Meg 201 - 14 January 2003
Cover by Cliff Robinson and Chris Blythe

Synopsis and 1st review by Gavin Hanly
2nd opinion by W.R. Logan

GH: Cliff Robinson does his best Bolland impersonation to great effect. And Chris Blythe makes a particularly good effort on the colouring here, with the work on Dredd's daystick being particularly effective.

WRL: Can you ever go wrong with a Cliff Robinson cover? Cliff does Dredd in the classic mould and its always a joy to see his work gracing the cover or inside pages of any of Dredd related comic. The joke may be a bit lame but I liked this cover, although not for the cover of the end of year Meg. Where's the snow, Christmas reference or the glimpse of some Mutie Santa? Great cover but an opportunity missed. As with 2000AD, the end of year issues should have some reference to Christmas even if its only a sprinkling of snow.

Phartz!
Synopsis: On the shuttle from Andromeda, the retuning MC1 aeroball squad have been possessed by a noxious gas. One leaves its host to possess Judge Lubes, who kills the ex-host squad member returning to his senses, before riding off. Dredd comes upon the scene, and is told that the gas smelled like a fart - "A big, fat eggy one." - and that the judge was taken over. The possessed people still have the eggy stench about them...

Lubes is found by another Judge, who he then kills - but Dredd's not far behind. He follows him into a crowd, eventually capturing him - but the gas has escaped. The crowd starts reacting to a bad smelling woman, and Dredd gives chase. The gas leaves the woman and tries to escape through a vent - but Dredd's suction trap - normally used against the Dark Judges - captures it.

Back in the Grand Hall of Justice, they discover the gas is a parasitic lifeform, and send in a scientist to be possessed. The possessed man tells them the gas is Phart, a gas of the noble order of Phartezoa, and they're looking for their queen. Dredd decides to round up the others.

The news escapes to the press, who tell the public that anyone smelling rotten could be a Phart, causing the obvious fear and suspicion throughout MC1. But the public comes through, and the squad are gradually rounded up. However, 5 of them are converging on Liberty Plaza. Dredd gets them all as they head for a woman with a mop. But it appears she's not all she seems - "what better cover than a public facility attendant". A huge Phart breaks loose from the woman, covers the square and explodes into thousands of "baby phartz".

But one phart catches light on the liberty torch and, realising the phartz are flammable, the judges torch the lot of them. One of the phartz possesses a Judge - but it's juvenile behaviour makes it easy to spot. A news reporter says 39 citizens are dead from gas poisoning - and signs off for the night. As he gets up, he lets rip "Boy, have I been holding that one in" - and is pounced on by his phart fearing colleagues..

GH: 20 pages of new Dredd by Ezquerra and Wagner!! What more could you want? This is a truly excellent strip, and by far the best one-off Dredd strip in a while. It brings back memories of the longer strips that were always held back for the annuals, and is classic in every way. I think it's safe to say that it would be nigh on impossible to pull off a story like this with any other character. The way everyone approaches the subject with deadly seriousness and straight faces adds immeasurably to the humour - and the utter ridiculousness of the plot seems very at home in Mega City 1. I've been feeling a little let down by Wagner's one-offs in 2000AD recently - but this is a major return to form, with the two people born to do this character producing a fantastic tale.

Which brings me onto Ezquerra. The definitive Dredd artist, without doubt. His assured depiction of the characters and the city work wonders here. His restraint is also admirable. It would be easy to draw this as a caper - but the effective "straight" telling works wonders. And Ezquerra, as one of the very early users of computer colouring - in Wilderlands - has become one of the leaders in the field. Lynne Varley, after the disastrous colouring in DK2, could learn a thing or two here.

A masterpiece. Worth the price of entry alone.

WRL: Wagner, Ezquerra, Frame, this opening story of the renumbered Meg is what is
supposed to grab you and make you want to buy the Megazine till the day you die, 20 pages by arguably the three greatest contributors to Dredd ever. All three deliver, and as a package it reads well and looks good, but 20 pages stretches the joke just that pun to far.

