Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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In the case of one of those films, it was big trouble.
That's because the month saw the release of John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China. However, that film wasn't alone in landing you in bother because July also saw the unveiling of The Howling II, Aliens and Psycho III.
Then again, it wasn't all trauma. You could, if you bought a ticket, also encounter The Great Mouse Detective and Prince's Under the Cherry Moon. Neither of which have I ever seen.
Despite also never having seen Psycho III - nor having ever even heard of it until now - I'm going to confidently state that Aliens is the pick of this month's releases. However, I understand that others may disagree.
When it came to the charts, just two tracks topped the UK Hit Parade, that July. They were Madonna's Papa Don't Preach and Chris de Burgh's Lady in Red. I don't like to knock Chris but I can't help feeling Madonna's single is the better of that pair.
And Madge was also riding high on the British album chart because her LP True Blue spent the whole month at Number One, crushing all other platters like they were no more than eggshells.
But what of the galaxy's greatest comic?
It was still trundling along and still giving us its now familiar mix of Strontium Dog, Ace Trucking Co, Judge Dredd, Tharg's Future-Shocks, Sooner or Later, Anderson PSI Division and Bad City Blue.
I can say little else of what was occurring in its pages, other than to display my awesome levels of arts knowledge by noticing that the cover of Prog 477 seems to be some kind of homage to Grant Wood's American Gothic.
I suspect the cover of Prog 478 is also a homage to something but I struggle to work out just what.
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38 comments:
Ooh, you ran the covers in reverse order this time round, Steve. You crazy northern rascal, keeping us on our toes with your free wheeling sense of time.
-sean
Aliens is indeed the best film of the month. Though due to regional distribution I didn’t get to see it until September, possibly October.
One of the best films of the year too, but it was a crowded field: David Byrne’s ‘True Stories’, ‘Something Wild’, ‘Rivers Edge’, and ‘Manhunter’.
And also Cronenberg’s ‘The Fly’ and Lynch’s ‘Blue Velvet’, neither of which - for the same reason - I got to see until 1987. I know! No wonder I moved to London as quickly as I could.
That Madonna album is my favourite Madonna album. It’s not great but the good bits, like ‘Open Your Heart’ are really good.
Oh. And 2000AD. All dreadful covers. The Belardinelli one looks like a bit more work went into it than usual, which is nice. But it’s advertising Ace Garp, so that kind of cancels it out.
Can’t say that any of those covers appeal to me. As usual, I can’t help wondering if my overall opinion would be swayed if the color schemes weren’t so basic and acidic, and if the printing quality didn’t look quite so rancid.
I liked BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA well enough but when it bombed at the box office, I wasn’t the least bit surprised. As I watched it, I kept thinking ‘This thing has “Cult Movie” written all over it.’ In retrospect, it’s kind of amazing that Hollywood kept giving John Carpenter big budgets for as long as they did.
I was impressed by ALIENS at the time. I still think it’s smart, funny, exciting, really well made, looks way more expensive than it is, etc. But I don’t think it holds up to repeat viewings as well as the original, which I still find incredibly eerie, suspenseful and genuinely awe-inspiring.
I thought GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE was the most enjoyable Disney animated film I’d seen in ages, but I still had the feeling that Feature Animation was a dying genre and might actually become extinct at any moment. LITTLE MERMAID and ROGER RABBIT were still a few years away.
Steve, I’m guessing you may well be right about ‘Papa Don’t Preach’ being the winner in a head-to- head contest with ‘Lady in Red’. Now admittedly I say that without ever having heard ‘Lady in Red’. The only Chris DeBurgh song I’m familiar with is ‘Don’t Pay The Ferryman’, which got some airplay on FM Rock radio stations for about a week — I kinda liked that one.
b.t.
Sean, for some reason, they uploaded in reverse order and I couldn't be bothered to rearrange them. It used to be easy to rearrange images on Blogger. These days, if you try to do it, you feel like you're taking your life in your hands.
I'm inclined to agree with b.t. that while there's quite a bit to like about Aliens, its a bit over-rated as a film. It is basically a rework of the original, with the volume turned up to 11.
Its amazing how many films have been derived from Alien really, considering how straight forward a film it was when you boil it down to the basic idea. I suppose that's because of Ridley Scott's sense of style, and his good taste in using the design team that had been assembled for Jodorowsky's abandoned version of Dune - Chris Foss, Moebius and (especially!) HR Giger.
Steve, I agree that 'Papa Don't Preach' is better than 'Lady in Red'. Although I do like the 'Nobody Here' track by the guy who recorded as Oneohtrix Point Never, derived from looping a segment of the latter -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RFunvF0mDw
Take away the bland tune and you're left with the eerie alienation of 80s digital production...
