A LOOK AT SHIVER AND SHAKE STRIPS: FRANKIE STEIN (PART ONE)

Frankie Stein was a big star of SHIVER section. His strip was the first that the young reader would find on opening a copy of the paper. Frankie happens to be one of my favourite characters in British comics and half-way through writing this piece I realised it may become too long, so I decided to split it and do two posts instead.

Frankie Stein by Ken Reid

The editors introduced Frankie in the first issue of SHIVER AND SHAKE without bothering to explain his origins, and few readers recalled that the character had made his debut nearly a decade ago in the 4th issue of Wham! dated 11th July, 1964, alongside with his maker Professor Cube who hoped to create a little pal and a real live playmate to his son Micky but the scientific exercise went radically wrong. Crazy and occasionally violent adventures of Frankie Stein the friendly monster, Professor Cube and his son Micky continued in Wham! for more than three years totalling up to 142 weekly episodes, the vast majority illustrated by Ken Reid. Towards the end of the run of WHAM! the appearances of Frankie Stein became less frequent and finally ceased altogether after Wham! issue No. 166 dated 19th August, 1967. Thus, Frankie Stein’s new debut in the pages of SHIVER AND SHAKE was after a five-and-a-half year break. Below is a representative example of the old version of the strip from WHAM! No. 109 (17th March, 1967) in which Frankie reunites with Dad and Micky after a long stay away from home:

Although Mr. Reid was around and working for IPC at the time, the illustrator’s duties were assigned to Bob Nixon. Maybe it was because Mr. Reid was too busy drawing other features, or perhaps the editors believed readers would find Bob Nixon’s cuddly new Frankie more appealing than Mr. Reid’s old-school diabolical version – we’ll never know for sure. Whatever the reasons, Mr. Nixon did an excellent job as the illustrator and I have no doubt that his version of Frankie Stein is deeply ingrained in the memories of many fans who followed Frankie’s adventures in the 70s and beyond.  Here is the first episode of the new series from SHIVER AND SHAKE issue No. 1:

New artist wasn’t the only change: character lineup of the revamped feature was ‘optimised’ by dropping Prof. Cube’s son Micky who used to be a regular in WHAM! series. For truth’s sake it has to be noted that Micky was a secondary character anyway and didn’t have a real role to play in the plot because the conflict was usually between Frankie and Prof. Cube. It wasn’t uncommon for Micky to be absent from weekly WHAM! episodes; as a matter of fact, in the last 16 episodes in WHAM! Micky is seen only once!

Frankie Stein and his Dad Professor Cuthbert Cube lived at Mildew Manor in the village of Puddleditch. They were a pair of truly weird characters: Frankie was a dumb but lovable creature with a tiny brain and a huge muscular body who didn’t know his own strength; Professor Cube was forever sorry for inventing Frankie and employed his imagination and scientific talents devising wicked schemes to get rid of his son. Below is an example from issue 23 (August 11th, 1973). I may be imagining things, but to me it looks as if Mr. Nixon got some outside help on some of the panels in the top half of the first page:

As a character, Frankie is plain and simple: he is kind-hearted and always in a jolly enthusiastic mood, but naïve and blissfully unaware of his own hideousness. Despite Prof. Cube’s never ending diabolical plots, Frankie has warm feelings towards Dad and the thought that his inventor might be trying to get rid of him hardly ever crosses his mind. Pretty much a clueless dimwit.

Professor Cube’s personality is by far more complex than Frankie’s. Strange as it may sound, but he tries hard to be a good parent: he buys Frankie’s groceries, sees him off to school, gives him pocket money, takes him to the Zoo, the circus, the pictures, the seaside and even on overseas holidays, mends his shoes, tells him bedtime stories, bakes his birthday cake, etc. But Professor Cube is forever on the verge of a nervous breakdown because Frankie is a glutton who eats him out of house and home, and a clumsy brute who costs thousands in repair bills. Therefore Prof. Cube’s mind is always busy devising cunning and violent schemes to get rid of his son, and he is unscrupulous in the choice of his means. Everything goes – explosives, bombs, landmines and all sorts of Professor’s own ingenious inventions – mechanical gadgets, potions, concoctions, etc. Prof. Cube tries to get rid of Frankie by enlisting him in the army, shipping him off to Timbuctoo packed in a box, turning him to the Zoo as a ‘Wild Man’, pushing him off a train going at full speed, getting him a job as a stuntman, putting him into orbit around the Earth, sending him off to cannibals’ island, transporting him to the past with the aid of a time machine, setting Frankie up with a female robot and switching her to nag-mode in hope she will drive Frankie out of town and even kidnapping Shiver artist to take control of that week’s story. Needless to say, Dad’s schemes always misfire and turn against him in the form of property damages or physical suffering. The episode below is from issue No. 46 cover-dated January 19th, 1974:

The paradox is that most of Prof. Cube’s misery comes from his efforts to do away with Frankie. If it weren’t for his failed mad schemes, Dad would only have to put up with Frankie’s gluttony, his habit of forgetting to use the doors and breaking through the walls too often, and being a general embarrassment to Dad. Misfired schemes, however, push Prof. Cube deeper into despair and frustration because they often result in damages of a grand scale, destruction of Mildew Manor and Professor Cube’s bodily injuries. And still, Prof. Cube is torn by dual emotions of hate and remorse for being so mean to Frankie, as can be seen in this episode in issue No. 56 (March 30th, 1974) where Professor Cube speaks openly about his feelings:

 

Come back soon for Part Two.

