SHIVER AND SHAKE 1975 HOLIDAY SPECIAL

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):