Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
***
January 1984 was a historic month for all lovers of orbiting the Earth in cooperation with other lands.
That's right. It was the month in which US President Ronald Reagan announced his country would begin development of a new space station and would invite other nations to join in too. It was, at the time, labelled Space Station Freedom but would, later, become known by its current name The International Space Station.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, this month's winner in "Independence From Britain" Bingo was Brunei.
The UK singles chart, that January, saw three records claim the top spot. They were, in order of appearance, Only You by The Flying Pickets, Pipes of Peace by Paul McCartney and Relax by Frankie Goes to Hollywood.
Over on the British album chart, things were even more lively, with a full four Number Ones that month. They were; Now That's What I Call Music by those Various Artists we hear so much about nowadays, No Parlez by Paul Young, Thriller by Michael Jackson and, finally, Touch by Eurythmics.
Clearly, plenty of churn occurring on the charts, there but no such churn was visible in the pages of the galaxy's greatest comic. That month's progs featured the familiar faces of Sláine, D.R. & Quinch, Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper, Strontium Dog and Nemesis the Warlock.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, this month's winner in "Independence From Britain" Bingo was Brunei.
The UK singles chart, that January, saw three records claim the top spot. They were, in order of appearance, Only You by The Flying Pickets, Pipes of Peace by Paul McCartney and Relax by Frankie Goes to Hollywood.
Over on the British album chart, things were even more lively, with a full four Number Ones that month. They were; Now That's What I Call Music by those Various Artists we hear so much about nowadays, No Parlez by Paul Young, Thriller by Michael Jackson and, finally, Touch by Eurythmics.
Clearly, plenty of churn occurring on the charts, there but no such churn was visible in the pages of the galaxy's greatest comic. That month's progs featured the familiar faces of Sláine, D.R. & Quinch, Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper, Strontium Dog and Nemesis the Warlock.
From the covers, I'm going to guess that Prog 352 sees the debut of D.R.'s girlfriend Crazy Chrissy. However, that's pure assumption on my part and I could be talking complete rubbish.
What I'm not talking rubbish about is that these issues see the start of Judge Dredd's Mutie the Pig storyline in which the lethal law-enforcer discovers Judge Gibson's secretly committing crimes as Mutie the Pig.
And we never need wonder again what the date is, because we'll also be getting our hands on Tharg's 2000 AD calendar for 1984.
What I'm not talking rubbish about is that these issues see the start of Judge Dredd's Mutie the Pig storyline in which the lethal law-enforcer discovers Judge Gibson's secretly committing crimes as Mutie the Pig.
And we never need wonder again what the date is, because we'll also be getting our hands on Tharg's 2000 AD calendar for 1984.
Oh, I see, you can bring up other Paul McCartney records Steve (;...
ReplyDeleteThats right about DR's girlfriend turning up for the first time in prog 252, but more importantly it also marks the start of the 'Sky Chariots' storyline in Slaine by the awesome team of Pat Mills and Mike McMahon.
Its one of the highlights of 2000AD, up there with the third Halo Jones 'book' and the Judge Child-era Dredd.
Not sure why you've singled out "the start of Judge Dredd's 'Mutie the Pig' storyline"... That makes it sound like a big deal, but isn't just a reprint of some old Dredd two-parter from the first year of the series?
-sean
Also, not to offend our American friends, but really the history of the International Space Station began with the start of the Mir programme in '76.
ReplyDeleteBtw Steve, with the government seemingly keen on a war with the Russians in the winter (what could possibly go wrong there, eh?) where does that leave the people's republic of Sheffield?
Don't you lot have a peace treaty with Donetsk? Which side will South Yorkshire be on?
-sean
Sean - no worries hear about being offended LOL. "Freedom" is just a slogan that appeals to a large subset of America.
ReplyDeleteReagan was good at appealing to that subset. I should know as I voted for him twice LOL.
