This site’s function is to serve as a place where we can collect and discuss all the things about the 80s and 90s that we loved. Think of this as the ultimate checklist to build that basement you’ve always wanted. That doesn’t mean though that we will only focus on things from that era. There are tons of stuff that influenced the 80s (1979’s Alien, 1977’s Star Wars: A new hope, Joy Division’s 1979 album Unknown Pleasures, to name but a few). There are also so many recent movies, books, music, and comics that are to this day inspired by the 80s and 90s. To leave them out would be criminal.
Do you have a favorite movie, album, toy, comic, novel that you want us to discuss? Send us a mail at info@theneonlaserbasement.com and we’ll make a plan.
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80s comics / comicsYou might be wondering: “Why make your first post on comics about the second volume of Mister Miracle?” Well, there are two reasons. After my first year of “collecting” comics (no bags, no boards, and reading my comics over and over until they fell apart), I walked into a small grocery store and saw issue 15 of Mister Miracle on the spinner rack. I had never seen a Mister Miracle comic, apart from the ads in other DC books which did not appeal to me. This cover with Mister Miracle trapped in a maze, surrounded by four baddies, really jumped out at me though and I bought it. I read it the same day and at that moment thought that it was the most fun comic I had ever read (I was 9 and the names Alan Moore and Grant Morrison meant nothing to me).
The second reason why I’m writing this post is because I recently bought the entire series and read them back to back, and honestly, it is great. (Just in case you are questioning my taste in comics: my top 5 favourite comic series of all time are Doom Patrol #19-63, Swamp Thing #19-64, Transmetropolitan #1-60, Animal Man #1-26, and Watchmen #1-12.) Don’t get me wrong, this series is by no means a literary classic, but at a time when most comics were dark, grim, and edgy, this book, along with Justice League Europe and Justice League America/International, was a breath of fresh air for a lot of readers. The book is immensely fun, a load of laughs, and has some great storylines. Even Lobo makes a guest appearance in two of the issues.
J.M. Dematteis (Moonshadow, Kraven’s Last Hunt, Justice League International) wrote the first eight issues of the series, with Ian Gibson (Halo Jones) doing the art for issues 1 to 5. Issues 7 and 8 were co-written with Len Wein, with Wein going solo from issue 9 to 13. Doug Moench then took over from issue 14 and stayed with the series till the last issue. Joe Phillips (Silver Surfer, Aliens: Colonial Marines, Dr. Who) joined the team as artist with issue 7 and drew most of the issues from there to 28. His pencils for the book are nothing short of phenomenal. His rendition of Big Barda is by far my favourite to this day. And did I mention that Adam Hughes did the cover for issue 19? You know, that guy that draws all those gorgeous comic book women. It’s one of those books a lot of Adam Hughes fans don’t even know about.
One of the great plus points of this series is the way the creators depict Scott Free and Barda’s husband and wife relationship. Forget about Lois and Clark, or Peter and Mary Jane. If you want to see a normal and loving relationship between super-powered individuals, then look no further than this.
The creators also did some really innovative things with the characters and the plots, but I honestly don’t want to spoil this for you. This series has it all: humour, battles on Earth and in space, female wrestlers, death traps, death defying escapes, and space traveling salesmen. What’s more, you can find the whole series often in quarter bin sales, or in $10-$20 sets on Ebay. Unfortunately the series is not yet available in trade paperback format. It really is worth the couple of bucks you’ll spend on it. And when you are done, pass them on to your little cousin or nephew, or the kids in your neighbourhood; especially issues 15 to 16. Way more fun than wasting time on Facebook or Twitter.
Not sold on the old series? Check out the new series by Tom King and Mitch Gerards. I highly recommend it.
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Sci-fiA girl puts a feather in her mouth.
If there is one author who really exemplifies the playfulness of language, in all its bizarre beauty, it is Jeff Noon. My first ever exposure to Jeff Noon was through a short story titled “Metaphorazine”, published in his collection Pixel Juice (1998), which turned poetic devices into mind-altering drugs. I was astonished by the ingenuity of the idea, if language is thought to alter our perception of the world, is language itself not a type of drug? Like an addict, I searched for Jeff Noon novels to devour, and was not disappointed. Pixel Juice (1998) itself boasts a truly fantastic collection of stories, showing off the author’s unique and original approach to Science Fiction. It is probably the best place to start if you aren’t familiar with his work.
