Scream! #15, 30 June 1984 – last issue published

• Monster (artist Jesus Redondo, writer Rick Clark)
• The Dracula File – (artist Eric Bradbury, writer Ken Noble)
• The Thirteenth Floor (artist José Ortiz, writer Ian Holland)
• Tales from the Grave: The Man They Called Dr Death (artist Jim Watson, writer Ian Rimmer (but credited as Rick Hunter))
• Library of Death: Out of the Fog! (artist Rafael Boluda, credited as Bollida, writer Angus Allan)
• A Ghastly Tale – Blood Track! (artist Tony Coleman)
• Fiends and Neighbours – cartoon (artist Graham Allen)
• The Nightcomers – final episode (artist John Richardson, writer Tom Tully)

This was the last issue of Scream ever published. Like Tammy, it abruptly disappeared in the 1984 IPC strike, never to be resumed. Exactly why it was not resumed is not clear. One factor could have been the Ghastly Tale “Blood Track!”, which prompted a threat of legal action, though it was eventually dropped. That story will be omitted from discussion here.

Later, Eagle picked up the tab with Scream to some extent. The Thirteenth Floor and Monster continued in Eagle to reach ultimate, respectable conclusions, and are now enjoying their own reprint volumes. The Ghastly Face competition continued in Eagle and the top prize was eventually split between two contestants. I have no information about whether or not the new Creepy Caption Cartoon Competition in this issue was concluded there as well.

When The Thirteenth Floor and Monster stopped in Scream, the former was about to deal with an extortionist who charges heavy fees in return for not breaking bones. In the latter, Uncle Terry and Ken have just fought their way through yet more bounty hunters and the police, and now they are taking a boat.

At least “The Nightcomers” managed to complete their story in this issue, so that was not left dangling. The Nightcomers, with eager help from Edna the ghost and unwitting help from Baphomet the demon when it kills Cutler, destroy the evil that haunts Raven’s Meet. We are told the Nightcomers will start a new adventure in the next issue, so they must have been planned for an ongoing series. Sadly, they did not get it in Eagle. Fortunately the second Nightcomers story was reconstituted and finally published in “It’s Ghastly! The Untimely Demise of Scream!” in 2016. Better late than never.

However, The Dracula File was left open by the cutoff, which is annoying. Dracula does at least manage to complete the flashback of his clash with vampire hunter Alexander Quinn, but we don’t find out where things end up with his new adversary, Colonel Stakis. And just when it sounded like it was about to get really exciting, because Drac says he’s getting really pissed off at living on the run because of Stakis and he’s jolly well going to turn things around!

The Tales from the Grave story was also left on a loose end. The last episode of “Dr Death” got cut off entirely and the story was never finished. It was left forever dangling on the penultimate episode (below), just like “Cora Can’t Lose” in Tammy.

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Fortunately, in “It’s Ghastly!”, writer Ian Rimmer (writing as Rick Hunter) was able to say he thinks the ending went something like:

“Fox turns up at Phillary’s lab, only to be startled and attacked by the re-animated hand. Phillary hears the rumps and enters too. He desperately tries to intervene, but Fox is killed and equipment is knocked over. Suddenly the lab bursts into flames…I think in a panic Phillary looks to escape, yet is prevented from doing so by the hand. The conflagration consumes the hand, all of Phillary’s notes, and Phillary himself. We then have the Leper tending to his fire at the cemetery at the end, saying something suitably caustic.”

In the Library of Death (fortunately not another two-parter like the previous story), Barry Holls is on the run from an orphanage where everyone picks on him because his father is in prison for murder. Barry knows his dad’s innocent – and so does the murder victim. He returns from the grave to guide Barry to the crucial evidence that will clear his father. Awww…

Later, Scream produced two holiday specials, which actually produced some unpublished material from the parent comic. This included Black Beth, who returns in the Scream & Misty Halloween Special II, the actual face of Ghastly McNasty from the Ghastly Face competition, and what looks like part 16 of The Dracula File. Here, Stakis finally gets a shot at Dracula with a stake and Dracula gets pinned. Unfortunately Stakis fails to get one in the heart, and Dracula escapes on a train.

Scream did not produce an annual.

 

Scream! #8, 12 May 1984

• The Dracula File (artist Eric Bradbury, writer Ken Noble)
• The Nightcomers (artist John Richardson, writer Tom Tully)
• A Ghastly Tale – The Pharaoh’s Curse (artist Tony Coleman)
• The Thirteenth Floor (artist José Ortiz, writer Ian Holland)
• Library of Death: Beware the Werewolf! (artist Steve Dillon, writer Simon Furman)
• Tales from the Grave: The Cabbie and the Hanging Judge – final episode (artist Jim Watson, writer Ian Rimmer)
• Fiends and Neighbours – cartoon (artist Graham Allen)
• Monster (artist Jesus Redondo, writer Rick Clark)

Dogs, wolves and werewolves are cropping up a lot in this issue, starting with the cover. Even our vampire in “The Dracula File” takes his wolf form. He rescues his servants, claims a couple more victims, and sets up shop in London. Meanwhile, Stakis is on his way to stop the vampire, but at the cost of defecting from the KGB, becoming a fugitive, and getting out of the Eastern bloc without paying the price of a Soviet gulag or something.

