Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
***
As Sean pointed out in the comments section for my most recent look at 2000 AD; when I composed that post, I totally missed the chance to include the appropriate annuals for the 1982/1983 period.
As far as I can make out, there were two of them, one for the parent title and one for its most popular offspring. Below are they.
But, first, Christmas Day isn't just for annuals. It's for TV. So, what were we watching on the idiot box as we were reading those titanic tomes?
On BBC One, we were, indisputably, watching the Top of the Pops Christmas Special, hosted by those spokesmen for British youth, Peter Powell, John Peel, Dave Lee Travis, Steve Wright, Andy Peebles, Richard Skinner, Tommy Vance and Mike Smith, all presenting their favourite hits of 1982. Not to mention Mike Read's look back at the year's Number Ones.
On the same channel, the Queen read out her speech, at 3 o'clock, followed by International Velvet whose horsie nature would, no doubt, have appealed to her.
The early evening gave us Paul Daniels' Magic Show, Last of the Summer Wine, The Two Ronnies, Death on the Nile, Perry Como, and Charles Dickens' The Signal-Man.
Not that I'm totally uncultured but I must confess that, until now, I never knew that tale was by Dickens. I always assumed it to have been by Henry or MR James, as these things always seemed to be.
BBC Two, early evening, gave us 25 Years in Space, The Millionairess, The Queen's Speech, The World of James Joyce and the movie Fedora. The latter of which I remember watching at the time.
ITV, meanwhile, launched us into Christmas Day with Journey Back to Oz which was some sort of cartoon, Andy Williams' Christmas Special, The Parent Trap and The Black Hole, ultimately closing down with Christmas at Radio GOSH.
Not to be forgotten, Channel 4 gave us such treats as Caesar and Cleopatra, Buster Keaton's The Navigator, St Mark's Gospel, Upstairs Downstairs and that star of car parks Richard III.
The main annual gives us 128 pages of sci-fi goodness from Strontium Dog, Nemesis, Tharg's Future Shocks, Ro-Busters, Rogue Trooper, The Mean Arena, Harlem Heroes, Ace Trucking Co, Ro-Jaws, M.A.C.H. 1, Invasion and, inescapably, Judge Dredd.
While most of the strips seem to be new, the presence of some of 2000 AD's original stars may tip you off that a small number of these tales are reprints from the very early days of the comic.
The Judge Dredd annual has, by contrast, just 96 pages and, as you'd probably guess, appears to revolve entirely around all things Dredd, including a solo adventure for Max Normal.
Amongst other gems, we get the tale of a hotel that's killing its guests, Dredd's battle to prevent a gang from selling comics to children, and the good judge's battle against fleas.
Again, although most of the tales are new, there are a couple of reprints thrown in.
Perhaps most crucially of all, the book also asks the vital question, "Could you survive a holiday in Mega-City One?"
To which I think the only sensible answer must be, "No."
On the same channel, the Queen read out her speech, at 3 o'clock, followed by International Velvet whose horsie nature would, no doubt, have appealed to her.
The early evening gave us Paul Daniels' Magic Show, Last of the Summer Wine, The Two Ronnies, Death on the Nile, Perry Como, and Charles Dickens' The Signal-Man.
Not that I'm totally uncultured but I must confess that, until now, I never knew that tale was by Dickens. I always assumed it to have been by Henry or MR James, as these things always seemed to be.
BBC Two, early evening, gave us 25 Years in Space, The Millionairess, The Queen's Speech, The World of James Joyce and the movie Fedora. The latter of which I remember watching at the time.
ITV, meanwhile, launched us into Christmas Day with Journey Back to Oz which was some sort of cartoon, Andy Williams' Christmas Special, The Parent Trap and The Black Hole, ultimately closing down with Christmas at Radio GOSH.
Not to be forgotten, Channel 4 gave us such treats as Caesar and Cleopatra, Buster Keaton's The Navigator, St Mark's Gospel, Upstairs Downstairs and that star of car parks Richard III.
