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| First ever panel in WHAM! No. 1 |
In Eagle Eye Junior Spy Grimly Feendish was an ambitious criminal mastermind whose aim was to conquer the World. The infamous arch-villain fought a relentless war with the young MI 5 ½ agent Eagle Eye who was forever foiling his evil plots. Eagle Eye Junior Spy’s Grimly Feendish first appeared in the first issue of WHAM! and was last seen in the penultimate edition of the paper (No. 186 dated 13th Jan., 1968).
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| From WHAM! No. 1 |
Interestingly,
less than two years before that he got his own weekly strip in another Power Comic
SMASH! Although the Grimly of SMASH! still had his crowd of squelchy things and
weirdies familiar to readers of WHAM!, his criminal ambitions had shrunk
considerably and become limited to stealing and robbing. Crimes of this
category fell outside the competence of intelligence services but being ‘the
rottenest crook in the world’, Grimly made new enemies in the shape of the
police. Grimly Feendish ran in SMASH! issues No. 1 – 162 (Feb. 5th, 1966
– 8th March, 1969 (last pre-revamp issue)) and then disappeared
from the radar for nearly four years before re-surfacing in SHIVER AND SHAKE
No. 22.
The Grimly
of SHIVER AND SHAKE was the thieving and robbing version from SMASH!, rather than
the villainous mastermind with World-domination ambitions from WHAM! The shiver and shake run of Grimly
Feendish started with eleven reprints from SMASH! I pinned
down the particular issues of SMASH! in which the episodes originally appeared;
here is the list for those who care:
Shiver & Shake No. 22 (August 4th, 1973) - reprint from Smash! No. 58 (11th March, 1967)
Shiver & Shake No. 23 (August 11th, 1973) - reprint from Smash! No. 18 (4th June, 1966)
Shiver & Shake No. 24 (August 18th, 1973) - reprint from Smash! No. 14 (7th May, 1966)
Shiver & Shake No. 25 (August 25th, 1973) - reprint from Smash! No. 63 (15th April, 1967)
Shiver & Shake No. 26 (September 1st, 1973) - reprint from Smash! No. 16 (21st May, 1966)
Shiver & Shake No. 27 (September 8th, 1973) - reprint from Smash! No. 72 (17th June,
1967)
Shiver & Shake No. 28 (September 15th, 1973) - reprint from Smash! No. 65 (29th April,
1967)
Shiver & Shake No. 29 (September 22nd, 1973) - reprint from Smash! No. 53 (4th Feb. 1967)
Shiver & Shake No. 30 (September 29th, 1973) - reprint from Smash! No. 28 (13th Aug 1966)
Shiver & Shake No. 31 (October 6th, 1973) - reprint from Smash! No. 68 (20th May, 1967)
Shiver & Shake No. 32 (October 13th, 1973) - reprint from Smash! No. 35 (1st Oct, 1966)
Shiver & Shake No. 33 (October 20th 1973) - reprint from Smash! No. 69 (27th May, 1967)
In Shiver and Shake Grimly Feendish picked up
where he had left off in SMASH! and continued with daring crime schemes,
assisted by Squelch and company. Although his life’s ambition was to rob the
Bank of England, it was not uncommon to see Grimly raid a candy store or swinde
old folks out of their pensions. In issue 24 Grimly Feendish appeared in The
Shiver Givers strip and hit a new low by lifting a rubber from Frankie
Stein and a type-writer from Shiver:
From issue
34 until the end of the run illustrator’s duties were given to the young Tom Paterson
who was just starting his career in comics. I may be mistaken, but Grimly
Feendish was probably his first regular strip and Tom’s style is hardly
recognisable at that stage. Check out the examples below and see how his style
evolved into something more familiar as weeks went by. He even signed a couple of episodes
towards the end of the run (in Shiver
and Shake issues 73 and 77):
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| First episode by Tom Paterson in SHIVER & SHAKE No. 34 |
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| From SHIVER & SHAKE No. 41 |
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| From SHIVER & SHAKE No. 42 |
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| From SHIVER & SHAKE No. 51 |
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| From SHIVER & SHAKE No. 54 |
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| First signed episode by Tom Paterson in SHIVER & SHAKE No. 73 |
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| Last episode by Tom Paterson in SHIVER & SHAKE No. 77 |
Trivia
buffs will be delighted to know that Tom Paterson’s trademark striped upright sock was
first seen on the side of the turret of Grimly’s tank in Grimly Feendish episode
in SHIVER AND SHAKE No. 49:
Grimly
Feendish started in SHIVER AND SHAKE issue No. 22 and continued until issue No. 77 missing three weeks inbetween
(issue Nos. 63, 72, 76). The episodes in issues 22 to 33 were reprints from
SMASH!, as was the episode in issue 39 (illustrated
by Terry Bave I believe). The episodes in issues 34 to 77 were by Tom Paterson who
drew in his early rough style. The strip was part of SHIVER section of the
paper. Grimly Feendish got his own mini pin-up in Frankie Stein mini
pull-out comic in SHIVER AND SHAKE issue 54:
Grimly Feendish didn’t survive
merger with WHOOPEE!, so SHIVER AND SHAKE saw the sad end of his long and
dramatic criminal career from the mastermind of the underworld to a petty thief. The strip was
included as an entrant in the Pick-A-Strip feature in Whoopee! and Shiver & Shake where
it competed against 7 other strips but readers gave their support to SweenyToddler.
The good thing is that he continued in SHIVER AND SHAKE annuals and holiday specials for quite a while and if you are a Grimly buff, you may very well might find it worth while checking the Grimly Feendish label in the column on the right for full details.
Afterwards Grimly was seen just one more time in ALBION series published by Wildstorm in 2005.
Afterwards Grimly was seen just one more time in ALBION series published by Wildstorm in 2005.
Grimly
Feendish must have been fondly remembered by many, including members of the London rock band The Damned who named one of
their singles after him in 1985. The single reached No. 21 in UK charts:
