Welcome back to the tenth week (already?) of The Mighty Marvel Checklist series here on the OiNK Blog. This week’s checklist is taken from The Real Ghostbusters, whose cover by Phil Elliott and Dave Hine doesn’t do justice to the stories inside, especially the strip drawn by Phil! Meanwhile, Andrew Wildman’s image for The Transformers and Visionaries hyped up the main story, only to have this moment reserved for the cliffhanger for next week.
Inside Ghostbusters, the first story isn’t even on the cover and that’s a shame because it’s brilliant. Remember that Looney Tunes cartoon where Daffy is at the mercy of the artist (who turns out to be Bugs)? In this story a ghost begins draining colour from the strip in a similar way in a wonderfully meta story. Then Hell Razor sees Peter chased around the firehouse by his electric razor in one of the comic’s funniest strips of its whole run.
The Transformers comic would’ve been sealed inside a plastic bag this week, what with another Panini sticker album being given away as a free gift. Just three weeks ago the ‘busting team gave theirs away and stickers for it have been popping up in various comics ever since. This time it’s the turn of the currently-MIA Action Force (G.I. Joe). It was definitely the season for playground swaps! What else did we have available to us this week?
Thomas the Tank Engine may have filled the gap of a fifth comic last week, but this time around we’ve just been given a little more information than usual about each title instead. Given how much I loved The Real Ghostbusters it’s a shame I was never a fan of Thundercats because their comic has a great creative team, it’s nearly identical in fact. If only I’d even picked up the issues with the Galaxy Rangers! Oh well.
There’s a smorgasbord of connect in the second Marvel Bumper Comic, yet more stickers and another new story for what many saw as the main stars of this apparently all-reprint title. Although, judging by the description here I think this appeared later in their own comic but was never billed as a reprint. Sneaky.
No new Marvel UK adverts this week but there’ll be two next time and a packed six-comic checklist (so glasses at the ready for a smaller font). In the meantime, as always I’d love to hear from you about your memories of the comics featured every week and if you remember any of these specific issues or stories. Join in the fun on the blog’s Instagram and Facebook and my own Bluesky anytime.
Another Wednesday in 2025 becomes another Saturday morning in 1988 with Brian Williamson and Dave Harwood’s cover to #16 of The Real Ghostbusters and Andrew Wildman’s cover for #185 of The Transformers and Visionaries for our latest look at Marvel UK’s wares in The Mighty Marvel Checklist.
The Ghostbusters comic would sometimes group stories together into themes and that was true of this edition that really raised the temperature, with Peter and Egon off on a hot bust in Hawaii Fire-Ho! and Ray up against some haunted ice cream. Then Tobin’s spirit, of Tobin’s Spirit Guide fame from the movie and cartoon visits Egon in his Spengler’s Spirit Guide to test readers on everything they’ve learned so far.
In Transformers, Soundwave was leading the Decepticons into battle in Space Pirates so if, like me, you heard the cartoon or movie voices in your head when reading these, his vast amount of speech might’ve taken a while to read! In Visionaries, their magical animal selves provide some great spy drama and humorous moments in equal measure, and the biggest toy ever (to my young eyes when I saw it anyway) was up for grabs for free. Now, last week I said there was a surprise entry in the checklist this week, can you guess which one I meant?
You probably didn’t expect to see Thomas pop up here. While I was ten-years-old at the time I was obsessed with the original books and TV show and, despite this technically being a nursery comic, I still collected it for a couple of years. So it was fun to see it sharing space with these other comics, although I do get the feeling now that the inhabitants of Sodor were being used to fill what might’ve been a bit of blank space this week.
Elsewhere, if I’d realised at the time so many of Marvel’s comics were giving away Real Ghostbusters stickers for my Panini album I’d have been buying more of them. Stickers and something new to read? Yes, please. Although, my parents were probably glad I didn’t know. Who knows what else I’d have wanted to add to my reservation list! Finally for the checklist, it was cartoon crossover time with two properties from the complete opposite ends of time coming together.
This week one new advert for Marvel UK’s publications popped up and it’s yet another for their range of annuals. The Real Ghostbusters’ penchant for short comedy strips saw its book grouped together with more of the light-hearted fare. Count Duckula and Inspector Gadget had Marvel annuals? If I’d paid closer attention at the time I think Santa’s sleigh could’ve been weighed down that year, judging by last week’s and this week’s adverts.
