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Heading Your Way at Hallowe’en: The Scream! Specials Archival Collection

By John Freeman on May 28, 2025

Rebellion have announced Scream! Specials Archival Collection, a new companion edition to their hugely popular Scream! Archival Collection, gathering together stories from every Scream! Holiday Special published from 1985 through to today.

Scream! Specials Archival Collection - Cover

This huge hardback features comics from creators such as Dave Gibbons, Eric Bradbury and Barrie Tomlinson, right through to present-day terrifying tales from Frazer Irving, Alex Paknadel, Torunn Grønbekk… and many more, besides.

The previous Scream! hardback collection has already gone back for two reprints due to demand, and Rebellion are sure this new volume will be flying off the shelves – and we aren’t going to argue with the undead. [Erm, the publicist might not like be called that? – Ed].

After their massive 40 Years of Scream! Archival Collection brought together every single strip published in the published editions of the short-lived but much-adored Scream! (just 15 weekly comics), fans howled out for more, selling out the print run twice, in short succession!

Scream Holiday Special 1984. Cover by Keith Page

Scream Holiday Special 1985 — Scream Holiday Special 1984. Cover by Keith Page

So, having heard those cries of terror, this Hallowe’en Rebellion are publishing a second collection, which rounds out the Scream Archival Collection with comics from every single Scream! Holiday Special published since the 1980s.

Produced “From the Depths” of IPC’s King’s Reach Tower by the mysterious “Undead” editor Ghastly McNasty, the first issue of Scream! was unleashed by IPC in March 1984. More tongue-in-cheek than horrific, heavily censored in the face of continued fear of news media backlash after Action raised hackles in the 1970s, the comic was still an immediate hit with younger fans, although derided by some, who cruelly poked fun at its diluted dark tales.

Against the odds, and its rapid cancellation and merger with EAGLE, the title spawned a number of fantastic new strips, from such talents including Alan Moore, John Wagner, Jose Ortiz, Cam Kennedy, Tom Tully, Alan Grant and Eric Bradbury.

This new collection features every Scream! Holiday Special, one-shot publications released between 1985 and 1989, long after the original title had been buried, making this upcoming volume very much a historical record, which traces the evolution of British horror from 1985 right through to the modern day.

Scream! Specials Archival Collection - Sample Page

This new volume has been designed as a companion piece for the previous volume, creating two thrilling tomes of terror to fill your shelf with fear…

To make the release even more ghoulishly exciting, true horror afficionados can take home a webshop-exclusive slipcase edition which pays homage to the classic style and design of the Scream! Holiday Specials of old.

• The Scream! Specials Archival Collection is now available for pre-order either in standard hardback or webshop-exclusive slipcase editions now! Head to the 2000AD website for more – if you dare!

Scream! Specials Archival Collection - Limited Edition Cover

Are You Ready for “Bloodcurdling Yelp”?

Some contemporary comic fans derided Scream! in one fanzine, rechristening it "Bloodcurdling Yelp", publisher John Freeman clearly smarting at the time at being rejected by the Oink! editors... [You just couldn't let it lie, could you - Ed] — Some contemporary comic fans derided Scream! in one fanzine, rechristening it “Bloodcurdling Yelp”, publisher John Freeman clearly smarting at the time at being rejected by the Oink! editors… [You just couldn’t let it lie, could you – Ed]. Find out what the board of the “Bastard Rich Megacompany” exposed to over at FANSCENE in Scan No. 28

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John Freeman

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.