Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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Movies. Movies Movies. What were they up to in August, 1985?
They were being released.
That's the kind of thing they do.
And these are those that what was being released:
Fright Night, Weird Science, Pee-wee's Big Adventure, The Bride, The Return of the Living Dead, Year of the Dragon, Godzilla 1985, Teen Wolf and American Ninja.
I have to admit it, that is probably the most 1985 list of films I've ever seen in my entire life.
Of them, I'm going to go for Return of the Living Dead as my favourite - even though I've not seen it since the 1980s - as I don't think much of the others, other than Godzilla 1985 which I remember being quite good, unless I'm mixing it up with another Godzilla film, which, given how many of them there are, is quite possible.
And now. Comics. Comics Comics.
You may get the feeling I don't have a clue what happens in this one.
And you'd be right, other than that the tale's called Fun and is brought to us by Peter Gillis and Luke McDonnell, with a front cover by Frank Cirocco.
I've no idea but it's a tale that's called Rude Awakening despite not being the work of either Steve Rude or Bob Awakening.
So, he asks Spider-Man for guidance on how to succeed as a person. Let's be honest, that's the last individual you should go to for such advice.
He then turns the office of Luke Cage, and Iron Fist into solid gold!
As for what happens within, it would seem Shadowcat uses Illyana's Soulsword to transform her back into a human being, after her having been the Darkchilde.
And, of course, the Beyonder's hanging around, as well.
And it's not even a bunch of reprints? It's all-new magic, as the ageing cowpoke visits Laramie to place a rose on the grave of someone or other but then encounters a railroad crew who mock him for wearing false teeth?
And it all happens thanks to the talents of Bill Mantlo and Herb Trimpe?
And he's doing it with mountains of Jim Starlin goodness. Therefore, it would be churlish to complain about it not being fresh material.
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13 comments:
DC Crisis is smack in the middle of its run too.
You guys who were still buying Comics at this time, I assume reading DC crisis and secret wars contemporaneously, were you really getting into it? Was it really earth shattering? Or was it just same old same old?
I read none of these books, but to answer anonymous (Charlie?) - yes, I was following DC's "Crisis". And enjoying it quite a bit. Not happy about everything in it, but overall a good story and great Perez art. It was fun hunting down all the cameo appearances...
Yep.. that was Charlie’s inquiry above. Red - I am jealous of you going to see Dolby! Wish he’d come back to Chicago. Alas Louisville is too far.
I saw the first six movies on that list at the theatre. PEE-WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE would probably be my fave, but I liked RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD a lot too. I thought FRIGHT NIGHT was mildly entertaining and YEAR OF THE DRAGON was terrible on so many levels, but strangely compelling. I thought THE BRIDE was dullsville and found WEIRD SCIENCE crass and un-funny.
THE LIFE OF CAPTAIN MARVEL #1 was the only comic from this batch that I bought. I loved seeing Starlin’s art reproduced so crisply, with solid blacks and vivid color.
Oh, and Charlie:
I bailed on both SECRET WARS and CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS early on. Don’t think I bought a single issue of SECRET WARS II.
b.t.
I never saw any of those films at the time.
I saw Return Of The Living Dead when it eventually reached the UK and then our backwater cinema - possibly Easter 1986. I remember I bought Daredevil 232 that day as well. I liked the comic, the film not so much.
And afterwards I went round to see this girl I was going out with who, to be honest, I didn’t like so much either.
My fave would be Pee Wee’s Big Adventure but I didn’t see that until 1988 in the wake of loving Beetlejuice.
Year of the Dragon I also saw on VHS, and it was crap.
I still haven’t seen Fright Night! I never got round to it, and I think that ship might have sailed now.
The only one of those comics I had was New Mutants but I think the art was going off the boil a bit: Billy was putting in less effort with the draughtsmanship, and it was all getting a bit messy. Shame it tailed off like that.
Ah yes. The Beyonder. That means we have a particularly terrible issue of Daredevil coming soon. Brace yourselves.
I still haven't seen any of those films. But I have seen Insignificance, which was released this month, the one about Marilyn Monroe meeting Albert Einstein. It was ok, but disappointingly slight given director Nic Roeg's track record (Performance, Don't Look Now, The Man Who Fell To Earth).
