Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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That's because it was the month in which the first compact discs were produced, in Germany, and what self-respecting TV presenter could react to news like that without wanting to apply all of those things to a CD to see if it destroyed it?
I do feel like this is at least the 13th time I've announced the launch of the compact disc, in these retrospectives, but I shall ignore that fact and assume this was indeed the first time they'd been foisted upon the world.
If there's any band I don't associate with compact discs, it's Dexy's Midnight Runners who always seemed far too wilful to be impressed by such things. August 1982 saw them score their second-ever UK Number One when Come On Eileen shot to the top of Britain's singles chart and stayed there for almost the whole month, before being deposed, at the death, by Survivor's Eye of the Tiger. I know which of those two records I prefer, and it's not the one that came from a Sylvester Stallone movie.
Speaking of things that came from movies, the whole of August saw Kids From Fame by the Kids from Fame hog the very top of the British album chart.
Over in the pages of 2000 AD, we were still being treated to Robo-Hunter, Rogue Trooper, Judge Dredd, Mean Arena and Ace Trucking Co, which is a lineup that seemed to have been in place for an awful long time now.
Prog 276 was still inviting us to solve the secret of the fruit gums. Reader, I don't remember if I ever did.
Prog 277 invited me to see the mushroom men. I'm not sure I'd wish to see such a thing, even if everyone assures me their leader was a fun guy.
Prog 279, meanwhile, gave us the chance to see Duran Duran join the Squaxx Dek Thargo.
Frankly, I don't have a clue what that means.
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25 comments:
I've used the expression Squaxx dek Thargo in this comment section a number of times Steve, and you've never asked what it meant, so as you aren't the sort of grexnix that would ignore your loyal readers I can only assume you aren't familiar with Duran Duran.
Lucky you.
2000AD doesn't get really good again til the return of Pat Mills, and the arrival of Slaine and Nemesis book 3 in around a year, so you might as well get used to covering a fairly uninspired line up.
I think Skizz turns up soon(ish) which might be interesting to discuss but its surely the weakest series Alan Moore wrote (at least til he did Spawn spin-offs for Todd McFarlane).
-sean
Sean - I'll ask! What is Squaxx dek Thargo cause I have no idea?
THat dude on Prog 278 got Willie Wonka'd big time. Not only fat but floating - two very Wonka-esque traits!
Squax dek Thargo are friends of Tharg Charlie; Tharg being (allegedly) the alien editor of 2000AD, it basically means a regular reader of the progs.
As the galaxy's greatest comic achieved something of a sub-cultural breakthrough in the early 80s, with fans like the Human League and Motorhead, I'm guessing that last cover means that Duran Duran included some reference to Judge Dredd in a lyric or something.
-sean
Why would Alan Moore want anything to do with that goon McFarlane.
That guy is a cement head.
M.P.
I guess McFarlane's money was as good as anyone else's M.P., and at least he wasn't DC or Marvel.
Neil Gaiman worked on Spawn for him too. And Frank Miller. Hey, it was the 90s.
And if you think McFarlane is a goon, after that Moore wrote for... Rob Liefeld! (I am not making this up)
Actually, Supreme was a pretty good read, even if Moore's run had some pretty iffy artists early on. Thankfully not including Liefeld himself, who was just owner/publisher.
-sean
Liefeld! Jesus Herbert Walker Christmas. I can't begin to imagine the series of incidents that led to this sorry turn of events.
And this was the guy who rejected out of hand any attempt to put his work up on the screen.
I put that down to artistic temperament, not wanting to see his artistic vision diluted in translation, but jeez, working with those two dumbasses?
But, yeah, it was the '90's, and we all did things back then we now have cause to regret.
I guess.
M.P.
I guess it was his day job, while he lost money on Big Numbers and worked on the amazing From Hell M.P. Everyone's gotta eat, even followers of 2nd century snake-gods.
And to be fair, the comics are good for what they are - I'd certainly rather read one of Moore's Violator mini-series for McFarlane again than sit through any more of the ten minutes I saw of that awful V for Vendetta flick on tv a while back.
-sean
You make some good points, Sean. Artists gotta eat.
On whether V for Vendetta or Watchmen were good movies (I thought they were), honorable men may differ. What is it you expect from a movie, exactly? Was there ever a scenario in which a film based on Moore's work would be acceptable?
I do enjoy debating with you Sean. It's about time we found an excuse to argue about something.
