A LOOK AT SHIVER & SHAKE: STAR GUEST FEATURE AND ONE-OFFS

Star Guest feature can be found in a number of IPC children’s comics of the mid-70s. Strips from one magazine made guest appearances in sister publications for cross-promotion purposes. The feature was first introduced in SHIVER AND SHAKE No. 17 (June 30th, 1973). Strips from COR!! and Whizzer and Chips alternated more or less regularly every other week until the middle of 1974 when COR!! folded and the bi-weekly slot passed on to Whoopee! Below is the list of SHIVER AND SHAKE issues with star guest details. RED is for COR!!, BLUE is for Whizzer and Chips and GREEN is for Whoopee! BLACK means no star guest that week.

As far as I can tell, the vast majority (if not all) of star guest episodes were original sets rather than reprints so the list below might be useful for completists. The artwork was usually by the regular artists. A number of sets by Frank McDiarmid towards the end of the run are a nice exception and offer his take on some familiar characters such as Shiner, Odd-Ball and Looser. Frank also illustrated guest star sets in Whizzer and Chips and Whoopee! at that same time.  Check out some examples from SHIVER & SHAKE below and further down the post.

Issue No. 17 ● June 30th, 1973 ● Hire a Horror from COR!!

Issue No. 18 ● July 7th, 1973 ● Smart Alec from Wh&Ch

Issue No. 19 ● July 14th, 1973 ● Whacky from COR!!

Issue No. 20 ● July 21st, 1973 ● Harry's Haunted House from Wh&Ch

Issue No. 21 ● July 28th, 1973 ● Wonder Worm from COR!!

Issue No. 22 ● August 4th, 1973 ● Sammy Shrink from Wh&Ch

Issue No. 23 ● August 11st, 1973 ● Chalky from COR!!

Issue No. 24 ● August 18th, 1973 ● No Star Guest

Issue No. 25 ● August 25th, 1973 ● Teacher’s Pet from COR!!

Issue No. 26 ● September 1st, 1973 ● No Star Guest

Issue No. 27 ● September 8th, 1973 ● Jelly Baby from COR!!

Issue No. 28 ● September 15th, 1973 ● Boney from Wh&Ch

Issue No. 29 ● September 22/1973 ● The Slimms from COR!!

Issue No. 30 ● September 29th, 1973 ● Ghost Town from Wh&Ch

Issue No. 31 ● October 6th, 1973 ● Val’s Vanishing Cream from COR!!

Issue No. 32 ● October 13rd, 1973 ● No Star Guest

Issue No. 33 ● October 20th, 1973 ● Wonder Worm from COR!!

Issue No. 34 ● October 27th, 1973 ● Odd Ball from Wh&Ch

Issue No. 35 ● November 3rd, 1973 ● No Star Guest

Issue No. 36 ● November 10th, 1973 ● No Star Guest

Issue No. 37 ● November 17th, 1973 ● Football Madd from COR!!

Issue No. 38 ● November 24th, 1973 ● Fuss Pot from Wh&Ch

Issue No. 39 ● December 1st, 1973 ● The Slimms from COR!!

Issue No. 40 ● December 8th, 1973 ● Hot Dog and Cool Cat from Wh&Ch

Issue No. 41 ● December 15th, 1973 ● Night Mare from COR!!

Issue No. 42 ● December 22nd, 1973 ● Loser from Wh&Ch

Issue No. 43 ● December 29th, 1973 ● No Star Guest

Issue No. 44 ● January 5th, 1974 ● No Star Guest

Issue No. 45 ● January 12th, 1974 ● Sid's Snake from Wh&Ch

Issue No. 46 ● January 19th, 1974 ● Ivor Lott and Tony Broke from COR!!, 2 pages

Issue No. 47 ● January 26th, 1974 ● No Star Guest

Issue No. 48 ● February 2nd, 1974 ● Jack Pott from COR!!

Issue No. 49 ● February 9th, 1974 ● Wear 'em Out Wilf from Wh&Ch

Issue No. 50 ● February 16th, 1974 ● Willy Worry from COR!!

Issue No. 51 ● February 23rd, 1974 ● No Star Guest

Issue No. 52 ● March 2nd, 1974 ● Timothy Tester from Wh&Ch finds himself in Scream Inn

Issue No. 53 ● March 9th, 1974 ● Teacher’s Pet from COR!!

Issue No. 54 ● March 16th, 1974 ● Pete's Pockets from Wh&Ch

Issue No. 55 ● March 23rd, 1974 ● Wonder Worm from COR!!

