Judge Dredd Megazine 268 - 4 March 08

Cover by Lee Garbett

Robert Frazer: This is a striking image that suits a cover admirably. There's a clear central focus to anchor your attention, with a flash of cheeky cleavage to tempt and titillate and the show of being handcuffed when the tagline reads "under arrest!" is also an invitation for the imagination to wander... However, the frame of brandished gun-barrels, Steel's shocked expression and the dark, lurking, unsettling suggestion of the red-stained bedsheets contrast with this light-heartedness and so evoke a sense of dramatic mystery. I feel as though the tagline's alliteration would have ran better if it said "underdressed and under arrest", although that's just a petty personal nitpick.

This cover is altogether a good study of the importance of composition - the well-judged arrangement of the features helps make it greater than the sum of its parts.

Robert Cornell: Not bad, just dull. Basically, it’s just a blown up panel from the story inside without anything to emphasise its coverliness.

Blood Money Script: Gordon Rennie Art: Paulo Marshall Colours: Len O'Grady Letters:Annie Parkhouse

Dredd takes it easy on the job...

Synopsis: A couple of perps steal a suitcase of creds from an unlucky cit and head to a bar to celebrate their haul. Unfortunately, Dredd comes in to deliver a hygiene citation and they panic. A gunfire ensues and one lies dead while the other, wounded, visits a highrolling gangster, Dosell Shames, to get help - but dies in the process. Shames takes the money and uses it to go legit with a technology manufacturer, Brad Taylor. However, Taylor uses the money to pay off Judge Crace - who was helping them to smuggle high tech weaponry out of the city. Taylor is killed in the ensuing gunfire and Crace is also killed escaping on his bike - crashing into Shames' car, which happens to be passing - killing him too...

SW:With two thugs, an arsonist, one mob boss, a gun runner and a corrupt judge all sent down (to Resyk) in the space of a single evening, you can't deny that Judge Dredd maintains a good clear-up rate!

As a one-off, "Blood Money" is naturally disposable, but it's entertaining all the same. The central conceit of "money makes the world go round" is effectively handled. As the case of cash trips its merry way between some very different environments there is a sense of genuine kinetic energy bringing you to each new incident, and the methods by which it moves don't seem too contrived. The idea of setting up a rival in a deliberately-corrupt organisation in order to compromise him is also an ingeniously devious piece of plotting.

The dialogue is also quite sharp. The "worm" analogy for Whittard is carried off well and Dredd snaps off a neat quip about fat men being hard to miss when felling one of the perps. The "motion passed" pun is titteringly graphic and Doselle Shames's hastening of Rockwell's demise is truly and cruelly callous. One point where the dialogue does strike an off-note, though, is Dredd's moralising parting shot to Taylor - it seems out of place, as Taylor may have made 'em, but Dredd's Lawgiver has given 'em plenty of times over the years. Finally - a reflective caption reminds us of just how little loyalty counts for in the messy world of miserable miscreants.

The sharp contours of Smudge's artwork make effective use of lighting, particularly in sunken eye-lids, which seem to be a signature theme of his. They complement the scenario, greatly enunciating the atmosphere in several places, whether it be the robbers' faces literally lighting up in obscene delight from the muzzle flashes of their guns, or Shames's self-satisfied leer as he slips the cash from Rockwell's own corpse. One fluff would be the design for Whittard - he's supposed to be a top surgeon, but from his garb he comes across no different from any other vagrant. The sharp contours also seem to have introduced some odd modifications to the Lawmaster bikes, which seem unusually square and boxy. O'Grady's art complements the inks finely, but it was a mistake to colour the muzzle of Marrs's pistol red - it comes across as a toy gun more than a deadly weapon.

Lettering is often a thankless task in comics - it's an important pillar of a strip, obviously, but even so the letterers themselves rarely receive a breath of a mention for their work. It pains, me then, to have to bring one up with a negative point, but Parkhouse makes a significant blooper in the central panel when Shames is handing the case to Taylor. Text boxes should be read top-to-bottom as well as left-to-right, so the positioning of Shames's speech bubbles is the wrong way around, confusing the order of his words. It's a small mistake, but nonetheless a noticeable one.