Synopsis: The Kleggs attack The Index Planetary Archive - central processing hub of the Byblios system. Led by Commander Chorr, a member of the ruling class, and a Klegg with an actual education, they are told to capture and interrogate - not kill (something which goes against Klegg nature...). Chorr is looking to replace his uncle - Grand Warmaster Grusk - to whom he sends the data retrieved.

Grusk investigates the mysterious Skorn race, believed to have built - and then hidden - the Fat Gun, a planet killer. Grusk takes his Kleggs to the believed resting place of the Fat Gun, and sends Chorr and his Kleggs out to search an asteroid. Landing on a planetoid, they discover a pointed metal, humming structure protruding. Unfortunately, one of the Kleggs bumps into it, revealing the fat gun - which promptly destroys the Klegg fleet.

Chorr and his crew survive - meaning Chorr's in charge now. But Grusk appears to have got to an escape pod...

GH: The Kleggs return in a somewhat slight tale. A great deal is spent in setting up the Klegg hierarchy in a fairly short story - which leads me to believe that we'll be seeing more of these. This story is quite good fun - but as a one off, it has too many questions raised and unanswered, and the ending is a little ambiguous. But the characters show potential - so a longer series would be welcome.

Mike Colllins does some pretty fine Klegg artwork - although on first reading I was a little confused as to who was who. The main characters need a few more facial differences to make them stick out. But as said, his Kleggs are great, and there's some very clear inking which enhances the black and white artwork. I actually think this is a massive improvement on his Rogue Trooper artwork - and would quite like to see him go further with these characters.

WRL: I'm amazed that no ones ever done a solo Kleggs story before, this one off
tale is amusing and enjoyable but I've always imagined the Kleggs as real bastards with not much brain power. As a taster it works and I'd be more than happy to see some more stories featuring the alien mercenaries, even if the emphasis is put on the humour.

Red Tide: Prologue
Synopsis: The Thorson Family arrives at Fangland, a vampire hunting resort based on the Black Atlantic - over the previous location of Aquatraz. 9 years ago, the Vampires escaped from Aquatraz, and have been breeding and evolving ever since. Tyler, their guide, takes them out on a glass bottomed boat for a spot of vampire hunting. He's been bitten a few times - but never on the throat - so he's survived due to quick medical treatment. The Thorson boy gets a bite, and lands a deep sea evolved vampire. But as they pull it on the boat, it bites the father on the neck. They kill the vampire - but have only an hour before the father turns - and more vampires are pressing against the bottom of the boat...

GH: Now, I just don't know about Devlin Waugh. I really liked the first tale, Swimming in Blood. Quite enjoyed Fetish. But if you asked me at gunpoint what happened in the last series, I couldn't remember.

So this is a return to the protagonists from Swimming in Blood. There's a quick summary of this story, before this tale gets started - and it looks like the new series is going to be very good indeed. A nice simple - and doom laden start to the story. You just know things are going to turn out for the worse and it's just a matter of waiting for it to happen. But Smith's writing has a habit of getting a little obscure - see Pussyfoot 5 - so let's hope he sticks to a decent plot this time round and a story we can follow week on week.

But mainly it's Colin MacNeil's artwork which is the star here. I could never understand why he didn't take off in America. His Captain America/Iron Man was excellent - and I was surprised it wasn't followed up by more - to my knowledge. My theory is that he was ahead of his time - and the current British invasion of Marvel. But their loss is our gain, as MacNeil makes a return to the stylish colour artwork that made America such a joy to read.

Part 1
Synopsis: New Odysseus City cop is being shown the rounds by overweight veteran Danza - who warns Kurt to make his arrests against Family members clean - even though they have Family approval to arrest the made guy they're after. Kurt runs ahead regardless, knocking out one sentry, but is cold cocked by Danza, and left outside before he gets any further.

Meanwhile, "Crabs" is making a drug deal inside, when "Silver" - a well dressed gangster appears. Silver says he's been dead, and Crabs is one of the guys who helped kill him. He grabs Silver's eyes as his own light up. Danza and his crew almost make it in, when the entire warehouse is obliterated, leaving only Silver alive in the middle of a huge crater. Outside, Kurt escapes death too...

