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 27, 2016

GUEST APPEARANCES AT SCREAM INN – SCARED-STIFF SAM




In the last episode of Scream Inn with a guest appearance of another Whoopee! character that I showed some three weeks ago the resident spooks hoped for Scared-Stiff Sam


They had to deal with ‘Orrible Hole instead that time, but sure enough, the forever-scared 'clumsy great jollop' was the next Whoopee! character to have a go at the prize of one million pounds in the issue of Whoopee! & Shiver and Shake cover-dated August 2nd, 1975.

As always, the images below show that week’s episode of Scream Inn, followed by the strip where the guest character appears in his normal setting. Four pages by two excellent artists Brian Walker and Mike Lacey. It’s British comics at their very best, as far as I am concerned! Enjoy! 




Tuesday, August 16, 2016

GHOUL GETTERS LTD. TURN GHOST GETTERS



It’s time I took a break from the alternating routine of SPARKY/The Moonsters and Scream Inn  and did something else I enjoy in my quest of researching British comics. 

The theme of this post was suggested by Stephen Archer – a long-time friend of this blog. When commenting on my 2013 article about Ghoul Getters Ltd. (a SHIVER & SHAKE strip that made a jump to WHOOPEE! AND SHIVER & SHAKE when the two papers were merged in 1974) he mentioned reprints in 1984/1985 WHIZZER AND CHIPS with nice alterations to original artwork. 

It’s not often that you find those done nicely, so when Stephen mentioned them to me for the first time, I suspected they might be new material by Trevor Metcalfe (whom I’m also proud to have in my followers list). I only have two issues of WHIZZER AND CHIPS with the reprints (Stephen thinks they ran from 24/11/84 till 23/3/85) but having pulled out my WHOOPEE! collection, I soon found that Stephen was right and they were indeed reprinted from the WHOOPEE! run.



My original article mentions similarities between Ghoul Getters Ltd. (1974) and the American supernatural film Ghostbusters (1984). When the film was released and became a blockbuster in 1984, it was only natural for IPC to revive Ghoul Getters Ltd., renamed as Ghost Getters, in one of their comics. IPC also made sure the heroes were more ‘Ghostbuster-like’, hence alterations and additions (Dad wears a crash helmet and Arnold’s cap has an aerial, etc.). Check out two samples of the two versions below. What do you think of the alterations?



Friday, August 12, 2016

THE MOONSTERS COVERS OF SPARKY - PART SEVEN



Friday afternoon is The Moonsters time on Kazoop!! 

Enjoy part seven of the complete gallery of Sparky comic front covers featuring The Moonsters











Friday, August 5, 2016

GUEST APPEARANCES AT SCREAM INN – ‘ORRIBLE HOLE!!




‘Orrible Hole, illustrated by Reg Parlett, started in WHOOPEE! (or rather WHOOPEE! & SHIVER AND SHAKE) No. 43 (January 18, 1975), appeared regularly throughout 1975 and 1976 and the first half of 1977, then became less frequent. It continued to pop up during 1978 and 1979 as part of the Ghostly Go Round Feature, and ended in WHOOPEE! No. 300, cover-dated January 12, 1980.

This little weird character knocked on the door of Scream Inn in Whoopee! & SHIVER AND SHAKE No. 58 (May 3, 1975). Check out the two-pager, followed by the ‘Orrible Hole strip proper from the same issue of the excellent and hilarious WHOOPEE! comic. Aren't they marvelous?!! I really must get round to doing a detailed overview of WHOOPEE! when I have more free time on my hands…