Scream! - 30 years on

[MacNimon]

Scream! was a 32 page weekly British comic from 1984, edited by the fictional Ghastly McNasty, that lasted only 15 issues before being merged with the Eagle (issue 128 - dated 1 September 1984).The first two issues of Scream! came with free gifts stuck to their covers (most copies have two tape marks on the front where the gifts were removed). Issue one came with white plastic 'Dracula' fangs (and if they were stuck in the right place - should be directly over Dracula's mouth) and issue two came with a rubber spider (ideally stuck in the middle of the web on the cover).

Ongoing stories include The Dracula File, Monster and The Thirteenth Floor (featuring work from Alan Moore, John Wagner, Alan Grant, Eric Bradbury, Jose Ortiz, Jesus Redondo and many more).
The final holiday special

Four Holiday Specials followed between 1985 and 1988, with a fifth and final Spinechillers special in 1989.

Two Scream! stories transfered to Eagle when the comics merged (The Thirteenth Floor and Monster). The Scream! logo graced the cover of Eagle for 26 issues (128 - 153), but both stories still continued after this. Although Dan Dare was the Eagle cover star, the Thirteenth Floor did get a wraparound cover poster on the 1984 Christmas issue, which was very reminiscent of the wraparound Scream cover posters.

The 1986 Holiday Special gave a glimpse of what the cover of issue 18 would have looked like, if the title had continued (a black and white illustration by Jose Ortiz for The Thirteenth Floor). This was also used (in colour this time) for the cover of The Best of Eagle Monthly issue 2 (June 1988).

One challenge for readers was to draw the likeness of Ghastly McNasty's face (always obscured by a cowl). Over the course of the published 15 issues, this was never won. The challenge was picked up again in issue 139 of Eagle (Ghastly's Grisly Gallery), with readers once again sending in their drawings. All the while Ghastly gave hints as to what his face should look like. Even then the prize on offer was never won and the likeness was eventually revealed in the 1986 Holiday Special.


It is an urban myth that the Scream! comic was banned due to a flurry of complaints from parents with such claims that "Scream!" being aimed at a younger audience, receiving a backlash from concerned parents over cover art and content, deemed unacceptable by adults who supposedly claimed that it was pushing graphic violence (mainly horror and fantasy) on younger children. This rumour by many fans and collectors of this short lived IPC publication is often cited for the reason of it only running up to fifteen issues (last issue dated: 30th June 1984), but on the contrary, it was nothing of the kind but merely an unfortunate industrial strike involving the publication's printers. The industrial strike resulted in IPC not being able to print any comics for several weeks. This repercussion led IPC to feel the publication had lost momentum, opting to cut their losses and cancelling it, leaving the strip stories within, unfinished. Scream re-emerged eight weeks later as the amalgamated Eagle and Scream! (issue date: 1st September 1984). Another comic title that fell the same fate with this particular industrial strike was Tammy. Tammy disappeared also at the end of June, and then two months later the Tammy masthead was added to Girl for a handful of issues before Girl received a makeover and relaunched with a new look.

After Paul Monk asked me about these last week, I've decided to check the series out again seeing as it's the 30th Anniversary of Scream! I'll be reading these at the rate of 1 issue each week and seeing as there are only 15 issues hopefully I'll get to finish them before the thread fizzles out.

The cover of that first issue certainly looked intruiging...

and the editorial on page 2 made for fun reading...

The first issue began with the Dracula File, telling the story of a mysterious and as yet un-named defector from behind the Iron Curtain from the Carpathian Mountains who's about to set off on a new life in Britain. An interesting take on an old tale, well written and drawn. A good start. Up next is an early Alan Moore tale, before he made it big in America...

The Thirteenth Floor introduced us to the computer, Max, and the floor in it's building which supposedly didn't exist. And Tales From The Grave told of an undertaker who wasn't afraid to help people on their way to get a bit of business...

Why were cats suddenly turning on humans and inflicting horrific injuries? Terror Of The Cats told the tale. There was light relief which wouldn't have been out of place in the old Monster Fun comic, Fiends And Neighbours, in which an Addams-style family moved in next door to ordinary folk, as well as a couple of stand-alone Ghastly Stories from The Library Of Death...

All in, an excellent debut issue, quality story and art throughout and something I'm really looking forward to reading again next week. At the moment, I'm really disappointed that there are only 15 issues of this to enjoy...here's hoping that the quality continues!

[Andrew Curnow]

That brings back a few memories - I don't think I got Scream every week (unlike Tornado, another short-lived mag of that sort of era) but I certainly got that first issue (and may recognise other covers as the weeks go by, who knows!!). Oddly, considering I also got Eagle at the time, I remember The Thirteenth Floor very well, both in Scream & Eagle, but Monster (which also transferred) is a complete blank for me.

Interesting you mention that IPC strike, Mac - I seem to recall there was one a couple of years earlier, there was certainly a long gap between progs of 2000AD, around the time a Mach Zero strip was running I think (he was on the cover of 'the next issue' which was then a long time coming).

Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing what other long-buried memories this thread brings back to life!!

[Darren]

30 years! Makes me feel old! I really liked this, it was an alternative to The Beano which I also read.