While most of the strips seem to be new, the presence of some of 2000 AD's original stars may tip you off that a small number of these tales are reprints from the very early days of the comic.
The Judge Dredd annual has, by contrast, just 96 pages and, as you'd probably guess, appears to revolve entirely around all things Dredd, including a solo adventure for Max Normal.
Amongst other gems, we get the tale of a hotel that's killing its guests, Dredd's battle to prevent a gang from selling comics to children, and the good judge's battle against fleas.
Again, although most of the tales are new, there are a couple of reprints thrown in.
Perhaps most crucially of all, the book also asks the vital question, "Could you survive a holiday in Mega-City One?"
To which I think the only sensible answer must be, "No."
Posts
39 comments:
Gents!
Regarding the Queen's Speech at 3 PM...
Ole Charlie remembers writing something on SDC about the Queen's Speech, I think in context of some UK TV show that dominates our PBS TV stations in America or on Netflix, and you chaps were not familiar with it? I wish to heck I could recall the context for what I wrote.
Sean? Colin? You two in particular seem to have the strongest recall of our musings! Help?
Steve - Dennis the Menace and Korky the Cat and Desperate Dan and Lord Snooty and his Pals demand equal time on the Annuals!!!
A Christmas post in late January? Ok Steve.
Well now, looking at the covers of those two annuals I'm reminded of going to a launch signing at the Forbidden Planet, in the old Denmark Street shop. Brian Bolland, Alan Moore, Kevin O'Neill, and Ian Gibson were there - zarjaz!
Unfortunately, like the regular progs at the time, the annuals themselves were not zarjaz.
The only really great new thing in either was in the 2000AD, with the return of Nemesis - and the world beating team of Pat Mills and Kevin O'Neill - for The Secret Life Of The Blitzspear. Classic, but only six pages.
Alan Moore wrote Ro-Busters and Rogue Trooper - drawn by Bryan Talbot and the late Brett Ewins respectively - but not so you'd really notice if there weren't any credits.
I guess his focus was on the three series that he'd started earlier in the year, Marvelman, V for Vendetta and Captain Brexit, his first (!) ongoing works...
-sean
Forget the queen Charlie, the Sunday Times magazine did a feature* today on the rising incidence of dog theft in the UK!
Those Yorkshiremen are busy fellas at the moment.
*Its behind a paywall online, so sorry - no link.
-sean
Charlie, I'm afraid I can shed no great light upon whatever the Queen's Speech TV thing is you're referring to. Is it anything to do with Downton or The Crown? Those are the only things that come to mind.
Sean, I like to think it's always Christmas at Steve Does Comics.
When my mother first told me that she was a fan of a T.V. show called Downton Abbey, I thought she was saying "Downtown Abby" which I assumed was a show about a prostitute.
M.P.
Man- Charlie's memory sux! He recalls a show wherein the main character, younger (late teen or young adult male) seemingly broke with the tradition of listening to the queen's speech on New Year's on the radio. His family were all gathered to listen but he had better things to do.
Charlie was surprised about this break of tradition and asked you chaps if you also listened to the queen's speech and you were not familiar with the tradition.
Downtown Abbey - Nope. Never watched it.
Doc Martin - Nope. Nope. His kid was a toddler
Murders in Paradise - Nope. They seldom spoke about UK traditions on that island.
Midsommer Murders - Nope. No young adult males just the DI's elderly daughter.
Hard Day's Night - Nope. Wrong time of year.
It must have been a UK show though, and must have had a deeper / richer character development to bother introducing this custom. But I can't recall if it was a movie or a series.
HELP!!!
The Christmas season actually lasts until Candlemas on February 2nd so it's perfectly okay for Steve Does Comics to have a festive post on January 25th. Merry Christmas!!
