2000 AD - July 1982.

 Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.

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A band, whose name I've long since forgotten, once sang a song which began with the words, "I'd like to fly away in my beautiful, my beautiful, balloon."

And they weren't alone.

But, unlike them, someone actually decided to do it instead of just standing around singing about it.

And that man was Lawnchair Larry an individual who, in July 1982, flew 16,000 feet above Long Beach, California, in a lawn chair supported by weather balloons.

I like to think he's still up there but I suspect he isn't.

A man who's definitely not still in the place that made him famous is Michael Fagan who breached security at Buckingham Palace, that month, and found himself in the Queen's bedroom. Needless to say, this caused quite a kerfuffle at the time.

Also causing a stir, back then, were Italy who beat West Germany 3–1 to win the 1982 FIFA World Cup in Spain.

Not quite as happy as those Italians was the Reverend Sun Myung Moon who was, in New York, sentenced to 18 months in prison and fined $25,000 for tax fraud and conspiracy to obstruct justice.

While all this drama was going on, the world of the Hit Parade carried on as normal. And so it was that July 1982 saw the UK singles chart topped by Captain Sensible's Happy Talk and then Irene Cara's Fame.

Over on the British album chart, the month began with ABC's The Lexicon of Love gripping the top slot but even that behemoth finally had to make way for the unstoppable juggernaut that was Fame, as the month ended with the chart being ruled by that movie's Original Soundtrack.

And, of course, through all of this, the nation's greatest science fiction comic still kept rolling along, unconcerned that it was now less than 19 years away from its title becoming passé.

As we had been for quite a while now, we were treated to the thrills and spills of Robo-Hunter, Rogue Trooper, Mean Arena, Judge Dredd, Ace Trucking Co and Tharg's Future Shocks.

However, Progs 273-274 also gave us a Steve Moore written tale called Trouble in Tree-World which was, it seems, an Agent Rat adventure.

I must confess I don't have a clue who Agent Rat was, as I'm assuming he wasn't The Stainless Steel Rat who had, at one point, had a strip in the book.

But what I do know is it's somewhat incongruous to see the Rogue Trooper talking about the mystery of fruit gums, on the cover of Prog 272.