Judge Dredd Megazine 275 - 17 September 08

Cover by Rufus Dayglo

Alex Frith: Yup, Tank Girl's back. It's very well designed cover, fits the space neatly, shows off the big new star. I'm not a big enough fan to know if Rufus Dayglo has captured the look if the character well enough to please her regular readers, but I really dig the Judge's helmet with 'Pomm's' and flowers in it

Floyd Kermode: Hey look, it's Tank Girl!  With a smug smile on her face!  If I had that much adulation and print space, I'd be smug too.  Booga the kangaroo boyfriend is looking similarly pleased with himself  - possibly  because he's getting yards of repetitive rapture, or maybe because he's on one of the Meg's very few decent covers of the last year. 

Overall the cover is good but cluttered.  A title here, a bunch of assorted fonts and backgrounds....it all adds up. As usual I should leave it to the pro artists to describe the thing technically. I'll run the risk of sounding like the guy who told Mozart he had 'too many notes' and just say that there's too much stuff there, making the very nice picture less impressive than it could have been. Is this a cunning plan to make it look cute, ironic and pulp-fictionish? If so, it doesn't do that for me.

Ratfink - Part 3 Script: John Wagner Art: Peter Doherty Letters:Annie Parkhouse

Dredd's command was slipping...

Synopsis: Ratfink attacks the judges killing them all and finally coming to the conclusion that Roskill's sister lied to him about the gold. He uses the guns from the hovership to destroy the other judges' ship. Meanwhile, Roskill is fed up waiting for the rain to pass and goes out looking for his sister. Dredd chases after him and soon both of their bikes are swallowed in a mud slide. They see the fire from the hovership in the distance, and have to walk back to the other judges who can't raise them on the radio. Meanwhile Ratfink decides to make Roskill's sister pay...

AF: Ratfink is a fantastic little story. It's meaner and nastier than a lot of Dredds, not least down to Doherty's excellent dirty rainy atmosphere, and the absolutely repellant look he's come up with for the Ratfink himself. In this episode, Dredd gets to be mean, stoic and heroic, which is how Wagner likes him. But the real star is the villain, as it's just not at all sure a) how much more nasty he's going to get, and b) how much of this nastiness Wagner and Doherty are going to force us to see... 

FK: Our Megazine kicks off with some brilliant stuff as both the rain and the judicial corpses keep on a fallin, and Ratfink continues to be a well drawn (in both senses of 'drawn') little creep with a knack for destruction, alarmingly ragged pants which seem to be on the verge of falling apart completely and an endless supply of little 'pizen' spiky ball things.  He gets some good lines too, what with sneaking up on Judges and plotting things.  This is sheer fun to read and I turn every page with my heart full of fear for the pure girly Judge's sister Ratfink kidnapped last month.  'Eargh!' he's done it again and 'eeek, what's he going to do now' were my general feelings here. 

In the world of comics, 'son-of' stories always seemed pretty lame to me. I think of the Reed Richard's and Sue Storm's insipid kiddies (mind you, I last saw them in the seventies. No doubt now they're a pair of super-powered mega-smarms with a chin beard, midriff top, trendy tatts and/or appropriate piercings), and I could never get into the seemingly infinite supply of teen X-Men spinoffs. I'm thinking also of the Phantom, who has a pair of blonde twin children who would give the Fantastic Four offspring a run for their money in a perky boredom Olympics.  Kids of interesting characters suck - who would have thought 2000AD would be so good at 'child of' stories (if you include the various Dread clones).

All is well here - action, explosions, the Judges being made to look like dorks (apart from Dredd).    I can only hope Ratfink doesn't get killed off too soon, or indeed ever. 

My quibble with all this quality is Dredd. Is it just me, or is he talking too much? The big man sounds almost petulant when he's remonstrating with the judge who worries about his sister.  Dredd talked so much, I had to go back at the end and check that it was a John Wagner story.  Usually I don't go in for the 'it's not Wagner, so it's no good' line on Dredd.  Here, however, I was wondering if there was something in it - 'this non-Wagner writer seems to make Dredd run on too much', I thought to myself, thought I.  Then I looked back and discovered it was Wagner himself.  As I say, this is a quibble.

Art - excellent. It matches the story perfectly, gives us action in the murk and some beautiful character in the faces.  Not so much Ratfink, like Heath Ledger's Joker, he's an easy character to do.  All he needs is a few good sneers.   Have a look though at the dials on some of the bewildered non-Dredd judges - that's where Doherty really earns his money.  I think I'll have to go and read 'Young Death' again - I deserve a treat.

Skidmarks - Part 1 - The Watermelon Run Script: Alan Martin Art: Rufus Dayglo Letters: Simon Bowland

Tank Girl masters the understatement...

