Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
***
Has there ever been a more emotional month than September 1982?
No, there hasn't.
And the reason for that is it was the month in which someone called Scott Fahlman posted the first-ever emoticons.
Exactly where he posted them - and why - I've no idea. Nor do I have a clue who he was or where he was, but where would the world of the internet be without the ability to post things like 😐, 😭 and👽?
Nowhere. That's where.
The sharp-eyed will have noted that one of those emoticons was an alien.
And that's no coincidence because September 1982 also saw the launch of the organisation known as the United States Air Force Space Command. I don't have any knowledge of what that was but it sounds like something that'd give Space Force a run for its money and make sure those pesky UFOnauts had better watch out.
On the film front, the month saw the release of two movies which attract the attention of the supreme being who runs this blog.
Those are Pink Floyd – The Wall and Amityville II: The Possession. I must confess I've only ever seen the latter of those two movies but have always been frustrated that it never occurred to the producers to call it Amityville II: The Repossession. Could those people not see an open goal when it opened up in front of them?
When it came to music, that month's UK singles chart was dominated by Survivor's Eye of the Tiger although that track was finally dumped from the top slot, in the month's very last week, by Musical Youth and Pass the Dutchie.
It was a similar tale on the UK album chart where Kids from Fame by the Kids from Fame spent nearly the whole month at Number One before being dethroned, right at the death, by Dire Straits' Love Over Gold, giving that band their fourth consecutive multi-platinum selling album.
But what of Tharg and his cast of intergalactic misfits? What were they up to while all this was going on?
Inside the books, we were still getting Robo-Hunter, Judge Dredd, Ace Trucking, The Mean Arena, Rogue Trooper and Tharg's Future Shocks. It would seem Dredd was on the trail of Fink Angel but the Judge Child was causing all kinds of trouble.
Amazingly, the front covers were still going on about the Fruit Gum Mystery. Never has fruit gum mysteriousness been dragged out for so long.
The front of Prog 283, meanwhile, was promising us the chance to see Tharg as we've never seen him before, thanks to something called, "The Shedding." Frankly, the mind boggles.
Posts
20 comments:
Actually Steve, the Space Force is the United States Air Force Command with a name change. Hardly surprising that a reality tv personality in the White House would see the PR value in taking credit for something a B-movie star President already scammed the American public with once before, but I would have expected a supreme being to know that. (Maybe you were just testing us?)
The Musical Youth record was basically a cover of the Mighty Diamonds' Pass the Kouchie, but I guess they had to change the words to have a hit. Especially as they were kids.
Kinda surprising the British tabloid press didn't try for a bit of a scandal anyway.
-sean
PS Oops, better not forget the comics.
Always good to see Otto Sump in Dredd, and while Ron Smith isn't my favourite Dredd artist, at this point he was preferable to Carlos Ezquerra who'd really been phoning it in since the start of the Apocalypse War.
Also, for those keeping count, prog 282 has a Future Shock by Alan Moore, "Sun-burned". Set in a holiday camp on the surface of the sun (don't ask) its fairly slight, a series of puns in search of a story.
Interestingly though - depending on what you find interesting I suppose - the main character's first name is Rorschach.
And it has some ok artwork by Jesus Redondo (no relation to the Filipino Redondos. Or, for that matter, the biblical Jesus).
-sean
Moore seemed to have a thing for ziggurats in the early days, too - though I suspect he just liked the word :-)
When I was a little kid, the idea of a "Space Force" would have made me ecstatic. I woulda said "that's what I'm gonna do when I grow up!" I was a fiend for anything that had to with outer space. I still am, really.
But with this current administration and Typhoid Donald in charge, I find this whole thing to be quite dubious. I suspect all it amounts to is some T-Shirts and baseball caps. Someday they will go for a lotta money on E-Bay. They will have an ironic value, and any hipster worth his salt will own one.
I never really had a shot at being an astronaut; I'm scared of heights (and sometimes widths), I get vertigo and I'm bad at math.
And I'm high-strung. I wouldn't wanna be in a capsule with me.
M.P.
Well M.P., it may have a name out of an old Weird Science comic now, but the Space Force deals with satellites and whatnot which are essential for targeting drone strikes here on terra firma, so its no joke really. *serious face* (sorry, I don't know how to use emoticons here)
Coming up with the character name Zanzibar Z. Ziggurat in his 2000AD short Chronocops does indeed suggest Moore just liked the word. Fair enough, its a cool word.
I hadn't really noticed it in his work before but now you mention it B, there are ziggurats in Tom Strong, and a quick - hardly exhaustive - check of the bookshelf shows the word turns up in Promethea and Jerusalem, which are of course recent (particularly the latter).
Maybe it has some magical - or even magickal - significance.
Or maybe not.
