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:

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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.

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 :)

 

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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.

WEEKLY OUTPUT – MIKE LACEY

A look at the comics cover-dated 30th March, 1974 tells us IPC kept Mike Lacey very busy at the time. He drew at least 10 pages in COR!!, Shiver & Shake, Whizzer and Chips and Whoopee! Scared-Stiff Sam in Whoopee! is hands-down my favourite :) I believe Mike later used the drawing of Sam wearing his protective clothing in the last panel of that week's page 1 for a pull-out poster that came with one of the later issues of Whoopee!

There are 4 more pages in Shiver & Shake, Whizzer and Chips and Whoopee! that I believe are also by Mike, although the style is somewhat different. If they are indeed by him, Mike Lacey’s stats for that week were a whopping 14 pages, but even if they aren’t, 10 pages is still a very impressive number!

The next and final post in this series will cover the work of that week’s champion Robert Nixon!

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.

WEEKLY OUTPUT – REG PARLETT

Reg Parlett’s page count in IPC comics cover-dated 30^th March 1974 was 7 pages. The artist had such a natural and flowing style, that it seems almost effortless but still very appealing to the eye. The quality of the art shows no signs that he struggled drawing his pages or had to rush them in order to meet his deadlines. 

Two two-pagers in Whoopee! and Whizzer and Chips were centered around the much-overused but apparently very popular theme of poor kids vs the rich:

…while one page in Whoopee! represented the new favourite line of horror comedy:

And of course there were two pages of Billy Bunter in Valiant:

Had Buster not missed that week, the artist’s stats would have been not 7 but 10 pages. This is how Reg Parlett’s regular features in Buster looked like in the issue of the week before.  Happy Family was a reprint, so under normal circumstances Reg Parlett’s weekly output amounted to the impressive quantity of 9 pages at that time! 

Mike Lacey is next in line...

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.