Then I discovered the www site "ten myths about Ronal Reagan" of which there are numerous.
I would simply Reagan's actions and his legacy are horribly contradictory in many ways. He talked tough but his actions show o/wise.
Now back to the comics!!!
'Space Station Freedom' does sound suspiciously like it could be the figment of someone's imagination (yet somehow still ends up costing money) Charlie.
ReplyDeleteSomehow it reminds me of Boris Johnson's Space Force.
Whatever happened to that?
-sean
Sean, surely it was Donald Trump's Space Force? Johnson's vision was, "Galactic Britain."
ReplyDeleteAs for Ukraine, I have intel that the city council's tanks are descending on Donetsk Roundabout even as I type. The nearby Asda must be defended at all costs.
I singled out Mutie the Pig because it was the only story title I recognised in that issue.
You're quite right Steve, I was getting mixed up - it was Donald Trump's Space Force.
ReplyDeleteBoris Johnson set up a Space Command -
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/nov/18/hackers-hq-and-space-command-how-uk-defence-budget-could-be-spent
-sean
Well like it used to say in DC Comics during Vietnam:
ReplyDeleteMake Love, Not war!
Don't Forget, Hire the Vet!
For those Americans -- please no offense to the Brits -- I am NOT getting political (this being a comics website & I like talking with ALL of you)...I'll give the Russians the full credit with longest lasting Mir space station, but let us not forget about the short-lived Skylab. It used a leftover Saturn V rocket & other equipment (used to land no less than 6 men on the moon, after all) could 'technically' be the first space station
ReplyDeleteThe Russians own Venus, but the U.S. owns Mars.
ReplyDeleteAnd the Moon.
And didn't we land something on Mercury? I forget.
We're way ahead of 'em, I figure.
-M.P.
Along with Voyagers 1 & 2 -- longest lasting & have gone the greatest distances...being made by humans, just remarkable machines
ReplyDeleteThis is me being a real comic-book/horror nerd, but I saw that ad for Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
ReplyDeleteAnd Shuma Gorath is in there! (Well, that's either him or some other one-eyed extra-dimensional octopus.)
It all looks pretty Lovecraftian to me. Remember "In the Mountains of Madness?"
Oh, and I guess we didn't Land on Mercury, exactly, rather we had a robotic space probe crash on its' surface in 2015.
With no regard for the fungoid creatures who eke out a living on the temperate border between the blistering sunward side and the cold dark side. Interplanetary wars have been fought for less!
Maybe somewhere, anyway.
M.P.
They say possession is 9/10 of the law M.P., so the moon and planets don't actually belong to anyone yet, not until someone actually stays on any of them.
ReplyDeleteCurrently, it looks like the moon, Mars or wherever will end up being owned by either China, Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk.
-sean
Well, possession, and the ability to retain possession, is 9/10 of the law I would think, where there is no law, LOL.
ReplyDeleteANy of you been watching the Olympics or the Super Bowl. Gotta love the commercial of the man in the hot air balloon stating we need to fix earth not be forking around in outer space! Matthew M is the actor.
Really appealed to me and the missus, and I hope most everyone else. To the tune of "Space Odyssesy"... "It's not time to escape it's time to engage! It's not time to think about the Metaverse and Mars it's time to think of ours!
TAKE A LOOK!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIp251KCz6k
https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/movies-tv/salesforces-super-bowl-ad-making-fun-of-jeff-bezos-elon-musk-and-other-tech-moguls-is-a-bad-look
On a completely unrelated topic, 1984 (& then 1985) was when pop music went stratospheric, it being played far more than ever before on the radio & TV (greater exposure, in other words). Although this might be an age-related reaction. If there's only M.P. who thinks 1984 & 85 were probably the biggest years, it's age related - if other people think so too, it isn't! (And if nobody agrees, it's just a personal reaction!) I'm not talking necessarily about quality - although there were some good songs - but about pop music being BIG, in terms of air-play.
