Creating OiNK

THE OiNK SCRAPBOOK

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These days we can document our lives as much (or as little) as we like thanks to the phones that never leave our vicinity. In fact, now I’ve a cat living with me it’s become my camera that just so happens to have a phone built in. Back in the 80s the process of getting our hands on the photos we’d taken was a more involved process, for me it required trips to the local chemist and at least a 24 hour wait and everything! So we were a lot more selective with our documenting back then.

Over the last several years some of the OiNK team have either very generously sent me photos or shared them on the Facebook group which I’ve then saved. This has endied up becoming a little collection of its own. So I thought the festive season, when we’re taking lots of photos to capture new memories with each other as well as thinking back to our own younger days, would be the perfect time to show these off in a kind of random scrapbook-like post. And here we are.

Let’s kick off with Jeremy Banx (Burp, Mr. Big Nose).

“So this is me posing in front of some pictures I’d drawn of Supercar when I was about 4”, Jeremy tells me. “I’m looking dubious because my dad or my gran or maybe both had told me by taking the photo it would make my drawings come to life just like on TV. This of course did not happen and I’ve never trusted anyone since.”

Jeremy’s photo reminds me of the comics my friend Roger and I created as kids. Roger created The Battle-oids, The School Busters and The Wally, while I created WarBots, The Real Smoke Busters and The Idiot. (Hey, he inspired me!) Also, together with our friend Bruce we made a monthly comic for our primary school classroom called The Moo! But anyway, back to the OiNK team and David Leach (Psycho Gran, Dudley DJ) 

“Reading that article again after all this time is funny”, said David when I asked him about it. “The strip I’m working on in that picture is the birthday strip for the OiNK anniversary issue, where Psycho emerges from a birthday cake. The story about me working for Bob Godfrey is true, he was the first person I worked for as a cartoonist, I did that for a year drawing Henry’s Cat. I was Bob Godfrey’s ghost artist.”

At the end of the article a potential new OiNK character who never made it into the comic is revealed. “Brian Damage was something I was noodling with back then, but never got beyond the planning stage, although he did become a female character called Maxine Damage: Hit Girl for Hire, that was drawn by Jim Cheung and scheduled to appear in a Marvel UK comic magazine I developed called HYPER. It was to be a frenzied monthly anthology based on the style of Japanese Manga and would have featured a strip called B.O.B about a sentient walking bomb walking through a battlefield in search of his target written by Banx.”

Co-editor Patrick Gallagher has shared a plethora of old photographs both online and over our email exchanges, often jazzing them up with graphics and behind-the-scenes insights, such as these example. Below, you can see OiNK photographer John Barry with a rather familiar looking crocodile in front of him, but it’s the unfinished sculpture in the background that caught my eye, hence the superimposed OiNK Book 1989.

As described by Patrick, “John also helped out when we were pitching the TV show Round the Bend. Here he’s sculpting a model of Doc Croc in clay and on the desk in the background is a cast from a previous sculpt based on the butcher on the cover of The OiNK Book 1989. Also on the desk is a junior hacksaw he moulded from Play Doh.” Typical Patrick!

You’ll also see in the background Ian Jackson’s cardboard cutout of Mary Lighthouse from the first OiNK Holiday Special casting a beady eye over John’s work. Speaking of Round the Bend, it was co-created by OiNK’s three editors, Patrick, Tony Husband and Mark Rodgers and was nominated for a Royal Television Award. Tony shared these photographs from the night of the awards event, the first showing (from left-to-right) Patrick, Mark and Tony, while the second also includes Mark’s partner and friend of the blog Helen Jones, and rather randomly Rory McGrath!

“Patrick, Mark and me at the Royal Television Awards with Round the Bend,” said Tony. “Where we came runners up so we got pissed, and me and Rory McGrath were nearly thrown out for shouting abuse at Richard Stilgoe, who was doing a set and we thought he was smug and shit.” (Stilgoe is a songwriter, musician and broadcaster and has contributed lyrics to Cats, Starlight Express and The Phantom of the Opera, in case you didn’t know.)

These weren’t the only photos in Tony’s archive. Next up is a wonderful collection of polaroids and snaps by OiNK photographer Ian Tilton that Tony scanned in, mainly of #30’s OiNK Awards when they worked with the Spitting Image Workshop to produce an apparently star-studded event. You’ll also see one of the actual celebrities, John Peel amongst the chaos, a photograph taken of Marc Riley as a disguised Snatcher Sam and Tony’s son, Paul Husband who you’ll also see in the next photo posing with some of his dad’s creations.

Today, Paul is a renowned commercial photographer and OiNK had its very own renowned snapper in the guise of Ian Tilton. That last photo in the collage was taken during the making of The Bully Who Went Bald in #2 and according to Tony, “With Marc all hunched over dressed like this, passers-by and car drivers were stunned and puzzled.” As for Ian, he has worked with such icons as Kurt Cobain, Iggy Pop and The Stone Roses, and has been praised by Q Magazine for “one of the six best rock photographs of all time”.

He also photographed the equally iconic (in my eyes anyway) cover to The OiNK! Book 1988 and there’s a special post about that cover and Ian’s other OiNK work which went up on the blog earlier this Christmas season. Something less plasticine based and more liquid based is next. Ian first met the OiNK guys at its launch party in some nice, plush pub in Manchester when he’d been asked to come along and take a portrait of the three editors for some pre-publicity. Family and friends were all watching as Ian attempted the photo session. “Attempted” being the operative word.

As told to me by Ian, trying to find Patrick, Mark and Tony had been difficult with the crowds in attendance, never mind trying to organise the three of them under his studio lights now that they were so drunk! Ian says it was great fun and the shots of them grinning and gurning were worth it. (I think we can all agree on that.) Not that they hung around though, they immediately ran back off to get even more drunk.

The next horrifying image is of Hunchback Boar of Scare Boars fame from #13, the last surviving member of the terrifying trio… or the only one we know the whereabouts of! According to Patrick he found him lurking under the lid of his scanner in the lead up to Halloween 2021, just in time for the review of 1986’s spooky spectacular. Check it out and you’ll even see a video of Patrick and the Scare Boar together again after two-and-a-half decades.

The next photos will be rather small when you click on them because that’s the size they were when shared by Patrick. First up is a photo of him and Marc Riley (of The Fall and BBC 6Music and creator of Harry the Head, Doctor Looney and When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth) on holiday, followed by a shot of some lucky pig pals getting to sit in on the recording of the OiNK 45 record. Not only did they get to meet Patrick and Marc (fresh back from that holiday and rather tanned), they also hung out with Frank Sidebottom himself, Chris Sievey. Then, a photo of Patrick with someone who didn’t work on OiNK but who you just might recognise.

Patrick met David Bowie when he was tasked with looking after him for half an hour before the Mark and Lard radio show (Mark Radcliffe and our own Marc). The photo was taken by David’s manager and you can tell Patrick’s just a little bit happy, can’t you? While there were no mentions or clippings on the Grunts pages mentioning this particular celebrity, Patrick tells me David Bowie confirmed he was a bona fide OiNK reader!

