Thursday 19 September 2013

Meg 228 - Hit The Deck!


(Link to BARNEY)

Good, solid Greg Staples cover this one. I do love his Dredds where the face is in darkness. Something quite sinister about it...

And, unusually, this was the only appearance of Dredd in the whole issue! Yep, he didn't appear once in his own comic! Ok, if you want to be pedantic, he made an appearance in the grud-awful Dredd Files, but I mean in the comic strips themselves. In the "Dredd" episode was the return of the rather wonderful character Kenny Who? - the frustrated artist and comic book creator who never seems to catch a break. This story, Who? Dares Wins, starts with a slightly odd opening and I was a little confused by it (Dredd was called Dread - eh?). But it all became apparent as our Kenny, once again, sets off for the Big Meg to make his fortune. A Wagner script with Cam Kennedy on art duties - lovely stuff...

A new Shimura kicked of called Deus X, with Robbie Morrison continuing to write the character and Andy Clarke on pens. Hondo is under a reign of terror from shadowy organisation Deus X - and top of their assassination list are Inspector Inaba and Shimura himself. As with all Robbie's stuff, it was a good opening episode building up the storyline and introducing the key players. Looking forward to the next episode of this.

In the Young Middenface story Killoden the muties have massed at Killoden Theme Park to make their stand against the Kreelers. This would seem to be a set up for a last stand type battle, and the writing looks very much on the wall for the muties. Do they have any last tricks up their sleeves? Not a huge amount of action in this one, but am hoping for a big payoff next time.

Still spooky goings on in the Andersion story Lock-In. As more succumb to this strange malady, including the dead, Anderson is in a race to discover the source. Enjoying this story more than the previous Andersons, probably to do with the fact that Anderson is actually in it, and am genuinely intrigued as to how it will conclude. I don't know how long this story will go on for, but as much as I love Anderson, I am feeling a little fatigued with her current story arc. Let's see what the next episode brings...

Enjoyed the second part of The Bogie Man, and this time our hero (or anti-hero?) hits the streets in search of Viktor who is being held by the Gestapo, with the lovely Ilsa by his side. Or, in actuality, the escaped immigrant is trying to take him to where her friends and family are being held captive. Good fun this strip, I'm liking it. As I mentioned last time, it takes some skills to weave the world of Clunie's Casblanca with the real world, and Grant and Wagner do this very well. I like Robin Smith's art too.

And three cheers from me for the return of Cursed Earth Koburn in a one-off story called Burial Party. The death of one of their own brings the Cursed Earth judges together for the traditional wake and burial ceremony, which pretty much sees them drinking heavily and swapping stories. It is an induction of sorts for Koburn's new partner, Bonaventura, as she gets used to her new world. No action to speak of, but I enjoyed nonetheless, as we find out a lot more about these Cursed Earth judges. Rennie and Ezquerra on duty as per usual.

After the highs of illustrating America, Colin MacNeil struggles to find his mojo as he recounts his life story to David Bishop in Interrogation. It was a thoroughly interesting read, though, and Colin has since gone on to illustrate some more lovely stuff for 2000AD, including the recent Day of Chaos story arc (and I am luck enough to own a few of his pieces which you can view on my CAF Gallery). The other text article was a history of Modesty Blaise. I did have a go at reading this, but with no connection to the character, gave up. I skipped the Heatseekers Cult TV and Orient sections, although I did read Movies as I do like post-apocalyptic films. I got through Spurrier's article - just. Comics introduced me to a strip called Hard Time, about a young lad spending life in prision. Sounded quite good. Gordon trailed off a bit in his regular column You're Next, Punk as he chose to tackle the various stereotypical ways comics handle foreign nationals. It was back to recounting comic characters again - so not as good as his previous couple of rants...

In the reprints, Charley's War will now go on a break for a few issues. It finished in this issue with the conclusion of the Battle of the Somme. I wonder what will replace it next issue (Lord Barnes isn't saying - the cheeky devil). The Metro Dredd came and went. Actually, I'd forgotten about Metro Dredd! Hah! So Dredd did appear in his own comic!

And finally... Dreddlines was full of people admiring Anderson's curves and nipples from last weeks cover. Why don't they just buy Nuts magazine?

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