Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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Elsewhere, perhaps better-remembered films were hitting theatres.
For instance, it was the month in which we first encountered The Philadelphia Experiment, The Woman in Red, Sheena, Clint Eastwood's Tightrope, and Red Dawn.
We also encountered a film called Cloak & Dagger but it seems to have had nothing to do with the Marvel characters of the same name.
It was, too, the month in which Fritz Lang's Metropolis got a re-release with a brand new score by Giorgio Moroder.
But perhaps the movie bearing the most intriguing title had to be The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, a film I've heard mention of over the years but have never seen and have never got any sense of what it's actually about.
In the real world, the 1984 Olympics were underway and, after much hype, we saw barefoot South African Zola Budd and America's Mary Decker collide in the 3,000 metres final, with neither of them managing to finish as medallists.
Also that month, John DeLorean was acquitted of all eight charges of possessing and distributing cocaine.
Elsewhere, people were getting high by more technological means, as the Space Shuttle Discovery took off on its maiden voyage.
Also flying high were Frankie Goes to Hollywood who started the month at Number One on the UK singles chart, with Two Tribes. In the second half of August, however, it was George Michael who held sway, thanks to his track Careless Whisper.
The British album chart found itself becalmed, with just one LP holding the top spot in that period. That LP was Now That's What I Call Music 3, featuring hits from all our favourite musicians, and Nik Kershaw.
But what of the galaxy's greatest comic? What is there to report of its activities during that month?
Nothing at all new. It was still giving us a diet of Strontium Dog, The Ballad of Halo Jones, Judge Dredd, Ace Trucking Co, Rogue Trooper and Tharg's Future-Shocks. I've no doubt it was all great but I was probably crying out for Flesh to make a comeback.
The exciting news is that lovers of Skips could still revel in the excitement of the KP Skips Free Comics offer.
I’m going to stick my neck out and say that I think those are all shit covers. Why did 2000AD look so rubbish? Always with the journeyman artists who reduce it to looking like any other crap UK comic.
ReplyDeleteI’ve never seen Buckaroo Banzai either, though I did start watching it on a streaming service a few years ago and managed about 10 minutes. I know it has a big cult following, but I don’t think I’d want to spend an extended period of time with anyone from that cult.
Though I hated ‘Mars Attacks’ back in the 1990s but saw it again recently and loved every second, so I should maybe give it another go.
Charlie ain't seen Buckaroo Banzai neither. But he seen RED DAWN where we whip some commie / russian azz!!! And that' always a good thing.
ReplyDeleteWHAM! WOW! Talk about a meteoric rise. Those two boys really sold some records. Charlie and the missus were literally belting out the tune "Everything for You" driving in the car just 20 minutes ago. (The virtue of being 60 and listening to the "oldies" channel is that they now hit my sweet spot! The 80s!)
REDARTZ - Maybe you can add WHAM to your next Sunday's CD Play list??
Steve, I’d describe BUCKAROO BANZAI as ‘New Wave / Hipster Doc Savage’. Or maybe ‘Jerry Cornelius, Superhero’. I confess that I love the idea of the movie more than the actual movie itself, but I do love it. And I’ll be the first to admit that it’s not for everyone.
ReplyDeleteI also love Moroder’s version of METROPOLIS.
b.t.
Steve, I love Nik Kershaw's 'I Won't Let The Sun Go Down On Me' which is about nuclear war.
ReplyDeleteOld men in stripey trousers
Rule the world with plastic smiles...
Ah well, someone had to like it Colin.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Matthew about the covers here, even Belardinelli's for prog 378. Despite the flaws - like the slightly awkward figures - I generally liked his work over the first half dozen or so years of 2000AD, but over the course of the tiresome Ace Garp he seemed to lose it.
Something similar happened with Carlos Ezquerra a few years earlier. The result of working week in week out for so long on the same kind of thing I guess.
The journeymen creators always outnumbered the Bollands, McMahons and Wagners in 2000AD though, as Tharg tried to juggle two audiences - the kids, and on the other hand the more, er... mature readers.
Which is why we evaluate any given prog on the basis of the DW rule: 2 good stories = a win.
Although I would suggest modifying it with what we might call 'the Halo Jones exception'. Basically, its a good one if its got Halo in it, even if the rest is crap.
I have to say I was surprised last month by the lukewarm reaction of the usual suspects round these parts to the first Halo Jones episode. I thought the series was great from the start...
-sean
Sean -
DeleteI don’t know, at this stage they still had Ewins, McCarthy, Alan Davis, Steve Dillon, Ian Gibson when he was on form. Yet the covers are seemingly always these terribly-composed, bland ‘will this do?’ pieces by Robin Smith et al.
Yeah, Belardinelli really knocked it out of the park early on. Dan Dare, Flesh 2, Blackhawk, bits of Meltdown Man. But he settled into an easy jobsworth style in the mid-80s.
Wasn’t his ‘The Dead’ for Pete Milligan a few years later a return to form? Would have been nice if he’d had the opportunity to do a juicy well-paid US graphic novel and really pour it on.
More generally: I didn’t have any time for Nik Kershaw back then, but I’ve come to really like ‘Bring On The Dancing Girls’ and ‘Wouldn’t It Be Good’.
Steve, surely it was barefoot Briton Zola Budd who collided in the 1984 Olympics?