The Nightcomers arrive at Raven’s Meet. They are quick to realise that whatever is in there wants them dead. Simon Cutler, who definitely knows something about it, escaped by the skin of his teeth after the evil of Raven’s Meet possessed his dog and nearly killed him. At least the blurb for next week will tell us what the horror actually is.

A dog also attacks and frightens a man to death during a visit to King Tut’s tomb. The twist is the hieroglyphics on the door aren’t about a pharaoh’s curse – they say “Beware of the dog”.

In “The Thirteenth Floor” Max manages to squirm his way out of the cloud of suspicion. How very prudent of the policeman to tip him off about the error that aroused his suspicions, which enabled Max to cover it up quickly. Back to business, which Max resolves must be conducted with more care in future. The next victim at the Thirteenth Floor arrives in response to Max’s call about knocking down a girl’s dog and not stopping. He finds himself in the middle of a road filled with cars threatening to knock him down.

In “Tales from the Grave” we learn how the wheels of justice turned for “The Cabbie and the Hanging Judge”. There is a final twist that has the Leper laughing, but might have someone turning in his grave…

The Library of Death story is of the werewolf that appears on the cover. The hunter on his tail looks a bit like a fascist in the way he is dressed and is the werewolf’s own father.

In “Monster” the police hunt for Ken and Uncle Terry intensifies now they have a very good lead – a man who almost got killed by Uncle Terry and got a very terry-fying look at what looks like a monster. And they’re bringing in tracker dogs. Dogs again…

Scream! #7, 5 May 1984

• The Nightcomers – first episode (artist John Richardson, writer Tom Tully)
• The Thirteenth Floor (artist José Ortiz, writer Ian Holland)
• Library of Death: The Punch and Judy Horror Show (artist B. McCarthy, writer James Nicholas)
• Tales from the Grave: The Cabbie and the Hanging Judge – first episode (artist Jim Watson, writer Ian Rimmer)
• Monster (artist Jesus Redondo, writer Rick Clark)
• A Ghastly Tale – Young at Heart! (artist Tony Coleman)
• Fiends and Neighbours (artist Graham Allen)
• The Dracula File (artist Eric Bradbury, writer Gerry Finley-Day)

J.R. Ewing from Dallas is in the London Dungeon this week. Best place for him, eh?

The Dracula File has been pushed from its usual spot by new serial “The Nightcomers”. Rick and Beth Rogan take up the mantle of their deceased parents. Ostensibly stage magicians, they were also psychic investigators. Unfortunately they met their deaths in their latest case, a house called Raven’s Meet. The evil in that house was too strong for them and killed them. The junior Rogans take on the case in their parents’ name.

Another thing the Rogans need to investigate is Simon Cutler, who hired the parents to investigate Raven’s Meet. The parents suspect he knew more than he was telling. Sure enough, Cutler is telling the evil forces that he gave them the Rogans. But all he’s getting in return is a spectral dog on his tail.

Another man dies in the lift after visiting Max’s “The Thirteenth Floor”. That’s one too many and the authorities are getting suspicious of Max. Moreover, Max made a mistake in his faked footage of the Fogerty criminals shooting each other to death (in fact they are shooting at computer-induced terrors on the Thirteenth Floor), and the police have found it. Is someone about to pull the plug on Max and his Thirteenth Floor?

In The Library of Death Fred Fresco hates being Punch and Judy man. Yet he kills his manager for closing his Punch and Judy pitch. Anyway, as Fred soon finds out, Punch and Judy don’t relish sharing their basket with a murdered corpse. The rest is…well, talk about judge, jury and executioner.

Speaking of which, the new Tales from the Grave story (below) is about justice for an innocent man who suffered injustice at the hands of one of those notorious hanging judges of the 19^th century (throwbacks of which you can still sometimes encounter today, unfortunately).

In “Monster”, the sight of those murdered corpses resurfacing in the garden cements Ken’s decision to go on the run with Uncle Terry, with no place to run to and Uncle Terry having only just stepped out of his attic prison. After a good start, disaster strikes when Uncle Terry looks set to kill for the third time. Meanwhile, the hunt for him and Ken has started because those two corpses have led the police to find out everything.

This week’s Ghastly Tale is about two Victorian scientists who discover a youth potion. One kills the other because he does not want to share the profits. Retribution comes when the potion backfires on him. It makes him way too young to use the antidote that would restore him.

