The Monthly Megazine Issue #490: Back On The (Weird) Beat With ‘Fargo & McBane’

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.

Here we go, six brand-new strips this month, plus the usual mix of articles and interviews. 100 pages of damn fine Megazine right here.

This issue of the Megazine should be, finally, available not just in the UK but in the USA as well, and it’s something you American folks should be picking up. I mean, you’ve got a great done in one Judge Dredd, something strangely prehistoric in Tales of the Cursed Earth, the start of a new Fargo & McBane series taking the New York cops with links to Dredd into strange adventures, what’s meant to be the final series of those weirdest of Mega-City One Judges, Department K, and more from the alt-version of Dreddworld in Megatropolis, pure art deco wonders await you there. Plus, the latest of John Wagner and Dan Cornwell‘s brilliant sci-fi meets soccer series, Rok The World. And as a bonus this month, there’s even a glimpse at five pages of PJ Holden‘s Patreon-published Terran Omega. Seriously, what are you waiting for? Go buy it now!

And all that under your typically magnificent Cliff Robinson and Dylan Teague cover with Fargo and McBane ….

Judge Dredd Megazine #490 is out now in the UK. In theory, it’s also out in the Americas at the same time. Head down to your local comic shop and ask (nay, demand) that they stock it for you!

So, all that over with … shall we? Actually, before that, let’s give you this teaser for the BIG Dredd Mega-Epic running across the Prog and the Megazine this year — The Oubliette in the Prog and The Black Tower here in the Megazine, where Ken Niemand and Nick Percival promise to come good on all that horror they’ve been re-introducing to Dredd over the last few years…

Okay then, now let’s get into this Megazine…

JUDGE DREDD: HUMAN GRADE – BY GEOFFREY D WESSEL AND BOO COOK, LETTERS BY ANNIE PARKHOUSE

Page 1 of this one-off Dredd here begins badly for me — with Dredd killing a dog that’s killed its owner. Yep, Dredd the bastard yet again. But it’s one of those weird things, I can read tales of horrible murder with little problem, but show me animal cruelty and it pulls me out of the story immediately. All I can think of at that point is poor Buddy.

I mean, I understand that it’s just Wessel using it as a story starter to introduce us to this latest Dredd case, tracking down the manufacturers of a new dog food that’s turning Fido into a killer. It’s there just to set Dredd off on a case — figure out the dog food’s made of ground human, and then follow a trail to the source. Yep, I get all that, but the killing of a dog, that’s just a bit too cruel for me.

However, following on from that, we do get a good little Dredd. And I never use the phrase little Dredd disparingingly, most of the greatest Dredds are shorts, they’re the building blocks that gave Dredd nearly 50 years of longevity that isn’t going away anytime soon. Wessel goes from standard, but well done, procedural, into the weird body horrors of genetic experimentation that are just classic Dredd.

And then, by the end of it all, we get Wessel pulling things back from the opening, giving Dredd the final word, almost as an apology to Buddy. The perps going down for many crimes, but it’s the last one that’s the most important. And here, I’ll break the rule of a lifetime and show you the final panel of a tale, because it’s the panel that made me forgive Wessel for the opening death of Buddy, and re-framed him as just another victim whose real killers were getting Dredd’s justice …

And seriously, if Boo Cook is ever looking for a really good sideline, pet portraiture is waiting for him. Absolutely beautiful imagery there. I spent a long time looking at that panel, feeling the love that’s in that image of Buddy. I don’t know, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that dog’s look is based on a dog Wessel or Cook loved.

So yes, it’s a difficult one because of the death of a dog, but I’m genuinely happy that Wessel pulled it round that way.

And of course, all the way through, we get to experience Cook’s art, a rarity on Dredd perhaps, but always something to cherish. Seriously, aside from that final panel and the beauty of that dog portrait, there’s a hell of a lot else to adore in here. Cook does this thing of giving such fluidity to all the shapes he puts down on a page. It doesn’t matter whether that’s a face, an action scene, or a building; they’ve all got this glorious look to them that always impresses. Then there’s his colour choices, leaning heavily here into whole pages washed with one colour tone, really emphasising things, and looking so impressive.

So yes, farewell, Buddy, you were no doubt a good dog. And Wessel and Cook told your story so well.

TALES FROM THE CURSED EARTH: JUDGE GRRRS LAST STAND – BY NED HARTLEY AND STEVE WHITE, COLOURS BY JOHN CHARLES, LETTERS BY SIMON BOWLAND

Okay then, now we just get silly. Very silly. Judge Grrr, a T-Rex with a Judge’s helmet and a badge. Yes, precisely.

