The cover of this week’s The Real Ghostbusters drawn by Brian Williamson and Bambos Georgiou instantly takes me back and across the way Andy WIldman’s cover to Transformers and Action Force signals a return to American writer Bob Budiansky’s swansong epic. What a week this was!
That fiery ghost that’s all mouth, teeth and flame was one of the best creations the comic ever produced and I mustn’t have been alone in thinking it because it’d return a few times, on this occasion alongside other fan faves when the containment unit was breached. In another story a giant ghost cat was more cuddly than scary, and in the end we find out it was actually a good ghost and the team sided with it as it protected stray cats out on the streets of New York from cruel humans. Aww.
After the epic Time Wars we were back to the second half of the even-more-epic Underbase Saga. I loved this probably even more than Time Wars because Starscream was at the centre of everything; his massive ego getting hold of unlimited power was hugely entertaining and the resulting casualty list was even more shocking than the UK story. Dreadwind also gives one of his best answers on the letters page, check it out at the link below. Both of these comics deserved the ‘Don’t Miss…’ slot on the checklist as far as I’m concerned. What a shame there wasn’t one then, despite being on the Ghostbusters’ contents page.
Which 80s TV fans recognised the quote I used last time when referencing this week’s advert? I remember watching Alf’s first season (before it shifted to satellite TV and out of reach for many of us back then) and not really understanding what all the fuss was about. Then again, even at a very young age I had an aversion to obvious laugh tracks on sitcoms instead of live audiences. Due to how Alf was filmed they just couldn’t have a studio audience, but the laugh track suffered as they all do with guffaws and roars of excitement from the American ‘audience’ for every little thing that happened, whether it was funny or not.
I sound like an old man! But that was also how I felt when I was only 11. Only later in life have I remembered Alf apparently ate cats too, though obviously not on screen. That’s not going to endear him to me now, that’s for sure. Anyway, no advert next week but the checklist will be back with a comic we haven’t heard from in a long time. A Bumper post coming up in just seven days.
This month’s cover by Ilya (Ed Hillyer – Crisis, Manga Mania, Jean Genii) isn’t one of my favourites I have to say. It feels unfinished but his style certainly has its fans and so it’s just not for me I guess. It represents the final part of Salvation, even if the headlines make it look like it’s for Colonial Marines. There’s also a feature about H.R. Giger in this issue, so let’s get stuck in and see what we think.
I can’t believe it! With hindsight we know the next issue will be the last, so for Crusade to take a month off is devastating, meaning it definitely won’t be completed in time. The strip may have started off poorly but it’s become a real treat these last six months or so. Let’s hope we at least get some closure next time. It’s funny to read about the readers writing in requesting the comic change to a weekly schedule too.
We just didn’t consider the amount of work that went into our comics and always wanted more of them. I personally never looked at the date my next issue of the monthly Jurassic Park was due because then it’d feel like forever, instead I just let its arrival in the shop surprise me. The response here also reminds me of OiNK’s co-editor Tony Husband and how he felt that comic’s transition to a weekly (from a fortnightly) sucked the fun out of it for him. I do get the irony of this topic coming up in the penultimate issue of Aliens, too.
Dave Gibbon’sSalvation finale is first up with a huge 16-page chunk of the issue, and as Selkirk fights for his life atop the crashed spaceship the ground caves in and he finds himself dangling in front of a nightmare. There are bodies of the crew and the local creatures everywhere with holes in their chests but somehow he’s able to creep into the escape pod and meet back up with Dean. I said last time there was something more about her and I was right, she’s an artificial person (as Bishop would say).
In a shocking turn of events, Selkirk’s prejudices come to the fore and he tortures her for information, all while his internal monologue preys to his Christian god about how he’s doing good. Mike Mignola’s bold, shadowy art adds to the horror of this moment. Yes, she’s a synth but it’s gruesome stuff! Then, when he gets what he needs he simply kills her. He’s a twisted character and it’s a bleak strip because of this. Selkirk’s hatred for synths makes him blind to the fact that without Dean’s programming to save human life he’d be dead by now too. It’s compulsive reading! I find myself hoping more and more he gets his comeuppance.