Synopsis: Tank Girl and Booga are taking part in the Watermelon run so that they can help pay for the medical expenses of their friend Barney - who's in a coma. They race for the lead, but unfortunately have a catastrophic crash. This is watched by someone called Downy Macaw - who is looking for Tank Girl..

AF: As I said above, I'm not a huge Tank Girl fan. Reading this story, it seems that she's a character more like a grown up version of something from the Beano than from 2000 AD - which is fine by me, but not my cup of tea.

The story here is about a race across a desert for the sake of winning money - but it's pretty obvious that the plot is hardly the point, it's an excuse to show Tank Girl and kangaroo boyfriend Booga having fun. Perhaps more importantly, it's about giving the artist free reign to draw some craziness. Now, I like Dayglo's work a lot, but in all honesty he's not in the same league as Hewlett at this kind of thing. He has I think captured the Beano-like zaniness and frenetic slapstick that Tank Girl seems to warrant, and that's great. There's a lovely panel where Booga's face is flapping in the wind as he accelerates the Tank. But what I think is missing are the little extra details that Hewlett throws around seemingly at random in his panels - at least, the panels that are reproduced elsewhere in this issue, and what I remember from the likes of Hewligan's Haircut and Swifty's return.

Dayglo's art elevates this strip, but in all honesty, that's not saying much. I just don't find Tank Girl very funny. I'm glad that it's bringing more readers to the Meg (at least, I hope it does that!), and I'll enjoy flicking through it for the art, but actually reading it isn't exactly thrilling. It's way better than Bob the Bum, though! 

FK: Aargh, there's Tank Girl again!  Actually it's a relief to be reading TG instead of reading about it yet again.  Just in case though, I should mention here that she used to be in Deadline and that the movie was a disappointment. Got that?

I read a bunch of the original Tank Girl stories last year, while I was supposed to be studying. The art was bonkers and fun; the stories were entertaining nonsense which didn't much bear much close examination. I could see why it became so popular, but it's definitely not like other comics - there's nothing there for people who like to fret about continuity or even character.  Tank Girl is just a really cool idea.

So what should we expect from her Megazine outing? I don't know about you, but I just want fun and a bit of cool art.  What do we get? Definitely fun involving big tanks, underpants, explosions, the kangaroo guy and TG herself, looking as cute as ever.  This story is a bit more restrained and coherent than the original stories.  I liked the silly puns ("jack knife! Bread knife!  Swiss Army Knife!").  Here's hoping that the colour scheme gets it together and branches out beyond blue and black with a spot of red.  I could see Dayglo doing some great bonkers black and white stuff with it if he wanted to.

All up the return of Tank Girl is a triumph and if it isn't the raging success it'll be because the moment is passed, not because there was anything lacking in this story or in the idea of more Tank Girl comics.

Me, I'm hanging out for more.

Wiierd - Part 4 Script: Alan Grant Art: Boo Cook Letters: Simon Bowland

Anderson visits her monkey...

Synopsis: Anderson is fighting for her life inside Hyven while Aicer is finding out just how much money the Justice Department makes with Hyven. Anderson finally manages to escape by calling once again for the monkey and realises that it represents the conscious mind of Hyven - which is trying to hide inside the machine. Outside, Walker knocks out Aicer and Davro and plugs them both into Hyven. Once in, Aicer tells Anderson that one of the citizens plugged into Hyven is a perp psi - and he's started crossing into other realities and killing people, Now he's shaping Hyven to his own horrific manner...

AF: Wiierd is good this month. Setting a Sci Fi strip in a virtual reality parlour is asking for trouble, especially when a 2000 AD nostalgia factor is added in, but somehow Grant has managed to tread this tightrope and after a little wobble looks to be safe. The conspiracy and betrayal has been revealed, the monkey computer has come into its own, and Boo Cook is getting to draw some great scenes. Granted, some of this episode is a little talking headsy, with the excuse that Virtual Reality needs no backgrounds, but I was all set to call foul on that until the final spread of a twisted Mega City 1.

I'm not entirely sold on Cook's wonky humans and their plain faces, but he draws a hell of a monkey, and he's currently 2000 ADs premiere artist for massive scenes of buildings, aliens, weirdness and everything that Massimo Belardinelli used to do (come to think of it, he wasn't much cop at humans, either...) 

FK: In a way it's very gutsy of  Alan Grant to even look at the premise for this story. 'A man is trapped in a virtual-reality prison' is one of the standard examples of a dud future shock given out by 2000AD to aspiring writers.  Of course, Grant is not aspiring and he's perfectly capable of giving us interesting slants on old premises.