-sean
Matthew - My brother had that Madonna album, and I agree Open Your Heart's probably the best. 'White Heat', however, is the film buff's choice, with Jimmy Cagney's voice sampled onto the track!
Phillip
Huh. I just noticed that's a 'Judge Veitch' on the cover of prog 477. Presumably that's a Cam Kennedy in joke, which suggests he'd already started work on the Light & Darkness War. I think Marshall Law came out well before that though? And Last American around the same time?
With Marvel/Epic - on top of DC - now poaching from Tharg, finding decent art droids was obviously about to become even more of a problem for 2000AD.
-sean
I thought The Last American was nearer 1988/9? Guessing without resorting to Wikipedia.
Anon, I phrased that quite badly. By 'around the same time' I meant the same time as Light & Darkness War - the first issue of which was cover dated late 1988 - rather than Marshall Law, which was a year earlier.
Although I got that wrong anyway; checking online, the Last American #1 actually had an October 1990 cover date. I was surprised it was that much later.
-sean
PS Even allowing for the cover date, that does seem like quite a long lead-in time to the first issue of Light & Darkness War, from mid '86. Although my recollection is that all three 'British' Epic titles had somewhat erratic, delayed publication schedules.
In the case of Last American I think Mike Mahon was ill for a while beforehand. A shame really, as he kind of missed what should have been his big moment.
-sean
*McMahon
Like Matthew and Phillip's brother I bought Madonna's True Blue and I was going to mention the James Cagney sample but Phillip beat me to it. My favourite track was La Isla Bonita which I heard in Tesco just last week but the version I heard was the 7" remix which repeats the chorus three times at the end rather than twice as on the album track.
Tropical the island breeze
All of nature wild and free
This is where I long to be
La Isla Bonita...
Many years ago I owned a little b/w TV with a 5" screen which I kept for watching TV in bed. One night Aliens was being shown but I was rather tired so I decided to watch the first 10 minutes or so then go to sleep. After 10 minutes I decided to watch for another 10 minutes or so then I'd definitely go to sleep. After a further 10 minutes I decided to watch for just 10 more minutes then I'd DEFINITELY go to sleep. Of course I ended up watching the entire film because Aliens is so thrilling!
"They mostly come at night...mostly"
I don’t recognise any of these covers and a quick online peek suggested I didn’t have these. I suspect I was on a post Halo Jones break, and don’t think I re-commenced regular thrill power until Metalzoic debuted.
Papa don’t preach was a pretty catchy for a teenage pregnancy tale. I didn’t warm to Lady in Red, due to not being old, nor having a girlfriend, at the time.
DW
Speaking of Light & Darkness war, does anyone remember a channel four documentary, around this time, which included interviews with Tom Veitch and Cam Kennedy? Vietch visits Kennedy in the Orkney Islands, and they discuss working together. There were also interviews with Artchie Goodwin, Alan Moore and others. I think parts were filmed at an early UKCAC. I may be merging a couple of different shows (BBC2 and Channel 4). Lenny Henry and Alexi Sayle were also interviewed.
DW
DW, I recall seeing that. It was part of the Channel 4 'Signals' series, one of those 'Batman isn't just for kids anymore' media reports you used to get back then.
Although being relatively late in the 80s it follows up Moore and Gibbons talking about Watchmen with Jim Baikie on the Crisis mag and Veitch and Kennedy going on about Light & Darkness, so the claim that 'comics are growing up' isn't entirely convincing (;
An interesting window on the time though. Its here, if anyone wants to see it -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfY7okhmvP0
-sean
PS From around the same time, heres part of a Channel 4 programme that includes Alan Moore talking about Brought to Light -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7QFb0tBZ_k
-sean
On the subject of Chris DeBurgh - don't forget his Christmas song A Spaceman Came Travelling from 1975 which is definitely better than The Lady In Red.
FUN FACT: Madonna's birthday is August 16th - the same date as Elvis Presley's death.
Jacob Rees-Mogg is thinking of standing as an MP again...aaarrrgghhhh!!!!
IIRC, living in Germany at the time, Europeans and Brits really appreciated certain slow moving dirges like VIENNA (ULTRA VOX) and POWER OF LOVE (JENNIFER RUSH), and LADY IN RED that in Charlie’s mileu of 20-something americans were considered “fine” but not sought out.
Wonder why…
Charlie - Yes, and the positive spin on such songs usually involved them being described as a "ballad" !
Phillip
SEAN - i thought for certain you would comment on the passage of ALAIN DELON???
I did think about it, Charlie (presumably), but then I thought who cares about that old Gaullist git? I know his views shouldn't make much difference to an opinion of him as an actor or whatever... but tbh it's hard to think of any great roles he played.
