SERIALISED FACEACHE STORIES – PART EIGHT: EXPERIMENT

It has been a while since I last did a post about serialised FACEACHE stories by Ken Reid, so here’s my synopsis of the next one. It continued over three weeks and can be found in BUSTER AND MONSTER FUN issues cover-dated March 17, 24 and 31, 1979. Be warned - there’s quite a lot of scrunging going on in this one! :)

Simpkins Minor is trying to create a new form of life by mixing substances in the school lab. He squirts Faceache with some of his chemicals and Faceache pretends he has started to mutate into a new form of life:

Simpkins runs away from the nauseating beast. At the same time, the experiment appears to have produced a result, and a weird creature begins to emerge from the glass beaker… 

Terrified, Faceache rushes to inform the Headmaster that Simpkins’ chemical mixture has turned into something diabolical. He forgets to unscrunge and the Headmaster bashes him unconscious...

The Headmaster suddenly has an idea that he’d become famous if he can prove to the scientific world that a monstrosity like that could be produced by chemical reaction. The Headmaster goes to the lab to make a note of the formula and is attacked by the real monster…

Faceache regains his consciousness and rushes to the lab where he sees Mr. Thrashbottom being slowly swallowed by the monster. 

Faceache volunteers to save the Headmaster but asks for his permission to scrunge. Panic-stricken, Mr. Thrashbottom grants Faceache carte blanche to scrunge all he wants for as long as he wants any time...

The monster evaporates at the sight of Faceache’s next awful scrunge:

Faceache proceeds to have fun doing wild scrunges, while Mr. Thrashbottom wishes he’d been swallowed instead of granting his permission.

One can’t help noticing that the story echoes with the brilliant two-pager of Faceache by Ken Reid in BUSTER BOOK 1976. Here’s a taste:

Characters are © Rebellion Publishing 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.

POWER PACK OF KEN REID reviewed in Australian magazine!

The image above shows the cover of the recent issue of INKSPOT magazine published by the Australian Cartoonists’ Association. It has a review of the POWER PACK OF KEN REID (see below, click to enlarge), written by Nat Karmichael who is Deputy President of the Association and Editor of INKSPOT. Nat was also an early supporter of my crowdfunding campaign last summer, so thank you, Nat!

If any of my readers in Australia or New Zealand are considering buying copies of the books but are put-off by high postage cost, I thought I might let you know I will be visiting the two countries in March, and I could take a couple of sets with me to post from there. I travel light but I won’t be able to bring a lot of copies over, so do not delay to contact me as this is a first come first served offer :)

Nat Karmichael

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.

KEN REID’S CREEPY CREATIONS REPRINT COLLECTION – MORE EXTRAS

I am sure most of you already have your copies of Rebellion’s Creepy Creations reprint collection. I received mine a while ago and I think it is a nice package. It’s great that the collection includes not just the pages from Shiver and Shake weeklies, but also all of the other ‘Creations’ printed in the annuals,  pull-out booklets and even those that Ken Reid drew for a competition in Buster a couple of years down the line. 

I really look forward to Vol 1 of the World-Wide Weirdies because in my opinion Creepy Creations was Ken’s warm-up exercise before really going to town with his next series in Whoopee! 

If you read my intro to the book, you may recall I mentioned Ken’s attempts to get a similar series published in the US. Ken drew quite a few detailed samples for the publisher. It would have been great if some of those could have been included in the book. Check out a couple of the drawings below, in colour. The image of the Monster of Molasses was supplied to me by Julius Howe who owns the original. 

If you think these are scary, wait till you see my next post in a few days’ time… 

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.

SERIALISED FACEACHE STORIES – PART SEVEN: HOT AIR

Faceache story arch No. 7 by Ken Reid was called Hot Air and appeared in Buster and Monster Fun issues cover dated 27 January and 3 February 1979. It went like this:

Mr. Snipe asks Faceache to nip to the store room and bring him some ink, a ruler and some blotting paper for his next class. On his way back, Faceache finds the door to the room holding the school’s hot-air central heating system. 

He crawls down the vents planning to flip ink pellets and splat the teacher. Mr. Snipe tells his class how anyone of a rotten evil disposition will be singled-out and mercilessly smitten from above (it was a Bible class). Faceache’s ink lands on the teacher’s face. 

Hiding in the vents, Faceache hopes he’ll never be suspected. Meanwhile, hot-air heating system cleaners call to offer their services to the Headmaster…

Cleaners seal the vents and start cleaning the system. Faceache is forced to scrunge to streamline himself against the blast but looses control of his scrunge muscles. 

He crashes out of the system right into Mr. Snipe’s classroom. The teacher realises it was Faceache who fired the ink pallet and gives the scrunged Faceache a thrashing with Faceache’s upper body sticking from the vent in one room and his rear end from another five classrooms away…

Characters are © Rebellion Publishing 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.