Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
***
There are those among us who insist their life is like a movie.
But there those among us whose lives really are like movies.
That's because they're movies.
And, in the first month of 1987, a fair number of them were born.
Thus it is that, in that period, were we to enter a picture house displaying the very latest celluloid offerings, we may have encountered such treasures as The Color Purple, The Stepfather, Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold, Outrageous Fortune and Radio Days.
I shall posit that The Colour Purple is probably the most important of those films, although Outrageous Fortune is probably more fun and Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold has the prettiest cast. I can say nothing of Radio Days, and I've only seen the first half-hour of The Stepfather, having lost interest in it during a relatively recent screening on TalkingPicturesTV's Caroline Munro's Cinema Club.
But what of music?
The month began with Jackie Wilson's Reet Petite at Number One on the UK singles chart. But that was soon displaced by Steve "Silk" Hurley's Jack Your Body. In the absence of any research whatsoever, I'm going to assume the latter to have been the first Chicago House track to top the UK Hit Parade.
When it came to the corresponding album rankings, the month began - as months so often did - with Now That's What I Call Music! at Number One. This time, it was Volume 8 that was ruling the roost. However, nothing lasts forever. And, so, even that had to make way for Kate Bush's The Whole Story before she too had to give ground. This time, to Paul Simon's Graceland.
And what of the galaxy's greatest comic?
And what of the galaxy's greatest comic?
It was business as usual, as it presented us with all the familiar faves we'd grown accustomed to, over the centuries. Meaning Sláine, Bad Company, Judge Dredd, Nemesis the Warlock, Strontium Dog and Tharg's Future-Shocks.
As far as I can ascertain, no new strips were to appear, this month.
I can only assume they were all being saved for a future occasion.
Posts
23 comments:
Steve, I thought that you might be wrong about 'Jack Your Body' being the first Chicago House track to chart, as I remembered 'The House That Jack Built' by Jack 'N' Chill being earlier. But it turns out it wasn't. And that one was produced in the UK. So you were right.
I didn't see any of those movies at the time. I haven't seen The Colour Purple since the VHS days. I was also underwhelmed by The Stepfather back in the day. It had a stellar reputation and was a bit disappointing.
Radio Days is boring. I've tried to enjoy it a few times but failed. I like a fair bit of vintage Woody Allen but the 1985 - 1989 movies don't do a lot for me, including the hallowed Hannah And Her Sisters and Purple Rose Of Cairo.
I love Kevin O'Neill, but this was the point where he seemed to give up on draughtsmanship for a while. The style is great, but when you compare it to the early Nemesis stuff [or, much later, the first book of LoEG] it's not as disciplined.
Judging by this cover, Steve Dillon has now started phoning it in. Did he ever do any outstanding work after this point?
I still can't believe both those artists are gone. And Garry Leach.
Also... Durham Red: discuss.
Those first two covers above really have Charlie feeling like he opened up a package of ODD RODS. Only thing missing is a whiff of stale, hard as a rock gum.
I have to think HURLEY’s JACK YOUR BODY, is the only thing from ChicAgo to reach #1 in the UK? Something by CHICAGO maybe, but I suspect the group would have left for Los Angeles by then.
That said, the Rolling STONES may be the most Chicago - blues- rock band out there that is not from Chicago, lol. Supposedly the famous licks for I can’t get no satisfaction. were first recorded at CHESS Studios, and maybe a primitive version of the song itself. Also they may HAVE written THE LAST TIME there… around 1963. INDEED, IF CHARLIE UNDERSTANDS CORRECTLY, JAGGER FIRST MET RICHARD’S IN THE TUBE IN LONDON, AND IN HIS ARM WAS A HANDFUL OF RECORDS. HE HAD DIRECTLY ORDERED FROM CHESS STUDIOS IN CHICAGO BECAUSE HE COULD NOT FIND THEM FOR SALE AND LONDON.
Sorry for the capitals… I don’t know why my phone did that.
Chicago's 'If You Leave Me Now' = # 1 in the UK. That album with The Brotherhood of Man singing 20 number 1 hits (that I'm always bringing up) had it on!
