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Those treats are these: American Ninja 2, Creepshow 2, The Gate, Ishtar, Personal Services and Beverly Hills Cop II.
I think the only one of those I've ever seen is The Gate. Therefore, I shall list that as my Film of the Month.
And what of sport?
It was the month in which Vienna's Prater Stadium saw Porto best Bayern Munich 2–1 to win that team's first-ever European Cup.
Also flying high - but then landing - was 18-year-old West German Mathias Rust who managed to dodge Soviet air defences, and land his plane in Moscow's Red Square before being arrested for the feat. Fortunately, he was released from custody in August 1988.
On the adjacent album chart, the month arrived with Curiosity Killed the Cat's Keep Your Distance on top before that was dislodged by Swing Out Sister's It's Better to Travel which was then dethroned by Simple Minds' Live in the City of Light.
Fab. But what of the Galaxy's greatest comic?
It was an exciting time for all lovers of high culture because the publication was celebrating its tenth birthday. And it did that by giving us such old warhorses as Anderson PSI Division, Rogue Trooper, Judge Dredd, Nemesis, Strontium Dog and Tharg's Future-Shocks.
We did, however, get one newish feature, in the form of Prog 253's one-page strip that bore the title Tales from Mega-City One.
ReplyDeleteI’ve never seen any of those films, but if I was stuck on a long flight and those were the only in-flight movies available, it’s entirely possible that I would actually choose to watch THE GATE.
Whitney Houston’s delightfully infectious “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” deserved to be a worldwide smash.
O’Neill’s Prog 523 cover is so, SO gross — and also the most striking of this batch, by far.
b.t.
The only one of those films I’ve seen is ‘Beverly Hills Cop II’, which is rubbish. I’ve started ‘Ishtar’ but not gotten very far. I have to finish it off because Jonathan Rosenbaum really rates it. I’m dubious.
ReplyDeleteI really liked / like that Whitney Houston single as well.
Such a strong start with the covers: a McCarthy and an O’Neill! Then it goes downhill badly with a Smith, a very boxy and lifeless Higgins - couldn’t they have got someone better for the 10th anniversary prog?! - and in between a wall-eyed Anderson by a bad artist whose work I don’t recognise.
We’re supposed to believe that “NOW THAT’s WHAT I CALL MUSIC,” is not top of the charts?
ReplyDeleteProg 520 was a favourite of mine featuring Barry Kitson on Judge Anderson, Garry Leach on Judge Dredd, Kev O’Neil on Torquemada, Steve Dillon on Rogue Trooper and an on-form Carlos Ezquerra on Strontium Dog. Other than Leach, all of the artists completed full story arcs, and Delano and Davis add the single-page D.R. & Quinch agony column in prog 525. The title also changed, physically, moving from the traditional IPC square format to a an over-sized take on the US format. I guess it meant they could simply shrink the page size for future US reprints, rather than re-formatting the art. The paper also improved and so did nicely feature the better art. Leach and O’Neil were well-served (from memory).
ReplyDeleteThe covers were a bit duff (compared to the internal art) but most featured full-colour posters (again O’Neil, Davis etc) until D.R. & Quinch started.
DW
Ah yes - I remember the better paper kicking in now. Was it with the anniversary issue?
DeleteMatthew, yes prog 520 was the first in the new format.
DeleteDW
Full-colour posters on the back pages…
ReplyDeleteDW
I've never bought a single issue of 2000AD but I do know that No.1 was dated February 26th 1977 so why is the 10th anniversary issue dated May 2nd?
ReplyDeleteIt might be that they wanted to wrap up the ongoing stories and do one of their 'soft reboot' / fresh start issues, that features new stories to grab fresh readers...?
DeleteI can see The Dead, Slaine, and Bad Company all wrapped up their runs in the prog before.
Also, 2000AD weren't generally day-and-date about celebrating anniversaries IIRC.
Colin: there are 52 weeks in a year. 52x10=520. Therefore prog 520 is the tenth anniversary.
DeleteIt ain't rocket science!
-sean
I wouldn't bother with Ishtar if I were you, Matthew. Its funny how it seems to be getting rehabilitated after years of being a notorious box office bomb - I believe Quentin Tarantino rates it too - but while it isn't quite as bad as its (former) reputation, its not any good either.
ReplyDeleteIf it hadn't starred two big time egos - Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman - and not gone waaaay over budget it would be as little discussed now as any other mediocre comedy of the era.
On the progs: what DW wrote.
Although I have to say while great in theory, Kevin O'Neill re-uniting with Pat Mills on Nemesis turned out to be a bit disappointing. Not terrible (obviously)... but the series had passed its sell by date really.
Still, at least the totally awesome Marshall Law #1 was only a few months away...
-sean
Steve, you forgot to mention that the first single by the artists later known as the Timelords and the KLF came out this month -
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4OF0Fnq0UM
Kick out the JAMs mo... er, brothers and sisters!
Whitney of course soon joined them -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFVlgIwWMDE
May '87 seems to have been a bit of a month for cultural provocation, as loveable Slovenian pranksters Laibach's 'Opus Dei' album came out too (Although back then we called them Yugoslavian).
-sean
Sean -
ReplyDeleteTwo replies in one here…
Yeah, the half hour of Ishtar I’ve seen doesn’t seem promising. And as much as I like Mikey & Nickey and A New Leaf, I do think Elaine May is a little bit overrated by her devotees.
I agree about latterday Nemesis. I mean generally it was past its sell-by date, we all know that, and went so far beyond it in the Roach and Hickleton eras that it became embarrassing.
But re-reading collected editions recently I was surprised how often O’Neill returned to the strip in dribs and drabs after he’d ‘stepped away’. And that those strips weren’t really much good.
I know you know I don’t like the KLF etc. But even so, are those JAMMs records from 87/88 *really* any good? I got the CD compilation in a sale about 20 years ago and I’ve struggled to get through it every time.
Laibach, however, were awesome in the 80s.
Laibach are always awesome, Matthew. Hearing them do something like their version of Queen's 'One Vision' back then -
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yvTF0x8cKM
- was jaw dropping in a way thats hard to repeat.
But every time you think they've gone as far as they can with what they do and should maybe hang up their antlers, they come back with something great.
Like, recently they put out a cover of 'I Want To Know What Love Is', which is amusing but... well, so what, right? But then they dropped their new album, 'Alamut', an astonishingly ambitious extended concept piece with orchestra and Iranian vocal ensemble thats obviously the result of years of work but feels completely current.
https://thequietus.com/quietus-reviews/album-of-the-week/laibach-alamut-2-review/
As for the JAMs... Ok, its a fair point those records aren't that good. The sheer artlessness of them had a certain appeal to me at the time - as did the Robert Anton Wilson 'Illuminati' references - but they were much better later as the KLF.
-sean