A LOOK AT SHIVER & SHAKE STRIPS: COMICS COLLEGE

Comics College was a boys’ school where pupils came to be trained as ‘comics for the telly, films and the theatre’, although in fact it looked more like a school for circus clowns. In the first episode we find out that in this strange college students are expected to play pranks and tricks on the Teacher, and failure to do so (e.g. failure to put drawing pins on Teacher’s chair) incurs a punishment, such as writing a thousand times ‘I must remember to put drawing pins on Teacher’s chair’. The Teacher would immediately cancel the punishment upon finding out that he has a ‘Kick Me’ sticker on his behind, courtesy of the students.

Professor Gigglepot’s (whose name was only revealed in the final episode) job was to teach ‘his comical kiddiwinkies’ all sorts of clown stuff. As a result of his teaching efforts, Sir often found himself on the receiving end of different humorous situations.

Comics College had a short run in SHIVER AND SHAKE issues No. 2 – 24 (except in Nos. 8 and 22). It was part of Shake section and was illustrated by Cliff Brown whose Timothy Tester from Whizzer and Chips looked a lot like one of the students. The strip was given a proper ending in the last episode in which Professor Gigglepot handed-out prizes to his best students and left for a new job in the Government:

A LOOK AT SHIVER & SHAKE STRIPS: SCREAM INN (PART THREE)

Here comes the second half of Scream Inn visitors’ book. For some weird reason the post with the first half is not showing in Google search. Here is the link for those of you who have missed it: Scream Inn visitors’ book Part One. Or you can simply scroll down to the older post.

Issue No. 41 ● December 15th, 1973 ● Gluemaker from Caerphilly

Issue No. 42 ● December 22nd, 1973 ● Secretary

Issue No. 43 ● December 29th, 1973 ● Good King Wenceslas (X-mas episode)

Issue No. 44 ● January 5th, 1974 ● Old Year who's supposed to be going out & Baby New Year

Issue No. 45 ● January 12th, 1974 ● Pantomime actress

Issue No. 46 ● January 19th, 1974 ● Bank manager

Issue No. 47 ● January 26th, 1974 ● Smelly tramp

Issue No. 48 ● February 2nd, 1974 ● Corporation Dustmen

Issue No. 49 ● February 9th, 1974 ● Injun Brave Lowawatha - Head Small Brother of Hiawatha

Issue No. 50 ● February 16th, 1974 ● Coward

Issue No. 51 ● February 23rd, 1974 ● Innkeeper tries to find a normal person to spend a night at Scream Inn. Fans of Brian Walker’s I Spy from SPARKY comic will recognise Chief reading the paper on the bus in the last panel of page one. This was a very unusuall episode, a kind of social satire:

Issue No. 52 ● March 2nd, 1974 ● Werewolf + This week's extra guest: Timothy Tester from Whizzer and Chips makes a guest appearance at Scream Inn (2 pages). This was quite a special issue because it had as many as four pages of Scream Inn – the regular 2-pager in the Shiver section and a 2-page set of Timothy Tester (guest-strip from Whizzer and Chips) in Shake. The latter set is of particular interest because the regular artist of Timothy Tester was Cliff Brown who was also the writer of Scream Inn. Thus, the set is a combined effort with Cliff Brown not only writing the script but also doing some of the artwork together with Brian Walker. Here is the first page of the set:

Issue No. 53 ● March 9th, 1974 ● Old-fashioned executioner

Issue No. 54 ● March 16th, 1974 ● Genie of the lamp

Issue No. 55 ● March 23rd, 1974 ● Laughing cavalier painting

Issue No. 56 ● March 30th, 1974 ● American fo0tballer

Issue No. 57 ● April 6th, 1974 ● School master

Issue No. 58 ● April 13rd, 1974 ● Fortune teller

Issue No. 59 ● April 20th, 1974 ● Baker

Issue No. 60 ● April 27th, 1974 ● A person of many disguises

Issue No. 61 ● May 4th, 1974 ● Gladiators - Stickum Innicus and Civitta Twisticus

Issue No. 62 ● May 11st, 1974 ● Skinny Scottish skeleton

Issue No. 63 ● May 18th, 1974 ● The Great Maro (conjurer)

Issue No. 64 ● May 25th, 1974 ● Innkeeper's uncle Obadiah

Issue No. 65 ● June 1st, 1974 ● Electric eel

Issue No. 66 ● June 8th, 1974 ● Wokingham witch

Issue No. 67 ● June 15th, 1974 ● Giant Numbskull of Norwich - the double-headed giant

Issue No. 68 ● June 22/1974 ● Long John Silver

Issue No. 69 ● June 29th, 1974 ● Bagpiper

Issue No. 70 ● August 3rd, 1974 ● Robin Hood

Issue No. 71 ● August 10th, 1974 ● Bertie Bedsheet (one of Scream Inn resident spooks)

Issue No. 72 ● August 17th, 1974 ● Scientist who makes crazy inventions

Issue No. 73 ● August 24th, 1974 ● Creepy Creation

Issue No. 74 ● August 31st, 1974 ● Eskimo hunter

Issue No. 75 ● September 7th, 1974 ● Madame Tussaud

Issue No. 76 ● September 14th, 1974 ● Queen

Issue No. 77 ● September 21st, 1974 ● Fisherman

Issue No. 78 ● September 28th, 1974 ● Keep fit expert

Issue No. 79 ● October 5th, 1974 ● A French onion seller