The third
SHIVER AND SHAKE Holiday Special came out in the Summer of 1975. It cost 25 p
and boasted “80 pages of fun for Boys and
Ghouls”.
Here is the
account of the contents (strips that didn’t appear in Sh&Sh weeklies, annuals
and other holiday specials are marked in bold): The Duke’s Spook, Frankie
Stein by Bob Nixon, Grimly Feendish
(6 reprints from SMASH!), Memory Game, Creepy Car (2 episodes, one looks like Tom Paterson’s work), The Hand, Horrornation
Street by Frank McDiarmid, Evil Eye
(Star Guest from Whoopee!), Sweeny
Toddler by Leo Baxendale, Shake (4
episodes – 3 by Terry Bave and one by by Mike Lacey), Lolly Pop (2 episodes by Sid Burgon), Scatty Bat (4 reprints from Whizzer
and Chips), Wizard Prang and Demon
Druid (4 reprints from SMASH!/POW! by Mike Brown), The Desert Fox (2 episodes by Terry Bave), Blunder Puss (2 episodes by Jim Crocker), Tough Nutt and Softy Centre by Norman Mansbridge, The Fixer, Tin Tramp and Tinker (2 episodes in full colour), The Webster by Terry Bave, Sports School by Jim Watson, The Ghost’s Revenge, Buy
Buy Birdy by Peter Davidson, The
Ghoul Getters, Oswald by Tomboy artist (Mike Atwell?), Harry’s Haunted House (Guest star from Whizzer and Chips by Les Barton), Frankie Fun, Scream Inn –
4 pages by Brian Walker, Demon
Differences puzzle.
The 1975 Holiday
Special didn’t follow the structure of the weeklies by pretending to be a two-comics-in-one
package so strips from both the spooky Shiver
and the more traditional Shake
sections of the weekly appeared at random. It was the first Sh&Sh Holiday Special
without an adventure ingredient, so no more remakes of Maxwell Hawke from Buster... Like the weeklies, the magazine included star
guest appearances of strips from sister publications, i.e. Evil Eye from Whoopee! (drawn by a substitute amateurish
artist) and Harry’s Haunted House from Whizzer
and Chips (illustrated by the strip's regular artist Les Barton).
The 1975
edition sported a nice cover by Robert Nixon – the last one that he did and
signed for a Sh&Sh Holiday Special. Bob Nixon also contributed a 4-pager of Frankie Stein’s antics at the seaside
but the artwork seems rushed and rather basic, which is quite strange because
1975 was the time when he was still doing brilliant detailed sets in WHOOPEE! Here
is the opening page of the set from the Special:
Frankie
Stein also appeared on Frankie Fun
page drawn by I don’t know who:
This is a
Summer Holiday Special, so it is no surprise that holidays on the beach are the
dominant theme:
 |
| The Ghost's Revenge |
 |
| Lolly Pop |
 |
| Tough Nutt and Softy Centre |
 |
| The Webster |
 |
| Creepy Car |
 |
| The Duke's Spook |
 |
| Lolly Pop |
 |
| Sports School |
One of the
two Blunder Puss episodes drops out
of the summer context when Puss’ guardian angels suggest this is not the right
time to look for butterflies. It looks like the episode was intended for an
annual and found itself in the Summer Holiday Special by mistake…
As seen
from the account of the contents, the Holiday Special offered no big surprises
in terms of who drew what – many sets were by their regular artists (Leo
Baxendale on Sweeny Toddler, Terry
Bave on the Webster and the Desert Fox, Sid Burgon on Lolly Pop, Jim Watson on Sports School, Jim Crocker on Blunder Puss and Brian Walker on Scream Inn). As usual, some strips were
by second-rate ghost artists. Two interesting exceptions were the Horrornation
Street by Frank McDiarmid and a Creepy Car set that I think may have
been drawn by Tom Paterson. Here are two
panels that look like Tom’s artwork to me:
There were
three strips that weren’t familiar to readers of the weeklies or earlier editions
of Shiver and Shake specials and
annuals. Tin Tramp and Tinker was one of those crudely drawn
page-fillers that popped up from time to time in IPC publications. For some
weird reason, this one was given full-colour privileges:
Ossy was a
one-pager about a gluttonous and crafty ostrich:
… and Buy
Buy Birdy was another one-off about the World’s most impulsive spender
Birdy, illustrated by Peter Davidson. I find the idea quite amusing:
There were
two puzzles in the magazine. One was a memory game that consisted of a
full-page drawing of SHIVER & SHAKE characters enjoying themselves at the
fairground, 20 questions about details of the drawing inviting readers to check
their memory (What was the colour of Sweeny’s outfit? How many coconuts were
there in the picture?, etc.) and correct answers to the questions tucked away
at the bottom of one of the pages. Here is the fairground scene of the feature:
The second
one was a spot-the-differences type puzzle – a weak attempt to imitate Ken
Reid’s World-Wide Weirdies:
Now for the
highlights of the magazine: my personal favourites are the three-pager of Horrornation
Street by Frank McDiarmid:
  
… and the
episode of Scream Inn – four pages of excellent artwork by Brian Walker in
which Mrs. Grumble, President of the Irate Landladies’ Association, has a go at
the million quid. The set really shines and stands out amongst other strips in
the Holiday Special:
   
Reprints of
Grimly
Feendish and Wizard Prang and Demon Druid from
Odham’s Power Comics are also a nice addition to the package. Check out examples of both below. Grimly is probably by Leo Baxendale and Wizards is by Mike Brown
(as confirmed by his signature in one of the panels):
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