That’s you all caught up for another week. Do you remember any of these specific issues? Did you collect any of the series mentioned? Did you own those Duckula or Gadget annuals? Let me know on the blog’s socials on Bluesky, Instagram or Facebook and I’ll see you back here in seven days.
It was all change this week across Marvel UK’s best-sellers as The Real Ghostbusters changed to a weekly format and Transformers and Action Force became… Transformers and Visionaries! It was about time too, seeing as how Visionaries fans had been waiting since July for their adventures to continue.
Andy Wildman’s cover may present what was meant to be a shocking moment in Space Pirates but it was the inclusion of the Knights of the Magical Light and a brand new look to the comic which excited me the most when I read this for its real time read through a few years back. The Real Ghostbusters never changed its look at all over the course of its run, although this issue did stray from the typical multi-story formula.
Instead, an epic (for this comic anyway) tale took over the whole issue with a two-part, 11-page strip drawn by cover artists Andy Lanning and Dave Hine who brought us a superb set of Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Even the prose story, Spengler’s Spirit Guide and Lew Stringer’sBlimey It’s Slimer tied into the same story. Unfortunately my Panini sticker album is long gone but I did have fond memories of trying (and ultimately failing) to complete it. There’s also a competition to win a Commodore 64 computer, a machine I’d become obsessed with over three years later!
In Doctor Who MagazineJohn Freeman hit on a story title that might seem familiar to fans of the show today, Dragon’s Claws had one of their most entertaining adventures from their whole run when they find themselves between warring factions in France and the comic slowly begins to unveil its background story. Then, were we really meant to believe anyone would think Alf was the sexiest alien alive when we’d just had V on TV a few years previous? Come on!
As you can see there was a trilogy of changes on the checklist completed with the merging of the short-lived The Adventures of theGalaxy Rangers into the hit Thundercats comic. I don’t think it remained merged for long though before running out of already completed stories for the ranger. The merge was advertised across their range for quite a few weeks with this rather simple advert.
I’m surprised the Galaxy Rangers didn’t merge into Transformers if I’m honest. Space-faring adventures chasing down aliens and mechanoid outlaws with four of the coolest robotic horses sounds like a perfect fit! I’d have lapped them up if that had been the case, but with Visionaries needing a new home too there was only so much back up space to go around.
Did you collect Thundercats or The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers? What did you make of the merge? Can you remember one of the very best issues of The Real Ghostbusters from its whole 193-issue run? More importantly, did you finish the album? Join in the conversation over on the socials on Bluesky, Instagram and Facebook, and I’ll see you back here next week for another checklist and two classic ads.
Well this second issue of Marvel US’s Transformers Generation 2 feels a heck of a lot lighter after the extra long strip (and 16 page advert in the middle) of last month’s premiere issue. The contents is also more like the UK comic than the previous G1 American title, with a 16-page main strip and a seven-page back up strip which was originally printed in a special mini-comic given away with toys for Halloween that year (1993).
The cover immediately tells us this issue will pick up from where the G.I. Joe crossover finished in #142 of their comic so I was excited going into this one, but absolutely thrilled to see the first two pages! Not only are favourite characters of mine, Scarlett and Snake Eyes right there in the very first panel of the story, but on the title page we see a team of artists were involved this time, including the simply wonderful Andrew Wildman and Stephen Baskerville working alongside each other.
Inside The Ark, Megatron still has Dr. Biggles-Jones captive on his way back to Cybertron but Spike is also on board and sneaks off to find the rest of himself, namely Fortress Maximus. Not sure why Max has been left in his decapitated robot form (Spike was his HeadMaster companion) to protect the spaceship instead of his battle station form , but oh well.
Hot Spot is one of only two survivors of the battle with Megatron and Cobra, and realises the humans have access to advanced Cybertronian tech, unaware Megatron has made it unusable. Knowing humans can’t be trusted, he sets off to destroy it and I did laugh at Cobra Commander’s threat having to use a different word than “head” in the panel below. Then, is that Starscream Megatron is reactivating? Oh, this could be interesting.
Fortress Maximus seems to have slimmed down somewhat, but then again various artists in the original comic would draw him at different scales, although here he doesn’t even look like himself and more like a regular Autobot. (There’s also no mention of Spike transforming into Cerebros first, instead he just changes into Max’s head directly.) Skydive also joins in the fight and I’d completely forgotten he was lying waiting for his timer to ding and reactivate himself after G.I. Joe #142.