Basically, the military wants the aliens wiped out but the company wants its bioweapons. This planet had one land mass and a species that reproduced quickly, so perfect for the company, the ship used to deliver the aliens whether the crew survived or not. Selkirk concludes it’s the company, not the aliens, that has been sent by satan and he takes it upon himself to be a martyr for Christianity, to self-destruct the ship and wipe out the entire land mass and all sentient life.
Wiping out all life not like him, seeing non-Christians as inferior, killing someone he liked when he finds out they were different to him, all while going “god’s work” is a scary enough conclusion until we get to the last page. Seeing this huge ship with its even bigger cross traversing the universe and bringing their god’s word to alien worlds is a more terrifying conclusion than anything I’ve read in this comic to date.
The next story is called Alien. Which isn’t confusing at all, is it? Seriously, Aliens: Alien is the name of a new short tale (will we see it conclude next issue?) written by John Arcudi (Barb Wire, The Mask, BPRD), drawn by Paul Mendoza (Tensor Matrix, Rage Across Las Vegas, Dark Horse Comics) and lettered by Vickie Williams (The Web, Star Wars Legends, Spider-Man 2099). Given the name of the original film couldn’t they have thought of another title for this? Very strange.
Set on an alien planet in a small village where the men are in charge and the women are subservient (yawn, how original), their individual face paint markings indicate they’ve made kills during their hunts for food. A teen is the star of this strip and he’s not allowed to join the hunts yet, but while the ‘big, powerful men, ug, ug, ug’ are out on a hunt an alien attacks the village and kills a family, leaving the boy as the only witness.
In fact, the alien has attacked every time the men have been on a hunt recently but there have been no male witnesses until now, so the boy is ordered to join them the next night. They’re going to find and kill the alien. That’s it for this part so there’s not much of a story to sink two jaws into yet, but the art and lettering make up for this. I particularly like Paul’s xenomorph and Vickie’s lettering in speech balloons (you’ll see them next month) which suggests everything is being spoken in an alien tongue and translated for us mere humans.
The H.R. Giger feature is actually written by horror writer and creator of Hellraiser and Candyman, Clive Barker. Initially I thought this was a hell of a coup for the comic, so it’s almost criminal how it’s presented on the page. The choice of background and text colours makes it difficult to read, in particular the first page is almost unreadable. Then there’s the admission at the end that it’s actually an introduction from an already released book, so not the coup I thought it was.
It’s more of an essay on general fantasy art rather than Giger (which makes it a strange introduction to a Giger book) and Clive rightly criticises the “pseudo-sophisticated” rubbish that people often use to write about art and how Giger doesn’t need that kind of review. Yet this reads just like that at times! It’s a bit of a disappointment overall, however I’m intrigued by the image of what looks like a female alien, as it’s very similar to the mysterious female the current Alien comic from Marvel have in their stories. Clearly they went back to the original inspiration.
The last strip this month is the next part of Colonial Marines, an epically-long tale when cut up into chunks for this comic, and one I’ve known from the off we wouldn’t get to the end of because I remembered reading a chapter of it in the final issue, the only one I owned as a kid. Back then I didn’t know anything about the characters but today I’ve been following them from the beginning and so I can’t help feeling somewhat betrayed by the main character, Lt. Henry.
Basically, he’s turned into a bit of a bastard. He doesn’t care at all about helping any of the innocent people he and his team’s actions have hurt by thinking they could outwit the aliens. He also doesn’t care about said team placing their lives on the line for him, as he’s placed explosives in their necks while they were in cryogenic sleep! So now, if they don’t follow his brutish orders he can threaten to detonate them! What?!
What happened to the fun character we got introduced to months ago, the character that’s meant to be someone we care about? Now I’m hoping he gets implanted! The story has changed writers a couple of times and perhaps this is part of the problem. There doesn’t seem to have been any coordination between them to ensure continuity, or any kind of long form plan or overall writer to steer this particular ship.
The new mission is to rid Alpha Tech of the bug men who have infiltrated the company, Beliveau not being a villain after all but someone trying to do the same thing from within. But subtlety is no longer an option. Things don’t get off to a great start when their captured bug man deals some alien jelly to the pilot of their space cruiser, deliberately overdosing him. High as a kite, instead of coming into orbit to collect the team he ends up getting too close and burns the whole thing up on reentry, the bug man sacrificing himself for his cause.
