This week we’ve got two covers that really made me feel like a big kid again. My two favourite characters on Anthony Williams and Bambos Georgiou’sThe Real Ghostbusters image and fond memories of the fantastic story inside Transformers and Action Force are portrayed by Andrew Wildman.
In The Underbase Saga the Autobots finally entered the Decepticon civil war and the casualty list was vast! Towards the end of this week’s chunk of story Starscream absorbed the Underbase, the millennia-spanning knowledge base drifting through space and everything was building to all hell breaking loose. On the editorial there was another appearance of the teaser for The Sleeze Brothers, still three months out from their comic arriving, although they did pop up in Doctor Who Magazinethis month, not that this is mentioned anywhere.
Across the way, in a strange Spengler’s Spirit Guide the Ghostbusting jargon stuck to that used in the film rather than the cartoon, perhaps giving it away that writer Dan Abnett maybe didn’t watch the series. It was still very funny though, as always. There was also an interesting story that explained how ghost energies actually hold up old haunted houses, as the team find out when one collapses after a bust! How about the rest of the Marvel UK range?
The only other new addition this week is Thundercats #94 and after the descriptions on some recent checklists made it sound like they’d gone back on their promise of a “new, younger look” (which they’d hyped previously), here it’s clear that wasn’t the case. Hand puppets, posters and jokes pages? How the mighty had fallen, and yet another new look? I thought cats liked routines and detested change.
No new adverts this week again. In fact, it’ll be a couple of weeks before we get some more but we’ll more than make up for it when we get there! In the meantime, can I just say I’m thrilled with how popular this series has proven. Across socials it’s been great fun conversing with people about their memories of the specific issues highlighted every week and their memories of their childhood trips to the shops, of reading their comics with family and friends, and more besides. So come and join in the checklists conversation here or on:
It’s Predacons versus Pretenders on Lee Sullivan’sTransformers and Action Force cover, while Anthony Williams and Bambos Georgiou’s cover for The Real Ghostbusters was one of a handful of British covers that got used by NOW Comics’ monthly in America.
The Transformers story was full of of icy alliances, double-dealing and back-stabbing amongst the Decepticons, and it was fantastic! It also ends with the reveal of The Underbase, a collection of vast knowledge that previously lay dormant inside Cybertron and was now roaming the stars… and Starscream wanted it! You can check it out at the link below. Then in Action Force that 80s staple the evil twin popped up. Although, there were two Destros so is “evil twin” the correct phrase?
In The Real Ghostbusters one of the strips is only one page in length, which sounds like it shouldn’t work. However, while the main strip every week was usually five pages, the rest could be of any length. This was the idea of launch editor Richard Starkings and when the creative team stepped up and produced the goods it led to Marvel UK’s brilliant one-page strip adverts which you’ll see throughout this Checklist series (I’ve already shown you some).
No new comics ads this week but at least we have our checklist back after a week’s hiatus. To the uninitiated, having one of the smallest Transformers toys and one of the largest as leaders of two opposing forces might sound silly but the comic really made it work. One of the artist credits for The Real Ghostbusters caught my eye here after I was just introduced to their work on the cover of Aliens#21 eight days ago on the blog.
Dragon’s Claws and Action Force Monthly are the same as two weeks ago (although the latter removes the reprint reference) and The Marvel Bumper Comic makes its first appearance since #3 in week 12 (and an advert in week 19). You’d think it would’ve been on the checklist regularly given the variety of content that could’ve appealed to a wide audience. That feels like a huge missed opportunity for Marvel UK to promote it, and given the fact so many listings have been repeated they could’ve used it instead.
Every time I see the Bumper Comic’s rather random-sounding contents I’m intrigued to find out how it reads. Thanks to this checklist series I’ve decided the comic will be coming to the blog in its own real time read through, although a quick search on eBay shows it could be a while before that collection will be complete and ready for review. For now, I’ll sign off and see you back here next Wednesday.
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!
While many comics of the 80s such as The Transformers and our very own OiNK would have to wait until their second year for their first annual, with The Real GhostbustersMarvel UK went all-in and produced a book for its very first Christmas season, meaning work had to have started on it before the comic itself was even released. For me, holding this cover by Anthony Williams (Transformers, PJ Maybe, Fate) and John Burns (Judge Dredd, Look-in, Eagle) in my hands again brings back so many fond festive memories.
Sticking with the usual 64-page hardback format of Marvel’s yearly offerings and edited by Richard Starkings (Death’s Head, The Sleeze Brothers, Dragon’s Claws), inside is chock full of content making for a meaty, very funny read for the younger readers, and one that holds up well today. This has been great fun to relive. I’ve had a ball! Things kick off with an HQ page very much like the weekly’s and you can see the amount of stories and features they’ve crammed in here.
