The Alternative View: Devlin Waugh Red Tide

I don't think I was able to do such a long and epic story like Devlin Waugh: Red Tide justice in my Meg Reviews simply because I didn't like it that much. So I have asked Greg Meldrum, fellow 2000 AD Forum member and comic blogger, to walk you through his view. Hopefully it will help you determine whether this story is worthy of your attention.

"Something To Tide You Over" by Greg Meldrum

Your host, the lovely Mr. B, wasn’t too taken with ‘Devlin Waugh: Red Tide.’ It seems the camp vamp’s stock-in-trade combo of bon mots and Kem-Kwong killing techniques just didn’t tick the requisite boxes. As someone who views the series more fondly, I’ve been asked to provide my thoughts as a counterpoint to his.

Original Devlin Waugh: Red Tide art
from the collection of Robert Cox

I’ll be blunt. ‘Red Tide’ isn’t the best Waugh story, nor the best John Smith script out there. Not even close. Its flaws are fairly apparent. It drags a bit, it gets a little repetitive, and it lacks the out-there poetry that the best of Smith’s work conveys. It is, in short, a fairly straight-forward action story with some weird trimmings, rather than a warped-to-its-core weird story with some action trimmings, such as ‘Rogue Trooper: Cinnibar’ (in many respects, the anti-‘Red Tide’.) It’s arguable that this was true of ‘Swimming in Blood’ as well, but that story had the advantage of real freshness. The juxtaposition of Waugh’s hilarious self-pitying dialogue with the creeping horror of the fast-spreading vampire plague was a winning and unique combination – it was almost as if Waugh had gate-crashed the story and seemed to be operating by an entirely separate set of rules. Here though, we’re rather more used to his now-familiar schtick, and the formula of ‘hack up the undead, use an inappropriate epithet in the process’ doesn’t have quite the same punch. However, the thing that’s most clearly missing is John Smith’s utterly unique narrative voice – the fey, febrile, frequently sinister caption boxes that help make  ‘Revere’, ‘Firekind’  and indeed ‘Swimming in Blood’ such visionary pieces. Was this Smith’s idea or editorial’s? I do wonder if it’s the latter – there seemed at times to be a concerted effort to make Smith’s writing more ‘disciplined’ (David Bishop’s word) or to make it adhere a little more closely to conventional story-telling methods. A mistake, in my view.

But that said, Smith on a fair-to-middling day is still better than most writers on a good one, and as such, I really enjoyed my re-read of ‘Red Tide’ – much more, in fact, than I thought I was going to. The flashes of Smithian genius may be less widespread, less all-encompassing and disorientating, but they are present nonetheless. By far and away the strongest elements of the story are Smith’s fascinating ideas on how vampires might adapt to an aquatic lifestyle. This aspect of the story is original and brilliant, and all the talk of bioluminescent photophores, poison quills and toxic algae-grazing sounds both outré and yet scientifically sound. We are even given tantalising glimpses of particularly well-adapted specimens: the mudskipper mutants and the deep-sea berserkers, the latter exploding if they rise to the surface too quickly. This is what I want – monstrous ecology! Frankly, I can’t think of anything more exciting to fill the pages of any comic strip. More of this and less of Lilith the Daywalker (a bit too much the writer’s pet) would have made the strip into a classic of the first water.

From the collection of Wakefield Carter

Another element that works well, and helps to build tension, is the way in which Smith exploits the change in Devlin’s status since ‘Swimming in Blood’. For most of that story, Waugh was a mortal – now that he’s undead, many methods for dealing with vampires cause him just as much harm as his foes.  Furthermore, much of the dialogue remains quintessentially Smith – not so much Devlin’s witticisms, more the language Smith uses to describe and name not only technology, but also psychic talents and aspects of vampiric heritage. Smith has always excelled at crafting evocative turns of phrase that suggest a wider world than he is able to cram into any given strip, and he does that once more here. Bloodsires and coilguns and psi-spoor – oh, my! He has a way with words, our Smiffy, hinting as he does, with Lovecraftian skill, at eerie immortal vistas of eternal blood-lust.

