welcome and enjoy!

Hi and welcome to my blog about comics from other people’s childhood! It is dedicated primarily to British humour comics of the 60s and 70s. The reason they are not from my childhood is simply because I didn’t live in the UK back then (nor do I live there now). I knew next to nothing about them until fairly recently but since then I’ve developed a strong liking for the medium and amassed a large collection, including a number of complete or near complete sets. My intention is to use this blog as a channel for sharing my humble knowledge about different titles, favourite characters and creators as I slowly research my collection.

QUICK TIP: this blog is a sequence of posts covering one particular comic at a time. The sequence follows a certain logic, so for maximum results it is recommended that the blog is read from the oldest post up.

Copyright of all images and quotations used here is with their respective owners. Any such copyrighted material is used exclusively for educational purposes and will be removed at first notice. All other text copyright Irmantas P.



Monday, December 3, 2018

SERIALISED FACEACHE STORIES – PART SIX: THRASHBOTTOM TAKES ACTION TO PROTECT HIS CAREER




Faceache story arch No. 6 can be found in BUSTER issues cover-dated 25 November and 2 December, 1978, so it is almost exactly 40 years old today. Faceache doesn’t get to do much scrunging in this story, and it goes like this:

Late at night Faceache is practicing some leg-and-foot scrunges in the school grounds… 


Mr. Snipe discovers monstrous footprints in the morning and devises a plan of dispensing with the mysterious brute. He puts Faceache in charge of shooting the monster down when it falls into the old school well and shoots up on the coiled spring that Mr. Snipe has installed at the bottom. The Teach pompously shares his plan with the Headmaster:


Anxious that Mr. Snipe’s ambition might be to get him fired and steal his job, Albert Thrashbottom gets filled with hate and resentment...


On guard out in the school grounds, Faceache hears something inhuman approaching…


Headmaster is determined to nab the fiend first and steal Mr. Snipe’s glory. Faceache tries to warn the fool of the danger but Headmaster ignores the kid and walks straight into the trap. Upon seeing something zoom out of the well, Mr. Snipe commands Faceache’s to shoot it, with predictable consequences:



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. 
Remember that all buyers who order their books by the end of 2018 will receive free prints of Ken’s original Frankie Stein artwork – 2 prints (one complete episode) per book, or 4 prints (2 complete episodes) per two-volume set.

Wednesday, November 21, 2018

SERIALISED FACEACHE STORIES – PART FIVE: INITIATIVE TEST



The Flying Floogle of Frogmorton

Faceache goes on a scrunging spree in this next two-part story printed in BUSTER issues cover-dated 7th and 14th October 1978.

Mr. Snipe tells his pupils that they will have to take an initiative test:


Faceache decides to scrunge his way to Boggartsville. Police officers take a series of phone call reports from terrified villagers about fiends and unearthly atrocities as Faceache tries to reach his destination scrunged into the Fangy-Faced Freak from Frodham, then the Speedy-Swimming Frumpton Froggiefish and then the Flying Floogle of Frogmorton:



Terrified, police Sergeant telephones the nearest army bases…


The Army take action, believing Faceache is an invading alien from outer space…



Back at Belmonte school, Faceache chases Mr. Snipe for arranging the “rousing reception” at Boggartsville…



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. 
Remember that all buyers who order their books by the end of 2018 will receive free prints of Ken’s original Frankie Stein artwork – 2 prints (one complete episode) per book, or 4 prints (2 complete episodes) per two-volume set.

Thursday, November 15, 2018

THE POWER PACK OF KEN REID! - Year End & X'mas promotion




I am happy to announce that all buyers who order their Ken Reid reprint books by the end of 2018 will receive free prints of Ken’s original Frankie Stein artwork – 2 prints (one complete episode) per book, or 4 prints (2 complete episodes) per two-volume set. 

The prints measure 297 x 190 mm, so they are smaller than those that came with the books during the crowdfunding campaign. They fit perfectly inside the books so won't have to be folded when packed.

Don’t miss the limited time offer! It applies to all sales on eBay and my e-shop HERE.



Monday, November 12, 2018

TWO VERSIONS OF A FRANKIE STEIN STORY




Leafing through my SHIVER AND SHAKE comics the other day, I found an episode of Frankie Stein by Robert Nixon, re-drawn from the original episode by Ken Reid in WHAM! No. 145 and based on Walter Thorburn’s original script. 

It is interesting to note how toned-down the new version is in comparison with the manic and violent original – both in terms of script and artwork. Excellent as Robert Nixon was, his take is hardly on par with Ken’s in my view. Ken surely was one of a kind!


Here’s the original page from WHAM! No. 145 (25th March, 1967), followed by both pages from Shiver and Shake No. 5 (April 7th, 1973). Which one do you prefer? :)




Robert Nixon also re-drew another Frankie Stein episode by Ken Reid/Walter Thorburn in SHIVER AND SHAKE issue No. 6. Check out my earlier post HERE (scroll down to the bottom of the article).


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.

Characters are © Rebellion Publishing Ltd