2000 AD - May 1985.

Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon .  *** I f you were intrepid enough to enter your local cinema in May 1985, you'd need to be ready for action because it was a month which saw the escape of both  Rambo: First Blood Part II and A View to a Kill . I don't think I've ever seen  Rambo: First Blood Part II and, so, I shall vote for A View to a Kill as my favourite of those two movies. I don't have a clue what my favourite song was in that year's Eurovision Song Contest but I do know the event was the 30th ever staged and took place in Sweden's Gothenburg. But it wasn't the host nation that won. Instead, triumph favoured its neighbour Norway, thanks to Bobbysocks's legendary track  La Det Swinge. But it was a far darker month for football fans. One which saw two major disasters at European stadiums.  The first was down to the fire which engulfed a stand at Valley Parade in Bradford and left 56 dead. The second was down to fighting in Belgium's  Heysel Stadium ,  at the European Cup final between Liverpool and Juventus,  which left  39 dead. Just when it seemed the month couldn't get worse, a few days later, the scientists of the British Antarctic Survey announced the discovery of a hole in the ozone layer. On the UK singles chart, it seemed there was only one song in town - and that was Paul Hardcaste's Vietnam-inspired  19 which spent the whole month at Number One; seeing off the likes of Duran Duran, along the way.  Over on the British album chart, those inescapable Various Artists kicked off May at Number One, with their latest platter  HITS 2. But even they then had to make way, as Dire Straits' juggernaut of an LP  Brothers in Arms smashed  straight in at Number One. It would, of course, go on, at one point, to be the biggest-selling album in British history. But what of the galaxy's greatest comic ? As so often, it was offering us a diet of Sláine ,  Judge Dredd ,  Rogue Trooper  and Strontium Dog . But something had changed, as we saw the launch of a serial in which PSI Division's Judge Anderson must tackle the return of the Dark Judges in a strip that seems to have replaced The Ballad of Halo Jones . But who cared about that? What really mattered was that, thanks to Prog 416, we could win the Commodore 64 computer and Valiant Robo-Turtle we'd always wanted to win!