Vurt (1993) is the author’s first novel, and will be the subject of this post. This novel is a good example of cyberpunk fiction, which became a widely popular genre in the 1980s. The cyberpunk genre presents the reader with a near-future dystopia, where daily life isn’t so great, and so people turn towards advanced tech to create an alternative, simulated reality. Cyberpunk usually features a cyber-reality, and technology is often used as a method of transcendence, and a way to escape the dreary world. What’s great about cyberpunk though, is that it isn’t used as a method to critique society, or ponder the implications of the cybernetic knowledge or identity issues. Oh no, cyberpunk is just there to have a good time. The beacons of cyberpunk include William Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984) and Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (1968), which was adapted into the the film Bladerunner (1982). As any good cyberpunk novel, in Vurt (1993) we are presented with sleaze, a world of sex and drug addiction, and with tech beyond our current capabilities. This world blurs the boundaries between known reality and virtual spaces, and takes both body invasion and mind invasion to the max.
The action takes place in a run-down Manchester filled with “pures” and hybrids, crosses between five species: human, dog, shadow, robo, and Vurt. Our protagonist Scribble and his gang of Stash Riders take frequent trips to the Vurt using colour-coded feathers. Vurt represents a type of shared dream, a virtual reality that you can venture into to experience all kinds of forbidden sensations. Blue feathers are your legal easy trips, while pink feathers are exclusively for the Pornovurt. Things aren’t always blissful though, as sometimes these dreams turn into nightmares and it is easy to forget that it’s not in fact real (Inception anyone?). Be very careful of the illegal black feathers and ultra-rare yellow feathers warns the Game Cat, for they are very dangerous my kittlings.
But the novel is far from a simple drug fuelled fantasy; Scribble’s sister has been lost to the Vurt, replaced by a grey Vurt being affectionately called the Thing-from-Outer-Space. The mission is to get her back, and the reader is taken along for the ride. This one is not a slow-burner, so you get propelled into the action from the first chapter. What a rush! Expect to be awed, expect to be disgusted, this one will have you on the edge of your seat.
Vurt was followed by a sequel Pollen (1995) and prequel Nymphomation (1997), but while they all share the same aspects of Vurtual world, the stories do not focus on the same characters. Automated Alice (1996) is also considered to be part of the Vurt series, and is Jeff Noon’s homage to the Alice in Wonderland books by Lewis Carroll. The author himself makes an appearance as Zenith O’Clock (another clever play on words, pointing towards Noon). Automated Alice (1996) is a fantastic book as well, in which Alice follows her parrot Whippoorwill through a Victorian grandfather clock and is transported into a futuristic Manchester filled with hybrid creatures of its own. This hybridity is something that can be found in many of Jeff Noon’s works – mixtures of real and virtual, human and other, language, genre, music. It is this unsettling unfamiliar world that we are ever drawn to and fascinated by. Jeff Noon’s most recent books include A Man of Shadows (2017) and The Body Library (2018). [...]
80s musicMomentary Lapse of Reason is the one album that there is no consensus on whether it is a good album or not. Critics can’t seem to agree, nor can the fans.
David Gilmore and Nick Mason reunited under the Pink Floyd name in 1986 with Richard Wright joining them during the last two months of recording. Bob Ezrin, who assisted with the production of The Wall (1979), was enlisted as co-producer with Gilmore. This album marked the demise of the Waters-Gilmore era for Pink Floyd. Their previous album, The Final Cut (1983), put much strain on the partnership of David Gilmore and Roger Waters, resulting in long running legal battles.
