Monthly Archives: October 2026

Comic Promos, Mighty Marvel Checklists

THE MiGHTY MARVEL CHECKLiST: WEEK 65

5 Comments
SATURDAY 21st OCTOBER 1989

I’ve got a bumper selection of nostalgia for you this week, with no less than five comics on the checklist and three contemporary comics adverts. Well, two are versions of each other but they still count. We kick things off as per usual with the covers of the two comics they’re all being pulled from.

Once again Brian Williamson, Dave Harwood and Robin Bouttell team up for The Real Ghostbusters and I’ve noticed in the way I’ve taken this photo that the sheen on the top-left clearly shows the higher paper grade both comics were enjoying around this time. For their outer 16 pages anyway. The funniest moment inside came from a tenuous link between a ghost pilot and dimensional planes in Spengler’s Spirit Guide, a page that was always guaranteed to raise a giggle.

Geoff Senior’s cover for Transformers and Action Force hinted at the return from the depths of the terrifying Thunderwing, but not before the American story continued to build towards the return of four classic characters in their new Pretender forms, namely Jazz, Bumblebee, Grimlock and Starscream. It was such an exciting time for me as a reader, the US and UK strips so simpatico with one another in each issue; side-by-side rather than the comic alternating between the two. Having four fan favourite characters I’d missed out on from earlier issues was the icing on the cake.

I mentioned before how the new look checklist would allow more comics to be covered upon occasion and this week is one such occasion. Ignore the listing of two strips as reprints for The Real Ghostbusters (possibly putting potential readers off), as discussed last time this was a mistake again. That Action Force story briefly mentioned in the entry for Transformers was superb, with the team disavowed while behind enemy lines. I’ve got great memories of that one with its superb original villains.

The cover to The Sleeze Brothers’ penultimate issue saw the duo’s idiotic faces coming out of an overflowing toilet, setting the scene perfectly for a misadventure in the sewers. Check it out in more depth in the full review at the link further below. The 13th edition of The Punisher began another new story that could easily have been set today, while the Thundercats got such a perfunctory description you have to wonder why the writer of the checklist even bothered.

On to our adverts. In this week’s Transformers the Deception Flamefeather came off the worse for wear thanks to his wannabe leader Thunderwing, but he got the star power treatment on the advert for the latest special.

Jeff Anderson’s pencils and Stephen Baskerville’s inks for the hugely enjoyable Enemy Action story were the stars of Collected Comics 14, one of the best reprint specials of the run which saw the Seacons, Firecons and Sparkler Minibots (the latter two groups based on pull-back-and-release toys that produced little sparks that were so much fun for us kids) up against none other than the always-entertaining Galvatron. Along with a superb annual story and some new A-Z fact-files it was a great special to see in the darker days with.

The other adverts were full-page and half-page variations for the new Incredible Hulk Presents, a weekly which saw the green one’s strip backed up with a variety of other tales from Action Force, Doctor Who and Indiana Jones. As a kid, the title star never appealed and his strips were the least interesting of those advertised, so I never tried the comic out. It didn’t last very long, just 12 issues and it ended one week before the checklists did, just two-and-a-half months after the premiere issue.

It had actually been launched the week before this but for some reason hadn’t made the cut for the checklists, despite there being plenty of room for it last time. I always thought it was a strange mix, what with Action Force and Doctor Who already having strips elsewhere. Although, apparently the Doctor’s stories here were brand new and would be reprinted in Doctor Who Magazine later. With four strips for what seemed like disparate audiences no wonder it didn’t last, becoming just another of a myriad of new comics launched by Marvel UK in 1988 and 1989 that disappeared quickly.

Next week, for the first time in 36 weeks there’ll be no checklist. Instead, one of our main comics gets an advert for those who were somehow unaware of it, or who maybe just needed a poke to buy one of the best comics around at the time. It’ll be here in seven days. Will you?

Join the checklists conversation here or on:
Bluesky
Instagram
Facebook

TRANSFORMERS 241 (Instagram)

THE SLEEZE BROTHERS 5

BACK TO WEEK 64

MiGHTY MARVEL CHECKLiST MENU

Transformers

PHOTOGRAPHiNG TRANSFORMERS UK: MONTH TWO (OCTOBER 1984)

Leave a comment

It’s been a long wait but finally here we are with month two (of 89) of our photographic journey through every single issue of Marvel UK’s Transformers comic. We’ve doubled up for October 1984 with two fortnightly comics filled not only with classic Transformers strip action, but also some of the finest retro goodness. Prepare to take a trip back to the 80s and come away feeling very, very old.

iSSUE TWO – 4th OCTOBER 1984

#2: Marvel UK’s sophomore Transformers release begins with a simply beautiful John Ridgway cover. It’s not linked to the story but then again neither was last issue’s and that’s not the point, it’s just a gorgeous piece of art and shows the toy models off in a great light, all while perfectly summing up children’s wonder at these new playthings. The cover would also be used for a future Collected Comics special where it better suited the story, albeit by coincidence. It would’ve made for a great free gift poster.

Inside, right from the off the nostalgia hits hard! Who else had one of these transforming watches? I did, although I can’t remember wearing it much so maybe it didn’t last too long. Then, in the main story (which is now partly black and white) there’s plenty of wonderful transforming images. In hindsight these could not have been easy to draw and some artists would end up not showing them mid-transformation like this. Lovely stuff.

The Autobots’ introductory spread was edited out of the strip itself to make a great poster in the middle of the comic, replacing some panels with the franchise’s title logo. Given how huge and epic this comic’s tale would become I love the quaint feeling of this, with its awkward poses to make sure everyone can be seen, the toy-accurate Ironhide and Ratchet, and the stilted introductory dialogue for the young readers to learn all of their details.

There are two prose features on robots this issue. The regular Robot Round-up takes a look at some of the most 80s-futuristic inventions imaginable, back when human-like robots were more fun and less terrifying. There’s also a special Doctor Who page on the robot props of the show at the time. Where are the Daleks, I hear you cry? Well, if you’re a fan you’d know why they’re not included. Glad to see the comic got that right. That just about rounds up our look at the second issue.

Cover by John Ridgway
The Transformers: Part Two plot by Bill Mantlo,
script by Ralph Macchio,
pencils by Frank Springer, inks by Kim DeMulder,
lettering by Michael Higgins & Rick Parker,
colours by Nel Yomtov

iSSUE THREE – 18th OCTOBER 1984

#3: Another fortnight, another Transformers UK comic from 42 years ago! Jerry Paris returns as cover artist for issue three and it’s another gorgeous piece of art with a big, chunky Bumblebee complete with toy-accurate limbs. Such a shame Jerry wasn’t a regular contributor, his work was perfect for this comic. He would return in the end much to readers’ delight, but not for another 164 issues!

Inside, we kick things off with our first fact file. Not the A-Z we all remember so fondly, instead it’s a tiny entry on the editorial pages for Autobot Hound using information from the toy box. It would actually take a surprisingly long time for the A-Z format to appear. In the meantime, the main strip happily trundles along with both small and simply gigantic scale scenes. Seamlessly complementing each other, this successful juxtaposition of huge far-fetched sci-fi coupled with human storylines continues in the movies to this day.

There’s a yellow Cliffjumper in the competition! Well, in this promo shot anyway. Speaking of the toys, the next Hasbro advert features more of the first wave of Autobots to hit the UK market. If you had to choose, which one would you go for? I think I’d have picked Hound, he looks the most intricate from the teeny, tiny drawings. Yep, that’s right, no such thing as actual photographs of the toys to choose from back then.

Robot Round-up details a somewhat familiar toy range. Who remembers coveting these in the Argos catalogue, only to be let down by them when you actually got to play with one at a friend’s house? There are also another couple of stills from the TV adverts masquerading as pin ups before the issue is rounded off with the 1985 Christmas annuals, one of which I’ve actually covered on the blog. You can check it out via the link at the bottom of this post along with a link to a post featuring all of Marvel UK’s annuals adverts during the comic’s lifetime.

Cover by Jerry Paris
Power Play: Part One plot by Bill Mantlo,
script by Jim Salicrup, pencils by Frank Springer,
inks by Kim DeMulder,
lettering by Janice Chiang & Rick Parker,
colours by Nel Yomtov

If your memory of the Transformers comic is of a full-colour, 24-page weekly with one main Transformers strip and an Action Force back up, you’re not alone. What do you make of these early issues? They’re a bit different, aren’t they? As always, the blog’s comments section and its social media accounts are ready for you. We’re only at the beginning of our journey, let’s make it an interactive one!

Our next round up on Friday 20th November (one day before my decorations go up at OiNK Blog Towers!) will contain the first American cover, the first battle between Optimus Prime and Megatron, Robby the Robot (yes, him), the comic’s first humour strip and I’ll be wondering who on Earth is Sieve-Head?!

BACK TO MONTH ONE

PHOTOGRAPHiNG TRANSFORMERS UK MENU

MAiN TRANSFORMERS MENU

KNiGHT RiDER ANNUAL 2

ADVERTiSiNG ANNUALS

ALSO ON THE OiNK BLOG:
Kim DeMulder in Havoc
Rick Parker in G.I. Joe
Nel Yomtov in The Sleeze Brothers
Jim Salicrup in Visionaries and Jurassic Park
Janice Chiang in Visionaries

Mighty Marvel Checklists

THE MiGHTY MARVEL CHECKLiST: WEEK 64

8 Comments
SATURDAY 14th OCTOBER 1989

It took the talented trio of Brian Williamson, Dave Harwood and Robin Bouttell to produce the week’s cover for The Real Ghostbusters, while Andrew Wildman had to cope all on his lonesome to knock out this fantastic front page for Transformers and Action Force with some funny hidden gems in there (a toaster, bike pedal and a UK plug?).

At last the New York team got the same paper upgrade the Cybertronians had been enjoying on-and-off for a while. Speaking of things finally happening, that Pharaoh story mentioned in week 59’s checklist saw the light of day, but now of course Spengler’s Spirit Guide no longer matched up. A child’s letter questioned the science behind the naming of their Proton Packs and for once the comic gave a considered, serious response! Again, this issue was all-new but the checklist describes some stories as reprints. There could be a reason for this, one which we may get a definitive answer to on the blog in the future.

First, that Transformers cover represented a very funny strip also drawn by Andrew. It involved a double-dealing ‘bot and The Mechannibals in a tense stand off followed by a magnificent 80s-style bar brawl, but the highlight was (letter answerer) Dreadwind and his partner, Darkwing. Drunk on dodgy oil after the failure of their most recent mission several months back, the story jumped back and forth between their slurred speech and feeling-sorry-for-themselves comedy in every left-hand panel, while the drama and action played out in every right-hand panel. It’s hilarious stuff and indicative of the kind of thing the comic was perfect at in this three-story format. It also broke up all of that tension and darkness from previous weeks nicely.

As you can see, this week’s checklist was light on quantity but the comics featured made up for that in quality. Not only was the UK Transformers story magnificent this week, the imported US stories changed hands, with Brit Simon Furman now writing for both sides of the Atlantic. Hasbro had brought back four toys from the original line up as Pretenders and this was the beginning of Simon’s wonderful take on their reissue. From here until the end (in January 1992) Simon would do a magnificent job of creating back stories for any toy release they could come up with.

Also, check out the link below to see Lew Stringer introduce Dara O’Briain in Combat Colin! (Not really.)

The only other new point of interest this week was the latest issue of The Punisher and, while the comic itself did a better job of it (from what I’m told), I’m really not comfortable with how these checklists have generalised certain things (groups, historical moments, plot points) at times. It’ll be interesting to see how the comic itself portrayed these stories. In the meantime, you can look forward to an absolute bumper crop of goodies in next week’s post with five comics on the checklist and three new adverts. Well, two really. Well, technically three. You’ll see what I mean in seven.

Join the checklists conversation here or on:
Bluesky
Instagram
Facebook

TRANSFORMERS 240 (Instagram)

WEEK 63 < > WEEK 65

MiGHTY MARVEL CHECKLiST MENU

OiNK Contributors

DAVY FRANCiS’ SHOEBOX: PART THREE

1 Comment

This third selection from OiNK cartoonist Davy Francis’ shoebox of goodies didn’t inspire confidence when I began flicking through them. Masses of football, porno adverts and supposedly comedic breasts and phalluses met the eye in the pages of Sweet FA, while The Sunday Sport’s name on the front of UT produced a similar level of dread. But I took a deep breath, delved deep and found some little gems from some of our favourite OiNK cartoonists.

First up is UT, created by none other than Kev F Sutherland. Beginning as a parody strip in another publication, UT became its own title in September 1991. While it rode the wave of Viz copies, Kev’s intention was to attract some top established comics talent and produce strips that were less about shock value and more about actual comedy. However, financial backing was required and Sunday Sport’s publishers ended up footing the bill, creating the harsh contrast of quality strips printed opposite pornographic adverts for videos and sex chat lines.

“That was my dilemma”, Kev told me recently. “They wanted a magazine to carry that sort of ad, and I wanted to make Mad Magazine but funny.” It appears, however, that this dichotomy was harmonious enough behind-the-scenes at least. “To an extent,” says Kev. “In fact, thinking about it, I can’t remember any interference.”

One strip I really like in UT feels a bit autobiographical, with the magazine’s editor (Kev in real life) battling a stereotypical porno publisher pushing for overly disgusting contents, taking the hand out of the very company financing it. You can see it above in the opening spread to the dummy copy of #1, which somehow ended up in Davy’s possession and is full of blank pages between samples of strips.

”UT was organised between me, Sunday Sport and the printers in Bristol”, explains Kev. ”I went in there in person a lot, and the dummy copies were part of the development process. Once they turned the machine on and started the presses rolling there was no point in just doing one copy, so quite a few were made. I suppose they were used to show to advertisers and newsagents. I may only have one left here myself but I once had more.”

There’s definitely some humour in UT that we rightly wouldn’t want to see today that seems to be squarely aimed at the Sunday Sport readership. (Teenage Lesbian Nymphomaniac Mutant Bimbo Surfers is just one example of many strips that paint lesbians as sex mad, probably because Sport readers wanted to believe they were.) It’s very much a product of the 90s adult comics market despite Kev’s grander plans. While for the most part it’s intelligently written and very funny, I feel it’s let down somewhat by that kind of strip named above and the relentlessness of its very adult advertisements.

It’s frustrating because when it stops pandering to that audience it can be genuinely brilliant. For example, Kev’s Blunderbirds is a fantastic Thunderbirds parody with an accident prone rescue team. (I love how that downed jumbo jet is freed!) I was also very happy to see a continuation of Kev’s Meanwhile… from OiNK. Speaking of OiNK, it wouldn’t be Davy’s shoebox without some fun pages from him and fans will enjoy his more OiNK-like silliness rather than the penis-shaped rudeness of Electric Soup.

David Leach’s Conan spoof, Arthur Pilkington, Chartered Barbarian is great fun, even if it does remind me of Jeremy Banx’s Konan the Accountant from OiNK, and Battler Britain is an incredibly funny, fast-paced riff on the “jolly good show” kind of British comic heroes the then-adult audience may have grown up with. It’s drawn by Malcolm Douglas, aka OiNK’s very own J.T. Dogg. Despite not having the production values and paper quality to reproduce it that OiNK had, it’s still lovely to look at and at times feels like a World War II-set Ham Dare!

I admit I also laughed at UT #2’s declaration on the front page that it was “Not as funny as it used to be”. Published over a year-and-a-half, UT consisted of eight regular issues and two reprint specials. I find it hard to recommend to OiNK Blog readers given the Sunday Sport contents prevalent in each issue, but if you can get past that tabloid nonsense there are a lot of laughs to be had here.

Moving on to Sweet FA, a bi-monthly football comic-magazine that boasts of ”Bringing the game into disrepute” on its covers. Davy’s shoebox contains a handful from volume one and the first five issues of volume two, but I can find little-to-no information on it anywhere so I’m pretty much going by what I have in front of me. Named in its list of main contributors is Lew Stringer despite football not really being his thing (his words to me). Unfortunately, he can’t remember who wrote the scripts he drew, which included one of the few highlights in here, called Tightarse.

Also contributing (although not anywhere near as much as Lew) are Davy Francis, J.T. Dogg and Jim Eldridge, who drew some of the Knight Rider Annuals in the 80s and who I’ve interviewed for a special post about the books this Christmas (2026). Much like UT this was intended for a particular audience. Pretty much the same audience, actually.

While volume two’s back issues page warns that “Volume 1 issues are not suitable for children”, it’s not like the later ones are! However, the earlier editions contain much more Sunday Sport-type content with photographs of naked (and nearly naked) women and they have a sleazy tabloid Page 3 feeling about them. There was even a free gift (thankfully lost) of postcards featuring bikini-clad women that required the reader to lick them to remove their clothes!

Add in the fact the title is all about football and this really isn’t my cup of tea at all. So apologies if footie fans want to see more highlights than the three I’ve plucked out, but with every single strip focussing on the game all of the joke references are pretty much lost on me. I’m not the ideal person to choose the best examples of Sweet FA’s contents. This series of posts isn’t about that though, it’s about showing some new content from OiNK’s cartoonists and I can do that okay.

Flicking passed atrocities such as Sporting Lesbians, Football Bimbo and a ‘joke’ headline that asks, “Should birds be allowed to play football?”, while reminding myself of how far we’ve come since then I discovered Jimmy Armchair by Davy. At the time not everyone had access to satellite or cable television, with many stuck with the five terrestrial channels. Jimmy was one of those people who’d take advantage not only of owning such a device, but also of his friends’ eagerness to watch the game.

J.T. Dogg draws Sweet FA’s take on Ripley’s Believe It or Not, now named after a contemporary footballer and very much skewed towards the “Not” in the title. These feel like a spoof version of fellow OiNK cartoonist Steve McGarry’s football fact-files, and even I was able to crack a smile and have a giggle with this one despite not knowing who these people were. Plus it’s always nice to see some artwork from Malcolm, his detailed style coming across nicely even in black and white here.

There’s just the one part left in this series and I’m hopeful it’ll be a Gas! Quite literally. While I haven’t peered inside its pages yet, I’ve heard good things about Gas comic and the amount of content in it from OiNK contributors, so here’s hoping for more humour along the lines of our favourite comic next time. We’ll wrap up Davy’s shoebox in shiny gift wrap in a couple of months during Christmas 2026.

BACK TO PART TWO

DAVY’S SHOEBOX MENU

OiNK CONTRiBUTORS MENU

MAiN OiNK MENU

Mighty Marvel Checklists

THE MiGHTY MARVEL CHECKLiST: WEEK 63

Leave a comment
SATURDAY 7th OCTOBER 1989

Another pretty generic cover for The Real Ghostbusters comic this week, even without a free gift. It’s still a nice piece by John Marshall and Dave Harwood though, even if it is put to shame somewhat by Geoff Senior’s fantastic Transformers and Action Force cover featuring the Mayhem Attack Squad!

Geoff’s art really shone this week thanks to Marvel UK upping the paper quality again, the outer 16 pages adding a gorgeous gloss and weight to the comic, it was that good. Geoff also draws the black and white UK strip and it was an action-packed few pages after the tension building the past few weeks. Dare I say it but I think it looked even more stunning in black and white thanks to the dark nature of the story and the atmosphere Geoff brought to it with his inks. Maybe it’s due to the lack of colour that my eyes are picking out more details or perhaps Geoff was really able to go to town for the same reason. Simply incredible stuff and you can check out some highlights at the link below.

Inside The Real Ghostbusters it’s all brand new material again after some reprints, which the checklist gets wrong. Again. The list really hasn’t been working in this comic’s favour for a while now. With the final part of the multi-issue competition the editor finally decided it’s time to show us some photos and gave details of the plethora of prizes up for grabs. That list in full: a trike, jogging bottoms, hooded sweatshirt, a parka, a visor, a watch, a ghostly make-up kit, the new annual, a Ghostball, more books and book/cassette packs. Quite the haul! Not sure why I never entered it. Perhaps I didn’t want to be lumbered with the trike or make-up.

A quick glance of the (colour) checklist and the only other new entry was #11 of The Punisher weekly. Reading his bit I’d have been concerned about its worldviews being a bit restricted, a bit too 80s, if it weren’t for who the baddies were the last few weeks, so I know that’s not the case. I’m very aware of how certain hateful people in America wear the comic’s skull motif nowadays and how ridiculed they are for completely missing the point of the character and the stories he starred in. I’ll have to find out for myself one of these days. The Sleeze Brothers’ trip to an outer space Bates Motel continued to bring up the rear and that’s yer lot for this week.

Yup, no new adverts to feature this time. In fact, not only do next week’s comics not feature any either, but the checklist has even less contents than normal! There’s a Transformers cover that brings back some funny memories though, so we’ll reminisce about that instead in seven days.

Join the checklists conversation here or on:
Bluesky
Instagram
Facebook

TRANSFORMERS 239 (Instagram)

THE SLEEZE BROTHERS 4

WEEK 62 < > WEEK 64

MiGHTY MARVEL CHECKLiST MENU

Personal Post

AN OiNK BLOG STATEMENT ON THE SHORT FiLM

2 Comments

Over the course of the past year you may have seen some posts on the OiNK Blog about a new short film. These contained screen captures of interviewees including myself and my credit at the end of the film for research and fact-checking. When some factual errors cropped up in the film, and some choices surrounding it as a whole were made that weren’t in keeping with OiNK, I raised my concerns as the aforementioned fact-checker in good faith. Attempts were made to reach a mutually agreeable resolution thanks to another individual with the same concerns, and things seemed to be back on track when there was a sudden and complete breakdown in communication.

It’s with a heavy heart that I’ve decided to walk away from the film. This shouldn’t take anything away from the OiNK creative team (and their relatives) who appear, or those genuine pig pals such as Jamie Smart and Laura Howell who have interacted with the OiNK community in the past and spoken about growing up with the comic. However, due to some editorial decisions I’ll no longer be taking part. At the end of the day I feel I’m in a unique position here, that if I (and the OiNK Blog) appeared in the film with my credited role I’d be endorsing everything said about the comic and its three editors and I can’t do that. I’ve requested that I, the blog and any images from it be edited out and all credits removed.

What should’ve been a highlight of my blog work became extraordinarily stressful. Thankfully, my friends rallied around me including some who worked on OiNK, so thank you all. There are still quite a few OiNK creatives in the mix and those genuine fans too (who talk eloquently – and factually – about their time with the comic) and what they have to say is fascinating. But things haven’t turned out as I’d hoped.

However, “every cloud” and all that. Watch this space for some very exciting news about a project planned long before this film was announced, one that will hopefully be proceeding with pace now. Keep it tuned to the OiNK Blog, pig pals!

OiNK MEDiA COVERAGE MENU

MAiN OiNK MENU