Look, I know this is a classic Transformers comic, and a new classic Transformers comic as far as I’m concerned, but that doesn’t change the fact my main highlight is the return of the Joes, especially Snake Eyes. They may only be on a few pages but when those pages are drawn by Andrew and Stephen you can’t blame me. I had no idea these characters crossed back over into this comic.
They aid Hot Spot but after the weapons are destroyed Cobra surrounds him; they want any Cybertronian technology they can get their hands on, no matter how. He ends up sacrificing himself and explodes(!), although from the art that’s not 100% clear until it’s mentioned later. Meanwhile, Spike and Fortress Maximus also seem to sacrifice themselves by entering the “antimatter stream” powering The Ark, allowing Skydive to rescue Dr. Biggles-Jones.
The ship explodes with Maximus on board, apparently taking Spike with him, although it appears Megatron was also destroyed and we know he’s not easily killed. Plus there was a new toy of him just out, so we’ll see who all return in a future issue. Then it’s on to the back up strip.
Light on plot but heavy on the action, character moments and throwing in a few laughs, it reads very much like one of writer Simon Furman’s monochrome strips from the latter part of the UK comic’s run. Anyone who followed along with my real time read through of the original comic will know this isn’t a complaint, far from it in fact. It’s a brill little strip, and to complete that UK comic flavour it’s even drawn by Geoff Senior (and kudos to Richard Starkings and John Gaushell’s letters below and Sarra Mossoff’s excellent colours).
Even Bumblebee and Bludgeon are back. It feels like the original comic had never been cancelled! On one of the planets Bludgeon and his Decepticons had randomly selected to terrorise, the Autobots have arrived. There’s an underground cache of advanced weaponry and Optimus Prime et all can’t allow them to fall into Decepticon hands, although there’s a hint within his thoughts that Prime actually wants them for himself, playing to the darker version of the character we saw last time.
Hot Rod has been sent down to activate some kind of auto-defence system to help them out, so when this monster appears Prime assumes it’s a hologram. He’s mightily impressed with Hot Rod’s capabilities, especially when its huge alien eyes take out one of Bludgeon’s minions. Then the young Autobot reappears, apologising for not being able to find anything to help in the battle, producing this funny moment from Optimus!
Confirmation then that they were also here to secure weaponry. They leave with the understanding they can’t go down that route again, as that would defy everything they stand for and recalls the war they fought for millions of years. The Next Issue caption mentions “Primal” and “Old Evils” and I still can’t shake the feeling of this leading to a path well trodden. Hopefully Prime’s speech is a hint in itself, that the story won’t simply be treading the same ground again.
To finish off with I couldn’t help but have my attention drawn to two of the advertisements in this issue. One is for a reissue of the original G.I. Joe 12” figure, which we knew as Action Man here in the UK, alongside a cool action figure version to sit among kids’ 80s toys. The other advert is for pants.
Not wishing to end the review on a bum note, I’ll just say how much I really enjoyed both stories this time. I’m not sure if it’s a one-off thing having two strips but I hope it’s something we can have at least once in a while over the next year (no spoilers please). Fingers crossed for more of the same on Sunday 24th November 2024 then. Actually, just typing that has made me realise my decorations will be up just in time for that next issue! Oh, now I’m excited.
I do love it when I get to start a brand new real time read through and this is one I’ve been particularly looking forward to. Not only have I never read Transformers: Generation 2 before (and as usual I’ll be discovering it one month at a time and telling you about it as I do) but the story actually kicked off in a special crossover event in the pages of another favourite comic, G.I. Joe.
I discovered the Joes and Cobra when they were known as Action Force in the UK in their position as back up strip in Transformers, after their own weekly was cancelled. When reading their adventures as part of that read through on the blog’s Instagram I became a huge fan all over again, collected some of IDW’s continuation and am now a dedicated reader of the same comic under the stewardship of Image Comics.
In case you didn’t know, this actual comic continues to this day and it’s still being written by Larry Hama! So going back to read these issues is extra exciting for me because they’re earlier stories of the new comic I’m reading today. Regarding that title on the cover, the Ninja Force were a sub-section of both sides of the conflict and a new range of Hasbro toys at the time. With Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow as the main characters the comic’s name was temporarily changed to promote the range.