The soundtrack must have been the least interesting record from ZTT.
Also, I think it was this month that No Surrender came out, the only film with a screenplay by Alan Bleasdale. Set in Liverpool - surprise! - with the actors you'd expect, like Bernard Hill, its about a fading club where a pensioners night gets double booked by a party of Catholics from the north of Ireland, and the Orange Order. Much hilarity ensues.
Well, not that much hilarity really, as its all something of a misfire. I have to say Bleasdale seemed overrated to me, and I never understood the fuss about his work back then.
And Threads - the drama about urban improvement in Sheffield - got a repeat showing on the Beeb.
-sean
I thought Sienkiewicz was still doing good stuff on New Mutants with that issue, Matthew. The second part was his last one as artist... but he returned a few months later as regular inker for a while.
Which might account for a sense that his work on the series tailed off...?
Steve, the Defenders weren't going to be around much longer, which is a shame as the series had finally started to improve under writer Peter Gillis.
I think #146 is the one where they first meet Andromeda.
-sean
Anon-
I liked Crisis. I was coming back to D.C. after a long hiatus. Like since I was 9 years old!
I was fascinated by it, seeing all these old characters showing up. I didn't understand it, but who cares. I always liked the Earth 2 heroes. I dunno why.
I thought Secret Wars was crap, though. The premise was even more absurd than Crisis.
The art was not great.
D.C. seemed to be getting better (how could they not) and Marvel started to go downhill, although there were a few good titles, here and there.
M.P.
Scott, thanks for the Commuter info. It's been a long time since I've read it too and must confess my memories of the tale are very fuzzy.
I went to see Insignificance though it was probably in 1986 - a rep showing at the local Arts Centre. I was a bit bemused, but at 15 fair enough. I have a copy on disc but I haven't revisited it yet.
My ZTT fetish had died out over 1985 and the Insignificance records [there was that Glenn Gregory / Claudia Brucken single, and a Roy Orbison one too] were a big part of that. Tellingly that soundtrack hasn't ever been re-released.
You'd have thought that since it features some early Hans Zimmer, there'd be a whiff of curiosity, but no.
What happened to Alan Bleasdale? The last thing I remember of his was thirty years ago [exactly thirty years, in fact - one of my first jobs was working in a purely technical capacity on his show 'Jakes Progress']. Did he dry up?
Did the times change in a way he couldn't get to grips with?
Just going back to New Mutants...
Sienkiewicz was doing OK work at the end, but you compare it to the earlier issues and there's no mistaking the decline.
He used to balance lovely realistic [or just slightly stylised] life-drawing or photo-reference with his 'crazy jagged' experimentation.
For these last two issues it's just crazy jagged stuff. Things and people that look like they're composed of right angles. Heavy blotchy inking. Real lack of backgrounds and detail.
I stayed on when he was just inking but after a while there didn't seem to be any point.
Its been a while since I've had a look at the Sink's New Mutants run, Matthew, so maybe I should take your word for it til I do a re-read.
On Bleasdale... most of his work was in the sub-genre that I call 'Scouse sentimental', which I've always assumed was big in the 80s because it played into public disquiet about Thatcherism. There was really nowhere for people like him to go, once completing the Thatcher project became Labour policy.
By 1997 only the loony left and anarchists had anything interesting to say imo.
Having said that, I did wonder whether Bleasdale made enemies with The Monocled Mutineer. That was the only thing he wrote that I watched all of (the one not set in Liverpool). Iirc there was a fair bit of controversy about that at the time.
-sean
PS Just to be clear, I am not knocking Liverpool. I really like the city, it's more how it's treated in British culture that I'm dubious about. To an extent, you get the same kind of sentimental approach to the north of England generally - eg that show about the Geordie builders, The Full Monty, etc - but even so, Liverpool is a place apart.
Personally, I am in favour of Merseyside having the same option as the six counties, to hold a border poll on joining Ireland.
-sean
Any Barry Windsor Smith fans here?
Fantagraphics are reprinting 60s and 70s obscure Marvel stuff and the latest is devoted to BWS...
https://www.fantagraphics.com/products/back-to-the-savage-land-barry-windsor-smith-at-marvel-vol-1?mc_cid=93a4c3f25a&mc_eid=08c2096db4
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