Christenings/Weddings/Funerals/Jumble Sales

Three or four weeks ago, I got a book - Roger Sabin's Adult Comics - An Introduction (ridiculously expensive on Amazon so I won't bother providing a link). In the customary three paragraphs he took to dismiss the various Viz clones, there was something I'd never heard of:

"Winebibber was another anomaly, and was published by a fundamentalist group within the Church of England. It included strips like the dismal 'Barry Belf - He Evangelises Himself'."

I mentioned it in conversation with Adam Smith, who promptly found a compilation/"Best Of" kind of thing on Amazon. For two pounds, why not? Now that it's here, I'm sort of wishing I didn't bother...

Read on, read on, for the worst thing to happen to comics since Jockstrap.

The REAL Annual (can't think of a snappy title for this one, sorry)

Next on the pile... This one!

It's the 1990 (as in, 1989) Real Ghostbusters annual, and this one actually DID arrive on the 25th day of December, all those years ago. Ghostbusters and its related media seems to be one of life's constants, at least in my experience. Early exposure and all that. And out of the four Real Ghostbusters annuals I've got over the years, this is the one that stands out for some fairly unique reasons...

Bowel-shifting

Every year since 1995, or at least whenever I've remembered or been able to, I try and find/purchase Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror, an annual anthology of "spooky" Simpsons comics. This year's was a bitter disappointment (in that it wasn't funny at all), but that's par for the course with The Simpsons these days.

Anyway, in that very first issue eighteen years ago, this page was in it:

That's Matt Groening listing a load of things that spooked him during his developing years. I'm going to have a go at doing that now! Probably the last opportunity I'll have to do something "thematic" for this month, so it's back to the comics after this. But just for now, here's as many things as I can remember that frightened, confused, perturbed or caused mild discomfort to me over the years...

Creaking Floorboards, or Why My Back Is Hurting

So, I've had twelve days off work just now. Bit of travelling, bit of fun, bit of adding to the pile of stuff...

Yeah, just a bit...

Is it bad? Nah, It's Wicked!

In the space-age year of 1989, Marvel's UK arm decided to have a stab at DC Thomson's racket with a couple of strange comics. One of those shall be looked at right now, and the other at some other time. This is the first one, and it's wicked - It's Wicked!

Yep, that's Slimer from The Real Ghostbusters on the cover - Marvel already had a Ghostbusters comic out, so they must've thought it'd made sense to launch a new bunch of characters off the back of this ugly little spud. The big orange square is where the free tattoos were displayed - and as I don't have the tattoos to hand, we're left with a deceptively spartan cover! The font up there's an obvious Dandy rip-off, but we'll forgive them that much. The covers for the other two issues I have are less lonesome-looking than this one:

 We've got Slimer's hilarious attempt at body-building on this one...

And some advice to the youngsters about not hiding inside the mouths of lions on this one. Makes sense when you think about it.

Right, let's see what's inside them!

Go and buy some food, why don'tcha??

Some semi-interesting food-based adverts from various comics of the late-Eighties and early-Nineties...

Start your day with wheat!

Turtle or slime flavoured, it's up to you.

Then have some snacks:

Those Curly Wurly bits are by Martin Chatterton, in case you're wondering.

Here's a drink.

And it's potato shapes for tea... Again.

And for your pudding... Rubble!

Hah, just joking. It's only a yogurt. 

"Just think, you could have a dinosaur for tea!"