And speaking of blood – where would this series be without Colin MacNeil? The venerable artist claimed to be consciously channelling Tom of Finland when depicting Devlin’s muscle-bound exploits, and he turns in a ripping performance to be sure, his lurid colours adding significantly to the ambience – just a shame the whole thing got printed a bit too dark when they collected it for the trade. MacNeil’s always a good go-to man when it comes to a bit of graphic blood-letting (he seems like such a lovely chap, too!) and the script certainly gives him plenty of opportunities to indulge.

Overall, then, ‘Red Tide’ is a solid rather than spectacular outing for Devlin, but I do find myself appreciating it much more now than I did at the time – as has been rightly observed, it really should have run weekly rather than monthly. Nonetheless, it is quite important in Waugh continuity, as much for what happens on the last page as anything else, and, though the latter half of the story loses momentum somewhat, Smith and MacNeil ensure it never runs aground. Fangs for that, chaps. And fangs to Simeon too for giving me the impetus to delve back into the story’s entrails – there’s more in here than I thought!

Cheers fella! You can read more from Greg over on his blog: http://hisowndrum.blogspot.co.uk/

Got any thoughts on this? Drop a comment in or Tweet me...

Meg 213 - Coming Quietly, Creeps?

(Meg 213 on BARNEY)

What a strange issue this is. I mean, look at the cover! I'm keeping this one in an envelope as I don't feel I can leave it lying round the house for my 9 year old to stumble upon. The Dredd the cover refers to is even stranger, and I'll come on to that shortly...

First off, let's wrap up Devlin Waugh: Red Tide - fizzle, fizzle, pop... It kind of stumbled to a conclusion and then concluded. I thought the last couple of pages or so of wrapping up the story were alright, but the pay off wasn't worth the journey. As promised in my last entry a fellow 2000 AD Forum member and comic blogger, Greg Meldrum, will be providing us with a counter-point article on Red Tide. So stay tuned for that after this posting...

The observant among you will be thinking I'm really cracking through these Megs at the moment. And that is probably due to the reprints, Charley's War and Harry 20. Starting with the latter, I found the story absolutely gripping. The tensions Gerry Finlay-Day is building with Harry's escape attempt, and the twists and turns he is throwing in along the way is keeping me utterly hooked. Will he finally free himself of The Rock prison and the evil Warden Worldwise and his cronies? And then it was over... Ah well, I wonder if there was ever a follow up written? And in Charley's War, it is the Battle of the Somme and Charley's platoon are going over the top. It's fascinating to read the account of this war from the perspective of a Tommy in the trenches.

In addition to these stories, we got a Daily Star Dredd (Hurrah!) and a Harry 20 colour poster! I haven't detached it to put on my bedroom wall - my wife would kill me :-)

Right, let's talk Dredd and the new story Crime of Passion penned by John Wagner and drawn by Cliff Robinson. It's a strange story, and I'm not sure I liked it that much. Tension is mounting at the World Sex Championships as the greatest teams from around the world compete for the ultimate prize. But the Judges learn of a plot to derail the whole championships - will they get there in time... Actually, my summary makes it sound more interesting than it actually is. It's a bit silly really. Lots of "Ooo Matron" moments a-la Kenneth Williams, which might be funny if you are 12, but I found it all rather dull. Yes there are tits and bits, and it's all "very" controversial (something Alan Barnes' editorial delights in playing to) but the story wasn't there for me. It wasn't controversial, it was dull. Sorry John Wagner, you are better than this...

XTNCT lost me again this week a little. Paul Cornell just loves rolling the "dice of different story lines", seeing what crops up and whacking that in to the world just to get in the way of our heroes (or villans, you could read it either way, depending on your view of the human race). This time is nuclear apocalypse that crimps the genetically modified creatures' day... As I have said before, XTNCT takes risks, and I have no problems with that. I'm prepared to give it a lot of slack.

I was sorry to see that Armitage was only a two-parter. It felt the storyline had more to give. I'm thinking I'm repeating myself a lot here. There have been too many stories in these Megs that have only lasted two or three episodes which needed a longer run, particularly when others have gone on for bloody ages (yes, Devlin Waugh, looking right at you). I was looking forward to a detective story with a lot of detective work, but what I got was a quickly contrived plot vehicle where it all fell into place in about 5 panels. Quite grumpy about that.

