Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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Politics will always be with us.
But some things were coming to an end. One of them being that, after more than eight years of fighting, the Soviet Army began its withdrawal from Afghanistan.
In other matters Soviet, the Moscow Summit involving Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev saw the finalisation of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty which made us slightly less likely to be annihilated.
And cinema? That magical place in whose bosom we can always escape the vicissitudes of reality?
Unleashed upon the silver screen, that May, were such never-to-be-forgotten dramas as Dead Heat, Friday the 13th Part VII, Maniac Cop, Not of This Earth, Aria, Willow, Crocodile Dundee II, Rambo III and Killer Klowns From Outer Space.
How many of those have I seen? I think I've seen Maniac Cop, Willow and Crocodile Dundee II. I wish I could claim that any of them are timeless classics but I'm not totally convinced they are. I shall, therefore, have to go for Crocodile Dundee II as the Steve Does Comics Film of the Month.
And the galaxy's greatest comic?
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13 comments:
Croc Dundee had its fun, misanthropic moments to be sure!
Just curious if any of the Marvel greats (Kirby, Colan, Buscema, et al) ever tackled The Judge?
SEAN- i agree that politics should be generally separated from sports to include this instance.
I miss being a kid and digging into those 8 color pages of Tribune Syndicate funnies every Sunday morning!!! Page 1 was always 80% Dick Tracy! and then Orphan Annie, Dondi and eventually Spidey for the other adventure strips.
CH on a cool, gray, drizzly Sunday afternoon.
Steve - as always an eternal thanks for running this superb blog! You have brightened up many a grey Chicago day; about 180 per year! And thanks to you gents for your insights!
Steve, WILLOW is the only one of these that I saw at the theatre (or EVER, actually) — but I can well believe that CROCODILE DUNDEE 2 is the better movie. WILLOW seemed at the time to be a blatantly lazy retread of STAR WARS but with a Tolkienesque ‘High Fantasy’ overlay. Also, just incredibly dull.
b.t.
Charlie, it depends what you mean by 'Marvel greats'. John Byrne drew a 14 page Dredd story for the 1983 2000AD Sci-Fi Special (I think he also had something to do with the 90s licenced DC version, but that's not legit Dredd imo).
Fwiw I've always thought Kirby's OMAC had a Dredd vibe. Or, more accurately - given who's take on the future of law enforcement came first - Dredd had an OMAC vibe.
Half-time: Iran v Belgium 0-0 (an Iranian goal was disallowed)
Hoping Iran do enough to get through - I want to see them play the USA!
-sean
Legend had Maverick; Willow had Ice-Man. Which film's the other's wingman?
Phillip
I never saw any of those movies. Not one. Not even later on VHS. That’s quite an achievement.
I think I saw bits of Willow on TV but it looked boring.
@Charlie & Sean -
Difficult to put into words how strange it was seeing Byrne do Dredd in that Special. Extremely odd, and not really very good.
UK comics in the 80s were a world unto themselves, and in terms of overlap with the US it was generally a one-way street: UK creators loved working for American companies because the money was much, much better and there was an inkling of a possibility of partial ownership and royalties.
Yeah, I wasn't keen on Byrne's Dredd either, Matthew.
Maybe it's worth mentioning Michael Fleischer wrote Rogue Trooper for a while...? Actually, it probably isn't.
Any thoughts on the covers here? Not great imo. The Glenn Fabry one is the best but it's still disappointing... His work was getting really good around this time - I think the last part his black & white Sláine run is just a couple of months away? - but his Dredd doesn't seem right.
As for the inside contents of the Galaxy's Greatest Comic, it's all fairly run of the mill stuff, apart from the excellent Summer Magic which was the only reason to pick up these issues really.
I don't think you even get the new Bisley droid doing the ABC Warriors in any of this months episodes. Although his stuff wasn't to my taste anyway. And maybe not just mine...? It's kind of interesting that no-one here's really remarked on his arrival in the progs.
-sean
I must have been on another break as I don’t recall any of these. I think from this point I only bought 2000AD when Zenith was featured. I think the only movie from this batch I saw (and later on VHS) was Crocodile Dundee 2, which added nothing to the first and demonstrated the laws of diminishing returns.
I do remember thinking Bisley’s colour work looked really nice but were generally quite poor as story-telling. Probably made me appreciate Billy the SInk and Dave McKean a bit more. Likewise, I remember Byrne illustrating Dredd but cant remember anything about it.
DW
Sean & DW -
I wasn't keen on Bisley's work. It did catch my eye flicking through the progs when I picked them up, and it was 'interesting' and different for sure - I'm always up for a bit of eccentricity, and remember I was a Trevor Von Eeden fan at this point, when he was at his most incoherent.
But the storytelling wasn't there, and it just seemed like talented sixth-former doddles. Which, in a way, it was, given Bisley was about 14 or something at the time.
Didn't help that he and SMS came onboard quite late into Pat Mills' interminable Nemesis saga [which ABC Warrors became part of], so there was no real enthusiasm on my part for the story itself.
And [finally] Bisley really pissed me off with his unpleasant handling of the shock death of a supporting character, which was childishly cartoonish and really adolescent.
[There will be more to follow from me on 2000AD and some unpleasant character deaths in at some point in the near future].
The covers this month aren't bad - I guess the Fabry for me - but they're not eye-catching in any way. Odd that 2000AD remained so staid when other publications were popping up that had a much better grasp of design - Crisis, Revolver, Deadline et al.
*doodles, not 'doddles'.
Quick, non-Comics question. With your Prime Minister resigning does the labor party just pick a new Prime Minister From within the party, With presumably labor party members voting to pick a new Prime Minister? Or does it have to go to a national election for all the peope?
We don't need a UK wide election to replace Keir Starmer. If no one puts their name forward to challenge Andy Burnham then he will be the new PM around mid July. If someone else puts their name forward then it's an internal contest for the Labour party ( not the general public).
It's the party that has an electoral mandate, not an individual (other than in their capacity as an MP). So if the leader loses the confidence of the party they can replace him or her.
It seems there isn't a challenger - which is probably a relief for the Parliamentary Labour party, as I doubt they'll want ordinary members having a vote on anything - so it looks like Burnham will take over. In September, after the summer recess apparently.
So I expect he'll be the most unpopular prime minister ever by mid-October at the latest.
If Sir Keir had any sense of occasion he'd have announced his resignation tomorrow. Which is of course the 10th anniversary of the Brexit referendum.
All the best for UK Independence Day my British chums.
-sean
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