The Monthly Megazine Issue 467: Armitage Is Back On Duty In A Brit-Cit Robo Takeover Caper

Welcome once more to the Monthly Megazine – doing just what it says, taking you through the latest goings-on in the sister monthly to 2000 AD.

Yep, let’s start off with John McCrea‘s cover – all of his work recently on the covers for 2000 AD seems to have this wonderful looseness and energy to it, and this one with Armitage is no exception.

Inside, we have the start of that cover-featured Armitage tale by Liam Johnson and Warren Pleece, plus four other new tales – continuations of the great DeMarco noir and the final part in this story arc of the Cal-Hab-based Harrower Squad. Then there’s a new one-off Devlin Waugh story and a brand new done-in-one Dredd.

With the reprints, we have more IDW Judge Dredd, more Titan Comics Hook Jaw, and the Treasury of British Comics reprint focuses on the 40 Years of Scream! complete collection. Alongside all this, there’s a look at new books from Chris Weston and Paul Cornell and Rachael Smith, plus interviews with Igor Goldkind, Steve Kyte, and Ian Rimmer.

Yep, that’s quite a lot to fit into the 132 page monthly Megazine. This latest was out on 17th April, which means I’m just that little bit behind myself once more! It should still be on the shelves of wherever you get your fine comics from in the UK and will be out sometime whenever it manages to get over in the Americas, definitely an idea to get your local comic shop to special order it for you.

JUDGE DREDD: ESCALATION – by Mike Carroll and Paul Marshall, colours by Dylan Teague, letters by Annie Parkhouse.

Another of Carroll’s done-in-one Dredds now, joined this time by Paul Marshall giving us a fine bit of chin and attitude from the off.

Dredd’s paying a house call and wants to speak to the master of the house. Sadly, said master of the house isn’t available so it’s down to the robo-butler to deal with Dredd. Suffice to say, that doesn’t really end well at all.

Lesson to learn, whenever you get a robo-butler, be sure to teach them that engaging defence mode is a really bad idea when a Judge, particularly Dredd, comes a calling.

 

It all ends as you’d expect it to, robo-butler in pieces, very nice, very expensive apartment wrecked and the owner in cuffs and off to the cubes. But it’s how Caroll and particularly Marshall get there that’s all the fun to be had in this, with a great little lightweight twist of sorts to end on. But most of the way through this it’s Marshall’s show, choreographing the fight scene through the pages with ease and style, really solid artwork that serves to set up the last couple of pages. Yes, it’s another don’t mess with the Law type tale and one of those where the cits are reminded that there’s no real justice here, but it’s a damn fine little done-in-one.

 

 

DEMARCO, P.I. – NO SMOKE – PART 3 – by Laura Bailey and Rob Richardson, letters by Simon Bowland

Turns out this one’s a four-parter, and a damn fine one it’s been as well, with Bailey and Richardson really obviously having a hell of a lot of fun with DeMarco in this noir style they’ve got going on.

Anyway, as you’d expect, Galen’s found herself in deep trouble with this latest investigation – sadly, it’s always the way – and right now she’s trying to work out just what the image she’s found means. Is it fake? Is it really a Judge off their head on pills and booze? What’s the name Rauch got to do with it all? And just how the hell does it tie into her ongoing investigation?

 

Whatever the answers, they’re going to have to wait as there’s a hired killer on her trail, duplicity and shady stuff all around her, and an ending that doesn’t bode well for her continued health and well-being.

Like I’ve been saying for every one of these Bailey and Richardson DeMarco’s, this is a damn fine little story, Bailey putting it together with enough twists to keep us all guessing yet still moving it all along with pace and excitement. Meanwhile, Richardson’s art is just a delight, seems he’s really found a sweet spot with all this gloriously dark noir fell imagery that’s seeping out of every page.

 

ARMITAGE: BULLETS FOR AN OLD MAN – PART 1 – by Liam Johnson and Warren Pleece, letters by Jim Campbell

Back to Brit Cit and the finest plainclothes detective of the Brit Cit Justice Department. Although he’s no longer technically an on-the-job detective, just another retired cop acting as a consultant called in by his ex-partner and now head of CID, Treasure Steel.

Brit-Cit CID wants him in to mine his experience and memories, a lifetime’s worth of good detective work. Of course, all this has gone down a treat with the grumpiest cop in all of Brit-Cit, especially in the new, modern face of Brit-Cit policing, a whole division of plainclothes Mechanismo robo-detectives programmed to solve crimes. Oh, you can just imagine his reaction to all that, can’t you?

The robo-tec’s are struggling with a locked room mystery death, leading Steel to pull Armitage into the case, something you see that he’s just been waiting for – turns out the grumpy bastard has missed the thrill of the case after all, if not the company…

 

The locked room mystery is but the start of it of course and Armitage solves it within a few minutes of walking in, but it’s where this one will lead that’s going to prove the meat of this.

