SERIALISED FACEACHE STORIES – PART FOURTEEN: WATERLOO

The next hilarious 4-part FACEACHE story arc written and drawn by Ken Reid came immediately after the previous one, and can be found BUSTER cover dated 22 September - 13 October, 1979. 

Check out the summary below, but before you do, please, remember that I am celebrating Ken's 100th birthday by offering free prints of his original artwork with every purchase of THE POWER PACK books!

Belmonte pupils are to re-enact the battle of Waterloo for the school pageant, and Mr. Snipe asks the Headmaster for his suggestions for creating sound of imitation cannon fire.  The Headmaster says he’ll think about it later, but in the meantime, he offers Faceache 50 p to blow up the new inflatable office furniture for him...

Faceache decides to take his revenge...

Sitting in his new inflatable arm-chair, Mr. Thrashbottom is thinking about battle sound effects for the boys’ Waterloo re-enactment. Faceache prangs the arm-chair and the burst sends the Headmaster crashing through the roof. He lands on the inflatable settee whose explosion sends him crashing though the roof, and then back inside again, and so forth… 

Hearing the terrible sounds, Mr. Snipe marvels the Headmaster’s ingenuity in simulating cannon fire as well as military voices…

The chain-reaction of exploding furniture continues, and Mr. Thrashbottom believes himself to be back at the battle of Waterloo: 

Meanwhile, Luis de Fleury, the first Frenchman to fly from Paris to London pedalling a flying contraption, is flying over Puddleditch moor. The Headmaster accidentally smashes into De Fleury’s home-made aeroplane... 

...causing the two of them zoom down and crash through all floors of the school, and down into the cellar. Faceache heads for where terrible Waterloo screams can be heard.

The lad puts a stop to the violent British-French conflict by scaring Louis de Fleyry off with one of his scrunges:

...and phoning for an ambulance to rush Mr. Thrashbottom to hospital. 

The doctor prepares to give the Headmaster an injection to make sure he gets a good night’s sleep, but Mr. Thrashbottom’s nervous twitch sends the syringe flying in the air and pranging his inflatable mattress. The blast re-starts the chain reaction, as there are 30 beds in that ward – all with inflatable mattresses. The Headmaster thinks he commands the battle of Waterloo once again…

 

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.

KEN REID REPRINT BOOKS YEAR-END / XMAS PROMOTION!

This year marks Ken’s 100th birthday on December 18th. 

To celebrate this special occasion, I am launching another year-end / Christmas promotion. Buyers of THE POWER PACK OF KEN REID! books will receive free A4 prints of Ken’s original artwork!

Vol. 1 (Frankie Stein + Jasper the Grasper) comes with a complete episode of Frankie Stein, cut in two halves:

Vol. 2 (Queen of the Seas + Dare-A Day Davy + The Nervs) comes with a complete episode of Dare-A-Day Davy, also cut in two halves. And that’s not just your regular episode, but the one with Ken’s self-portrait and his portrait of Walter Thorburn, the scriptwriter!

Those who order both books, will not only receive the four prints, but also TWO BONUS A4 prints of blown-up Dare-A-Day Davy panels with the portraits of the diabolical duo – Ken Reid and Walter Thorburn. That's a total of six free A4 prints!

You can order your copies from eBay or from my online shop here: https://www.kazoop-comics-shop.com/

 

The number of the prints is limited, so the offer stands until I run out of them. Be sure to get your orders in early to avoid delays in the postal Christmas rush!

SERIALISED FACEACHE STORIES – PART THIRTEEN: HUMAN SEA SLUG

The next Faceache story arc enters the territory of longer stories. ‘Human Sea Slug’ was 4 weeks long. It appeared in BUSTER AND MONSTER FUN cover-dated 25 August, 1, 8 and 15 September 1979, and went like this:

Faceache asks Mr. Snipe for a day out at Shrimpton-at-Sea. Mr. Snipe approves, as long as Faceache promises not to scare holiday-makers. Faceache takes a bus and Mr. Snipe follows him in the school banger to make sure he doesn’t scrunge: 

...Faceache spots the spy and scrunges into an ordinary bloke to get off the coach unrecognised:

Later on the sea front Faceache sees an angler who is trying to cheat a kid out of his pocket money… 

Mr. Snipe turns up looking for Faceache and asks the angler to let him try his hand at fishing. Mr. Snipe is about to demonstrate real fishing, as Faceache prepares himself to play his trick on the angler… 

The lad leaps out of the sea. Mr. Snipe recognises Faceache’s striped T-shirt instantly: 

…Faceache unscrunges and Mr. Snipe plunges into a seaweed-infested oil slick in the sea. The terrified angler flees in panic, screaming about a ‘thingie’ that has risen from the deep... 

Prof. Krabb, who runs an exhibition of aquatic oddities, immediately sees an opportunity and decides he could do with the monster in his sideshow. Prof. Krabb and his assistant rush to the beach. Upon seeing Mr. Snipe emerge from the sea covered with seaweed and dirt...

... they net him right away, and bonk him with a mallet.

Prof. Krabb puts Mr. Snipe on display as a Human Sea Slug:

Faceache telephones Mr. Thrashbottom urging him to come to Shrimpton-on-Sea. Concerned about school’s reputation, the Headmaster arrives at the exhibition of aquatic oddities to collect Mr. Snipe. Back at school, he orders Mr. Snipe to stay in his room and write out 1,000 times “I must learn not to dress up as a human sea slug and lower the dignity of the teaching position”. 

Realising he is now free to scrunge without being spied on, Faceache catches up on his hobby:

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.

GIGGLE – ONE DOWN, THREE MORE TO GO

I rarely visit eBay these days anymore because my collection of UK comics is as complete as I will ever want it to be, but I am still after a few elusive issues of BUSTER, GIGGLE and SPARKY.

A few days ago I crossed one more issue of GIGGLE off my wants list, and although it is not special in any way, I thought I might show its cover and a few inside pages here.

The comic offered a combination of humour and adventure, and had a large share of reprints of strips by UK and European artists, but I believe the pages below were all new (Helpful Hettie was later reprinted in COR!!, but I am unsure if this particular episode was).

At this point I only need GIGGLE issues cover-dated 2 Sept., 11 Nov. and 25 Nov., 1967. I would also buy the issue of 1 July, 1967 because my copy is missing its centre pages.

My wants list of BUSTER consists of the issues cover-dated 31 Dec., 1960, 4 Feb., 1961 and 4 July, 1964.

I am also after SPARKY issue No. 620 (4 Dec., 1976), and would buy a complete copy of No. 110 (25 Feb., 1967).

Please, let me know if you have copies of the above and wish to sell :)

 

  

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.