All in all, then, "Blood Money" isn't an impeccable strip, but not every adventure has to be laden with meaning and moment, and it's a good entry into that category of fun romps.

RC: I’ve always wondered why they still use paper money in MC-1. Perhaps the credit crunch did away with plastic?

Anyway, this was a nice little story following the money through the various levels of MC-1 criminality. Perhaps a little extended at ten pages but brisk and entertaining. It does its job, which was to be brisk and entertaining.

A Dredd artist often stands or falls on the depiction of Dredd. Smudge doesn’t quite fall but is a bit wobbly in the legs department. Hm, that”n” shaped mouth. Just a little bit too expressionless.

Mr Picky says, “bike cannons? Jeez, Joe, talk about overkill!”

Dumb Blond - Part 3 Script: Dave Stone Art: John Cooper Letters: Ellie De Ville

Treasure lies down on the job...

Synopsis: Treasure Steel is found handcuffed to a bed beside the corpse of Tamara Defame. She's interviewed by External Affairs until Armitage proves that she couldn't have been party to the murder. She's released to Armitage's supervisionary parole and a has to get past a crowd of Defame fans braying for her blood. Steel holes herself up in an apartment and looks like she's about to commit suicide when Armitage arrives with her wife and child...

RF: I've only recently begun reading the Megazine, and so I have to confess that not only am I unacquainted with Armitage, but before now I wasn't even aware that the strip existed! This seems to put me at quite a disadvantage for this review, for a quick glance at Wikipedia tells me that there's a fair amount of necessary backstory to brush up upon. As such, I'm really entering the strip cold, as so my opinions are rather raw and could change as I get a firmer handle on the many misadventures of Brit-Cit bobbies.

My initial reaction to Dumb Blond was dislike - the idea that if I wanted kitchen-sink drama, I'd watch Coronation Street instead. However, on reflection, that's an unfair criticism to make. While the more sedate pace in this strip may not be typical of 2000 AD, Stone deserves credit for trying something different and for adopting a style which is suited to the longer format of the Megazine. Is the alternate direction of the strip successful in its own right, then? That's something that I'm more hesitant about.

The idea of waking up next to a luscious - and late - lady jars a little when we had the very same device used in the last Simping Detective adventure not so long ago. However, the transition from the cartoony dream sequence back to the uncompromising glare of human proportions is well-executed.

Detective Steel takes central command of this strip and, to Stone's credit, she's quite well-rendered - imagining Administrator Warner burning his face off illustrates her carpet-chewing and caustic manner well. That said, I can't exactly say that I'm terribly enamoured with Steel. As much as it allows for a nicely morose moody monologue, planning to commit suicide after a couple of nights of bad sex doesn't speak much for her strength of character and overeggs the pudding into melodrama. Although I'll admit it's not necessary for every character in the world to be sympathetic if characters are to be distinct entities.

The dialogue is by and large effective, with Armitage himself perfectly evoking a flinty tone and personality. However, the later parts of the interrogation scene, specifically the remarks about the Right To Natural Lifers, do come across as obvious exposition.

Cooper's art is journeyman fare with the exception of the faces - his characters are very expressive, with Steel particularly benefiting from it in the interrogation sequence. It's startling, really - after traipsing around Mega-City One for so long you forget that the Dometops actually have muscles to do anything other than grimace!

All in all, I feel as though I should reserve judgement on Armitage. Unlike Tempest below, it's a non-episodic adventure and so dropping into the middle of a continuous storyline doesn't place me in the best vantage to make a fully authoritative comment. I remain to be entirely convinced that, irrespective of the need for novel narrative directions, the wild'n'wacky world of Future Dykes and their troubled interpersonal relationships is the sort of thing that I buy the Megazine for. However, I'm willing to roll with it and see where it leads.

RC: Armitage’s job is to be the (relatively) serious one.

Firstly, I’m quite enjoying this (although it’s not going to sound like it) – it’s fun and has good characters. It also has me confused. Firstly, in the good way. It’s a mystery so it’s right and proper not to know what’s going on. Secondly, I have no idea who these people are! I was dumped into this sub-Universe cold in part one. Brit-cit is like MC1 but with special plainclothes judges for some reason. Armitage is some kind of super-badass cop. So, it’s a detective story, who, what, why-dunnit, like Taggart. I think.

