October 1984 - 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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October 1984 was a good time to be alive if your name was Ringo Starr.

That's because it saw the broadcast of the very first episode of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends, featuring that very same ex-Beatle on narration duties.

Outer space witnessed transport matters of much loftier ambition than even Thomas could have attempted, as Space Shuttle Challenger astronaut Kathryn D Sullivan became the first American woman to perform a space walk.

But there was also more sombre news because it was the month in which Michael Buerk's BBC television reports informed the world that an Ethiopian famine was threatening the lives of up to ten million people.

When it came to the UK singles chart, the month began with Stevie Wonder's I Just Called to Say I Love You triumphant but, after what seemed like a million weeks on top, it was finally pushed aside by the noticeably livelier offering that was Wham's Freedom.

On the accompanying album chart, October launched with U2's The Unforgettable Fire ruling the roost but that was soon dethroned by Big Country's Steeltown which, itself, had to then make way for Paul McCartney's Give My Regards to Broad Street.

  

It's a special treat as we're granted an interview with Ian Marter, otherwise known as Harry Sullivan and, "That bloke on the ship in Carnival of Monsters."

But it gets even more exciting than that. For, if that cover's to be believed, we're also given the chance to meet the Loch Ness Monster. Though I'm not sure how that works.

We also encounter Part 4 of the comic strip the world knows as The Voyager and there's a report from the set of Attack of the Cybermen.

Just to send us all off to bed happy, the issue supplies us with a full-colour poster of a grumpy-looking Zygon. And who wouldn't want a thing like that hanging on their bedroom wall, looking down at them at night when they're trying to get to sleep in the dark?

Sadly, the latest incarnation of Marvel UK's flagship title meets its doom, when its final issue hits the book shelves.

But it goes out in a strange way, with a reprint of Little Girl Lost, sourced from the pages of Magik #1.

And there is, of course, the latest episode of the Night-Raven tale Night & Day.

However, the rest of the issue just seems to be a hotch-potch of three and four-page bits and bobs, with the comic's usual strips being nowhere in sight.

It all seems rather half-hearted, almost as though everyone involved has given up by this point.

There is, though, one human being who'll never give up under any circumstance.

And that's Conan the Barbarian!

But what's he up to, this month?

As far as I can make out, this issue, a demon's playing two kings off against each other, in order that it can gain control of their kingdoms.

Can our trusty swordsman put a stop to their plans?

And will he pick up a new girlfriend while he's at it?