Judge Dredd Megazine 285 - 20 June 2009

Cover by Sean Phillips

Richmond Clements: The first thing you think is ‘Wow! Sean Phillips!” And yeah, it’s a great image alright- it might even pull in the odd lapsed reader who remembers Armitage from the Olden Days.  I don’t really care that the man himself doesn’t actually appear in the strip inside- it’s a damned fine cover.

Charles Ellis: It’s a nice, dynamic cover with a popular character on it. Unfortunately, if you buy the issue you’ll find Armitage himself isn’t IN it, so it’s cheating a bit. 

Psycho-Block - Part 2 Script: John Wagner Art: Colin Wilson Colours: Chris Blythe Letters:Annie Parkhouse

Dredd smells something off...

Synopsis: Buck is given a sedative, and is unable to talk to Dredd when he arrives. The Doctor in charge tells the guard, Mc Bride, that it'd be best if Buck hanged himself before he met with Dredd again. McBride goes to help Buck along, but while struggling with Buck, he has a heart attack. Buck takes his clothes and a coder on the uniform allows him past the robot guards. He finally finds Gully, who has been turned into an insectoid monster...

RC: I just had a revelation about this strip. It’s a good, possibly great, script, but the problem is that it’s written by John Wagner. “Problem?” you say, “How is that a problem?” 

Well, let me explain. 

The problem is that, for me at least, when I see Wagner’s name on a Dredd story, I need (I don’t think that too strong a word) it to be about the ongoing mutant saga!  That said, this is a hell of a tale. There’s twists and turns aplenty and stuff, like the warden dying, where I can absolutely say I did not see it coming.

And as if that wasn’t enough, you’ve got Colin Wilson delivering the goods with terrific art, complemented by some damned clever colouring by Blythe. 

And that’s one hell of a cliffhanger... 

CE:We’re in for another slow-burner of a Wagner story here, it seems. As usual with these, there’s a good build-up of tension and atmosphere. The art’s suitably grimy and dark, with an extremely nasty final page when we see Gulley in all his drooling glory; it fits the strip well. Kudos as well to Wagner for being able to make the reader identify and empathise with an unrepentant child murderer, even as he reminds us constantly of what Buck did.  

The only negative is McBride’s sudden heart attack; yeah, Wagner did set it up, but it still comes across as a lazy way to get Buck out of danger. 

Who Do The Voodoo That You Do? Script: Tony Lee Art: Vince Locke Colours: Fiona Staples Letters: Simon Bowland

Surely he could come up with something more sinister..?

Synopsis: Pitzo Throom is an organ legger, who captures and kills a voodoo priest, Papa Vaudou, selling his parts for money. However, remembering that Vaudou cursed him, he drank himself into a stupor - only to awake with the priest's arm replacing his own and the corpse of Vaudou ordering him to get his parts back and rebuild his body. Pitzo gets the parts back, killing those who had taken them - leading the judges straight to him. He eventually cuts his own arm off and is shot by the judges - after which it seems he was imagining the whole thing...

RC: The most notable thing about this strip is the huge leap forward that Davis-Hunt’s work has taken since Stalag 666. His panel layouts have improved 100%, and there’s a depth and atmosphere to his colouring that was not evident previously. Yes, his figure drawing still needs work- but that’s true of any artist, isn’t it? Keep feeding his scripts, Tharg!

And the script? It’s a marked improvement on the distinctly average effort from Mr Lee last month. Yes, yes, Telltale Heart and all that - but it’s a solid tale, well told. 

CE: I feel so ashamed for not seeing that twist in advance! It’s such an obvious twist… and somehow Tony Lee stopped me from twigging it, so the strip already has that going for it. Add in lashings of tongue-in-cheek humour and over-the-top violence, and it’s a fun strip.

Hunt, meanwhile, continues to prove that he’s a go-to guy when you want something extremely gory drawn. 

Tank Girl Land Script: Alan Martin Art: Rufus Dayglo Letters: Simon Bowland

Tank Girl gets into the entertainment business...

Synopsis: Tank Girl has built a theme park dedicated to herself and is showing Booga around. But this just attracts all the people that Tank Girl has pissed off, and they're out for her blood. However, Barney using live rounds on the duck shoot, a rocket ride covered in blades, and a rollercoaster leading off a cliff dispatches with the unruly mob. The park is destroyed, but was just a trap for those who hated her - and she reveals the money was really spent on Tank Girl Universe World!