Now, I had no idea if this was a new thing or something deeply rooted in Dredd lore. Except I asked someone in the know, and they told me that the Dino had originally appeared in a Department K tale, coming in from another dimension and ending up here in the Cursed Earth. Yes, I really should have remembered that one! But hey, old, memory never the best, give me a break.

But whatever Judge Grrr’s origins, Hartley and White have done something here that makes it feel, as improbable as it seems, that Judge Grrr’s been part of Dredd lore for many a year.

And who better to do the art on this one than Steve White, a great Paleoartist himself? Sure, this is a bit more cartoony than a lot of his dino-art usually is, but there’s still plenty of scope for him to get some great dino-art in throughout…

Hartley really goes for it with the tale as well. Ignoring the fact that this is ridiculous, the T-Rex Judge is never played for laughs, but rather this is a tale of a dedicated Lawman, well, Law-dino, committed to protecting his charges, even as the natural hunger rises. So, whilst it’s ridiculous, it’s also a tale that, with a little less mention of food, could easily be a Dredd tale.

So yes, silly, ridiculous, but also something that’s just the personification of the weirdness that fills Dredd and 2000 AD at times. Long may it continue.

TERRA OMEGA – PREVIEW – BY PJ HOLDEN

This one’s tied into the interview with Holden that happens here in the Meg. It’s his creator-owned series, publishing right now on his Patreon.

It’s a sci-fi thing about the very last human, created as a weapon, awake now after 10,000 years, mankind long gone, where she’s contemplating who and what she is. She travels the galaxy trying to fix the bad things humanity did, finding those old human weapons and dealing with them. It’s something Holden’s doing long-term, with loads of story ideas flowing from that simple story driver. And it looks bloody good.

So, go and follow it, pledge at Holden’s Patreon and get the whole story.

FARGO & MCBANE: FAVOURED SONS – PART 1 – BY KEN NIEMAND AND PJ HOLDEN, COLOURS BY QUINTON WINTER, LETTERS BY ANNIE PARKHOUSE

When we last met Fargo & McBane, back in ’70s New York, things had progressed to the point where they’d got their own little mission, a ’70s cop thing taking a weird detour into the strange. You’ve got Fargo, the ancestral great-great-great whatever she is to Dredd’s lineage, and McBane, taken from One-Eyed Jack, a ’70s strip from Valiant and Battle Picture Weekly, created by John Wagner and John Cooper, the ’70s cop with a bad attitude thing. Niemand does love doing these sorts of things, and he does it really rather well.

So, Fargo & McBane are now in charge of their own little department, investigating the bizarre stuff, the supernatural stuff. I mean, you get that from the cover, right? Vampires? Oh, yes. Real vampires or just weirdos in costume? McBane doesn’t care, he’s just punching them…

And, wouldn’t you know it, that mention of ‘the Grinning Man’ and ‘The Favoured Sons’ is going to be rather important to this F&M tale, as the forces of darkness hover around New York, or, in this case … underneath it.

Loads of setting things up here, setting Fargo and McBane off in a different direction, as we get corruption in the cops, secret societies with their tendrils everywhere, and something rather nasty down in the sewers. All of it packed into episode one with a load of style.

And, speaking of style, great to see PJ Holden on the art here. Sure, it’s a shame that Anna Readman couldn’t continue the work she did on the last series, but Holden’s a rather fine replacement. His artwork’s always got this sense of the raw about it, lots of rough edges — of course, those rough edges and rawness are not just part of the attraction but something that Holden’s worked hard to perfect. And it’s art that perfectly suits the nastiness, the grime, and the darkness to be found here in 70s New York.

DEPARTMENT K: …NO MORE – PART 2 – BY NED HARTLEY AND MIKE WALTERS, LETTERS BY SIMON BOWLAND

Yes, from the way Hartley’s going about it, there’s little doubt that this is, as advertised, the final Department K. The only question is, how many of the team will be either dead or in the cubes by the end of this one, as Mega-City One’s specialist branch of Tek-Div, used to dealing with the extradimensional threats plaguing the city, appears to have uncovered one they just are up to handling here.

After all, the first episode saw Judge Afua taken over by something nasty from a broken specimen jar, something that has her doing this …

Yes, Judge Estabon gone. Bloody hell. Brutal. And the way this one’s going, there’s a sense he won’t be the last, not with Afua as powerful as she is.

