Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
***
As we all know, there is, in all human existence, no experience more thrilling than reading this blog. Why, even as the man writing it, I often have to take a bucketful of sedatives to get through it.
But, in November 1982, the world was smashed in the face by something almost as thrilling.
And that was an album called Thriller.
Thanks to a string of hit singles, Michael Jackson's LP went on to become the biggest-selling album of all time and, as of the present, has sold over 110 million units, globally.
Speaking of globally, that month was a lively time for leaders around the world.
In the USSR, former KGB head Yuri Andropov was selected to become general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee, succeeding Leonid Brezhnev who'd died just two days earlier. You have to hand it to communists, they might want to take your yacht off you but they don't hang around when it comes to replacing people.
Over in Asia, Yasuhiro Nakasone emulated Yuri, by becoming Prime Minister of Japan.
And, on the very borderlands of Asia and Europe, Kenan Evren became only the seventh president of Turkey.
Admittedly, I only included that last one because, when I first read it on Wikipedia, I thought it said Kenny Everett had become president of Turkey. I did wonder how come I'd never heard about that.
Things were nothing like so pivotal in Britain but, that month, history of a sort was made, as Channel 4 was launched, with Richard Whiteley's words and numbers quiz Countdown being the first show it broadcast.
That show is, famously, still running but without the now deceased Whiteley. Richard's other great fame was, of course, being honorary mayor of the Yorkshire Wolds town of Wetwang.
Surely, no greater honour can befall a man.
Far away from there, that month, in London, the Thames Flood Barrier was publicly demonstrated for the first time.
Thriller may have been about to set the world of music afire but, atop the UK album chart, there was no sign of it, with the month kicking-off with the Kids From Fame at Number One, thanks to their album of the same name. That was soon dethroned, however, by ABBA's The Singles - The First Ten Years, before that platter had to make way for The John Lennon Collection.
Far away from there, that month, in London, the Thames Flood Barrier was publicly demonstrated for the first time.
Thriller may have been about to set the world of music afire but, atop the UK album chart, there was no sign of it, with the month kicking-off with the Kids From Fame at Number One, thanks to their album of the same name. That was soon dethroned, however, by ABBA's The Singles - The First Ten Years, before that platter had to make way for The John Lennon Collection.
In retrospect, I can't help feeling the title of that ABBA album was simply tempting fate.
Over on the UK singles chart, November launched with Eddy Grant's I Don't Wanna Dance on top before it was given the push by the Jam's Beat Surrender which, I believe, was their last-ever release before Paul Weller left and introduced us, instead, to the power and majesty of the Style Council.
But what of the power and majesty of 2000 AD? What was the galaxy's greatest comic up to while all this was going on?
It was still giving us Robo-Hunter, Harry Twenty on the High Rock, Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper, Tharg's Future Shocks and The Ace Trucking Co.
It also gave us something called Hemlock Bones which my razor-sharp mind tells me is likely to have been a Sherlock Holmes parody.
Prog 290, meanwhile, was giving us the chance to snap up a Pac-Man wristwatch. The 1980s had truly arrived.
Posts
40 comments:
Apparently at the time of his passing Richard "Twice Nightly" Whiteley had racked up more hours on British tv than any other person, except for the testcard girl Steve.
Yet I can't recall ever seeing him in a flat cap or with a whippet, so it seems you were correct about persons of Yorkshire in the last comment thread.
Although I don't suppose you need me to tell you that.
Anyhow, the comics -
For those still counting, prog 291 has a Future Shock written by Alan Moore - "Bad Timing" - about a scientist on the doomed planet Klakton who puts his infant son in a spaceship to take him to safety on distant world the Earth (where apparently the lighter gravity will make him invulnerable, able to fly, and so on)...
But thats the only halfway interesting thing about whats a fairly dull month for the galaxy's greatest comic, an ongoing situation which unfortunately this feature will be stuck with for a while yet.
-sean
There's this interesting movie called Brightburn, which also takes the whole Superman origin and puts it on it's head.
The alien baby's spaceship lands in Kansas, and he's discovered by a kind-hearted farm couple.
He's a sweet little kid until he turns twelve, and then all hell breaks loose.
What if instead of growing into a mild-mannered farm boy, Kal-El turned into a monster, like the kind of kid that tortures animals and revels in sadism. A real bad seed.
With all the powers of a Superman. That's what happens in this movie.
I could see Alan Moore writing this thing; the little punk is basically Kid Miracleman.
M.P.
I just flipped through these online and agree with Sean that they're a bit average. There's some nice, frenetic, early Alan Davis art on Harry 20 (which I'm pretty sure I mentioned last month) and a couple of nice Ian Gibson covers. The Alan Moore Future Shock lacked his usual flair.