Later at a club, "Talia" is dancing on a table, as a jumped up clubber comes onto her. The bouncer, Al, warns him off, and warns Talia to calm down. She makes it to the bar and tries to pick up Kurt, who's drowning his sorrows. He fobs her off and storms out. The clubber tries his luck again - but she breaks his nose and follows Kurt into his taxi - eventually ending up in bed with him.

Kurt wakes up later as he hears a bump. He goes into his kitchen where two gangsters are waiting - one with shining eyes - "Mind telling us what you're doing with our sister?"

GH: Hard to tell what I think of this. A fair bit of plot setting up to take in - but it all seems intriguing. Rob Williams excelled in the earlier parts of Asylum in 2000AD, where he kept the pace a little slower, and developed the story carefully. Then it turned into a messy action led piece. As long as Williams has a little more restraint here - this could work very well.

It's helped by the magnificent art of Simon Fraser, of course. Fraser's style does appear to be going through something of a metamorphosis here, but this could be due to his exploration of a black & white medium. There's strong use of shadows and shading to convey mood, much more so than the colour artwork of Dante. It's actually a little hard to get used to at first - as in many cases it's quite a departure. But his ability to depict recognisable and distinct characters could prove an asset to what appears to be a character-led piece. My only problem is with his last panel, where the characters seem jarringly rushed - but that's being a tad pedantic when you've had 9 pages of stylish art beforehand...

WRL: We've seen Simon Fraser working on the odd story other than Dante in recent
years, but it's his style that we see used on the Russian Rogue that most of us will be familiar with. If that's what you expect to see, you won't. It's still recognisably Simon Fraser but without leaving the space for the colourist Simon turns in some of the best work I've seen him do. Great use of black & white and hopefully it'll continue to look as good as the months go by. I found the story engaging enough, but as it's the first episode with new characters I'll wait see how this tale of a cop and a gangsters daughter develops next month.

War Crimes
Synopsis: An old woman is patrolling the Apocalypse War memorial with a trolley full of leaflets - trying to get her dead son's case heard. Dredd comes to the scene. Her son, Gregor Stackpole was executed for treason during the war. Dredd himself remembers executing many collaborators - and seems strangely drawn to the case.

He meets with Judge Brunt - a survivor maimed by the war and now training cadet. He says that his division - a combination of Citizens and Judges were sold out to the Sovs, who attacked them hard - many were lost. When Stackpole returned several days later, he was found with Sov scrip and rations, and immediately executed by acting head of the division, Mr Dane - made head upon the death of their commander, Judge Mather..

Dredd calls up a list of survivors and goes to meet Dane, now a wealthy industrialist due to his "favoured status" as a war hero. Interviewing him in his penthouse office, decorated with old war weapons, Dane says he had Stackpole followed, and saw him leaving the Sov's HQ. Dredd contacts the other survivors, using a list from Dane, all of who give the same story, and are very well off indeed. But he gets one name from HQ that wasn't on Dane's list - he tells him that Mather wasn't a traitor, and had in fact been given a secret mission by Mather. It seems Dane's been paying everyone off to keep them quiet...

Dredd storms Dane's office - but Dane attacks with a stub gun, a war weapon laser that cut through anything like butter. After Dane kills most of his office by mistake, Dredd shoots him, and says that Stackpole was a fake collaborator designed to draw the real one, Dane, out. Dredd makes sure the Med droids patch Dane up for a long spell in the crew.

Finally, he visits Stackpole's mother in Med Bay. She's dying, and he doesn't know if she can hear, but Dredd gives her the news of her son's pardon. As Dredd leaves, Mrs Stackpole passes away...

GH: Another good one-off Dredd story by Rennie - but not quite up to par with some of his Dredd work in 2000AD. it's a decent enough mystery, and he parallels with Dredd's own war guilt are a nice touch - but something about Dredd's quick take-up of the case doesn't quite ring true. Dredd's being a little too goody-two-shoes here - and is treating the citizens with a little too much respect throughout the story. It just seems a little out of character. And after the investigation - Dredd's discovery of the truth seems a little too easy, and sets him off on "exposition mode". But it's nice to see the return of the stub gun - always a fan-favourite.