I’m going to wrap up our OiNK Scrapbook with some of my own photographs. The first time I met Patrick was during the days of the old blog. He was on a family vacation in Donegal and took the rather long drive to Belfast (across the island!) to see me in my old house to discuss some future projects. Not long after that I then got to meet Lew Stringer (Tom Thug, Pete and his Pimple, Pigswilla) and Davy Francis (Cowpat County, Greedy Gorb, Doctor Madstarkraving) at the Enniskillen Comic Fest.

I’ve spoken with Patrick and Lew ever since and count them as true friends. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Davy a few times over coffee or a Greggs sausage roll, and I’m glad to say he’s an absolute gent and a really funny guy to hang out with. In the photo with Davy is the fantastic Jenika Ioffreda (Vampire Free Style) and the last photo was taken during what ended up being a simply hilarious chat in a local bar after the comic con with Lew, Ian Richardson (Sinister Dexter, Captain America, Judge Dredd) and the man who had us in stitches most of the night, Yanick Paquette (Wonder Woman, Batman Incorporated, Swamp Thing).

Yes, these last few aren’t from the time of OiNK but they’re most definitely memorable moments from the time of the OiNK Blog. Maybe one day I should share more of the behind-the-scenes of this site and the work (and fun) that goes into it, but for now we’ll close the OiNK Scrapbook. These photos are just the smallest of hints at what it must’ve been like to put our favourite anarchic comic together.

Wouldn’t it be great to know more…?

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CHRiSTMAS 2025

Beano, Book Reviews, Christmas

THE DANDY AND THE BEANO: 38 YEARS OF FiFTY GOLDEN YEARS

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Back in 1987 two things happened in the build up to Christmas. Firstly, my older brother grew out of comics and his weekly Beano. However, The Dandy and The Beano Fifty Golden Years had already been obtained by Santa. As luck would have it, the second thing that happened was me discovering OiNK and immediately falling in love with comics. So this special book was redirected into my stocking in the very early hours of Christmas Day and still sits on my shelves decades later.

While my brother’s comic didn’t really appeal at the time, and the strips in here were even more old fashioned, I found the book’s story about the creation and evolution of the comics fascinating. As an adult I feel I’ve also developed a better appreciation for the classic strips inside. This is mainly thanks to reading a couple of the earliest editions inside the Beano’s 80th Anniversary Box Set and my yearly dips into the world of the Big Comic Books. So it felt like a good time for me to revisit this very special celebration for the first time in nearly forty years.

As seems the case with all comics celebrations the release dates mentioned throughout are actually the cover dates. The cover dates usually referred to the Saturday after publication, the comics released one working day before whatever day was mentioned on the cover. For example, #1 of The Dandy had a date of 4th December 1937, which was the Saturday of that week and it states “Every Friday” on the cover, so it would’ve been released on Thursday 2nd. It’s a small thing but it does annoy me when this constantly happens, especially in a book created by the publisher of said comics.

Things kick off with this bright recreation of the first ever Dandy comic, complete with the original version of Korky the Cat. It’s followed by #1 of The Beano and Big Eggo which launched in July of 1938. It then launches headlong into a large selection of examples of strips from the early days of both comics, from those familiar with 80s readers such as Lord Snooty to plenty I’d never heard of, with names like Freddy the Fearless Fly and Deep-Down Daddy Neptune.

It’s not long before the book is showing off its celebrity fans too, beginning with radio DJ Mike Read who guest-starred in an issue of The Beano alongside Dennis. Other notables include Cilla Black, Geoff Capes, The Krankies (suitably enough in the Dennis the Menace section), Ken Dodd, John Craven, Little and Large, Geoffrey Palmer and Joan Armatrading, among many more. It’s a who’s-who of British 80s celebs. Mark Hamill also pops up of course, and he’d pop up again in the bookazine that came with that Beano 80th set. Clearly, he never grew out of it.

Of course, there are also a few celebrities you wouldn’t want to see included today, but unfortunately we have to remember this is very much a product of its time. So if you can ignore a couple of certain children’s TV presenters and a certain politician you’ll find a lot to love here. As you can see Mike shares a spread with a new strip created for the book with Grandpa introducing Poison Ivy to the classic strips and then it’s on to the meat of the book

Desperate Dan makes up the first themed section, of which there are several for the more popular characters. His first appearance and some of his earlier misadventures are included, as well as one from 1983 to show how he’d evolved. This Welcome to Cactusville spread is great too, perfectly summing up the classic version of the character.

Others who get this treatment include Lord Snooty, Black Bob, Korky the Cat and Dennis the Menace among others. Sadly, none of the girl characters do. Instead, they’re all lumped together into a few pages called ‘Have a Giggle With the Girls’. Not even Minnie the Minx is well catered for! An indictment on the times, yes, and it also shows how far we’ve come. One glance at the review for this year’s Beano Christmas Special will prove how the comic has set this straight in the years since.

This was the part of the book that fascinated me the most as a child. I’d never considered anything other than both comics temporarily ceasing during wartime and paper shortages weren’t part of my reasoning! As it turns out, they didn’t. They kept calm and carried on, you might say. Both reduced their page counts and went fortnightly, alternating each week so kids still had the option of weekly laughs.

I remember as a child thinking this was incredible. In fact, I was only annoyed there wasn’t more information about how they were produced during this time, what’s mentioned here having whetted my appetite. (The aforementioned bookazine did a better job of this 30 years later.) We get some examples of the humour that helped the children through those tough years with the likes of Lord Snooty (again), Pansy Potter and these two surprise entries. Try to ignore the accents, they’re another sign of the times, written at a time of war and it was important to keep the children unafraid, and having a laugh at the enemy of the time surely helped.

Over the past few years I’ve really been enjoying writing the Annuals section of the blog. It may contain the slowest possible real time read throughs but every year the new inclusions are worth the wait. Even though they’ve always gone on sale months beforehand, they’ve always been a huge part of Christmas (that’s why that section gets updated during the festive season) and the writers of this book knew it too.

Wow! £100? Even in 1987 I remember thinking, “Is that all?” Oh, and in case you’re wondering (much like ten-year-old me did) what that ‘Magic-Beano’ title is all about, Magic was a short-lived comic that ceased during the wartime paper rationing and never returned, so it was merged into The Beano and the books bore its name for a few years. I like looking back on old covers like this, particularly annuals as they seem to encapsulate the time they were published and provide a year-by-year look at how a comic evolved. Also included are similar pages for the summer specials, those tiny Dandy and Beano Comics Library collections and the 1000th and 2000th editions of both comics.

Originally The Dandy and The Beano contained adventure stories and prose funnies and I’ve already shown some of these off on the blog. The thrills and spills of classic adventures take pride of place here too. While the book explains these were mainly before TV became mainstream and so could be printed with few illustrations, they’ve included this wonderful spread from a Dandy annual in the 1950s, newly colourised for the 80s.

I may have been growing up in a world of TV and computer games but I still recall delving deep into these particular pages of the book, probably because they were such an unexpected surprise. I also spent a long time with any part of the book that gave an insight into how it was made. Any disappointment I felt with the lack of such information in the World War II chapter was soon put to rest with a great four-page feature starring The Bash Street Kids.

