again - I remember that one really rubbing readers up the wrong way.

Smith

Was this the one where they try to summon Satanus from hell,or was that part 3? :-\
On the other hand Satanus Unchained was pretty good.But that's a different story.
And there was Armitage:Apostasy in the UK.We get an explanation for Grud/Jovis thing.Lets see if I got this right-After all the religions were forbidden(I guess that's only Brit-Cit,since we see representatives of different religions at least once in MC1),this was invented as a placeholder religion,to stop others from surfacing again.Only its an ironic church that preaches atheism.Does that make sense to anyone?
On the brighter side,Gordon Rennie has a Judge Dredd drinking game(Im sure somebody can produce the page scan).My favorite rule is:
-Drink whenever a female Psi-Judge other then Anderson shows up.  :)

Smith

215
MC1 has support groups for employed.Makes sense,actually.We see Maria's funeral.She wasn't even Italian.Weird.
And now Im probably inviting people to flame me,but I would probably have to mention it anyway.
This column is about gay characters in 2000ad.Or more like guessing who is gay.
Btw,Wouldn't Walter be Dreddsexual? :)
And I guess we all probably doubted that Johnny and Wulf are more then friends at one point or another.  :)
Well,with today's accent on diversity in the industry,its almost funny how 2000ad never gets mentioned.While its American cousins get tons of attention for doing the bare minimum.I guess Tharg truly was way ahead of his time.

Smith

#216 was a Giant themed issue.Giant meets Rico.And visits his grandad John Giant of Harlem Heroes.Young Giant is reprinted.
Judge Death story ends.Im not sure what that was about.
Is BofS 2 a parody?
-You steal a pen and I will treat you like Orlok.
-I get my fun polishing my gun.
What is with that?
Also,Merovings.Oh Grud,the Dan Brown craze.

Skullmo

Quote from: Dark Jimbo on 12 January, 2017, 05:13:08 PM
Quote from: Smith on 12 January, 2017, 04:35:36 PM
Armageddon:The Bad Man I assume this was an attempt to cash in on Terminator(and Wolverine)?There is really not a lot to it.

Supposedly it was planned to gradually become an origin of sorts for the Dreddworld, and sneakily get Grant and Ezquerra the rights to Dredd by the backdoor. Not that that makes it much more enjoyable to read!

What I heard was that the characters were designed by Ezquerra with no connection to Dredd and he started drawing it. then he asked Grant to write the story.
It's a joke. I was joking.

Frank

Quote from: Skullmo on 24 February, 2017, 03:15:36 PM
Quote from: Dark Jimbo on 12 January, 2017, 05:13:08 PM
Supposedly (Armageddon:The Bad Man) was planned to gradually become an origin of sorts for the Dreddworld ...

What I heard was that the characters were designed by Ezquerra with no connection to Dredd ...

From what I understand, both those accounts are true. Carlos created the character then someone had to plant the idea that he had something to do with the prehistory of MC1, so it could run in The Megazine.

I didn't know Carlos actually started drawing the strip before he brought a writer on board, though. That explains why it plays out in terms of physical action, with little dialogue, characterisation, or story.

Cheers, lads.



Skullmo

Quote from: Frank on 24 February, 2017, 05:02:58 PM
Quote from: Skullmo on 24 February, 2017, 03:15:36 PM
Quote from: Dark Jimbo on 12 January, 2017, 05:13:08 PM
Supposedly (Armageddon:The Bad Man) was planned to gradually become an origin of sorts for the Dreddworld ...

What I heard was that the characters were designed by Ezquerra with no connection to Dredd ...

From what I understand, both those accounts are true. Carlos created the character then someone had to plant the idea that he had something to do with the prehistory of MC1, so it could run in The Megazine.

I didn't know Carlos actually started drawing the strip before he brought a writer on board, though. That explains why it plays out in terms of physical action, with little dialogue, characterisation, or story.

Cheers, lads.

I think the story could have been really good had it not been shoehorned into Dreddy's world
It's a joke. I was joking.

Smith

#220
Damned Ranger was an okay Cowboys VS Indians story.Mean Machine almost gets married.Simping Detective starts.Black Sidha is back.Yey...
Judge Death nuked Las Vegas.What was the point of this story?Its not bad,its just completely random,like I said before.And speaking of random,BofS2 is also over.
-Back!Into the outer darkness where you belong!
That doesn't really sound like Judge Dredd we know.
We also have Helltrekkers reprints.I guess I could kinda see it working out as a game.A hybrid of Convoy and Oregon Trail.The story itself is really just a bunch of people dying in various way.There is very little reason to care for any of them.
I guess I should have mentioned Dredd vs Death before,so let me sidetrack there.Its a perfectly average game.And lets remember 2003 brought us GTA: Vice City,Max Payne 2,Battlefield 1942,DF Black Hawk Down,Vietcong,Medal of Honor,and ofc Halo:Combat Evolved.
So there was a real competition in the action/shooters department.
By the time of 2005 NA release we had: GTA San Andreas,Battlefield 2,Half-Life 2(hard to believe its been that long?),Call of Duty 2,F.E.A.R,DOOM 3...and probably a lot more that I cant remember right now.
So,an average game,that came out a bit too late.

Smith

Oh and Young Middenface encounters a cursed village of cannibals.Sawney Bean included.Yeah,that was weird.

Frank

Quote from: Smith on 25 February, 2017, 12:55:08 PM
#220 ... Helltrekkers ... is really just a bunch of people dying in various way. There is very little reason to care for any of them.

Congratulations, Smith. You've chosen an unremarkable user name, but have achieved the remarkable feat of seeing through your reread. Most folk abandon it after a month.

The following should be considered general remarks, rather than criticism aimed at yourself. I don't buy the received wisdom that it's necessary to care about characters to enjoy a story. There are whole movies that are empathy machines, like Amour or Lion, whose only function is to make you care about and identify with the characters.

If caring about characters was what folk wanted, those films would be doing Deadpool numbers*. When people talk about caring for characters, they mean they want a superficial patina of characterisation - the bare minimum necessary to justify what they're about to watch or read. They killed John Wick's dog, now I can enjoy the next hour of humourless psychopathy.

It isn't necessary to care about The Rudds to enjoy their progress across the Cursed Earth because everybody can identify with FUCK ME, THAT FUCKING DINOSAUR JUST ATE A GUY!!! Hellttrekkers is dressed up as How The West Was Won, but it's really got more in common with Halloween or The Terminator, where the fun comes victims being picked off one by one.


* Deadpool's a good example. He's a snide, unpleasant psychopath, but he gets tortured and he worries his super hot model fuck buddy won't want him now he's no longer super hot also. But really - nobody cares about Deadpool. Biggest cost to profit ratio of any superhero movie in recent times.

Smith

Unremarkable username?Hey,people in glass houses sink ships. :)
But thanks for the support.
Okay,care might be a strong word.How do I say this,there is no reason to be invested in the story.Not a whole lot to keep me interested in what happens next.Its just a list of people who die in horrible ways.This guy got melted,that guy got eaten by a dinosaur(as cool as that always is),those people died in a mutie attack.Eh,screw it,we are here,Im turning my wagon into a restaurant.
Not saying that the story didn't have potential.

AlexF

Hoesntly, I think Helltrekkers suffered from the art as much as anything. Lalia, who did everything after episode 1, was great at the character stuff - i.e. the boring bits - but didn't have the impact on the supercool extreme murder stuff. If they'd had Roman Sola or Brett Ewins or someone of that ilk it'd have been a much more spectacular series I reckon.

If they updated it with Ewing/Flint at the helm it'd be a riot of fun, with barely a tweak at the script.