A LOOK AT SHIVER & SHAKE STRIPS: MATCH OF THE WEEK

Moving slowly but surely, I have now arrived at the middle pages of the first issue of SHIVER AND SHAKE and the centrespread was allocated to Match of the Week. Every week two very strange teams would meet on the pitch and wreak havoc on each other, breaking rules and using all sorts of tricks to subdue the opponents. More often than not the outcome was the abandoning of the game.

Mike Lacey was the artist who contributed the absolute majority of weekly sets. Other illustrators of Match of the Week were Leo Baxendale, Les Barton and two (rather amateur) artists whose names I don’t know. Tom Paterson (who apparently was just starting doing work for IPC in his early rough style that he used before he began imitating Leo Baxendale) did three sets in issues 10, 37 and 42. Check out one example in the list below.

In his book A VERY FUNNY BUSINESS Leo Baxedale recalls he drew two sets of Match of the Week – the very first one that he said he had done back in 1972, and then Ghosts vs Humans, before refusing “point blank” to draw any more. He did, however, continue writing scripts for other artists to draw but surrendered writer’s duties two and a half months later.

New teams came and went every week so obviously the strip had no regular and recurring characters, except maybe the referee. Below is the list of the fixtures illustrated by the odd complete episode. Names of the illustrators other than Mike Lacey are marked next to the relevant episodes.

Issue No. 1 ● March 10th, 1973 ● Cowboys versus Injuns. Contrary to what Mr. Baxendale says in his book, the first episode was actually drawn by Mike Lacey, and the set that Mr. Baxendale remembers drawing in 1972 must have been the one that appeared in the second issue of SHIVER AND SHAKE.

Issue No. 2 ● March 17th, 1973 ● Cops versus Robbers, Leo Baxendale:

 

Issue No. 3 ● March 24th, 1973 ● Teachers versus School kids

Issue No. 4 ● March 31st, 1973 ● Sheriff's XI versus Robin’s Team

Issue No. 5 ● April 7th, 1973 ● Ghosts versus Humans, Leo Baxendale:

Issue No. 6 ● April 14th, 1973 ● Shiver versus Shake, with the artist’s self-portrait

Issue No. 7 ● April 21st, 1973 ● Eggs versus Chicks

Issue No. 8 ● April 28th, 1973 ● Convicts versus Wardens

Issue No. 9 ● May 5th, 1973 ● Navy versus Pirates

Issue No. 10 ● May 12th, 1973 ● Cavemen versus Dinosaurs, Tom Paterson

Issue No. 11 ● May 19th, 1973 ● Snow White versus The Bad Witch, unknown artist

Issue No. 12 ● May 26th, 1973 ● Spies versus British Agents:

Issue No. 13 ● June 2nd, 1973 ● Foreign Legion versus Sheikh’s XI, unknown artist

Issue No. 14 ● June 9th, 1973 ● Britons vs Romans

Issue No. 15 ● June 16th, 1973 ● German Army vs Resistance

Issue No. 16 ● June 23rd, 1973 ● Twits vs Brainies

Issue No. 17 ● June 30th, 1973 ● Roundheads vs Cavaliers

Issue No. 18 ● July 7th, 1973 ● British Navy vs German U-Boats

Issue No. 19 ● July 14th, 1973 ● Aristocrats vs Peasants

Issue No. 20 ● July 21st, 1973 ● Shiver and Shake Land Yacht Race

Issue No. 21 ● July 28th, 1973 ● Clowns XI vs Circus

Issue No. 22 ● August 4th, 1973 ● Highlanders vs Red Coats

Issue No. 23 ● August 11st, 1973 ● Doctors vs Patients

Issue No. 24 ● August 18th, 1973 ● Moonmen vs Spacemen

Issue No. 25 ● August 25th, 1973 ● Wizards and Witches

Issue No. 26 ● September 1st, 1973 ● Sweepers vs Litter Louts

Issue No. 27 ● September 8th, 1973 ● Pop Stars vs Orchestra XI

Issue No. 28 ● September 15th, 1973 ● Inventors vs Mad Scientists, Frankie Stein and Prof. Cube make a guest appearance:

Issue No. 29 ● September 22nd, 1973 ● Mounties vs Trappers, Les Barton

Issue No. 30 ● September 29th, 1973 ● City Gents vs Labourers

Issue No. 31 ● October 6th, 1973 ● Mountaineers vs Yetis

Issue No. 32 ● October 13rd, 1973 ● Knights vs Dragons

Issue No. 33 ● October 20th, 1973 ● British vs Foreign Dancers

Issue No. 34 ● October 27th, 1973 ● Explorers vs Jungle Plants:

Issue No. 35 ● November 3rd, 1973 ● Motorists vs Pedestrians

Issue No. 36 ● November 10th, 1973 ● Artists vs Photographers

Issue No. 37 ● November 17th, 1973 ● Mothers vs Fathers, Tom Paterson

Issue No. 38 ● November 24th, 1973 ● Authors vs Artists

Issue No. 39 ● December 1st, 1973 ● Toddlers vs Old Folk

Issue No. 40 ● December 8th, 1973 ● Colditz Guards vs P.O.W.

