1985:
The trivia:
- Rome and Carthage officially ended the Third Punic War between the two cities in 1985, when the mayors signed a peace treaty. it had been running for over 2,000 years.
- Toy manufacturer Matell introduced a new character to the He-Man universe with an unusual power. Stinkor was essentially a humanoid skunk with the ability to release a toxic odour from his body that immobilised his foes. Matell mixed patchouli oil in with the plastic mold to give the toy a unique aroma...
- In the Culinan Premier Mine near Praetoria, South Africa, miners found the worlds largest diamond weighing 755.5 carats. The "Golden Jubilee Diamond" cut from it (545.67 carats) is currently estimated to be worth around US$ 12 million.
The memory:
Moonshadow
Moonshadow stumbles about encountering love, death, lust, horror, adventure and more death - all the while searching for enlightenment and a sense of belonging. It's a coming of age tale where the universe is strange and unpredictable but also full of wonder. Jon J Muth’s watercolour artwork is incredible and turned him into a superstar. The ethereal work combined with J.M. DeMatteis’ haunting, lyrical, literature infused script transforms "Moonshadow" into something frankly astonishing.
The last few issues of the 12 part series took forever to come out, and the ending was somewhat confusing (at the time anyway) but I loved every minute of the journey. It resonated with me in a very special way and made me into a life-long fan of both men's work. It was also the first comic where I bought the individual issues *and* the collected edition, just so I could have three new pages to enjoy. A sequel "Farewell, Moonshadow" followed many years later. More of a prose novel with illustrations, it's still a moving, heartfelt tale, and shows that no matter what occurs in life, the journey to understanding never truly comes to an end
Honourable mentions:
- No Surrender - a one-off comedy drama by "Boys From The Blackstuff" author Alan Bleasdale, starring Michael Angelis as the manager of a run-down social club in Liverpool. He realises that the previous owner has not only booked two opposing groups of Irish Catholic and Protestant pensioners on New Year's Eve, but also a homosexual comedian, a useless punk rock band, and a magician with stage fright on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Plus a fancy dress competition with no prize. Typical Bleasdale, this is darkly comic stuff with a heart of gold and a twist of surreal anarchy, and deserves to sit alongside his other classics. I had it on VHS recorded from the TV for years, but I wasn't able to get a DVD copy until 2011.
- Real Genius - One of a number of teen science fiction films around at the time, "Real Genius" is not as well remembered as "Weird Science" but I'd argue that it's actually a lot funnier. It helps to have a barnstorming performance from a young Val Kilmer as Chris Knight, the genius university slacker tasked with secretly creating the power source for a laser super-weapon for the CIA - so his university professor can take it easy and steal the glory (and the project funding to renovate his house). There is the usual group of oddballs rounding out the cast - the 15 year old genius, the kooky but sweet girl, the bullying arse-licking toady, etc, etc. But the film is so much more than the usual college comedies that forever follow in the wake of "Animal House". These "nerds" are not in competition with the "jocks". Sure they might be unlucky in love and have similar neuroses and problems, but they are comfortable being who they are and enjoy life - even if that is turning the dorm corridors into an ice rink or (at Chris Knight's insistence) holding "mutant" hamster races or Madame Curie lookalike contests. It also helps that the film might be one of the most quotable on the planet, 90% coming from Kilmer. Even today I find myself referring to the need to do something as a "moral imperative"...
- Scout - I was already a fan of Tim Truman's art on First Comics "Grimjack" and his separate graphic novel "Time Beavers", but this series allowed him to write for the first time. It's a dystopian 1999 and the U.S.A. has collapsed both economically (due to embargoes by other nations) and ecologically - most of the country is a barren wasteland. Enter Native American Apache Emmanuel Santana (Army Ranger codename: Scout). He sees what is really happening - the President is an evil presence aided by four monsters out of Apache legend - and Scout is tasked by his spirit guide with killing them. But are they real, or is he just a hallucinating terrorist?, "Scout" drew on Truman's love for Native American culture and the western genre and is full of gritty action, mysticism and subtle commentary on the geopolitical fears of the day. It also featured a lot of blues music, so much so that issue sixteen came with a free flexi-disc (remember those?) with a two song "soundtrack". Truman even produced a full LP alongside his band "The Dixie Pistols" which contained a "Scout" mini-comic detailing some of the events after the end of the first 24-issue series. I still have both. Over time the storyline expanded further and two bridging mini-series and a second volume, "Scout:War Shaman" followed. I must get the issues out of storage and re-read them sometime soon.