-sean (sad Moore fanboy, obviously)
Sean, that is a priority, I agree, but I guess I figured NASA and the Air Force already had that shit covered. If not, they should've.
This is the problem: every time they tell us something now we automatically have to assume that the reverse is true.
The United States is a Bizzaro country; down is up and backwards is forward.
Maybe, in some ways, this was always the case.
M.P.
Don't worry, its not just you lot M.P.
-sean
The first two Amityville films are still favorites of mine. Though The Amityville Horror had low-budget production values, it had a great cast. James Brolin, Rod Steiger, and Margot Kidder, whom I had a big crush on. I believe they were still pushing it as "based on a true story" in the advertising of the film, as they originally did for the novel. The Michael Bay remake is horrid.
Amityville II is entertaining, but a couple changes would have made it better. I would've switched the priest roles of James Olson & Andrew Prine. Prine is such an underrated actor. I'll watch anything he's in. Plus more/extended scenes with Diane Franklin. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.
Amityville 3-D is only viewable if it can be watched in 3-D. Even then it's kinda silly. All the following "sequels", which I believe were direct-to-video, are unbearable.
When Pass The Dutchie reached No.1 it was mentioned on the BBC news that night - I suppose a bunch of West-Indian teenagers having a No.1 hit was considered unusual and newsworthy in 1982. And Pass The Dutchie made a huge jump to No.1 from around No.30 the previous week which probably helped its' newsworthiness.
KD, I think I remember Meg Ryan being in Amityville 3-D which always seems an unlikely movie for her to have been in.
Sean, thanks for the Space Force and 2000 AD info.
B and Sean, I think the first time I ever saw the word "ziggurat" was in an early issue of Savage Sword of Conan. It is indeed a magnificent word.
Sean, sadly, emoticons don't work in the comments section. :(
MP, I'm in two minds about whether I'd like to be an astronaut when I grow up. On the one hand, it's massively dangerous. On the other, it'd just be great to tell people my profession is, "Astronaut."
Colin, I too remember Musical Youth's chart triumph being reported on the TV news.
Are you planning to grow up at some point then Steve?
It doesn't seem very appealing. Personally, having spent most of my life avoiding it I don't intend to start growing up now.
Btw, I'm pretty sure dangermash has used emoticons in the comments here before O-:
-sean
Thinking about Andrew Prine's small part in Amityville II got me to thinking about other roles he had undertook. I had just recently rewatched Grizzly, but the RiffTraxx version.
Off the top of my head, the films I can remember he starred in were Hanah, Queen Of The Vampires & Barn Of The Living Dead. Both good cheesy fun, and I believe both films are public domain on the internet.
He was also in Kolchack The Nightstalker, the succubus episode.
Sorry, oh my brothers, if I may have fallen into a horror rut. It's October and here in the states Halloween is everywhere. Puts this old school monster kid into the mood.
I am trying to remember if SDC ever mentioned FLock of Seagulls and "I Ran" during this run of 1982 blogs? I mean, aren't they the home team for you UK chaps?
My perception is that A Flock of Seagulls have never been very well-regarded in Britain.
What? I thought "The FlocK" were from the UK??? Hmmm... were there american groups better received in the UK than here? Just musing aloud... not trying to steer the conversation from Dredd. Please do not take any umbrage as I am a poor man now, and have none to offer.
Killdumpter - are there more than 3 truly (truly) good horror films suitable for all ages: THe Original Dracula; Abott and Costello meet Frankstein, the Werewolf, and Dracula; and that Dracula movie you sent me from like the late 60s / early 70s?
I thought about being an astronaut. I was already a chopper pilot and could have put in for test pilot's school. At the time you had to do test pilot stuff to apply for an astronaut.
My boss, who test piloted the V-22, recommended me for it. But I was afraid that I would probably have to cop to my stoner ways in high school and that records would / could get un-expunged and then the feces would hit the rotating oscillator big time.
And then I'd really be up Schitt's Creek without a paddle, having lied about my past to get into flight school in the first place.
A Flock of Seagulls were from the UK Charlie - Liverpool I believe (although if they've ever recorded Ferry Cross The Mersey I'm not aware of it) - its just that they weren't taken at all seriously.
As for the other way round, Yanks better received here... the fab Kid Creole & the Coconuts? They were fairly big in Britain while A Flock of Seagulls were having hits in the US - you lot definitely got the raw end of the deal on that particular cultural exchange.
-sean
And theres also Jimi Hendrix, Charlie - he had to come to London to make it. While a whole generation of jazz musicians like Albert Ayler went to Europe.
Seems like you Americans don't know what you actually have.
-sean
Everybody should watch Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein once.
ONCE.
But ya don't havta watch it ever again after that. Just get it over with and move on with your life.
M.P.
Post a Comment