The Las Vegas exploits of Judge Death started to wane on me this week. I hope this one isn't going to outstay it's welcome. It needs wrapping up, I think, otherwise it will be a slow and lingering death (which I'm sure Jay D himself would enjoy). Still holding my interest, but I'm just wondering if we aren't slightly on "repeat" with the storylines. Judge Death turns up, trusts some humans or muties to help his mission of destroying all life, they betray him, he gets mad and kills a few people, he moves on - and repeat.... The most entertaining thing about this story is still Judge Death's internal monologue. Perhaps a "Secret Diary of Judge Death Aged Several Millennia" might be a good follow up (with apologies to Sue Townsend)!

Lacking a text article this issue, probably because Devlin Waugh was a double episode, but Gordon Rennie was still on hand in You're Next Creep to dispense his usual quality ranting. This time it was how to play a drinking game with 2000 AD based on popular Dredd plotlines. Very good, Gordon! Apocalype Soon rounded off the Meg with God getting utterly fed up with the Horseman and finding some replacements!

And finally... a few letters in Dreddlines supporting my view of Charley's War and of the excellent Sturm and Dang Dredd. Nice to know you're right some of the time :-)

Meg 212 - Heads Up!

(Entry on BARNEY)

Two blog entries in one day can only mean one thing - two Megs read! It's a tough old job this Meg Odyssey! To the cover, and what a cover. Mr Simon Davis take a bow, sir, because that is a wonderful painting of craggy old Brit-Cit cop Armitage, and a rather horrible looking head in a jar. More on that later...

I heaped praise on Charlie's War last time - suffice to say it is still hitting the mark and I know it will continue to do so for a while yet. Mills' writing and Joe Colquhoun's art together are perfection... Harry 20 also kept the pace high this month. After months of planning, Harry and his chums are hoping to make it to Earth in their escape capsule - but will the other prisoners or the warders let them - and what is the awful secret they carry with them... Gripping stuff...

Judge Dredd: Sturm und Dang reached it's conclusion. I shall miss it, as it was another cracking story and, again, I can't help but wonder if it was too short. I say that a lot about Gordon Rennie's Dredds, but I just enjoy them so much! There is a lot of action in his writing, and Ezquerra's art was spot on. I enjoyed the character of disgraced Judge Koburn, and am hopeful we may get a back story or another Cursed Adventure with him in it in the future. He keeps his cap pulled down over his eyes, so like Dredd, you never see his face. Is that significant, I wonder...

After initial reservations, I am very much into the Judge Death story The Wilderness Days. Jay D ends up in Las Vegas, and if you are familiar with the Cursed Earth saga (if not, get thee to your nearest Thrill Merchant and purchase Complete Case Files 02), he meets up with some familiar characters. Having now figured out this is being played for humour, I am enjoying it immensely. I do hope it carries on for a goodly while yet...

XTNCT continues with the genetically modified crew working their way to Seattle this time. They find a bunch of humans who are relying on their baser instincts, rather than their intelligence, making them a harder quarry. Some episodes definitely work better than others, and whilst good, this one was not as good as previous ones. Perhaps the lack of Raptor appearing much in it was a factor for me...

A new thrill this issue was Armitage: Apostasy In The UK. Armitage is a Brit-Cit cop, a detective rather than a Judge. His job is to work crimes like the CID do in the UK police force today, and he can call upon Judges for backup. He is grumpy, over-worked and under-paid and is feeling his age. His sidekick, Steel, is young and keen - which seems to make him even grumpier. I like this character, and the story line looks like a classic detective story that I like anyway (I'm a big Sherlock Holmes fan, and there are certainly elements to that side of British crime writing in this story style). I guess Armitage reminds me a little of Morse, but grumpier! Dave Stone is the script droid for this story, and the marvellous John Ridgeway handles the art. Looking forward to seeing how this one plays out.

Blazing Battle Action concluded with a look at the decline of the comic title - as it agreed a licence with the Action Force toy line. A lot of creators moaning about the loss of quality and the declining standards. Funnily enough, this is where I jumped on, sucked in by having Action Force figures. I enjoyed the stories as a kid, and of course, had no clue that the art of John Cooper I admired so much was absolutely hated by the artist himself. He was very upset to be taken off Johnny Red and put on the kids toys section.