On the subject of the Queen's "speech" (its' proper name is the Queen's Christmas message to the Commonwealth) - I'm afraid I don't know what you mean either, Charlie. Now I'm curious about the British TV show that dominates PBS TV stations in America. If it's Downton or The Crown I'd rather have my teeth extracted than watch either of those two (but out of curiosity I did watch a YouTube compilation of Gillian Anderson's portrayal of Thatcher in The Crown. Verdict: nothing like Thatcher).
I remember watching Death On The Nile on BBC One on Christmas Day 1982. It was the first time I'd ever seen it and when the film ended my mother said it was ridiculous. She was right too - and there's a huge plot hole that undermines the whole story (which I won't bore you with). And yet Death On The Nile is called an Agatha Christie "classic". Pah!
I remember you talking about that show, Charlie but I have no recollection of what it was.
Colin,e t al.
PBS is nationwide. But they also allow for local stuff. Sometimes I am not clear which programs are local decisions vs. national.
(Either way the Republicans don't care, they don't want to spend $30,000,000 a year, of the $7,000,000,000,000 budget this year, on stuff that folks with more than a 3rd grade education may want to see.)
Sorry for that...
Anyhow besides what I listed above there is a whole thing they call "Masterpiece Theatre" with different UK shows running every night. I think there is even the UK's version of Antique Roadshow which is actually interesting, culturally.
Are you familiar with the term Masterpiece Theatre? Or is it just a US term for "all these great british programs?" lol.
I must say though that the UK actors (and French on Netflix) are really quite good and seemingly superior to US actors.
Steve, I've been thinking (hey, it happens sometimes) about your 50 Years Ago feature, and how you might remix it now you've caught up with yourself.
Er, not that you asked me or anything, but anyway...
How about adding a few comics from the competition?
A quick look at Mike's World of Comics for the Feb '71 cover date shows that DC put out New Gods #1 and Forever People #1, some classic Neal Adams Batman and Green Lantern (wow - Neal did 10 covers that month!), and theres a Lois Lane cover thats just crying out for some pithy Steve W commentary.
Pick a few of those and you'd have a good complement/contrast to the Marvels you've already written about, no?
This would also open up the feature later to Atlas (great, eh?)
-sean
Sean, you mean like, Atlas Seaboard? Any review of that stuff would be weird, because that stuff was weird.
Lotta cannibalism in there for some reason. Was there something weird going on in Chip Goodman's brain?
It might be interesting, though. It would make for a lively conversation.
Steve, I dig those deep-dive reviews (is "review" the right word?) of old D.C. comics that you do on occasion.
This blog has always been great, but if you decided to mix things up a bit, Steve, my mind would not finally collapse in on itself and send me out on a mass killing spree.
M.P.
Charlie seconds cool-cat MP.
Maybe do some deep reviews of timeless treasures such as Skywalk's Jungle Adventures, Archie's The Fly and Harvey's Sad Sack.
Should the natives grow restless from the departure, Charlie's Man in Havana could hide you out indefinitely Steve. Charlie says not even Inspector Morse would be able to find you.
Geez, Charlie, I love Sad Sack but I don't think this is the right venue.
Even Archie Comics would be inappropriate for this blog, in my opinion.
I've always believed Jughead was a psychopath. The signs are there.
He coulda been another Charlie Manson if he had more charisma.
M.P.
You'r not up for some Betty & Veronica action then, M.P.?
To be fair, Archie doesn't mean anything to me, but looking at the list of American comics that came out in Feb '71 there do seem to be a lot of cartoon/humour titles - Millie The Model seems like less of an outlier.
So the 50 Year feature might well benefit from the broader context by occasionally included, say, that month's issue of Sad Sack's Army Life Parade.
Ok, like me Steve probably doesn't know anything about it (apologies if I'm underestimating you, Steve) but it seems like it might get a response in the comments. Could be interesting to hear more about Charlie's efforts infiltrating the forces of US imperiali... uh, time in the army.
-sean
* occasionally including
A few typos there. Duh.
