1989 (Progs 608 – 659)
January (Prog 610): Zippy Couriers goes into business (Hilary Robinson/Graham Higgins)
Dredd: Our Man in Hondo (John Wagner/Colin MacNeil)
March (Prog 615): 12th birthday issue.
May: (Prog 626): Slaine: The Horned God begins (Pat Mills/Simon Bisley). Also: Zenith: Phase Three (Morrison/Yeowell).
July (Prog 635): Arthur Ranson makes his Anderson PSI debut.
September (Prog 643): Mark Millar makes his 2000AD debut scripting a Tharg’s Futureshock.
October (Prog 647): Simon Harrison’s work on Strontium Dog: The Final Solution ends. Colin MacNeil picks up the story in 1990.
November: Prog 650!: The new Rogue Trooper (Friiday) debuts (Dave Gibbons/Will Simpson). The mysterious Dead Man begins (Wagner/John Higgins). Slaine: The Horned God Book Two begins. Zenith Phase Three resumes. Three out of five stories are now in full colour. The cover price rises to 40p.
(Prog 654): Chopper: Song of the Surfer begins (Wagner/MacNeil).
Elsewhere:
Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell’s Jack the Ripper saga, From Hell, first appears this year.
March: Quantum Leap arrives on US TV. It hits BBC Two in 1990.
June: In a big year for blockbusters and sequels, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade gets the first crack of the whip.
August: Tim Burton’s heavily hyped Batman hits cinemas.
The ‘original’ Dan Dare returns to The (new) Eagle.
September: Fast Forward, a new comic/magazine based around BBC TV is launched
October: James Cameron’s The Abyss sinks without trace at the box office. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier boldly goes nowhere.
November: Back to the Future Part II imagines what the world might be like in the year, 2015.
Red Dwarf gets a new look for its third series. Robert Llewellyn (Kryten) and Hattie Hayridge (the new Holly) join the cast.
December: Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters II hits UK cinemas. It proves less popular than the original.
The current series of Doctor Who ends. As with Indiana Jones and Ghostbusters, it will not return until the 21st century.
Chris Hallam is a freelance writer. Originally from Peterborough, he now lives in Exeter with his wife. He writes for a number of magazines and websites including The Companion, Yours Retro, Best of British and Comic Scene – in which he wrote about Judge Death, The Ballad of Halo Jones, Dan Dare, The Eagle, Metalzoic and Alan Moore’s Watchmen. In the past, he wrote for Metro.co.uk, Radio Times, DVD Monthly and Geeky Monkey. He co-wrote the book, Secret Exeter (with Tim Isaac) and A-Z of Exeter – People, Places, History. He also provided all the written content for the 2014 annuals for The Smurfs, Furbys and Star Wars Clone Wars as well as for sections of the 2014 South Park annual and all the 2015 Transformers annual.
Chris Hallam's World View 