TIME FOR ANOTHER 'TEENAGE TALES': HE SHOOK WHILE I SHIVERED...

Copyright relevant owner

It was Saturday, March 10th 1973, and me and a pal, Adam Cowie, were in the Old Village quarter of our town.  Earlier that morn, I'd bought the 2nd ish of SHIVER & SHAKE, and was much taken with the free Spooky Screamer included inside it.  So was Adam.  (Regular readers will know him as 'Billy Liar'.)

We went into a little newsagent's shop, called M.B. BARR, and I bought some sweets at the main counter, while Adam looked over the comics on another.  As I was making my purchase, there was a sudden tearing sound, which attracted not only my attention, but that of the two elderly female shopkeepers.  Inwardly, my heart sank, because I'd guessed what had just happened.

My friend was somehow able to explain away the sound and the two shopkeepers couldn't notice anything obviously amiss, so I completed my purchase and we left the shop.  As I suspected, Adam had torn the free Screamer from the interiors of S&S #2 on the counter - not something I was pleased about, but there was nothing I could do.  At least he hadn't nicked the actual comic, which was some measure of consolation to me.

We then went into a centuries old church graveyard, whereupon Adam ran about from tombstone to tombstone, blowing his Screamer and trying to scare a young couple strolling around, studying the inscriptions.  (Or maybe they were just in there for a bit of 'petting'.)  What a pillock he was when I think back on it, but I also can't help smiling at his naivety in thinking his stolen Spooky Screamer was capable of actually scaring anyone - even in an ancient graveyard.

So, though I was an unwitting (and unwilling) 'accomplice' in the theft of a free gift, whenever I think back to that day, the memory is a pleasant one.  Shiver & Shake ran for only 79 issues, but it deserved to last longer, being a great wee comic.  Although I was only 14 at the time, I was happy to see two characters, FRANKIE STEIN and GRIMLY FEENDISH, return from my childhood, where they'd first appeared in WHAM! and SMASH! in the '60s.

Did you buy Shiver & Shake back in the day?  What are your memories of the comic, chums? 

MONSTER Of The MONTH - The FRANKENSTEIN MONSTER...

Look at this handsome fella - great sense of humour.  I told him a joke and had him in stitches - or did he start out that way?  BORIS KARLOFF was definitely the best ever FRANKENSTEIN MONSTER in my humble opinion.  If you disagree, don't tell me - take it up with him!

CRIVENS' CRACKING COMIC COVERS: SHIVER & SHAKE #21 (BACK PAGE)...

Copyright REBELLION

What are you lot moaning about?  Okay, it's a back cover, but it's still a cover, ain't it?!  A superb piece by the great KEN REID, who was helping out a well-known artist - well, you can see his name for yourself at the top of the page.  I'd love to see the 'original' art for this, because if it's bigger than A4, then Ken must either have traced it from an enlarged photocopy, or covered the back in pencil and drawn over the outline to transfer it onto art-board.  Or used a projector - or even 'graphed' it.  Why do I think that?  Because all the 'errors' and imperfections in my drawing are still there, and I'm sure he'd have fixed them had he completely redrawn it.  Whichever method he used, he finished it off with his usual detailed inking style.

Incidentally, I drew the original of this on Sunday, March 4th 1973, the day after the first issue came out, and posted it to IPC on the Monday.  I was at my grandparents when I drew it, lying on the carpet in front of the electric fire, and whenever I look at the above page, I'm back lying on that carpet again in 1973.

LYONS MAID ZOOM ICE LOLLY...

Remember LYONS MAID ZOOM ice lollies?  Below are a few TV

ads to remind all you ancient fogies out there of your childhoods.

  

BABE Of The DAY - NATALIE DORMER (AGAIN)...

Here's NATALIE DORMER (wearing

my shirt) about to jump over the table and

ravish my herculean manly-man body as she's

done many times previously.  Okay, only in my

imagination admittedly, but I still enjoyed it

and it seemed ever-so-real to me.

KLASSIC KIRBY KOMIC KOVERS: The X-MEN #9...

Image copyright MARVEL COMICS

There's certainly a lot going on in the above X-MEN cover, but note how ineffectual (as usual) MARVEL GIRL is, merely levitating in the background - she's about as useful as a chocolate fire-guard.  JACK KIRBY often had difficulty portraying female characters as anything other than glamorous-but-helpless adornment on the covers he drew, but JEAN GREY's power (telekinesis) doesn't really lend itself to dramatic visual interpretation.  (The FF's SUE STORM didn't fare much better, alas, but then again, I suppose invisibility is another difficult one to do anything with.)

At least the gals were there to make the tea and sandwiches, and wash and iron the costumes after the guys had done all the heavy-lifting in the fighting department, so their presence wasn't entirely redundant.  And it's always nice to have a pretty face around, isn't it?  (That should p*ss off the feminists.)

******

(Incidentally, I first saw this cover on FANTASTIC #18 in 1967.  The back cover was a Power-House Pin-Up of TONY STARK's secretary PEPPER POTTS, and I can remember buying the comic as though it were only yesterday.  Sigh!)