welcome and enjoy!

Hi and welcome to my blog about comics from other people’s childhood! It is dedicated primarily to British humour comics of the 60s and 70s. The reason they are not from my childhood is simply because I didn’t live in the UK back then (nor do I live there now). I knew next to nothing about them until fairly recently but since then I’ve developed a strong liking for the medium and amassed a large collection, including a number of complete or near complete sets. My intention is to use this blog as a channel for sharing my humble knowledge about different titles, favourite characters and creators as I slowly research my collection.

QUICK TIP: this blog is a sequence of posts covering one particular comic at a time. The sequence follows a certain logic, so for maximum results it is recommended that the blog is read from the oldest post up.

Copyright of all images and quotations used here is with their respective owners. Any such copyrighted material is used exclusively for educational purposes and will be removed at first notice. All other text copyright Irmantas P.



Thursday, October 31, 2013

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!



I’ll take a brake from SHIVER AND SHAKE, switch to some gloomy backgrounds and join countless other bloggers in celebrating Halloween with some horror-themed stuff. 

Those of you who are familiar with WHOOPEE! comic must have vivid memories of the monstrous World-Wide Weirdies drawn by Ken Reid from readers’ ideas. Many were funny and witty, quite a few were weird and spooky but some were outright scary, depressing and other-worldly. I bet they caused nightmares to many an innocent mind back in the day. Can you believe these images come from a children’s humour paper?  

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!


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9 comments:

  1. Peter GrayOctober 31, 2013 at 10:36 PM

    I don't think I could of had those on my bedroom wall....scary stuff..

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  2. Dr Andy OliverMarch 27, 2014 at 4:36 PM

    Thjese are absolutely fantastic. A big fan of Reids artwork. I already have all of thje creepy creations from my full set of Shiver and shake. I'm slowly buying up copies of Whoopee to get hold of this series plus Wham as I love Frankie Stein. Problem is that it seems that Ken's work on Frankie and in the Whoopee got sporadic towards the end. Do you know if there is many guide to Ken's work?

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    1. IrmantasMarch 27, 2014 at 5:03 PM

      There is no official guide of Ken's work, as far as I know. I have compiled my own private index, covering Power comics and all his IPC work. Also his strips in the Beano in the period 1958 - 1964 and the Dandy in 1960 - 1964. As regards his work becoming sporadic towards the end, you are right about WHAM! but not about WHOOPEE! - World-Wide Weirdies continued without a break until the issue cover-dated October 21, 1978.

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    2. Dr Andy OliverMarch 27, 2014 at 8:27 PM

      Wow. Thanks for this. I need to check some of the whoopees I have for 1977 as I was sure not all had a Weirdies (perhaps they had been removed by the original owner). Thanks for this though at least I know what issues of whoopee I can now concentrate on. Any info about Kens Frankie work inn Wham would be gratefully appreciated. Thanks again.

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    3. IrmantasMarch 28, 2014 at 11:20 AM

      To be absolutely accurate, World-Wide Weirdies weren't present in the following issues of Whoopee:
      29th March, 1975
      3rd January and 10th January 1976 (these two had a two-part Creepy Calendar pull-out by Bob Nixon)
      1st January and 8th January 1977 (these two had a two-part 1977 pull-out calendar by Ken Reid).
      If you want details of Frankie Stein in Wham!, pls, contact me via e-mail - you can find it in my profile on this blog.

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  3. TerryOctober 16, 2014 at 6:18 PM

    oh gosh, can't believe I've found it - The Picture CARIS'SPOOK CASTLE was drawn by me, think the date was 1978 - the winner's name was always printed on the top of the picture - "This weeks winner is TERRY PARMANAND ( ME ) FROM WEMBLEY IN MIDDLESEX - I WON 2 POUNDS FOR THIS PIC lol. I am now 50 :)

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  4. IrmantasOctober 16, 2014 at 6:45 PM

    I can only wonder how it feels to find something like this from so long ago! How do you remember your drawing - did the artist change it a lot, or was it pretty much like you drew it? Did you buy the original comic at the time it was published? I guess it must have been quite exciting :) !

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  5. KidOctober 9, 2015 at 6:39 PM

    I wish he'd replied - I want to read his answer.

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  6. AnonymousJuly 1, 2017 at 9:05 PM

    Hello again, it Terry - so sorry for the late reply. The pic I drew was 95% accurate to the one printed and I do still have the original press of Whoopee which I bought back then in 1978 when I was 14. I'm now 52 and the comic is still in pristine condition of which I am very very proud of as you could imagine :)

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