Issue No. 41 ● December 15th, 1973 ● Zoo Keepers vs Zoo Animals

Issue No. 42 ● December 22nd, 1973 ● Fatties vs Thinnies, Tom Paterson:

Issue No. 43 ● December 29th, 1973 ● Carol Singers vs Party Goers

Issue No. 44 ● January 5th, 1974 ● Father Tyme vs New Year Babies

Issue No. 45 ● January 12th, 1974 ● Farmers vs Animals

Issue No. 46 ● January 19th, 1974 ● Shop Staff vs Customers

Issue No. 47 ● January 26th, 1974 ● Bus Drivers vs Conductors

Issue No. 48 ● February 2nd, 1974 ● Airmen vs Seamen

Issue No. 49 ● February 9th, 1974 ● Radio vs TV Team:

Issue No. 50 ● February 16th, 1974 ● Eskimos vs Arctic XI

Issue No. 51 ● February 23rd, 1974 ● Inventions and Creations (starring Creepy Creations characters)

Issue No. 52 ● March 2nd, 1974 ● Ref's vs Spectators

Match of the Week (Divers versus Deep Sea Creatures) appeared in the Star Guest feature in COR!! No. 181 (17th November, 1973). Illustrator unknown.

It was not all about football. In issues 15 to 20 the writer experimented with other sports such as high jump, tennis, cricket, water polo, polo and even land yacht racing but then reverted back to football. Here are some random non-football panels: 

Match of the Week started in the first issue of SHIVER AND SHAKE. It lasted until issue 52 without missing a single week and was always on the centrespread. You can view a few more complete episodes by checking out three old posts in my Football series from last summer, the links are here, here and here.

I will finish with the last panel of the final episode. As it rightly says, the match between spectators and referees was probably the closest to a ‘normal’ game throughout the entire run of 52-weeks.

A LOOK AT SHIVER & SHAKE STRIPS: THE FIXER

The Fixer was an unsophisticated strip about a little boy who was always there to fix things for other people in exchange for a bag of sweets, or sometimes simply for the sport of it. Fixer’s cunning plots usually worked fine at first but then backfired leaving him in trouble and without sweets. The first episode and three later ones in issues 6, 7 and 9 were by Peter Davidson. Here’s a panel from issue 6, complete with the artist’s trademark pet in the foreground:

The vast majority of the episodes, however, were by another artist whose name I don’t know. Here are some examples:

 

The Fixer started in the first issue of SHIVER AND SHAKE. The b/w strip was part of SHAKE section and continued until issue 52, missing six weeks during its run (it was not included in issues 16, 20, 27, 30, 35, 44).

Towards the very end of the run a third illustrator appears to have taken over, but I don’t know his name either…  Here is the last episode:

A LOOK AT SHIVER & SHAKE STRIPS: GAL CAPONE

Gal Capone was a short-lived strip about a heavyset school girl who was part of a weird kind of gangster underworld. Her rival gang was Manx Mound Mob (consisting of three blokes who all looked like grown-ups or at least disguised themselves as such) with whom Gal Capone fought a ruthless war using cork popguns, peashooters and catapults while driving around in armoured self-propelled cartys. The reason of the conflict wasn’t quite clear – something about rival territories and the town not being big enough for the two of them… 

It’s interesting to note that Gal Capone looked a lot different in SHIVER AND SHAKE 1974 Annual – the gangster ingredient was gone and Gal was more of a regular school bully, not immune from corporal punishment for her wrongdoings at the hands of grow-ups:

 

Gal Capone started in the first issue of Shiver and SHAKE and ended in issue 21, missing two weeks inbetween (it did not appear in issues 16 and 19). The illustrator was Murray Ball with Les Barton drawing one episode in issue 8.

A LOOK AT SHIVER & SHAKE STRIPS: THE DESERT FOX

World War II history buffs will know that The Desert Fox was the nickname given by the British to Erwin Rommel, German Field Marshal and commander of the Afrika Korps. Editors of SHIVER AND SHAKE picked it as the title of a strip that had its scene set in the desert of North Africa during WWII and depicted the antics of a… fox. The sneaky crafty animal was running back and forth between German (sometimes Italian) and British (sometimes Aussie or French Foreign Legion’s) camps raiding army grub stores. Occasionally he wandered off into an Arab town and pinched food from the natives too.

The Desert Fox didn’t take sides and lived by the motto “All is Fair in Grub and War” but his thieving plots sometimes had side effects such as preventing an enemy attack or causing commotion that the enemy mistook for a surprise attack.

On rare occasions the Fox got rewarded (with food of course) for bringing about an unexpected outcome, but most of the time troops on both sides were busy trying to catch the notorious trickster. Their efforts, however, were usually doomed, as were their rations, because The Desert Fox just couldn’t be outfoxed. 

The feature appeared in the first issue of SHIVER AND SHAKE and continued until issue 74, missing three weeks inbetween (it was not included in issues 55, 71 and 72). Tom Williams was the original artist until issue 19 when Terry Bave took charge (Terry Bave also illustrated the episodes in issues 12 and 17). Starting from issue 32 it was moved from the inside pages of SHAKE to the back cover of the section and given the privilege of full colour presentation (except in issues 34, 53 and 54 when it turned b/w for a while).