The band was criticized by some fans for not sounding like a Pink Floyd album, but that does not mean that it isn’t good. It went off in a different direction, but lyrically it is similar to Dark Side of the Moon (1973) and The Wall (1979). It probably has the darkest tone of all their albums, and (no pun intended) was a new machine. Musically others would argue that it is not as strong earlier albums, but I would disagree with this statement. I personally found the album much more accessible than previous outings (I do revere the album in the same sense that I think The Final Cut is a masterpiece). The album takes everything that is great about Pink Floyd and distills it for new generations and is the perfect entry point for new listeners.
The highlights of the album are definitely The Turning Away, A New Machine Part 1 and 2, Terminal Frost and Sorrow. Learning to Fly is my least favorite track on the album, but it’s still a great track. The album was very successful and went platinum no less than four times in the US, spawning a world tour which made a reported $75 million, along with a live album, The Delicate Sound of Thunder (1988). A tape of the latter was also taken to space by the crew of the Russian Soyuz TM-7. It is claimed that Pink Floyd’s The Delicate Sound of Thunder is the first rock music to be played in space.
Having said everything important about the music and lyrics, let’s also take a look at the amazing sleeve design for the album. The late Storm Thorgerson conceptualised the cover art and Howard Dowling did the photography. The hundreds of hospital beds were arranged on Saunton Sands in Devon by Colin Elgie and took around two weeks to create (no Photoshop or CGI trickery was used). This is the same beach used for the WWII scenes in the The Wall (1982 film).
Thorgerson states in his book, Mind Over Matter: The Images Of Pink Floyd (2015), that the idea for the cover came to him in two parts. Firstly, the track “Yet another movie” contains the line “a vision of an empty bed”. One bed wasn’t enough though, so the idea was to have many beds. Secondly, since the album begins with the sounds of lone rower in a boat, Thorgerson thought of a river bed, or a river of beds. So 700 beds were arranged in the shape of a long winding river on a beach, with a ‘rower’ sitting on one of them.
If there ever was a designer for rock royalty, it was Storm Thorgerson. He did design work and directed music videos for everyone from Led Zeppelin to Black Sabbath to The Alan Parsons Project. His most recognizable sleeve design was for Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, which has been hailed as one of the greatest album covers of all time.
You can order Thorsgerson’s book, Mind Over Matter: The Images Of Pink, here. [...]
80s filmsLast week saw the 35th anniversary of Ralph Bakshi’s Fire and Ice (1983), so I thought it a good idea to look back upon a movie that is not nearly as bad as a lot of people claim.
Don Coscarelli’s The Beastmaster (1982) and John Milius’s Conan the Barbarian (1983) along with the release of Mattel’s Masters of the Universe toy line (starting 1981) had proven that heroic fantasy can be very popular and profitable. It is unfortunate though that Fire and Ice was not very well received and failed to make an impact at the box office.
The film was produced by Bakshi with Frank Frazetta. Ralph Bakshi had proven himself as a director and writer of merit after delivering the financially successful animated films Fritz the Cat (1972), Wizards (1977), and Lord of the Rings (1978).
In case you do not know who Frank Frazetta is, he is the guy that painted all the covers for the Conan paperbacks in the 1960s and 1970s. He also did tons of work for comic book publishers (mostly horror, fantasy, and science fiction books). The first three Molly Hatchet album covers and Nazareth’s Expect No Mercy album cover were also painted by him.
The film has maintained a cult following over the years and has aged quite well. The plot is straightforward and revolves around a kidnapped princess and a young warrior who needs to rescue her. Swords clash, monsters are slain, and a giant slab of ice creeps over the tundra to destroy everything in its wake. Throw in a mother and son team of evil magic users and a princess with a very translucent nighty and you have the makings of a sword and sorcery epic. The film is everything the Masters of the Universe cartoon should have been, but couldn’t have been, because, you know, children (not that I am not a fan of MOTU).
So why is this movie good? For one thing, the art and the animation are fantastic. No one produces animations like this anymore. The backgrounds were created by master brush-men James Gurney and Thomas Kinkade, with layouts by Peter Chung, and animation by the Bakshi animators; Steven E. Gordon (X-men Evolution), Bell, Banks, and Sparey.