Speaking of Brightburn, has anyone watched The Boys? I found the comic just ok (very post Alan Moore) but enjoyed the TV series. Season two is the stronger and very much moves into Miracleman territory. Dark, violent and pretty funny.
DW
I haven't seen it, and I'm only vaguely familiar with the comic book.
Knowing Ennis, it's probably completely mental.
I was a huge fan of his D.C. Comics series Hitman, which I thought was brilliant, but sometimes I had to shake my head and say "Jesus H. Christ. What is going on in that guy's brain."
Clubbing zombie seals in the head...
M.P.
Moore has done some twisted takes on that superhero archetype M.P. - Kid Marvelman being a case in point - but he played Superman pretty straight really. In both his official DC Supes and Supreme he went for a very Silver Age take.
Btw, Future Shocks are very short stories, generally three pages, with a twist at the end.
The punchline of "Bad Timing" is that actually everyone on the doomed planet was right to dismiss the scientist as an end of the world nut and Klakton doesn't explode at all; meanwhile, the alien baby's arrival on Earth sets off early warning systems (hey, it was the early 80s) and triggers a nuclear war.
Ba-dum tshh.
The End.
-sean
Actually, put like that the story sounds a bit rubbish, but it has pretty good comic timing.
-sean
As I'm totally unfamiliar with the paper offerings, I'll address the musical ones. "Thriller" was a true phenomenon. It seemed like everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, had it. Still an incredible work to listen to.
This must gave been a good time for retrospectives, with ABBA and John Lennon being so honored. So how many 'best of ABBA' collections have there been? "The Definitive Collection" sits on my cd shelf, and is pretty darn good.
Oh, and Steve- your comments about Mr. Brezhnev and Mr. Andropov brought to mind a bit of dark humor. Back then I faithfully listened to "Dr. Demento ". On that show was featured a song called "The ABC's of Dead Russian Leaders", which referenced those two Soviet Premiers as well as their fellow brief comrade Constantin Chernenko. Perhaps that explains why Mikhail Gorbachev was next; the Politburo wanted to avoid a Premier whose name began with 'D'...
I'm not familiar with The Boys. Generally I was down on Ennis' stuff for quite a while, but recently enjoyed his war comic Sara, and Punisher: Soviet (yeah, I know - I can't believe I liked a Punisher comic either).
So maybe its worth giving some of his work that I missed a go. Any suggestions M.P., DW...?
-sean
Sean, some of the stuff he did on D.C.'s Demon (y'know, Etrigan) was rather amusing. His take on Merlin was kind of hilarious. But I'm dating myself. That was a LONG time ago.
It hadn't occurred to me, Sean, but you're absolutely right about Moore's take on Superman. It was "straight" as you say. I think he had a lot of affection for the character.
Now, his take on Mr. Mxyzptlk (I had to google that three times and I'm still not sure I spelled that right) was demonic and terrifying.
...waitaminnit. You don't suppose googling Mxyzptlk three times could actually summon him to this plane, do you?
...uh-oh...
M.P.
Sean
When I dabbled I found Ennis to be a bit obvious, which is consistent with a lot of those 90's Vertigo writers. Obviously Preacher was massive and so what do I know? The Boys tv series (in Australia, at least) is on Amazon and is bonkers but very entertaining. It can get bogged down occasionally, but the climax in season 2 is great.
I think Supreme was brilliantly conceived but let down by some ropey art, at times. Somewhere in the Supremeverse, DC published it as an It extended Elseworld title, with Curt Swan.
I think I still have a complete run of the Image/Awesome/Whatever version somewhere.
DW
"Obvious" is one word for it...
M.P.
Red, there have been almost as many ABBA compilation albums as there were ABBA singles. However, they've all been made redundant by the rise of ABBA Gold which is now the 2nd-biggest-selling album in British history and is in this week's UK Top 50, nearly 30 years after its release, having, so far, spent 972 weeks on the chart.
Definitely agree about Supreme DW. You can make the case that the sub-Liefeld artwork fits in with the general concept of Supreme, but that doesn't make it any easier on the eye. The improvement when Chris Sprouse drew a few of the later issues was really noticeable.
Clearly I don't know much either, as Preacher struck me as over-rated. Back when Vertigo was very much associated with Neil Gaiman and Sandman, theoretically Ennis' Action-influenced idea for dumb, juvenile comics had quite a bit of appeal.
Unfortunately comics that were dumb and juvenile turned out to be not so great an approach in practice.
-sean
MP, I've seen Brightburn too!
The first single released from Thriller was The Girl Is Mine which included that embarrassing talky bit...