Phillip
Charlie:
Kevin O’Neil’s cover for Prog 503 is super-gnarly. I dig it! Reminds me a bit of Big Daddy Roth model kits and T-shirt iron-ons — if the Roth/Weird-Ohs/Odd Rods stuff had forgotten to be somewhat playful and instead veered right over the edge into Disturbing Nightmare territory.
Matthew:
I mostly know Steve Dillon from his work on PREACHER at Vertigo. I liked that comic a lot but thought the art was functional at best. It got the job done, and no more. Utterly no-frills. When the SAINT OF KILLERS spin-off mini-series came out, I remember thinking if Steve Pugh drew the regular book, PREACHER would have been a truly exhilarating monthly comic, instead of just a great read saddled with rather boring artwork.
Steve:
I remember thinking at the time that THE STEPFATHER was a decent little low-key thriller, but don’t know what I’d think of it now. I liked the Westlake-scripted THE GRIFTERS too back then but found it kinda dull when re-watching it about a year ago. I seem to think I saw OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE at the theatre (I had a small crush on Shelly Long) but dang, I can’t remember a thing about it now, not even what the basic premise was. I thought Steven Spielberg was in the middle of his egregiously mawkish and sentimental phase, so I avoided THE COLOR PURPLE for fear it would be more of the same.
b.t.
No new stories in the progs this month...? In fairness, Steve, Bad Company only started the previous month in prog #500.
Not sure why Matthew is a bit down on Kevin O'Neill's artwork in that Dredd story 'Varks'. Its great. But don't take my word for it, anyone who wants to can check it out for themselves, as its been posted in full here -
https://theporporbooksblog.blogspot.com/2020/06/judge-dredd-in-varks.html
I do agree that the cover of prog #507 is not good though. And thats even by the standards of Steve Dillon phoning it in... There's something about it that suggests another contributing hand, and I reckon it might have been inked by Brett Ewins. It just has that look about it.
As to Dillon's work after this point... I thought he put a bit of effort in on the early issues of Preacher. Its been a while, but my recollection is that the first half dozen or so looked good (better than that Saint of Killers mini-series, thats for sure).
-sean
Earth Wind & Fire were from Chicago, Charlie, and as it happens although 'Boogie Wonderland' didn't quite make #1 in the UK a look at the wiki shows it sold over twice as many copies here as 'Jack Your Body'.
My suspicion is that the Chi-Lites #3 hit 'Have You Seen Her?' would have outsold it too (but the figures aren't on its page).
-sean
Steve--
What was this about Caroline Munro?
A ..."Cinema Club" you say? Is she doing horror hostess duties a' la Elvira?
Hmnn. I had not been informed.
M.P.
Okay. There is something called "the Cellar Club." I looked it up.
Caroline is a delight as always.
I woulda fought that centaur/cyclops too, if I was Sinbad!
...probably...
M.P.
Ah, OK. I just checked it in one of the Titan reprints I’ve got and yeah - that artwork is great. Sorry.
That'll be a Rigellian Hotshot for you then, Matthew.
Only kidding... Maybe you were thinking of O'Neill's forthcoming (slight) return to Nemesis a few months after these issues? Iirc that was inconsistent and something of a disappointment.
Nemesis was seriously dull by this point in Bryan Talbot's run as artist... but on the plus side Pat Mills was at least back on form with Sláine - and Glenn Fabry was now sole regular artist on the series - Bad Company was more zarjaz than you'd expect from the Milligan and Ewins droids, and fortunately inside prog #507 Dredd - the start of classic four parter 'The Taxidermist' (which would lead to a spin-off series in the Megazine) - was drawn by Cam Kennedy.
So even allowing for Strontium Dog - you'll notice I did not discuss Durham Red (; - I'd say this month the galaxy's greatest comic met the DW Thrillpower Standard ie 2 good stories in a prog = a win.
-sean
Matthew, I don't think I've ever read any Durham Red.
Just for gits and shiggles, I checked out the Billboard Hot 100 for this week in 1987. Tons of artists I don’t know (or that I once knew and have since forgotten), a double-handful of songs I recognize but don’t love, and just three or four that I actually like and wouldn’t change the channel if I heard them on the radio , including “Living On A Prayer” by Bon Jovi and “Walk Like An Egyptian” by the Bangles (#1 this week in ‘87).
