The name of the next strip - Shiver
and Shake - will probably sound familiar to many fans because later it was lent to a new IPC children’s humour comic. In COR!! Shiver was a spectre
cavalier with a detachable head, a ball and chain on his leg and a sword driven
right through his chest who got his pleasure from scaring mortals. His
companion Shake was a spook whose main obsession was food. The two inhabited an
empty house and were desperate for people to move in. Both had their own
reasons: Shiver was anxious to have someone to scare, while Shake saw tenants
as providers of grub. This represented a conflict of interests of sorts and
Shake usually tried to stop Shiver from scaring the tenants off. Their combined
and often clashing efforts inevitably drove everybody out and the two had to
wait a whole week for someone new to show up.
 |
| From COR!! issue dated 2nd September, 1972 (No. 118) |
The story was given a proper
ending in the last installment when the old house was demolished. Shiver moved
to a ghost train set-up where he could scare people all day long, not just once
a week; Shake landed in a kitchen of a posh restaurant to stay as the resident
ghost.
IMHO the strip had strong potential and the main reason why it was
discontinued was probably because the title as well as the characters were
earmarked for the new comic launched merely one month after the last
installment in COR!!
 |
| From COR!! issue dated 30th December, 1972 (No. 135) |
A strange thing happened to Shake the
COR!! spook when Shiver and Shake
comic was launched in 1973: his spooky self was renamed Shiver and became the
cover star as well as the main character in a new strip called The
Duke's Spook. In the SHIVER AND SHAKE comic (but not in the Duke’s
Spook strip) he acquired a new companion in the shape of an elephant carrying
the spook’s old name – Shake…
Shiver the COR!! spectre cavalier was also
revived in the SHIVER AND SHAKE comic under the name of Suffering Sam in the
long running IPC feature Scream Inn. His other two (nameless)
incarnations in the SHIVER AND SHAKE comic were in the strip called Adrian’s
Wall where he appeared in the role of a cavalier bricked-up inside a
wall, and later in The Ghost's Revenge where he starred as a proper spectre. Quite
confusing, isn’t it?..
The COR!! Shiver and Shake was illustrated
by Arthur Martin. It started on 29th July, 1972 (No. 113) and continued for merely
half a year until 3rd February, 1973 (No. 140), having missed just one week (it
did not appear in the issue dated 20th January, 1973 (No. 138)).
 |
| Two sample covers of the new comic SHIVER AND SHAKE |
The artist is not Reg Parlett..But the Mustpha Millions artist..
ReplyDeletequote
I am no Parlett expert (though would happily become one!) so take this with a pinch of salt, but as soon as I saw that horse I was shocked. RP's work stands out because he NEVER (to my limited knowledge) drew a character that looked wooden, or looked the same in two frames running. That is what mere mortal artists have to do, not our Reg. tolworthy
Some of the characters are the same in the different panels of Shiver and Shake..so the artist is..
Joe McCaffrey
http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=127&t=2094&start=15
Thanks, Peter, I'll go ahead and amend the post.
ReplyDeleteIt's not Joe, it's Arthur Martin;
ReplyDeletehttp://lambiek.net/artists/m/martin_arthur.htm
http://petergraycartoonsandcomics.blogspot.co.uk/2009/01/arthur-martins-comic-work.html
Thanks, Niblet. After taking a very close look, I agree with you – the artwork looks a lot more like Arthur Martin’s than that of Joe McCaffrey’s… I will amend the post once again :)
ReplyDeleteWow! Now I'm confused - I was aware of Joe McCaffrey as I've spoken to him but I've never heard of Arthur Martin!
ReplyDeleteI have to admit that I am too rather confused – Denis Gifford’s encyclopedia of comic characters says both Chalky and the Duke’s Spook were drawn by Arthur Martin but if you put the two strips side by side the artwork looks very different to me. The Duke’s Spook and Shiver and Shake might very well be by the same illustrator and the source who has confirmed the authorship of the Duke’s Spook in Peter’s blogpost was the almighty Kashgar, aka Ray Moore. But who drew Chalky then, because Denis Giffor’s credits appear to be incorrect… Let’s hope someone in the know will shed some light...
ReplyDeleteBy the way, Gifford’s encyclopedia says Mustapha Million was illustrated by Reg Parlett. The strip is also mentioned in the account of Reg Parlett’s work in the Golden Fun fanzine…
ReplyDeleteLooking through this, I originally said Joe McCaffrey, but now you mention it, it is definitely Arthur Martin - similar in style to the early Chalky strips.
ReplyDeleteReg did draw Mustapha at the beginning.
Yep, that's right. In its initial run in Cheeky Weekly, Reg was the original MM artist, drawing a total of 56 strips, and Joe drew 57.
Deletehttp://cheekyweekly.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/features-mustapha-million_28.html
Of course, Frank McDiarmid also drew some Mustapha strips in its Whizzer and Chips era.
http://toonworks.brucelaing.com/comicblog/2012/03/08/mustaphamillion/
In Denis Gifford's book he only one artist for each character, sometimes the first artist and sometimes the longest running etc. - maybe Reg drew all those strips at some point?
ReplyDelete