So, what we get here is a damn good little locked room mystery that’s actually a deeper dive into all manner of things – that inevitable sense of losing yourself once you get too old, corporate incompetence and its scrap what works in favour of getting something new and shiny in to do the job, and more than anything a chance for Johnson and Pleece to play with one of the Megazine’s favourite characters. And he’s such a great character to write I’m sure, it’s something you can just feel as the dialogue comes tripping out, particularly when it comes to his delight in finding out that mechanismo Bill is the lead on the case…

‘They warned me you were a bit of a character.’
‘And you’re just playing one. So do me a favour and get out of my crime scene.’

As you’d expect, Pleece’s art is just perfect for the storyline. He’s always been the sort of artist that’s immediately recognisable and one suited to something more character-led, letting him play with the figure work and the facial expressions, grounding it all in familiar film noir trappings, a very subtle bit of sci-fi artwork that’s perfect for Armitage.

 

DEVLIN WAUGH: HOME AWAY FROM HOME – by Ales Kot and PJ Holden, colours by Jack Davies, letters by Simon Bowland

After the short ‘Nightclubbing’, Ales Kot gives us a one-off Devlin now, joined by the always great-to-see art of PJ Holden. If Nightclubbing was pure over-the-top Devlin action with a nod to what’s been going on, this is about as close to something warm and fuzzy in Devlin’s world.

It’s 10 pages of Devlin’s return to the place he first encountered the demon Titivillus and locked him into the dildo form he has now. Done through the wonderfully diverse and sometimes just out and out strange residents reminiscing about the good times and running through Devlin and Titivillus’ life and adventures whilst they were there.

 

See, it’s really only in Kot’s Devlin you’d ever have the joy of reading this line, “Have you ever seen a dildo with an axe go to work on flesh-eating macrobes from outer dimensions?” and long may it continue.

Or moments like this where the kids Devlin helped in the neighbourhood, teaching flower arranging and helping out, tell us all about the plays they used to put on…

 

Yes kids, always be sure to bury the clown well.

Anyway, what I’m saying is that Ales Kot’s Devlin may be different to John Smith’s version but that doesn’t mean that there’s so much to love here. And this is a perfect example of how Kot’s really shaping Devlin’s world, making it something of his own and keeping us all in great stories of a great character. And somehow, with a camp vampiric exorcist playboy and his dildo demon companion, Kot and Holden manage to wrap up this little bit of a trip down memory lane with something rather akin to a bittersweet happy ending. Fear not though, I imagine Kot’s busy planning just what fresh horrors he can put Devlin through the next time. But for now, this one was unexpectedly adorable.

 

HARROWER SQUAD: CALHAB COUNTRY – PART 4 – by David Baillie and Steve Yeowell, colours by Chris Blythe, letters by Annie Parkhouse

And to finish, the similarly unexpectedly intriguing Harrower Squad. I imagined, when first reading this one, that I had its measure. Just another simple Judges against muties with a load of action. All very well done from Baillie and Yeowell of course but still a nice and simple thing. But more and more, as each episode of this one unfolds, it’s become more involving, more plot elements have come into play, and now we’re looking at the end of this first story arc with a real twist to things. It’s merely the end of the first arc, there’s more coming next month.

As the survivors of the Harrower Squad find themselves really under the cosh, and things looking very much like they’re next in line to be possessed by the demonic thingies called down by the Radland muties, it’s up to the very smart Judge Brontide to figure out how to get out of this, albeit Judge Forvus might not like the thing she’s about to do as she makes her deal…

 

So yes, four episodes and then we’re off for another Harrower Squad adventure next Megazine it looks like, as Brontide seems to have mopped up everything by the end here. Baillie’s script and story worked really well but it’s Yeowell’s artwork that’s really done the work here if you ask me. He’s an artist that always does so well with his figure work but there’s a lot more depth and detail in the whole thing here than previously, or at least recently. And all that really has worked well for Harrower Squad.

So that’s the new strips done with, now it’s time for the reprint material…

We start off with the latest Treasury of British Comics reprint volume to get promo coverage here – the forthcoming 40 Years of Scream! – The Archival Collection that’s getting a release from Rebellion. It’s got all 15 issues of the short-lived but so fondly remembered UK horror comic, with every single strip from those 15 issues collected. Here, we have a couple of Library of Death tales from Barrie Tomlinson and Cam Kennedy and John Agee and Ron Smith, followed by a one-page ‘Ghastly Tale: The Nightmare‘ with art by John Cooper.

There’s also the continuation of Si Spurrier and Conor Boyle’s rather tasty Hookjaw that came out in 2017 from Titan Books and the fourth and final part of the IDW Dredd from 2018, ‘Under Siege‘.

SCREAM LIBRARY OF DEATH: AT DEATH’S DOOR – by Barrie Tomlinson and Cam Kennedy, letters by Mike Peters

HOOKJAW – PART 4 – by Simon Spurrier and Conor Boyle, colours Giulia Brusco, letters by Rob Steen

 

JUDGE DREDD: UNDER SIEGE – PART 3 – by Mark Russell and Max Dunbar, colours by Jose Luis Rio, letters by Simon Bowland