SATURDAY 3rd JUNE 1989
I instantly remembered this issue’s story when I read Egon’s silliness on Anthony William’s and Dave Harewood’s cover to The Real Ghostbusters, and what Jeff Anderson’s cover to Transformers and Action Force promised and the reality inside were quite different things.
Reprints were everywhere at the time and Transformers would eventually explain to its readers it was to allow the US strips to get ahead again and the three-story/black and white format was to combat rising costs. I wish they’d explained straight away though, it could’ve stopped some from leaving and missing out on some truly amazing UK and US stories over the next 111 issues. As a teen I’d never read Wanted Galvatron Dead or Alive so I was a happy little reader getting to enjoy new-for-me Death’s Head!
Anthony Williams was one of the very best artists on The Real Ghostbusters. As entertaining as the cover is, it doesn’t do him justice compared to some of the strips he illustrated. Dan Abnett’s prose story represented by that cover is completely daft, but then again what should we expect from the person who wrote every single one of those hilarious Spengler’s Spirit Guides? Name-Gremlin was just an excuse for lots of silly sounding names. This isn’t a complaint. Far from it. It’s brilliant and even surpasses Dan’s usual quotient of laughs.
Another strange choice for top billing on the checklist this week. While a new issue of Death’s Head was always going to be celebrated, having a milestone 150th issue of one of your biggest titles released this week and it not getting the ‘Don’t Miss’ spot seems strange, especially as how new issues of Doctor Who Magazine frequently got that honour. At the time of writing this post the mag is currently at #630, so marking the 150th of this monthly is making me feel really rather ancient.
The Seventh Doctor guest stars in Death’s Head of course, so perhaps we can forgive Marvel UK this once for its choices, as long as the big issue of DWM gets the same treatment next week, I say. This particular story was another wonderful addition to the Freelance Peacekeeping Agent’s résumé with some genuine laugh-out-loud moments, especially with his own time machine. Although, the ending is a dubious one. It goes against the Doctor’s character in a pretty essential way, almost ruining the whole issue for me. You can read my full review at the link further below.
This week’s advert isn’t for a new comic but rather a series of new books.
I have a distinct memory of obtaining the money for one of these books but only vague ones about the contents. I remember being in a local bar having lunch with family. I would’ve been around 11-years-old and I was given money to play a fruit machine but I had to do so with an adult (technically it was gambling), so a family member played it with me. I won some money, argued over having to give half of it to the person that supervised me and then went to a nearby shop and bought the book with the shark on the cover. (Regular blog readers will know I’ve always had a soft spot for anything with comical sharks.)
While researching for this post some Ghostbusters fan sites have these books listed as collections of strips from the comic. I was sure the book was a prose story with rather large writing and big illustrations which took up most of each page, and I seem to remember it didn’t take me long to read it. Thankfully I eventually found some eBay listings for the other books in the series and my ageing memory was proven right (so you Ghostbusters Wiki pages need to update yourselves). For a moment I thought I’d gotten it mixed up with one of my many, many other Real Ghostbusters books. (I had so many!) Ah, the joys of getting old. Thanks Ghostbusters and Doctor Who!
I’m off to console myself about my advancing years, I’ll see you all back here in seven days when we’ll see if the checklist can make things up to the Time Lord and the latest contemporary ad is (like last week) for a comic based on a classic cartoon, but this time one I actually liked. See you then.
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