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.



Showing posts with label Ghoul Getters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ghoul Getters. Show all posts

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?



Thursday, July 14, 2016

GUEST APPEARANCES AT SCREAM INN – GHOUL GETTERS LTD. AND FUN FEAR




The next episode of Scream Inn with a guest appearance of fellow WHOOPEE! characters can be found in the issue cover-dated 8th February, 1975 (No. 46). This time the guests were Dad and his lad Arnold, collectively known as Ghoul Getters Ltd. The strip, drawn by Trevor Metcalfe, had originated in SHIVER AND SHAKE. I covered it the SHIVER AND SHAKE series a couple of years ago, the article can be found HERE.


The not-so-easily-intimidated duo gave the spooks a hard time and it took another guest appearance to save Innkeeper from losing his one million quid. Brian Walker didn’t waste time redrawing the creepy merry-go-round from the masthead of Fun Fear – he simply glued a photographic reproduction to his artwork – just as he did every week with the Scream Inn sign in the first panel (I know this because I have an original page which I once showed HERE). 


Here is the episode, followed by Ghoul Getters Ltd and Fun Fear from the same issue of Whoopee! and Shiver & Shake






Tuesday, July 29, 2014

WHOOPEE! FRANKIE STEIN HOLIDAY SPECIAL 1977




The third Frankie Stein Holiday Special (the first one to be called a holiday special after two summer specials in 1975 and 1976) was the fifth Frankie Stein publication. It cost 30 p. and was 64 pages thick. The front cover artwork was by Robert Nixon whose only other contribution was the pull-out poster. Like in the first FS Special, the poster was actually a reprint of the drawing for the front cover of SHIVER AND SHAKE (28th September, 1974 – the penultimate issue of the paper):


There were 40 pages of Frankie Stein and 24 pages of other stuff. The central story was Frankie Stein in Jolly Holidays (Who’s Kidding Who?) consisting of 5 parts (4 pages each), spread across the paper. Frankie and Prof. Cube are off on holiday again but their flight to Spain is delayed. Frankie spends the time examining various stickers on his travel suitcase and reminiscing about their previous holidays which all turned out to be a disaster for poor Dad. 



The memories of the holidays past take up the first 4 parts until they are finally called to board their flight and arrive in sunny Spain:


In part 5 of the story Frankie wastes no time getting into trouble which prompts his desperate parent to make the only attempt to get rid of the ‘big oaf’ in this long 20-page story by signing him up as a matador for a bull-fight.



All 20 pages of the story were drawn by Andy Christine who had illustrated Grizzly Bearhug… Giant and a few early episodes of Tom Thumbscrew in MONSTER FUN COMIC in 1975. Unexpectedly, Andy Christine was the biggest contributor in this WHOOPEE! FRANKIE STEIN HOLIDAY SPECIAL 1977 – he also drew Odd Men Out (a puzzle) and a 2-page set of Ghoul Getters Ltd. which I will mention later on.

The 4-page episode of Monster Movie Makers was unusual in the sense that it featured the star of the paper – Frankie Stein! In this episode assistant director is having a hard time finding a suitable monster to shoot until he runs into Frankie. Illustrated by the artist who signed his work as Mr. Hill (the episode isn't signed though):


If I were to pick my personal highlight in this magazine, it would certainly have to be The Curse of Dr. Jackal by Mike Brown. The one-off story not only featured Frankie Stein as the presenter/story-teller but also the artist himself. I showed the whole set in Part 8 of my series of artist self-portraits some time ago, you can find it HERE (I highly recommend that you check it out!). 

Speaking of non-comic-strip Frankie Stein features, it is worthwhile mentioning Frankie’s Fun Break and Prof. Cube: Inventor – two sets of 2 pages filled with gags by the same artist who drew a few Frankie Stein stories in the earlier FS publications (including Robinson Frankie and Frankie Stein Super-Freak in the second FS annual). The artwork is rather poor but the artist identified himself by signing a couple of gags so I can now confirm him as a Doug Baker:


There were a few strips that were new to FS publications. In the mid-seventies Fun-Fear and Ghoul Getters Ltd. ran side-by-side with Frankie Stein in WHOOPEE! weeklies, so readers probably weren’t too surprised to see them in this WHOOPEE! FRANKIE STEIN HOLIDAY SPECIAL 1977 for the first time. As was often the case, other artists were invited to do the job for the regular ones. I am not sure who substituted Bob Nixon on Fun-Fear but the place of Trevor Metcalfe – the regular illustrator of Ghoul Getters Ltd. in the weeklies, was taken by Andy Christine – the champion of this Holiday Special in terms of the page count (23 all in all): 


Like the previous FS publications, this one included reprints of The Haunts of Headless Harry (5 episodes) and Ghost Ship (3 episodes):


The lineup of reprints was revised by dropping Crabbe's Crusaders and adding two 2-page sets of Barney’s Brainbox – a short-lived strip from COR!! comic, and two 4-pagers of Patch-Eye Hooker Terror of the Seas – a pirate tale from BUSTER of the late 60s (reprints of the strip can also be found in COR!! Holiday Specials and Annuals in 1978 – 1980).




A few years ago original cover artwork for this magazine was offered by Compal Comic Book Auctions. Here is how it was described (please, note that they got the date and the name of the publication wrong once again):  Frankie Stein original cover artwork (1980) drawn and signed by Robert Nixon for Monster Fun Annual 1980 Frankie's fright is menacingly magnified! Poster colour on board. 16 x 15 ins. The winner paid £280; here is the image of the front cover artwork taken from Compal Auctions website:


Images 2014 © Egmont UK Ltd.  All rights reserved. Used with permission.