Covers gallery: Shiver and Shake, and Ken Reid's Creepy Creations

Indisputably, Ken Reid was one of the masters of twentieth-century comic art. Creator of Roger the Dodger and Jonah for The Beano, the original Frankie Stein for Wham!, Faceache for Jet, Martha’s Monster Make-up for Monster Fun and several other unique characters, he had a gift for the gothic and grotesque that is both distinctly British and inimitable. In addition to his comic strip creations, he produced a huge catalogue of full-page posters for Whoopee! (Wanted and World-wide Weirdies) and for Shiver and Shake(Creepy Creations).

These Creepy Creations – all of which are scanned and posted below – are an absolute delight. A poster featured on the back page of every issue of Shiver and Shake during its nineteen-month run between March 1973 and October 1974, and was drawn by Reid in response to a sketch (and, presumably, a title) sent in by a reader. Often the reader would live in the particular town or city from which the monster hailed, which, wonderfully, adds to the geographic and demographic diversity of the collection. One wonders who or what inspired The Fanatical Fungus-grower of Frogpool, The Money-grabber of Montrose or The Clacton Candy Shop Monster, or, more darkly, The Green Groper or The Chelmsford Chaser. I’ve listed all the titles so you can see whether there was a Creepy Creation in a town near you. (*NB. I’ve put an asterisk by two of the earlier posters which I thought might not be by Ken Reid. If anyone can confirm this, I’d be grateful.)

Just a thought: games developers – you know how Rebellion are inviting applications to licence properties from their archive for new games? Well how about a Pokemon Go game featuring the Creepy Creations? I’d love to meet The Freaky Fried Fish Finger from Frome on my way to work in the morning, or wake up to discover The Gruesome Grannie of Grantham at the foot of my bed.

As this is another Covers Gallery I’ve included the front cover of every Shiver and Shake above the back-page Creepy Creation. These were drawn for the comic’s first full year by Mike Lacey, and then by Robert Nixon featuring Frankie Stein (for whom he was now the principal artist).

1. The One-eyed Wonk of Wigan (10 March 1973)

2. The Chip Chomping Tater Terror of Tring* (17 March 1973)

3. The Hooter-hiker of Harrogate (24 March 1973)

4. The Fanatical Fungus-grower of Frogpool (31 March 1973)

5. The Trumpington Trumpeter (7 April 1973)

6. The Manchester Aqua-kwak (14 April 1973)

7. The Boggle-eyed Butty-biter of Sandwich (21 April 1973)

8. The Long-haired Luvvaduck from Liverpool (28 April 1973)

9. The Cowley Cowdog* (5 May 1973)

10. The Horrible Hobble of Harrow (12 May 1973)

11. Dripula the Monster from the Swamp (19 May 1973)

12. The Turkish Turn-eyed Twitter (26 May 1973)

13. The Five-footed Fiend from Fleet (2 June 1973)

14. The Sunningdale Golf Ball Bat (9 June 1973)

15. The Green Groper (16 June 1973)

16. The Gruesome Ghoul from Goole (23 June 1973)

17. The Flying Freak of Fife (30 June 1973)

18. A Scottish Spook from Selkirk (7 July 1973)

19. The Many-headed Monster from Monmouth (14 July 1973)

20. The Rustinton Webbed-footed Wriggling Flu Germ (21 July 1973)

21. The Goggle-eyed Goon of Gloucester (28 July 1973)

22. The Money-grabber of Montrose (4 August 1973)

23. The Clacton Candy Shop Monster (11 August 1973)

24. The Great Train Horror (18 August 1973)

25. The Pear-drop Pincher from Paddington (25 August 1973)

26. The Disco-tec (1 September 1973)

27. The Fork-eating Spaghetti Spook (8 September 1973)

28. Frankinspider (15 September 1973)

29. The Marrow Chiller of Charlton (22 September 1973)

30. The Gruesome Green-fingered Gardener of Greenwich (29 September 1973)

31. The Fanged Fiend from Finland (6 October 1973)

32. The Fearsome Food Muncher of Snortlewick (13 October 1973)

33. The Two-handed High Bird (20 October 1973)

34. The Creepy Fly-swatter from Swattington (27 October 1973)

35. The Prune-eating Plonk from Perivale (3 November 1973)

36. The Hairy Horror of Hengoed (10 November 1973)

37. The Gruesome Grannie of Grantham (17 November 1973)

38. The Double-winged Wimble of Wallasey (24 November 1973)

39. The Flying Haggis from Hamilton (1 December 1973)

40. The Horrid Hand from Hull (8 December 1973)

41. The Vampire Banana (15 December 1973)

42. The Wart Trunk Terror of Teesside (22 December 1973)

43. The Horrible Estate-eater from Eaton (29 December 1973)

44. The Terrible Twig of Truro (5 January 1974)

45. The Amazing Electric Light Blob (12 January 1974)

46. The Chelmsford Chaser (19 January 1974)

47. The Longford Lolly Licker (26 January 1974)

48. ‘Gork’ the Slimming Instructor (2 February 1974)

49. The Geordie Mining Monster from Newcastle (9 February 1974)

50. The Freaky Fried Fish Finger from Frome (16 February 1974)

51. The Mischievious Mousey Monster from Manchester (23 February 1974)

52. The Barmy Birmingham Banjo Basher (2 March 1974)

53. The Venomous Vaccum from Ventnor (9 March 1974)

54. A Crab-nosed Clodhopper from Cleethorpes (16 March 1974)

55. The Soggy Seaweed Monster of Southsea (23 March 1974)

56. The Huge Humbug-hugging Honey Sucker from Hampton (30 March 1974)

57. The Grub-grabbing Gourmet from Glutton (6 April 1974)

58. The Mug-eyed Moon Watcher (13 April 1974)

59. The Barmy Wellington Boot Bee Monster of Barnsley (20 April 1974)

60. The Feathered Flop from Filey (27 April 1974)

61. Hans Eyeboot – The Gruesome Guard (4 May 1974)

62. The Horrific Chess Men (11 May 1974)

63. The Rolling Wheeler from Skelton Rock (18 May 1974)

64. Lamplight Larry from Lichfield (25 May 1974)

65. The Tee-caddy terror (1 June 1974)

66. Terry the Tellible (8 June 1974)

67. The Phantom Highland Mummy (15 June 1974)

68. The Pugnacious Piano of Peterborough (22 June 1974)

69. The Monster Map of England and Wales (29 June 1974)

70. The Rumbling Raspberry from Rustington (3 August 1974)

71. The Terrifying Toadstool Terror of Torquay (10 August 1974)

72. The Three Legged Eyeball (17 August 1974)

73. Nelly the Kneecap-nipping Telly from Newcastle (24 August 1974)

74. Triclopus (31 August 1974)

75. The Abominable Hairy-plane (7 September 1974)

76. The Terrible Tortoise form Terringdon (14 September 1974)

77. The Slippy Sloppy Horror Soap (21 September 1974)

78. The Mersey Tunneller (28 September 1974)

79. Bartholomew the Low-flying Crocodile Catching Bluebottle (5 October 1974)