A conversation elsewhere reminded me of Heartbreak Hotel, a short-lived “Comics Lifestyle Magazine” which attracted talents such as Trina Robbins, Steven Appleby, Dave Gibbons & Alan Moore to name a few. There wasn’t any mention of the mag on Wikipedia until about 15 minutes ago when I added it as a future rod for my back but more about that another day though. In skimming one of the issues I spotted a house ad for Titan Books, the usual fare and well, something I don’t remember.
I though I had struck gold with the Halo Jones ad, there’s a version in my head that I swear describes the whole thing as a 9 book saga with a Pirate Queen Halo that I’ve never found again, but I haven’t found it today. I had both of those Love & Rockets volumes as my first introduction to Hopey & Maggie and I was of the age where Hopey was a real crush. And my first Watchmen copy would have been the Titan edition due to it being slightly easier to come by (and these were probably featured in LM), but in the middle, there’s the real monster. And it’s not wearing the memories of Alec Holland.
Can’t say I remember it, seems to have been the first in a projected series of Choose Your Own Adventure-ish books called Psycho-Paths but I can’t find trace of any others in this series although there was a similar Ronald Reagan RPG in the 2000AD spinoff Diceman a few years earlier with the same team and much the same name. However, created by Pat Mills & Hunt Emerson is recommendation enough so let’s have a look inside.
Two delightful Emerson illustrations to begin with, but a Prime Minister has a gang of rogues behind him/her so who are the players in Maggie’s Farm?
Most of these had their own arcs under Thatcher, the only one I don’t really remember is Peter Walker who seems to have been a reasonable person and was the world’s first Environment Minister. A far cry from the shower of absolute bastards that make up the UK Cabinet of 2021, although Tebbit maybe would fit in with them. A little bit of politics there, but let’s move on before I get too Ben Elton.
(A small cameo from Calculus Cat in the second frame.)
The Swingometer was a common sight in UK Polling Nights as the country decides which psychopaths it wants to be in charge.
Not going to post the whole thing here, if you’re really interested look at the end of this posting. For now, here are a couple of highlights(?) from the later pages…
God’s Cop. 
