1979 SHIVER
AND SHAKE ANNUAL, price £1.10, 144 pages.
Contents: Sweeny Toddler (2 episodes by Paul
Ailey), Ghoul Getters Ltd (2 episodes by Jim Crocker), The Forest
Legion (8 pages), Sports School (2 episodes by Jim
Watson), Shake (3 episodes by Terry Bave), Quick on the Draw (cowboy
gags by Jack Clayton), Telly Titles Quiz, Scrapper’s
Scrap Book (4 episodes by Leo Baxendale reprints from LION comic), The Shake Squad (4 reprints of The Lion Lot by Leo
Baxendale from LION), Shark Snaps (shark gags by Jim
Crocker, signed), Webster (4 two-pagers by Terry Bave and a 4-pager by another
artist), Daisy Jones’ Locket, Horrornation Street (one set by Les
Barton and a 4-pager by Tom Williams), Frankie
Stein (6 pages by John
Geering), The Desert Fox (3 episodes by Terry Bave), The Duke’s Spook (2
episodes), Wizard Demon and Demon Druid in Wiz War (6 reprints from SMASH!/POW!), Scatty Bat (reprint from WHIZZER AND
CHIPS), ‘Orrible Hole (Whoopee!
strip, 2 two-pagers by Les Barton), Blunder Puss (2 episodes by Jim Crocker),
The
Ghost’s Revenge (2 episodes by Jim Crocker), Shiver (2 episodes by
Terry Bave), Creepy Car (2 episodes by Crocker), Prof.
Cube’s Schooldays (a 5-pager by John Geering), The
Hand (2 episodes by Crocker), Grimly Feendish (a 4-pager signed by
Paul Ailey and a 2-pager by an unidentified artist), Constable
Claud and His Magic Machine (a 6-pager by John Geering), Christmas
Crackers (X-mas gags by Jack Clayton), Good Deed
Charlie (two 2-pagers by Paul Ailey), Animal Antics (animal
gags by Jack Clayton), Toby’s
Timepiece (adventure, a 6-pager), Moana Lisa, Popopoly (a dice and
counter game), Lolly Pop (a 3-pager by an unidentified artist), Tough
Nutt and Softy Centre (a 3-pager by Norman Mansbridge).
Assuming the
above illustrator credits are correct, the biggest contributor of new material
for this Annual was Jim Crocker with as many as 22 pages. He was followed closely by Terry Bave (19
pages) and John Geering (17 pages), Paul Ailey also worked hard on this one and
drew 12 pages.
In this 1979
SHIVER AND SHAKE ANNUAL The Forest Legion save a boy who is
kidnapped and held for ransom by Boss and Butch, resident crooks of the strip. This
doesn’t upset the gangsters very much because they already have the ransom
money but the smart forest animals outwit the two crooks once again. The
illustrator has included his autograph in the last panel. I think it says
Mazza, which suggests the artist probably has an Italian connection…
Jack
Clayton’s gags were a fresh addition to the package:
I find Jim
Crocker’s Shark Snaps rather funny too:
Les Barton
was put in charge of two sets of ‘Orrible Hole and one episode of Horrornation Street. I like his take on the strip, although Tom Williams is still my
preferred Horrornation Street artist.
Grimly Feendish tries three different plots to pinch a
diamond from the jeweller’s. Not only all of them fail but the World’s rottenest
crook also sustains a concussion. His symptoms are quite bizarre: he goes straight, runs all of his aides in and
confesses to his own crimes too…
In Toby’s
Timepiece, Mother is cooking dinner and Toby is not one of those who’d
hang around for two hours doing nothing; time-travel addict that he is, he’d
rather put his magical timepiece into action and face the consequences… This
time he finds himself in ancient Rome and is forced to fight a trained
gladiator. He uses his watch as a pendulum to hypnotise his opponent and is the
victor but the Empress wants the timepiece because of its magic hypnotic powers.
Then Toby foils an assassination attempt on the Emperor, gets his watch back as
a reward and is invited to an imperial banquet as the Empress’ guest of honour.
It is not surprising that upon his return to the present he doesn’t want any of
the dinner that his Mother has cooked for him.
Now let’s
take a look at the three new strips included in the 1979 SHIVER AND SHAKE Annual.
Good Deed
Charlie illustrated by Paul Ailey (who mimicked
Leo Baxendale and Tom Paterson) is a strip about a boy whose mission in life is
to do good deeds for people. Sometimes the people are glad and sometimes they are
not, but Charlie’s good intentions are always sincere:
John
Geering’s Constable Claud and his Magic Machine tells the story of
Constable Claud who is a member of the bike squad but his mind is set on the
Wild West rather than police work. A weird-looking repair shop manager casts a
few spells on his bike and from now on the machine comes to life whenever
Constable Claude gives the McGravel shout. The bike becomes a combination of a machine
and a horse, and helps Constable Claud in his police duties.
The third
new strip is also by John Geering but it hardly qualifies as completely new
because the main character has been around for decades. Prof. Cube’s Schooldays
tells us about the childhood of Frankie Stein’s creator and is interesting
because it features Professor Cube’s Mom and Dad. I have seen strips involving
Prof. Cube’s ancestors and contemporary relatives, but never his parents, so
the instalment is quite remarkable in this respect, never mind the quality of the art. The story suggests that
Prof. Cube would probably be in as much trouble without having created Frankie
because he has always had a knack for destruction and causing havoc with his mad inventions…
Professor
Cube’s parents are not the only close family that we meet in this 1979 SHIVER
AND SHAKE Annual. In Frankie Stein, Professor’s sister Mildred has come to stay over Christmas. She is kindly disposed towards Frankie at
first and can’t understand why her brother wants to get rid of him. Before
long, she is completely on board with Prof. Cube, devising violent schemes to
do away with the ‘big tin twit’. Here is the second part of the two-part
instalment from the Annual:
