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If British politics ever makes you despair, fear ye not. For, it is 1983 and there's a whole new force that's entered the Westminster scene.
That's right. In February 1983, the Official Monster Raving Loony Party contested its first-ever poll when it stood a candidate in the Bermondsey by-election. That candidate was Screaming Lord Sutch and things would never be the same again.
They'd be worse.
Sadly, for Screaming, he didn't cruise to the victory you might have expected and only managed to garner 97 votes. That, however, was never going to stop him - and his party - from returning, time after time, in the nation's elections, in a strange process where, with each election contested, they seemed to appear more and more sane when compared to the major parties.
Rather more seriously, that month - with the economy crumbling - unemployment had now reached a record high of nearly three and a quarter million.
However, at least someone was still making something and, on the automobile front, the Austin Metro became Britain's best-selling car.
Elsewhere, 37-year-old Pat Jennings of Arsenal and Northern Ireland became the first player in English football to chalk up a thousand senior games.
On the UK singles chart, the month launched with Men At Work's Down Under ruling the roost before it was forced to give way to the unstoppable new phenomenon in British music that was Kajagoogoo with their song Too Shy.
Over on the British album chart, events were dominated by Men At Work's Business as Usual which threatened to spend the whole of February on top but, at the month's very death, was displaced by Michael Jackson's Thriller.
In its lead story, Captain Britain's back in his own reality but begins to have visions of the past. Can it be down to the supercomputer Mastermind?
Too right it can.
In the book's second strip, it's trouble for Daredevil when Bullseye abducts the Black Widow, in an attempt to flush our hero out into the open.
And, in the book's third and final tale, it's the 1960s and Spider-Man's still entangled in the Kingpin's kidnapping of J Jonah Jameson, and the subsequent death of Fred Foswell.
Plus, you could win a camera!
I do believe the Avengers are still battling the out-of-control Red Ronin.
And Night-Raven's up to something too, thanks to the pens and pencils of Alan Moore and Paul Neary.
And there's a free sticker for those who want a picture of Peter Davison stuck to their school book!
It would appear the comic strip the world knows as The Stockbridge Horror is still ongoing and may have hit Part Three.
There's also a retrospective of the First Doctor's serial The Myth Makers which, as we all know, was set in the time of the Trojan Wars.
We're also treated to a five-page comic strip titled Hunted, brought to us by Paul Neary and Phil Gascoine.
And there's a free sticker in this one too. But it doesn't have anyone's face on it and, so, looks a bit boring.
It doesn't say if he fights them, or anything. So, maybe he just has a chat with them.
About water.
In the grand tradition of his dad's conversations about sand.
And Steven Spielberg tells us about the making of ET.
Sybil Danning, meanwhile, dresses up as Shanna the She-Devil and talks about her own life and career.
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16 comments:
Blimey, were Starburst still milking ET three months after it came out?
My ET childhood memories are so Christmas-specific that that seems really odd.
That Captain Britain chapter in The Daredevils caught my eye fairly recently in that it's actually improved by being coloured in the omnibus edition I got off eBay last year. The flashbacks are given a golden / sepia tone that makes them look a bit less cluttered. Early Alan Davis art was a quite flat and busy.
Paul Neary seems to be trying hard to dissuade potential readers from picking up The DDs. That's another shocking cover there.
Is that a John Higgins cover on Star Wars? It has those rich Higgins painted colours and his blocky stiff anatomy.
What was the reasoning when editorial chose that Dr Who still for the cover, do you think?
Are there any interesting stills of Peter Davison as Dr Who they could have used instead, Matthew?
Mind you, there must be better shots of Janet Fielding in the show - she was quite easy on the eyes - so I've no idea why they didn't just use one of her instead.
On the plus side though, at least Adric isn't on the cover.
I've only read that Captain Brexit story from Daredevils in the original black and white, but I can imagine Alan Davis' work would be improved by colour. That wouldn't help Moore's script though, which - unusually - wasn't very good at all.
Basically, the story establishes the set-up of the new series, with CB returning to Braddock manor which looks like ruins to the outside world since it was bombed - I think by STRIKE at some point earlier in the continuity? - but thats just because of a hologram projected by the supercomputer (and it wasn't actually levelled at all).
Thats just so stupid. I mean, come on - STRIKE never investigated the aftermath of their attack? The local council are ok just leaving a pile of rubble there? The water and electric were never cut off outside? The phone rings at the end of the story ffs - where do the bills go?
You can try and explain away some of that stuff, but really its just sloppy writing. Which is strange, because one of Moore's strengths as a writer is his rigour. He rarely leaves plot holes, certainly not obvious ones (just compare with the contemporary Marvelman).
I tend to assume he had to work on CB within fairly tight editorial limitations, at least early on. The dig about the 'Brit-Cave' under stately Braddock manor suggests he thought the set-up was a bit dumb too.