Then there’s Marvel UK’s one-page strip advert introducing Peter Venkman, Winston Zeddmore, Egon Spengler and Ray Stanz that had been running in other comics that year and which took its wording directly from the movie. This was written by Richard (under a pseudonym), drawn by Brian Williamson (Hook Jaw, Doctor Who, Warhammer) and Tim Perkins (Transformers, Chopper, Thor Losers), lettered by Richard and coloured by Chris Matthews (Thundercats, Action Force, Mugshots).
Ian Rimmer’s (editor on Scream, Doctor Who Magazine and Transformers) Sarah Sangster’s Spectre is the perfect scene setter for the book. An attractive young woman has called the team to catch the ghost of a little old lady haunting the halls of her home and straight away Peter is smitten. In the end, she’s the spook who has tried to trick the guys into killing the wee pensioner! Dark? Not at all, it’s all played for laughs and the plot is exposed by Peter’s selfie.
The artists here are regular Ghostbusters contributors Andy Lanning (The Punisher: Year One, Judge Anderson, co-creator of The Sleeze Brothers) and Dave Harwood (Action Force, Swift Sure, 2000AD) with colours by Helen Stone (Knights of Pendragon, Dark Angel, Sleeze Brothers). Probably more than anything else in here, this strip takes me right back to reading (and rereading) this book over the holidays in 1988, wrapped up in bed late at night during that enjoyable Void Week between Christmas and New Year.
The comic never did multi-issue stories from the UK team. Later, lengthy imported strips would get serialised but the closest our homegrown stories got would be those split in two across one issue. This happens here with The Spook from Outer Space, again written by Ian, with art by Phil Gascoine (Battle Action, Commando, Knight Rider in Look-in) and Dave Hine (Death’s Head, Azrael, Dark Angel), with colours by Stuart Place (Captain Britain, Transformers, Action Force).
The Ghostbusters are watching a UFO being excavated from disused land in New York on telly when suddenly the excavation equipment starts floating in mid-air. They deduce the alien must’ve died upon crashing and has been haunting the UFO ever since. So off they go to bust it but as normal the case is not all it seems. The alien is hugely powerful, feeding off their proton packs instead of being contained by them, and of course the military are on hand to fire more weapons at it while ignoring the warnings.
In the end we find out the alien has been psychically moving all of the heavy machinery in order to spell out a message on the ground that it just wants to be sent home, so the Ghostbusters commandeer one of the army’s rockets, trap the alien (with their permission) and fire it off into space. It’s a fun tale that includes a good bit of witty banter between the four men and would end up being one of a few strips from this annual we’d “get another chance to read” in the weekly a couple of years later.
Moving on to our prose stories and Jaws of the Beast is written by artist Nick Abadzis (Death’s Head, Vector 13, The Big Book of Death) and colourist/editor Steve White (Xenozoic Tales in the UK’s Jurassic Park, The Sleeze Brothers, Dragon’s Claws).It’s a tale about a small winged beast who invades a boy’s wishes. This particular boy wished he could see a real Tyrannosaurus rex, so obviously this leads to the team eventually being chased by said dinosaur through the streets of New York.
“It’s a loony lady who says her nephew has raised a dinosaur from the dead. You wanna speak to her?”
Janine Melnitz
What’s great about the story is the dynamic of the team. The prose stories allow the writers to explore the characters that little bit more and in particular we’re treated to some hilarious scenes between Peter and Egon in the firehouse, and later when Peter is used as bait for the beast. At this juncture Peter’s inner thoughts are punctuated by radio communications from Egon, making for great dialogue and genuinely laugh out loud moments.
The best story of the whole book is written by friend of the blog John Freeman (editor of Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine), who brings back the iconic Stay Puft Marshmallow Man for a story set in London. The art is pencilled by Mike Collins (Transformers, Doctor Who, Tharg’s Future Shocks) and inked by OiNK’s very own Lew Stringer (Tom Thug, Combat Colin, Sonic the Comic). Lew and Mike are good friends and started in the business around the same time but this remains the only time they’ve ever worked together on the same story.
A mist has descended over London and it’s feeding on the fears of the citizens, sending everyone running for their lives and leaving the city with no one for the mist to scare. Growing weaker, the Ghostbusters start to look for the source in order to eliminate it, but all it takes is for Egon to explain that in order to keep the mist at bay they have to think of nice things. Cue Ray! If you’ve seen the original movie you’ll know what this is in reference to and it makes for some great back and forth between the four.
There’s one more text story called Ghostbusters Busted! about a so-called rival team and towards the end of the annual the uncredited Who, What, When & Why? which acts like a catch-up for new readers. It explains how the Ghostbusters were formed, why they’ve got a pet ghost and takes a closer look at their HQ and all those gadgets they use in their day-to-day job. Also included are reprints of the fact-files from the weekly for Peter, Egon, Winston, Ray and Janine Melnitz. Oh, and Slimer of course!
In case you’re wondering how that whole “Ghostbusters body” thing worked out, Peter would be the mouth, Egon the brains, Ray the hands, Winston the heart, Janine the central nervous system and Slimer would naturally be the stomach. As I’ve mentioned before in the retrospective for #1 of the comic, I remember drawing this Frankenstein-esque combination of all the characters with the intention of sending it in but never did.
Not all of the main characters feature in every story in the comic and the same applies here. Given their short length the writers would often concentrate on pairing up different characters with each other for interesting dynamics. For example, three of the guys starred in our first strip, then the missing ‘buster, Egon appeared with Janine in another. The final strip of the annual brings everyone together though, including Miss Melnitz and the green one.
Written by John Freeman, drawn by Anthony Williams and Dave Harwood and coloured by Helen Stone, Spooked Out! sees the team battling against a gaggle of ghouls and try as they might they can’t help but get more and more overwhelmed by them. It seems this could be the first failed job but when Peter chases after Slimer to bust him you know something’s up.
Sure enough, it’s just a training exercise. Needing to keep themselves in fine form Slimer has recruited a bunch of his good ghost pals, with payment being everything they can eat at a local diner if they win. Given how they’re all good friends with Slimer (and we know what his appetite is like) this is a particularly funny ending to not only this short strip but the book as a whole.
I found Ghostbusters Answer the Call’s sense of humour reminded me a lot of both The Real Ghostbusters cartoon and the UK comic, so if you’re a fan of that movie like I am you’ll want to snap up some issues and this first annual is the perfect jumping on point. Our annuals were always that little bit more special than the regular comic and upon finishing this it really did feel like all the stops were pulled out to produce a fantastic debut book that’s genuinely very funny.
Andy Lanning’s, Dave Harwood’s and John Burns’inner cover spread rounds off what has been a great slice of Marvel UK history from a comic that set itself apart from the rest of their titles from the get-go. Sometimes certain things from our childhood hold a special place in our hearts that we’ve completely forgotten about until we experience them again. In that regard, the 1988 annual for The Real Ghostbusters has felt like a very personal trip down memory lane and I can’t wait to see if subsequent volumes have the same effect. Roll on Christmas 2026!
The decorations are up and Christmas on the OiNK Blog has well and truly begun, and part of the season’s line up is no less than half a dozen Mighty Marvel UK Checklists, including one full of seasonal joy. First up though, fun stories and a… um, summer holiday.
In The Transformers and Action Force, Club Con begins. It’s another much-mocked storyline but again I found it fun and imaginative. The Decepticons have built a tropical island on top of their submerged base and they end up blasting into space with Buster Witwicky on board. This was the first time I’d seen the Seacons on this Bob Budiansky and Kevin Nowlan US cover and as a lover of everything aquatic I thought they were brilliant, even if the squid one did look daft in hindsight.
Anthony Williams and Dave Harwood provide the cover to The Real Ghostbusters and, talking of imaginative, the stories include Janine and Egon on a date and Janine’s pissed off voice shouting in frustration at a ghost actually busts it, and then we find out Slimer pretends to haunt somewhere for his friends when jobs and income are rare! What else did Marvel UK conjur up for us this week 37 years ago?
The Captain Britain trade paperback may have been on sale for a couple of weeks already but that didn’t stop it from taking the big spot. A bit of a blow to the new comics released this week? Not really, there was a promotional signing coming up at, you guessed it, Nostalgia & Comics. I’ll also assume the new Action Force Monthly would’ve been the one not to miss last week if we’d had a checklist, especially with that collection of talent producing it.
The new-look fortnightly Thundercats seems to have taken a leaf out of The Real Ghostbusters’ book if this issue’s contents is anything to go by. Speaking of comics aimed at slightly younger readers, I’ve commented before about the lack of strip information in the checklists for Flintstones and Friends and the annual’s advert seems to highlight that further. Less a comic book and more an activity book? Well, maybe it kept its readers in bed with their stockings a while longer.
I have to say the adverts for the Action Force annuals always made them look just as exciting as those in the Transformers’ series. Why I never asked for any of these books when I was enjoying the back up strip in Transformers is beyond me. Maybe it’s something I should look into for the blog in the future? I’m really loving the Skybound box set and I’ve wanted to see more of the UK content since reading the few issues of their weekly when they crossed over with the robots. Who knows. This advert definitely has me thinking about it.
We move into December itself next week and there’ll be details of some of Marvel UK’s monthly offerings for the festive season. They may not have had snow on their logos but that didn’t mean they weren’t just as special. See you then.
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