SERIALISED FACEACHE STORIES – PART TEN: POLTERGEIST

The next serialised Faceache story by Ken Reid appeared in two consecutive issues of BUSTER cover-dated May 19th and 26th, 1979, and it went like this:

Mr. Snipe is terrified of the Belmonte Beastie, the famous invisible spook, which haunts the school’s stock room, and Faceache volunteers to get rid of it. 

The spook is impressed with Faceache’s ability to scrunge. Flattered, Faceache nevertheless tells him to scat so that the lad can claim his month off homework. The ghost vanishes and Faceache reports to Mr. Snipe that the little horror has departed from the school forever. But somewhere in the limbo the Belmonte Beastie meets his fellow-spooks, and invites them back to Belmonte school to see a genius kid who could teach them all a few tricks…

The Belmonte Beastie returns to school with some of his pals: 

Thinking that it’s now safe, Mr. Snipe enters the stock room and is pelted by invisible ghosts. Upon hearing the racket, Faceache rushes to the stock room, thinking that the spook has returned and he’ll have to scrunge again to scare it off. Mr. Snipe takes the scrunged Faceache for the spook that has become visible, and assaults him with a stick, threatening exorcism:

Seeing what scrunging may lead to, the ghosts leave the school stock room for good, not wanting any part of it...

Characters are © Rebellion Publishing Ltd

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SERIALISED FACEACHE STORIES – PART NINE: PHOTOGRAPHY

The next serialised Faceache story by Ken Reid appeared in two consecutive issues of BUSTER cover-dated 28 April and 5 May, 1979 and it went like this:

The Headmaster starts a Belmonte school young photographer’s club. For the first project he wants his students to go out on the moors and photograph some of the most unusual forms of bird life that abound there. Faceache comes up with an idea to scrunge into a Stripe-breasted Tail-less Gruk and snap himself with the camera on automatic ... 

...but forgets to remove his photographer’s club badge and Mr. Snipe quickly spots the trick. 

The teacher instructs Faceache to photograph a genuine woodland bird and sneaks after him to make sure the boy doesn’t scrunge.  Faceache discards his badge and is about to scrunge into another unusual creature when he runs into a real monster-bird…

As it turns out, it is only an actor in padded make-up engaged in the making of a film entitled “The Bird-Beast of Blackfell Moor”.

Faceache prepares to take his picture for the project but Mr. Snipe thinks he has caught Faceache in the act of scrunging and assaults the actor with his cane. Faceache tries to warn the teacher that he is thrashing a big musclebound actor with an uncontrollable temper but it’s already too late, and the actor never accepts an apology... 

Faceache photographs Mr. Snipe in full flight from the actor’s blow – an unusual bird indeed.

Characters are © Rebellion Publishing Ltd

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WEEKLY OUTPUT – REG PARLETT

Reg Parlett’s page count in IPC comics cover-dated 30^th March 1974 was 7 pages. The artist had such a natural and flowing style, that it seems almost effortless but still very appealing to the eye. The quality of the art shows no signs that he struggled drawing his pages or had to rush them in order to meet his deadlines. 

Two two-pagers in Whoopee! and Whizzer and Chips were centered around the much-overused but apparently very popular theme of poor kids vs the rich:

…while one page in Whoopee! represented the new favourite line of horror comedy:

And of course there were two pages of Billy Bunter in Valiant:

Had Buster not missed that week, the artist’s stats would have been not 7 but 10 pages. This is how Reg Parlett’s regular features in Buster looked like in the issue of the week before.  Happy Family was a reprint, so under normal circumstances Reg Parlett’s weekly output amounted to the impressive quantity of 9 pages at that time! 

Mike Lacey is next in line...

Images are © Rebellion Publishing IP Ltd

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SERIALISED FACEACHE STORIES – PART SIX: THRASHBOTTOM TAKES ACTION TO PROTECT HIS CAREER

Faceache story arch No. 6 can be found in BUSTER issues cover-dated 25 November and 2 December, 1978, so it is almost exactly 40 years old today. Faceache doesn’t get to do much scrunging in this story, and it goes like this:

Late at night Faceache is practicing some leg-and-foot scrunges in the school grounds… 

Mr. Snipe discovers monstrous footprints in the morning and devises a plan of dispensing with the mysterious brute. He puts Faceache in charge of shooting the monster down when it falls into the old school well and shoots up on the coiled spring that Mr. Snipe has installed at the bottom. The Teach pompously shares his plan with the Headmaster:

Anxious that Mr. Snipe’s ambition might be to get him fired and steal his job, Albert Thrashbottom gets filled with hate and resentment...

On guard out in the school grounds, Faceache hears something inhuman approaching…

Headmaster is determined to nab the fiend first and steal Mr. Snipe’s glory. Faceache tries to warn the fool of the danger but Headmaster ignores the kid and walks straight into the trap. Upon seeing something zoom out of the well, Mr. Snipe commands Faceache’s to shoot it, with predictable consequences:

Characters are © Rebellion Publishing Ltd

Click on the POWER PACK banner in the right-hand column and get your copy of the POWER PACK OF KEN REID - the deluxe two-volume set of Ken’s strips in WHAM!, SMASH! and POW! comics of the ‘60s. 

Remember that all buyers who order their books by the end of 2018 will receive free prints of Ken’s original Frankie Stein artwork – 2 prints (one complete episode) per book, or 4 prints (2 complete episodes) per two-volume set.