2000 AD - March 1985.

Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon .  *** I t would have been hard to avoid feeling the 1980s had arrived with a vengeance, if you ventured into your local cinema in March 1985. It was, after all, a month that saw the release of such fare as Lust in the Dust ,  The Care Bears Movie ,  Desperately Seeking Susan and Police Academy 2 . I've seen two of those but must confess to never having seen Lust in the Dust or The Care Bears Movie which, I'm sure, are films that hold a strong resemblance to each other. In the world of politics, March saw Mikhail Gorbachev become General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party and, therefore, de facto leader of the Soviet Union. In the world of retail, Mohamed Al-Fayed outraged traditionalists by buying London-based department store Harrods. But, of course, the most important thing that happened anywhere in the world, that month, was the launch of Australia's longest-running soap opera  Neighbours which debuted on the Seven Network. As well as being truly awesome, the show would propel the likes of Kylie Minogue, Guy Pearce, Margot Robbie and Natalie Imbruglia  to international fame and guarantee that Anne Charleston and Ian Smith would never be short of a panto to appear in. When it came to music, the UK singles chart met the month head-on with Hi-NRG classic  You Spin Me Round (Like a Record) by Dead Or Alive at Number One. Tragically, that then had to make way for the noticeably less energetic Easy Lover by Philip Bailey and Phil Collins. March also handed triumph to Phil of the Collins variety when it came to the British album chart, as most of it saw his LP  No Jacket Required holding the top spot before it, finally, had to make way for Paul Young's The Secret of Association . But what of the galaxy's greatest comic ? What was it up to while all this history-making was occurring?  It was up to what it was usually up to and still featuring The Ballad of Halo Jones , Judge Dredd , Rogue Trooper , The Hell Trekkers  and Tharg's Future-Shocks . However, there was one slice of change to greet the reader because Prog 411 saw the return of the berserker-fuelled barbarian that was Sláine!