Anyway, to be clear, I mainly had contemporary DCs in mind - I'm not suggesting the feature prioritize, say, Josie And The Pussycats over Kirby's Fourth World or Berni Wrightson's Swamp Thing.
-sean
Sean, I'll take a look at including some DC comics but I can't promise anything. I once tried to do a post investigating what DC were up to in one particular month but my lack of knowledge of DC made it a soul-destroying mission and I abandoned the idea. Therefore, don't be disappointed if no DCs end up appearing.
MP, I've done a pile of reviews of Atlas Comics. They can be found right here: https://stevedoescomics.blogspot.com/search/label/Atlas%20Comics
Needless to say, the word "cannibalism" does feature quite heavily...
Charlie, I have heard the name Masterpiece Theatre but have, until now, never known what it was.
It was just an uninvited suggestion Steve, and whatever you decide to do I doubt very much your marvelous blog will start disappointing me now.
I am surprised to read that a lack of knowledge would stop you posting on a subject though.
-sean
Steve - I second what Sean says! Do NOT let your knowledge of a comic / comic company preclude its discussion here!
I like the idea of looking at the "top of the charts" for 50 years ago in comics and throwing up a non-Marvel for random musings!
PS - it is only a matter of time before the QAnon and Republicans realize that Democrats read those Atlas comics and accordingly inspired became cannibals (picking up a few other odious habits along the way like running pizza parlors) and now run the US and world governments. Sheesh... you couldn't make this stuff up!
Wow... looks like US tax dollars are funding PBS (Public Broadcasting Station) which has dedicated a significant hunk of its airtime to British Shows under the umbrella of programming referred to as "Masterpiece Theatre" and "Masterpiece Mystery" since 1971. At the bottom I list the shows shown during 2020. You chaps familiar with them???
The 1st link is masterpiece Theatre from 2008 - present. The second link is for Masterpiece Mystery 2008 - 2020.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Masterpiece_Classic_episodes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Masterpiece_Mystery!_episodes
Shows for Masterpiece Theatre and Mystery, Season 50 (2020)
Beecham House (June 14, 21, and 28, July 5, 12, and 19)
Endeavour, Series VII (Aug 9, 16, and 23)
Flesh and Blood (Oct 4, 11, 18, and 25)
Grantchester, Series V (June 14, 21, and 28, July 5, 12, and 19)
Roadkill (Nov 1, 8, 15, and 22)
Van der Valk (Sep 13, 20, and 27)
Miss Scarlet and The Duke (Jan 17, 24, and 31, Feb 7, 14, and 21)
Baptiste (Apr 12, 19, and 26, May 3, 10, and 17)
Howards End (Jan 12, 19, and 26, Feb 2)
Sanditon (Jan 12, 19, and 26, Feb 2, 16, and 23)
World on Fire (Apr 5, 12, 19, and 26, May 3, 10, and 17)
I am familiar with Endeavour, Grantchester, Van der Valk and Howard's End.
The others, I don't think I've ever heard of.
I've only heard of Van Der Valk and Howard's End. The theme tune from Van Der Valk reached No.1 in the UK singles chart in 1973, Charlie.
The title Masterpiece Theatre made me think it must have shown things like you used to see in the old Play For Today slot years ago.
But Van der Valk, Howard's End...? Masterpieces?
Is Endeavour the one with that gammon plonker Laurence Fox?
-sean
Well, I have watched Endeavor's episodes this autumn. It is with a character named Inspector Morse. I think its first several seasons where actually entitled Inspector Morse.
They are all compelling viewing. Far richer, more subtle, better acted than what I occasionally see on US TV. (In fact I do not watch modern US TV, just UK stuff on PBS.) Well, that's the way it is with us Yanks... you Brits have this huge aura about you along with the accent. So, what you may question as a "Masterpiece" may indeed seem so to us.