-sean
Its interesting Pat Jennings played for 'Northern Ireland', Steve, even though he started out in Gaelic football, and comes from Newry. But I think back in the early to mid-60s which team north Irish players declared for wasn't the issue it became later.
And anyway, much more controversial - he also played for Spurs too!
-sean
Er, thats a joke about Spurs. I mean, he did play for them - for longer than Arsenal actually - but obviously its not controversial at all. People can play for whatever team they want.
(Except Declan Rice, switching to England - you have to draw the line somewhere).
-sean
..........or Mo Johnston signing for Glasgow Rangers :)
Fair point, Paul.
-sean
That is a pretty weird Paul Neary cover, no lie. I’m trying to figure out what attitude the Captain’s pose is supposed to express — is he grabbing his ass because it just got scorched by the Big Bad Guy with the lumpy mashed potato shoulders?
b.t.
I had a look at this month's Captain Britain in the 2002 trade and the art is definitely helped by the colour. As mentioned last week, the pre Special Executive chapters are a lot more amateurish than they previously seemed in my memory. This chapter was probably the most clunky of Moore's run, however, he used the prologue technique really well. Captain UK's anxiety attack and The Fury's 'half steel, half sinew, logic of a computer and intuition of a dog' narrative remain compelling. Moore in competition with his later material, may fall short, but not (I reckon) in comparison to the standards of the time. The cover, consistent with a lot of the early Daredevils, is not good. Perhaps the designer had a thing about polaroid cameras...
DW
Sean -
Well, yeah but no, maybe…?
I mean, bill and utilities etc: the place is being run by a supercomputer. I’m sure sorting out the direct debits would be child’s play for it…?
The derelict / hologram thing is just your standard comics hand-wave… but local councils in the UK wouldn’t go near a pile of rubble if it was privately owned. There’s places would sit derelict for decades back then.
But I’ll have to admit, it is a clunky script.
Re that Dr Who cover… they both just look so sad. If the cover said ‘Dr Who Cancelled: Say Goodbye To These Middling Performers’ I’d get it.
Yeah, the Beeb probably should have cancelled Dr Who earlier, Matthew.
(Hope that doesn't get me blocked from SteveDoesComics)
Were direct debits by computer that common in early '83?
Seems like someone at Telec... er, the Post Office might have noticed something funny was going on (back in the 80s it could be hard enough getting your utilities on legally in a building that was officially empty even in a big city like London).
Anyway, like I wrote, you can explain that stuff away - personally I'd have gone with it all being part of the unreality Merlin created around CB to prepare him for Jim Jaspers - but its still pretty slack writing.
Not disputing its a standard comics hand-wave, just pointing out the kind of nonsense Moore had to give up on for the series to get better.
In Daredevils #5 Wardog explains the ruin/hologram situation to the Executive so they can get in, but then we just don't hear about it again - when Linda McQuillan turns up a few issues later, CB answers the door like anyone else would. I know he's supposed to be a bit 'nice but dim' but even so - you'd think a superhero living in what amounts to an invisible mansion who's not expecting a visitor would at least be surprised to hear the doorbell.
Actually, now I think about it, the basic set-up of the series was quite vague through the whole of Moore's run. But it didn't matter once he stopped trying to write a regular Marvel super-hero comic and got more inventive (DW is right about the prologue to the second episode - looking in on the Fury and Linda McQuillan - being the best bit).
-sean
Ad that is a weird Daredevils cover. I do like the idea that CB is holding his arse after Mastermind zapped it.
-sean
Oh my oh my! The BBC is running a big expose on the shortage of bell ringers for King Charles coronation coming up in 10 weeks! So they are trying to get new bellringers, they don’t have enough old bellringers to “show them the ropes.”
Matthew and Sean, I must admit that, these days, the Peter Davison era is the era of Old Who that I most enjoy watching. That is not a thing I would have predicted at the time.
Steve -
Really...?!
I never watched it at the time. I remember the transformation from Baker to Davison, but after that I just tuned out completely. I think as a child I associated Dr Who with an earlier part of my life in a different part of the country, and by the time the regeneration happened I'd completely moved on to new friends and new interests.
Is it good in some way?
Steve, I'm with Matthew, and pretty much gave up on Dr Who with the changeover to Davison. Although tbh I was already losing interest during the later Tom Baker era (growing up, eh?)
DW claimed here ages ago that the Davison Who had strong stories. When the run of 20th century Who was streamed free on Twitch I dipped in and out of it, and have to admit he had a point - there did seem to be an improvement in the writing with the arrival of Davison. Which kind of made it even more annoying he was the Doctor imo.
-sean
Peter Davison was a bland and weak Doctor and his companions seemed to be have been picked for their lack of engaging traits but there was a feel to that era of the show that, for the most part, has stood the test of time surprisingly well.
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