Judge Dredd Megazine 267 - 5 Feb 08

Cover by John Davis-Hunt

Stephen Watson: I like this cover by Jon Davis-Hunt which is eye-catching and vibrant. Tempest’s uniform, which is a variant on that of the Judges, is enough in itself to catch the eye of the browsing potential reader. I also like that blood drenched double edged sword thing and the slightly maniacal look in his eye. The familiar ‘looking up at the camera’ pose could be a bit more dynamic but all in all it’s a good effort.

Floyd Kermode: What are you smirking at? That’s my first reaction to seeing Tempest looking up smugly at me.  He’s far too smug for someone with a silly outfit like that, not to mention that crap moustache and soul patch combination.  Not much of a cover really; the picture isn’t up to much and there is, to my non-artistic eyes, far too much clutter. 

The Menagerie Script: Gordon Rennie Art: Paulo Marshall Colours: Len O'Grady Letters:Annie Parkhouse

Another one for the Rogues Gallery...

Synopsis: Dredd fights off an escaped alien monster and, once he's killed it - finds a half digested body inside. The owner bought it from an alien importer - Professor Deeks - who is dealing with the mob in order to pay off his gambling debts. He has a wide variety pf alien beasts - the most dangerous being a Stygian Devourer from Necros - a being which totally erases its prey. Deeks is using his alien monsters from his warehouse to eat the victims of the mob - getting rid of evidence.

Dredd catches them in the act and in the ensuing firefight, the Stygian Devourer is released and attacks Deeks. Deeks is wiped from the face of the earth, including all memory that he ever existed. Dredd's mind is wiped too - and he can't remember why he's at the warehouse in the first place. All memory of Deeks is gone, and Dredd figures that at least some mob members met their ends and nothing bad came out of it - not realising that the Devourer is now loose in Mega City 1.

SW: This one-off Dredd offering was pretty enjoyable and served to showcase the considerable artistic talents of Paul Marshall. The story is throwaway stuff and it’s hard to remember Dredd doing any less detection in order to catch the bad guys. In a single panel the case is solved and the rest is a chaotic shoot ‘em up with plenty of gore and colourful action.

The imaginative array of aliens on show was impressive and I especially liked the cute one which was vaporized in the following panel. I was less impressed with the Devourer alien and his whole concept of wiping people from reality. I know a pat ‘different reality’ explanation was given but we weren’t told how this power could work in Mega-City, nor how they managed to capture the thing in the first place!

Once again Dredd’s bulging case book has a new miscreant shoe-horned in and I wonder if his in-box will ever be cleared. To be fair there is no definite suggestion that he’ll be back and the dreaded ‘the end…?’ isn’t to be seen. In the grand scheme of things this is a bit of a throwaway tale, but as it has action, laughs and glorious art, so I’m not complaining.

FK: The art is perfect for the humour in this Rennie yarn.  We’ve been treated to this kind of story before, with Father Time walking into the hypnotic people-eating plant all those progs ago, not to mention the animal liberationists attack on the Alien Zoo, which left a dragon on the loose in the Cursed Earth.  Here a group of cornball Goodfellow crims use a smaller alien zoo to dispose of people they’ve killed.  A reasonable idea, made more fun by the Stygian Devourer.  The thought that it was strange that an alien monster would wear a hat and trench coat came to me and I swatted it away – quibbles like that are beside the point when looking at funny little stories like this.  Paul Marshall’s art matches the humour perfectly – I loved the large round specs on the unfortunate curator. The scene in which the curator is solely erased is a thing of beauty

This is not a story that I’ll remember very well in three months time – nothing wrong with it but it’s not very exciting. If the Stygian Devourer makes another appearance, I may remember this one. I’ll think “hey, I remember his first story”, whilst drinking coffee from my Stygian Devourer cup and looking for the Stygian Devourer toy in my cereal.  I’m not arguing that the SD deserves to keep going, just outlining what would make me remember him.

