2000 AD - February 1983.

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

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February 1983 seems to have been, mostly, a month of massacres in various parts of the world. Being the peace-loving soul I am, I was, therefore, clearly, going to have to seek refuge in the world of television.

And it was within that cathode ray wonderland that we found a historic moment unfolding, as US comedy-drama M*A*S*H reached its last-ever episode. One which set a record, as that land's most-watched TV episode of all time, thanks to an audience of 125 million people.

With viewing figures like that, the cinemas were probably empty but, still, the silver screen soldiered on and gave us such fare as Videodrome, Local Hero, The King of Comedy and The Sting II.

Of those movies, I've only ever seen Videodrome and Local Hero, neither of which hugely floated my boat although Local Hero did, at least, have a catchy theme tune, even if I did have to sit all the way through the entire film to finally hear it.

On the UK singles chart, Men at Work kicked-off February at Number One with Down Under but, soon, they were displaced by Kajagoogoo's Too Shy which then had to make way for Michael Jackson's Billie Jean, the song which finally cleared up all misunderstandings, by making it clear the chair was not his son. I don't know about you but hearing that was certainly a load off my mind. 

When it came to UK album performances, the first three-quarters of the month were dominated by Men at Work's Business as Usual, until the last week of February saw Michael Jackson's Thriller hit the top spot after already having spent 13 weeks on the chart.

No doubt, the galaxy's greatest comic was getting an audience of comparable size to that of M*A*S*H but just what was that audience being served up?

It was, as usual, being served up Robo-Hunter, Harry Twenty on the High Rock, Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper and Tharg's Time Twisters.

It seems someone was a Steely Dan fan, as one of the Dredd episodes was called Pretzel Logic.

Then again, one of the Robo-Hunter tales was called Play it Again, Sam.

But, even more then-again, you probably didn't need to be psychic to have already spotted the adventures of Sam Slade might owe more than a little to the cinematic career of Humphrey Bogart.

For nostalgia buffs, it appears that pages from the comic's very first issue were reproduced in shrunken form.

And, as if that wasn't enough, we even got the chance to win a trip to Disney World!