Issue No. 56 ● March 30th, 1974 ● Odd-Ball from Wh&Ch

Issue No. 57 ● April 6th, 1974 ● Fiends and Neighbours from COR!!

Issue No. 58 ● April 13rd, 1974 ● Champ from Wh&Ch

Issue No. 59 ● April 20th, 1974 ● The Slimms from COR!!

Issue No. 60 ● April 27th, 1974 ● Belle Tent from Wh&Ch

Issue No. 61 ● May 4th, 1974 ● Chalky from COR!!

Issue No. 62 ● May 11st, 1974 ● Beat Your Neighbour from Wh&Ch

Issue No. 63 ● May 18th, 1974 ● Tomboy from COR!!

Issue No. 64 ● May 25th, 1974 ● Pete's Pockets from Wh&Ch

Issue No. 65 ● June 1st, 1974 ● Football Madd from COR!!

Issue No. 66 ● June 8th, 1974 ● Harry's Haunted House from Wh&Ch

Issue No. 67 ● June 15th, 1974 ● Hire A Horror from COR!!

Issue No. 68 ● June 22nd, 1974 ● Joker from Wh&Ch by McDiarmid

Issue No. 69 ● June 29th, 1974 ● Evil Eye from Whoopee! by McDiarmid

Issue No. 70 ● August 3rd, 1974 ● The Slimms from Wh&Ch

Issue No. 71 ● August 10th, 1974 ● Ad Lad from Whoopee!

Issue No. 72 ● August 17th, 1974 ● Fuss Pot from Wh&Ch

Issue No. 73 ● August 24th, 1974 ● Shiner from Wh&Ch by Frank McDiarmid

Issue No. 74 ● August 31st, 1974 ● Spy School from Whoopee! by Frank McDiarmid 

Issue No. 75 ● September 7th, 1974 ● Loser from Wh&Ch by Frank McDiarmid

Issue No. 76 ● September 14th, 1974 ● Little Miss Muffit from Whoopee! by Frank McDiarmid

Issue No. 77 ● September 21st, 1974 ● Odd-Ball from Wh&Ch by Frank McDiarmid

Issue No. 78 ● September 28th, 1974 ● No Star Guest

Issue No. 79 ● October 5th, 1974 ● Wear 'em Out Wilf from Wh&Ch by Frank McDiarmid

In order for this account of SHIVER AND SHAKE strips and features to be complete, I will also mention two one-offs.

Screen Screams collage was included in issue 68 (June 22nd, 1974). A few of these can also be found in SHIVER AND SHAKE Holiday Special 1974 and possibly some later Specials and Annuals too, but this remains to be checked in due course:

Doctor Heckle was included in issue 48 (February 2nd, 1974) and shared the page with another strange feature ‘Ed – That’s me, folks! that I mentioned in my earlier post on Eagle Eye HERE. Doctor Heckle can be found in SHIVER AND SHAKE Annual 1975. Let’s wait and see if he also appeared in any later Sh&Sh publications:

And this is where I will close my box of Shiver and Shake weeklies and put it away because the review of the paper is now complete! I hope the posts brought back some nice memories from your happy days and I am strongly convinced that a few of the strips (such as FrankieStein, Scream Inn, Sweeny Toddler, Grimly Feendish, Wizards Anonymous and others) have a lasting value beyond nostalgia.  

Now let’s take a look at the goodness inside SHIVER AND SHAKE Holiday Specials and Annuals…

A LOOK AT SHIVER & SHAKE STRIPS: CREEPY CAR

Advertisement in SHIVER AND SHAKE No. 70

Creepy Car was a motor ghost and the spirit of an old car that was sent to the scrapyard. Here is the first episode that tells us about its origins:

The car ghost that we know from the brief run in SHIVER AND SHAKE wasn’t one of those spooks that were fond of scaring people. It was a weak little phantom that saw no fun in being one because other cars would drive right through it so it was always in search for a quiet place where it wouldn’t be bothered. Being a ghost, it preferred to ‘park’ inside other vehicles. Needless to say, it always chose the wrong places.

Creepy Car was introduced in SHIVER AND SHAKE 71 and lasted for 9 weeks until the final issue. It was part of SHIVER. The illustrator was the excellent Reg Parlett. The strip made it to the combined new paper and enjoyed a long run in WHOOPEE!  until the first issue of 1980, first as a weekly strip, and from 1979 – as part of the Ghostly Go Round feature that was introduced as the popularity of the horror comedy genre began to fade and the weekly rotation of the once-popular strips Evil Eye, Fun Fear, Creepy Car and ‘Orrible Hole started.