The other text articles saw D'Israeli in the Interrogation Cube where he reveals he is learning German and his girlfriend reads out loud to him if he is working late. And, joy, grumpy grots himself Gordon Rennie is back for his You're Next, Creep column. In my last post, I was moaning about the amount of adverts for Dredd vs Death. In his column, Gordon moans about books of comics, games of books of comics, and so on. Good to have you back, sir!

Apocalypse Soon dipped a little for me this week. Hopefully it is setting up for something next time.

And finally...Devlin Waugh fans will be relieved to hear I thought this week's episode was OK. We might be starting to get somewhere at long last. I have also asked one of my fellow 2000 AD Forum Members to write a review of the story once I have finished reading the whole thing. That way, you will get a counter-point from someone that did enjoy the story, and hopefully give you some insights that I simply am unable to pull out for you. Something to look forward to...

Meg 211 - Portrait of a Ssserial Killer

(Meg Entry on BARNEY)

This Meg came with a choice of two Judge Death covers. The copy I have is a subscribers copy (which BARNEY says is one of only 3750 copies!), so it actually came wrapped in both covers - a nice idea. The outer cover has to be my favourite - a wonderful parody of the Batman Killing Joke cover by Brian Bolland with the Joker replaced by Judge Death. One arch nemesis replaced by another. Brilliant stuff from Frazer Irving, and a firm favourite.

So the amazing Charlie's War began to be reprinted this month. Whatever the feelings are about Darkie's Mob being racist and stuck in the past (and people are still writing to Dreddlines to complain) these must be out aside for Charlie's War. I know the Meg is a Sci Fi anthology, based around the world of Judge Dredd. Put that to one side for a second, and appreciate one of the finest stories to grace comics. Full stop. Reading it now has quite a powerful effect. I don't mind saying I had tears in my eyes and a big old lump in my throat. As a kid, I remember it well - especially the mud and filth and the bulging face of 'Old Bill' the sergeant barking orders at the men. In my adult days I now know a lot more about this period of history and knowing what Charlie is about to face is quite an emotional thing. He joins the Western Front six weeks before the Battle of the Somme...

The text story, Blazing Battle Action, told by David Bishop is still holding my interest. Again, this may be because I read the Battle comic as a kid. A reader of the Meg who did not may skip this and wonder why a quarter of their magazine is taken up with a load of guff from a 70's war comic...

Back to the Sci Fi. Oh, hang on, The Bendatti Vendetta, isn't Sci Fi! I'm enjoying it though. The newest recruit is put through his paces, but its difficult to see who is testing who. Again, Robbie's story gives you a pay off at the end of the episode. He really is a top writer! But as quickly as it started, it has finished. Gah! More please!

Right, now let's get back to the Sci Fi! Harry 20 is still marvellous. Harry and his buddies are deep into their escape preparations, but others are becoming suspicious... There is some real dramatic tension in this story that may not have been appreciated by children, but it's gripping stuff for adults.  Really enjoying this one.

Then there is the Dredd story Sturm Und Dang. Firstly, it's another Gordon Rennie story. Hurrah! Secondly, is drawn by 'Rey' Carlos Ezquerra. Twice hurrah! Thirdly it's a Cursed Earth saga! I'll stop with the 'Hurrahs', but I think you get my point. All the right ingredients for a cracking story and it really is. Dredd is forced to enlist the help of a disgraced ex-Judge Koburn when his Hotdog Run group are asked to take out a gang of Muties. Muties with Nazi tendencies.

Really now enjoying Judge Death: The Wilderness Days . This episode was particularly good in being a parody of Natural Born Killers - with Jay Death along for the ride. Now I have got used to the style and story-telling, it's become a firm favourite.

XTNCT is also going well. I have to confess to not fully following the story this episode, but the character of Raptor totally makes up for that. If I meet D'Israeli at a comic con and can get a sketch off him, Raptor would be my choice. He's a brilliant little character who 'speaks' using no vowels (so XTNCT = 'Extinct'). It's a bit like playing the missing vowels round in Only Connect reading his dialogue... Some may find it frustrating at first, but please persevere!

The Four Horsemen have finally found their Horses and are on a full charge in Apocalypse Soon. Tony Blair and George W. Bush make an appearance - very topical! In The Interrogation Cube was Frazer Irving, who was quite grumpy about the whole thing - but never as grumpy as Mr Grumpy Gordon Rennie! Speaking of which, he finally seems to have run out of steam as his regular column You're Next Punk has disappeared. I hate it when that happens. It's like when the Daily Star Dredd's vanished. No warning - just gone.. Also, a lot of adverts in this month's Meg - seemingly all for the same thing: Dredd vs Death the novel; Dredd vs Death the computer game; then the computer game again... Filler!!!

