The Monthly Megazine Issue #469: Even More To The Meg With New Strips ‘Department K’ And ‘Pandora Perfect’

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.

Inside, we have a bit of a change in the way the Megazine does things, with less reprints and more original strips – up from five to seven originals now plus two reprints.

The two new strips are a couple of formerly Regened pieces, with the return of both the Dreddworld-set Department K and more madcap Mary Poppins if she happened to be a top thief adventures of Pandora Perfect. Alongside those, we have another of the occasional Mega-City 2099 strips taking us back to the early days of Dredd when he first appeared in 2000 AD. And then there’s a complete Judge Dredd tale in ‘Hard Copy’ and more from Armitage, Dreadnoughts, and Harrower Squad. All this plus the continued Dredd reprint series and a look at the late John Burns’ artwork on the latest Treasury of British Comics reprint – Kelpie the Boy Wizard. A rather packed Megazine this month.

So 132 pages to get through, lots of different stuff to enjoy. Megazine #469 is out on 19 June in the UK and at some point in the future in the Americas – ask your LCS to put an order in now!

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JUDGE DREDD: HARD COPY – by Alec Worley and Ben Willsher, letters by Annie Parkhouse.

A complete Dredd here from the Worley & Willsher team, with the usual bold and bright Willsher artwork, really fitting to this one’s subject – what if an ageing Taylor Swift [insert name of singer/popstar of your choice here] was replaced by a hologram and said hologram got a little too protective over her continued existence after a call goes into the Judges?

It’s pop star hologram goes crazy with Dredd and a Cadet on the case.

A nice, simple done-in-one thing, getting in a little action, a little teaching, and a great reaction to Cadet Jando admitting to listening to a Tynka Slo fancast…

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Poor Cadet Jando – nice covering up though. Cultural research indeed!

Like so much of Dredd, it might be slightly ridiculous but there’s also that nagging feeling in your head – after all, Abba are still making plentiful Dollar over the Voyage tour. It’s not exactly all that difficult to see the idea catches on in the future. Maybe not the homicidal intent from the hologram though.

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ARMITAGE: BULLETS FOR AN OLD MAN – PART 3 – by Liam Johnson and Warren Pleece, letters by Jim Campbell

We’ve had Armitage come back into the Brit-Cit Detective Judge fold, pissed off and annoyed as usual, his role taken by a new breed of Mechanismo Detective units. Except the Mechs can’t fathom this latest murder, something of a locked room puzzler.

Of course, Armitage walked in the room and solved it straight away. End of case? Not in the slightest. Last episode we had the back story to the old serial killer that Armitage and his Mech colleague [and yes, he was ever so pleased about that one] are interrogating – all about the invention of a time gun and time bullets, things that let him carry on his killings of those he’d been trained/conditioned to recognise as future threats.

We also saw last episode that, although the psychopathic and most likely psi-active serial killer had been caught, more to luck than judgement, the gun went missing and is still out there somewhere. All of which is leading us to ask, before Armitage realises what’s going on, is the jailed serial killer controlling what’s going on or are we looking at a copycat?

That’s for future episodes. Now Armitage wants names of all those he’d marked for death and never got around to. But he’s going to get no joy here…

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He does get the info that they’re all going to be dead by sunset tomorrow, something that has Chief Treasure scrambling to get them all rounded after a Brit-Cit Psi-Judge extracts the information.

But we’re with Armitage, surely this seems all too easy, all too simple. Maybe this is the plan all along? Round them all up and make them all available? Cue more Armitage being Armitage.

As you’d expect, given how good Pleece is, this looks absolutely great. There’s a wonderfully lived-in look to all of Pleece’s characters that I’ve always enjoyed for as long as I’ve known his art, way back in the Velocity days. Here on Armitage it’s rather perfect for Johnson’s tale of a redundant detective called in for possibly one last case.

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MEGA-CITY 2099: THE CUCKOOS – by Ken Niemand and Conor Boyle, letters by Simon Bowland

More now from Mega-City 2099, tales of the city and of Dredd set in the time of Dredd in the very earliest of 2000 AD Progs. So that’s a Dredd and the city nearly 50 years younger. It’s a bit of nostalgia, but it’s also done really well and has been a fair bit of fun.

