Berke Breathed's sequel to Bloom County. Ran only on Sundays. It started by surrounding Opus with new characters in surreal, minimalist landscapes, but readers rejected that, and Outland ended up looking an awful lot like Bloom County.

It was a well drawn strip, but very short-lived.

Outland the movie is a fairly recognizable remake of the classic Anti-Western High Noon. It has all the same elements - lone lawman, knowing men aiming to kill him will arrive in town while he cannot leave. He tries and fails to get any of the citizens to stand with him and must stand alone. At the same time, he risks becoming estranged from his wife, who cannot understand why he must take the stands he does.

Outland is a Gary Numan album from 1991. It was recorded for Miles Copeland's IRS records, and is not a fan favourite. Due to record company pressure Numan was forced to emulate the production of Janet Jackson's then-massive Rhythm Nation 1814, with curious results; Numan has been many things, but funky is not one of them. In common with all his post-1985 albums, it did not chart in either the UK or the US.

The album features copious samples from contemporary films, such as Predator, Blade Runner and Red Heat. The title song went over exactly the same thematic ground as Numan's most famous song, Cars. Apart from that, the usual Numan staples - isolation, paranoia, revenge and so forth - were present, although backed by funk.

Listened to in retrospect, it's not nearly as bad as Numan fans believe; the contrast between the overstated production and Numan's deadpan, reedy voice works well, rather like the work of The Pet Shop Boys but less European and more American. Had it been effectively marketed (IRS records went bust shortly afterwards) it could have been a moderate hit. The sole single, a ballad called Heart, went nowhere.

Outland is a goth club in Columbus, Ohio. Even for a goth club it is kind of a shithole, but hey, at least it's there. The best part of Outland is the bizarre people you'll see there. For example there was once a guy there wearing nothing but what we'll call, for lack of a better term, a penis holster. There is no heat, all of the drinks are watered down, and there is so much standing water in the shitter that you would be advised to wear a life preserver. But if there's something to be said for ambience, Outland wins the prize. Basically a cool place to say you've been to, but not somewhere where you'd like to stay too long for fear of contracting any number of horrible diseases.

Out"land (?), a. [Out + land. See Outlandish.]

Foreign; outlandish.

[Obs.]

Strutt.

 

© Webster 1913.