2000 AD - April 1988.

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

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So eventful was April 1988 that it's a miracle we didn't all come out of it requiring more tranquillisers than Bruce Banner.

Not only did the Geneva Accords see the Soviet Union agree to withdraw all forces from Afghanistan, the USS Samuel B. Roberts struck a naval mine in the Persian Gulf, thanks to the Tanker War phase of the Iran–Iraq War, prompting retaliation against Iran by the United States.

And the world's longest skyjacking came to a close when the remaining passengers of Kuwait Airways Flight 422 were released by their captors.

But aviation wasn't finished with us yet. It was a month in which Aloha Airlines Flight 243 managed to land after losing its roof in mid-air. An event that killed a flight attendant and injured 65 people.

Fortunately, not all was melodrama and, in a far more sedate frame of mind, World Expo 88 opened in Brisbane.

When it came to movies, April saw the unleashing of such ne'er-to-be-forgotten classics as Bright Lights, Big City, The Seventh Sign, Appointment with Death, Brain Damage, Colors, The Blue Iguana, Lady in White, Return of the Killer Tomatoes, Two Moon Junction, White Mischief, Critters 2 and Powaqqatsi.

I believe that Critters 2 and White Mischief are the only ones of those that I've actually seen. Therefore, I shall nominate Critters 2 as my Steve Does Comics Film of the Month.

But what of music?

The spell kicked off with the Pet Shop Boys' Heart at Number One on the UK singles chart before that was forced to make way for Theme from S-Express by S-Express.

On the accompanying album chart, April was ushered in with Now That's What I Call Music! 11 ruling the roost before that was barged aside by Iron Maiden's Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. But, then, even the mighty Maidens were forced to subside by the arrival of Erasure's The Innocents.

But what news of the galaxy's greatest comic?

Possibly to no one's surprise, it continued to feed us a diet of Rogue Trooper, Strontium Dog, Judge Dredd, Tharg's Future-Shocks and Tyranny Rex.

But there was innovation to be found in the form of Prog 571 introducing us to Summer Magic, a brand new strip by Alan McKenzie and John Ridgway.

Fandom informs me that it involved a boy called Luke Kirby who, in the summer of 1962, is sent to stay in the countryside with his Uncle Elias. A man he's never before met. Luke soon discovers the man is a practitioner of alchemy and, when a mysterious beast begins stalking the woods around the village, Elias announces the boy must learn magic, in order to defend himself!