Frankie Stein Holiday Special 1982

Frankie Stein was a fantastic character, first appearing in the fourth issue of Wham in 1964 and his last appearance was in BVC in 1995. He was so popular that he received a spin-off annual and summer special series, the annuals running from 1976 - 1977 and the specials from 1975 - 1982, and it is that final special we'll be looking at today. The comic gets off to a good start with a cover by Mike Lacey, Frankie's main artist after taking over from Ken Reid, but Bob draws nothing inside, instead the comic is mostly taken up by a 12-page Frankie Stein story by Frank McDiarmid entitled 'Frankie Stein and the Three Wishes', and the rest is reprints. The story is too long to show but here's the start so that you to get the feel of it.

As I said, the rest of the comic is reprints, most of which isn't Frankie Stein stories, with strips including Computer Cop by Alan Rogers, Wizards Anonymous by Brian Walker and Terror TV by Ian Knox. There are a few pages of Frankie in there though, including Freaky Frankie and Frankie's Diary, both illustrated by Sid Burgon.

Computer Cop isn't a strip I've come across before. It's four pages in length and I recognise the artist's name and style, but can't quite put my finger on what else he drew - does anybody know?

In terms of value this was the most expensive of the Frankie Stein specials, at 50p the price tag had increased by 5p from the year before. It had the standard 64 pages of which eight were in full colour. Instead of a poster on the centre spread there was a 'Monster Menace' board game, printed in full-colour.