A LOOK AT SHIVER & SHAKE STRIPS: CREEPY CREATIONS

Creepy Creations pioneered the fine tradition of monster-themed back page pinups in IPC children’s comics of the seventies. The editor of SHIVER AND SHAKE probably came up with the idea in order to utilise Ken Reid’s talent for drawing monsters and freaks. Readers of SHIVER AND SHAKE were invited to send their sketches and each week one lucky entrant whose idea was selected and redrawn by a “not-so-tame Shiver and Shake artist” received a prize of £1. Creepy Creations had very exotic names (e.g. The Rustington Webbed-Footed Wriggling Flu Germ or The Long-Haired Luvvaduck from Liverpool, etc.). I wonder if they were suggested by readers or made up in house?

The large number of entries for Creepy Creations contest soon prompted the addition of a Creepy Creations Runners-Up page presenting a weekly selection of the entries that didn’t quite make it to the star-spot on the back page but fully deserved to appear in print and attract a prize of 50 p. Creepy Creations Runners-Up first appeared in SHIVER AND SHAKE issue No. 7 (21st April, 1973) and occupied a full page until issue No. 47 (26th January, 1974). You can view some nice examples in an earlier post of the series here. From issue 48 it was reduced to half a page and found itself sharing the space with Cackles feature. Towards the end of the paper's run Creepy Creations Runners-Up shrank to a mere quarter of a page and the entries became ever-less inspired. Perhaps the Editor was saving the good ones for World-Wide Weirdies in WHOOPEE! Nonetheless, the feature continued until the very last edition of the paper.

The Creepy Creations proper appeared on the back cover of every single issue of SHIVER AND SHAKE. Just like many IPC comics, SHIVER AND SHAKE didn’t have issue numbers but Creepy Creations were numbered and therefore provide a convenient way of identifying individual issues. Ken Reid contributed the vast majority of the illustrations but several drawings were by other artists. Two early ones were in fact taken from Reg Parlett’s Hire A Horror strip in COR!! comic: the horror from COR!! issue of 11th July 1970 (No. 6) reappeared as The Chip Chomping Tater Terror of Tring (Creepy Creation No. 2) in Shiver and Shake dated 17th March, 1973:

…and Igor from COR!! issue of 7th August, 1971 (No. 62) re-emerged as The Cowley Cowdog (Creepy Creation No. 9) in Shiver and  Shake dated 5th May, 1973:

A few other Creepy Creations were drawn by someone else, or perhaps they were good quality sketches sent by the readers?  Here are two examples:

Below is the index of all Creepy Creations:

Issue No. 1 ● March 10th, 1973 ● The One-Eyed Wonk of Wigan

Issue No. 2 ● March 17th, 1973 ● The Chip Chomping Tater Terror of Tring – by Reg Parlett from Hire A Horror (COR!!)

Issue No. 3 ● March 24th, 1973 ● The Hooter-Hiker of Harrogate

Issue No. 4 ● March 31st, 1973 ● The Fanatical Fungus-Grower of Frogpool

Issue No. 5 ● April 7th, 1973 ● The Trumpington Trumpeter

Issue No. 6 ● April 14th, 1973 ● The Manchester Aqua-Kwak

Issue No. 7 ● April 21st, 1973 ● The Boggle-Eyed Butty-Biter of Sandwich

Issue No. 8 ● April 28th, 1973 ● The Long-Haired Luvvaduck from Liverpool

Issue No. 9 ● May 5th, 1973 ● The Cowley Cowdog – by Reg Parlett from Hire A Horror (COR!!)