Instantly I recognise the art style, that unique Marvel UK look produced by Andrew Wildman and Stephen Baskerville
That secondary title would be replaced with ‘and Transformers: Generation 2’ from the next issue and initially I thought that was where I’d begin with the four-part story between #139 and #142. But this issue was also in the bundle of comics I purchased from eBay and a quick flick through it showed me why. You’ll see why, so let’s begin.
Instantly I recognise the art style, that unique Marvel UK look produced by Andrew Wildman (also on cover duties) on pencils and Stephen Baskerville on inks, now in this American comic. Together they produced some incredible art for the original Transformers towards the end of its run. Andrew is best know for his Transformers, The Real Ghostbusters and G.I. Joe work, while it’s the former two and 2000AD for Stephen. The art is completed with letters by Rick Parker (Spider-Man, Time magazine, Tales From the Crypt) and colours by Bob Sharen (Alpha Flight, Ghost Rider, Invincible Iron Man), both of whose work I recognise from those earlier back up strips.
“I want that uxorious chrome-visaged twit and his xanthippic consort winkled out like the limeceous bivalves they are!”
Cobra Commander
So I immediately felt right at home. Things begin with one of my favourite characters, Scarlett going through a mental crisis. She’s apparently defected to Cobra although in reality this is just an undercover mission. However, she believes her actions led to the death of Hawk and Stalker, however they survived whatever transpired in previous issues. She just doesn’t know this yet.
Obviously I haven’t read the chapters leading up to this so I can only tell you what happens here. In a nutshell Destro and Baroness are trying to escape from Cobra with the aid of G.I. Joe (a separate story from Scarlett’s). The action takes place inside a tall fortress of Destro’s design that can shift its shape into different defensive and offensive configurations. Destro also included secret crawlspaces behind the walls, where they are currently hiding. However, these have now been discovered, a hole has been blown in a wall and Cobra Commander has sent his troops in to capture them.
At this point in the story it seems Cobra Commander has a… unique use of language. Throughout this issue he seems to use half a dozen words when one would suffice. It adds to his superiority complex and I enjoy it. Only Larry could carry these lengthy speech balloons off in the heat of the action. We also see Destro’s use of cool 80s tech from within his metallic face mask that I hadn’t seen before and we find out just how dedicated the Joes need to be to Scarlett’s mission.
Despite Scarlett and Snake Eyes being very much in love, he and Storm Shadow must treat her like any other Cobra enemy if she’s to remain alive. It’s a fine balancing act that leads to a shocking moment later in the issue. (If you’re wondering, “Xin-loi” is a phrase used during the Vietnam war and roughly translates as “tough luck”, albeit a more vulgar version.) Once inside the crawlspaces, laden with boobie traps, Larry shows he’s still not afraid to kill people in glorious fashion in this children’s comic, something the cartoon couldn’t do.
Storm Shadow and the ever-silent Snake Eyes skilfully parachute in on top of the transforming building and we can see how it’s whole form is shifting about, taking care of many of the Cobra grunts as it does so. I’ve searched online and I can’t find evidence of this strange castle being a toy in the original range but I’m happy to be proven wrong if any readers can point me in the right direction.
I’ve seen some wonderful fan-made models of it though, complete right down to the colour of the stone and the ability to alter its shape. It’s this shape altering that brings us to the first shock of the issue, at least for anyone who had been reading this in 1993 and especially those who had been fans of Marvel’s other popular licenced monthly from a few years previous. As the building continues to change it’s caught the attention of an outside force.
Many fans of Transformers were also fans of G.I. Joe (and this continues to be the case today, like me for example) so imagine the impact that page would’ve had as they’d been reading what is already an exciting climax to a story. That’s just a tiny glimpse, one that perhaps those not au fait with the Transformers wouldn’t have fully grasped, but I’m sure the majority were thrilled. I wish I hadn’t flicked through the issue when I first got it as part of my eBay bundle, I’d loved to have been surprised by this.
Back to that story though and the plan will be familiar to those who have seen The Dark Knight (as one example). To extract Destro and Baroness they’re fastened to Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow, and long wires with balloons on the end are attached to the ninjas. The balloons are inflated and travel far up into the night sky where planes grab the wires and haul all four of them off the ground at high speed.
