Wednesday, July 31, 2013

A LOOK AT SHIVER & SHAKE STRIPS: GHOUL GETTERS



If you’ve got a spook you want shifted, call for the Ghoul Getters, Ltd. - read the caption above one weekly episode of this nice strip by Trevor Metcalfe. The ghoul-getting service was a small family business run by Dad and his lad Arnold.  When called, they would arrive in their ghost-proof van, sometimes use their ‘spookometer’ to detect the ghost, put one of their letter-coded plans into action and send the ghost packing. Plan A was the one that never failed – it involved the use of the ghost sucker, or the super ‘spook-sucker-inner’ – a device that would suck the ghost in. The Ghoul Getters would then drive it away and drop it off someplace where the ghost wouldn’t be such a nuisance. In the first episode they rid a lady from a noisy one and dropped him off at an all-nite disco where visitors couldn’t care less about noise.

The Ghoul Getters started in SHIVER AND SHAKE issue No. 71 and was a strong addition to the lineup. The strip occupied 1 ½ pages in the spooky SHIVER section of the paper. All but one episodes were illustrated by Trevor Metcalfe who signed a number of his sets towards the end, and the episode in issue 75 was by Tomboy artist. Seven episodes were self-contained stories but the Phantom Piper tale (the last story in SHIVER AND SHAKE) was serialised over two weeks. You can read both parts in this post, here is the first:


SHIVER AND SHAKE was merged into WHOOPEE merely 9 weeks after The Ghoul Getters first appeared. It was considered to be good enough to deserve a slot in the new combined paper and continued there for nearly two years until the end of February 1976 (exactly like Blunder Puss).

One can’t help noticing similarities between The Ghoul Getters and the famous Ghostbusters film, although the strip predates the movie by a whole decade so it wasn’t a spoof but rather the other way round. Could it have been that the American writers of Ghostbusters were familiar with this little strip published in a British children’s comic?  


6 comments:

  1. I think you are right...
    Also Harry Potter has the same surname of Eddie Potter at Strange hill School..a special school..

    Rent a Ghost must of been inspired for the tv show rentaghost..

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    1. No, it must 'have' been (or 'must've' been), not 'of'. And you meant 'inspiration', not 'inspired'. (Yup, I'm a pedant - just can't help it.) No, don't thank me, happy to help.

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  2. When’d Ghoul Getters become Ghost Getters, or vice versa? They appeared under the latter title in Whizzer and Chips on 24/11/84, undoubtedly reprints as evidenced by comparing Trevor’s artwork style with his then-current Sweet Tooth output. As Dad and Arnold both had personal protective equipment such a safety helmet, I’d assume Ghost Getters came after, possibly due to a change of circumstances; it’d follow that this was from Whoopee given that GHOUL Getters definitely ended up there. Do you know for certain?

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    1. I consulted my notes and checked my collection, and I can confirm that Ghoul Getters Ltd. ended in Whoopee! with the cover date of 28th Feb., 1976. The title of the strip was still Ghoul Getters Ltd. when it ended, so that new name must have been introduced in the reprints that you mentioned. There is no sign of personal protective equipment in the last installment, so perhaps they weren't reprints? I don't have any Wh&Ch from that period to check.

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  3. Thanks for looking. Having looked again, I’m almost certain that Ghost Getters was Ghoul Getters with our heroes kitted out in 'ghostbusting' equipment – and given the release of a certain film in late 1984, that points a pretty clear arrow towards WHY the change was made! In the trendy '80s version, Dad wears a crash helmet and Arnold’s cap has an aerial. Both have got equipment for dealing with ghosts, a Batman-style utility belt in Dad's case and Arnold has two cylinders on his back, complete with a tube – for sucking or blowing I’m not sure. All the changes are VERY well done. An investigation is clearly warranted! The strip ran from 24/11/84 till 23/3/85 (I think) so you’ve over 15 stories to compare. Get on with it!

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    1. I think I have two issues of Wh&Ch that fall within the period, I will dig them out and see if I can confirm if they were reprints :)

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