Macca: Michael, let's not fight about this
Jacko: Paul, I'm a lover not a fighter (said in Jacko's totally unsexy high-pitched Mickey Mouse voice)
ABBA had only four OFFICIAL greatest hits albums:
Greatest Hits (1976)
Greatest Hits Volume 2 (1979)
The Singles: The First Ten Years (1982)
ABBA Gold (1992)
Colin... if you knew how many times I've heard "I'm a lover not a fighter" spoken here, all thanks to Jacko!
They still have a shrine to him in Munich / Munchen which is nice. Being that Jacko and I are homies, from Gary, Indiana, I paid a visit with my son when visiting in 2019.
And in Gary, being the anus it now is, they spew vitriol b/c neither he nor his famous brothers nor his famous sister never came back and... I don't know... lavished $MM on the city for god knows what.
But when MJ was hot from like 78 - 88, he dwarfed the competition for pop records, no doubt about it.
I keep hearing the adverts that Brexit is going from "transition" to "reality" on 1/1/21 Steve.
They said the laws relating to exports / imports will be enforced!
Are my comments here considered an import, given they originate in Chicago, which is well west of Yorkshire? Will you have to starting paying some sort of import duty?
Also, I notice that the rest of western Europe is not letting the UK export its new version of Corona (70 times more dangerous than the original, whatever that means.) Seems like unfair trade practices are in the making!
Lastly, did you chaps go to war with the French, Danes, Germans, et al. over fishing of Cod yet? I keep waiting for the Danes to unleash a reincarnated Beowulf on y'all! It won't be pretty!
I think even MP - The Cat Man would back down from Beowulf!
Theres no pleasing some people, Charlie. Having spent the last few years complaining about open borders with the rest of Europe now the Brits are moaning about them being closed down!
-sean
Yes, Charlie, I'm afraid all overseas contributors are going to have to pay an 80% tariff on their eyeballs to read the blog and a 70% tariff on their fingers in order to type comments, in accordance with World Trade Organisation rules.
Fortunately, the English mutant COVID is only 70% more infectious than the one the rest of the world has but I'm sure our government is working on achieving that 70x more deadly rate, even as I speak.
Charlie, these days the "Cat Man" isn't looking for any trouble, from real or mythical beings.
Actually, I look more like a bulldog than a cat.
Sean, I listen the BBC news hour on NPR sometimes when I'm walking, and just the other day they were interviewing people over there about Brexit, and it seems a lot of people are disillusioned.
I don't know the more complex details about it, like you guys, but isn't it reversible? Granted, you'd need to get rid of that goofball Johnson first. We're getting rid of ours!
I suppose you'd need at least a few years to let the dust settle from this fiasco before you started seriously contemplating rejoining the E.U., if that's what the majority wanted.
M.P.
I think the brexit thingy is irreversible IIRC. The BJ made sure that the next administration could not undo it, unlike what bonespur has done to every Obama program possible.
But have we established if Phillip has all these PROGs stashed in cereal boxes in his garage, too? I was waiting for his color commentary, given Steve does the play calling.
Actually, as I typed that I'm not sure it makes sense to our UK boys? It is terminology from US Football radio nd TV b/c the plays stops and starts, and is not continuous like UK soccer. So, the primary announcer calls the play as it happens ("Charles runs to the left and is tackled!")
Then during the dead time the secondary announcer does the so-called "color commentary" providing all the details ("You know Charles ran to his left because his left leg is shorter than his right and 98% of the time he runs to his left.")
Sean, Phillip, I sincerely thank you for the link on Yorkshire
Ken Loach's Price Of Coal
But I am only understanding about 60% given the accents (dialects?). I mean, I thought the 4 lads were tough in Hard Day's Night sometimes but this is far more challenging.
That said, I really enjoyed the 8 minute mark where the two gents kick the kids' soccer ball over the brick wall/fence. That was a scene out of Oor Wullie that I've probably read 100 times, LOL! Big time LOL! I mean it really made Oor Wullie seem big time legit and not a piece of fiction!
Th HTML to the show is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHDWivEEddo
I dunno anything about soccer, but I can see how having a short leg could cause a guy to tend to run in a circular pattern.
It's science, basically.
M.P.
MP - you should watch that show (link above). "Ken Loach's Price Of Coal"
I honestly can't figure out if I am watching a "movie" or a documentary. It really is like Hard Day's Night in that regard, lol.
I mean, the accents / dialects come and go so you can understand, until you can't.
Its not that simple M.P. You lot corrected the mistake you made by voting a nut into power once, whereas the British - well, the English really - have gone for the nutters THREE elections in a row (four if you count 2010 coalition).
The way the system currently works in the UK is that elections are every two years, with the tories changing leader beforehand so they aren't held responsible for the mess they've made in government (somehow, this actually works). I suspect Johnson will be out sometime in the coming year, but he'll probably be replaced by someone even crazier.