And finally...Devlin Waugh. Meh.... (BTW, if you are a big Devlin Waugh fan, leave a comment - tell the world why it's so great! Balance my lethargy over the strip. Explain to me why it isn't the same every week of crap one-liners and random chasing of people by vampires!)

Meg 210 - Let's Go To Wok

(Meg 210 on BARNEY)

Seeing as Reservoir Dogs had a profound effect on me as a young man I was always going to like this cover. Mr Woo and and Mr Dredd with the other Sino-Cit agents. Loved it. No silly borders as well, full page art, which was good to see.

I promised more on the reprint stories in my last review, so lets start with an ending - the end of Darkies Mob. Dreddlines letters have showed it divided opinion, but as I said previously, I have enjoyed it. The last few episodes were really very good. The end is in sight for the Mob, but will they go out in a bang or a whimper? Wagner's writing is of the highest order and I genuinely felt a bit emotional at the ending. Whether you think it should have been re-run or not, writing like that needed a reprint. I don't think I can recall the last comic I read where a little lump popped into my throat at the end... And next month, the amazing Charlie's War starts. This strip, along with Johnny Red, totally caught my imagination as a 9/10 year old. Can't wait!

Harry 20 got off to a good start last Meg and carried on this issue. Set in the future, Harry is convicted of a crime he didn't commit and sent to The High Rock - a satellite prison orbiting the Earth that houses 10,000 criminals. There, your last name is lost - replaced with the length of your sentence (hence Harry 20). I know it sounds like a poor mans Escape From Alcatraz or The Great Escape but the twist is the cold, dark space between Harry and freedom. Swimming and tunnelling are not an option! Gerry Finlay-Day keeps the tempo high and the art by Alan Davis is very good. A bonkers Future Shock by a writer and artist I'm not familiar with round off the reprints. A Meg feels better with a Future Shock...

The text article, Blazing Battle Action, is part 2 of the story of the Battle comic. David Bishop continues in the same vein of Thrill Power Overload, turning his attention to the popular boys comic from the 70's and 80's. I hadn't realised how many of the 2000 AD regulars like Mills, Wagner and Ezquerra had been involved. If you read Battle and enjoyed Thrill Power Overload, this is a great little history lesson. If you didn't and - er - didn't, as it were, you might well skip this.

Gordon Rennie continued his top Dredd run with the conclusion to Hong Tong. And it's an all action episode. There are gun fights, martial arts and cars exploding. What's not to like! This isn't Dredd exploring his inner demons, it's Dredd kicking ass! It is a top episode and I can't recommend it highly enough. XTNCT continued to please. The genetic army find their first colony of humans since the Bourdeaux incident. What will they decide to do with them? I got more into the Judge Death story The Wilderness Days. One of the Dreddlines letters praised the story for revealing Death's inner thoughts in his mission to destroy all life. Clinging to that nugget of insight I enjoyed this episode a whole lot more. Thank you Floyd Kermode of Japan! Another of Floyd's insights summed up Devlin Waugh for me. It's like synchronised swimming. It's difficult, I couldn't do it, they work very hard but its quite boring and I don't care if I never see it again. Except Floyd was talking about The Bendatti Vendetta. Remember, I'm giving this a chance because its a Robbie Morrison story and this week started to move with a pace when we got the back story of the founder of the group of vigilantes. I enjoyed it. It's not Sci Fi or horror, but I don't really care. Others might.

Patrick Goddard's insights in The Interrogation Cube were interesting. Even he has no real love for Wardog. And Gordon Rennie's rant was how he just chucks loads if stuff away, not caring how valuable it might be. I think my wife wishes I was a bit better at chucking stuff out!

And finally... Apocalypse Soon. Still making me smile!

Meg 209 - Road Kill

(Meg 209 on BARNEY)

Slightly different design for this Meg cover, with the white border and different title font. I don't think I like the border much, but it could be just the way Greg Staples painted the Judge Death picture necessitated it. And what a painting it is! I love Greg's covers. Prog 1750 being my most favourite cover ever to grace a Prog.

