Shiver and Shake Annual 1986

Today I thought I’d share a few pages from the 1986 Shiver and Shake annual. Other than being the last S+S annual to hit the shelves, there’s nothing particularly significant about it. But I thought I’d share some pages because it is simply a fantastic and beautiful comic, really showcasing the talent of the day. Artists inside included Martin Baxendale, Tom Paterson, Terry Bave, Sid Burgon, Jack Edward Oliver — I could go on.

The full colour pages were also stunning, and among the best full colour I’ve ever seen in a Fleetway comic. Here are the front and rear endpapers, illustrated by Roy Mitchell who signed his pages as ‘Mitch’. 

For a comic from 1986, quite a few pages were printed in full colour. For their £2.50, readers were given 96 pages (counting the covers), 16 of which were in full colour. A good number more had either blue or red ink.

One of the more bizarre inside pages was this Jumbo Jesters page, featuring various photos of an elephant — elephants of course being the ‘Shake’ part of the comic. I have so many questions. Is it a real elephant? Where did they get a real elephant? How did they get a real elephant on a bus?

Another good page is this Desert Fox puzzle board game. Elsewhere in the book the Desert Fox strip is illustrated by Terry Bave, but this spread is instead by Jack Edward Oliver.

Trevor Metcalfe also had a few pages. Here’s a nice Ghoul Getters Ltd strip. Metcalfe was an expert at motion - just look at the slamming doors or the man spinning around at top speed! It makes me dizzy just looking…

As I said, there’s no shortage of great pages to share and I could easily go on, but I’ll wrap things up with this Lolly Pop strip by Sid Burgon. The Fleetway annuals from this time are relatively common and usually pretty cheap, so I would definitely recommend picking them up if you come across any.

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.

The Christmas Jackpots

Jackpot was a great but short-lived comic that ran from 1979 - 1982. In that time three Christmas issues were produced, the first had (in my opinion) the best cover with artwork by Sid Burgon.

Although not actually the Christmas issue this issue of Jackpot dated 13th December 1980 did have a Christmas theme on it. The Laser Eraser strip inside had nothing to do with the cover. I'm unsure who the artist is here; Robert Nixon illustrated the strip but this cover definitely isn't by him.

The 1980 Christmas cover was again illustrated by Sid Burgon and featured Jack Pott (actually a character originally from Cor and surprisingly not the main character in Jackpot) and Angel from Angel's "Proper" Charlies (a spoof of Charlie's Angles) pulling a cracker.

The final Christmas issue came out in 1981 and had a very similar cover design to the 1980 cover above, with two people, this time pulling a wishbone, surrounded by holly and other Christmas decorations. Robert Nixon replaced Sid Burgon for this final Christmas cover.

Jackpot was a great comic but sadly folded only a few weeks later in January 1982. During it's time it was a fantastic comic though with some interesting features including a 'design the cover' competition, some of which were actually used! But that's all a tale for another time.

This Week In... 1987 - Nipper!

This week back in 1987 saw the first full-size Nipper! Until this point, Nipper had been, well, a nipper - printed on A5 paper. However, issue six changed all that, with it now appearing the same size as its companions - Buster and Whizzer and Chips.

The first strip was of course based around the comic's main star - Nipper, illustrated by Gordon Bell.

This was followed up by one of Mike Lacey's two contributions, the rather amazing Strong-Arm! Wouldn't it be great fun to have a command kart like this?!

Terry Bave was also to be found multiple times in the pages of Nipper, illustrating Double Trouble, a strip that would continue after Nipper for many years. The two twins did eventually become best friends - on the back cover of the last ever issue of Buster.

Another popular character was Ricky Rainbow, illustrated by the soon-to-become Buster artist Jimmy Hansen. Obviously, since this strip was about a boy who could change colour, the strip had to appear in colour, and whoever was in charge of that did a smashing job.

Vic Neill illustrated School Funds, a school in such bad shape that it constantly needed money for repairs, and was relying on the kids to get those funds.

Tom Paterson was also a part of the Nipper line-up, illustrating the hilarious adventures of a young lad and his pyjama case, a mixture which could save the world... or not. The title, Felix the Pussycat, is of course a spin-off of Felix the Cat, so there's laughs all round with this strip.

Another top-class artist to join in the fun was Trevor Metcalfe, who illustrated Big Game Hunter, a great story about a young lad who would go too far to organise a game for his friends!

And finally, Sid Burgon's strip Roy's Toys appears on the back cover. This superbly illustrated strip showed the adventures some toys got up to when nobody was around - a very similar idea to Toy Story in fact!

Despite it's short run Nipper had an amazing line-up of artists, and I've only mentioned a few of them here. I suppose that this proves that it's not just quality that's the key to a successful comic, but there is something else as well.

This Week In.. 1980 - Whizzer and Chips

It's time once again to return to the greatest comic ever produced - Whizzer and Chips! This issue went on sale this week 33 years ago in 1980, the exact cover date being 12th April 1980.