So, it’s Kirby and Blackcurrant versus Afua, or what used to be Afua, and that’s not even factoring in the issue that there’s a dead SJS Judge and Psi-Judges in the Dept K labs. One way or another, this does seem like dark days indeed for Dept K.

Again, part of me thinks this is way too soon to be saying goodbye, even if the tale here is progressing well, with Walters’ art really doing particularly great things in the darkness of that first page and the absolutely intense push by Kirby and Blackcurrant to contain/rescue Afua across the rest of the episode. After all, Dept K have been, right from the off, a load of fun, a quirky group having quirky adventures, a lovely bit of silly in amongst the serious. And there’s always a place for the silly in 2000 AD, don’t listen to anyone who says otherwise.

But no, if this is the end, it would seem that Hartley and Walters have big, big ideas on how it’s all going to end. I shall be here right to that end.

ROK THE WORLD – CHAPTER THREE – THE MONSTER IN KYLE DIXON – BY JOHN WAGNER AND DAN CORNWELL, COLOURS BY JIM BOSWELL, LETTERS BY ROB STEEN

Oh, and speaking of putting some silly into 2000 AD, Wagner knows a fair bit about that. His work’s always had its fair share of the wonderfully off-kilter and superbly strange, and there’s always been a thick slice of comedy and ridiculousness through it all.

And Rok has had its fair share of comedy moments in amongst all the soccer and the sci-fi — the miniaturisation, the Ref, the pikeys — but all that’s rather taken a backseat for this third and (possibly) final series as we’re deep into the serious stuff.

Of course, there’s still the chance for Wagner and Cornwell to give us a little on the pitch stuff as well. Very much Roy of the Rovers stuff, but beautifully done. Seriously, it takes a real skill to do sporting action in comics; there’s so much that’s difficult to show when you’re showing isolated moments frozen in time, as every comic panel does. But Cornwell really nails it, giving a sense of pure action, tricking us in the best way to play out the flight of the ball, showing us the movement of the players, all the way up to us hearing the ball hitting the back of the net…

Last episode had Rok informed that Earth is on notice, humanity’s ills are too much for those observing it, and he’s been forced to act to get humanity to clean up its act. It’s really the first time we’ve seen Wagner shift the tone, showing us just how alien, in body and in mind, Rok is.

The murders at the Fossil Fuel Forum are being looked into, but Rok’s message is being suppressed at high levels. And, careful as he’s been over his time on Earth, there are smart coppers capable of drawing the threads together here, all ending up with two of them knocking on Rok’s door, and he’s going to have to deal with them …

Again, dark stuff, a real tonal shift to the series, a sense of something final, Rok having to act fast, needing to save humanity, no matter what he has to do to get them to change.

It’s an absolute joy to read, especially presented here as 20-page issues, really letting you luxuriate into the whole thing. If this is, as Wagner does say, the final act of a legendary writer, it’s a damn fine way to head off into retirement.

MEGATROLOPIS 2 – PART 6 – BY KENNETH NIEMAND AND DAVE TAYLOR, LETTERS BY ROB STEEN

There’s so many balls in the air with this one, telling us the tale of the alt-noir world that’s populated by many familiar names, just in very different situations. Yet Niemand handles all these storylines so well, giving us just enough in each short episode to push things along, to keep you hanging on every little thing that’s going on. And then there’s Dave Taylor’s artwork, just sublime stuff, even as he was working through his final days, he was giving us some great, great art here.

So, after last episode, things have taken a turn for Commissioner Calhoun, abducted by a man taking on the mantle of ‘the vigilante.’ There’s ‘Cassandra’ having a dangerous meltdown onboard a cruise ship high above the Pan-Volgan steppes. And then there’s Hershey and Jara, both of them taken under Eustace Fargo’s wing, as he plans against his old friend and fellow founder of Megatropolis, Owen Krysler, whose plans for a new life for himself rest in the hands of his right-hand man, Morton Judd. Plus, there’s serial killer Philip Maybry on the loose, even after Jara killed him a while back. And then there’s Rico, one of the few good cops, trying to put it all together, all whilst worrying about his young charge, Marlon.

All this set against the backdrop of the forthcoming Mayoral elections and the assassin Orlok hunting down the DA and possibly new Mayor McGruder.

So yes, a hell of a lot going on, and not something you can really just drop into without having read what’s gone before. But do yourselves a favour, go and pick up Book 1, go back and read the first five episodes of Book 2, and just revel in the complexities and cleverness all wrapped up in the killer concept of reimagining the world of Dredd as sci-fi wrapped up in full-on James Ellroy-esque noir.