What’s so frustrating is how this started off so well way back in #9 and Henry was the main reason. I’m all for character development and when dealing with the aliens of course people are going to come undone somewhat. But Colonial Marines now feels like a collection of different stories with completely different characters, like each writer wanted to write something else. Such a shame it’s all come crashing down towards the end. No pun intended.
The Technical Readout is nothing to write home about this month, being a simple drawing of the comms panel of the Armoured Personnel Carrier and a lot of bland text, so the final highlight of the issue is a page reporting on the release of the Terminator 2: Judgement Day Special Edition on Laserdisc. Back then I used to lap up details like this about restored deleted scenes etc., but today I much prefer to find out for myself by watching the movies instead, like I did with the superb Alien³ Special Edition.
I have to laugh at the “Why bother with video?” comment. VHS would continue to dominate for a long time after this and even made advances in picture and sound quality. It only eventually gave way when DVD took off. The extortionately-priced Laserdisc could only dream of such success. Saying that, remember this was 1994 and as such we’ll forgive Terry Jones here. After all, who am I to judge when I went all-in on the supposed new entertainment standard, 3DO around the same time?
Oh now I’m reminiscing… how I loved those 3DO machines!
Ahem, anyway, a quick glance of the comics checklist on the letters page confirms Crusade will return next month for its penultimate chapter. Noooo! So close! Oh well, I’ll get back into my 90s head space and try to forget #22 will be the final issue until it’s all over. It feels like no time at all since I kicked off this real time read through, I can’t quite believe we’ve been on this ride together for over 20 months. Just the one terrifying (hopefully) trip to go on Tuesday 24th March 2026.
A silly cover for Valentine’s Day by Brian Williamson and Bambos Georgiou, and a brutal death-laden cover to mark the end of the latest epic by Andrew Wildman, who is credited as “Andy” here. During my real time read through Andrew told me he’d no idea why they did that as he’s never gone by that name. Anyway, that aside Marvel UK had all bases covered.
Despite Slimer making the cover, The Real Ghostbusters focuses instead on Egon and Janine for the lovey-dovey season, although Egon’s idea of celebrations may have suited the other comic above, what with his Spengler’s Spirit Guide focusing on those who have died for love. It’s all tongue-in-cheek of course, and the previously advertised Betty Boop Valentine Card Comic is released for £1.15 according to the editorial. I wonder how many of those they sold?
In Transformers and Action Force the epic to end all epics… um, ends. It does so in fine form with some truly shocking moments drawn by Lee Sullivan. Probably most memorable of all is Galvatron being literally pulled apart, from his outer metal all the way through to his inner electronics by an angry and vengeful universe. What an experience this was as a kid, especially as I’d only begun reading the comic a few months beforehand! Surely this is the big title of the week?
Nope, that honour goes to the new issue of Action Force Monthly, even though it could’ve been given the top spot anytime over the next few weeks (which we’ve seen before for the monthlies) whereas this truly incredible Transformers is here for one week only. Two keys details in Action Force for me are the boast of four stories (so they must be rather short) and the use of the phrase “another outing” (oh dear, a reprint).
Thundercats is also a new entry for the fortnightly comic and it sounds more like the earlier editions once more. A fully British line up too. We’ve got a new comic advert this week as well for another brand new fortnightly. At least in theory. In reality it never appeared and that was only one half of the confusion that occurred when I saw this promo way back in 1989.
A brand new TV series and a brand new comic to accompany it? And of a story I enjoyed as a child too? I was in. I asked my newsagents every week if they knew when it’d be out and I trawled the listings in the family TV Times over and over, week after week, convinced it had to be somewhere in there. Neither appeared. It’s only decades later for blog research that I found out what had happened.
ITV decided to hold the series back for the summer, so with no accompanying telly show we weren’t going to rush out and buy a new comic of it, were we? All of the material created would end up in a graphic novel collection, The Marvel Bumper Comic and a Holiday Special, then the annual would appear later in the year. In the end it was the right call because ITV pulled it from their schedules pretty quickly after they started showing it. It was a big enough hit in the States to get three seasons though and it’s available on DVD under its original name, Crossbow if you fancy it.
That’s us for another week. Next time there’ll be an advert I’m sure will get some of you reminiscing, “no problem”.
