One month ago I gave you the chance to grab a rare piece of UK comics history, the preview issue of Fleetway’s Super Naturals comic. A perfect prize for Hallowe’en, wouldn’t you say? Well I hope Ralph Burns of Mossley, Ashton-Under-Lyne enjoyed the atmosphere within its pages over the past few days. Thanks for the photo, Ralph.

Now, with the fake spider webs still up on the front of all those houses on your street how’d you like to get your hands on six comics filled with more ghosts, goblins and things that go bump in the night? Only this time, what if they were served up with a good dose of comedy?

The Real Ghostbusters was a massive hit for Marvel UK when it was first launched in 1988 and its readership grew and grew, quickly becoming their top seller. Taking a different approach to their other licenced comics, it was back-to-back British strips to begin with (with American imports coming later as back-ups), with between three to five stories every issue that leaned heavily towards humour rather than action or adventure. Talent in these issues includes the likes of John Carnell, Andy Lanning, Dan Abnett, Anthony Williams, Dougie Braithwaite, Anthony Larcombe, Louise Cassell, Stephen Baskerville, Lew Stringer and Bambos Georgiou.

These are so enjoyable you’ll be haunted by the memory of missing out on them if you don’t enter the competition. So you have 14 days to scour the blog for the answer to the following question:

Q – Which OiNK cartoonist drew the first handful of Blimey! It’s Slimer strips in The Real Ghostbusters?

When (you think) you’ve got the correct answer you can either email it to me at oink.blog@icloud.com (all emails are deleted after the winner has been selected, I’m not fancy enough to have a newsletter or stuff like that), 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 14th November 2025.

After this date I’ll contact the winners to ask for their postal address. Unfortunately, due to rising postage costs the competition is only open to UK and Ireland readers. If you win I’ll ask if you could take a photo of you with your prize. You don’t have to, but you do get to show off if you do.

For transparency, these doubles are in great condition apart from a tear on the cover of #41 where a free gift was removed decades ago and the cover to #6 has come away from the spine.

Good luck everyone! Don’t end up with slime on your face, get your entries in now! Then, on Monday 1st December come back for the Big Christmas Competition. What will the big prize be? Well, you know what they say about the season: It Comes But Once A Year.

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Last month I told you how August’s competition for a couple of issues of Dragon’s Claws had been the most popular yet and how I expected September’s to be likewise. Well, I received almost double the amount of entries again! Death’s Head is still rather popular it seems, yes? We know the characters from the comic he spun off and, apart from one or two of you, you all correctly answered the question of which God of Chaos did Death’s Head once take a psychic trip into the mind of. It was, of course, Unicron in the pages of Transformers.

Congratulations to Andy Senyszyn from Market Rasen in Lincolnshire, seen here looking ever-so-slightly pleased with himself. Andy obviously knows his chaotic gods. But who will know the answer to this month’s specially-themed competition?

Last month I promised you that as a ‘Preview’ for this month’s competition I wouldn’t ‘Toy’ with you when it came to having the perfect prize for Hallowe’en. So here it is, October’s giveaway.

It may have been a short-lived comic but Super Naturals was quality! This rare 16-page preview edition contains the origin of the characters in a suitably atmospheric tale set on the release date of #1, which just happened to be 31st October 1987. There are also a handful of brilliant marketing mini-posters for the toy range, a light-hearted Ghostlings tale and more. The comic is in as-new condition and could be yours in time for the spooky season.

All you have to do is answer the following question, which may require you to scour the blog for the name of the toy company if you don’t already know it:

Q – The toy manufacturer of Super Naturals was famous for producing toys of which type of vehicle?

You have 14 days to enter, so if (you think) you’ve got the answer you can either email it to me at oink.blog@icloud.com (all emails will be deleted after the winner has been selected), 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 Tuesday 14th October 2025.

After this date I’ll contact the winner to ask for their postal address. Unfortunately, due to rising costs the competitions are open to UK and Ireland readers only. 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.

This is a little gem of a comic to get your hands on. Just don’t blame me if you then find yourself on eBay looking for the other issues! The next competition will be here on 1st November, just a day after the Hallowe’en festivities and it’ll continue the theme, albeit on a more humorous note. There’ll be six issues of a comic to be given away, make sure you Bust a gut to get back here on that day so you don’t miss out.

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This post was due on Monday 1st September
but was delayed due to a health issue

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.

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