Having it as only a semi-regular feature, with every appearance a done-in-one thing, is definitely the way to go with this. Do it this way and it’s entertaining and has that cuteness of something nostalgic. More regularly and… well, never say never, but I just think it might be a little too much. Having said that, it really is a damn fine strip, where the nostalgia factor is always outweighed by the sheer delight of what you’re reading here.

Boyle’s been the artist most associated with the strip and he does have a way of really capturing the style of early Ezquerra, McMahon et al as they were right at the start of Dredd. Not copying their line or anything like that, but the tone and the style, maybe just the feel of it, is all just done right.

This time we have a group of robbery perps with a difference, one that means Dredd actually ends up standing by and letting them get away with it….

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Again, it’s the novelty of it that makes it work, up to an including the tone of Niemand’s Dredd, the speech, the thoughts (yes, we’re even returning to thought bubbles), the almost innocent belief in the Law.

So more than welcome as an occasional bit of nostalgic fun but it’s one that could wear out its welcome if overplayed. As it is, settle back and enjoy Niemand and Boyle doing a pitch-perfect impression of the Mega-City One and Dredd of 1977/2099.

 

PANDORA PERFECT: PERFECT SOUNDS – PART 1 – by Roger Langridge and Gary Welsh, colours by John Charles, letters by Simon Bowland

Pandora Perfect’s one strip that’s now got the triple going for it – it started as a 2000 AD Regened strip, moved into 2000 AD for a full series, and now finds itself here in the Megazine. Honestly, it sort of fits all three, after all, you don’t need to be doing over-the-top adult stuff to make over-the-top adult stuff that all ages can enjoy – if you catch my drift.

But however it got here, it’s more than welcome. Langridge has a track record of making really funny strips and Pandora Perfect is just another in a long line of them. No Brett Parson this time on art but I think Gary Welsh has more than ably stepped into those shoes for Perfect Sounds.

If you’re new to Pandora Perfect, Langridge has described here as ‘Mary Poppins gone wrong, a con-artist with a bag of tricks.’ There’s already been one great collection (see more of that here) but now we have even more to enjoy.

This time, Pandora and her Robo-pal GORT, have a load of hot stuff and no fence will take it – not even the genuine T-Rex dinosaur sperm. So, on one fence’s advice of ‘Bring me some intellectual property. Leaked movies! Celebrity tapes! Something I can monetise’, it’s time to get planning for the next heist.

Well, how about the famous lost Beech Band album, ‘Cheer Up’, currently residing in a vault belonging to head Beech Band writer, Byron Beech? (And no, of course this is in no way a thinly, although funnily, disguised bit of pop history with the Beach Boys, Brian Wilson, and Smile, whatever gave you that idea?)

Yes, that could do it…

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So it’s off to see the videocaster and the one man who claims to know the passcode to the vault, Spink Bingley. Simple and easy, right?

Come on, this is Pandora Perfect, it wouldn’t be fun and it wouldn’t be damn funny if there wasn’t all manner of catastrophe along the way. This particular comedy of errors all starts going off the rails when Spink recognises Pandora from her band days.

It’s something of the secret origin of Pandora Perfect, something to do with the band trying to break up, a manager raking in the cash with an iron clad contract, and a huge bag of takings from the final gig that mysteriously (hmmmm… Pandora?) disappeared and has not been seen since.

As always, a masterclass of comedy comics from Langridge here, with Welsh really doing fine, fine stuff here.

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DEPARTMENT K: MECHA-CITY ONE – PART 1 – by Ned Hartley and Mike Walters, letters by Jim Campbell

Department K originally debuted in a 2000 AD Regened Prog and created by Rory McConville and PJ Holden, then having more adventures in Regened courtesy of McConville, Holden and then Dan Cornwell taking over art for a longer tale in 2000 AD proper, before a final one-off Regened episode by McConville and artist Nick Dyer. Now it’s back in the Megazine with new writer/artist team Ned Hartley and Mike Walters at the helm.

It’s a Dreddworld strip that deals with a small section of Mega-City One’s Tek-Div, the place where the Justice Department takes a look at all the interdimensional weirdness that happens to MC-1 with startling regularity. Judge Kirby, Mechanismo Judge Estabon, Judge Blackcurrant (yes, really), and Cadet Afua are the slightly unusual little team working to keep MC-1 safe in Department K. And that’s all you need to know to get into what’s always been a really enjoyable strip, no matter where it’s found.

