Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
***
At some point in the early 1980s, Orville the Duck famously declared he wished he could fly. Way up to the sky.
But someone who actually did fly up to the sky was Sally Ride who, in this month in 1983, famously became the first American woman in space, thanks to the Challenger Space Shuttle, and its STS-7 mission of which I know nothing.
Going further into space than even that was Pioneer 10 which was passing the orbit of Neptune and, thus, becoming the first man-made object to leave the vicinity of the Solar System's major planets. I would assume it's still going, although you never hear anything about it, these days.
It also saw the release of a film called The Survivors which seems to have had nothing to do with the 1970s BBC One series of the same name. The series that somehow managed to reinvent the genre of Post-Apocalyptic Plague Drama as a welly-wearing retread of The Good Life.
When it came to the UK singles chart, the Police were riding high, claiming the Number One slot, with the stalkertastic Every Breath You Take, until the month's very final week when it was toppled by Rod Stewart's Baby Jane.
Over on the British album chart, it was Michael Jackson who ruled the roost, initially, until he was dethroned by The Police's Synchronicity.
There was clearly much happening in space, that month, but there was a comic, of course, that was always venturing into the cosmos.
And that was 2000 AD.
Right then, it was still giving us Robo-Hunter, Tharg's Time Twisters, Skizz and Rogue Trooper. It was also giving us the antics of Judge Dredd who concluded the month's adventures by coming up against a werewolf.
As if that wasn't all thrilling enough for us, the comic also offered the chance to win Star Wars action figures and video games, thanks to the impending release of Return of the Jedi.
Posts
8 comments:
Not sure it was that much of an achievement putting a woman in space back in 1983 Steve, as the Soviets had already done it twenty years earlier. And that was a solo mission.
That Dredd werewolf story was notable for the artwork of the late Steve Dillon. Prog #322 also featured Alan Davis drawing "The Hyper Historic Headbang", one of Alan Moore's lesser Time Twisters.
You have to wonder why the editor of the Galaxy's Greatest Comic needed to poach artists from Marvel UK, but all the same you wouldn't complain about it.
-sean
PS Just to be clear, when I say "not much of an achievement" these things are relative - I wouldn't want to diminish the achievement of the Peoples Republic of Sheffield's first cosmonaut eight years later. Well done South Yorkshire.
-sean
I didn't go to see Return Of The Jedi but I did buy the novel of the film.
June 1983 was also the month that Margaret Thatcher's Tories were re-elected with a 144-seat majority despite their vote-share falling by 1% from the '79 election. Labour and the SDP-Liberals got 54% of the votes but they split the anti-Tory vote between them...some things never change, sigh.
You're assuming the Liberals are an anti-tory vote Colin. As it happens, the last Liberal PM to win an election was Lloyd-George in coalition with the tories back in 1918, and the only time they've been in power since of course was with Dodgy Dave Cameron.
The amusing thing about the '83 election from a modern perspective is that the Labour party were for leaving the capitalists club of the (then) EEC, while la Thatch had been a leading remain campaigner during the first referendum in '75...
-sean
Sean and Colin, thanks for your comments. As for the Liberal Democrats, aren't they now to the left of Labour? That's a party that clearly needs to make its mind up.
For those desperate to know about the film The Survivors - as I know I am - apparently, it starred Walter Matthau and Robin Williams as two New Yorkers fated to meet and affect each other's lives, becoming friends through adversity.
Given its high-profile leads, I did wonder why I've never heard of it but it turns out it has a rating of just 9% on Rotten Tomatoes which could explain plenty.
So in the UK the winner doesn’t need to cobble together a coalition to represent at least 50% of the seats? Not sure which is better: something like France and Germany (and most of the world?) do or like US and UK. But given that both parties here generally seem to (or at least used to) lick each other’s balls before falling asleep at night I’m tempted by the other system.
Charlie, in the UK it's possible to win an election by getting only about 36% of the votes (as labour did in 2005 and the Conservatives did in 2015).
I'm not convinced a choice between Macron and Le Pen is much better than Clinton or Biden v Trump, Charlie (;
-sean
Post a Comment