2000 AD - September 1987.

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

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Cinemas are, as we all know, dark places.

But does that make them scary places?

Perhaps September 1987 could furnish an answer.

A quick glance at the cinema listings of a newspaper that exists only in my head, tells me it was a month which saw the unfurling of such delights as A Return to Salem's Lot, Amazon Women on the Moon, Fatal Attraction, Hellraiser and Mandela.

Having studied that list, I have come to the conclusion that some of those films are noticeably less frightening than others.

As for my Film of the Month, I am, inevitably, going to go for Hellraiser because I never get tired of it.

I'm sure I'd also never get tired of Amazon Women on the Moon, had I ever seen it.

But what of the real world? The one that needs no script?

In Moscow, that month, the trial commenced of 19-year-old Mathias Rust who'd, earlier, surprised Russian authorities - and, presumably, tourists - by landing his Cessna light aircraft in Red Square. He would be sentenced to four years in a labour camp; for violation of border and air traffic regulations, as well as provoking an emergency situation. However, he would go on to serve just fourteen months before being pardoned.

Elsewhere, the world's first conference on artificial life was held at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the United States. I can shed no light upon just what conclusions it came to.

And what of the galaxy's greatest comic?

It was providing us with more Space-Age thrills from strips such as Zenith, Universal Soldier, Judge Dredd, Mean Team, Tharg's Future-Shocks, Tales from Mega-City One and Strontium Dog.

And it would appear that, judging by the cover of Prog 541, that Judge Dredd was encountering more trouble from that Mega-City master-fiend Stan Lee!