Scream #14! 23 June 1984

• The Nightcomers (artist John Richardson, writer Tom Tully)
• Library of Death: The Sea Beast part 2 (artist J. Parkhouse, writer Simon Furman)
• The Thirteenth Floor (artist José Ortiz, writer Ian Holland)
• Tales from the Grave: The Man They Called Dr Death – first episode (artist Jim Watson, writer Ian Rimmer (but credited as Rick Hunter))
• A Ghastly Tale – Dumb Animals
• Monster (artist Jesus Redondo, writer Rick Clark)
• Fiends and Neighbours – cartoon (artist Graham Allen)
• The Dracula File (artist Eric Bradbury, writer Simon Furman)

 

Nobody has hit the jackpot with Ghastly’s face, so he’s dropped another clue to help things along. Ghastly also reveals some facts about the popularity ratings of the serials. The Thirteenth Floor is first, Monster second, and The Dracula File and Library of Death are close behind. The letter page this week indicates The Nightcomers are also popular.

Looks like Ghastly really did not care much for opera – he gagged the latest victim in the London Dungeon for opera singing rather than have her sing high notes as suggested.

This week’s Ghastly Tale feels even more relevant today, where we are in an era of accelerating mass extinction, with poaching and animal trafficking being among the reasons. Yet some people still hunt endangered animals for trophies – and post it proudly on their Facebook pages – or for body parts, animal trafficking and so on. So the story has been posted here.

(Click thru)

 

 

Ghastly insisted that the artwork of the sea beast from the Library of Death tale be the best it could be, and they must have shown him the cover to prove it. The sea beast, a giant mutant created by radioactive waste dumped in the ocean, certainly makes for a magnificent cover. Once the beast is ashore, it’s “The Horror of Party Beach” Scream style. After the party’s over, with the aid of antidotes to the radioactive waste and the sea beast mutation, the authorities are relieved that at least the radioactive waste did not come into contact with a human being. Unfortunately the final panel indicates they may have spoken too soon…

Max is cheesed off to find a kid nicknamed Cheezy has taken to spraying graffiti on the walls of Maxwell Towers. Needless to say, it’s the Thirteenth Floor for Cheezy, where Max forces him to spray graffiti on the Empire State Building in increasingly dangerous conditions until he falls right off. Don’t worry – Cheezy will only land where he will be well and truly painted.

Dracula is still reminiscing on a prior encounter with another vampire hunter, Alexander Quinn. The flashback may be interesting and adds something to Dracula’s character, but really, it’s not doing much to advance the plot of Dracula vs. his current vampire hunter, Colonel Stakis.

“The Nightcomers” finally reaches the stage in the plot where the villain Simon Cutler captures our heroes and explains everything. Yes, he did dabble in demonology and summoned a demon, Baphomet. He did it for the power Baphomet would bring him, but instead found his life has been hell ever since he summoned that demon. The unhappy ghost is his wife Edna, who was accidentally killed when she stumbled onto his rituals, and he dumped her body down the well. Cutler believes the only way to satisfy Baphomet is to sacrifice the Rogans to him. He is not listening to Beth’s pleas that what Baphomet is really doing is using Edna, who can’t rest without proper burial, as a conduit to fully enter the world as a corporeal demon.

The Leper begins a new story with a Frankenstein theme. Dr Phillary has invented a machine that can bring body parts back to life, but is having trouble finding decent body parts for it. Phillary finally stumbles across an arm that’s a perfect specimen, but the body was whisked away to the graveyard before he could amputate the arm for his experiments. Undaunted, he’s turning to a bit of grave robbing to get it, and recruiting a couple of criminals, Fox and Hopkins, to help him.

It finally happens – Uncle Terry finally comes face to face with the policemen who have been pursuing him and Ken. The policemen – and their patrol car – come off the worst after trying to tackle Uncle Terry, but at least they are alive. Then Ken spots a means to get them to their destination – a boat. But how is Uncle Terry up for sailing? He doesn’t even know what a boat is.