SERIALISED FACEACHE STORIES – PART FOURTEEN: WATERLOO

The next hilarious 4-part FACEACHE story arc written and drawn by Ken Reid came immediately after the previous one, and can be found BUSTER cover dated 22 September - 13 October, 1979. 

Check out the summary below, but before you do, please, remember that I am celebrating Ken's 100th birthday by offering free prints of his original artwork with every purchase of THE POWER PACK books!

Belmonte pupils are to re-enact the battle of Waterloo for the school pageant, and Mr. Snipe asks the Headmaster for his suggestions for creating sound of imitation cannon fire.  The Headmaster says he’ll think about it later, but in the meantime, he offers Faceache 50 p to blow up the new inflatable office furniture for him...

Faceache decides to take his revenge...

Sitting in his new inflatable arm-chair, Mr. Thrashbottom is thinking about battle sound effects for the boys’ Waterloo re-enactment. Faceache prangs the arm-chair and the burst sends the Headmaster crashing through the roof. He lands on the inflatable settee whose explosion sends him crashing though the roof, and then back inside again, and so forth… 

Hearing the terrible sounds, Mr. Snipe marvels the Headmaster’s ingenuity in simulating cannon fire as well as military voices…

The chain-reaction of exploding furniture continues, and Mr. Thrashbottom believes himself to be back at the battle of Waterloo: 

Meanwhile, Luis de Fleury, the first Frenchman to fly from Paris to London pedalling a flying contraption, is flying over Puddleditch moor. The Headmaster accidentally smashes into De Fleury’s home-made aeroplane... 

...causing the two of them zoom down and crash through all floors of the school, and down into the cellar. Faceache heads for where terrible Waterloo screams can be heard.

The lad puts a stop to the violent British-French conflict by scaring Louis de Fleyry off with one of his scrunges:

...and phoning for an ambulance to rush Mr. Thrashbottom to hospital. 

The doctor prepares to give the Headmaster an injection to make sure he gets a good night’s sleep, but Mr. Thrashbottom’s nervous twitch sends the syringe flying in the air and pranging his inflatable mattress. The blast re-starts the chain reaction, as there are 30 beds in that ward – all with inflatable mattresses. The Headmaster thinks he commands the battle of Waterloo once again…

 

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.

GIGGLE – ONE DOWN, THREE MORE TO GO

I rarely visit eBay these days anymore because my collection of UK comics is as complete as I will ever want it to be, but I am still after a few elusive issues of BUSTER, GIGGLE and SPARKY.

A few days ago I crossed one more issue of GIGGLE off my wants list, and although it is not special in any way, I thought I might show its cover and a few inside pages here.

The comic offered a combination of humour and adventure, and had a large share of reprints of strips by UK and European artists, but I believe the pages below were all new (Helpful Hettie was later reprinted in COR!!, but I am unsure if this particular episode was).

At this point I only need GIGGLE issues cover-dated 2 Sept., 11 Nov. and 25 Nov., 1967. I would also buy the issue of 1 July, 1967 because my copy is missing its centre pages.

My wants list of BUSTER consists of the issues cover-dated 31 Dec., 1960, 4 Feb., 1961 and 4 July, 1964.

I am also after SPARKY issue No. 620 (4 Dec., 1976), and would buy a complete copy of No. 110 (25 Feb., 1967).

Please, let me know if you have copies of the above and wish to sell :)

 

  

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.

SERIALISED FACEACHE STORIES – PART TWELVE: DAWN CHORUS

Faceache story arc No. 12 was a two-part story which appeared in BUSTER issues cover-dated August 4 and 11, 1979.

 

Faceache doesn’t know what a birds’ dawn chorus is, so Mr. Snipe tells him to stay up with him in the grounds all night to await the dawn so that he can hear it first-hand and write an essay on the whole beautiful experience. 

Anxious to get some sleep, Faceache decides he can scrunge the dawn chorus forward a few hours. 

He creeps away behind Mr. Snipe’s back and scrunges his neck to treetop level and then some trillers, cheepers, chirrupers, chirpers, warblers, tweeters, twitterers and a carefree cuckooeee just for luck… 

He starts with the first sweet cheep-cheep of his fake dawn chorus. Enchanted by the beauty of the bird-song, Mr. Snipe leaps in the direction of the sound and discovers Faceache’s twist. Mr. Snipe climbs up Feceache’s neck and tells him to unscrunge this instant for a “Guinness Book of Records” thrashing. 

Faceache obeys:

 

...and Mr. Snipe crashes down from the heights of Faceache’s neck. 

Faceache leaves the dazed Mr. Snipe with his own little built-in dawn chorus and goes back to school to catch-up on some sleep. At dawn the real dawn chorus starts and Faceache can’t sleep because of the noise.

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.

SERIALISED FACEACHE STORIES – PART ELEVEN: PIG’S HEAD

The next Faceache story arc by Ken Reid was in the two consecutive issues of BUSTER with the cover dates of June 23, 1979 and June 30, 1979:

School cookie asks Faceache to nip down to the butchers and get him a pig’s head for school dinners. On his way to the village Faceache becomes thirsty, so he decides to call at farmer Jasper’s farm and ask for a drink of milk. Knowing that the farmer hates school kids but loves cats, Faceache scrunges into a stray pussy. 

Farmer Jasper has just created a potion that will increase his bacon production. Faceache drinks the “milk” and it alters Faceache’s normal self drastically. When he demands a pig’s head at the butchers’ the butcher tells him he’s in luck because he’s already got one…

Terrified, the lad rushes to the school clinic. On the way back to school, the effects of the pig-potion wear off without Feceache’s knowledge. 

Faceache tries to explain his situation to the cook who can’t make any sense of his babbling and takes him to the Headmaster. 

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.