Reviewer: Will Cooling
Writers: John Wagner, John Smith and Si Spurrier
Artists: Henry Flint, Colin MacNeil and Frazer Irving
Colourists: Chris Blythe and Colin MacNeil
Letters: Tom Frame and Annie Parkhouse
Editor: Alan Barnes
Publisher: Rebellion
Now what’s worse than it being your birthday part and no one turns up?
How about it’s your birthday and you don’t turn up!?!
Well that’s what happened to the Meg, as its 15th Birthday issue was delayed by two weeks due to printing error. Now I say delayed, but many dodgy copies were still knocking around on newsagent shelves across the country…say last Friday when a certain someone went and brought his copy of Judge Dredd Megazine after waiting patiently for two weeks to get his hands on the Mega-goodness.
Bugger, f***, crap, dammit, bollocks, etc!
So this is a review of an iffy copy, I have read a not iffy copy and it’s like two pages different so instead of delaying doing this review again (and the 15th Birthday celebration columns Floyd and myself have done) I thought “ah screw it, let’s review it anyway”. And that of course leads us to this here review.
Well the big selling point has to be a 36 page complete Judge Dredd story called Flood’s 13 by Wagner and Flint. Now 36 pages of Henry Flint’s “better than sex on a stick” artwork is enough to make hoot and howl like any nattily dressed talking wolf but good heavens I had to take a cold shower when its harnessed by such an ball bustlingly excellent story as< I>Flood’s 13. Unsurprisingly it’s a parody of Ocean’s 11 (I know, shocking isn’t it) with uber criminal Jonny Flood finally being released after a looong stretch in prison. However, proving that harsh punitive sentencing doesn’t work unless its married with a strong emphasis on vocational re-education he promptly falls of the wagon. He strays from the straight and narrow because after all a leopard nether changes his spots. In other words he attempts to get his own back on the pigs who put him in the hokey by organizing the biggest robbery in Meg history. He and his gang are going to rob The Mirage which contains all the taxes from the past year that Mega-City One’s foreign territories have paid the Big Meg. What followed is hilarious adventure featuring crooks, anal accountants, made cultists and an impatient and perhaps constipated Dredd. Okay he’s not really constipated but he sure is pissed, because he wants to get on the streets and boogie! You never seen Dredd bust a move? Believe me, you want to see Dredd bust a move.
Ahem.
Anyway, this is a very, very good story. Wagner expertly uses the extra space to develop the jokes and character development that bit more and this story certainly benefits from being told in one big chunk. Whilst it is slightly inconsequential and throwaway for the Meg’s big anniversary, it’s a rollicking good action story and can we ask for anymore? What’s more Henry Flint’s artwork is freaking amazing, that little bit extra oomph, smoothness and flow he discovered with Total War is equally in evidence with this story. Just beautiful stuff!
So what else do we have, well have the final part of the Devlin Waugh story All Hell and a complete Simping Detective story called Fifteen. Now dealing with the camp vamp first, here we see Devlin’s gruelling journey to the very depths of hell resolved in a gruesome manner. Now personally I’m really beginning to wonder whether John Smith gets to appeal of Devlin Waugh, I mean if you look at Swimming In Blood he was this OTT, hedonistic, outrageously gay as well camp and f*cking awesome in fisticuffs. Sure the occult nonsense was fun but I’d rather seen Devlin pause in the middle of World War Five for tea or make a pass at Judge Dredd than see the big bad demons getting their comeuppance in a disgustingly blatantly heterosexual way. Now don’t get me wrong it’s a good, powerful end to a good, powerful story but 2000AD is full of good, powerful stories and has very little outrageously camp ones. That’s what I want Waugh to be not some sad old fruit sobbing over the death of his friend or what have you.
Now Si Spurrier on the other hand gets the appeal of his lead character, which like Devlin is his voice baby. That beautiful, whisky and tobacco stained caustic wit. Spurrier just has that knack of dropping you into story and with one line BAM the mood is set, Point’s made you laugh and the reader is all set for a bloody good time. And Spurrier makes it look so effortless, he drops one of these lines of dialogue like a fashion label drops Kate Moss or I drop her boyfriend off a great big f***ing cliff (f***ing smackhead tosser). Just beautifully easy! I mean there’s more, you get great character interaction between Point and Thorpe, the ongoing storyline between Point and his corrupt boss Daveez is furthered and he does this whilst still giving an engrossing one of story. The guy’s a bloody genius I swear, now all he needs to do is give us the Gorilla sex and we’ll be all set. C’mon it didn’t do any damage to Brian Michael Bendis.
Anyway what about the art for these two stories, well again you have a case of one good and one great. Colin MacNeil’s art on Waugh suffers from much the same problem as Smith’s scripts, it’s far too understated to get the best out of the character. I mean you want Waugh to be a big guy, after all he’s pumping steroids 24/7 and yet he’s no physical specimen. Like I’ve must’ve read about 100 pages of MacNeil’s Waugh and never once have I wanted to blow Waugh and that’s just wrong. Waugh should be one sexy beast. I mean don’t get me wrong he’s no IAIN but he should be damn sexy none the less. Again its not bad art, he tackles the thrilling and manly conclusion to this dark, dark, dark title to his ever-excellent standards. However, I just don’t think it’s a suitable title for him. Now Fraze Irving on the other hand was born to do Simping Detective, he just gets the character like that. His style is perfect for Simping Detective, right down to the seedy bars, scary reptiles, gorgeous women and the clown at the heart of the story. Anyone who has read anything I’ve said by Irving knows that I consider him an absolute genius and his art on this series proves me dead right.
The final item in our whistle stop and slightly shambolic tour of Judge Dredd Megazine 237 is the beginning of David Bishop’s history of Judge Dredd Megazine. Now before I start, it has to be said that it is very, very questionable to get the man that has played the pivotal role in its development for the first 10 years of its life to write a history of the title. I mean how can he be impartial or objective when it comes writing about the title’s history? What’s more didn’t they notice that the predecessor of this series Thrill Power Overload became a whole lot less interesting when David Bishop had to cover David Bishop’s editorship of 2000AD, largely due to his inability to discerningly select material. Now that said, Bishop is a very good writer and he does write quite a good history of the early years of the Meg but I just can’t help that he’s the wrong choice for this series.
So overall, this is not a Meg without flaws but overall it’s a pretty satisfying issue although it could be argued it lacks the “special quality” that you may expect from an anniversary issue. Still it’s a good comic with two cracking stories, one good but should be better/different story and an interesting if flawed text feature. So all round, its pretty damn good.
