Another smashing British humour comic collection, Scream Inn, featuring art by the brilliant Brian Walker, is available now from Irmantas Povilaika, publisher of the Kazoop! blog.
“Scream Inn” was one of the highlights in the weekly humour comic, Shiver & Shake, launched in 1973 by IPC, merging with Whoopee! the following year. The strip represented horror comedy at its very best, illustrated by Brian Walker, who began working for IPC after a successful stint at DC Thomson where he illustrated the anarchic “I Spy” for Sparky.
Shiver & Shake editor Bob Paynter gave Brian a general formula: there had to be an Innkeeper and a family of ghosts in an old inn setting. Each week, somebody had to try and stay in the haunted bedroom for a prize of a million pounds, and each week they got chucked out.
Scripted by Brian Walker’s friend and fellow-cartoonist Cliff Brown, “Scream Inn” was a reader participation feature where readers were encouraged to send in their story ideas and receive a cash prize of £1 along with the honour of seeing their name in print.
Published under license from Rebellion Publishing, this new 196-page book from Irmantas Povilaika collects every episode of “Scream Inn” in the Shiver & Shake weeklies from the issues cover dated 10th March 1973 to 5th October 1974, Shiver & Shake Christmas Holiday Special 1973, Shiver & Shake Holiday Specials 1975 and 1979, as well as Shiver & Shake Annuals 1974, 1976 and 1977.
The book includes a five-page foreword by Irmantas, and a special three-page afterword by Mo Walker (the Brian Walker‘s widow), both illustrated with unseen photos from the family archive.
The first printing of the limited paperback edition consists of 50 copies. Unlike the hardcover version, the paperback books aren’t numbered and have no bonus colour pin-up.
This is Irmantas’ third reprint book published this year, and the thickest one so far. It follows two Leo Baxendale collections: Mervyn’s Monsters, originally from Buster (the hardcover edition is sold out but the paperback version is still available), as well as The Swots and the Blots, originally from SMASH! (a mere handful of hardcover and paperback editions is left, but they won’t last once the sales of Scream Inn pick up).
• Check out Scream Inn and more from the Kazoop!! Comic Shop
Head downthetubes for…
• Check out Irmantas’ brilliant Kazoop! Blog about British comics at kazoop.blogspot.com
• downthetubes: In Memoriam: Cartoonist Brian Walker
- About the Author
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: British Comics, Classic British Comics, Comic Previews, Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News
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Purchased! Thanks for the heads up. I used to love Shiver & Shake.
Unaffordable for me at this point in time.
It’s frustrating that so much is ‘limited’ nowadays.
I have the boardgame based on this, although most of the bits are missing.