In this particular virtual world, the problem is the same as all the other ones; ie nothing is real so the writer has to come up with a reason for us giving two hoots for the outcome. In this case, the reasons for caring are  a stronger Psi  in the world and outside it - gasp! - we don't know who the baddy is. It's the old stand by of virtual worlds will whoever the bad guy is be found out? Will they just turn a switch and kill Anderson forever or trap her in the virtual world? If they trap her there, she should be  pretty comfortable, what with all the time she spends in dreams and or comas.  Gasp again - we've found the baddy, and not a moment too soon.  So far, so good - there are things to be interested in here, if nothing really astounding.

Build a Better Mousetrap Script: Alan Grant Art: Boo Cook Letters: Simon Bowland

Taking a rest break...

Synopsis: Dexter Better worked for Ideogasm, the company responsible for coming up with Mega City One's crazes. He's managed to stay with the company for three years without cracking up, but he was running out of ideas. He finally breaks when one of his co-workers reveals a mousetrap as the next big thing. Dexter kills him and tekes the idea including little robo mice to the board. The mice and traps are a sensation, until Dexter flicks a switch turning them all to killer rats. Dexter is finally killed by judges when he tries to unleash his rats in a maternity ward....

AF: There's not much to say here apart form that it's another fine entry in the Megazine's own one-off series. I've enjoyed pretty much every Tale, but this is outstanding. It takes one of my favourite Judge Dredd conceits - that idea that Future Shock turns ordinary citizens into raving murderers - and has a lot of fun with it. One suspects that with the 'idea a minute' bit Ewing is somewhat mocking his own approach to Future Shock-style storytelling, but you don;t need to get this joke to enjoy the story.

Jackademus is a shockingly underused artist in the comics world, and I'm glad to see him getting more work from the Meg. Like Cook, I'm not always sold on his faces (unless they're showing extreme emotion), but his craggy Caretaker is faultless, and he pulls off some neat tricks with eyes. 

FK: I have a dream for a really awful Australian 2000AD spin-off. It would be shorter, wider and fatter than 2000AD and would be only black and white.The only thing in it would be 2000AD once-offs - Future Shocks, Time Twisters, Pulp Fictions, Future Shorts, and even Tales of Telguuth. Sounds dire doesn't it? I mention this daydream, not to attract any millionaire Australian publishers who may be reading (mind you, funding Floydster Shocks or whatever I'd call it, would be a lot more rational than many things our billionaire magazine publisher and Scientologist James Packer has done lately, but to introduce a Tales From the Black Museum which is a pleasure to review.

This months Tales of the black etcetera reminds me of my imaginary spin-off because of course I'd want Tales From in there. I'd especially want Build a Better Mousetrap, which has everything a good Future Shock needs. Cynicism, violence, MC1 wackiness are all served up with a soupcon of a good twist I didn't spot.Well, not really. By the time I got there, it didn't completely flabbergast me, but that's okay.

I'm not sure about the location of this story in the Megazine. On the one hand putting it at the very end is perfect for the reviewer who has waded through God knows how many explanations of Tank Girl and reviews he doesn't really need to read to get here. This story lifts the spirits and gives me hope for the future. So what if Anderson doesn't really grab me? So what if Batman: Dark Knight is already reviewed in the free local paper in my local pizza shop? Here is a brilliant little Black Museum story and now I know everything is going to be alright.

Nice, dark art too.

Jock collection
History of Adult Comics
Alan Martin Interview
Samurai Jack
New Movies
Rufus Dayglo Interview

AF: Well, it's the Tank Girl show as we get the first part of a look at British comics for adults, which is excellent and informative, and includes, yes, a large box-out about everyone's (apparently) favourite heroine. Then there's an interview with Rufus Dayglo, which includes a fair section on a certain new work assignment. And then there's an interview with Alan Martin, creator of you-know-who. Each piece is fine in its own right, but one wonders whether the Megazine may have blown its entire Tank Girl wad in one load... 

Alec Worley (whose name I've noticed in recent issues of Total Film, and who appears to be young enough to hold a Young Person's railcard, the bastard) does his usual sterling job with the film reviews, and picks out Samurai Jack - a cartoon I can wholeheartedly recommend (although the Clone Wars cartoon is a mess). 

Now, wait, is there something else? Oh yes, my Megazine came through the door in a plastic bag, with another comic (sorry, graphic novel) attached.

The Jock collection is in itself fine. I like Jock's work. But he's got a lot better since these early Dredds of his. The stories are a solid collection of comedy/poignant Dredds, but the collection itself is inessential; frankly I'm not that into the idea of artist (or even writer)-led collections. As for the package, well, it's been the focus of some debate on the forums here. As a sample for readers of the Megazine who haven't been reading for long, it's superb. For long-termers and completists, I'd say it's not great. Better than having the same amount of reprint bound into the Megazine itself, but otherwise it's just like the Extreme Editions but thinner. Putting it in 'trade dress' doesn't mean much without a spine... Still, I'm happy to pay extra to get such collections, and some of the reprints to come (Snow/Tiger, Canon Fodder) deserve to be seen again although they probably wouldn't make any money as full trades. 

