GUEST APPEARANCES AT SCREAM INN – FRANKIE STEIN

When SHIVER AND SHAKE merged into WHOOPEE! in October 1974, Scream Inn and Frankie Stein were among the strips that confidently made it to the combined paper. A few weeks after the merger Frankie Stein stopped by at the spooky inn and tried to win the million quid. Brian Walker was a very good imitator and his Frankie looked very much like that by Robert Nixon. It’s a shame the printing presses used by IPC at the time often failed to present beautiful artwork decently. The episode is from WHOOPEE! AND SHIVER & SHAKE cover-dated 23 November, 1974 (No. 38). Followed by both pages of the Frankie Stein strip from that same issue, by Robert Nixon, of course.

GUEST APPEARANCES AT SCREAM INN – I SPY LOOK-ALIKE

Shiver and Shake merged into Whoopee! in October 1974 and Scream Inn was one of the strips that found its way into the new paper with the clumsy title of Whoopee! and Shiver & Shake. 

The first guest appearance in Scream Inn can be found soon after the merger, in the issue cover-dated 26 October 1974 (No. 34), and it was quite an unusual one indeed. That week’s guest looked a lot like I Spy from SPARKY comic published by DCT. I believe this is one of very few examples in British comics when a character appeared in a rival publication produced by the competitor. Brian Walker illustrated I Spy starting from SPARKY issue No. 300 (17 October 1970), so the inclusion of a look-alike into the episode of Scream Inn in Whoopee! and Shiver & Shake (published by IPC) must have been a cheeky experiment on his part. Here is the episode, followed by the three-page set of I Spy from SPARKY, the first one by Brian Walker.

While we are on the subject of SPARKY’s I Spy and cheeky sneak-ins by Brian Walker, who is that bespectacled bloke in the top right corner of this panel of Scream Inn from Shiver and Shake issue 51 (February 23rd, 1974)?

GUEST APPEARANCES AT SCREAM INN - CREEPY CREATION

The third and the last guest appearance during the Shiver and Shake run of Scream Inn can be found in issue No. 73 (August 24, 1974), and on that occasion the visitor was a Creepy Creation. I covered the Creepy Creations feature in detail when I reviewed SHIVER AND SHAKE comic a couple of years ago. You can find the article HERE.

Here is that week’s Creepy Creation from the back page of SHIVER AND SHAKE, drawn by the usual artist Ken Reid (as if you didn’t know…):

All three guest appearances at Scream Inn in SHIVER AND SHAKE have now been accounted for. My detailed review of Scream Inn in SHIVER AND SHAKE comic can be found in another article under SHIVER AND SHAKE umbrella HERE.

I will start looking at the WHOOPEE! run in a week or so, and the first guest will be a very unusual one indeed! 

GUEST APPEARANCES AT SCREAM INN - TIMOTHY TESTER

Time for the second guest appearance at Scream Inn that can be found in SHIVER AND SHAKE No. 52 cover-dated March 2nd, 1974.

This is quite an unusual example: firstly, it was in fact Scream Inn that appeared in another strip; secondly, the strip itself was a guest from Shiver and Shake’s sister comic: Timothy Tester ran for quite a while (1972 – 1979) in WHIZZER AND CHIPS. The illustrator and presumably the writer of Timothy Tester was Cliff Brown who lived not far from Scream Inn artist Brian Walker. In his interview for GOLDEN FUN fanzine (Winter 1979) Brian Walker said that Cliff would come over to Brian’s studio for a day each week and they’d go over the script of Scream Inn together. It looks like that week they spent more time together because the two pages below are clearly the result of a joint effort!

GUEST APPEARANCES AT SCREAM INN - WIZARDS ANONYMOUS

The very first time when characters from another strip showed up at Scream Inn was in Shiver and Shake issue No. 37 (17th November, 1973). That week the guests were Treacle and Brimstone from the excellent albeit short-lived Wizards Anonymous feature from the “Shake” section of the paper. I covered the strip in detail HERE, and even showed both pages of the episode, but I want this to be a complete series so I will show them again. 

The first guest appearance was quite disastrous for Innkeeper and Co. because the potty sorcerers outsmarted the hosts and walked home with one million pounds. This, however, wasn’t the end for Innkeeper who made his own guest appearance in the pages of Wizards Anonymous in the very same issue, outfoxed Treacle and Brimstone and got his dough back. Here’s the complete story from Shiver and Shake issue No. 37 (17th November, 1973), drawn by Brian Walker, written (I suppose) by the usual writer, Brian Walker’s neighbour and mate Cliff Brown. Excellent stuff!