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?