ReplyDeletePhillip
'Relax' got banned from BBC radio due to the naughty lyrics but reached #1 anyway. Up yours BBC!
ReplyDeletePhillip- regarding the impact of popular music in the mid 80's, you are probably correct! I recall how prominent the music was in films like Footloose ", and tv shows like "Miami Vice". There seemed to be a lot of crossover from medium to medium, generally involving several tunes of chart topping appeal! And of course you still had Michael Jackson's "Thriller" firing off cuts into the pop charts. That album was EVERYWHERE...
ReplyDeleteColin, as far as I can remember, it was sliding down the charts before it got banned. Then again, there's always been that conspiracy theory that the record company put Mike Read up to pressuring for it to be banned, as a deliberate marketing tactic.
ReplyDeleteMP, the Dr Strange trailer is, indeed, very Lovecraftian.
I think you're right about the mid-80s Philip, mainly because of the explosion in media generally - there more tv channels, and they all needed content - but that continued through the following decades, so you could also say it was true of the 90s and into the 21st century.
ReplyDeletePlus, theres demographics, as pop music went from being mainly a young persons thing to part of the general culture. Like, in 70s Britain you hardly ever heard anything about, say, Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin outside of specialist music papers, but by the mid-90s, when most middle aged people probably had an old copy of 'Dark Side of the Moon' or whatever, boring gits like Oasis would be on tv all the time.
Its like some Orwellian dystopia. "If you want a picture of the future Winston, imagine having to listen to Paul McCartney records forever"
-sean
Paul's Pipes of Peace should be played at least as frequently as John's "So this is Christmas / War is Over."
ReplyDelete"Play the pipes of peeeaaaace."
Can I get an "Amen?!"
I am not sure we saw a demographic/age thing as much as a change in financing / capital.
ReplyDeleteSomething finally happened in the 1980s: an explosion in the availability of $ / capital.
In a crude sense, we can recall that Ronald Reagan discovered he could, and did, run up the USA's national deficits to levels that are still "the highest of all time."
Folks in entertainment borrowed for sports, recording industry, mediums / the media, etc.
Building booms exploded across America and presumably Europe as well. Chicago's sky line started changing more quickly. Rickety old sports edifices for soccer and baseball started being torn down and rebuilt.
The stock market just basically started an inexorable march upward more/less until the internet bubble collapsed.
In other words, money was there for the spending (and borrowing).
I suspect, without proof, that we all were suddenly a bit richer, spent more money on vinyl and cds and boom boxes, technology allowed the creation of relatively inexpensive sythesizers which created an explosion of new music and of course music became portable with boom boxes... loud forking boom boxes! And loud speakers in general!
SO, while I don't know if 84-85 were peak years, I suspect they may represent the biggest growth not related to a demographic change?
That's Charlie's best guess lol.
Redartz & Sean - Yes, Miami Vice, & videos taking pop music into the mainstream are definitely key.
ReplyDeleteCharlie - Strangely, I've heard another theory that musical creativity is linked to unemployment - specifically, 3 million people being unemployed in Thatcher's Britain. If you had a full time job, you'd be too tired at the end of the day to be noodling around on your guitar, writing songs.
Phillip
The 1980s Charlie... Thatcherism, Reaganomics, deregulation, Black Monday, junk bonds for goal posts, isn't it hmmm?
ReplyDelete-sean
1980s were when old school and new school started converging I think. Somehow America transitioned from making things to providing the money to make things.
ReplyDeleteI don't know much about the UK. I was there a few times in the mid-80s in London and it seemed a rocking place... but I was too young, in my 20s, to know anything.
Speaking of the Mid 80's & UK -- I read below article & collected most of those issues, but really hold in the upmost regard two issues written by my all time favorite writer!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.cbr.com/alan-moore-vigilante-peacemaker-joke-own-comic/
What I remember about the 80's was that damn Reagan.