Dreddlines published a very anti Darkie's Mob letter and a very pro one. Again, Alan Barnes made clear his view is to not focus on the jingoistic, anti-Japanese elements and, instead, focus on it being just a cracking war story that could have been set in any time or any place. It just so happened in the 70's that boys wanted to read World War II stories. As I said in my previous review, I think it is worthy of inclusion in a reprint section. Whether 2000 AD should be reprinting stories from the Battle comic, however, is a different kettle of fish. It doesn't bother me, I like them, but I'm sure it will annoy others who would much prefer reprints of 2000 AD material, if reprints are to be included at all.

Back to the Darkie's Mob story and in this set of episodes the mob face their biggest challenge yet when Darkie himself is captured. Can they save their leader?

Let's look at the FOUR new stories (yes, four!) in this issue. XTNCT is a quirky tale about the last few humans in the very far future. And being human, they have created armies to fight their wars for them. These armies are genetically modified dinosaurs, animals and plants. I wasn't sure about it to begin with, but I'm glad I pushed that thought to one side, because it looks like a good start. Scripted by Paul Cornell, whose name I don't recognise, and drawn by D'Israeli, who I do recognise, it is rendered in grey-scale which adds to the bleakness of this future world. The first text box we see really sets the scene:

"This place was once called Bordeaux. Then New Oslo. Then Edenurrathe. Then Blue. The three other names."

i.e. we are so far into the future - you need to leave any frame of reference you have behind! So GM dinosaurs and walking, talking tress don't seem that weird!

Then we have The Bendatti Vendetta which is totally opposite; set much nearer our own time and full colour painting, rather than greys and blacks. Again, I didn't hold out much hope (perhaps I was just a bit grumpy when I read this Meg!), but saw it was by Robbie Morrison and pushed all thoughts of misery out of my head. Robbie is absolutely, totally one of my favourite comic book writers. Please, please check our Shakara or his most recent work, Drowntown, and you will not be disappointed...  I think I was feeling negative about this because it reminded me too much of Black Light, which was reprinted in a recent Meg, and I didn't like. Anyway, back to this story. It is about a shadowy organisation who take on criminals the police are unable to touch. It's John Burns on art duties, and whilst I haven't liked some of his other stuff, I liked this artwork and script together. It did start a little slowly, and I thought I would be into the realms of Family - i.e. completely lost on what was going on - but I wasn't and at the end of the episode I wanted more...

Death On The Road is a Judge Death spin off, where Death is wandering the Cursed Earth. It was OK, I guess, it did teeter a bit on being silly. Maybe it was "played for laughs", but it didn't quite hit the mark. However, I am reserving judgement until next episode - unlike Judge Death himself who would have just extinguished the strip from existence :-) Loved Frazer Irving's black and white penned artwork, and it's a John Wagner script, so lots to like about this...

The new Dredd, Hong Tong, is a Gordon Rennie script - so I was immediately looking forward to it after reading Bato Loco in Meg 202. It didn't disappoint. Dredd has to leave MC1 behind to pursue a gang who are hiding known lawbreakers by giving them an entirely new body. He meets up with an old adversary from Sino-Cit (from Prog 1233 apparently) who is now on the side of the law...or is he? Looking forward to the next one.

Devlin Waugh - well - I'm running out of things to say. I think I ran out a couple of reviews ago. We are lumbering towards a conclusion. I do wonder if it might best be read in one sitting, rather than as a serial. Perhaps I'm losing the tension in between other strips. Or perhaps it's not really my thing. I dunno. I don't skip it, I'm quite interested to see how it ends. But I won't be crying when it does end. MacNeil's art is probably the thing holding my attention the most. By Grud, the man can paint...

Back to the reprint section, and we have lost the Daily Star Dredd Reprints! Nooooo! This is a terrible decision, Mr Barnes. Why? They were only half a page - surely room could be found for a half page reprint? Tut. Anyway, Harry Twenty On The High Rock (which I'll just shorten to Harry 20) began. I've wittered on a lot in this review, so I'll just say it's very good and I'll cover it more next time. I'll also cover the text article Blazing Battle Action by David Bishop more next time, where David is tracing the roots of the awesome Battle comic... Gordon Rennie is still finding things to rant about - this month it's co-writing. Quite informative actually...