I think you misunderstand my position though, as I'm in favour of Brexit - the Withdrawal Agreement gives us a border in the Irish Sea next month!
-sean
I stand corrected!
M.P.
Thought you might find the accents tricky to follow if you tried The Price of Coal, Charlie.
On that subject, I watched The Death Of Stalin on tv last night. Have you seen it? A bit disappointing - too many inaccuracies for my liking - but Marshall Zhukov having a Yorkshire accent was very effective.
-sean
Sean - you were spot on about the challenge of the accents for old Charlie, lol, but the Oor Wullie "cameo" made up for it big time!
Closest ole Charlie got to the Ruskies lately was "The Queen's Gambit" given she goes to Moscow to play the chess tournament. It was a good series over all. Not hall of fame stuff but worth a look. Netflix.
ALso, the Babylon Berlin series on Netflix played footsie with the Ruskies too. I quite enjoyed that series. If you watch, do it in the German with english subtitles. The English overdub has zero passion / inflection... they are just reading the lines.
Hey - if you are into the Russians and stuff... I could email you if you want to give Steve your email. I hate to tie up the bandwidth here more than I already do, LOL!
I've been wanting to see that.
From a distance of seven decades, the attendant chaos of Stalin's demise seems almost comical. Of course at the time, Beria didn't think it was very funny.
Someday, probably sooner rather than later, somebody's gonna a make a dark comedy about what's transpiring in the "bunker" in D.C. right now, even as we speak.
All kinds of bad craziness.
M.P.
tragedy + time = comedy
M.P.
Only problem with that Netflix program is that when I retire and start playing chess seriously again for the first time since 1999 (kids and London commuting did it for me), I'm going to need to learn a whole new opening repertoire. I used to play the queen's gambit but that's now officially a girly opening.
Speaking of Russians, The Queens Gambit, and Chess... LOL...
The following article, only a few years old, speaks to what happens when a man was lured by an anonymous person to teach Chess to kids in a wo-be-gone corner of Mississippi. Recommended reading. (It's actually true, not a story.)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kids-fight-stereotypes-using-chess-in-rural-mississippi/
For you UK guys, Missississippi is the most insular state in America. I'll stop there...
Charlie - unfortunately, the cornflake boxes aren't a horn of plenty for 2000ADs. The 2000AD stuff mostly got sold/swapped decades ago (with a couple of exceptions.) A particular regret was swapping the 1978 2000AD Sci-fi Special for an airfix catalogue, in a moment of youthful folly - the other kid got the better side of that bargain! Still got some Star-Lords (2000AD's older sister-title), though - somewhere!
Phillip
UK (Irish?) gents, can you help Chicago Charlie?
The attached video is making the round and is quite hilarious if you are of that mind set (it is clean).
However, the Irish Guy leading the group says something about "The Guards Came to Arrest us!" Everyone says "Oh no!" But then the dude goes "A Bean Garda" and they all cheer. About 20 - 25 seconds in.
What is "A Bean Garda?" I assume the word play is Garda = Guard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDaCrTHClEs&feature=youtu.be
The title is "Hilarious Irish lads pre drinks speech"
Two peoples separated by a common language.
Not quite a common language Charlie - "bean" is Irish for woman, the garda are the cops (surely you could figure that out from the context?)
"Bean garda" is considered a somewhat patronizing term for lady cops, and they don't like it. But then which terms used for peelers of either gender do they like?
Phillip, isn't the '78 2000AD Sci-fi Special the one with the Rick Random reprints? I don't know if you're necessarily missing out not still having a copy. Its not as if its an issue of Star-Lord.
-sean
Sean - the swap happened in 1982, so my memory's hazy, but Rick Random definitely rings a bell. It was the 1978 Sci-fi Special's cover that was particularly striking! We can't have valued it so much, at the time, or we wouldn't have swapped it. Memory is unreliable.
As to Charlie's question, we were all 'leaving it on the long finger' until you turned up! ; )
Phillip
Sean - i did indeed make the leap from garda to guard to cop! And contextually, given the lads were cheering the bean garda had glasses, but nothing else, I inferred it had to do with a female.
But sometime you just have to hear it explained!
How one gets from "bean" to "chick" though would be interesting to understand. Chick, babe one can kinda, sorta see the thinking but babe?
It's funny how booze and beans is international.
Its from a different language to English, Charlie.
-sean
I suspect that Sean is really a stockbroker from Surrey and only pretends to be Irish.
Only kidding, Sean...or am I??
I'll send you a postcard from somewhere in Europe during the summer Colin, when I'm still making use of my right to free movement next year.
-sean
Btw, its the twenty-first century - I could be Irish AND a stockbroker in Surrey.
-sean
Post a Comment