GUEST APPEARANCES AT SCREAM INN - SERIES INTRO

I like it when characters make guest appearances in other features. I may be mistaken, but Scream Inn may very well be the champion in this category, at least as far as IPC comics are concerned. The general setting of the strip with Innkeeper welcoming a fresh guest every week offered a perfect frame for including virtually anybody and anything into the story.

A quick look through my notes tells me there were at least 13 episodes with such guest appearances, so I thought it might be fun to do a series of blogposts and show them all! I will start it in a few days, but until then here’s a nice exchange of visits between two Whoopee! star characters – Scared-Stiff Sam and Frankie Stein from the issue of Whoopee! & Shiver and Shake cover-dated 5th April, 1975:

CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS AT SCREAM INN - PART FOUR

Scream Inn ended in WHOOPEE! issue cover-dated 1st October 1977 when the Innkeeper won the million. A week later he decided to use the prize money to set up Spooktacular 7, inspired by The Magnificent Seven film. The feature continued until 22nd July, 1978, and here is the only X-mas episode of Spooktacular 7 that also turned out to be the last one for Innkeeper & Co.

All Images 2015 © Egmont UK Ltd.  All rights reserved. Used with permission.

CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS AT SCREAM INN - PART THREE

1976 was a good year for Scream Inn – WHOOPEE! didn’t miss a single week and the two-page feature was in every issue of the comic. The readers kept the Innkeeper and his team busy by suggesting all sorts of candidates who they thought might try their luck at spending a night in the Haunted Bedroom and winning the coveted prize of one million pounds. Some of the notable guests included Innkeeper’s twin, Dr. Livingstone, Old King Neptune, WWI Air Ace Der Red Baron, Al Capone, Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland and Doctor Doolittle, to mention but a few.

Here’s how the resident ghouls of Scream Inn celebrated the X-mas of 1976:

There was also a 4-pager in the Shiver and Shake 1977 Annual published for the X-mas of 1976. The last panel of the set is perhaps the most nicely drawn slap-up feed scene in UK comics ever.

The fourth and last part of this Christmas series will be up soon.

All Images 2015 © Egmont UK Ltd.  All rights reserved. Used with permission.