2000 AD - July 1985.

Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon .  *** J uly 1985 gave us a choice that could test the wisdom of Solomon himself. We could spend our money going to the cinema or we could spend it going to Live Aid. But which should we choose? Well, let's see. The picture houses of the world were currently showing  Back to the Future, Red Sonja, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Silverado, Day of the Dead, Kiss of the Spider Woman and National Lampoon's European Vacation . They were also showing a thing called Dr Otto and the Riddle of the Gloom Beam . I don't have a clue what the hell that was but, from that title, it sounds like a thing best watched with the assistance of vast quantities of mind-bending substances. Live Aid, on the other hand, was offering us access to the world's greatest music stars and Nik Kershaw. But Wembley and Philadelphia weren't the only places we could find music. After all, we could also find it on the pop charts. The UK singles chart, that month, kicked off with Sister Sledge's Frankie at Number One. That was soon deposed by the Eurythmics'  There Must be an Angel (Playing With My Heart)  which was then overthrown by Madonna's Into the Groove . Over on the British album chart, July arrived with Bruce Springsteen's  Born in the USA ruling the roost for three-quarters of the month before it was replaced by Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms . But what of the galaxy's greatest comic while this smorgasbord of song was being unleashed? As so often, it was offering us a diet of Strontium Dog, Judge Dredd, Sláine, Ace Trucking Co and Rogue Trooper , while Judge Anderson was still battling the Dark Judges. Judging by the covers below, the comic seemed to have developed a strange fixation with surfing but I don't know in which strips that fixation was manifesting itself.