2000 AD - May 1986.

Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon .  *** I t can sometimes seem like the human race expends most of its time, energy and enthusiasm on trying to make the world a worse place but it can, sometimes, actually try to make it a better one. May 1986 saw one such occasion, as it witnessed an event called Hands Across America  in which over five million people formed a human chain which stretched from New York City to Long Beach, California, in order to to raise money for the fight against hunger and homelessness. For those who preferred to do their hand-holding in the cinema, there was not a bucketful of great films to be found. However, May did at least see the release of Short Circuit , Top Gun and Poltergeist II . None of which I would regard as classics but they were generally memorable. Over on the UK singles chart, the month kicked off with Falco's Rock Me, Amadeus sitting pretty at the summit before it suffered the indignity of being dethroned by Spitting Image's The Chicken Song, a deliberately annoying spoof of a deliberately annoying comedy song the world had known as Agadoo . When it came to the album chart, that listing too was dominated by just two records, with the month beginning with Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music's Street Life - 20 Great Hits on top before that was replaced by Peter Gabriel's  So . But what of the galaxy's greatest comic ? As always, it was giving us Tharg's Future Shocks, Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog and Ace Trucking Co . And, as sometimes, it was giving us plenty of Judge Anderson: PSI Division. But what's this? It was also providing us with what appear to be two brand new strips:  Bad City Blue by Alan Grant and Robin Smith; and  Sooner or Later , the handiwork of Peter Milligan and Brendan McCarthy. Sadly, I've never read either of those strips and, so, can shed no light upon their natures or merits. However, after what feels like a lengthy period of stagnation for the book, it's good to see it, once more, dipping its toes into the water of innovation.