It’s with sadness I must once again inform pig pals everywhere of the recent passing on 27th January 2026 of another fantastic OiNK artist. Paul Sample may have only contributed to OiNK once but it was a very memorable occasion. For anyone unfamiliar with it, you’ll soon see why. So I wanted to mark his passing just as I would for any of the regular cartoonists.
Paul was born in Yorkshire and at the young age of 18 moved to London to follow his dreams. Gaining an Honours Degree in Graphic Arts, he was commissioned by such publications as The Times, Today, Melody Maker, Men Only and Rockstar, as well as marketing teams for Ford, the Post Office and British Airways. For OiNK, he was brought in to create the fantastic cover to the second Holiday Special, published in 1988. Not many got to have their drawing over the top of the logo like this!
Paul is best known for his biker character, Ogri. Based on his love of Marvel superheroes and biking, the character began life in 1967 and went on appear in Bike magazine for a whopping 35 years from 1972. Even then he didn’t hang up his helmet, moving instead to BSH (Back Street Heroes). The good-natured biker was phenomenally popular and counts Ewan MacGregor as a celebrity fan, himself known for his biking TV series he even owns an Ogri jacket.
At one stage Cosgrove Hall was interested in turning Ogri into a TV show but in the end they realised there was simply no way to adequately adapt Paul’s very busy illustrations to animation. This was because of the vast amount going on in his backgrounds. His OiNK cover shows just how much he could pack in. So much so in fact, he was granted two pages for a special wraparound cover poster.
I remember hunting out all of the little details I could in this on a holiday when I was a child, before I even opened the comic to enjoy the strips. As anyone who has read the blog for any length of time will know I’m a sucker for a funny shark and Paul’s is just the icing on this particularly ingredient-heavy cake. In amongst the crowds swarming to Uncle Pigg’s copy watch out for an Icarus-type device, a rather creepy starfish and the security guard. Even the crowd all have their own individuality.
It’s such a shame Paul never contributed more to OiNK, his style suits the anarchic humour perfectly and I’d loved to have seen him let loose with strips if what I’ve seen of Ogri is anything to go by. Paul’s website is chock full of examples of comics, books, newspaper and magazine illustrations you’ll love pouring over for a long, long time. His contributions to this world clearly brought plenty of joy and he’ll be sadly missed by many.
Now that the three months-long month of January is finally over we head back to 1989 and welcome the latest issues of The Real Ghostbusters and Transformers and Action Force with covers by Brian Williamson and Tim Perkins, and Jeff Anderson and Dave Harwood respectively.
The New York team’s Skeleton in the Closet story takes us to a dark and foreboding take on the land of Narnia with some funny references back to the source material for its fans and there’s a particularly fun Winston’s Diary (well, they all were) this week too. Amongst all the comedy there’s also an advert for Thundercats toothbrushes that (with hindsight) were so basic they weren’t going to be much use against the sugar content of 80s sweets.
In Transformers the penultimate chapter of Time Wars ends with what should’ve been a fantastic reveal for its cliffhanger but it’s given away by that cover instead. It’s still a nice mirror image of the moment when Hot Rod tried to come to the aid of Optimus Prime in the animated movie (to dire results), and Lee Sullivan’s incredible strip artwork contains many panels that became iconic, often reprinted as highlights of the comic’s whole run. The Next Issue panel is also replaced with a full page image of next week’s cover. When you see it in seven days you’ll understand. (Or check it out at the link further below.)
With the same issues of Action Force Monthly and Thundercats as last time and brand new editions of Death’s Head and Dragon’s Claws, it’s the exact opposite of our previous checklist. Death’s Head gets the prime real estate and deserves it but for a reason not mentioned here; it’s one of the funniest issues of the run right from the off. You can check out some of its hilarious highlights via the link at the bottom of this post.
For me personally, the epic finale of sister title Dragon’s Claws is even more deserving of the ‘Don’t Miss…’ treatment. “The finale? But surely there’s one more issue to go, Phil.” That’s right, but writer Simon Furman left that final issue for the conclusion of the main character’s family arc instead, so this month it’s all about the action and it’s a belter. It’s a step up on all of the previous issues and in this excellent series that’s really saying something.
No new comics adverts this week, folks. Next week there’ll be one which confused me at the time, and which had me scouring the TV Times maniacally. I’ll tell all in seven days.
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