Imagine being a fan of both franchises and reading this for the first time without knowing it was coming
But what Snake Eyes didn’t reckon on was Scarlett being part of the Cobra team sent to return Destro to Cobra Commander. They come into contact with each other on the roof of the castle. Quite literally! Now remember, Snake was ordered by Hawk to treat Scarlett as if she were any other enemy so as not to blow her cover. What happens as a result is truly the most shocking moment of the issue.
This shocked me even though I know Scarlett is in the modern comic! I can only imagine what impact this page would’ve had decades ago. A few pages later though, this moment proves to be cathartic for Scarlett. Slice, a member of Cobra who is suspicious of her still isn’t convinced despite seeing it happen, even though Dr. Biggles-Jones declares Snake trying to kill her is clear proof of her loyalty.
However, back on board the Joes’ plane Storm Shadow explains Snake had to do the near-impossible; he had a split second to make it convincing and at the same moment make sure his aim was “pure”. It had to be so, so close. Hawk tries to sooth Snake’s obvious anxiety by telling him Scarlett of all people knows how good he is, she knows he never misses “except on purpose”, that even if she still believes she was responsible for Hawk’s and Stalker’s supposed deaths she “now knows that you couldn’t hold it against her!”
Back at the now-stationery castle Scarlet is in incredible agony, yet has a smile beneath all the tears and is just about able to utter the words “I know” before passing out. Amongst all of the action, whether that be the ninja-based, sci-fi or war storylines the comic flipped between, Larry’s characters have always been fully formed, grounded and believable, even when their very existence is far fetched. Decades of writing them hasn’t blunted any of that expertise either.
The panels above form the bottom half of the penultimate page of the strip, with Cobra Commander’s cold reaction to Slice’s request to gut Scarlett, to see how the Joes react as a final test of her loyalty. Then a huge shadow falls over the group. The terrorists looks up in horror. And we turn the page.
What an ending! Again, imagine being a fan of both franchises and reading this for the first time without knowing it was coming. Especially with Andrew and Stephen’s familiar superb work on Megatron! The last time we saw ol’ Megs was in the final UK annual released for Christmas 1991. The Decepticons were trying to use the unstable nucleon (which had had unexpected side effects on some Transformers) to resurrect their fallen leader, recently separated from the body he shared with Autobot Ratchet before The Ark was blown up and crash landed on Earth.
Here he looks suitably patchy, with wires hanging out of battered parts of his body. I knew this was coming but it was still a thrill to read this page as the end of this story. I’m super hyped to get stuck into the next four issues of G.I. Joe and even more so for the 12 issues of Transformers: Generation 2 to come after that! Simon Furman writing that forthcoming series and having these robotic characters resurrected by Larry Hama is going to be something special if this small preview story (as it is for me) is anything to go by.
Before we wrap up, a quick look at a couple of contemporary adverts from the issue. First up, a movie that has been derided in the years since but which I still enjoy. Super Mario Bros was a flop (and the recent animation knocks it out of the park) but it’s a zany, ridiculous and oh-so-90s film that’s completely unique. I have the BluRay and the documentary tells a fascinating tale about its creation. Apparently the original script was great, aimed at a teenage-and-up audience and the cast were very happy with it (as were Nintendo). But just a few days before shooting was to commence the studio produced a new, more child-friendly script that threw everything out that had been created before, so its directors had to shoot something they didn’t like while using all of the sets and effects created for the previous script!
In the documentary John Leguizamo explains how they made the most of such a horrid situation and to me it’s a miracle any movie got made. As much as I enjoy the silliness of the end result, I can’t help but wonder what this talented cast could’ve done without the interference of studio executives who didn’t understand the original source material. Oh well.
Another ad that stood out (among the many, many adverts in the comic that often interrupted the strip on every other page) was for classic video game Flashback. I remember seeing friends play it on their Commodore Amigas and it looked stunning in a demo for my own 3DO but I never played it myself. Well, as it turns out it’s been rereleased for the Nintendo Switch so after seeing this ad I just had to break out the wallet.
It’s a great start to this latest real time read through and for all intents and purposes it’s not even the beginning yet, that’ll come next month with the actual first part of the G.I. Joe and Transformers: Generation 2 storyline by Larry Hama. It seems suitably timely with a crossover movie coming to our screens in the not-too-distant future. Be sure to check back on Sunday 30th June 2024 for the next/first chapter.
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