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News: 17th March
06
Megazine changes
ahead...
As many of you
have no doubt seen there are changes afoot for the Megazine with issue 244. A
price drop to £2.99, and a content overhaul are promised. We got in touch
with the new "Lord of all he surveys", Matt Smith, to find out more...
How have
things changed for you now that you're in charge the bulk of the 2000AD range
(weekly, Megazine and Extreme edition)?
Well, I’m
busier! And my title is now Editor-in-Chief of the 2000 AD group. But my general
day-to-day work hasn’t changed enormously. I am commissioning features for
the Meg which I hadn’t done before for 2000 AD, and that’s proving
interesting, coming up with new angles. I’m hoping to make the Meg a bit
more fluid in its features from 244, less templated, and of a wider appeal to
the comic reader.
With the
change in cost/pages coming up in the next issue - what kind of content can we
expect from the new look monthly? What will the reduction in cost mean to subscribers?
It will be cheaper
for subscribers, of course, as it will for those that buy the Meg in the newsagent.
Getting 2000 AD and the Meg every month by subscription works out a pound cheaper
than it was previously. Anyone that’s got an annual sub to the Meg will
have the excess that they’ve paid credited onto the following year.
The content will
remain largely the same, with less text material (just one main feature from now
on) and from 245 less reprint. The reprint will be no more than six or seven pages
per issue. I’m having a small-press slot, in which indie creators are offered
a six-page platform to show off their wares and plug their titles/websites.
Black Siddha III:
Return of the Jester starts in 245 as does Fiends of the Eastern Front: Stalingrad
by David Bishop and Colin MacNeil.
How do
you approach the solicitation of stories for the Megazine as opposed to the weekly.
What was the first strip you solicited for the monthly?
Almost exactly
the same, though with longer deadlines. However, there was fair bit of material
already commissioned by Alan when I took over, so it will be a while before there’s
an issue containing material fully commissioned by myself. First strip that I
commissioned will be 245’s Dredd strip ‘Splashdown’ by Simon
Spurrier and Laurence Campbell.
The Megazine
seems to have become the home of Judge Anderson in the past few years. Will that
continue, and if so, what can we expect from her in upcoming issues?
Anderson will be
taking a break for a bit in the Meg. The next story is ‘Big Robots’
by Alan Grant and Dave Taylor, but it will be a while before that’s published.
Cass will next be seen in a supporting role in the 2000 AD Dredd story ‘Judgement’
by Gordon Rennie and Ian Gibson.
Are there
plans to collect any Megazine strips as part of the TPB schedule?
We’re putting
out ‘The Art of Kenny Who?: The Cam Kennedy Collection’, which as
the title suggests is a collection of some of Cam’s more recent Dredd stories,
including ‘Who? Dares Wins’, ‘The Bazooka’ and ‘Blackout’,
amongst many others. That’s just gone off to the printers, I think, so expect
that in a couple of months. I’d like to do similar one of Carlos’s
Dredd stories, containing ‘Phartz’ and ‘The Girlfriend’.
XTNCT is on the schedule as a hardback, and I think it would be a good idea to
collect up the Arthur Ranson Anderson stories - ‘Half-Life’, ‘WMD’,
etc – into a nice big hardback book.
What do
you think have been the highs and lows of the Megazine over the last 15 years,
and especially in recent times?
Lows: Probably
half the comic being filled with Necropolis – fantastic story, but too much
reprint. That, and Pandora.
Highs: America,
Giant, Al’s Baby, Swimming in Blood, Mechanismo, Wilderlands, Son of Mean
Machine, The Three Amigos, Bad Moon Rising...
Recently: Thrill-Power
Overload, Citizen Sump, Sturm und Dang, Cursed Earth Koburn...
Look out for
the new look Megazine, on sale from 5th April.
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