ReplyDeleteDon Henley wrote a verse about him in the song "Little Tin God."
Well the cowboy's name was Jingo
And he heard that there was trouble
So in a blaze of glory
He rode out of the west
No one was ever certain
What it was that he was sayin'
But they loved it when he told 'em
They were better than the rest
M.P.
Back to 2000AD, these issues are absolute crackers. As well as A grade McMahon Slaine, we also got (almost) A grade Moore Davis DR & Quinch, above average Rogue Trooper and Strontium Dog as well as a couple of really nice Dredd (Steve Dillon and Ian Gibson). Prog 350 was definitely a great jumping on point. The pedant in me wants to mention that while Chrissie first appears in Prog 252, she doesn't actually become Crazy Chrissie until the next issue, but I'll resist the urge ;-)
ReplyDeleteDW
I reckon Rogue Trooper was above average at this point because Cam Kennedy was drawing it. Its hardly surprising he became the main Dredd artist for a while.
ReplyDeleteMatt, thanks for the link - I wasn't aware that Moore was a bit down on those Vigilante issues, although maybe its not much of a surprise given how he looks back on Killing Joke.
I can see his point that the subject matter maybe wasn't right for a superhero comic, but all the same he handled it well, and those issues where pretty good imo.
It seemed to me like there was more of a sense of place in the American setting of Moore's US stuff than a lot of other comics - like, the Louisiana in even his early Swamp Things seemed more specific than, say, Len Wein's or Marty Pasko's - but he hadn't even been to the US.
Or maybe I've got that wrong... I'm curious how it seemed to Americans reading Moore's work when it first appeared there - did his characters and settings ring true?
-sean
Sean, I can't say for others but I do have recollections of being more thrilled when the settings were more specific.
ReplyDeleteA swamp... much more mysterious than NY.
A Louisiana swamp... invokes Cajuns, alligators, crayfish, moon shine, semi-literate folks getting around on pirogues... Much more interesting than my swamp in Gary, Indiana full of old tires, car batteries, etc.
It would almost seem a "freebie" to an other picking a specific setting given our minds would upload a ton of context.
And SPidey in London... OK not very authentic but it didn't really matter to us kids... it was England and all the culture that we imagined it to be while reading the stories.
I always wondered what Americans (Canadians etc) thought of Marvel and DC interpretation of the UK nations. I suppose we all use stereotypes as shorthand in telling a story and establishing a setting. All Londoners don't really say "gov" and smog was a Thu g of the past etc. And even the great artists never quite got the London bobbies (Police) helmet right. As for Scots we don't all wear kilts ( only for weddings or invading England lol) and most of the Scots population live in large towns or cities not in villages as in most representations. Then again you got our accent pretty good ( probably being kind to us on that one lol)and it does rain a lot here.
ReplyDeleteWell...McSCOTTY -- your namesake on Star Trek has been my only exposure to Scotland & Roy Thomas' All-Star Squadron provided my early interpretation of Sir Winston Churchill & sorry to say, I've never visited Great Britain (although heritage on my Mom's side of the family was Irish & English). If I read anything on the 'stereotypes' you mentioned, I don't recall & probably wouldn't have known the difference anyway.
ReplyDeleteI know us Americans have a TON of stereotypes (1st off I have zero idea how to convert 2,000 pounds on a metric basis), yet I'm sure many are true -- least as far as those of us from The States go. I have seen marshes & swamp like areas in my country (Florida & New Hampshire) but never been to Louisiana personally.
My teenage self had NO idea who Alan Moore was back during his Swamp Thing beginnings -- Martin Pasko had written some good issues, but I was only worried the book was going to be cancelled & Alan Moore reinvented the character & wrote a multitude of thoughtful stories. His Killing Joke was a masterpiece & I have that too, along with the Vigilante issues & Superman Annual 11 & others are just excellent! It's awful shame his Twilight of the Super Heroes never saw print!!