Finally, we get to The Dracula File. The vampire escapes the M15 agents. His servants are arrested but the agents don’t realise what happened to them. They just think they are crazy or something. The vampire assumes the form of a wolf to intercept their vehicle and rescue them. Meanwhile, KGB agent Stakis has to go on the run from the KGB in order to get to Britain and stop the vampire because they won’t let him use official channels.

Scream! #6, 28 April 1984

 

• The Dracula File (artist Eric Bradbury, writer Gerry Finley-Day)
• Monster (artist Jesus Redondo, writer Rick Clark)
• The Thirteenth Floor (artist José Ortiz, writer Ian Holland)
• Tales from the Grave: R.I.P. Willard Giovanna – final episode (artist Jim Watson, writer Ian Rimmer)
• The Library of Death: Death Road! (artist J. Cooper, writer Barrie Tomlinson)
• Fiends and Neighbours – cartoon (artist Graham Allen)
• A Ghastly Tale! – That Sinking Feeling
• The Terror of the Cats – final episode (artist John Richardson, writer Simon Furman)

Ghastly posts a whole page of attempts to capture his likeness this week. But still nobody has nailed it.

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The killings the Rumanian vampire has made in Britain have made such news that it prompts an unlikely hero to emerge – a KGB agent named Colonel Stakis, who knows the defector is a vampire and has more conscience than you might expect for a KGB agent. Meanwhile, the British agents are after the nurse and agent whom they suspect have changed sides. They don’t know how right they are – the vampire has hypnotised them into becoming his servants. They corner the two servants guarding the vampire’s coffin, and the servants look like they’re about to bare their fangs.

In “Monster”, Ken is having horrible nightmares of the corpses of the two horrible men in the garden rising up and taking their revenge. It’s not far wrong, because flooding dislodges the bodies from their graves and now they’re sticking up in the mud. When Ken sees, he thinks those two corpses really have risen from the dead. Arghh!

A mean bailiff strips some tenants of everything they have, even worn out stuff. This guy is totally heartless all right. Hence the inspiration for his punishment on “The Thirteenth Floor” – meeting the Bailiff of Death and skeletal hospital staff who tell him he’s got no heart and needs treatment for it.

Monthly payments from a ghost? That’s what Finley ends up receiving in the conclusion of this week’s “Tales from the Grave story” – monthly instalments to keep Willard Giovanna’s grave tidy – plus no further visits from Giovanna’s ghost about his grave being neglected. The latter is the real incentive for Finley to keep that grave maintained.

We’ve all heard stories about phantom hitchhikers who mysteriously disappear from the vehicle of whoever picks them up. But in this week’s Library of Death story we meet one who takes it to a whole new – and deadly level. Incidentally, that demon in the last panel must be from the Continent or something because his steering wheel is for right hand driving.

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Death Road 1

Death Road 2

Death Road 3

Death Road 4

Death Road 5

It’s Titanic justice in this week’s Ghastly Tale. Slippery Sid Smith thinks he has gotten away with his latest jewel heist thanks to his “unsinkable” alibi. Unsinkable? Funny – that’s what they said about a certain ill-fated ship Sid tries to make his getaway on…

“Terror of the Cats” is the first serial from the original Scream lineup to be ejected. Kruhl finds the beast he created (the superior intellect he created to control cats) has gotten beyond his control and now has its own agenda. Surprise, surprise! Anyway, in a tussle between Woodward and Kruhl, Kruhl ends up falling into the brain and they horribly destroy each other, and the lab blows up. And what is Woodward’s reward for stopping the terror of the cats? A kitten. Hee, hee, we’re so glad you can see the funny side, Woodward. Its replacement next week is “The Nightcomers”.

Scream! #5, 21 April 1984

• The Dracula File (artist Eric Bradbury, writer Gerry Finley-Day)
• Monster (artist Jesus Redondo, writer Rick Clark)
• The Thirteenth Floor (artist Ortiz, writer Ian Holland)
• Tales from the Grave: R.I.P. Willard Giovanna – first episode (artist Jim Watson, writer Ian Rimmer)
• Fiends and Neighbours – cartoon (artist Graham Allen)
• The Library of Death: A Break in the Country (artist Tony Coleman, writer Malcolm Shaw)
• A Ghastly Tale! – The Nightmare (artist J. Cooper)
• Terror of the Cats (artist John Richardson, writer Simon Furman)

Our entries on “Scream!” resume in celebration of Halloween, with the most famous vampire in history leading off the cover.

No attempts at Ghastly’s face are published in this issue, but there is a new victim in the London Dungeon.

In “The Dracula File” our Rumanian vampire is really going to town in this episode (below), and raising some laughs from readers as well as lots of screams. He’s got people running from the cinema, he’s crashed a fancy dress party in search of more victims, and now he’s picked up a very nice, unsuspecting lady.