Guess it’s similar to how I feel about comics from the different decades. Maybe I just have a much stronger emotional attachment to comics and songs from my teen years than those from my mid-twenties.
sean:
We will have to agree to disagree on the respective merits of Steves Dillon and Pugh. Last night I pulled the PREACHER Collections off the shelf to compare the two. Dillon’s first few issues were actually a bit better than I’d remembered but I still prefer Pugh’s more dynamic staging and expressive figures and facial expressions, his lush textures and imaginative use of light and shadow.
b.t.
Strontium… surely inspired by the Strontium tests done on babies teeth by St Louis University starting in the late 50s? It showed over a 100x increase in Strontium 95 present in babies teeth due to above-ground aromic bomb testing which had commenced world wide. Due to this testing Kennedy pushed for the nuke weapons test ban. Typical democrat… falling for a hoax.
Sure everyone knows radiation is good for you, Anon. Like shooting up bleach.
b.t., The first US comics I can recall seeing drawn by Steve Dillon - not counting reprints - were the DC mini-series Skreemer, and a couple of issues of the Garth Ennis-era Hellblazer. Neither of which I was that keen on as a reader, but it was still surprising that Dillon didn't do a better job on the artwork. As we both said here recently about Paul Neary's Captain America covers: you'd think he'd at least want to make more of the transatlantic career opportunity.
Personally I think he did do that with the early Preacher, but as you say we can agree to disagree. As we do about Bon Jovi...
Steve, my favourite new record in January '87 was Coldcut's first 12" single 'Say Kids What Time Is It?' -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOlI-pi3Zug
A reminder - along with a House #1 - that a fairly dull mid-decade we were heading into one of those (pre-internet) sea changes in popular/yoof culture in '87, not unlike '77 and '67.
-sean
*after a fairly dull mid-decade...
sean:
One thing we can agree on: “Varks” is loads of grotesque fun, and O’Neil’s art is kinda perfect. Thanks for posting that link to the Porpor Books blog.
b.t.
I do still think Kev’s art isn’t as good here as his earlier work. I mean, it’s all good stuff - he’s never done a *bad* page. But he was evolving over the years: from the steely metallic late 70s / early 80s art, then gradually getting more organic and textured over the Nemesis run. Then by this stage he’d become quite cubist and blocky. And as you say, by the time Torquemada The God comes along it’s… pushing quite far into that territory.
I am ashamed that I found Bad Company quite dull at the time. I grew to like it when I re-read it in the 90s.
I brought up Durham Red because the character always irked me. I was, what, 15/16? when this slightly stale excuse for getting T&A into the progs first appeared and bizarrely the character never… did anything for me. On any level.
Subsequent depictions of the character through the 90s were even more queasy.
Was anyone into this sort of thing?
Porpor books. I think I used to visit that site but the guy complained a bit too hard a few too many times about political correctness (I don’t use the W word), and really put me off.
It is quite twisted for a comic that was still largely sold to kids, b.t.
Wagner and Grant have quite a nice líne in deadpan humour, but you can definitely see how the artist made all the difference. 'Varks' just wouldn't have been the same if it had been drawn by, say, Ron Smith. Or Steve Dillon phoning it in.
-sean
Durham Red was certainly no Halo Jones, Matthew.
-sean
This O’Neil Dredd would have likely been illustrated after his ‘Tygers’ Green Lantern short, which resulted in the comics code authority banning his whole style. Perhaps that’s why he softened some of the grotesque notes. To their credit, DC ran Tygers sans the code stamp, which is lucky because had it not seen the light of day, Geoff John’s couldn’t have based an extended run on the (quite brilliant) 6 page short. FWIW I reckon Varks was great and along with Fabry’s Slaine hit the quote for prog 503. Other than Fabry I don’t remember too much good stuff post prog 500, until the format reboot with prog 520 (and consequential uptick in quality for a few months).
DW
Johns and quota. I’m sloppy enough as it is without spellcheck getting involved…
DW
Post a Comment