36 issues
(Nos. 44 - 79) of the comic were published in 1974.
Important issues in 1974:
5th January,
1974 (No. 44) – New Year issue
9th March,
1974 (No. 53) – 1st
birthday celebration issue, first Frankie Stein cover, part one of pull-out
booklet
16th March
(No. 54) – part two of pull-out booklet
23rd March
(No. 55) – part three of pull-out booklet
30th March
(No. 56) – part four of pull-out booklet
20th April
(No. 59) – Easter fun issue
5th October
(No. 79) – last issue
|
IMHO, front cover of 1974 New Year issue
deserves a place in the gallery of the worst
covers in the history of UK comics |
Buyers of
the 1974 New Year edition of Shiver and
Shake should have immediately noted the difference because the number of
pages was cut by four (from 36 to 32), formally at the expense of Shiver section. I say formally, because
regular features from the comic’s spooky Shiver
section (such as Webster, The Hand, Grimly Feendish and Sweeny Toddler) started migrating back and forth between the two
sections of the comic. At the same time, Frankie
Stein, the paper’s most popular feature from Shiver section, was given three full pages (in fact, the
first Frankie Stein three-pager was
in the Christmas edition the week before). The changes called for some serious space
re-arrangement. Damsel in Distress
and Wizards Anonymous were
discontinued from the second issue of the year; Cackles and Creations Runners
Up features ended up sharing one page:
The next major
change took effect starting from 1st Birthday
Celebration Issue (No. 53 dated 9th March, 1974) when Frankie Stein was promoted to the front
page, permanently ousting the lovable spook and tusker pair. There was no room
for The Match of the Week left in the
revamped paper – one of the comic’s highlights made its last appearance in
issue 52 (2nd March, 1974) the week before. The first four editions of
Frankie’s front cover stardom were celebrated with a pull-out booklet entitled Frankie Stein’s Mini Monster Comic Book.
In those first front-cover editions Frankie
Stein came close to taking the comic over: he had the front cover and as
many as three inside pages in issues 53 – 55 (that’s in addition to the front
and back pages of the mini book in issue 53) whereas in issue 56 he had the
front cover, two inside pages and all eight pages of the minibook devoted to
him. Not to mention regular appearances in the Shiver Givers feature. Later on things settled down and Frankie’s
weekly adventures were restricted to the front cover and two inside pages. Bob
Nixon did an excellent job illustrating the feature. Here are some nice covers
from the period:
Pages of
the pull-out booklet tend to be missing in Shiver
and Shake issues 53 – 56 (March 9th - March 30th, 1974) but are well-worth seeking out because in
addition to Frankie Stein they contain some nice mini-pin-ups of popular characters
from the paper (Grimly Feendish, The Innkeeper, freaks of Horrornation Street and
The Ed from Shiver Givers)...
... and as many as 4 pages of Ken Reid’s art – two Mini
Monsters and two pages of Your Horrorscope:
The usual SHAKE section with the full-colour Shake strip on the cover disappeared in
issue 53 to make room for the Frankie
Stein pull out booklet but when it resumed in issue 57 it wasn’t as it used
to be. The Editors probably decided to stop taking the two-comics-in-one
gimmick seriously because the invitation to remove SHAKE section from the comic was gone, as was the date and IPC copyright notice on the cover
of the section and Shake’s head
with the speech balloon containing the weekly Elephant Joke. Here are both versions of SHAKE section front covers side by side:
They must
have forgotten to allocate a new slot for Elephant
Jokes because although Shake
still trumpeted they were his favourites and encouraged readers to send them
in, the jokes didn’t resume until issue No. 63 (May 18th, 1974) when the layout of Shake a Leg page
was reshuffled to accommodate all 3 reader participation features (Mirth-Shaking Inventions and answers, Jokes and Trunk Call (letters section); here’s an example:
In July of
1974 Shiver and Shake fell victim to strike action by IPC’s printers and no issues of the paper came out in the four weeks of the month. No explanation of the reasons that led to the
interruption was offered when publication resumed in August. I find this rather
strange, especially bearing in mind that earlier the editors saw it necessary
to explain the absence of instalments of a weekly feature (Eagle Eye) by publishing these messages:
|
Back page of the last issue of
Shiver and Shake.
Note No. 79 - the number represents
the actual number of weekly issues |
The gap in
July is confirmed by two clues: one is the numbering of Creepy Creations on the back page (The Monster Map of England and Wales in the issue dated June 29th,
1974 is No. 69, whereas No. 70, The
Rumbling Raspberry from Rustington, appears in the issue with the cover
date of August 3rd, 1974, this suggests there were no Creepy Creations on the four dates in between), and two is the successive
episodes of Menace of the Alpha Man (in
the issue dated June 29th, 1974 the caption under the episode urges not to miss
the exciting final instalment of the story next week, and that final episode can
be found in the issue of August 3rd, 1974). Hence, although the paper continued
for 83 weeks, only 79 weekly issues were published.
As a
possible compensation, the first issue after the interruption announced that
two super new stories of the horror comedy variety were to start next week,
they were Creepy Car and The Ghoul Getters. Alongside with the
paper’s long-running top features Frankie
Stein, Scream Inn, Webster and Lolly
Pop and one recent addition (Blunder
Puss), the two new stories eventually joined the lineup of Whoopee! when the two comics merged.
|
Front cover of the last issue |
Funtastic
news was broken in the issue with the cover date of 5th October, 1974 and the
first combined edition with the clumsy name of WHOOPEE! and Shiver & Shake appeared a week later. Surprisingly
(for me), neither Grimly Feendish nor
Sweeny Toddler made it to the “new”
magazine. Both entered the Pick-A-Strip
competition (alongside with Shiver and
Shake’s Desert Fox, 4 strips
from Whoopee’s original roster
and one new strip) that ran in the first combined issues of WHOOPEE! and Shiver & Shake. Readers voted for Sweeny Toddler. That's how the strip became a regular in WHOOPEE! and eventually turned out to be the longest survivor of Shiver and Shake’s original characters.
|
Centre pages of the last number of Shiver and Shake announcing 'Funtastic News" |
|
Front page of the last pre-merger issue of Whoopee! |
|
Centre pages of the last pre-merger issue of Whoopee!
with the 'Funtastic News' announcement. Note this is an inverted image of the
drawing from the centre pages of the last Shiver and Shake |
|
Front cover of the first combined issue of
Whoopee! and Shiver & Shake |
WHOOPEE!
AND SHIVER & SHAKE continued under the title for a little over a year until
18th October, 1975 before the Shiver & Shake part was dropped all together. Shiver and Shake Holiday Specials
appeared until 1980 and the last Shiver
and Shake annual was published in 1985 (cover dated 1986).
Superb stuff. Great to see all those images again. Thinking back to the time (and even AT the time itself), it seems that S&S was around for a far longer period than a mere 79 issues over 83 weeks. It's a bit of a shock to realise just how brief it was. As I've said many times on my own blog however, when you're younger, your sense of time is somehow different and months can often seem like years. Nowadays, years seem to pass in months. Hey ho!
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