And finally...can't leave out Apocalypse Soon. Still love it...

Meg 208 - Stealing, Scheming, Scamming, Cheating...

(Meg 208 On BARNEY)

Whilst southern England bakes in 32ºC heat, I'm still working my way through these Megs of mine. I was pleased to see the return of Bato Loco and liked the humour of the cover a lot! Possibly my favourite Meg cover so far?

So let's start with the Puerto Novan wiseguy. On the plus side, I liked the Gordon Rennie story and I still like the character a lot. I'm pretty sure in a future Meg, he gets a reprint all to himself, so hopefully there are a few more stories to come. I found the art not to my taste, though. It looked like it should have been coloured, and it was distracting is trying to sort out which line belonged to which bit of the frame. it hasn't put me off Simon Coleby as an artist, but I hope this black and white experiment is shelved and coloured Bato Loco is the order of the day from now on...

The only disappointment with the Dredd story Shakedown is that it finished. As I said in previous reviews, you just start to get into a story arc - and it finishes - Young Middenface being an example of that...

Another story that finished was Black Siddha. I won't give anything away, but this arc did rather feel like a prequel to setting up what will happen next. It was very good, and I hope to see it back soon.

Apocalypse Soon continues to delight and make yours truly smirk a lot (you've got to check out the horses - they really are having a good time in this episode!). Devlin Waugh is still going (I can't really add much more than that) and we have a replacement for Family which is a pilot episode of Repo-Mex. In his introduction to the Meg, Alan Barnes asks "if you want to know what happens next, be sure to tell us...". Sure, Alan, no problems. No thanks. I mean, it was an OK story, but it's not top of my list to be brought back to the Meg. Bring back Young Middenface, Alan! (Except even if Alan Barnes is reading this, I'm kind-of 10 years too late!). So what's Repo-Mex about? Well there's a hotel in deep space where the scum of the earth seem to wash up, staffed by droids. And one droid in particular is going to have his life changed. What I didn't like is the droids seem to have feelings. That's weird and not normal Sci-Fi convention. I mean, I get people really can't fly and all that, but this just seemed to push believability too far. Why would a droid have feelings? Who would have created them like that? Anyway, sexually active droids I can do without, thanks, so sorry - Alan - not for me this one...

In the Gold repro section we had three fairly obscure Dredds and Darkie's Mob. On the Dredds, there was some lovely Ezquerra art to feast upon and Steve Dillon's first Dredd. Bear in mind these Megs pre-date the Complete Case Files reprints, so it was probably the first time some, or all three, of these had been dug out of the archives. The stories were The Other Slab Tynan, The Greatest Story Ever Told and The Big Itch. Well worth a look - I have a soft spot for early Dredd. If you want to read them they all appear in the Restricted Files Vol.1.

Darkie's Mob carried on in the same vein of boys 70's war action. Dreddlines received some complaints, even with the dialogue changes, saying that the Meg should be leaving this sort of strip in the past where it belongs. That the Jap-bashing content wasn't really the sort of thing we should be reading nowadays. Maybe that's true, but I like the strip because:

1. It is of it's time and it is the sort of thing I remember fondly from my childhood. Coming to it cold is perhaps a different experience,
2. The Gold article in this issue on the origin of ABC Warriors cited Darkie's Mob as an influence in it's development.
3. It's early John Wagner - the man is a comic-writing god - and it's fisty-cuffs with anyone who disagrees ;-)

So I come out in favour of the reprint happening, but I totally get why others don't like it.

The text article this month was a feature on the Audio stories that were licensed from Rebeliion back in 2001. Written by Scott Montgomery it details how Big Finish Productions were looking for a new idea to create audio stories with and settled on 2000 AD characters. I enjoyed the first part of the article, including info that the stories featured voices from Simon Pegg, Louise Jameson, Mark Gatiss and Clare Buckfield amongst others. But is then descended into a blow-by-blow account summarising each story that was available. More advertising than information, and I left it there. You can still buy the stories today over on the 2000 AD Big Finish website.

And finally...The Daily Star Dredd was another good-un - with quality Ron Smith art to boot. I wish the Meg still reprinted these today - it really wouldn't take up much room and they are a delight!

Right - off to see if my entire body will fit in a freezer (don't try that at home, kids...)