M.P.
Personally, I enjoyed both the V for Vendetta and Watchmen movies but, then, I've never read the original comics.
Sean, thanks for the Squaxx dek Thargo explanation. I can't think of anything Duran Duran ever did that was 2000 AD related though I do recall some members of Madness doing a 2000 AD inspired side-project, as the Fink Brothers.
(snort) "The Fink Brothers"?
Those guys still around? I remember as a kid riding around with my dad his pick-up and "Our House" came on the radio.
He liked it, which struck me as really weird. I mean, I liked it too, but it's WEIRD when your musical tastes overlap with your parents.
M.P.
Backing up a bit to one of your earlier questions M.P., I believe Alan Moore rates Saturday Morning Watchmen.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDDHHrt6l4w
-sean
Sean, your internet links don't work. They just don't.
Where do you get this stuff? I'm envisioning a monkey with a typewriter smoking a cigarette.
...I hope you're feeding him, at least.
M.P.
The link works OK for me. Maybe the video's blocked in some territories?
Possibly. And to be fair, I do have lousy keyboard skills.
Man, when I was a kid I was good at spelling. Now, not so much.
M.P.
Steve, M.P.'s mentioned links not working before, so I suspect he may just mean its not clickable. Which I should really sort out in future, as it does make them more convenient.
M.P., try searching Youtube for "Saturday Morning Watchmen" (seems highly unlikely its blocked in the US)
-sean
UK gents - I was listening to your venerable Talk Sport and the host was discussing a Cricket player who was being accused of being too aggressive. The Host said, "That's absurd! I would say this player is "rice pudding and skins."
I kind of get the rice pudding (soft? mushy?) but "skins?" This implies he has no muscle? I'm confused b/c given the rice pudding reference I figure the whole expression has to do with eating?
I don't know if this is a common British expression? Help?
Dudes!
It's Chicago-henge today! The sun rose and set exactly to the east/ west of Chicago. Some clever photos out there of the sun beaming right down the streets.
Chicago is laid out on a grid, like a lot of American cities, so it works.
Charlie, I've never heard the phrase, "Rice pudding and skins," before. There is, however, a saying, "He couldn't knock the skin off a rice pudding," which I assume the commentator was offering his own variance of.
Hey, Steve, did the mushroom men in Progg 277 evolve into giant walking mushrooms, as in Inoshiro Honda's film Attack Of The Mushroom People?
Were they a race of people, or infected by a disease? I'm guessing they were villains.
The Watchmen movie was enjoyable, and I still find it so, even after I finally got around to reading the original stories. Hollywood will never make a comics film verbatim from the source material, so I just take them with a grain of salt. Never saw V For Vendetta. It's on my list, though.
Todd McFarland! I can't believe he blew millions on those Mark McGuire baseballs, only for them to be worthless when McGuire was found out using enhancement drugs.
I also found his knotted-spaghetti Spider-Man webs annoying.
Rob Liefeld! Half his books were just characters in pose, and usually depicted no lower than the shin. Liefeld can't draw feet. When he does they are insanely tiny.
Re: "He couldn't knock the skin of a rice pudding."
Steve - I suspect that there is only one phrase in whole of the Anglo-Saxon world (thank you De Gaulle) that uses both "skin" and "rice pudding" in it. So I think you nailed it.
Is that saying common place or from days of old or...
KD, sadly, I can shed no light upon the nature of the Mushroom Men. Perhaps other visitors to the site may be able to provide more info on them.
Charlie, I don't have a clue how far back the phrase goes but it is a fairly familiar one in the UK.
The problem with film adaptations of comics is that generally speaking they aren't any good.
The V for Vendetta film isn't bad because it didn't follow the source material verbatim; its bad because the changes it made from the source material turned a story about anarchism and fascism into a morally unambiguous - and politically ridiculous - one of liberalism v conservatism.
Anyone here seen the recent Watchmen tv series?
From what I read online, it seems the SJWs at HBO turned Alan Moore's heroic crime fighter Rorschach into a right-wing nutcase. You've got to laugh at that kind of reaction.
-sean
Sean - I haven't seen Watchman but did start watching Jessica Jones. Does that help?
Help what, Charlie?
-sean
Sean, I've seen snipettes of the Watchmen show, and wasn't impressed enough to view a full episode.
All the reviews I read about it said it was awful.
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