Issue No. 10 ● May 12th, 1973 ● The Horrible Hobble of Harrow

Issue No. 11 ● May 19th, 1973 ● Dripula the Monster from the Swamp

Issue No. 12 ● May 26th, 1973 ● The Turkish Turn-Eyed Twitter

Issue No. 13 ● June 2nd, 1973 ● The Five-Footed Fiend From Fleet

Issue No. 14 ● June 9th, 1973 ● The Sunningdale Golf Ball Bat – this one doesn’t look like Ken Reid at all

Issue No. 15 ● June 16th, 1973 ● The Green Groper – this one too doesn’t look like Ken Reid

Issue No. 16 ● June 23rd, 1973 ● The Gruesome Ghoul From Goole

Issue No. 17 ● June 30th, 1973 ● The Flying Freak of Fife

Issue No. 18 ● July 7th, 1973 ● A Scottish Spook From Selkirk

Issue No. 19 ● July 14th, 1973 ● The Many-Headed Monster From Monmouth – Not by Ken Reid

Issue No. 20 ● July 21st, 1973 ● The Rustington Webbed-Footed Wriggling Flu Germ

Issue No. 21 ● July 28th, 1973 ● The Goggle-Eyed Goon of Gloucester. A friend of this blog Kid Robson shared some interesting details about this particular instalment in his post here.

Issue No. 22 ● August 4th, 1973 ● The Money-Grabber of Montrose

Issue No. 23 ● August 11st, 1973 ● The Clacton Candy Shop Monster

Issue No. 24 ● August 18th, 1973 ● The Great Train Horror – Not by Ken Reid

Issue No. 25 ● August 25th, 1973 ● The Pear-Drop Pincher from Paddington

Issue No. 26 ● September 1st, 1973 ● The Disco-Tec. What's with the Sherlock Holmes image of the DJ?

Issue No. 27 ● September 8th, 1973 ● The Fork-Eating Spaghetti Spook

Issue No. 28 ● September 15th, 1973 ● Frankinspider

Issue No. 29 ● September 22/1973 ● The Marrow Chiller of Charlton

Issue No. 30 ● September 29th, 1973 ● The Gruesome Green-Fingered Gardener of Greenwich

Issue No. 31 ● October 6th, 1973 ● The Fanged Fiend from Finland

Issue No. 32 ● October 13rd, 1973 ● The Fearsome Food Muncher of Snortlewick

Issue No. 33 ● October 20th, 1973 ● The Two-Handed High Eye Bird

Issue No. 34 ● October 27th, 1973 ● The Creepy Fly-Swatter from Swattington

Issue No. 35 ● November 3rd, 1973 ● The Prune-Eating Plonk From Perivale

Issue No. 36 ● November 10th, 1973 ● The Hairy Horror of Hengoed

Issue No. 37 ● November 17th, 1973 ● The Gruesome Grannie of Grantham

Issue No. 38 ● November 24th, 1973 ● The Double-Winged Wimble of Wallasey

Issue No. 39 ● December 1st, 1973 ● The Flying Haggis from Hamilton

Issue No. 40 ● December 8th, 1973 ● The Horrid Hand from Hull

Issue No. 41 ● December 15th, 1973 ● The Vampire Banana

Issue No. 42 ● December 22nd, 1973 ● The Wart Trunk Terror of Teesside

Issue No. 43 ● December 29th, 1973 ● The Horrible Estate-Eater from Eaton

Issue No. 44 ● January 5th, 1974 ● The Terrible Twig of Truro

Issue No. 45 ● January 12th, 1974 ● The Amazing Electric Light Blob

Issue No. 46 ● January 19th, 1974 ● The Chelmsford Chaser

Issue No. 47 ● January 26th, 1974 ● The Longford Lolly Licker

Issue No. 48 ● February 2nd, 1974 ● "Gork" the Slimming Instructor

Issue No. 49 ● February 9th, 1974 ● The Geordie Mining Monster from Newcastle

Issue No. 50 ● February 16th, 1974 ● The Freaky Fried Fish Finger from Frome

Issue No. 51 ● February 23rd, 1974 ● The Mischievious Mousey Monster from Manchester

Issue No. 52 ● March 2nd, 1974 ● The Barmy Birmingham Banjo Basher

Issue No. 53 ● March 9th, 1974 ● The Venomous Vacuum from Ventnor + two extra Mini Monsters in Frankie Stein Mini pull-out book: The Horrific Hot Water Bottle from Formby and Ye Olde Tower of Haunts; you can see both Mini Monsters in an earlier post of this series here. 

