On this day: Whoopee! and Shiver and Shake, 18 January 1975
Whoopee! and Shiver and Shake, 18 January 1975; Toy Boy: Terry Bave (artist)
On this day, 18 January 1975 ... Whoopee! launched in March 1974 but within seven months had subsumed Shiver and Shake, an older publication. By January 1975, the comic horror of the latter title still comprised a large proportion of Whoopee!'s content.
Indeed, over the years there is co start evidence that IPC considered horror - both the funny and the scary stuff - to be popular among the readers. In the early 1970s there was Shiver and Shake and Monster Fun, and usually a horror strip of some sort in most of the other fun comics, not to mention the likes of Jinty, Lion and Valiant. Then there was Misty in the late 1970s, Scream! in the early 1980s, 2000AD, Eagle and latterly Tiger all had occasional supernatural stories, and even Roy of the Rovers ran strips such as The Footballer Who Wouldn't Stay Dead and Buster's Ghost.
Look out below for Evil Eye, which used to unsettle me as a kid, and Blunder Puss, which followed the great idea of an accident-prone moggy on the last of his nine lives constantly saved from disaster by the angel spirits of his previous eight.
Not sure about the Pink advent for a magical evening with the Bay City Rollers, but that horror aside this is all class stuff.
Spy School: Graham Allen (artist)
Bumpkin Billionaires: Mike Lacey (artist)
Blunder Puss: Jim Crocker (artist)
Ad Lad: Trevor Metcalfe (artist)
Shiver: Terry Bave (artist)
Evil Eye: Reg Parlett (artist)
Fun-fear: Robert Nixon (artist)
World-wide Weirdies: Ken Reid (artist)
Scream Inn: Brian Walker (artist)
Lolly Pop: Sid Burgon (artist)
Scared-stiff Sam: Mike Lacey (artist)
Toy Boy: Terry Bave (artist)
