GUEST APPEARANCES AT SCREAM INN – FRANKIE STEIN

When SHIVER AND SHAKE merged into WHOOPEE! in October 1974, Scream Inn and Frankie Stein were among the strips that confidently made it to the combined paper. A few weeks after the merger Frankie Stein stopped by at the spooky inn and tried to win the million quid. Brian Walker was a very good imitator and his Frankie looked very much like that by Robert Nixon. It’s a shame the printing presses used by IPC at the time often failed to present beautiful artwork decently. The episode is from WHOOPEE! AND SHIVER & SHAKE cover-dated 23 November, 1974 (No. 38). Followed by both pages of the Frankie Stein strip from that same issue, by Robert Nixon, of course.

THE MOONSTERS COVERS OF SPARKY - PART FOUR

Here is the next batch of SPARKY covers with Peter, Penny and the Moonsters by Bill Ritchie, Nos. 60 – 69 from 1966!

GUEST APPEARANCES AT SCREAM INN – I SPY LOOK-ALIKE

Shiver and Shake merged into Whoopee! in October 1974 and Scream Inn was one of the strips that found its way into the new paper with the clumsy title of Whoopee! and Shiver & Shake. 

The first guest appearance in Scream Inn can be found soon after the merger, in the issue cover-dated 26 October 1974 (No. 34), and it was quite an unusual one indeed. That week’s guest looked a lot like I Spy from SPARKY comic published by DCT. I believe this is one of very few examples in British comics when a character appeared in a rival publication produced by the competitor. Brian Walker illustrated I Spy starting from SPARKY issue No. 300 (17 October 1970), so the inclusion of a look-alike into the episode of Scream Inn in Whoopee! and Shiver & Shake (published by IPC) must have been a cheeky experiment on his part. Here is the episode, followed by the three-page set of I Spy from SPARKY, the first one by Brian Walker.

While we are on the subject of SPARKY’s I Spy and cheeky sneak-ins by Brian Walker, who is that bespectacled bloke in the top right corner of this panel of Scream Inn from Shiver and Shake issue 51 (February 23rd, 1974)?

THE MOONSTERS COVERS OF SPARKY - PART THREE

Time for ten more early Sparky covers with the Moonsters. The first and the last ones in this post are interesting: the first one (No. 50) because it celebrates the New Year, while the last one (No. 59) because Bill Ritchie later re-drew it as the cover of Sparky Book 1968 (see my old post HERE).