SPOOK AND ELEPHANT – SHIVER AND SHAKE COVER STARS AND HOSTS

The weird origins of the two characters have been covered on this blog here and here so I will briefly mention that a strip with the title of SHIVER AND SHAKE first appeared in COR!! comic where it showed adventures of a spook named Shake and an undead cavalier named Shiver. The COR!! strip was discontinued in February 1973 but when Shiver and Shake comic came out a month later, the spook made a comeback renamed as Shiver (after his companion in the COR!! strip) while his previous name was given to his new pal – the elephant dressed in what looked like school uniform.

Drawn by Mike Lacey, the pair appeared regularly on the front cover of SHIVER AND SHAKE and hosted their respective sections inside the paper. Initially the front covers were split along the middle with Shiver appearing on the left and Shake on the right, presumably to emphasise the rivalry of the two sections (let us not forget that the comic was imitating its sister publication Whizzer and Chips that pioneered and successfully exploited the two-comics-in-one gimmick). Later in the run the split cover format was dropped in favour of a single large illustration showing the antics of both characters. Here are some examples of split covers, followed by a couple of nice samples of the later trend:

A small number of covers were sort of split in half but actually consisted of two panels with the two characters appearing in both: 

Front cover domination of the spook and tusker pair lasted for fifty-two weekly issues (exactly one year) until No. 53 when they were ousted and permanently replaced by Frankie Stein. That said, the star characters retained their position on the front covers of all Holiday Specials and Annuals that carried their name (except 1974 Holiday Special and 1976 Annual when they stepped down for Frankie Stein).

The two cover stars hosted their own sections inside the paper. In practice this meant that they appeared on the pages of their respective reader participation features urging readers to send their contributions in exchange for cash prizes. The images and messages were always the same: 

Besides, on a few occasions Shiver and Shake featured in promotional messages urging readers to place their regular orders:

In issue 41 they can be seen side-by-side in this competition announcement:

Readers could also follow weekly adventures of both cover stars: Shiver was one of the main characters in The Duke’s Spook illustrated by Arthur Martin, whereas Shake had the prime slot on the cover of his own section, illustrated by Mike Lacey. Both features will receive dedicated posts when their turn comes but in the meantime, here are examples of both strips:

The spook and the elephant had a full page each but Shake had the luxury of full colour presentation. This doesn’t mean that the tusker enjoyed preferential treatment because the spook had the advantage of starring in yet another weekly strip - the Shiver Givers, so actually the paper had more of Shiver than of Shake. Again, The Shiver Givers will be covered separately in due course, but here is a taste:

On a number of occasions both characters crossed over in other strips inside the paper, such as Match of the Week in issues No 6 and 20:

… The Shiver Givers in issues 37 and 45:

… and Wizards Anonymous in issue 27. Here are both pages of this interesting episode, illustrated by Brian Walker:

SHIVER AND SHAKE 1975 ANNUAL

SHIVER AND SHAKE Annual 1975 had 160 pages and cost 80 p. The book came out when the weekly was still up and running: the first ad of the book can be found in the issue cover-dated 31st August, 1974 (No. 74).

For me it is one of the most interesting IPC annuals ever with lots of quality new material and multiple artists offering their takes on popular characters.

Here is the summary of the contents: Creepy Creations Calendar - 1975 (4 pages), Ghouldilocks (3 episodes by Stan McMurtry, one in full colour), Webster (2 episodes by Terry Bave, one in full colour), Dr. Heckle (4 instalments, one in full colour), Scatty Bat (3 episodes), Sweeny Toddler (2 episodes, by Tom Paterson or Martin Baxendale), The Hand (5 episodes, all by different artists), The Shiver Givers (2 episodes, probably by Tom Williams), Grimly Feendish (4 episodes), Frankie Stein (3 episodes), Biddy’s Beastly Bloomers (two episodes by different artists), Horrornation Street (2 episodes by Tom Williams),  Scream Inn, The Duke’s Spook (3 episodes, all by different artists), Shake (2 episodes in full colour by different artists), The Forest Legion (6-page episode in full colour), Nutter (3 episodes, two in full colour), Tough Nutt and Softy Centre (3 episodes, one in full colour), Damsel in Distress (3 episodes, one in full colour), Match of the Year – Winter Sportsmen versus Snowmen (4 pages), Wiz War (3 episodes, including one special episode Wizard Prang and Demon Druid ‘Wiz’ Wizardry Galore), Moana Lisa (2 episodes by Peter Davidson), Lolly Pop (two episodes by different artists), The Fixer, Eagle Eye (8-pager), The Desert Fox (3 episodes by Terry Bave), Mirth Shakers (2 instalments), The Phantom Piper (8-pager), Sports School, Mickey Muggins, Money Maze puzzle, Ed (2 episodes, one in full colour), Soggy the Sea Monster (2 episodes by Robert Nixon, one in full colour).