There’s enough here to suggest the mix might just work once it gets going. And it has to get going now. Armitage has been AWOL for most of the last two parts as Stone is obviously much more interested in Steele, his ever-so-slightly irritating sidekick. The title character comes back on the last page to say, “right, that’s the prologue, can we PLEASE get on with MY story?”

I like the greyscale artwork, even the cartoony bit on page one that made the point nicely.

Mr Picky says, “the Internal Affairs scene didn’t achieve a lot and the hydrochloric acid gun was just silly.”

Here Comes Trouble - Part 3 Script: Al Ewing Art: Jon Davis-Hunt Letters: Simon Bowland

Nick's men get eaten on the job...

Synopsis: Tempest and Johnny are prevented from crossing the bridge by the Ratman - who appears to control the rats of the undercity. This allows Nicky Scandalous to catch up and open fire at them. However, his first blast kills some rats - so the Ratman sends them after Nicky's crew, killing a couple of them and forcing them to fall back. Tempest overpowers the Ratman and tells him to call off the rats. The Ratman tells them he was trying to save them by stopping them from crossing the bridge and warns them to "beware the electric head!"

Up ahead, the mysterious robot Mes-1-A is worshipping a sculpture of a head made from close circuit TVs...

RF: Tempest is weighed down with a heavy burden of expectation. After his stumbling false start with previous strips, the Mega-City Undercity is going to be Ewing's proving ground. He needs to turn a stellar performance in order to satisfy a fickle readership and an expectant editor...

Happily, while I wouldn't quite call Tempest the greatest comic in all of Creation, it is nonetheless shaping up to be quite a solidly entertaining piece. This is mostly due to the interactions between Kierkegaard and the eponymous hero himself. They form a neat double-act, with Tempest's easy, lazy panache contrasting well with Kierkegaard's baffled outrage at a world conspiring subject him to A Very Bad Day. Their verbal trade-offs as they fend off the horde of rats sparkle with verve, and you can't help but split your own face with a reflection of Tempest's evil grin.

Davis-Hunt's art is quite astonishing, striking a well-calibrated balance between clarity and detail, gruesomely so in places once the rats begin to snack. His character designs are effective. The Ratman carries himself with a proper sense of trembling geriatricisation. MES-1-A has a neatly and gently understated design, although its robotic struggle to overthrow all fleshkind is as tired and flaccid as the pun in its name. Its master the Electric Head also has an intriguingly atypical aesthetic. The exceptions to these good designs though, are Nicky Scandalous and his bravos in power armour - waddling about like Michelin Men who lost their way to the tyre factory. They've been utterly ridiculous up to now - but in the embarrassing sense, rather than comic buffoonery as Davis-Hunt might have been intending. Fortunately, the ugly fate that Scandalous' team suffers suggests that we won't be inflicted with him any more.

Tempest is called on in this strip to open up with his "Ninja Judge Asshole Fu!", and he obliges. As he dashes through a horde of murderous rodents, literally a human torch, you understand what Tempest is all about - wild, raucous, bombastic ostentation. The very fact that the strip title slams onto a splash page at the end of each instalment evokes this perfectly - "Here Comes Trouble" instilling you with a quivering "UH-OH!" moment. That's an instant that's alive with cartoony zest, and that's the spirit that Tempest is suffusing itself with to great effect.

RC: Tempest’s job is to be the frivolous one with plenty of action. And it does the job quite nicely. The quest set-up keeps things moving and can be used for just about anything so it’s like a platform level video game. No need to worry about complicated things like character or subtext.

It’s colourful, violent and just a little bit silly but Mr Picky says that it tries too hard to be self-consciously wacky, with bits like Tempest setting himself on fire.

I like the Davis-Hunt artwork. It’s suitably colourful while still suggesting the whole thing is set underground.

Mr Picky is quiet for once.

Bob The Galactic Bum
Alan Grant Interview
Kings of Cult
Paul Grist on Self Publishing
New Comics
New Movies

RF: The Megazine opens up a mixed bag of articles for us to have a rummage around this month. The "Carrion Abroad" article, a treatment of George A. Romero's film career, is fodder and entirely disposable. Any quotations have been taken from an interview with another magazine! While I admit that I didn't know much of the director's career outside of his "...of the Dead" films, that's because I'd never been previously inclined to look. This whistle-stop dash through his filmography suggests to me that I could easily have found out the same with a little effort, although in fairness one of the purposes of a magazine is to serve up these digests to us.

