2000 AD - August 1987.

Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon. 

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I think every single one of us was overwhelmed with excitement in August 1987.

How could we not be? It was the month in which Apple introduced Hypercard which, as we all know, was a precursor to the World Wide Web, meaning we were drawing ever-closer to the creation of Steve Does Comics!

Clearly not feeling the excitement was Rudolf Hess who was found dead in his Spandau Prison cell, at the age of 93. He was believed to have committed suicide by hanging and had been the last remaining prisoner there.

When it came to movies, more cinematic treats were released than a human could shake a stick at or that a stick could shake a human at. It was during that period that we first cast our eyes upon Stakeout, The Care Bears Adventure in Wonderland, Who's That Girl?, The Monster Squad, No Way Out, Dirty Dancing, The Garbage Pail Kids, The Fourth Protocol, Hamburger Hill and House II: The Second Story.

But, of course, the big news for all lovers of fine cinema was that it was a month which saw the unleashing of the big-screen version of Masters of the Universe, starring Dolph Lundgren as the man who has the power!

When it came to music, August entered our lives with Los Lobos at Number One on the UK singles chart, thanks to their cover of La Bamba. That was then dislodged by Michael Jackson and Siedah Garrett's I Just Can't Stop Loving You which then had to subside before the absolute behemoth that was Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up.

Over on the associated album chart, the month began with Various Artists' Hits 6 on top before that had to make way for Def Leppard's Hysteria which was then vanquished by the return of Hits 6 to the top of the rankings.

As for 2000 AD, historic events were afoot  there too because, as far as I can make out, Prog 537 was officially released under the aegis of Fleetway Publications, after years of the title being credited to IPC, and I'm sure that will have made a huge difference to the contents. For instance, we now got Strontium Dog, D. R. & Quinch's Agony Page, Tales from Mega-City One, Judge Dredd, The Mean Team, Tharg's Future-Shocks and Nemesis.

Prog 535 saw the launch of Zenith, in an episode called Prologue: Ground Zero, as can be seen on the cover.

And Prog 537 saw the birth of a series called Universal Soldier, thanks to Alan McKenzie and Will Simpson.