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Dracula File 1

Dracula File 2

Dracula File 3

Dracula File 4

Uncle Terry has been introduced to television (below) and is turning into a television addict in one of my favourite moments from “Monster”. Unfortunately he’s also turned into a double killer with the second body Kenny’s had to bury in the garden, and Kenny knows it’s only a matter of time before someone finds out.

Then a narrow squeak with a social worker is having Kenny thinking of going on the run with Uncle Terry. Er, Uncle Terry go on the run, Kenny, when he’s only just stepped out of the attic he’s been locked in all his life, knows nothing of the outside world, and can barely function mentally? Besides, a fugitive who looks like a dead ringer for the Hunchback of Notre Dame would be spotted a mile off! Are you serious, Kenny? Oh heck, something tells us you really are…

The punishment for the criminals on “The Thirteenth Floor” is a graveyard for thieves, and their rotting corpses are rising up and striking them with terror. This has them mistakenly shooting each other to death. The police assume it was the criminals just falling out over the loot.

The Leper writes a bit of himself into his new “Tales from the Grave” story. He watches as his fellow gravedigger Finley gets a request from a gentleman in surprisingly dated clothing to dig up a badly neglected grave belonging to one Willard Giovanna. Finley agrees once the gentleman flashes him a good sum of money, but then gets second thoughts when he realises that the gentleman is also named Willard Giovanna and is digging up his own grave! How can this be? Well, the Leper did say he hoped the people he buried would stay buried, but the story he’s telling hints this is not always the case…

In the Library of Death a meteor show strikes Britain. Or so it seems. Two days later Tony Crabtree is on his way to stay with his aunt and is surprised to see everyone is wearing a bandage or plaster cast on their legs, arms, heads, and even all over. He discovers too late that these are just to conceal the insect invaders who arrived with the “meteor shower”….

In this week’s Ghastly tale, Ghastly talks about the fear of falling. The psychiatrist listening to his client talking about his fear of falling is not sympathetic, though it turns out the client has a very good reason to fear it.

Dr Kruhl captures Woodward and reveals the secret behind “Terror of the Cats” that gives him the power to control all felines. It is an enormous brain(?!) that he calls “the living brain of the cats”.

It’s Ghastly! – review

I have just received a copy of “It’s Ghastly” – Hibernia Comics’ latest addition to their Comic Archive. This 64-page publication spells out the reasons for the demise of IPC’s short-lived horror title Scream! and exhumes lost material intended for the abandoned weekly issues.

It’s a handsome glossy publication, mostly in black and white but with a handful of colour pages in the middle. My particular interest wasn’t so much in the information about Scream! itself (as I never read that title) as about what it might reveal about comics publishing of the time, or any as-yet-unknown information about who did what.

It features a lot of interviews and information from people involved in creating the title: Barrie Tomlinson (Group Editor at the time), Gil Page (Managing Editor of the title), Ian Rimmer (editor), Simon Furman (sub-editor). Some of them are reprints of interviews originally published some years previously, but bringing them together in one magazine is a definite service to fans of the title and those interested in this slice of history.

I was interested to note how the various memories of what happened at that time were all slightly different: David McDonald was clearly trying to get an answer to the key question of why Scream! folded so quickly. Barrie Tomlinson had a number of possible answers – the strike, the content, the sales figures… while Gil Page put the blame fairly squarely on the overall sales figures. Ian Rimmer puts it down to a staffing problem and to management interference and second-guessing, which put a real crimp in the process of just getting on with creating as good a title as possible. He ultimately blames management timidity. So even from people who were there at the time, it’s possible to get as many answers as there are people answering – at least for the tricky questions. Something for any of us interviewers or comics historians to be aware of in terms of the dangers of drawing firm conclusions!

As with MacManus’ “The Mighty One”, I was struck once again by the sheer amount of writing that was done in house. There is also a lot of interesting discussion about artwork: not so much the process of creating it or how much was done by the art editor, but about how it was reused in subsequent publications, even if that meant cutting up a page of art or reusing some cover artwork by José Casanovas in a Holiday Special – but removing the central human character which was part of the whole point of the original story.

There’s lots of solid material in here – interviews, re-creations of three unused covers that could have been printed in issues 16, 17, and 18 (the title stopped at 15), scripts, and a whole unpublished story of “The Nightcomers”! The artwork is the original from the time, but as it was unlettered and only half the script could be found, the other half was rescripted by Simon Furman, who was the original writer. Those of us who are fans of other titles can only feel a mixture of jealousy that David was able to come across this treasure trove, and hopefulness that maybe such a miracle could happen to our own favourite title some day.

“It’s Ghastly”; Hibernia, 2016: available on Comicsy for £7.50 plus postage