The features marked in red were one-offs that hadn’t appeared in SHIVER and SHAKE publications before. Dr. Heckle and Mickey Muggins are hardly worth mentioning – I find nothing interesting about them. Quite the opposite applies to the other two. Let’s leave The Phantom Piper for the end of the post. As for Creepy Creations 1975 Calendar, it was another excellent piece from the hand of Ken Reid. 4 pages of the brightly coloured calendar were on the inside covers and the pages opposite them, three months per page. Check out some examples of the Creations from the calendar: 

There was more of Ken Reid’s art in the Annual. The three Frankie Steins included in the book were reprints from WHAM! Nos. 39, 67 and 80, all with a few panels dropped because panels of the original one-page episodes were re-arranged to fill two pages. Here are some sterling images from two different episodes:

 

Frankie Stein episodes weren’t the only reprints in the Annual – so were the installments of Scatty Bat (reprinted from Whizzer and Chips), Wiz Wars (from POW! and SMASH!) and Grimly Feendish (from SMASH!).

As can be seen from the summary of contents above, all episodes of Ghoudilocks, Webster, Desert Fox, Horrornation Street, Moana Lisa, Soggy the Sea Monster and a few other strips were illustrated by their regular artists.

And now comes the interesting part because different episodes of a few popular strips were illustrated by different first-rate IPC artists. I don’t remember seeing another IPC funnies annual with so many examples of this interesting practice.

Mike Lacey and Terry Bave illustrated one episode of Shake each. Then there were two episodes of Lolly Pop: a 4-pager by Robert Nixon and a 3-pager by Sid Burgon. Both artists worked on the feature in the weeklies. Here are four sample panels, two from each set. In the first pair Pop is mean and miserly, and in the second he is devastated and furious because his fortunes have been ruined by Archie, as always:

 

Next comes Biddy’s Beastly Bloomers, with one set drawn by Sid Burgon:

… and the second by another artist who I think was Tom Paterson:

The further we go, the more exciting it gets. There were three episodes of The Duke’s Spook included in the book; one was by Arthur Martin who I believe was the strip’s regular artist in the weeklies:

… the other one by Les Barton who was often invited to step in for other artists in different IPC Annuals and Holiday Specials:

… and the third by Frank McDiarmid who did numerous one-off ghostings in IPC publications in the mid-70s, particularly in the Annuals and the Star Guest feature in the weeklies. I believe he is also responsible for one episode of Damsel in Distress in this Annual. Here is the complete set of The Duke’s Spook by Mr. McDiarmid:

The trend is championed by The Hand with as many as five sets, all by different artists, four of whom I think I can identify as Arthur Martin:

… Les Barton:

… Frank McDiarmid:

… and Tom Paterson:

 

... plus one whose name I don’t know:

So much for different artists’ takes on the same character. But the goodness doesn’t end here. Here is the opening panel of The Match of the Year by Mike Lacey (snowmen came on top in the end):

The Forest Legion made their second appearance (after 1974 Annual), only this time in full colour. Here are the first two pages of the 6-page tale in which the team of vigilant forest animals bust the crooks Boss and Butch once again:

An episode of Scream Inn by Brian Walker would have improved this excellent book even further. Unfortunately, you can’t have it all and the 3-pager was illustrated by the same ghost artist who was responsible for the instalment in the 1974 Holiday Special; here is a taste of the story in which a Snowman tried to spend a night in the haunted bedroom to win a million pounds:

Adventure ingredient of the package was an 8-page episode of Eagle Eye by Ron Turner, who, to my regret, wasn’t responsible for weekly instalments. Here is the opening page of the story in which ‘Eagle Eye’ Tommy Trotter and two safari park guides nab a gang of professional crooks who attempt to steal an exotic onyx from the park:

Eagle Eye wasn’t Ron Turner’s only contribution to SHIVER AND SHAKE 1975 Annual. The second was this extraordinary one-off Phantom Piper story. Extraordinary because Ron Turner specialised in sci-fi and adventure stories and this is the only example that I am aware of when he tried his hand at the comedy genre. The set below proves what a universal artist Mr. Turner was. I find his humour style very appealing. There is something about the pages below that reminds of Harvey Kurtzman’s work, don’t you think? Here is the tale in its entirety: