It’s always exciting news when Lew Stringer (Tom Thug, Pete and his Pimple, Combat Colin) announces another of his self-published comics. Regular readers of the OiNK Blog will recognise the star of his latest release from Lew’s Barmy Comix and Comic Sampler collections. Starring one of his earliest creations, Brickman #1 is the first of three ‘Best Of’ comics for the spoof superhero (“Britain’s Greatest Super-Pillock”) and his alter ego, Loose Brayne.
I’ll admit I own some of the previous Brickman releases but, while there’s no new material here, if you haven’t read any before this is unmissable. Actually, even if you do own the 2005 book Brickman Begins you should check this out as it’s in a much bigger and easier to read format, the strips really shining on the high quality paper. Included is the 1985 3-page introductory strip from Swiftsure and the 20(!)-page Brickmania Caper from a one-off comic for the character back in 1986.
This first page is the perfect example of what to expect, with loads of laughs not only from the main characters (his origin story) and plot (having his secret hideout above ground and his house buried is genius) but also from all of the little background details. Check out his underwhelming chest logo, the glue-drinking copper, the reader’s thumb and even Lew’s own credit. The comic is chock full of things like this.
If you’ve read Barmy Comix you’ll have already seen Brickman meets The Mad Cobbler. That was actually the first chapter in the huge second story here (renamed and presented in Barmy as a complete strip). Here though, it’s just one small part of a much larger whole, although the chapters do work to some degree on their own. Tied altogether like this it’s a relentlessly funny read.
There are a lot of gags at the expense of Thatcher’s 80s Britain and as someone who grew up in that time and remembers the likes of Spitting Image’s jokes about the politics of the day, high unemployment, privatisation etc. a lot of this takes me right back and I had a good chuckle at the expense of the time. Hey, we had to laugh back then!
Those hidden background gems had me laughing the hardest at times, like the ‘How to Sue the Marvel Way’ book on the shelf in the above panel. Next to that you’ll also spot a mention of none other than OiNK. This strip was originally released during OiNK’s first year and Lew takes every opportunity to add in a little plug. There are quite a lot of little Easter eggs for OiNK fans actually, including a cameo or two. There are also pages drawn by some guest artists who’ll be very familiar to pig pals.
At least it wasn’t a Venezuelan boat! This is just one example of the comedy here that still feels very contemporary decades later. The page was drawn by Dave Gibbons (Ro-Busters, Rogue Trooper, Doctor Who) who drew Lew’s script for the brilliant Superhero’s Day Off in OiNK. Also contributing here are Mike Higgs, Mike Collins, Mark Farmer and the late Kevin O’Neill being very, very Kevin O’Neill! What a line up.
So what super powers does Brickman actually have? Well, chucking bricks basically. That, and just happening to have exactly the right gadget to hand, quite like how 60s Batman did, only here it’s exaggerated to even more ludicrous levels. But that brick throwing! It may be a silly comic but those brick impacts don’t half look painful! But the more painful they look the funnier they get. I’m not sure what that says about me.
A couple of years ago in the actual Batman comic Bruce Wayne found himself without his mansion and his millions, diddled out of it by the Joker. Here, all it takes is a quick visit from someone claiming to be from the Inland Revenue and Loose gives away all of his money, instantly growing stubble to heighten the broke look. It’s a perfect example of the speed of storytelling in this comic.
My personal favourite baddies are The Poker (he loves to poke people) and Man-Brick, but it’s Lew’s pitch-perfect barbs at everyday life and the world we live in that really hit home for me. Superhero movies and fandom are targets you might expect, but the (many, many) other surprising topics in here can range from unfair representation of women in media to how the press manipulates the fickle nature of humans.
It’s testament to Lew’s skill as a comedy writer that these topics are handled in such a way that we laugh along while also acknowledging the points being made. There are many more examples I could give but that would ruin the experience for you, and discovering them all for yourself is something you simply must do. There’s a joke about a certain tropical fruit that resulted in me having to stop reading just to catch my breath!
What we have here are 28 pages packed with so many gags they could fill three issues, so it’s an absolute bargain at only £5 (plus postage). You can grab your copy direct from Lew by visiting his Ko-Fi shop. On his main Ko-Fi page you’ll also see regular blog updates and other comics of his for sale, so make sure you check that out while you’re there. This is only the first issue! I can’t wait to see where it goes from here.
Another Wednesday in 2025 becomes another Saturday morning in 1988 with Brian Williamson and Dave Harwood’s cover to #16 of The Real Ghostbusters and Andrew Wildman’s cover for #185 of The Transformers and Visionaries for our latest look at Marvel UK’s wares in The Mighty Marvel Checklist.
The Ghostbusters comic would sometimes group stories together into themes and that was true of this edition that really raised the temperature, with Peter and Egon off on a hot bust in Hawaii Fire-Ho! and Ray up against some haunted ice cream. Then Tobin’s spirit, of Tobin’s Spirit Guide fame from the movie and cartoon visits Egon in his Spengler’s Spirit Guide to test readers on everything they’ve learned so far.
In Transformers, Soundwave was leading the Decepticons into battle in Space Pirates so if, like me, you heard the cartoon or movie voices in your head when reading these, his vast amount of speech might’ve taken a while to read! In Visionaries, their magical animal selves provide some great spy drama and humorous moments in equal measure, and the biggest toy ever (to my young eyes when I saw it anyway) was up for grabs for free. Now, last week I said there was a surprise entry in the checklist this week, can you guess which one I meant?
You probably didn’t expect to see Thomas pop up here. While I was ten-years-old at the time I was obsessed with the original books and TV show and, despite this technically being a nursery comic, I still collected it for a couple of years. So it was fun to see it sharing space with these other comics, although I do get the feeling now that the inhabitants of Sodor were being used to fill what might’ve been a bit of blank space this week.
Elsewhere, if I’d realised at the time so many of Marvel’s comics were giving away Real Ghostbusters stickers for my Panini album I’d have been buying more of them. Stickers and something new to read? Yes, please. Although, my parents were probably glad I didn’t know. Who knows what else I’d have wanted to add to my reservation list! Finally for the checklist, it was cartoon crossover time with two properties from the complete opposite ends of time coming together.
This week one new advert for Marvel UK’s publications popped up and it’s yet another for their range of annuals. The Real Ghostbusters’ penchant for short comedy strips saw its book grouped together with more of the light-hearted fare. Count Duckula and Inspector Gadget had Marvel annuals? If I’d paid closer attention at the time I think Santa’s sleigh could’ve been weighed down that year, judging by last week’s and this week’s adverts.
That’s you all caught up for another week. Do you remember any of these specific issues? Did you collect any of the series mentioned? Did you own those Duckula or Gadget annuals? Let me know on the blog’s socials on Bluesky, Instagram or Facebook and I’ll see you back here in seven days.
This cover by Carl Critchlow (Thrud the Barbarian, Flesh, Batman/Judge Dredd) has got to be one of the best covers so far, encapsulating a moment with the twisted Doctor Cutlow character in the final chapter of our prose story, Tribes. So, only six issues to come after this one, eh? Yes, but calm down, that’s still half a year and a lot of aliens!
Editor Cefn Ridout mentions a sea-faring (“sea-scaring”) tale beginning next month and teases us about some other surprises to come. Colour me intrigued. After the editorial (included here so you have access to the full credits) we’re straight into the concluding half of Jim Woodring and Killian Plunkett’s superb Backsplash. After the cliff collapse there are only two Marines left, Gibbs and Crespi and these eight pages depict their desperate escape bid from the alien-infested cavern to their drop ship outside.
This is great fun! It’s also tense in all the right places which is quite the feat when we’ve gotten so used to seeing the aliens in comic form. Smacking an alien over the head with the limb of one of its fallen siblings, the pair make their way outside just before everything collapses around them. Not that this stops one of the aliens making a surprise reappearance to grab Crespi as they make a bolt for it.
Gibbs saves him only for things to take a turn for him. Hanging on to the ship’s entrance ramp he’s suddenly choking and an inner alien mouth bursts out of his own in a scary moment of synchronicity. His decapitated body falls to the ground as the ship takes off and a quick lever pull by Crespi opens the floor beneath the beast and, mirroring that earlier arm smack, poor Gibbs’ head is used in a moment of alien frustration!
This has been a brilliant little tale. Okay, so it’s light on plot and the characters are interchangeable with pretty much any Colonial Marine from the comic or movie, but through its sheer relentlessness and imaginative situations it’s a standout. But Kilian’s art is the main reason for its success in my eyes. His aliens are superbly detailed, his humans full of character even if the script doesn’t really call for it, and he heightens the horrific moments perfectly.
On to the news and I take issue with the Director’s Cut/Special Edition of a movie being referred to as “diluted”. Also, “already hailed as the best platform game for the Super Nintendo”? Really, Dave Hughes? Better than Mario? Better than Yoshi? The Alien³ game did very well across the board in all versions too, so I think maybe Dave owned a SNES. Ah, the days of unrivalled loyalty to a games platform. (For me it was still the C64 at this point.)
The game was notable for not following the plot of the film at all, with Ripley running around with a huge variety of weapons killing hoards of xenomorphs. Kind of defeats the purpose of having an Alien³ licence, no? At least she was bald! I still think a creepy platform game of stealth and a lack of weaponry with one alien roaming about would’ve been much better, like a 90s version of the more recent Alien: Isolation.
British strip Crusade begins with the Archbishop confronted by his suspicious followers, but he just keeps coming up with ludicrous excuses. “The wind whistling through broken stones” really placates people who’ve heard the alien Queen? Then our tribe and Minecorp marines are attacked by another tribe but the art is too messy to work out what’s going on. In the end the survivors continue on with their two horses into the sewers beneath London and now we can’t even see their hair colours in the dark, one of the few things we could use to tell characters apart. Suddenly their motion tracker starts to bleep and Rani’s spidey senses start to tingle. That can’t be good.
Back in the “big building for tiny minds” (as one of the Marines describes the church) it becomes clear that the Archbishop thinks he’s actually doing god’s work by keeping the alien threat contained within the tower via human sacrifices. But an attack and a hole in the wall recently saw some eggs roll down into the river, however he thinks if he keeps the aliens fed with outsiders they won’t leave their tower. In reality of course he’s just adding to their army.
The world building is potentially great but it’s that lack of visual clarity that’s just so frustrating. This issue’s chapter ends with one of the horses suddenly writhing in pain and an alien bursting from its chest, so the thrills and danger should be tangible but it just requires a bit too much effort for you to feel it.
One moment almost ruins the whole months-long story for me
Much better, as per usual, is prose story Tribes. This concluding chapter is, to use a clichéd phrase, a thrill ride. The whole place is rigged to explode any minute and Rat is stuck in a refuge unit with an alien climbing down through the rubbish. Bort realises he’s always loved her and risks his life to release the unit into deep space so she’ll finally be at peace, dead from the vacuum instead of being an alien incubator and reliving those nightmares of her childhood with her father.
In a tense moment she’s finally able to activate her oxygen supply and the story is left with her floating (alone, sans alien) in space. But one moment almost ruins the whole months-long story, for me anyway. The doctor of the religious extremists trying to help the aliens finds himself in an escape pod with a newborn Queen and a human baby. He was going to use this baby to feed the Queen but the baby dies in his arms slowly from a lack of oxygen.
Look, I know Alien is a horror franchise but I just felt this was an unnecessary use of a mental image of a dying baby to try to elicit an emotional response from the reader. It wasn’t needed and it cheapened all of the excellent work up to this point by writer Steve Bissette. Colton is also dying but knows the Queen will feed on him, providing her with sustenance until the pod lands and she can free herself. Tribes has been a real highlight and if it hadn’t been for that one moment I’d have been singing its praises for months to come.
The Technical Readout pages seem to have done away with the intricate technical cutaways, somewhat making the name of the feature redundant. While I do miss those earlier entries I have to say I really like this most recent one showcasing the military gear worn by two female Colonial Marines. There’s no credit anywhere for the artist, perhaps they were drawn by Lee Brimmincombe-Wood himself?
Our final strip is Colonial Marines and it’s been reduced in pages again after a bumper chapter last time but it’s still a meaty 12-page read. Leaving the sun gun they get distracted on the way to their main mission by a kelp bed on a planet that’s somehow keeping a comms channel open with the HQ they can’t reach, and on a planet that’s not meant to be inhabited. So off they go, with their bug man prisoner in tow.
Unfortunately, things don’t start off too well when the comic’s habit of printing errors sees spread above in the wrong order. The bug man is somehow able to produce the addictive alien slime we humans can’t get enough of and it’s handed around the marines like a drug. Meanwhile there’s an underlying current of distrust in Vasquez after her freak out as people begin to question whether they can rely on her to save their lives like they did hers. With less characters now we can begin to familiarise ourselves with some of the personalities in the ragtag team during these downtime scenes, instantly improving what was already a good strip.
Once they’re flying over the planet they spot an outpost where there shouldn’t be one and, once inside and cornered, they find out it belongs to the bug men. That of course means the aliens can’t be far away. The Marines attempted escape in the people carrier had the same music from the Hadley’s Hope escape scene in the movie playing over and over in my head as I read the end of this month’s chapter.
The cliffhanger sees their drop ship explode and now they’re stuck on this mysterious planet. Chris Warner’s story began as a fun take on the movie but little did I know that was only the starting point. I’m still not convinced about these bug men but given how much I’m enjoying the rest of it (at least they’re no longer 70s Doctor Who aliens) I have hope they’ll develop further too.
The Genre Gap is a strange little page, taking a long time to come to the conclusion we knew already that the Alien films are horrors. They just so happen to be set in a futuristic sci-fi setting, with a sci-fi entity as the main scare. When Stephen King says so is there really any need to question it? Then on the Bug Hunt letters page I’m not too sure about the name given to describe fans of fellow horror franchise, Predator!
There’s a healthy variety of places of origin for the readers this month. Back then it was rare to see letters in our comics from anywhere other than England. There also appears to have been a great deal of positivity for not only Tribes, but for the very idea of having a prose story in the comic, which I’m all for too. The sequel idea for an Alien 4 movie is just ridiculous… I mean, Madonna doing a movie song after that thing that I had to endure at the start of Die Another Day?!
Backsplash and Tribes may be over but that means more new stories next month which is always exciting. Colonial Marines continues to get better and better, and Crusade certainly has loads of potential that hopefully it can begin to fulfil. Even more excitedly there’s talk in this issue of a second autopsy feature (the first in #11 was fascinating) next month, this time for the alien eggs. Things can only get better, so be here in one month to check out Aliens #17.
On this day back in 1988 the newest issues of The Real Ghostbusters and Transformers and Visionaries sat on newsagent shelves across the UK waiting for excited children like me to run in and grab them. Inside sat the latest Mighty Marvel Checklist, ready to drain parents’ wallets across the land.
Humour comics legend John Geering supplied the cover for the ‘Busters alongside Dave Hine, while the other was provided by the artist responsible to the epic cover to #1 of Transformers, Jerry Paris. Two big competitions this week! We could’ve won a bicycle courtesy of those Frosties reflectors we ALL had on our bike wheels back then (this was also run in Transformers #182, as seen on its cover two week ago) and, possibly even bigger than that, new Optimus Prime toys! It was this second, Power Master version of Prime that I would eventually own.
Dreadwind took over the Transformers letters page too and quickly established himself as the most brilliant, sarcastic responder comics ever had, which lightened things up after the main strip ended this week with a bunch of fan-favourite Autobots strung up, dead or dying! As you can see below, Janine also thought she was receiving equally bad news but the title of the story kind of gives it away before even reading it. It was still a fun tale though. Strangely, there’s no word on the cover or the checklist that this issue had four extra pages, something Marvel UK usually hyped.
The previously advertised Marvel Bumper Comic Holiday Special was now a fortnightly and the checklist makes it clear it was mainly a reprint title, although Marvel did go one better than Fleetway’s Big Comic Fortnightly and provided the occasional new strip, like here in the premiere issue to entice the Ghostbusters fans.
The Flintstones would also appear in it now and again, and in their own comic the cut-out figures and buildings of Build Bedrock was something I bet absolutely no one actually made. Elsewhere, a Geoff Senior cover is always a big deal and I see I’m not alone in thinking that as it gets top billing for the latest issue of Action ForceMonthly, while in Thundercats and Galaxy Rangers the name “Shane Gooseman” sounds more like a character from Count Duckula.
Annuals season was in full swing too. Although most of us never got to actually read them until Christmas Day, the months-long advertising just made them all the more coveted. The Real Ghostbusters Annual was the latest to get the full-page treatment and even seeing these few sample pages brings back all the Christmassy feels of receiving it myself that year, reading it wrapped up in bed during that void week between Christmas and New Year.
The selection of action titles was particularly brilliant in 1988, wasn’t it? Personally I received the Transformers and Visionaries books and absolutely loved them! That Visionaries Annual was certainly popular when it appeared on the blog, especially with all you American readers. I’d love to have a nosey at the Galaxy Rangers and Action Force ones. Now that I think about it, I was a big fan of the Action Force back up strips in Transformers so I’ve no idea why I never asked for their annuals and specials!
There’s a surprise guest appearance in the checklist next week, the only time this particular fortnightly appeared in it. I was so happy to see it included at the time but with hindsight I’m thinking they were desperate to fill a gap for the week! What was it? You’ll find out in seven days.
Esteban Maroto’s glorious cover gives the impression of a comic in rude health. Dark Horse International’s usual penchant for almost unreadable headlines hides what sounds like a particularly exciting issue for those that had stayed with Dracula this long after the association with the movie had ended. However, upon opening the issue we’re met with an editorial containing the round up of what’s happened in the main strip (instead of it being given its own page) and a “special message”.
Respect to editor Dick Hansom for telling the readers the truth rather than the next issue not appearing, something many comics in the 90s did, including DHI’s own titles. Although, he says readers can continue to read imported Topps Comics Dracula comics. Having researched these, alongside Vlad the Impaler (which concludes here) I can only find a Dracula Versus Zorro mini-series from the same year. Perhaps cancellation was the preferred option after all.
What Has Gone Before is part of the editorial to make room for the 28 pages of To Rise Again from the usual team of writer Roy Thomas, artist Esteban, colourist Paul Mounts and letterer John Costanza. It begins with Vlad beheading a King’s guard who tried to forcibly remove a thief from Castle Dracula who had begged for sanctuary. The guard insists the thief hadn’t asked permission. However, the guard also hadn’t before placing his foot across the threshold.
The King of Hungary, who had kept Vlad captive up until now, gives him an army to lead against the Turks, hoping Vlad’s viciousness will help him in his dire situation and lead to more impalements across the land. However, another of the King’s allies, Stephen Bathory wants Transylvania as thanks for his own help and Vlad is left with Wallachia, which he becomes ruler of again after his younger brother, Prince Radu dies of syphilis.
On a few occasions Vlad’s narration laments his own decisions, defending himself by reminding us he was only human at the time. For example, he didn’t know he had only two months left to live and wishes he’d made better choices, in particular with his family; he’s now married to the King’s cousin, they have two children and are in love as opposed to his previous wife who he’d forced into a relationship.
He realises his enemies (and allies) are amassing against his bloodlust and he takes drastic measures. He orders all of his wealth be amassed before leaving for a secret destination. Even his loyal assistant Cazan is left behind. Vlad shows a surprising amount of love for the man in these moments, telling the reader he was hurting because he’d left his friend with the wrong impression. You see, once all his worldly goods were buried (in an area where he’d dammed a river, then released the water again to hide the burial site) he impaled everyone involved. He didn’t want to have to kill his friend too.
But he would’ve.
Someone claiming their village was destroyed by Vlad’s enemies comes to swear allegiance and, despite Cazan’s vocal suspicions, the man is allowed to join the army in a top advisory role. Vlad admits to the reader he had his own doubts but in a moment of “grim fatalism” he took in “a suspected viper to my bosom”. We’re reaching the end here. In the build up to the final battle against his hated foe, Danesti he’s unsurprisingly betrayed and Cazan takes a knife to the chest as he leaps to Vlad’s defence. Even though Vlad is also killed, his narration continues from beyond the grave and it’s here that the story goes on a tangent from known history.
Beheaded by the assassin, after the battle is over pious monks take his body to be honoured by the Catholic church, which praises what this monster of a man achieved in the name of Christianity. However, that night the chapel is destroyed by a wild, unforeseen storm. This leads many of the faith to believe he’ll never be allowed to rest in peace because of what he did in life.
That was only his body, though. His head gets its own story. It was taken to Mehmed the Conqueror. However, over the course of just one night it becomes so badly decomposed it’s no longer recognisable to the people who come to see it impaled on a spike. We also find out that Vlad’s illegitimate son, Mihnea became known for terrorising the lands, cutting off the noses and lips of his enemies, with Vlad’s narration full of pride for the next Prince of Wallachia.
We then suddenly jump forward 150 years and a hooded stranger (actually a descendant) arrives at the church where Vlad’s decapitated body is buried; on orders from the Pope it is to be moved because it was buried too close to the altar. There’s a mention of Vlad’s wife’s suicide damning her for all eternity, which should be at least a bit familiar to fans of the film. However, unlike his supposed head a century-and-a-half earlier Vlad’s body hasn’t decayed.
After the spread above, his actual head (which we learn is not decomposed either) is placed on to his body, the stranger recites some ancient texts in a foreign language and Vlad rises again, instantly biting the neck of his descendant, energising his body and beginning his life as a vampire. While the story ends with an image of him declaring himself as the Dracula of Bram Stoker’s creation this origin story, even the resurrection part, is very different from the novel. In fact, it’s only one of a few possible stories about Vlad’s body after he died.
This has been a curious strip. We know that Stoker had very limited knowledge of Vlad the Impaler, that particular part of the world or indeed that point in history and he simply picked at scraps of information to build his character. (Not forgetting his own supposed xenophobia which may have contributed to the story.) This strip seems to dangle somewhere between actual history and the novel. After accurately chronicling the historical character (as much as a comic can), this final chapter commits itself to neither the truth nor Stoker’s imagination.
There’s a lot of ambiguity surrounding the events of his burial so Roy has decided to fill in the gaps as he saw fit, and that’s fair. Personally though, I’d have preferred to have had the mystery remain. It could’ve still ended with how it began four months ago, with Dracula relaying the story to the reader and letting them fill in the blanks. The mystery could’ve added to the spookiness, the unknown adding to the fear instead of it being filled in for us. Overall though, I’ve really enjoyed it and it’s peaked my interest in the real life man. I’ve found myself reading about him at length because of this comic.
It’s a shame the sales figures dropped so sharply after the adaptation finished, although I’m not sure what they could’ve printed anyway. This last issue also sees Vampirella unceremoniously dumped (she never did get her own cover as promised) and the small back up strip is rather unremarkable. But I wanted to concentrate on the main story anyway.
Overall this has been a quality comic and a pleasant surprise from start-to-finish. From a brilliantly realised movie adaptation to a fascinating look at the man behind the myth. From an initially clichéd Vampirella origin to a captivating story and character I’d never read before. From interesting news on the film’s release to a series of remarkable anthology back up strips. I didn’t expect too much from what was essentially a movie tie-in, but Dark Horse International’s Dracula has been a great read from start to finish, including when changing form like its titular character.
It may not be well remembered and doesn’t sell for very much on eBay, but that just means it’s easy for you to pick up and enjoy for yourselves. I highly recommend that you do.
It was all change this week across Marvel UK’s best-sellers as The Real Ghostbusters changed to a weekly format and Transformers and Action Force became… Transformers and Visionaries! It was about time too, seeing as how Visionaries fans had been waiting since July for their adventures to continue.
Andy Wildman’s cover may present what was meant to be a shocking moment in Space Pirates but it was the inclusion of the Knights of the Magical Light and a brand new look to the comic which excited me the most when I read this for its real time read through a few years back. The Real Ghostbusters never changed its look at all over the course of its run, although this issue did stray from the typical multi-story formula.
Instead, an epic (for this comic anyway) tale took over the whole issue with a two-part, 11-page strip drawn by cover artists Andy Lanning and Dave Hine who brought us a superb set of Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Even the prose story, Spengler’s Spirit Guide and Lew Stringer’sBlimey It’s Slimer tied into the same story. Unfortunately my Panini sticker album is long gone but I did have fond memories of trying (and ultimately failing) to complete it. There’s also a competition to win a Commodore 64 computer, a machine I’d become obsessed with over three years later!
In Doctor Who MagazineJohn Freeman hit on a story title that might seem familiar to fans of the show today, Dragon’s Claws had one of their most entertaining adventures from their whole run when they find themselves between warring factions in France and the comic slowly begins to unveil its background story. Then, were we really meant to believe anyone would think Alf was the sexiest alien alive when we’d just had V on TV a few years previous? Come on!
As you can see there was a trilogy of changes on the checklist completed with the merging of the short-lived The Adventures of theGalaxy Rangers into the hit Thundercats comic. I don’t think it remained merged for long though before running out of already completed stories for the ranger. The merge was advertised across their range for quite a few weeks with this rather simple advert.
I’m surprised the Galaxy Rangers didn’t merge into Transformers if I’m honest. Space-faring adventures chasing down aliens and mechanoid outlaws with four of the coolest robotic horses sounds like a perfect fit! I’d have lapped them up if that had been the case, but with Visionaries needing a new home too there was only so much back up space to go around.
Did you collect Thundercats or The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers? What did you make of the merge? Can you remember one of the very best issues of The Real Ghostbusters from its whole 193-issue run? More importantly, did you finish the album? Join in the conversation over on the socials on Bluesky, Instagram and Facebook, and I’ll see you back here next week for another checklist and two classic ads.
Last month’s Dragon’s Claws competition certainly produced a bit of interest out there! It was by far the most popular in these monthly contests. It seems all these years later it’s still a fondly remembered comic a lot of you wanted to relive again. It was Yiu-Chung Lee from Buckinghamshire in England who ultimately had their name plucked out of the proverbial hat by correctly naming the ‘Claws’ dog, Scratch. (For the record, I was also accepting the name Scavenger originally have him, Lady Killer.) Thanks for the photo of your new comics in their new home too.
As popular as last month’s competition was, this month’s may be even more of a challenge for my inbox! Below are this month’s prizes for one lucky blog reader.
The Dragon’s Claws team carry over to this month’s prize in a crossover issue of Death’s Head, and I’m throwing in the hilarious #3 alongside it. Both issues are in superb condition, like they’ve just been brought back from the newsagent in 1988 and will come bagged and boarded as you see above. Death’s Head had a rather busy career back in the day across a multitude of Marvel UK comics before his own appeared, and this month’s question will quiz you on just such an appearance.
So, as usual you’ll have 14 days to scour the blog for the answer to the following question:
Q – Which God of Chaos did Death’s Head once take a psychic trip into the mind of?
Think you’ve got the answer? Then you should email it to me at oink.blog@icloud.com(all emails will be deleted after the winner has been selected, I don’t have anything to plug), or use the contact form you can find on the right-hand side of your desktop screen or under this post on mobile. Your entry must be with me by midnight on Friday 19th September 2025.
After this date I’ll contact the winner to ask for their postal address. Unfortunately, due to rising costs the competitions are only open to UK and Ireland readers. If you win I’ll ask if you could take a photo of you with your prize for inclusion in next month’s competition post. You don’t have to, but you do get to show off if you do.
If you weren’t already entering surely these brief glimpses into the issues I’m giving away will tempt you. You won’t want to miss out on your chance to grab two free copies of this utterly classic action-comedy comic. Don’t forget to check the blog on the 1st of each month to see what’s up for grabs. As a bit of a Preview for next month, I won’t Toy with you but it’ll be a perfect prize for October.
For the last time (for a while anyway) we’ve only one physical comic to pull from this week. This is all set to change in seven days and the reason was advertised in this week’s Transformers and Action Force. But first, what’s behind this ominous Lee Sullivan cover for #182 of Marvel UK’s top seller?
Part one of the epic Space Pirates strip saw the end of the planet Quintesson and Simon Furman neatly tied it in with the abysmal cartoon episode adaptation from a few weeks ago, and the reason Wreck Gar told the fabricated tale (fabricated for the UK story arc anyway) in the first place. There’s also great news for Lew Stringer fans as Combat Colin took up six full pages in this issue! The comic had finished one Action Force story but the next US import wasn’t quite ready yet so a multi-issue strip of Colin and Semi-Automatic Steve from Action Force’s weekly was reprinted.
For the last time for quite a while we’ve no actual checklist. However, for anyone who was collecting both Transformers and The Real Ghostbusters page 23 of this comic contained some amazing news. To reiterate, as a kid I hadn’t started reading Transformers yet, so I never saw the advert below before picking up #14 of Slimer et all’s comic the following week.
Unbelievably, Marvel UK hadn’t hyped this happening in the previous issue of The Real Ghostbusters! We only found out when we went to pick up our latest issue and it proclaimed it was the first weekly issue on the cover, so Transformers readers found out first a whole seven days earlier. At the time, when I eventually saw the advert through a friend’s collection, I thought “ectoplasmic activity” referred to a cut-out Ghostbusters membership card in #1 and the promise of more such stuff which never materialised. Although #14 would contain a cut-out Doomsday Mask there’d be nothing for months after that. Now, I’m thinking it just means the general ghostly vibes.
Okay, so from next week expect Mighty Marvel Checklists in every post and a liberal sprinkling of classic comic ads to boot! If you thought your grey memory cells had been given a workout so far you ain’t seen nothin’ yet (or some other clichéd 80s’ hype slogan if you wish). I’ll be back this day next week, see you then.
This is the last we’ll see of Derek Yaniger’s wonderful art on the blog. The final edition of Marvel US’ Transformers: Generation 2 has 48-pages with 37 of strip broken down into chapters of varying length called Judgement, Twilight, Siege and Creation. All written by Simon Furman, coloured by Sarra Mossoff and lettered by Richard Starkings, with alternate chapters drawn by either Manny Galan and Jim Amash or Geoff Senior, making it feel even more special. The annoying adverts breaking the up strip are also limited, with the final 17 pages left as one long chunk.
Things kick off with something I enjoy but which seems to irk the all-too-ready-to-criticise folks when another movie drops. I don’t like retcons if we have to ignore previous storylines in order to make them work, but unlike some I’ve never thought that about the films. Instead, just like the G1 comic which (and this is not a complaint) was made up as it went along, I enjoy a storyline that adds background, depth and builds upon what we thought we knew. This is what has happened with the G2 comic. At least, until the final page anyway.
So our memories have been refreshed about the ‘evolution’ of these mechanical beings and Simon’s clever way of integrating the comic’s necessary name change into the story, then there’s some surprisingly good comedy as Starscream finds himself battling with his own consciousness. His natural desire to conquer is in a losing battle with the power of the Autobot Creation Matrix and he finds himself unwillingly saving the lives of others. Hilariously he’s never anything other than the Starscream we all know and love to hate, and he hates every moment of it! Eventually he relents and passes the Matrix back to Optimus Prime like a child forced to give up their toy until they’ve eaten their dinner. This is a brilliant swan song for him.
Moving on to book two and Geoff’s easily recognisable style instantly elevates an already enjoyable story. We find out The Swarm is something “between matter and energy” and we witness it destroying a battleship, killing its 16,000 troops in seconds. It falls on Megatron of all characters to bring some levity to the proceedings. He’s a far cry from the megalomaniacal ranter in G1, continuing his entertaining line in dark quips from last issue.
The two leaders have a plan but it’s not revealed yet, leaving us to enjoy the tension as things continue to worsen. After years of knowing these characters it’s fascinating watching Megatron go about something with all of his usual verve while treating Prime as his equal. Speaking of Optimus, he senses some form of intelligence within The Swarm and believes if he can reason with Jhiaxus he can contact it on some form of psychic level through one of the second generation. Given the twists and turns and shocks the original comic gave us over seven years, it would really take something to shock us by this stage, right? Correct.
There’s some gloriously detailed art here, some of Geoff’s finest in fact. Could a shock conclusion see the end of Optimus? No, that’d be too easy. Instead he’s forced to fight through the pain and the temptation to give up and simply pass away. This gets dark at times. But in the end it plays to the strength of this character.
It feels less like a sequel and more like an epilogue to the original epic 332+ issue run
As far as Jhiaxus is concerned the original generation of Transformers have compassion and empathy, and he believes caring about those other than yourself (or indeed for those worse off than you) is a weakness and must be torn out. In the end it’s the Swarm that gets him, tearing him apart in a burst of agony and the ship’s reactor blows, pushing Prime into space and leaving Megatron as the last hope for both Autobot and Decepticon alike.
The Rheanimum he mentions is the mineral his Decepticons mined in #7 and here it’s explained it could be the key to their survival. It makes metal super dense and resistant to damage, you see. It’s exciting to see Megatron racing to save everyone, even if Earth continues to look like any barren bit of space rock. Why not set the story somewhere recognisable like G1 did, even just a named place (like Portland in the original). It takes away any potential drama of having this happen on our own planet.
The characters make up for this though. I mean, come on, seeing Grimlock and Soundwave side-by-side is something else! Then new Decepticon Manta Ray hears Razorclaw’s orders but looks to Grimlock before following them. That’s the final straw for the Predacon, who attempts to kill his brother in arms but Autobot Leadfoot saves the Decepticon. We’ve had moments of truce between the factions before in comics, cartoons and movies, but it feels so much bigger, more impactful and more permanent this time.
Then everything happens at once! Starscream saves Prime and hands him Rhanianimum, but he refuses it. There’s even a reference to the Scraplets by Starscream, who spends a lot of time worrying his co-operation isn’t like him and that the Matrix has done him permanent damage! Frenzy gets some funny moments, Nightbeat dies (nooooo!) and Megatron politely introduces himself to Grimlock. Then Prime insists that for his desperate plan to work, he must die. Thing is, while it tears his physical body apart, the Swarm doesn’t kill him. Instead he ends up in a void, seemingly forgetting he was in a void before in the UK comic (Furman annoyingly ignoring his own UK continuity), and he gets the feeling the Swarm is like an innocent child clamouring to be taught.
This review was almost twice as long as it is because there’s so much going on in this issue. I’ve had to edit this post down and cut so much out I could get a job on Film4’s daytime schedule team. So, Prime wants to let the Swarm take him, absolutely and completely, letting it consume him and fulfilling his visions which began way back in #1. The nightmares weren’t to be feared, they were instructions. The ultimate sacrifice. It’s portrayed brilliantly by Geoff above and you can feel the agony Prime goes through.
Then there’s darkness… before he suddenly sees, well, everything!
He sees and feels everything the Swarm does. While he still has a consciousness the Matrix sustains his mind and uses the pure essence of their creator Primus to educate the Swarm. From the outside its misshapen form becomes a dazzlingly bright light and all who witness it are filled with a feeling of peace and joy, their fear dissolving in an instant. Then, out of the light steps a new creation, the Swarm now knowing what it is and where it’s come from, and it uses its immense power to create instead of destroy.
The Optimus Prime you see below is based on the ‘Hero’ version of the toy, the most recent plastic incarnation of him at the time. But what exactly was the Swarm? The whole “byproduct of the second generation of Transformers” is never fully explained. How was it produced in the first place? We don’t know. (Nor do we get an answer about that strange moment with Onslaught.) What is explained is that the second generation of Transformers lacked any kind of morality, just a legacy of destruction and, like a child, the Swarm was searching for something more. It knew it wanted something better and was destroying all Transformers because it thought they were all fascist killers; it didn’t know there was an earlier generation or why the species had been created in the first place (to fight evil and save the universe).
Exposed to the original Primus ‘code’ it’s reprogrammed and from the lives it took it constructed a new life, a new leader for a new future for their whole race, not just the Autobots. The story ends with what feels like both sides genuinely wanting to work together. It certainly feels a lot more permanent than the truce at the end of the 80s cartoon movie. Then, after months of wondering we’re finally introduced to the Leige Maximo. This is the one bit of the whole issue that I’m not sure about.