Issue No. 54 ● March 16th, 1974 ● A Crab-Nosed Clodhopper from Cleethorpes

Issue No. 55 ● March 23rd, 1974 ● The Soggy Seaweed Monster of Southsea

Issue No. 56 ● March 30th, 1974 ● The Huge Humbug-Hugging Honey Sucker from Hampton

Issue No. 57 ● April 6th, 1974 ● The Grub-Grabbing Gourmet from Glutton

Issue No. 58 ● April 13rd, 1974 ● The Mug-Eyed Moon Watcher

Issue No. 59 ● April 20th, 1974 ● The Barmy Wellington Boot Bee Monster of Barnsley

Issue No. 60 ● April 27th, 1974 ● The Feathered Flop from Filey

Issue No. 61 ● May 4th, 1974 ● Hans Eyeboot - the Gruesome Guard

Issue No. 62 ● May 11st, 1974 ● The Horrific Horror Chess Men

Issue No. 63 ● May 18th, 1974 ● The Rolling Wheeler from Skeleton Rock

Issue No. 64 ● May 25th, 1974 ● Lamplight Larry from Lichfield

Issue No. 65 ● June 1st, 1974 ● The Tee-Caddy Terror

Issue No. 66 ● June 8th, 1974 ● Terry the Terrible

Issue No. 67 ● June 15th, 1974 ● The Phantom Highland Mummy

Issue No. 68 ● June 22/1974 ● The Pugnacious Piano of Peterborough

Issue No. 69 ● June 29th, 1974 ● The Monster Map of England and Wales

Issue No. 70 ● August 3rd, 1974 ● The Rumbling Raspberry from Rustington

Issue No. 71 ● August 10th, 1974 ● The Terrifying Toadstool Terror of Torquay

Issue No. 72 ● August 17th, 1974 ● The Three Legged Eyeball

Issue No. 73 ● August 24th, 1974 ● Nelly the Kneecap-Nipping Telly from Newcastle

Issue No. 74 ● August 31st, 1974 ● Triclopus

Issue No. 75 ● September 7th, 1974 ● The Abominable Hairy-Plane

Issue No. 76 ● September 14th, 1974 ● The Terrible Tortoise from Terrindon

Issue No. 77 ● September 21st, 1974 ● The Slippy Sloppy Horror Soap

Issue No. 78 ● September 28th, 1974 ● The Mersey Tunneller

Issue No. 79 ● October 5th, 1974 ● Bartholomew The Low-Flying Crocodile Catching Bluebottle

Creepy Creations in Shiver and Shake Holiday Specials

Shiver and Shake 1973 Christmas Holiday Special: 

The Decoration Demon

The Gift Wrapped Ghoul (in black and white)

The Plum Pudding Thingy

Ronnie the Rampaging Reindeer

Creepy Creations in Shiver and Shake Annuals

Shiver and Shake 1974 Annual:

The Snowmanosaurus of Winterton

The Slippery Slyder of Sledmere

Shiver and Shake 1975 Annual:

1975 calendar (4 pages)

Ken Reid must have enjoyed drawing the feature and in all likelihood it was hugely popular with the readers because one year after its premiere in the first issue of SHIVER AND SHAKE a similar feature was launched in the new WHOOPEE! comic where it was called Wanted Posters. When the two comics merged in 1974, the feature was renamed as World-Wide Weirdies and continued until October of 1978.

This post rounds up my reviews of the strips that started in the first issue of SHIVER AND SHAKE. That’s roughly a half of all SHIVER AND SHAKE strips accounted for. Although the comic’s main strips (Frankie Stein, Scream Inn, Lolly Pop, Sweeny Toddler) have already been covered, there is still a lot of goodness ahead, including Grimly Feendish, Wizards Anonymous, Ghouldilocks and others, so stay tuned for more :)