The first strip inside is Jack Edward Oliver's take on The Champ. Originally illustrated by Leo Bexandale, then by Colin Whittock in a similar style, Jack's Champ was something else entirely. I'll let you judge for yourselves.

On the Whizz Kids letters page was a strip called Whizz Kids vs. Chip-ites. This was part one, part two appeared on the Chip-ites letters page, but I've shown both parts together for easy reading.

Lazy Bones is one of my favourite comic characters (up there with Sweeny Toddler and X-Ray Specs), and I couldn't imagine an artist more suited to the strip than Colin Whittock. He did an amazing job of the strip over its very long run, but this isn't one of his best - it's still good though.

And now we move into Chips, the rival comic to Whizzer!

Pongo Snodgrass is a weird strip about the world's worst smelling kid, illustrated by none other than Ian Knox, who, come to think of it, drew quite a few weird strips.

The Krazy Gang follows this, a great two-page adventure in brilliant Chip-ite blue.

This is followed by Run Rogan Run, or Rogan Runs Again, as it was known by this point. I don't know who the artist for this strip was, although this episode is signed. I can make out a 'masip 80' I think, and the 80 stands for 1980 of course, but does anybody know the artists name?

This is followed by a two-page episode of Terry Bave's politically incorrect strip The Slimms. I very much doubt something like this would appear today, it would probably be deemed as inappropriate, although really it's all good humour.

Moving back into Whizzer, and the last strip I'll show is Sid Burgon's Joker, which appeared in glorious full colour on the back page.

Ringing In The New Year: Whizzer and Chips (1986)

I'm going to ring in the new year by taking a look at one of the first New Year comics I read. This issue of Whizzer and Chips was dated 4th January 1986, and at 22p, although similar in price to other Fleetway comics, was a considerable amount more than The Beano, which cost just 16p at the same time! However Whizzer and Chips was a bigger comic, and also had a much brighter front cover, something that would have stood out on the shelves. To top it all off, Tom Paterson was drawing the cover strip, one of my personal favourite comic characters - Sweeny Toddler.

There are a lot of good quality themed strips inside, but since I can't show all of them I'll only show my favourites. The first is Lazy Bones, who is a lazy boy called Benny Bones, who simply can't be bothered to do anything but sleep. Illustrated by Colin Whittock, the strip is both funny and well drawn, with Colin's basic but fast style adding even more humour to the page!

Next up is Terry Bave's Toy Boy. This strip is one of the two in this comic that has stuck in my mind since I first read it! I like the witty humour that makes everything seem planned from the start! A great strip along with some great artwork!

Whizzer and Chips is famous for it's catchphrase "Two Comics In One, Double The Fun!". The intention of Whizzer and Chips is that Whizzer was a seperate comic from Chips, so readers felt like they we're getting more for their money. Chips appeared as a pull-out comic in the middle, complete with an issue date and a cover star who appeared in full colour (meaning the centre pages of the comic were in black and white or blue - blue ink was used in Chips, red in in Whizzer). The cover star of Chips was Shiner, who first appeared in the comic in issue two, moving Sid and Slippy from Chips into Whizzer (yes, Sid was originally a Chip-ites)! Both Sid's Snake and Shiner were illustrated by one of my favourite artists, Mike Lacey, so it's brilliant to be able to see his artwork in full colour each week!

The first strip inside Chips is Lolly Pop, the mean old skinflint who wouldn't spend a penny if he could manage it! Of course, nothing ever goes his way and he always ends up spending thousands at the end! 

Sammy Shrink is a clever strip, illustrated by one of the comics most influential artists, Terry Bave. You may notice that Benny Bones appears on this page, and that is beacuse each week one comic would send a "raider" into the other comic. Basically, a character from Whizzer would "raid" Chips, appearing on a comic strip somewhere, and vice-versa. Readers, who were either Whizz-Kids or Chips-ites, would have to spot this raider and blot him out, and then cheer on their own raider in the other comic!

Back in Whizzer, Joker is the other strip that has stuck in my mind! Just like in Toy Boy, Sid Burgon's brilliant artwork accompanies a brilliant script! 

Finally, lets take a look at one of the title's most succesful strips - The Bumpkin Billionaires! As usual, the Bumpkins are trying to get broke, and for once they do it! Read on to find out how!

Sharing a page with The Krazy Gang is a half page advertisement for The Best Of Whoopee Monthly for January of that year. I don't have that issue, but I do have the one that followed.

Fleetway produced many Best Of Monthly's for various comics, including one for Whizzer and Chips in 1984 and Buster got one later on in 1987. They were big, chunky comics with over 60 pages of reprints from the titles comic appearing inside them each month! Very similar To Big Comic Fortnightly, although focusing on only one comic.

D.C Thomson created a similar comic in 1996, when they launched the first issue of Classics From The Comics, featuring strips reprinted from various classic Thomson titles, but sadly that folded recently. I'd like to see a comeback of these, one from both Thomson and Egmont (who now own the rights to all the Fleetway funnies), and I'm sure they'd sell very well! I'd buy one anyway.