- Young Sherlock Holmes - Yes it's cheesy and Americanised and tries to turn the world's greatest detective into Indiana Jones, but I still have a soft spot for this film. Part of it is the fun central performance from Nicholas Rowe and part comes comes from spotting the nods to Conan Doyle's work. A guilty pleasure perhaps.
- Crisis On Infinite Earths - Every character in the DC pantheon in one multiverse-shattering epic! What's not to love? This was personally the culmination of the first phase of my love for DC Comics and their characters, which I had been exposed to gradually over the previous few years, and succeeded in getting me to pick even more titles than before. It's career-defining work from Marv Wolfman and George Perez and the impact it has had down the decades is incredible. I loved it at the time, even though I never had an issue with the multiple Earth's idea anyway.
- Looking back now I have a slightly different opinion. Whatever DC may have gained from "Crisis" and despite their multiple revisionist attempts over subsequent decades, I think they lost more than they gained, particularly in terms of the great legacy of the DC Universe. I am of the opinion that having a proper Earth-2 with an older Superman, a dead Batman, the All-Star Squadron fighting in WWII and the JSA growing old and giving way to Infinity Inc would still work and is the way to go. To be honest I wish they would stop trying to "fix" things and just stick to one continuity. They have just made their long history even more complicated than the perceived problem that created the need for a "crisis" in the first place. Still a great comic book event though.
- Back To The Future - Just perfect in almost every conceivable way. Definitely up there as one of my favourite films of all time and the sequels aren't too shabby either. Thanks to the stewardship of Bob Gale and Robert Zemekis, we will never see a crass reboot or reimagining to sully the legacy, at least in their lifetimes.
- Longshot - Now more widely known as a member one of the endless iterations of "X-Men" teams, the artificially created humanoid with probability altering powers first appeared in his own six issue mini-series. It's a great story with a ton of unique characters, but the real draw was the debut of Arthur Adams on art duties. I'd never encountered anything like his attention to minute detail - the attractive women, the original looking aliens - his work practically shines off the page. Instantly recognisable, his name on a project means that it's a guaranteed must-buy as far as I am concerned.
- Starquake / Nodes of Yesod - Two ZX Spectrum games with a similar feel, but which were still so addictive that I played them for hours on end. Both feature a protagonist searching through hundreds of screens of caves and tunnels for various objects to either combine together or complete a quest. Certain objects (access cards or a rock-chewing mole) give access to other parts of the map. A vast array of alien lifeforms while either zap your health or cause you to bounce around. In concept both were variations on "Underwurlde" from gaming legends "Ultimate Play The Game", but with enough of a unique spin to still be great games in their own right. Amazingly I now have a version of "Nodes of Yesod" on my iPhone!
Starquake
Nodes of Yesod
- Tales of the Beanworld - Billed as "A most peculiar comic book experience", there is nothing else quite like Larry Marder's mythological, ecological fantasy adventure. It's a singular vision which has been published only sporadically over the last thirty years. I can't say I totally understood it on first reading back in the 80s, but the experience of reading something utterly unique means that it has stuck in my memory longer than many other titles of the period. Annoyingly, a new collection of stories snuck out in 2009 (with a fourth volume due in mid-2017) and I missed it completely. It's long out of print and commands a hefty price now, so I guess I'll have to satisfy myself with the digital edition - but my collectors gene would still love a complete set of hardcovers.
- Brazil - Terry Gilliam's masterpiece and a film which is probably even more relevant in today's world than it was back in 1985. A science fiction satire which did a version of "steampunk" years before anyone else, it has pitch black humour and one of the darkest endings ever - yet is still full of wonderful absurdities and memorable characters. I love to watch it again and again.
- Miracleman - After the demise of Warrior magazine, Eclipse comics picked up the rights to publish "Marvelman", now renamed to avoid any lawsuits from that other publisher. At the time the continuation of the story after the reprints was *the* big thing, but I couldn't help but be disappointed by the switch from the sublime Alan Davis art to the less than stellar Chuck Beckum. Thankfully his stay was brief. As good as the subsequent issues are - and trust me they are *very* good, I kind of wish that it had ended at issue 16 and been just another entry in Moore's body of work. The Gaiman follow up's were good for sure, but the decades long wait for a conclusion and the lack of a decent collection (until recently) just lent the whole thing a historical weight that it can never live up to. Moore and Gaiman both went on to do better things and frankly I'm really not that bothered if we never see the planned ending. Heretical I know.
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