2000 AD - July 1988.

ThanKs to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for Their Sponsorship of This Post, via The Magic of Patreon. 

***

Who remembers Glenn Medeiros?

I certainly do.

And July 1988 was doing its best to make sure it stayed that way, as he spent almost the entire month at Number One on the UK singles chart, thanks to his smash hit Nothing's Gonna Change My Love for You, before being dislodged by Yazz and the Plastic Population's The Only Way Is Up.

Over on the accompanying album chart, July launched with Tracy Chapman holding sway, via her self-titled album, before that was usurped by Now That's What I Call Music! 12.

Change was afoot in politics because the Soviet government voted to end the CPSU's monopoly on economic and other non-political power and to further economic changes towards a less rigidly Marxist-Leninist economy.

While, in engineering, Istanbul's Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge was completed, providing the second connection between the continents of Europe and Asia via the Bosporus.

But what of cinema?

Just what was on offer to us when we handed over our money for that ticket?

It was a month that saw the release of such never-to-be-forgotten masterpieces as Short Circuit 2, Arthur 2, It Couldn't Happen Here, Phantasm II, The Dead Pool, Die Hard, A Fish Called Wanda, Big Top Pee-wee, Caddyshack II, Cocktail and Monkey Shines.

Upon consideration; of that lot, I think Die Hard was the film most likely to get me to hand over my money, bearing, as it does, a remarkable resemblance to how I live my own life.

And of the galaxy's greatest comic?

What news?

It was, as so often before, producing a diet of Bad Company, Strontium Dog, Judge Dredd, A.B.C. Warriors and Sláine. Not to mention the return of Tyranny Rex.

But there was novelty too, with the arrival of an intriguing-sounding strip called Tribal Memories in which writer Peter Milligan and artist Tony Wright present the story of Mohammed “Mo” Robinson, a cynical memory trader in a future where personalities are assembled from memories that have been bought.

The internet informs me that he visits our world, seeking a Maasai warrior whose memories are completely authentic, and what begins as a satirical sci-fi tale of cultural commodification develops into an exploration of colonialism, exploitation and prejudice.