Taking a strip from 1983 that had answered readers’ queries of how The Beano was produced, the double-page strip is split across four pages with a factual article of the process across the middle of each. I find these middle sections the most interesting now as an adult but for kids it was a brilliant idea to have the characters being taught the same things in a lighter, funnier way, with further details right there too if they wanted.

There’s just too much in this book to cover in one blog post. If there’s a character you can think of from The Dandy or The Beano’s first 50 years, they’ll be in here. If there’s a moment, a piece of merchandise, a memory you have… anything you can think of that might have been part of their first 50 years, it’ll be in here. What I’ve been able to squeeze into one blog post is just the tip of the iceberg.

Wrapped up in a gorgeous hardback you can see what’s beneath that dust cover at the very top of this post. It looks lovely on a shelf like that. Inside are 144 pages of high quality paper, all full-colour and there’s an absolute tonne to read! I can remember being engrossed by this for days throughout the holidays that year. I’ll wrap things up today with another celebrity cameo and a quick example of the variety of topics the book covers: fashion!

Great, now I’ve got Drop the Pilot stuck in my head! I must say I sympathise with Joan here, her quote rings an all-too-familiar bell. (You thought all these comics on the blog were my copies from childhood?) This fantastic book originally sold for £4.95, a princely sum for something sitting among the annuals that year, but you’ll get it for cheaper than that nowadays on eBay.

This has brought back a lot of happy memories of reading it the first time around. I feel like a kid at Christmas all over again. (Well, I still am!) For any fans that missed out on this at the time, or perhaps for younger blog readers that hadn’t started reading Beano (or been born) yet, this is a must purchase for a few quid. Also, for anyone interested in the history and evolution of comics this is still truly fascinating and has the cherry on top of including so many laughs along the way!

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CHRiSTMAS 2025

Annuals, Christmas, Transformers

TRANSFORMERS AT CHRiSTMAS: 1985 ANNUAL

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This post is coming to you during the afternoon of Christmas Day 2025, so with all of the turkey, ham, roasties, stuffing, sprouts and chorizo, maple carrots, roasted parsnips, bacon wrapped cocktail sausages, mushy peas, apple sauce, cranberry sauce and gravy in your stomachs (just me?) you’re not going to be able to move for a while. That means it’s the perfect time to lie down with our latest Christmas annual and it’s the first in a new series. In 1985 there was something of a momentous book sliding down chimneys across the country with the rotund fella, all wrapped up in a simply gorgeous piece of John Higgins art.

Well, it would become momentous with the gift of hindsight at least. This is the first ever Transformers Annual from Marvel UK, co-produced by Grandreams. Basically, Marvel provided the editorial content while Grandreams handled the publishing side of things. Their offices were in the same building and after a few years Marvel would handle everything themselves. This first Transformers Annual was released in the autumn of 1985 for the Christmas market. Ian Rimmer had taken over as editor of the comic a few months before its release but this book had already been completed and edited by the comic’s launch editor, Sheila Cranna.

While it contains some silly fillers the likes of which we’ve seen in other licenced annuals it’s the stories that really stand out. They are superb! In fact, this series of annuals became known for having some of the best stories Marvel UK produced. The strips packed a lot into their smaller page counts and the prose stories were often the best parts of the books, even establishing key parts of Transformers lore. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, does this first annual ease us into the greatness to come?

Nope, it goes full throttle right from the off with some lovely atmospheric scenes of the army meeting the Autobots for the first time, and even the appearance of Ronald Reagan doesn’t dampen proceedings. Plague of the Insecticons is written by Transformers mainstay Simon Furman (Death’s Head, Dragon’s Claws, To the Death) with art by Mike Collins (Doctor Who, Darkstars, American Gothic) and Jeff Anderson (Judge Dredd, Swiftsure, Zoids), and the gorgeous colours are by Gina Hart (Rogue Trooper, Rupert Bear, Doctor Who).

In much the same way as the live-action movies have integrated the governments of the world into the Transformers universe, here their involvement also makes sense. However, the Insecticons have infiltrated proceedings due to their diminutive size in insect form (prepare for ludicrous mass shifting into huge robot modes). Optimus Prime thinks back to how the secret could’ve gotten out and it boils down to human error, one unscrambled call while Soundwave was monitoring. As they emerge they scream that they’re Autobots and attack the troops, who then turn against Prime.

This was the debut of the Insecticons here in the UK before they appeared in the American comic. They make quite the impact, announcing how they’ll obey their great leader Optimus and destroy the neighbouring city! But as the otherr Autobots chase after them, Prime heads off in another direction. His gut tells him the Insecticons feel restrained (half destroying a city is restraint?), guessing that as new warriors they must be being controlled by a third-party until they master their abilities.

This doesn’t stop him from joining the fight. For the only time in the comic he sends Roller (the small vehicle that resided inside his trailer in the toy) to help out even if it means he has to split his concentration (here Roller is a remote device, not an autonomous vehicle). He finds Ravage with a remote device and ends up tricking one of the Insecticons, Bombshell into planting a cerebral shell on Ravage’s body. These devices made it possible for Bombshell to control the mind of whoever he wished, but here his own mind was being controlled by Ravage, and thus a vicious cycle plays out in the final pages. Wonderful stuff.

The second, shorter strip is And There Shall Come… a Leader! with writer and colourist remaining, joined by John Stokes (Fishboy, L.E.G.I.O.N., The Invisibles) on art and Richard Starkings (The Sleeze Brothers, The Real Ghostbusters, Transformers: Generation 2) lettering. This tale takes us back millions of years and across space to Cybertron and Prime’s first battle as Autobot Commander. Most of the story is taken up with him awaiting the nod from the grand council of Autobot elders, led by Emirate Xaaron (an original UK comic creation who would eventually become a toy), to okay a strike against Megatron.

Up until this point it would seem the Autobots had been holding a defending position, their dedication to peace forbidding them from leading an attack. They’ve engaged in battles but only in response to the Decepticons and under the auspices of the outdated, elderly council. I love how it all comes down to politics in a kid’s book. It’s initially strange to see the toys so accurately drawn instead of the modified comic/cartoon versions but in the end it makes it feel lovingly quaint. With lots of the readers no doubt receiving Transformers for Christmas in 1985 I’m sure it made them happy to see their toys in action this way.

As the Transformers annuals continued, the prose stories would soon become the stand outs, giving us more in-depth characterisations; taking their time to delve into each with their inner thoughts, more intricate or dare I say intimate/personal storylines and even important new pieces of Transformers character lore that would become canon throughout the various incarnations of the franchise for decades to come. This book’s stories may be smaller in scope but they’re no less fun and produce some great images in the mind as you read. Most likely written by Simon, the art is by John Ridgway and coloured by Gina, their illustrations used to highlight key moments. They’re gorgeous and add a great deal to each tale.

Missing in Action sees Tracks incapacitated and left for dead in his car mode, only to be stolen by two small-time bank robbers who see this abandoned Corvette Stingray as the perfect getaway car. The story culminates in a small alien robot-obsessed boy stumbling upon him and getting entangled in a bank robbery that goes horribly wrong, the building exploding in flames and partially collapsing. The rescue scene with Inferno (who looks even better when drawn toy-accurate like this), Grapple and Hoist is a thrill to read.

Hunted! starts off well with one of my favourite Deceptions, Ravage stalking a human expedition leader in the jungles of South America (gloriously illustrated by John, too) and there’s some nice chemistry between Prowl and Bumblebee, as well as some genuine comic timing in the narration. In the end though, it all comes to a sudden end with a resolution that’s far too easy, almost like the writer had suddenly realised they were running out of their word count. But it’s still fun.

There are some corners of the internet that take these tales of transforming sentient alien robots far too seriously, who complain about where the annual stories fit into the overall story arcs. Given how each comic tale could last a month or two in real life but in the fictional world take place over a couple of days, that leaves an awful lot of time in-between in which anything could happen with the characters before returning to the status quo for the next exciting instalment. So I say just go with the flow and you’ll really enjoy this book.

Stories aside, this first of seven annuals also includes the usual kind of filler material we’d find in most other Grandreams annual. There are basic profiles, mazes, word searches and the obligatory dice board game. Given the quality of the strips and prose these basic pages seem out of place. The stories have depth and didn’t talk down to the young readers, so don’t let the fillers put you off.

Then, just to add one more surprise to this children’s comic book, it has a downbeat ending. The Insecticons story has an Epilogue right at the back of the annual in which it’s clear Optimus Prime and the President are on the same side, but have misunderstood each other. The resulting endgame could have dire consequences. If anything, all those silly filler pages only make moments like this all the more powerful.

There’s something special about reading a comics annual at Christmas and I’m thrilled at the prospect of reliving these every December for the next six years. While the toy-like images and the puzzle pages do age it, it’s storytelling and gorgeous art belie the fact it was 40 visits from Santa ago that this slid down the chimney to eager children across the UK. It’s a superb start. It’s a cliché to say it, but there’s definitely more to this book than meets the eye.

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CHRiSTMAS 2025

Christmas

MERRY CHRiSTMAS 2025

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Life has been a bit of a whirlwind these past few months for various reasons so I’m very happy Christmas Eve is finally here and I can just concentrate on relaxing… and eating my own weight in festive food, of course. All with my new furry housemate by my side for the first time who has already made this Christmas very special, and my closest friends who, alongside wee Smudge, have become family this year. ❤️

I’m also really enjoying what I’ve been publishing for all you lot out there this holiday season, and the next two days (and indeed next week) are no exception. Regular readers will know I take Christmas Day and Boxing Day off from social media every year, so I’m here not only to wish you A Very Merry Christmas but also to fill you in on the posts coming while I’m away.

Tomorrow the Transformers At Christmas 40th anniversary series hits a milestone with the very first Marvel UK annual; a series of books that contain some of the very best stories (and art) the comic produced. Then on Boxing Day there’ll be a special addition to the Beano 80th Anniversary section of the blog when I take a look at the brilliant Dandy/Beano Fifty Golden Years book from 1987. So, two great books to curl up with when you’re too full to move.

I hope you all have a fantastic couple of days full of whatever makes Christmas for you. Personally, I’ll be unwrapping accessories for my Switch 2, a new cat bed for Smudge and new toys I hope he and I will be having plenty of energetic fun with! Then, with both our bellies packed with delicious turkey and ham I’m sure he’ll be able to convince me of a cat nap or two.

Merry Christmas everyone!

CHRiSTMAS 2025

Christmas, Comic Promos, Mighty Marvel Checklists

THE MiGHTY MARVEL CHECKLiST: WEEK 22

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CHRiSTMAS EVE 1988

I know, these comics and thus this checklist would’ve been released a few days earlier due to Christmas publishing deadlines and shops actually giving staff time off back then. But we’ve no way of knowing the exact date The Real Ghostbusters and The Transformers and Action Force would’ve hit the shelves so I’m sticking with the official date. It’s Christmas Eve!

I always loved snow on the logo of my comics, didn’t you? This was my first Christmas issue of Transformers and as luck would have it the only one with a snowy logo. As an added bonus Slapdash is on Andrew Wildman’s cover; the blue and yellow F1 car was amongst my first Transformers toys that season. After discovering the comic for myself with the festive Winter Special, getting the classic Cold Comfort and Joy tale so soon into my collection was a thrill. As was the news of what was to begin next week! (You’ll find out soon.)

The Real Ghostbusters always went all-out for the season (they’d have a celebratory New Year’s issue every year too) and this was the first of four such years. Behind Martin Griffiths’ cover Peter goes all ‘Fred Claus’ after busting Santa, Spengler’s Spirit Guide is a transcribed dictaphone recording because Egon was too busy with festivities to write it, so it contains loads of funny interactions and things going on in the background the recording picked up, and Stay Puft finally got his own fact-file. Were there other comics worthy of gift wrapping?

Death’s Head 2 and Dragon’s Claws 7 had already been out a few weeks and weren’t themed but they’re two of the best issues of their respective runs, so still special. Action Force may also have been monthly by now but it did mark the occasion with its main story, the return of fan favourite features and, yes, snow on a chilly, blue-coloured logo. Can’t deny Marvel UK had quite the selection for the holidays. Any child would’ve been happy with all of these in their stocking.

There are no new comic adverts per se this week, but I do have something rather unique for you, even if it was technically very late to be running a Christmas competition (the prizes wouldn’t arrive until the new year and most of the readers who’d want Marvel UK annuals would most likely have asked Santa for them). But that didn’t stop Transformers from running a contest to win a set of the three books their readers would have coveted the most.

Both the Transformers and Visionaries annuals from 1988 were superb and I have no doubt in my mind the Action Force one would’ve followed suit, so as a prize I can’t fault this. It’s the question which I find simply hilarious, dressing up characters as Santa and asking readers to identify them. Very simple to regular readers and as a new reader at the time I appreciated the fact they used characters from The Transformers: The Movie, probably so as everyone could enter.

Christmas editions of our favourite comics always helped build the hype so I hope this little glimpse back has you equally excited for what may come for you tomorrow. The Mighty Marvel Checklist will return on New Year’s Day with the biggest news imaginable for one of our comics above.

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WEEK 21 < > WEEK 23

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CHRiSTMAS 2025

Aliens, Comic Reviews

ALiENS #19: DiD iQs JUST DROP SHARPLY WHiLE i WAS AWAY?

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It’s only a couple of days before Christmas Day, so where’s the special cover? Well, Aliens mightn’t have had the easiest of logos to cover in snow, but we did get a (somewhat) festive themed front page last month instead. In case you missed it, you can go and check out Chris Halls’ second yearly seasonal treat in #18’s review. For now, it’s back to the January edition.

Dave Gibbons (Watchmen, Ro-Busters, Doctor Who) joins the Aliens fold at Dark Horse International with the brilliant cover and as writer on a new strip inside. Of course, long-time blog readers will have seen Dave’s work before on the site in the read throughs for OiNK, Death’s Head and Dragon’s Claws, as well as a post about his autobiography Confabulation, so it’s great to see his work back on the site, especially in this comic. A comic which is very strip-heavy this month.

As you can see the Features side of the contents is rather bare looking and this is mentioned by editor Cefn Ridout. It certainly sounds like they’re going to make up for it next month though. Of course this issue has to kick off with Dave’s story as the headline event. Salvation was an American one-shot comic split over two issues this side of the Atlantic and the artist bringing Dave’s script to the page is just as exciting.

Mike Mignola, whose dramatic and original artwork I enjoyed so much in the comics adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula recently on the blog (also see Hellboy, Rocket Racoon) makes his Aliens debut and these 15 pages are dripping in atmosphere, his art taking an already interesting story and making it absolutely compelling. And this is even before we’ve seen him really handle the aliens themselves. We only see part of one dead xenomorph here but that’s enough to have me anticipating the next chapter.

Matt Hollingsworth provides the suitably subdued colours and Clem Robins the lettering to Dave’s story of the survivors of the Nova Maru, a ship whose company trawled backwater planets looking for people desperate for no-questions-asked work to deliver a cargo to a deserted planet. I think we can all guess what the cargo is. Our main character is Selkirk, a religious cook who is mocked both for his religion and the fact he can’t actually cook.

When an alarm sounds we know exactly what’s happened, we’ve seen and read enough Aliens by now. The captain picks Selkirk at random to pilot an escape craft to get him off the ship, so horrified and scared is he by what he saw in the cargo hold he abandons his crew to die. After the crash the captain starts going insane, thinking the aliens are behind every tree, even suspecting Selkirk of being an alien trick. This leads to Selkirk killing him in self-defence in a particularly tense moment, made all the more so by the pitch black shadows of Mike’s art.

All through this Selkirk’s been praying (more Aliens+religion, there’s definitely been a theme recently) and every time a tiny bit of good luck comes his way he thinks it’s a sign and has occurred only because of his prayers. After discovering a half-submerged dead xenomorph and witnessing a bright light in the sky he deduces the Nova Maru has landed or crashed and will be stocked with provisions. Before heading off though, he’s hungry and needs energy for the journey. Looking at the captain’s body he believes god has provided for him again… and he cooks him.

By the end of this first chapter he’s completely relying on prayers and sees everything as intervention from his god, believing he’s being tested. All of the death, all of the people wiped out, and all because god wants to test him? It’s obviously hard to empathise with this lunatic. I’d be quite happy for him to be impregnated but we’ll see what happens next time in this short two-part tale.

In the Motion Tracker news pages Dave Hughes tries his very best to provide yet more hype for the interactive Alien War experience by reporting on its grand opening night. However, it still doesn’t come across great, does it? I had my doubts when it was previously announced it’d been cut down by half to squeeze more people in each day, and I think I was right. I also think he’s imagining things with the Dave movie poster.

Part 12 of Colonial Marines has a new creative force at the helm. Kelley Puckett (Batgirl, The Comet, Kinetic) takes over as writer and in comes Allen Nunis (Classic Star Wars, Images of Omaha, The Frankenstein Dracula War) on pencils and inker Paul Guinan is now joined by John Dell (Speed Racer, Lobo, Femforce). I do prefer this team for the aliens and layouts but the humans seem to have lost their defining characteristics.

Lt. Henry’s plan is to defend Bracken’s World’s central harbour with its tall concrete walls and one entry point, but this is Aliens and we know us humans are spectacularly bad at trying to outthink them. It’s also not much of a plan, simply sending some of the team out to lure the aliens back into a trap. It isn’t the most exciting of plots. Of course, the aliens are actually already at the harbour entrance, predictably lying in wait under the surface and quickly overpower the marines while the rest are out at sea.

Then the drop ship pilot disobeys orders to protect the harbour and instead, in an attempt to save her teammates, she destroys a huge alien Queen right next to the harbour wall, its acid blood producing multiple holes and weak points, eventually leading to its collapse and leaving the harbour exposed. This is the main bulk of the story and it’s just too predictable to be exciting. However, goings on elsewhere intrigue me.

Again the huge bulking android refuses to fight because of how much he cost to make, so are Beliveau’s comments last month ringing true yet for Henry? They seem to be, because amongst the chaos he orders his tech to hack into the android. That’s a big gamble when there’s a battle afoot but Henry must be thinking it might be worth the risk. I’ll look forward to afinding out more about that at least.

Moving on to the concluding part of Chris Claremont’s Renegade, this aliens-less prequel to the new Predator crossover would’ve been better in Total Carnage and the crossover in this comic, surely! But nope, that other comic would get the main event instead. So it turns out Ash’s big secret is that she’s really an android. To be fair, I should’ve clocked that the moment her name was given last issue. However, throughout the galaxy she’s known as Renegade and here she shows us why.

The Ransome ship’s security spot a small 12-year-old girl on a hill with binoculars watching them and immediately classify her as a threat, despite clearly identifying her as a child. When they take aim, meaning to kill her, Ash takes them all out. I’ll admit, it’s a thrilling read and in places Vince Giarrano’s art is powerful! But it’s all tempered by my original point, that it’s being used to promote Total Carnage to Aliens readers, while we miss out.

Crusade may have been the UK exclusive strip at the time but with everything else included this month it’s been reduced to a measly five pages and it suffers as a result. Foston and Rani try to explain to the Archbishop they need to evacuate the cathedral because the aliens are loose in the city. When he can’t convince them to put their faith in god he finally admits he’s been sheltering the aliens in the tower.

He moves to lead them out the door but the aliens from the sewers are there, waiting to get inside, which they can now do easily and immediately start killing his innocent followers. I’m not saying it’s impossible to tell a good story in five comic pages, but writer Michael Cook usually had more space to work with. The story had also started to become more interesting and involving in recent months, so this quick in-and-out is a bit of a let-down; it feels like it’s getting started when it just… stops.

After all the strip action we can take a breather with the letters page and someone asks if a competition can be run for readers to come up with story ideas that could be turned into strips. The answer is interesting, explaining many readers have already sent in unsolicited material, but everything published in the comic has to be “rigorously approved by 20th Century Fox so that new comic strips and illustrated stories featuring their characters do not contravene the nature of those characters and remain faithful to the Alien films.”

The problem is that sometimes the strips remain too faithful. Last month’s issue was great, this month the strips with fewer (or no) aliens that concentrated on the human element were the most interesting, while those filled with aliens basically retread familiar ground from the film series. There are only a few issues left so here’s hoping the new year brings a bit more balance before the comic is placed in its own chryo-chamber.

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Christmas, Comic Reviews, Transformers

TRANSFORMERS AT CHRiSTMAS: #41

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There may not be any snow on the logo but #41 of Marvel UK’s The Transformers is much more festive than last year’s (not difficult). Now with Ian Rimmer as editor Optimus Prime is in full festive mode thanks to Mike Collins (Axel Pressbutton, Doctor Who, Dragonlance) and Mark Farmer (Sláine, Excalibur, JLA) and the insides are full of cheer including the first seasonal strip, a really fun change to the letters page for the week, a huge competition and decorations all over the editorial page. It’s our first proper Christmas comic of the run and this issue celebrates its 40th birthday today!

Of course it should go without saying Lew Stringer got in on the Christmassy feels too with his always funny Robo Capers and on the right the piece about the office party and poor Soundwave is brilliant. I’ll show what that led to below but first up is Christmas Break-er and regular writer Simon Furman takes a (circuit) break as James Hill (Masters of the Universe, Forest, Misadventures of Adam West: Dark Night) writes, William Simpson (Judge Dredd, Hellblazer, Vamps) draws, Gina Hart (Rupert Bear, Rogue Trooper, 2000AD) provides her usual gorgeous colours and friend of the blog Richard Starkings (Elephantmen, Transformers: Generation 2, Nemesis of the Daleks) letters.

Josie Beller aka Circuit Breaker is back and we get a quick recap of how she was almost fatally injured by the Decepticons and left paralysed, only for the genius computer engineer to create circuitry that enabled her to move again (and fly and fire electric shocks of course, this is a comic after all). Some online reviewers have mocked this image of Soundwave, saying it’s riddled with errors but they’ve spectacularly missed the point. It’s clearly Josie’s hate-filled mind recollecting a traumatic, terrifying moment. The embellishments to his face and hands are telling of her mentality and I think it’s a clever way to get that across pictorially.

Josie has clearly become a bigot after her encounter with Shockwave and his troops. Throughout the comic’s run she’d constantly try to kill Autobots, screaming that all robots are murderers no matter how much evidence is shown to her that there are two diametrically opposing sides. This ended up being the first Transformers strip I ever read when it was reprinted a few years later in a winter special (which we’ll get to eventually but for now you can check it out on Instagram) so I’ve a personal fondness for stories featuring this character. We loved to hate her.

But what about Optimus Prime dressed up as Santa Claus? It’s not as ridiculous as it sounds. Buster Witwicky is teaching the Autobots about Christmas and they’re throwing him a festive shindig to thank him for all his help, while also acknowledging everything they’ve put him through! But Prime is subdued, worried about his abilities as leader and endangering this planet and its people. Having him dressed like this while he contemplates only raises the emotion in his scenes.

At this point in the comic’s run we were seeing him develop beyond the simplistic and stereotypical leader we were used to in the cartoon. But Prowl is worried about the party and doesn’t understand why they’re doing it while still at war. Jazz is also confused with humans. For example, Buster talks about how Christmas means charity to him but Jazz questions why Circuit Breaker chooses to destroy with all of her powers instead. Swap out “powers” for “money” and you get the point James Hill is getting across here.

The main plot involves Josie getting a taste of her own medicine when she witnesses a child falling through ice into a frozen lake. She whips off the clothes she’s been using as a disguise and melts the ice with her electrical energy to rescue the girl. Discovering she’s not breathing, Josie adjusts her output to generate a tiny enough electric shock to restart the girl’s heart and save her life.

But the family turn on Josie, yelling and calling her a freak, even accusing her of breaking the ice in the first place despite seeing her save the girl. To me, this shows how we as a race can react to even the best of intentions with hatred just because a person is different or we don’t understand them. No matter what we see, people can still be led to distrust and hate through mob mentality and assume completely the wrong thing. Sadly, this feels very contemporary.

A while later, Jazz almost crashes from driving too fast in the snow and his quick reactions lead to him ejecting Buster and transforming. While he stands over his unconscious friend this is of course when Josie sees them and assumes he’s attacked the boy, despite what she’s just gone through herself. This is also the second time Jazz has been on the receiving end of her shocks. It’s Buster who stops it all, although why he worded his protestations as he did instead of simply saying there are good and bad Transformers is anyone’s guess. It probably wouldn’t have made a difference anyway.

It’s a strip that’s harmless fun but it’s one with a strong message at its core, one that’s perfect for a Christmas read, especially for the younger readers. How people who grew up with these comics have basically turned out as real life Circuit Breakers is beyond me. Back to the issue at hand and the surprise change to the Shockwaves page was that it had become Rat-Chat for one week only!

There were some brilliantly inventive letters sent in by fans over the course of the run (I laughed at the reference to Fame here) and they were so devoted to their favourite characters and the stories being told. Our letter answerers were always funny. Soundwave had no tolerance for Autobot fans, Grimlock liked to tell readers he was their favourite and later Dreadwind was incredibly sarcastic. Here, Ratchet has a good laugh choosing the anti-Soundwave letters and even the Stock Exchange chosen fits with the theme.

Oh, and the “puttup” thing was the phrase Soundwave used when he had to talk about an Autobot. In case it wasn’t clear, a later strip would show him spitting and the lettering in the panel used the same phrase. Moving on and right beside this page are a bunch of potential presents for the readers in the big Christmas competition. It had several prizes up for grabs but the one that stands out for me is the Transformers Train and Battle Set!

It’s such a shame there’s only a teeny tiny, badly reproduced picture of it. During the real time read through of the comic I did a few years back I strained my eyes as much as I could on this but to no avail. Thankfully, I’ve now discovered Transformers Wiki and they’ve got loads of images and information on it. I’d have loved this as a kid! Lots of transforming train parts and the small little robots that came with it even appeared in the cartoon along with the locomotive! Any Transformers fan will want to go and check that out.

The Machine Man of 2020 may not have anything Christmassy about it but it’s still a very special episode because it contains a showdown between our hero and none other than Iron Man. But why are they fighting? Well, this isn’t Tony Stark. This is Arno Stark, The Iron Man of 2020. This was the first story he appeared in before returning in another back up strip of Spider-Man’s. Arno isn’t a hero. He inherited Stark Industries and uses the suit in his role as a mercenary for hire.

The character would reappear on and off in various Marvel titles and his own one-shot special. He’s actually appeared on the blog before in the final issue of Death’s Head when he went up against the Freelance Peace-Keeping Agent in an excellent finale to that series. Aaron Stack (Machine Man) takes a beating before he finally flips the script on Arno, and as you can see the storyline ties in neatly with this issue’s Transformers with its similar anti-bigotry theme.

Written by Tom DeFalco (Archie, Amazing Spider-Man, Thor) and Barry Windsor-Smith (Conan the Barbarian, Weapon X, Solar Man of the Atom) the art in these final fight scenes is just incredible. Barry also drew and coloured all of this, and there’s not a single example of that staple of 80s American comics of solidly colouring whole sections or characters in one colour. Instead, everything here is intricately detailed and looks gorgeous. It’s just a coincidence this is the chunk of the strip that ended up in this issue but it feels extra special as a result and adds to the overall feel of a very special issue.

To round off the review of this 40-year-old comic are a couple of adverts. The first is for the latest Marvel UK specials. I’ve covered the Transformers one as part of the Instagram read through and it’s a lovely thing with its card cover and spine, the last time the Collected Comics series would be presented in this way. Then, taking over the back page were the top-selling toys of Christmas 1985.

I’ve never seen an original Megatron toy in the real world (complete with his, um… trigger) but I do remember Optimus Prime. A friend owned him in his original metal form before he was made of plastic. After previous Transformers toys had been selling like hot cakes with brandy cream, the release of the two most popular characters in the UK caused a sensation, with Optimus becoming the number one gift that year.

We’ve reached the end of our second festive issue of the comic but there’s more to come this holiday season. In four days, on Christmas Day itself there’ll be a full review of the very first Transformers Annual! So, while the kids are playing with their new toys you can take a trip back to when Santa brought you everything you could’ve wished for too. I’ll see you then.

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Annuals, Christmas, Knight Rider

KNiGHT RiDER ANNUAL #4: OLD TiME FUN

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Okay, let’s deal with the elephant/panther in the room. No, I’ve no idea what the deal is with this cover. The copyright notice inside shows they used a promotional image for David Hasselhoff’s music rather than Knight Rider (with K.I.T.T. in his new season four Super Pursuit Mode copied and pasted over the top). But let’s not get hung up on that, it’s time for our fourth Knight Rider Annual from 1986. I’ve really looked forward to these every year, given how the show is My Favourite Thing in the Universe and the books have been fun so far. It’s the usual 64-page hardback from Grandreams with two comic strips and what first appears to be three text stories.

On further inspection these are actually three parts of the same tale. So, a meatier prose story this time around? Let’s find out. World Stealers begins with Michael Knight and K.I.T.T. surveilling a hi-tech computer lab. As a huge Knight Rider geek I spotted a mention of K.I.T.T. having two monitors on his dashboard. As fellow fans will know the two small screens were replaced with one large display in the third season. The characters’ usual witty back-and-forth that had developed over the course of the series is certainly there, especially when Michael asks K.I.T.T. to scan the building and tell him what’s happening inside.

However, there are things like the monitors, the limited abilities the car has and Devon Miles’ name still being spelt incorrectly that lead me to believe the writer was still working from an earlier series bible. It reads much like a season one book. Yet again. After all the research David Lloyd told me was put into those first books it’s rather disappointing.

The main guest character is Mary-Evangeline Pedroza who runs a computer security company. Her work force is mainly female, because she needed the smartest people and they just happened to end up all being women. (Can you imagine the online snowflakes today?) The codes they’re supplying to clients are instantly hacked, so Michael plans to cut off the next target from the phone lines and force the thieves to physically enter the building. Little clues laid out along the way for the younger readers are blatantly obvious to the adult one. Is this going to be yet another industrial espionage inside job?

The first strip is called KITTnapped and given how an early season four episode was called KITTnap this kind of confirms the writer wasn’t watching the show they were writing about. It’s a silly story involving a disgruntled former F.L.A.G. (Foundation for Law and Government) employee who overrides K.I.T.T.’s systems far too easily to pull off a bank heist. He ends up captured because he’s too lazy to leave his house to park the car in his garage, instead using K.I.T.T.’s unique and easily traceable radio frequency to control it remotely.

The annual contains the usual mix of puzzles and games that aren’t related to the series at all other than a small picture of a character or a title that tangentially links it to the premise. For example, ‘Bonnie’s American States of USA’ and ‘Bonnie’s US Presidents’ word games. At least in the middle of the book the clichéd board game actually relates to the subject, complete with more art by Jim Eldridge who illustrates the whole book.

In part two of World Stealers, Michael and K.I.T.T. find where the thieves’ jet landed and are told by workers at the airport it was flown by women who then took off in a helicopter. It’s not subtle, is it? The best part happens while the pair are tracking the helicopter. They find themselves on a narrow road in a small village, trapped between two lorries. The one in front is a large articulated lorry with a ramp leading up inside it. (Gee, I wonder if that’s important?) It’s when the lorry behind them starts pushing K.I.T.T. towards the ramp that the really fun moment occurs.

Michael quickly asks K.I.T.T. about the composition of the metal in the truck they’re being pushed towards, as well as the dimensions of the trailer and cab. He then takes a big risk, speeding forward and hitting turbo boost just as they go up the ramp, crashing through the front part of the trailer and over the cab. I’m not sure how the show could’ve done this other than with models so it’s a perfect little action scene for a book to fire the imaginations of the young readers.

After being arrested and then freed by K.I.T.T. in a copycat scene from the original pilot movie they hide out under thick trees all night to spot the helicopter, which leads them to a jungle. The text tells of the struggles of trying to get the Trans-Am through the undergrowth but there’s no dialogue! We all know K.I.T.T. would’ve been hilarious throughout this. In the end they do something else the show just couldn’t have afforded. They find a river that’s just a little deeper than the car is tall and they drive down under the surface (unforgivably not illustrated) to a James Bond villain-esque hideout and find Mary beckoning Michael to a table outside the complex where she’s poured him a drink. Again, very Bond-like.

The four-page K.I.T.T. Fact-file pales in comparison to the features from the previous annuals. Gone are the in-depth looks at K.I.T.T.’s developing personality, the stunt work or the interviews with producers and cast. Instead we get a selection of photos and some random pieces of information, not all of which are reliable. For example, there was never any such stunt planned. The “need to ground K.I.T.T.” was actually something they did with season three a couple of years prior, because it was felt K.I.T.T.’s powers were getting too outlandish and the human characters had taken a back seat. Season three corrected this and produced probably my favourite year of the show’s four.

Part three of our prose story reveals the plot was always to capture K.I.T.T. and hack into him. He’s hoisted up by a crane and dangled in mid-air as it’s (unsurprisingly) revealed it was all another inside job, just like in the previous books. This time, Mary’s plan involves being able to control the world’s computers via K.I.T.T.’s systems and hold governments to ransom. She believes men have screwed up the world and it’s time for women to fix everything. Fair enough, to be honest.

Still no chastising lines from K.I.T.T. while in his predicament but the story soon makes up for that. Scanning the building he tells Michael the room he’s locked in is directly below Mary’s (and even that she’s currently taking a shower) and a plan is formed. Michael will burst in on her while K.I.T.T. uses his turbo boost to free himself. Michael can’t see K.I.T.T. from his window but he can see the crane swinging back and forth as his computerised partner times his boosts to swing further and further until it all collapses and he’s freed. This is fun!

As you can see, K.I.T.T. finally finds his voice! From here on the banter back and forth between them is spot on. (Where has it been?) My favourite moment comes when Michael is literally about to kick down Mary’s door to capture the villain when he suddenly stops to ask K.I.T.T. to scan and see if she’s decent first. I did laugh at that! It ends with a physical fight scene between them, something we’d never have seen between a man and woman on TV at the time. In fact, the show does have a scene where Michael jumps out of the driver’s seat window to land on top of a runaway woman, but in the 90s when Knight Rider was repeated ITV cut the stunt out. (It’s always there in repeats today.)

Anyway, while World Stealers may have been rather predictable in its plotting, the action scenes were imaginative and well written. Also, when the writer took the time with the dialogue between man and computer it really worked. So whoever wrote this was obviously capable. (Although, they did have Michael use the word “babe” at one stage, which is not him!)  It’s also felt more like a full episode, rather than the fourth act of previous stories, so there’s definitely good and bad points. If I’d read it at the time I think I’d have been thrilled by it.

We finish off with another simple strip. In Rallying Cry the World Rally Champions are under investigation for cheating. Michael, (regular character and cyber technician) Bonnie Barstow and K.I.T.T. enter the race, with Devon telling them they’re not allowed to win (possibly a nice nod to them accidentally winning during such missions in the show). Once neck-and-neck with the lead car they’re run off the road and over a cliff. Of course the villains didn’t reckon on a Trans-Am capable of jumping back up again. Soon our heroes track them to where they’ve hidden their car and taken a helicopter to an identical car further along the race. Ridiculous, isn’t it?

Michael, Bonnie and K.I.T.T. easily catch up with the helicopter and with all the proof recorded they just need to stop the men from winning again. The strip is really just an excuse to have K.I.T.T. use his most popular physical abilities, such as ski mode to drive on two wheels to overtake someone on a tight stretch of road, and of course the turbo boost! This is used to jump over the cheaters’ before K.I.T.T. comes to a dead stop, the other car crushing up against him. As a nine-year-old I’m sure I would’ve loved this.

Finally for this year’s review, we can’t have a Knight Rider Annual without some 80s pin ups, can we?

Here we have Michael (David Hasselhoff), Bonnie (Patricia McPherson) and Devon (Edward Mulhare) posing with the new convertible version of K.I.T.T., David alongside one of the computerised design images of K.I.T.T.’s new Super Pursuit Mode and on the inside back cover the full season four cast, including new addition Peter Parros as RCIII. Because no stories were written with the newest season (or apparently anything beyond the first season) in mind, this is the only time we see RC in the whole book!

In conclusion then, if I’d collected these in the 80s when I was a child in awe of the show (let’s face it, I still am) I’d have read and read and read this until it was falling apart. Nowadays, after the first three superb annuals it’s lacking in certain areas, while in others it’s just as much fun, so I can forgive it. Get past that front cover and fans will have lots to enjoy here and, if you’re like me, reading it at this time of year will really bring out the kid in you.

I can’t believe we’ve only one more book to go. The time has Super Pursuit Mode’d in! (That really doesn’t work, does it?)

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Comic Promos, Mighty Marvel Checklists

THE MiGHTY MARVEL CHECKLiST: WEEK 21

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SATURDAY 17th DECEMBER 1988

As I mentioned last time there wasn’t an actual checklist in The Real Ghostbusters and The Transformers and Action Force this week, but we’ll try to make up for that with two things.

The first of those is this Martin Griffiths cover to the former which I remember made me laugh when I picked it up from the shop as a kid. With stock images of Winston, Egon and Peter there’s not much here by Martin. It’s a bit pants but that feels deliberate and the gall of having this as the cover to their top-selling comic is what made it really funny to me. On the other hand, The Transformers has something all the more dramatic.

Anthony Williams’ and Stephen Baskerville’s cover refers to an incident in the continuing story set millions of years ago, so regular readers wouldn’t have been too perturbed by this image. It’s still eye-catching but then again Stephen’s inks always were. But the most exciting thing in this comic today is the Next Issue promo. Don’t get me wrong, this is a great issue, but with me covering the Transformers festive issues and annuals every year on the blog I was extra excited to see the promo for what was my first Christmas issue.

Here’s that special advert I promised you last week. It’s yet another of those one-page strip stories and eagle-eyed readers will notice it says “fortnightly” when the comic was weekly by now. I’ll admit, I’ve had to cheat this week. There was no checklist and no comics ads I hadn’t showed you already so I trawled my collection to find this in the pages of an earlier comic from before the checklists began. It also turned up in the first annual which I just so happen to have written about already this Christmas, where you can check it out as an individual strip with its credits intact.

The first time I saw it was in #3 of the Ghostbusters’ comic when it was drawn by a comics fan who had been the recipient of a “Surprise, Surprise” by Cilla Black and Bob Carolgees. (Ask your parents if you don’t know.) Using the commercial from the film with the characters from the cartoon was a clever way of summing the comic’s humour up and remains memorable for fans to this day. Certainly this fan anyway.

That’s us for this checklist-lite edition but join me again in seven days for the Christmas Eve special! Expect details on all the seasonal editions of your favourite comics, a couple of snowy covers and a ridiculous annuals competition page!

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Annuals, Christmas, Comic Promos, Transformers

COMiNG UP: CHRiSTMAS TRANSFORMERS YEAR TWO

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It’s been a long time coming but finally it’s time for the next instalment of Transformers at Christmas, my yearly look at the Yuletide issues of Marvel UK’s epic G1 comic on their 40th anniversaries. Well, it’s almost time. There are still seven days to go but first let’s take a look at how 1985’s special issue was promoted in the previous issue. In fact, this issue includes its own holiday highlights on the editorial page too.

Jeff Anderson’s exciting cover leads to a bit of a damp squib inside, the build up over the weeks to this confrontation led to an anti-climactic one-page fight where Optimus Prime simply tosses Shockwave into a deep swamp. There’s a neat double meaning on the cover though; for a few weeks Shockwave had had Prime’s head separated from his body, so the headline made me chuckle. The Christmas fun kicks off with an early celebratory Robo-Capers by Lew Stringer and a quick Hasbro Q&A for the kids before Santa brought them their latest (or first) Robots in Disguise.

There’s nothing else marking the season until we get to the final pages and that all-important Next Issue Promo with a very jolly-looking, fully costumed Optimus promoting the very first Transformers Christmas strip. Plus the return of Circuit Breaker! PLUS the Iron Man of 2020! Then there’s Prime dressed up as Santa Claus! What’s not to look forward to?

When I read this as part of the blog’s real time read through over on Instagram this promo really had me hyped as it took me right back to discovering the comic myself as a kid via this story, albeit a few years later in a Winter Special reprint. Even Prime’s choice of costume, while seemingly silly to begin with, adds a surprising amount of depth to the character. I’ll explain all next week.

But that’s not all this year. There’s something else coming this Christmas as part of these special anniversary reviews, namely the first Transformers Annual. Not appearing until the comic’s second festive season, the exciting arrival of the comic’s first annual was met with zero advertisements and only one mention in #37’s editorial at the end of November.

Soundwave was the letter answerer at the time and he’d written the announcement for the book, sounding suitably unimpressed. For fans though, the introduction of the Insecticons and just the news of the book existing would’ve been more than enough! Although I’m sure they’d have known about it long before then. With the way our newsagents would’ve had tables or shelves crammed with annuals every year, the lack of promos wouldn’t have had much of an impact on such a hit property. You can actually check out the adverts for all of the Transformers annuals in a special post from earlier this holiday season.

That’s us ready for Christmas 1985 in the world of The Transformers. So #41 will be right here in just seven days on Sunday 21st December 2025, my 48th birthday! (It originally went on sale on my 8th. Eek!) Then just four days later on Christmas Day itself the first in-depth review of a classic Transformers Annual. Don’t miss either. They’re both fantastic!

iSSUE SEVEN < > iSSUE 41

TRANSFORMERS AT CHRiSTMAS MENU

MAiN TRANSFORMERS MENU

CHRiSTMAS 2025

Classic Comics in Real Time