January 1983 - Marvel UK monthlies, 40 years ago this month.

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

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Hold on to your hat, World, because it's 1983 and a whole new sensation is about to hit you!

It's true. January of that year saw a thing called the internet arrive to punch us in the eyeballs with a level of worldwide webbiness that even Spider-Man could only watch and envy.

That's because, as I often ruminate upon, it was the month in which the migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP was officially completed. An event now seen as the birth of the true Internet.

Quite what the False Internet was, I dread to think but I'm certainly glad I never lived to encounter it.

And it wasn't the only thing occurring that month. After all, in the United Kingdom, red rain was falling, due to sand from the Sahara being contained within its droplets. Whether that event inspired the Peter Gabriel song of the same name, I could not say.

Rather more prosaically, it was also the month in which seatbelt use for UK drivers and front seat passengers became mandatory, eleven years after inclusion of the device became compulsory in new cars.

While all this was going on, the British singles chart gave us no less than three Number Ones.

The first was Save Your Love by Renee and Renato which was followed by Phil Collins' You Can't Hurry Love which, itself, was then deposed by Men at Work's Down Under.

Over on the British albums chart, the month began with The John Lennon Collection on top. That was then replaced by Various Artists' Raiders of The Pop Charts before that was forced to make way for the rise to supremacy of Men at Work's Business As Usual.

And the exciting news is a brand new mag hits the nation's spinner racks.

It's true. Daredevil gets himself a book of his own!

And he's not the only star of it. For, it also stars Captain Britain and Spider-Man!

In Captain Britain's tale, the Fury's killed our hero but Merlyn and Roma resurrect him and send him back home.

And Daredevil's got problems, as well, because Bullseye's decided to strike at him, through the Black Widow.

Meanwhile, the Spider-Man tale's from the 1960s and features the death of Fred Foswell, as he attempts to save J Jonah Jameson from the clutches of the Kingpin.

But it's not all good news for the company.

After all, with the demise of Rampage, Marvel UK finds itself down to just seven magazines a month.

Still, not to despair. Their slot in that mag may be gone but the X-Men barely break stride by transferring straight over to Marvel Super-Heroes.

And they do so in style, with the grand conclusion of the Phoenix Saga in which Jean Grey tragically corks it.

The Avengers, meanwhile, find themselves battling a slightly less stellar threat when the giant robot Red Ronin goes on the loose in the streets of New York.

And we finish with a four-page Night-Raven tale called White Hopes, Red Nightmares.

The Doctor's old ally the Brigadier makes the front cover thanks to an interview with actor Nicholas Courtney.

And, for those still not satisfied, we also get a look at the 3rd Doctor serial Planet of the Daleks and at the ever-popular Target novels.

Other mags may have fallen by the wayside but the one based on the galaxy's greatest outlaws is still going strong.

I know little of the contents of this month's offering but I do know it contains a Blake's 7 picture strip that's called Debris and is brought to us by the powerhouse pairing of Paul Neary and Phil Gascoine.

The Savage Sword of Conan, too, is still going strong.

In this one, something is happening. I don't know what it is but I reckon it's bound to involve at least one sorcerer, at least one monster, and an endangered damsel who is at least one in number.

The word "Crom" will probably also feature.

C-3PO and R2-D2 make the cover of this one but, other than that, I can shed little light upon this month's activities in the Star Wars universe.

The nation's top sci-fi mag goes Spielberg crazy as it gives us an interview with the man himself and looks toward the arrival on our planet of his diminutive friend ET.

There's also an interview with Harrison Ford and a look at the brand-new film that's wowing the world's horror fans. That film is known as The Evil Dead.