2000 AD - June 1979.

Today has been a pivotal moment in the history of humanity, with the announcement of a female Doctor Who.

Obviously, this has caused some consternation amongst the ranks of those who can't believe a woman can master the inherently male skill set of walking up and down corridors, holding a screwdriver and recklessly endangering everyone around them.

To me, it seemed a logical development after fifty three years of the part being played by men. It's a bit hard to claim the magic of the the show is that it keeps changing, if it doesn't really change any more than it has to.

Now all they have to do is make new showrunner Chris Chibnall regenerate into someone whose every Doctor Who and Torchwood script hasn't left me wanting to tear my brain out and bash it against the wall, in soul-destroyed torment, and they'll have it sorted.

But, if July 2017 is a pivotal moment in history, it's nothing compared to June of 1979, which gave us not one but two equally ground shaking moments.

The first was that McDonalds introduced the Happy Meal.

And the second was that Bryan Allen flew the pedal-driven Gossamer Albatross across the English Channel, which, if I remember correctly, was the first time a human-powered machine had flown across that stretch of water. What a grand new era of aviation it ushered in and, within ten years, we were all flying around in our own personal leg-powered planes.

Hold on a minute. We weren't doing that.

And we still aren't doing it.

Whatever happened to pedal-powered planes and how come I never heard of the concept ever again? Those things could fly across the Channel. Surely that was enough to make them catch on? Think of the saving in air fares and jumbo jet petrol.

While we contemplate that dread thought, it's probably best to look at what the galaxy's greatest comic was up to in that month of that year.

It seems there were interesting developments afoot.

For a start, in Prog 116, we get to meet Judge Dredd's niece Vienna. I must confess I have no memory at all of her but I assume she was named after Rigsby's cat in Rising Damp, as it was too early for her to be named after the Ultravox song. If she was Dredd's niece, does that mean she was Rico's daughter?

Prog 119 sees the start of Disaster 1990, a prequel to Invasion which also stars Bill Savage. But this means that Bill Savage had to live through a disaster and an invasion? He wasn't exactly what you'd call lucky, was he?

That issue, we also get the first appearance of the ABC Warriors, although weren't the ABC Warriors just the Ro-Busters by another name?

Finally, in Prog 119, we get a tribute to the latest James Bond flick Moonraker. I must confess that Moonraker was the first Bond movie I can recall not liking, as it was far too jokey for my tastes and I didn't like that Jaws was a good guy and was having a romance with his own personal Harley Quinn. With that film, I felt the makers were dismantling all the epic awesomeness of The Spy Who Loved Me (surely the greatest movie ever made), right before my eyes. I can't even remember the theme tune. That's how bad it was.