FK: I was told to do the non-comic stuff as 'one chunk'.  Easy for you to say, Mr. Editor, thinks I, the fact is they aren't one chunk. Or are they? One golden thread running through the text stuff here is Tank Girl.   Did you know that Tank Girl was an indie comic of the 1990s comics boom? Did you know that the strip was very very successful but that the movie wasn't much chop?  If you don't, you're really going to know it after this Megazine.

Do you have ADHD? I think I'm too old for ADHD myself -  what I have is probably early onset Alzheimer's or just vagueness, but whatever it is, the constant repetitive descriptions of Tank Girl's career don't help that 'haven't I read this before?' feeling.  Do the Megazine people know that I'm so forgetful that I need to be told about TG twice in the same issue? Is the intervening comic so thrilltastic that I'm likely to forget and be told again? 

Pigeonhiling my afflictions, let's add it up; page 20 and we get told about Tank Girl. It was in Deadline, it was very successful, all sorts of pop stars liked it, there was a movie, the movie sucked, but it's coming back.  Page 21, there are a couple of pictures of Tank Girl, which is good. Page 21, there's another (very good) Tank Girl picture and we are told that Tank Girl was really important to Deadline.   On pages 29-31, we have a Tank Girl story which will be reviewed later on.  Shockingly, Skidmarks  doesn't tell us about Tank Girl's early success, Deadline and the movie, but we'll get that later.  On page 33, we hear that Rufus Dayglo is working on Tank Girl.  Pages 46 to 48 tell us that TG 'first burst into life' in the pages of Atomtan and then was in Deadline and that the movie was pretty bad.

All this repetition is a useful service for people like me who might have forgotten the TG facts we need to make it through the month (after all it's been thirteen pages since we were last told), but I worry that the younger and less mental readers might resent all this print space being used up to help people like me.   Part way through the interview with Alan Martin, it struck me that there was an awful lot of luck in Tank Girl's success.  Like other phenomenon such as the Crazy Frog, Smiley Buttons, coke bottles, and the Spice Girls it may well have been just the look.

At least Alec Worley's film reviews leave TG out and just deliver the familiar blend of Stuff I Want To Know About (there's a new Asterix movie, what the Hellboy movie is like) and Stuff I've Heard Almost As Often As I've Heard About Tank Girl.  In the latter category is the information that there's a new Batman movie in which Heath Ledger is pretty good.  Worley is in the 'Ledger is a genius and it's not just a bunch of scenery-chewing which is overrated because he died' camp, which would have been interesting about fifteen Dark Knight reviews ago.  The 'Get Smart' review was equally unnecessary.  Worley is right about the movie being a bit too efficient, but, as with Dark Knight, by the time I read of this in the Megazine, I've read so much about it I no longer care.   True, Worley's is the first Dark Knight review I've read which mentions Watchmen. 

Looking on the bright side, the Chunk also gives us some very nice early Steve Dillon artwork and interesting information about Deadline and the rest of the early-90s indie scene.  Worley does a sweet little article about Samurai Jack which explains very readably why SJ is genius. That's great stuff and I'm going to get the DVD set as soon as I can find a way of pretending it's a present for my son. 

I love Rufus Dayglo's art dearly and the interview with him gives us some good examples of it.   That 'Dredd leads the charge' picture that opens the article is terrific.  Having said that, the interview isn't that interesting.   Dayglo seems like a nice person with a sensible attitude to his art... and that's about it really.

Free Graphic Novel: Judge Dredd: The Jock Collection

That said, there's some lovely stuff here.The stark cover of Dredd's face is very impressive - why can't the person who arranged this do the Megazine covers? More Jock awesomeness awaits on the inside over with another chunky Dredd holding a big law book. The Shirley Temple Of Doom is a great story. As Jock's art goes, it's not my favourite, although the murdered man in the fountain is an arresting image. Crossing Ken Dodd is a one-joke yarn, by Wagner. There's not much to it. My first thought was that a story like this needs an Ian Gibson, but on reflection Jock really suits all the action madness that goes on for most of the story. Rampots is Jon Wagner in simple parody mode. Safe Hands is Gordon Rennie having fun with that perennial Mega City One theme of robots going bonkers. Ten Years is something else - both for the story, which really does have a heart, and the artwork which gves us some really affecting characters who perfectly match the story.

AF: A curious re-launch-type issue, with Dredd and Anderson mid-story. The much-hyped Tank Girl is the least good thing in the comic, but it's still fun and as I say I hope it gets more readers in. The other three stories are on top form right now, so it's as good a time as any to hook in the unwary. 

Best story: Judge Dredd. 

FK:

Best story: Ratfink followed ever so closely by Tales From the Black Museum