I'm afraid I didn't think much of Lee Sullivan's work here. He seems unsuited to the strip - with his Dredd never seeming imposing enough. His holding of the "flesh blaster" weapon in particular is a particularly stilted pose. Sullivan does come alive a little more in the action pieces, and shines in the stub gun sequence in particular - but it's a case of too little, too late for me.

WRL: Gordon Rennie does it again: takes a thread form Dredd history and turns it
in to a great story. The Apocalypse war was one of the best Dredd epics ever, we saw the effects to the city in stories like Shanty Town, and The Wreckers where we saw the desolation and destruction that had been reaped upon the city, but we rarely if at all saw the effects upon the citizens. All these years on and we have a terminally ill mother still trying to clear the name of her son that was, in her opinion, wrongly executed for being a collaborator. This story is fun, touching and proves without shadow of a doubt that after Wagner, Rennie is at the moment the only other droid who can write Dredd stories that look and read how Dredd stories should.

My only niggle is that I think Lee Sullivan's artwork doesn't fit the story, it would have been great if Ezquerra could have done this one and revisit one area that he's proved a master in, the war story. Saying that though, the artwork can't take away the fact that this is a great read, and it's been to long since we've seen the "FIZZZZZ" or "FFFZZZZZZZZAAAAAAAKKKKKK" sound effect in a Dredd story.

Miscellaneous Material
Synopsis: Other features in the comic are:

• Thrill Power Overload
• Judge Dredd Fiction: A Nativity Tale
• Waugh is Hell - the background of Devlin Waugh
• Devlin Waugh Fiction: Body & Soul
• Thrill Power Overload 2: The Real Mighty One
• 2000AD Gold: Fiends of the Eastern Front
  

GH: I have to be honest, I'm not one for text features in the megazine. Especially text stories. I find something especially clunky about shoehorning a graphic character like Dredd into a medium that he's clearly no supposed to be in. So I won't be commenting on Devlin Waugh either - although the background explanation of his character is a very good idea for new readers.

This is the first time I've read Thrill Power Overload, having boycotted the Megazine for a while now. It does live up to all the hype I've heard about it, I have to say. Bishop writes a conclusive, warts 'n all, history of 2000AD which makes for compelling reason. Hopefully the whole thing will be collected upon its completion. I'll also be watching with interest at how he deals with the buy out by Rebellion in the future, to see if he can maintain journalistic integrity. Only downside - it's very odd indeed when he refers to himself in the 3rd person. It's slightly jarring, when you know he' talking about himself, and if this is collected, I hope a decent editor will tell him to make those elements a little more personal.

Finally, Fiends of the Eastern front is great, with some fantastic Ezquerra Artwork. I can't remember reading this before, so it's nice to see them dragging out the real gems from the vault.

WRL:

Thrill Power Overload: Part 11.

David Bishop continues his definitive 2000AD history and this has for me been the hit of the new look Megazine. Hopefully da Bish will get this reprinted into a book when it's all over and give him a chance to add some of the material that he's received after each month's installment.

Judge Dredd: A Nativity Tale:

Devlin overload? Text intro, Prologue, followed by this Text story. Maybe the text story could have appeared elsewhere? As with anything John Smith's names appears on you know what you're going to get and the text allows him more room than the panel description and text boxes on the normal Devlin adventures. Once again, I found myself enjoying the tale, but this was the very last thing I read over Christmas when the nut roast and huge quantities of alcohol had done their damage to my system. I really must re-read this again in a more temperate state.

David Bishop interviews 'The Real Mighty One' Jon Sanders. I'm a sucker for all this old history stiff and even after a full installment of the regular Thrill Power Overload earlier in the Megazine I still found myself reading this straight after this months TPO and enjoyed it. A great way to allow the excess of Christmas lunch settle. TPO deserves to be collected and expanded upon when the series ends and the Meg needs to find something to replace this feature when it does, as for me it's been the highlight of the new look Megazine.