I can also understand why Paul Grist has been self-publishing before now, because I have absolutely not the faintest idea who the man is! However, his interview does serve effectively as Advertainment and my curiosity is piqued sufficiently to investigate his work further.

Speaking of interviews, the star attraction of the additional content this month is doubtlessly Part Three of the Alan Grant expose. A satisfyingly long, meaty article, Grant's words are all the more fascinating precisely because he comes across as so shockingly candid. Generally, I'm content to read the comics more than I am to particularly pursue the trials and travails of the personalities behind them. But Grant's forthright expostulation on the stubby churning legs thrashing beneath the graceful sliding swan of the weekly Prog is truly fascinating. Many of the projects he speaks of I hadn't even heard of, and it's a true education to read about them in all of their great diversity. You receive the real impression of the deep well of enriching experience that such a long career can tap.

The reprint comic, "Bob the Galactic Bum ", continues apace. It's an odd fish, really. While Bob himself has a fine manner for livid sarcasm, I'm not really sure whether he's an entirely likeable hero. Seeing his harsh treatment of the poor befuddled Prince Chazza, it's hard to say whether Bob truly believes himself to be an itinerant peregrinator rather than a Space Tramp, or whether he's just cruelly indulging in casual bullying. The Guunts are well-rendered with bombastic brutality, and the Ran Dan Guard are an effective show of blunt, bumbling brawn (one making a fine, sharp sweep with a hatchet only for his wide stroke to bury itself in the comrade behind him is a darkly comic image!). Prince Rando himself is an effective design, striking quite impressively magisterial poses as he makes his portentous declarations. The scene on Gazza, though, shows the comic's age and informed by hindsight and history not entirely to the good, either. Rando scoffs to his sister-in-law Anorexia that she "still want[s] to be Queen - and you don't care how you do it!" - take away the oversized Gazzan nose from the not-very-subtly-lingering panel on Anorexia's face, and you have the late Princess Diana...

Rounding off the Prog with the film reviews, there's a pleasing variety available, including the lesser-known P2 as well as the more prominent multiplex movies. These diverse features can satisfy many different tastes, so kudos to the Megazine for its wide perspective. The DVD animations receive short shrift in column inches compared to the films, although in all fairness I doubt that Witchblade needs much room to explain its elaborate Machiavellian intrigue. The reviewer may be underselling it, though, because another review in the anime specialist Neo magazine insists that there's much more to it than the heroine's Thighs of Fury and Bosom of Brutality. While that may be true, after watching a couple of minutes' distended groaning on the excerpts streamed from the Witchblade official website it becomes plain just which one of those multifaceted elements is expected to sell it!

RC: Bob the Galactic Bum’s job is to be the funny one but it’s just not funny.

Alan Grant is self-effacing without false modesty, angry but not bitter, opinionated but not arrogant. The Megazine has rightly gorged itself on this interview over three months and it will leave a hole that will be tough to fill.

The rest of the articles are pretty disposable. George Romero? Please. I could have written it myself.

At least the reviewed films are still on release. And, in one case, not here yet! Amazing.

What no Dredd Files? Oh, wait, I hate them.

RF: I've yet to become thoroughly immersed in the culture of the Megazine, so I can't really say whether this issue is true to its spirit. In lieu of that, I'll sum up the strips. Judge Dredd is the most complete affair, spinning a straightforward yarn competently and without pretensions; Armitage remains an unknown quantity; Tempest, while it may lack depth, enjoys great breadth of appeal though with generous lashings of true charm and eager verve.

Best story: Tempest

RC: Even if we accept BtGB as a fourth strip, (and I don’t) the Megazine still leaves me feeling short-changed. Especially as I’ve just renewed my sub again. (The clinching argument: “it’s only 75p a week.”) On the other hand, with the old one, the serious one, the fun one and the, er, Dreddy one, there’s a good mix of stories. The 'zine may not have turned the corner, but at least it’s found it on the map.

Best story: A three way “not bad” tie. If I have to pick one I’ll go for Dredd.