To animate the characters the animators employed the rotoscope technique, meaning that scenes of the movie had to be acted out, filmed, developed, and then traced onto animation cells. This reduces the time needed to create the animations while also assisting the artists in creating realistic body movements for the characters. This same technique was used by Filmation Associates for many of their cartoons.
Another reason why this film is worth watching is the story. Yes, it is a simple story, but if you like Lord of the Rings, Conan, or Elric, then this is a must watch. It is one of the few fantasy films out there that has the look and feel of the 70s and 80s fantasy novels many of us grew up reading.
The film has been released on Blu-ray and DVD and the transfers look excellent. In addition, a limited edition of the film has also been released which includes a Frank Frazetta documentary, Frazetta: Painting with Fire. Robert Rodriguez of Sin City fame acquired the rights for a live action version of the film in 2014, so hopefully we’ll soon be seeing it at theaters. [...]
80s filmsSartre states at the end of Les Mots, that the dead will remain with us for as long as humanity walks the earth. He was partially correct when one considers the longevity and impact of the zombie genre.
In the mid-80s before The Walking Dead, but after Night of the Living Dead, Dan O’Bannon directed this incredibly fun film. This was O’Bannon’s debut as a director, but a newcomer to film he was not. He was heavily involved in the production of Dark Star (1974), where he co-wrote both the story and screenplay with John Carpenter. He also served as the special effects supervisor on the film. In 1977 he would also work as a computer animator on Star Wars: A New Hope. What he is most well-known for is as screenplay writer for Alien (1979), which evolved into a juggernaut of a media franchise (which we’ll discuss in another post in the future). Some of his later writing credits included: Heavy Metal (Soft Landing and B-17)(1981), Dead & Buried (1981), Total Recall (1991), and Screamers (1995).
Back to Return of the Living Dead though. We have to rewind a bit to the early 1960s and to a gentleman by the name of John A. Russo. Russo had written a rough draft for a story about some flesh eating ghouls for The Latent Image, a small film studio owned by George A. Romero and Russell Streiner. Romero liked the idea and rewrote the story into screenplay for Night of the Living Dead (1968). After the film’s release Russo retained the rights over any sequels or titles with the words “Living Dead” in them. Romero went on to create numerous sequels to the zombie franchise, but with different titles like, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Land of the Dead, etc.
Russo wanted to do the same and first wrote a novel by the name of Return of the Living Dead, which is pretty much a sequel to Night of the Living Dead (don’t worry, they have a very novel way of explaining it in the movie). By the early 1980s he was shopping around for partners to adapt it into a film. Dan O’Bannon was offered the directing duties after Tobe Hooper split to go make Lifeforce. This was a blessing in disguise, since O’Bannon did an amazing job with this film.
Return of the Living Dead was different from other zombie movies of the time and introduced talking zombies who ate brains (yup, this is where zombies started yelling “braaaaains”), as opposed to Romero’s purely flesh eating zombies. These zombies could also move fast and were a bit more intelligent. Nor was it as serious and somber as Romero’s take on zombies and displayed some morbid humor. That being said, this film is not for children, as it is very violent and has some nude scenes in it (Linnea Quigley dancing naked in a graveyard is to this day permanently etched into the retinas of many).
That does not mean that the movie should not be viewed as a subpar movie. It has a very decent plot and the dialogue is written and performed quite well. This film screams 80s in look and feel, with teenage punk rockers running around an old warehouse and a cemetery (making it the first punk horror movie). It also boasts a very impressive soundtrack by hard rock luminaries The Cramps, The Damned, Tall Boys and SSQ. The film has aged very well, even when considering that it boasts no CGI. Yes, everything was done by hand and it is still scary. The analogue puppetry in this movie is probably the best you will ever see, bar the ones in Guillermo Del Toro’s films.
The film has gained a cult following over the last 30 odd years and has spawned no less than four sequels, a documentary, and a smattering of fantastic comics written by Russo for Avatar Press. The sequels, however, do not have the same staying power as the original, nor are they as fun.
This is a must watch for fans of the zombie and horror genre, and is according to this author one of the best zombie films ever made. Perfect viewing for Halloween.
Watch the trailer here: [...]