RC: This strip certainly works a lot better in one episode, rather than have the joke stretched over many months. 

That being said, Tank Girl is not my thing at all. Yeah - I can see how it’s funny, in much the same way I can see You’ve Been Framed or something is funny, but I’m afraid I just don’t ‘get it’. 
But- and let me be clear about this- Tank Girl absolutely belongs in the Megazine. 

I love Rufus’ work on this- it amuses me when people say it looks half finished or whatever, because they clearly do not know how much work is involved in making something look so easy. 
Having said that... I think this episode is in danger of veering too far into a patting our own back self-referentialisim. 

CE: We’ll never be free of it! Arrrg! Luckily, this is just a one-off strip, it neither outstays its welcome or cops out with the ending like Skidmarks. The art remains the big reason why I keep reading Tank Girl – all the little details, sight-gags, and scribbled sentences in the margins sell this as a Beano strip with guts and swearing. 

The Mancunian Candidate - Part One Script: Dave Stone Art: John Cooper Letters: Ellie De Ville

Tricks of the trade...

Synopsis: Mr Timson is going through his normal work routine in Placement Operations, finding people jobs, as Brit Cit promises full employment. However, he meets his match when an un-named woman, whose details are even classified after a biomorphic ID, visits him. She appears to have been programmed as an assassin, but has stopped receiving orders. She's looking for a new job and is given one at a correctional facility. She starts her first day well by choking a threatening prisoner and then giving him an emergency traecotomy...

RC: This is another strip that I’m not a particular fan of. I usually find it hard to follow from month to month, and the fact that it’s populated by characters I find hard to like makes it all the more difficult.  Still- it should be there, of course. And this week is not bad, though the first couple of pages in particular feel like a bit of padding to help it make to the 10 pages required.

Cooper’s art too, is much improved since this strip last had an outing. 

All in all, this is intriguing enough stuff, and I can only hope that it still manages to maintain my interest when Armitage himself blusters in..! 

CE:Now this is good stuff. In nine pages we get some world building, a hilariously stuffy jobsworth, the introduction of a villain, the start of a sinister plot, and some menace. It'd be nicer if Armitage made an appearance, justifying his cover appearance, but it manages to function quite well without him. “Miss” is intimidating sociopathic – that happy face! Arrrg! The scene with Timson becoming increasingly terrified is engrossing, though it’s not quite clear why he knows what she is.

Looking forward to seeing where this goes! 

John Higgins on Dredd
Richard Elson Interview
Dave Stone Interview
Rift War Review
New Movies

RC: Two superb highlights this month- the interview with the brilliant Richard Elson is a great read, but for god sake man - you’re great, accept it! 

The other is the utterly superb collection of John Higgins strips. I’ve already got Last of the Bad Guys in two other collections already (whatever annual it originally appear in and in the Crime Files), but it is so utterly sublime that it’s a joy to pour over the incredible artwork again. 

Other stuff- All good. But... 24?  

CE: The film reviews remain fun stuff, so it’s a bit of a pisser Worley’s leaving; the Rift War and 24 reviews are alright, but skippable. It’s the interviews with Stone and Elson that are the highlights though – both creators are extremely blunt and forthcoming about their careers, their skills, and how they view their job, and I was certainly surprised to learn Marauder was drawn by methods Elson hadn’t used before then (it looks so accomplished!). And it’s always fun to see someone bringing up Sonic the Comic and how good it was! 

The reprints contain the very fun Bad Guys and the sublime Generation Killer, with the latter being a great example of the six-page Dredd. The other reprints let it down though: The Blob is alright, though a bit average, but Scales Of Justice never seems to click and isn’t that clear half the time.  

RC: A solid Meg, with no real complaints from me. Yes, there are a couple of strips I don’t get on with - but plenty of other folks do, so that’s cool. And I’ll miss Mr Worley on the movies too. 

Best story: Judge Dredd

GH: It’s a good issue for the most part, with Dredd, Armitage, and Elson’s interrogation as the highlights. However, the uneven reprints are a bit annoying – when we’re paying five quid for the Meg, we like to hope as much of it as possible will be a winner. 

Best story: Judge Dredd