The thought that it’s a bit unsatisfying for Dredd to be so unconcerned about forgetting everything also came over to say hello towards the end of the story. I let it stick around but not for long. I fed it some faint praise that I had left over from reviewing The Menagerie. 

Dumb Blond - Part 2 Script: Dave Stone Art: John Cooper Letters: Ellie De Ville

Treasure meets an old friend...

Synopsis: Treasure Steel is still getting into trouble at work but calms down after teaching some manners to a fellow judge. She and Armitage visit Mary in Forensics who says that the bodies that they found were all drained of blood, and were all "pretty". After failing to come up with any matches in the missing persons files, they leave - with Steel heading off to a bar to calm down.

There she meets an old friend Daniel, who's now making a living as a drag act impersonating local celebrity Tamara Defane. Daniel admits that he's been fairly paranoid of late and feels like he's being stalked and asks to talk to Steel after his act. Later she sees him - but realises that she's mistaken the real Tamara for him. She's invited to sit down for a drink...

SW: I was never a fan of Armitage during its initial run and this new adventure has yet to grab my attention. Writer Dave Stone seems to have accepted his main character’s limitations and has chosen to make his assistant, Treasure, the main focus of attention. This would be a fine idea if she weren’t just as dull as her boss!

The story hasn’t developed much in the first two episodes which is strange given the amount of talking going on. There is a small fight at the beginning when smaller female Judge Steel beats up a bigger, bulling creep in a scene so familiar Stone must have thought it up whilst reading some Anderson tales, amongst others!

Armitage himself makes a brief two page cameo and then leave Treasure to have a nice night out talking to vid-stars and their clones - good for her, it’s just a pity we had to tag along too! The lesbian and cross dressing banter seems to have little point apart from the shock value it may have had 20 years ago.

It is good to see John Cooper on art chores, an artist I always enjoyed when he worked on ‘Computer warrior’ in the 1980s Eagle. His stuff here is less engaging however, which is understandable given the dull scenes he’s asked to illustrate. The quality does seem to vary page to page and whether this is due to resizing or time factors I don’t know, it just looks imbalanced.

Not a particularly bad strip, just one that’s yet to engage me on any level apart from ‘indifferent’.

FK: For me, Armitage is like Devlin Waugh.  One is a grouchy old British detective, the other a flamboyantly gay vampire exorcist, so there’s not a lot of difference. But both are characters I’ll always turn to, yet who almost never meet their promise.  No Waugh story since ‘Fetish’ has really done it for me. I can’t think of any Armitage story that I’ve wanted to rave about, yet I still look forward to him.  It can’t be seeing lesbianism treated the way it would be in a civilised world, just being there.  On second inspection, the lesbianism is more than a little titillating, but that’s not why I like the story, honest.   It’s partly the self-mocking version of a future Britain, in which night club vamps breathily sing ‘I’ve got a lovely bunch of coconuts’

 No, I can’t put my finger on why I like it, but I do.  It’s different to other 2000AD/Megazine stuff, the central character is solid and I want him to go on forever and I don’t know what’s going to happen next.  That’ll do. 

Here Comes Trouble - Part 2 Script: Al Ewing Art: Jon Davis-Hunt Letters: Simon Bowland

What good friends are for...

Synopsis: Tempest springs into action, killing Johnny's attackers. Afterwards, he tells Johnny that he overheard him talking about his new fortune. He says that he'll protect Johnny on the way to pick up the creds as long as he gets half. If he refuses, Tempest promises that he'll kill him. Elsewhere, Nicky Scandalous and his crew are hot on their tails and "The Ratman" is also waiting for them all...

SW: In his interview writer Al Ewing describes this as the strip he wants to be seen as his introduction after serving an apprenticeship of Future Shocks and Terror Tales. This seems a strange position to take given that the strip is derivative of almost every Mega-City that has gone before and is so far no match for the excellent ‘Go-Machine‘ that he penned for 2000AD.

