welcome and enjoy!

Hi and welcome to my blog about comics from other people’s childhood! It is dedicated primarily to British humour comics of the 60s and 70s. The reason they are not from my childhood is simply because I didn’t live in the UK back then (nor do I live there now). I knew next to nothing about them until fairly recently but since then I’ve developed a strong liking for the medium and amassed a large collection, including a number of complete or near complete sets. My intention is to use this blog as a channel for sharing my humble knowledge about different titles, favourite characters and creators as I slowly research my collection.

QUICK TIP: this blog is a sequence of posts covering one particular comic at a time. The sequence follows a certain logic, so for maximum results it is recommended that the blog is read from the oldest post up.

Copyright of all images and quotations used here is with their respective owners. Any such copyrighted material is used exclusively for educational purposes and will be removed at first notice. All other text copyright Irmantas P.



Saturday, August 3, 2013

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.

5 comments:

  1. Always loved Creepy Car - especially in the later strips when it was like he was accepted as part of everyday life by the townsfolk - "Oh no, Creepy Car!".

    I didn't know that bit of information about the Ghostly Go-Round - always thought it was just a leftover bit from Fun Fear that they were using for some reason. NOW I know! Cheers for that!

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  2. Thanks for showing the first episode...if its possible could you put up page 2 of the origin as well..

    Never realised it was in Shiver and shake before Whoopee!!

    I love this strip by Reg..

    What great characters started in Shiver and shake...I wonder if these new characters was to try and keep shiver and shake going..?

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    1. I'm afraid that's the whole of the first episode, there is no page two.

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    2. Its interesting the first episode he is an angry car very different to the Whoopee version..

      So thats the end of getting revenge on his previous owner?

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    3. It appears so. There is no mention of the previous owner in the second episode in which Creepy Car deals with a gang of car thieves.

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