ReplyDeleteAs I recall, she got British citizenship rather quickly in the run up to the games, with the help of the Daily Mail (which is of course well known for being supportive of immigrants).
Inevitably cynics at the time claimed that that was all about bypassing sanctions, but no doubt it was a complete coincidence that post-Apartheid she represented South Africa at the '92 games.
-sean
I agree with b.t, Buckaroo Banzai is worth watching.
ReplyDeleteI'm not saying anybody should be FORCED to watch it, mind you.
Hard to sum up that movie. I think it's a parody or satire of pulp fiction or films, like Doc Savage.
Although I'm not sure Doc Savage requires parody.
There is some laugh out loud funny stuff in there, particularly Jeff Goldblum, who plays a scientist from New Jersey who for some unexplained reason, dresses like Roy Rogers.
There's some kinda alien conspiracy, a mad scientist, and a young and nubile Ellen Barkin.
The great thing about this movie is you don't have to sit there and try to follow the plot, because there doesn't seem to be one.
It's good fun, but I recommend drinking whilst watching it.
M.P.
MP and bt, thanks for the Buckaroo Banzai info. This definitely sounds like a film I need to watch.
ReplyDeleteSean, I think I remember liking Halo Jones but it was so long ago that I'm not sure.
Colin, Nik wasn't my kind of thing but, in fairness, I'd rather listen to him than Howard Jones.
Matthew, I agree. The covers aren't hugely compelling. I'd say the Ace Garp one is my favourite of the ones above.
Charlie, I'm afraid I've still yet to see Red Dawn.
STEVE I recommend you see RED DAWN. Given the situation in Ukraine there are good life skills taught in that movie. Well worth a look.
ReplyDeleteman… you brits know how to do a funeral! Never, ever seen anything like it. Seriously impressive!
ReplyDeleteFunny you should bring up The Dead, Matthew, as I originally mentioned it in my comment above as an exception (but edited it out).
ReplyDeleteYeah, that was the last thing I recall drawn by Belardinelli that I liked.
As for the covers... well, two of them are Dredds by Ron Smith who was drawing the series regularly, so they're a fair reflection of the contents. Personally, I didn't mind his work - they had to have a journeyman artist to pick up the slack on a series that was in the comic every week, and he wasn't too bad.
Although with Bolland and McMahon gone there was a bit too much slack and I did reach saturation point with his Dredd in the mid '80s.
The Rogue Trooper one is terrible. Who's drawing that in mid '84 - Cam Kennedy? Steve Dillon? Either of those two would have done a much better job.
-sean
Sean -
DeleteIt’s a Robin Smith. I think he was on staff at the Nerve Centre and was on hand for stuff easily and quickly.
I used to be disappointed when it was Ron Smith early on - when he drew the end of The Day The Law Died and Father Earth. But I’ve come to really like his early stuff - it’s a acquired taste for sure, but his grotesques and monsters (and women, retrograde as it is for me to point it out) were top notch.
I just flipped through these issues and they're overall a bit duff. At the time, I wanted to like Halo book one more than I actually did, but its grown on me since (I appreciate how dense and clever it is, with hindsight). I did like books two and three and and look forward to revisiting when we 'get' there. Dredd, Strontium Dog and Rogue Trooper are simply going through the motions. Kennedy and Dillon remain good, however, and Ron Smith remains imaginative but let down by his overly cartoony faces. Ace is just too cartoony for me. I've never made it through a whole episode.
ReplyDeleteOverall C-
Can do better.
DW
Steve
ReplyDeleteWithout checking I would have put Careless Whisper a few years later than Two Tribes. It seems vey post Live Aid. Very much the definitive track when it was 'time to slow things down a bit' at the local disco. Usually followed by a mass exit of all the single girls towards the Ladies' room...
DW
Although I wasnt a regular reader of 2000AD
ReplyDeleteI liked Ron Smiths art although it looked a bit out of place at times in 2000AD among all the then young turks modern art styles. I seem to recall he drew some strips in the Hotspur like Iron Teacher and a modern Dick Turpin ( on a robot horse) type character.
He drew King Cobra for the Hotspur, Paul.
ReplyDeleteMatthew, I liked Ron Smith's first Dredds too. They weren't in the same league as Bolland or McMahon's obviously, but for an old pro - surely the only art droid to have flown a Spitfire in the war - he did a good job adapting to the requirements of 2000AD.
Otto Sump, Dave the Orangutan, 'Unamerican Grafitti'... not bad for an old codger (hey, I can get away with writing that because I am an old codger myself these days).
DW, I would have put Careless Whisper later than Frankie too. But I am no expert when it comes to the Wham lads.
-sean
As regards 'Careless Whisper', I remember coming back from holiday (school trip to Germany? I forget), and 'Careless Whisper' being played repeatedly, on the radio, leaving me at first wondering, what the hell is this?
ReplyDelete'Now That's What I Call Music 3' was the first 'Now' my bro' & myself ever bought - hence the most memorable.
My auntie Dorothy brought my bro & myself a 1984 souvenir Olympic towel, from the USA. It's a bit threadbare, but I've still got it, in a cupboard!
Phillip
George bloody Michael - my sister was a huge fan and had the George Michael 1985 calendar.
ReplyDeleteCharlie, we Brits do indeed do a good funeral - my mother's was just the same with thousands of mourners and huge crowds lining the route as hundreds of sailors pulled her coffin through the streets on a gun carriage. All our funerals are like that over here...