There are things I like in the strip such as the art and rarely Undercity setting, but it’s generally thin stuff that has been padded to an inch of his its life. Last issue’s set up is hardly advanced with half of this issue’s pages devoted to a bloody, but largely pointless scrap. A single panel to a killing to show the speed and ferocity of our man would be fine, instead we get a full page with one head cut off and three panels of posing.

To its credit I’ve yet to guess the strip’s direction and for that reason, and Jon Davis-Hunt’s excellent art, I’ll keep reading. I’m pining my expectations on a Long Walk Judge gone bad or insane, but it could just as easily be a wannabe citizen dressing up or a real Judge working entrapment - which retread will it be?

The finale where PA Angel shows up with Ratty and his friends demonstrates how unoriginal this whole enterprise is and I just hope I’m in line to be wrong footed by some clever plotting in the forthcoming episodes.

FK: Well, there’s lots of action here. That sounds wishy-washy of me, I know, but I haven’t made up my mind whether I like Tempest or not yet.  The title character lives up to my cover-induced prejudices about him; he’s a git, albeit a ninja-like git who kills people.  The set up is a cute one; evil Mob chasing  hapless conman and Tempest while (I guess) all of them are chased by the Ratman, who likes declaiming as much as Tempest does

What is it about the undercity and Al Ewing, doesn’t anyone just talk?  Ewing says in his interview that he was channelling Pat Mills in writing this, but the violence and over the top swearing remind me of Garth Ennis, which is no bad thing. 

The art is good stuff, bleak, simple and vivid. Loads of chasing in the story overall, and loads of fighting in this episode.  Violent tough guy that he is, Tempest talks about violence like a cissy, a cissy who has read too many tough comics.  The scene is set for some kind of confrontation between the overstylised Tempest and the unnecessarily declamatory Ratman, both  the sort of characters Garth Ennis is good at introducing and then deflating, while the conman Kiekergaard slips away and becomes rich.  At least that’s how I’m hoping it’ll end.  I’m rubbish at predictions though and wouldn’t be surprised if Kiekergaard dies horribly at some stage, while Tempest leaps cat-like to freedom. 

Ah well, the action is well done, the story may turn out cool. 

Bob The Galactic Bum
Alan Grant Interview
Al Ewing Interview
New Comics
New Movies

SW: I’m not enjoying the reprint of ‘Bob the Galactic Bum’ as the whole WC Fields thing turns me right off it. It is always nice to see Ezquerra’s art but Wagner & Grant have never been great when it comes to the funny stuff, and this fossil only highlights the fact.

The pick of the issue for me, for the second month running, was the Alan Grant interview. This is laugh out loud stuff and the guy clearly has an opinion on everything and everybody. His rants about the ‘Batman family’ were hilarious although he does come across as somewhat arrogant when reflecting on his on tenure as Batman’s scribe. His rants about Alan Moore and Grant Morrison will doubtless cause debate, not least because they both cast a longer shadow than Grant, but at least he makes his point well with as much swearing as possible.

The Al Ewing interview was less fun but probably more illuminating for all the wannabe writers out there. Whether fledgling wordsmith Ewing is in the position to dole out as much advice as he does is arguable, but at least he makes it clear what is demanded to get even a foot on the ladder.

I didn’t like the ‘Black Dossier’ piece as I felt it relied too much on comparisons to other works, some of which seemed obscure to say the least. Writer Ed Berridge clearly knows his stuff but he should spare a thought for his readers that don’t! The movie reviews were suitable for purpose although I didn’t agree with several points on the two that I’d seen. I do like a review that takes a position and argues it well, even if it deviates from my own feeling. That said he’s wrong about ‘I am Legend’ being “a reassuring vision of the apocalypse” and about that polar bear fight being great.

