Judge Dredd Megazine 275 - 14 November 08

Cover by Rufus Dayglo

Hugh Platt: With her second cover in two months, I guess they really want to make sure they get the mileage out of Tank Girl, huh? Rufus Dayglo’s certainly managed to channel the spirit of Jamie Hewlett here, but managed to give it his own stamp too. 

Ratfink - Part 5 Script: John Wagner Art: Peter Doherty Letters:Annie Parkhouse

Dredd tries a new tactic...

Synopsis: Dredd and the judges capture Ratfink, but he won't tell them where he's hidden Rodkill's sister. Later at night, Roskill appears to go crazy, shooting all the judges and letting Ratfink go so that he can be taken to his sister. However, Roskill is shot by Dredd and Ratfink escapes alone. It's a ruse, of course, and Ratfink leads them straight to her, and they rescue her and capture Ratfink - who swears revenge.

HP: The final part of Ratfink is all about the double-bluff – the only people fooled by Dredd’s attempt to cheat the location of Epiphany Roskill out of Ratfink by promising to let him go are us readers. Ratfink’s sneering spit back of Dredd’s offer really captures the mean strak running through the radioactive redneck. Then just a page later Wagner gets us again, this time with Roskill’s fake Judge-shooting. Wagner keeps us on the back foot right up to the moment Ratkink is being walked into the H-Wagon. 

With Ratfink, truly the most unpleasant villain Dredd has had in a long time (and that’s a good thing) making it to the end of story still breathing, there’s an open door for Mega City-1 latest grotesquery to make a return. Let’s just hope he gets kept in the cubes long enough that his comeback feels as caustic as his debut.

Skidmarks - Part 3 - The Watermelon Run Script: Alan Martin Art: Rufus Dayglo Letters: Simon Bowland

Barney takes a tumble...

Synopsis: As Booga takes them into a dark tunnel, we flashback to find out howe Barney got inursed - by sliding an impossible bannister on a board given to her by Dee Dee Ramone. Now, as Dee Dee Ramone and Jet Girl have entered the race as back up, Tank Gurls is lost in the Dark tunnels, hallucinating, and gremilns appear to be taking her tank apart...

HP: I get that Tank Girl isn’t really meant to make a whole lot of sense. I get that it’s meant to be about sensory overload, about smacking the reader silly with demented open-palm hand slaps. And I get that Tank Girls presence in the Meg is a major coup – after Dredd himself, she’s probably the most iconic, some might say iconoclastic, British comic character. 

But it’s not for me. Even with a plot that’s ten times more coherent than anything from the classic Tank Girl era, this is the third months the strip has just seemed to stand around in the corner, looking very pretty but lacking anything to say. 

Rig - Part 2 Script: Dan Abnett Art: Steve Roberts Letters: Ellie De Ville

Saul-T gets a cult following...

Synopsis: Their captors appear to be the mutated descendents of the original rig crew and are processing mutant whale blubber. Mermansk has understood some of their langiage and knows they're being accused of murder. Saul T breaks them out and the captain tries to make his peace with the rig dewllers. He finds out that three of the tribe have been killed by what looks like electrocution - and they soon discover that it's the floating ducks that they've been seeing that has been doing the killing.

HP: I wish this were in colour. Steve Roberts is one of the better humour artists Rebellion have access to these days, and by restricting him to greys it seems to leech the life out of this strip. I’d have loved to have seen what that Leviathan double-page spread would’ve looked like in full colour. 

Okay, so the plot is equal parts derivative of Alien, and that bit in Return of The Jedi when the Ewoks see C3-PO for the first time. Dan Abnett’s script glimmers rather than sparkles, without the gumption or gung-ho of something like The Red Seas. The motley crew that Captain Teach has under his command needs something stronger to give them a life of their own. 

Biophyle - Part 1 Script: Alan Grant Art: Boo Cook Letters: Simon Bowland

Anderson gets slow in her old age...

Synopsis: Anderson is chasing a criminal who ends up getting killed by some carniverous plants - in an apartment belonging to Fogella Zuwickipedia. Foggy looks like she's been planning a bio-attack and is now on the run. She decides to head to the Hanging Garden Centre of Babylon - but Anderson isn't far behind...

HP: It’s good to see Anderson given a case that doesn’t see her probing into another plane of existence for a change – her last outing seemed too reminiscent of her coma years – and given a chance to roam a beat on the Mean Streets of MC-1 for a change. Add to that the glorious anachronism of thought bubbles – here they adding to the sense of psychosis of Fogwella Zuwickipedia, as if she’s her muttering her plans over and over to herself, and you’ve got a cracking opening episode. 

Boo Cook’s palette reminds me of Ian Gibson’s take on Mega City-1, and his restraint for most of the strip merely boosts the impact of the bug feast and the first look at the Hanging Garden Centre of Babylon. 

Law Con
History of Adult Comics
Futsie's Corner
Chuck
The Punisher
New Movies

HP: Lawcon. I missed this the first time round and I never knew that this was how Castillo ended up dying. Elson’s Rothman looks far too baby-faced – in my mind he’s always had a more old-before-his-time Richard Nixon look going on, but overall this makes me want to see him given another big Dredd again. There’s a crispness to his work that works well in an all-action romp. 

I can help but think that the selection of Word Of Law to complete this volume is Tharg having a joke – I mean, this is the definitive Robbie Morrison crying-children Dredd. It’d be quite a good tale if Morrison’s Dredd works since then hadn’t seemed to camp up that aspect so ludicrously. 

Articles. It’s been a good month for the articles too – Alec Worley’s piece on The Punisher intrigued me enough to invest in some Ennis collections, and his Futsie column, while not carrying the barely-bridled ire of Gordon Rennie’s, would be a welcome regular to my Meg. The movie features feel stronger too, seemingly continuing the trend of sticking two fingers up at what might be going on down the multiplex and instead concentrating on things that would have slipped through the cracks in more mainstream media.

While I feel like the final part of Ed Berridge’s Four Colour Classics piece on British Adult Comics doesn’t tell me anything that I’ve not read in the, oh say, hundreds of other articles written on the same subject, it was worth it alone for Garth Ennis’ dissection of Pat Mills – he could almost be taking about Mills’ current writing in the prog… 

I can only assume You Should Be Watching was all they could find to fill up some necessary page space, because I can’t see any other need for it.

HP: A solid month, with some great strips book-ending some capable ones, combined with a better-than-average month for the added ephemera, and the Meg is heading towards year’s end in a position of strength.

Best story: Judge Dredd