On the other hand, I imagine if you gents wanted to watch something risque or full of blood and guts and explosions you might prefer a US show? I am just totally guessing b/c none of the Masterpiece shows I've seen would fall into that category so I am making a huge guess.
I don't watch that much tv so maybe I'm not the best judge Charlie, but in the 21st century US dramas seem much better than anything made here. If you can point me to anything made by the Brits in the same class as, say, The Wire please go ahead.
-sean
Ok, must toss in a few thoughts about PBS. I will always be grateful to public television for introducing me to Monty Python. And later, to various and sundry other sources of British humor.
More recently, watching their broadcasts of BBC News is refreshingly comforting. Those wonderful accents and the levelheaded, straightforward coverage makes much US news seem positively histrionic. Which it surely can be. Fox News, the "National Enquirer " of 'news' coverage...
Sean, Laurence Fox was in Lewis, the other Morse spin-off.
Red, I can't remember the last time I watched BBC News. I tend to prefer Channel 4's news coverage which is a lot less cosy with our politicians.
You're not a Russia Today man then Steve?
So there are two Morse spin-offs...? Thanks for the warning.
-sean
Sean - b/c you are clearly a fan (Jk, lol)
Endeavour on MASTERPIECE on PBSwww.pbs.org › wgbh › masterpiece › shows › endeavour
Shaun Evans stars as the cerebral Detective Constable Morse in Endeavour, written by Inspector Lewis creator Russell Lewis. See full episodes online.
Three Morse spin-offs if, like me, you count The Sweeney as a middle aged morse between the young one in Endeavour and the old one in Morse.
Redartz just reminded me — in the late 70s / early 80s, our local PBS station had a killer 90 minute block on the weekends. Monty Python, followed by International Animation Festival (hosted by the lovely Jean Marsh) and then Jon Pertwee-era Doctor Who. Good times!
Masterpiece Theatre in the early days seemed to feature a lot of British TV adaptations of classic novels (thus justifying the ‘Masterpiece’ bit) but even then also included things like ‘Upstairs, Downstairs’ which just SEEMED like lit-rah-chure to us Yanks. Old Time-y clothes and posh accents gave all those shows a veneer of upscale sophistication — at least compared to Archie Bunker and Starsky and Hutch.
Re: more ‘recent’ UK shows worth watching? First season of ‘Broadchurch’ was very, very good.
b.t.
b.t. I too enjoyed Broad Church. I have wondered if Jodie Whittaker got her Dr. Who role based on her performance though she clearly had done other works.
Our PBS station ran quite a few of BBC programmes as well in the 70's. I'd tune-in for Python & Dr. Who, and there was a great WWII mini-series called Danger UXB. In latter years I followed Red Dwarf.
Only caught Masterpiece Theatre when a classmate would tell me an episode contained nudity. I believe Diana Rigg hosted the show, after Alister Cook left.
Technically dangermash, wouldn't that actually be three Sweeney spin-offs?
Although it doesn't quite work for me, as Morse doesn't say things like "Shut it, you slag! Put yer trahsers on, yer nicked".
-sean
Charlie, Doctor Who's current showrunner created and wrote Broadchurch.
Steve - I think you are suggesting Whitaker's getting the Who role was not a coincidence that she was also on Broadchurch???
It was definitely not a coincidence.
We generally avoided Masterpiece Theatre in our house. As a grown-up, I enjoy a good hoity-toity period drama now and then, but when I was a kid, no way! In the Prime-Time viewing hours we mostly subsisted on a steady diet of cop shows, sit-coms and Made For TV Movies.
Alistair Cooke: Tonight on Masterpiece Theatre, a young lad from Cornwall finds employment as a stable boy, the first step in his lifelong journey of hardship and soul-crushing disappointment in the first episode of our eight-part adaptation of Thomas Farthing Thackerwhistle’s immortal classic —
12-year-old Me: Oh look, we can catch the last half of WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS on Channel 5!
b.t.
Post a Comment