We’re straight into things with a little mishap with Estabon’s arm, meaning a trip – at Blackcurrant’s suggestion, to alt-dimension Mecha-City One. And if that doesn’t sound loads of fun, well have a look at this…

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… or this…

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Yep, a hell of a lot of fun. But given that Hartley writes consistently funny stuff over at Monster Fun and Walters has developed into a really good artist since his Thought Bubble artist search win, that was never really in doubt.

Again, like Pandora Perfect, it’s one of the Regened strips that can really fit anywhere. It’s silly, it’s funny, but it’s also been one where we’ve had some great little adventures and it looks like we’re about to get another.

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HARROWER SQUAD: URBAN ROTATION – PART 2 – by David Baillie and Steve Yeowell, colours by Chris Blythe, letters by Annie Parkhouse

Back to the wilds of CalHab now and catching up with the Harrower Squad, the bunch of mean old CalHab Judges organised into heavy weapons groups with a mission to clear the CalHab radlands of the unruly mobs in there.

But now we get a little insight into just why CalHab is so keen on clearing those Radlands – wouldn’t you know it, it’s all based on money and making the place more welcoming to the international corporations. And that’s why the heavy weapons squads are now working in the city rather than where they were designed to be working – the cits are just this close to full-blown revolt.

Add in the whole deal with Forvus or whatever is inside Forvis, demon or whatnot, inhabiting Brontide’s body/mind. Plus we have intrigue over the big mob boss (who’s just literally set the dogs on Brontide)…

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… and then there’s Chief Judge Haggan who really isn’t looking particularly squeaky clean right now, not to mention obviously being a complete dick…

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All in all, this really has come a hell of a long way from the rather self-contained series this started off as. And that is a really fine thing indeed. There’s all sorts of possible ways that Baillie and Yeowell will take this one and they all seem packed with potential.

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DREADNOUGHTS: NOTHING TO FEAR – PART 2 – by Mike Carroll and John Higgins. Colours by Sally-Jane Hurst, letters by Simon Bowland

And to end, the always damn brilliant Dreadnoughts. Same set up as before, set in 2035 and all about the difficult transition in America from democracy to the fascism of the Justice Department, just focusing on a new Judge in a new town, smaller, tighter community, all run by a sheriff way too used to doing things her way and who isn’t ready to see the obvious, that change is coming and it’s coming fast and with brutal, unrelenting force.

Last episode it was all about the sheriff shutting down one nasty bit of business, hushing things up, controlling it. And then the Judge came riding into town – a beautiful entrance by the way that was every bit the perfect western. In fact, in many ways, the whole thing with Dreadnought is something out of the Wild West, as that’s right where the Judges are operating now – the lone voice of their justice having to fight for what they believe in. Okay, what they believe in is terrible and we know where it leads to, but it’s still got that bit of cowboy mystique about it here.

Anyway, at the end of that first episode, we had this…

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Now we’re in full-on action mode, Carroll, Higgins and Hurst choreographing it all with a sense of slow-motion beauty that’s just superb to see unfold.

Watching it all play out this way, Carroll keeping it mostly silent and relying on the captions to tell the tale in hindsight works so well.

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It’s one of those things where you imagine you know how this is going to go down, the Judge coming out on top, the sheriff rooted out, everything contained.

Thing is, this was talked of as a ‘short series’ in last Megazine’s introduction. So I have no idea quite how short it’s going to be and, by the end of this second episode, I’m not entirely sure that this new Judge is going to last the distance. They’re the best at what they do of course, but they’re not indestructible and I wouldn’t put it past Carroll with the way he’s writing Dreadnoughts to be keen to show us that the rollout of the Judges didn’t always go the way the Justice Department wanted.

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Okay, that’s the originals sorted, now for the reprints…

There’s one Treasury of British Comics reprint/preview – but that’s not a problem seeing as it’s the late, great John Burns’ work on display (you can see more of a preview here) and the continuation of another IDW Judge Dredd story, ‘Toxic’.

KELPIE THE BOY WIZARD – by Ken Mennell and John Burns

JUDGE DREDD: TOXIC – PART 2 – by Paul Jenkins and Marco Castiello, colours by Jason Millet, letters by Shaun Lee