FK: Partners in [Future] Crime: Alan Grant  

Disclaimer: Alan Grant has been nice to me via email once and I find it hard to think an unkind thought of him.  Perhaps this colours my normally God-like impartiality.  Mind you, having got that off my chest, it’s hard to see how anyone could think an unkind thought of Grant, unless it’s Alan Moore, assorted DC editors and managers and Grant Morrison, all of whom cop some criticism here.  Even then he’s nice and says what he likes about Moore and Morrison.

This interview is a delight to read for the same reason any good interview succeeds; the subject has something to say and the interviewer lets them say it and doesn’t get in the way.  David Bishop just lets Grant reminisce about working with John Wagner, his creative ‘divorce’, writing Lobo and Batman and, yes, Moore and Morrison’s merits and drawbacks.  The interview is gorgeously illustrated too.  The only people to whom it might not appeal are people like my younger self who just wanted comics in his comic and people who have no idea what characters Grant is talking about.  Mind you, subjects I like does not make for a good interview, so three cheers for Bishop and a fourth cheer because there’s more of Grant coming up in the next issue. 

Bob The Galactic Bum 

Hey Mr Editor, how come I don’t have to write so much about this story?  Is it because it’s a reprint?  Here goes anyway.  In this story we have some lovely black and white art by Carlos Ezquerra.  We have the marauding Guunt horde, so tough they refuse to have mottos and get easily distracted by arguments about whether slaughter or pillage should come first. We have pictures of naughty-and-sulky-looking Ezquerra ladies, the sort who always make me feel like migrating to Andorra just in case he’s drawing from life.    We have a giant tough broad who I gather is a re-drawn Lobo because it would cost the Megazine too much money to get permission to use Lobo himself.  So they stuck breasts on Lobo and renamed him ‘Asbo’, geddit?    On the debit side, we have Bob, who is supposed to be a kind of WC Fields character. He is like Fields, only not funny.

I’d rather have this in the Megazine than not, but it’s not thrilling so far.

Little Black Book: Ed Berridge reviews Alan Moore’s Black Dossier

…in which Berridge spends two pages with lots of typing trying to prove that the Black Dossier is not just a huge pile of clever-clever nerdy factoids spun together in a ‘pop culture spotter’s wet dream’.   Along the way of proving this he quotes so many nerdy factoids that I wonder if the book isn’t the wet dream of at least one pop-culture spotter.  Ooh look, there’s a reference to ‘The Prisoner’.  See, there’s a dip of the lid to ‘1984’.  Hey, it mentions the Avengers, but in a really clever way.

‘You can talk all you want about influences, themes and references’ says Berridge and certainly he does.    Still, it’s good to know that the new League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is hot stuff and a fun read.  Now to convince my library to buy it.

New Movies, Psychos, and Vampires and Bears, Oh My! 

In which Alec Worley competently reviews three movies which have been hyped to death elsewhere.  I already know everything in this section, pretty much, so I can only conclude that these reviews appeal to people who don’t read anything else but the Megazine, or who think Worley is a genius who could write entertainingly about paint drying.  Me, I think he writes very well, but not that well.  Back when 2000AD was printing reviews of Takeshi Kitano movies, it was interesting because I’d never heard of Kitano.  When Worley reviews three big budget successes, I get the feeling that I’ve bought two daily papers by mistake.  

SW: With only three original strips the Megazine is fast becoming a lifestyle magazine that carries some comics! With Dredd being good and the other two hovering around half marks it’s clear that this wasn’t a vintage edition. On the plus side a wealth or articles and a full letters page made for a longer read and there was enough enjoyable stuff to justify a purchase. A decent outing but for now the Megazine remains the poor, pale cousin of 2000AD.

Best story: Judge Dredd

FK: Mr Rennie’s slight Dredd tale, which while not at all A Bad Thing, is a bit depressing. The Meg is meant to be a big fat expensive treat, this is more like just another comic with two interviews and two reviews.

Best story: Judge Dredd