July, 1984, and as I am driving from upstate New York down to Baton Rouge, Louisiana to go to graduate school at LSU. On the car radio, the single 'Boys Do Fall in Love' from Robin Gibb's new album 'Secret Agent', is in rotation.
'Boys' wound up being a modest hit that Summer, but it remains a great song, and epitomizes the synth-heavy, eletronic drum sound of mid-80s pop.
After the BeeGee's 1981 album 'Living Eyes' tanked, signalling the end of the disco era with crushing finality, it was Robin Gibb, as a solo artist (with some help from brother Maurice), who let the world know there was more to the band than the one-two disco beats and over-exposed Barry-Gibb-falsetto that had come to be associated with the band's music.
So 'Boys Do Fall in Love' is on the radio, and the latest issue of 'Heavy Metal' magazine is on the magazine racks, featuring a front cover by Dave Dorman, and a back cover by Ron Lightburn.
The Dossier section is one of the more ludicrous to appear in the magazine, focusing on - likely enough - Heavy Metal music, and showcasing an up-and-coming singer named.....Thor.
Other bands in the spotlight include 'Manowar' and 'Slayer'. It's hard to tell if the HM staff ('Rok' critic Lou Stathis, along with Tim Sommer, Josh Ribakove, and Jess Schalles) who wrote the Dossier intended that their coverage be facetious, or if they were playing it straight, but only those who grew up in the 80s can truly treasure the wonderful awfulness of these bands and their clothing/ costumes.
The graphic content of the July issue sees a new series from Jeronaton, titled 'The Great Passage'; ongoing episodes of Thorne's 'Lann', Druillet's 'Salammbo II', 'The Hunting Party' by Cristin and Bilal; 'The Railways' by Renard and Schuiten; and 'TexArcana' by FIndley.
Among the better of the singleton strips is Alfonso Azpiri's 'Daymares / Nightdreams'. I've posted it below.
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