Creepy Car is also the last on the list of 'proper' strips in SHIVER AND SHAKE which means that all of the paper’s features have now been accounted for in this blog! The next post will deal with the Star Guest feature and a few remaining bits and bobs, and then it I will turn to SHIVER AND SHAKE holiday specials and annuals.

A LOOK AT SHIVER & SHAKE STRIPS: GHOUL GETTERS

If you’ve got a spook you want shifted, call for the Ghoul Getters, Ltd. - read the caption above one weekly episode of this nice strip by Trevor Metcalfe. The ghoul-getting service was a small family business run by Dad and his lad Arnold.  When called, they would arrive in their ghost-proof van, sometimes use their ‘spookometer’ to detect the ghost, put one of their letter-coded plans into action and send the ghost packing. Plan A was the one that never failed – it involved the use of the ghost sucker, or the super ‘spook-sucker-inner’ – a device that would suck the ghost in. The Ghoul Getters would then drive it away and drop it off someplace where the ghost wouldn’t be such a nuisance. In the first episode they rid a lady from a noisy one and dropped him off at an all-nite disco where visitors couldn’t care less about noise.

The Ghoul Getters started in SHIVER AND SHAKE issue No. 71 and was a strong addition to the lineup. The strip occupied 1 ½ pages in the spooky SHIVER section of the paper. All but one episodes were illustrated by Trevor Metcalfe who signed a number of his sets towards the end, and the episode in issue 75 was by Tomboy artist. Seven episodes were self-contained stories but the Phantom Piper tale (the last story in SHIVER AND SHAKE) was serialised over two weeks. You can read both parts in this post, here is the first:

SHIVER AND SHAKE was merged into WHOOPEE merely 9 weeks after The Ghoul Getters first appeared. It was considered to be good enough to deserve a slot in the new combined paper and continued there for nearly two years until the end of February 1976 (exactly like Blunder Puss).

One can’t help noticing similarities between The Ghoul Getters and the famous Ghostbusters film, although the strip predates the movie by a whole decade so it wasn’t a spoof but rather the other way round. Could it have been that the American writers of Ghostbusters were familiar with this little strip published in a British children’s comic?  

A LOOK AT SHIVER & SHAKE STRIPS: THE GHOSTLY GALLEON

The Ghostly Galleon was part of the package of three new features introduced in SHIVER AND SHAKE No. 71 merely a few weeks before the paper was discontinued. Two boys Philip Drake and his brother Frankie accidentally found themselves aboard an ancient Spanish galleon buried in the sand off the Norfolk coast. This is how the story began:

As can be seen from the first episode, The Ghostly Galleon was yet another adventure serial that offered the readers a chance to win some cash.  The plot was simple and easily predictable. Details aside, the Ghostly Galleon was in fact a carbon copy of The Terrible Trail to Taggart'sTreasure that appeared SHIVER AND SHAKE issues 14 – 22.  

The boys soon found out they weren’t alone aboard the ship and that a mysterious character was determined not to let them escape. The violent masked bloke wasted no time in assaulting the two brothers with his antique but deadly weapons such as a halberd, a blunderbuss, a trident, etc. Scared for their lives, the boys rushed about the ancient ship, finding holes, hidden passages and doors that led them from one compartment to another, and occasionally fought back by popping champagne corks...

The bloke appeared to be well-familiar with the layout of the old galleon and chased the boys all over the place – from the top to the bottom and then back to the top, smashing though walls and never falling far behind. In the final episode Philip and Frankie broke out onto the upper deck, accidentally stumbled across an ancient Spanish treasure chest full of gold, silver and precious jewels, and mustered up the courage to confront the villain. Surprise, surprise – it was Professor John Harvey, another greedy mad scientist (a historian) who was after the treasure and was unwilling to share it with anyone. Here is the last instalment:

Readers were invited to enter for The Ghostly Galleon competition:

This being the last issue, the editor had a small logistical problem with competition results but promised to publish them in the combined WHOOPEE! AND SHIVER & SHAKE. The results can be found in Whoopee! and Shiver and Shake cover-dated 30th Nov., 1974:

The Ghostly Galleon appeared in SHIVER AND SHAKE issues 71 – 79 and was part of SHAKE section; it was a two pager, apart from the opening episode that was two pages long and had an extra page with the drawings of the galleon so that readers could follow the two brothers’ dramatic flight through the buried ship. I don’t know the name of the artist but it looks like he also illustrated Rat Trap in COR!! There is something about the style that reminds me of girls’ comics.