These will forever sit at the end of my original Marvel UK collection as an integral part of that lifelong favourite
The thought of the comic continuing beyond this resolution is an exciting prospect, with the Transformers (no longer Autobots and Decepticons) fighting a new war together against this new foe. However, the Decepticons weren’t a separate race, they were an offshoot who’d had enough of how things were being run. I hope Simon would have eventually interwoven this new backstory in with what came before if the comic had continued. However, I’m more annoyed with Megatron being sidelined in the final pages for Prime’s speech when he should’ve been standing shoulder-to-shoulder with him.
I had no expectations of this sequel, especially since there were only 12 issues. But what a rush! Some complained it retconned things (much like we constantly hear from moaners about the live-action movies, Star Wars or Doctor Who… etc.) but surely things would be boring if we knew everything there was to know about characters right from the off. This comic felt like an elaboration of what came before, using the millions of years between their leaving Cybertron and arriving on Earth to its advantage. It was a gap of four million years after all! It was also a clever way of working in the toy line’s new name, so kudos one final time to Simon for that.
Before we finish up completely, there are a couple of the usual extras to cover. After acknowledging G.I. Joe’s 150th edition, the final issue of this spectacular comic isn’t given any such coverage on the Bullpen Bulletin news page, however the letters page is rather unique. It takes up more space and begins with a missive from letterer (and Marvel UK editor) Richard Starkings. It’s interesting but I must point out the UK Transformers comic lasted a lot longer than 250 issues (332 plus annuals, specials etc) and I happen to love his Dragon’s Claws logo!
The second letter reminds me of my mum’s confession later in life that she didn’t actually mind buying me comics as a child, the letter from OiNK Blog reader James Healy asks us to remain positive before being negative about the original comic’s ending (I must say I disagree with him on this), and in Simon’s farewell message there’s an interesting snippet that it was colourist Sarra Mossoff who decided the idents in speech balloons should be coloured to match the speaker. Unfortunately, she’s also the victim of a rather cringey description.
Below this are some unused pieces of art by Derek and a Decepticon image by Chia-Chi Wang (The Punisher, Ren & Stimpy, G.I. Joe). Whether these were unused covers/posters is unclear and I wish they were bigger. I know the issue already has more pages, but a few more so we could see these at their full size would’ve really added to what has been a great send off.
During this real time read through I found out the name ‘Jhiaxus’ is pronounced “gee, axe us”, an in-joke by Simon who anticipated a quick cancellation by Marvel of another toy comic. He wasn’t wrong. While it was designed to last much longer, I haven’t felt short-changed. Yes, it was obvious things were being ramped up to get to a suitable conclusion but I’m left feeling completely satisfied, and not just with this as an end to its own series.
Now that it’s over it feels less like a sequel and more like an epilogue to the original epic 332+ issue run, like this was a story that had always occurred and just needed to be told before we could properly say goodbye to these original versions of beloved characters. Characters who have been reinvented many times since. As such, this hasn’t felt like a short run but an addition to the longest running comic I’ve ever collected, and these will forever sit at the end of my original Marvel UK collection as an integral part of that lifelong favourite.
Well this week is a turn up for the (comic) books! For the first time we’re not choosing between a Mighty Marvel Checklist and a classic comic advert because this week we have both. In fact we’ve more than that, we’ve got two adverts. All taken from the pages of these two comics, on sale Saturday 27th August back in 1988.
Lee Sullivan’s cover for The Transformers and Action Force #181 refers to the second part of the story I mentioned last time and, despite the lengths Marvel UK went to in order to explain away the American story, their editorial still contains a plea asking people not to write in complaining! Unfortunately nothing is made of the issue number for The Real Ghostbusters (cover by Martin Griffiths and Dave Hine) which feels like a bit of a missed opportunity. Inside, the comic teamed up with Sport Aid and had the characters taking part in a sponsored fun run in which Ray comes across a little sprite called The Spirit of Competition.
In the checklist the publisher may have stopped short of the usual “Great News For All Readers” blurb used when our comics merged (and which never convinced us to be happy about it) but it’s obvious what #9 of Galaxy Rangers would mean for its readers. They’d be off to join forces with the Thundercats soon enough, who seem to be welcoming what sounds like a trio of deodorant scents to their ranks.
The Action Force comic here was the later monthly title rather than the original weekly. This smaller format comic was an attempt to sell the British strips back to the US where it was renamed G.I. Joe The European Missions. The addition of the Transformers crossover reprint (originally in the weekly) may have been exciting to American readers but it just meant a third of the comic was reprint for UK fans. Given the talent involved I’m sure the rest made up for it though.
Inside The Real Ghostbusters we have the second of the strip adverts we’ll see during this series, this time for Dragon’s Claws. Written by Simon Furman and drawn by Geoff Senior, this was the final version after a few edits had to be made after a last-minute name change. You can find out more about that in the link at the bottom of this post. There’s also a small cameo for a character who’ll pop up in the checklists soon enough. Or at least, his arm makes a cameo anyway.
It may only be the end of August but it was already the start of the Marvel Annuals hype season on the back cover of Transformers. Strangely, while the annual would be mentioned a couple of times on the editorial and letters pages (and given away in a competition closer to Christmas) this was the only time this advert appeared in the pages of Transformers! It did appear several times in The Real Ghostbusters though. The countdown to the best time of the year had begun!
Okay, so next week there’s no checklist again but that’ll be the last time for a while because Peter, Winston, Egon and Ray would soon be returning every seven days instead of every 14, so between the two comics the checklists will be more consistent. Next week, Transformers announces the good news, so I’ll catch you then.
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