I mean, Airport '79 wasn't exactly Jean-Luc Godard was it?
Mind you, I was impressed by a picture obit in the Guardian, showing that in the 60s Delon managed to get himself cast with, successively, Romy Schneider, Monica Vitti, Claudia Cardinale and Marianne Faithful.
Thankfully there were none of the pics of him with Georges Pompidou's missus. Allegedly. Or was that all a French secret service plot?
-sean
Charlie, I assume you meant the PASSING of Alain Delon rather than the PASSAGE lol but why are you Americans so allergic to the mention of death? Alain Delon has DIED not "passed" - he wasn't a train!
Alain Delon's death was reported on the BBC news but I doubt many British people knew who he was - even I was only vaguely aware of him.
Phillip, there was also "power ballad" to describe certain '80s songs like The Power Of Love, Total Eclipse Of The Heart, China In Your Hand etc
Alain Delton was best known as the cover star of The Smiths - The Queen is Dead album (inner gatefold - not stood in front of the Sanford Lads Club) ;-)
Sean, yes that was the doco I was thinking of. I attended that (first?) UKCAC and am probably in the queue or background, somewhere. I think John Loyd (Not the nine o’clock news and other things) made a similar one for BBC2 included Alexi Sayle and Lenny Henry. This may have been the one with Gaiman and McKean discussing Violent Cases. I know, Gaiman grabbing the limelight - who’d have guessed.
DW
Salford Lads Club, and John Lloyd. FFS
Hey Gents!
SEAN - Fair enough. DELON never penetrated the US film market. My closest awareness of him came from a couple of songs:
A duet with DALIDA doing her legendary “PAROLE, PAROLE” which had extensive success and a solo hit “COMME AU CINEMA” the latter whilst I was living in Germany.
As to his participation in “adult activities involving multiple persons” including Pompidou’s wife… who the hell knows… i mean Charlie was never invited.
DW, Violent Cases was the first comi... sorry, graphic novel by Neil Gaiman I read (or for that matter heard of). Its amazing how quickly he went from that debut to a prestige series - Black Orchid - for DC...
He definitely knew how to leverage Moore's patronage!
But he had the skills and ability to back it up, so fair play to him. Gaiman's work often isn't to my taste, but he was able to produce comics that crossed over to a broader audience, which none of those other hyped-up post-Watchmen writers managed.
-sean
Actually Charlie, now I think about it, Delon played Julius Caesar in the live action Asterix at the Olympic Games. So thats at least one notable film role.
-sean
Gaiman certainly knew how to promote his greatest creation. Neil Gaiman.
He was a good actor. And the so-called "New Wave" of cinema had it's merits. It took a hard look at a society that seemed to lack a direction.
Post-colonial France. From the movies, I get the sense that there was not much to do but commit crimes, smoke cigarettes and screw languid, doe-eyed women.
Actually, that doesn't sound all that bad, now that I think about it.
Sign me up!
M.P.
French cinema - Fast Show:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4EjX_bywCU
Phillip
To explain, this whole sketch is a set-up, for a long-running Paul Whitehouse catch-phrase, "Anyone fancy a pint?", always delivered by a working-class character, in a variety of different scenarios, whenever something starts "dragging on a bit", as he usually puts it! In this particular sketch, however, there's an added twist. The female character( here, "languid & doe-eyed", to quote M.P.'s phrase) has a recurring catch-phrase, too - "Does my bum look big in this?" That's the catch-phrase the viewer is expecting. So, when Paul Whitehouse turns up, saying: "Anyone fancy a pint?" (in French), it comes as a complete surprise, subverting comedic expectations!
Phillip
I liked Delon in the '73 movie Scorpio, with Burt Lancaster.
It's a pretty good movie. Obviously, Lancaster was gonna steal every scene he was in, but Delon held his own.
He was one of those actors who could express what a character is thinking or feeling without doing much. Very understated.
In Purple Noon, he played Ripley, a young man on the verge of psychopathy.
Doesn't react much to anything. Very different from the American version.
M.P.
MP - I think you summed up a version of life many of us would aspire to, were there no consequences: dames, cigs, and fast money! Well said!
Fair point, Anon. All the same, it's nice there was at least one comic creator who went through the DC/Marvel thing without getting ripped off. Even if it was Neil Gaiman.
Plus, he took down Todd McFarlane. You have to give him that too.
-sean
PS Thinking about it, Anon, isn't promoting themselves standard practice for British comic book writers trying to get ahead? Arguably, Alan Moore's greatest creation was Alan Moore. And Grant Morrison MBE's was definitely Grant Morrison MBE.
At least Moore and Gaiman could back it up...
-sean
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