WEEKLY OUTPUT - ROBERT NIXON, THE CHAMPION!

In the Spring of 1974 Rober Nixon was normally drawing 7 pages for COR!!, Shiver & Shake and Whoopee!, but the week when the comics with the cover date of March 30 1974 came out was special, firstly because he stepped in for Ken Reid contributing the Creepy Creation, and secondly because the issue of Shiver and Shake included an 8-page pull-out booklet of Frankie Stein, bringing Robert Nixon’s page count to 16 pages and making him that week’s champion. 

I won’t speculate if he drew all the pages in the space of a week – I don’t even know if a mere mortal would be capable of producing this quantity of quality art in such a short time, but all the pages were printed in the comics of the same week, and that’s a fact :)

 

Images are © Rebellion Publishing IP Ltd

Click on the POWER PACK banner in the right-hand column and get your copy of the POWER PACK OF KEN REID - the deluxe two-volume set of Ken’s strips in WHAM!, SMASH! and POW! comics of the ‘60s.

TWO VERSIONS OF A FRANKIE STEIN STORY

Leafing through my SHIVER AND SHAKE comics the other day, I found an episode of Frankie Stein by Robert Nixon, re-drawn from the original episode by Ken Reid in WHAM! No. 145 and based on Walter Thorburn’s original script. 

It is interesting to note how toned-down the new version is in comparison with the manic and violent original – both in terms of script and artwork. Excellent as Robert Nixon was, his take is hardly on par with Ken’s in my view. Ken surely was one of a kind!

Here’s the original page from WHAM! No. 145 (25th March, 1967), followed by both pages from Shiver and Shake No. 5 (April 7th, 1973). Which one do you prefer? :)

Robert Nixon also re-drew another Frankie Stein episode by Ken Reid/Walter Thorburn in SHIVER AND SHAKE issue No. 6. Check out my earlier post HERE (scroll down to the bottom of the article).

Click on the POWER PACK banner in the right-hand column and get your copy of the POWER PACK OF KEN REID - the deluxe two-volume set of Ken’s strips in WHAM!, SMASH! and POW! comics of the ‘60s.

Characters are © Rebellion Publishing Ltd

THE CHRISTMASES OF SWEENY TODDLER – PART TWO

Terwhang! – here comes part two of Sweeny Toddler’s Christmases from the X-mas issues of Whoopee! published in 1978 and 1979. Both covers are by Robert Nixon, and they are the only two examples of Mr. Nixon drawing Sweeny. I wouldn’t be so confident crediting Robert Nixon with the second cover but initials “R N” beneath the sock confirm it was him.  Inside pages are by Tom Paterson (as if you needed me pointing this out to you :) )… Enjoy! 

GUEST APPEARANCES AT SCREAM INN – GHOUL GETTERS LTD. AND FUN FEAR

The next episode of Scream Inn with a guest appearance of fellow WHOOPEE! characters can be found in the issue cover-dated 8th February, 1975 (No. 46). This time the guests were Dad and his lad Arnold, collectively known as Ghoul Getters Ltd. The strip, drawn by Trevor Metcalfe, had originated in SHIVER AND SHAKE. I covered it the SHIVER AND SHAKE series a couple of years ago, the article can be found HERE.

The not-so-easily-intimidated duo gave the spooks a hard time and it took another guest appearance to save Innkeeper from losing his one million quid. Brian Walker didn’t waste time redrawing the creepy merry-go-round from the masthead of Fun Fear – he simply glued a photographic reproduction to his artwork – just as he did every week with the Scream Inn sign in the first panel (I know this because I have an original page which I once showed HERE). 

Here is the episode, followed by Ghoul Getters Ltd and Fun Fear from the same issue of Whoopee! and Shiver & Shake