It feels fitting that this is our last comics post of the year. I’ll have a New Year’s message later with news of the blog and more in 2026, but as for comics the final issues of The Real Ghostbusters and The Transformers and Action Force are it, their official release date being this day way back in 1988.
Brian Williamson and Dave Harwood’sSlimer fronted a celebratory issue, New Years being something none of my other non-humour comics celebrated. But the Ghostbusters were based in New York where the ball drops, they couldn’t miss out on this. Best of all though, the results of a readers’ poll was presented in strip form with the team attending a dinner alongside the Marvel UK writers and artists in attendance. It’s genius stuff!
But it’s Art Wetherell and Dave’s Galvatron cover that’ll have fans reminiscing the most. The Time Wars had begun! This was my first big epic as a kid and it enthralled me for weeks; no one was safe from being killed off, and I do mean anyone. This would also be the last time we’d see that logo before the big change in seven days. More on that below, but first up what else did Marvel UK wrap up the year with?
Action Force Monthly #8 and Death’s Head #2 continued to entertain through the school holidays. What, you mean you only read your comics once and not multiple times between issues? I’m surprised The Real Ghostbusters isn’t the ‘Don’t Miss’ title, what with it being the only one celebrating what day it was, but instead Thundercats #90 takes that honour in what seems a rather random choice.
This week’s advert is actually the Next Issue promo from the back inside cover of Transformers, but one glance and you’ll understand why I just had to include it. I always loved it when my comics got a new look and this was a big one. I was still a newbie to the world of Transformers comics and looking at that new logo, coupled with that image and all of the contents to come the following week, I remember this page being a real thrill. I’d jumped on at just the right time!
I would eventually stay with the comic all the way to its conclusion with #332 so this logo became the de facto one for me and the issue was an incredible way to start the new year. Was it “The Ultimate Comic”? Pretty much. Even Lew Stringer’s strips were getting a crossover and hyped on the page.
With that, both 1988 and 2025 come to a close. As I said I’ll be back later on today to sign off for the year properly, then the blog’s first post for 2026 will be the next checklist. There’ll be new issues of the monthlies to find out about and no guesses for which comic would be the hot one to see in 1989.
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.
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.
Between the original publication dates of the previous issue of Doctor Who Magazine covered on the blog (#135, as part of the Death’s Head read through) and this one I’d finally discovered the TV series for myself. I’d grown up in a house where older siblings would have watched Tom Baker in the role so I was always aware of it and certain aspects such as the Daleks, the TARDIS etc., but it wasn’t until I saw those aforementioned meanies splashed across media outlets in 1988 that I decided to give it a go for myself. I’ve watched ever since.
I’ll get back to that below when I take a look at some other parts of this issue, but the reason it’s here on the OiNK Blog is because of those two cheeky Blues Brothers-esque characters peering out from behind the cover. After months of that teaser advertThe Sleeze Brothers finally made their strip debut here and, according to Richard Starkings (Sleeze Brothers’ editor) this very well could be the only time creator-owned characters made the cover of DWM! This magazine’s editor (and friend of the blog) John Freeman concurs. John was the mag’s designer in the previous issue we looked at so he’s had a promotion since.
On the contents page you can see how the strip in introduced with its “plethora of artists” and that is indeed the case, with no less than five of Marvel UK’s finest bringing the characters to readers for the first time. Before we move on to the main event though, I couldn’t help but spot that little bit of optimism in the editorial about Doctor Who’s potential upswing in fortunes over the year ahead. Within the year the show would actually be cancelled.
So let’s get stuck into the first (mis-)adventure for El’ Ape and Deadbeat. As you can see from this first page we’ve got a who’s-who of Marvel UK talent responsible for the eight-page strip. John Carnell and Andy Lanning are the creators and alongside Andy on art duties are John Higgins, Kev Hopgood, Dougie Braithwaite and Dave Harwood. A greater selection of pencillers and inkers from my childhood (especially The Real Ghostbusters) would be hard to find. Then add in Slimer’s main artist Bambos Georgiou and this screams “classic” before I’ve even read one panel.
My first encounter with the brothers was with #1 of their own comic and only now, decades later, I’ve got my hands on this strip. Having only ever read #1, and not having done so since 1989, reading this prelude years after the fact doesn’t matter. My memory is so rubbish everything I knew about their comic is gone so this reads just as intended, as a fun little build-up to the chaos (hopefully) to come.
The Meddling Monk’s chameleon circuit hasn’t been damaged and his ship turns into a futuristic outside loo
We arrive on Earth on an undisclosed future date and catch a tantalising glimpse of the world the upcoming comic will have as its setting, which I’m hoping we’ll see a lot more of if this first page is anything to go by. TV series villain the Meddling Monk has landed to interfere in the upcoming election but the SeventhDoctor (Sylvester McCoy) isn’t far behind. Brilliantly, unlike the Doc’s TARDIS, the Monk’s chameleon circuit hasn’t been damaged and his ship still tries to disguise itself within its surroundings, turning into a futuristic outside loo.
The Doctor is in hot pursuit though and after damaging the brothers’ car the Monk flies off again before he can put his plan into action. But El’Ape isn’t having it, he needs his insurance details! Putting a gun to the Doctor’s head he tells him to “Follow that TARDIS!”, which is the name of the strip. Locking on to the other TARDIS the first stop is Tunguska, Siberia on 30th June 1908.
If you know your history you may have heard of the Tunguska Event, an explosion caused by a meteor air burst. Basically, an asteroid entered our atmosphere and exploded above the surface of the planet, the resulting burst of super hot air producing what many originally thought was the aftermath of a nuclear explosion. Ridiculous conspiracies grew up around the event and many fictional stories have laid claim to fantastical reasons behind it, this being one such tale.
The explosion (I love the “Kabooooomski!”) flattened over 2000 square kilometres of forest but thankfully there were no officially reported deaths, although some reports have indicated two people may have perished (presented here as survivors with their clothes burnt off their bodies and singed hair in Looney Tunes fashion). The Meddling Monk makes his way to three key historic events in total and each time El’ Ape’s attempts to catch him result in an origin story for said event.
While this is generally a zany comedy strip, I’m no longer sure about the next bit of the story.
That’s right, they end up on board the ill-fated maiden voyage of a certain ship built just down the road from my house. Now to be fair back in 1989 the wreckage of Titanic had only been found four years previous by Bob Ballard and it was popping up everywhere in popular fiction, but the movie which highlighted the tragedy of the lives lost was still eight years away. (The museum here in Belfast that I’ve visited countless times was still 23 years away!) But with hindsight, with much more knowledge today of the sinking and the human cost, this feels in particularly bad taste nowadays.
I know that was never the intention, I hope I’ve made that clear, but I review all of the comics on the blog as I find them today. Convinced the Monk’s TARDIS has disguised itself as a giant iceberg up ahead (no, really) El’ Ape takes control and goes full ahead to ram him and hopefully sink his TARDIS and capture him. The sequence finishes with the silhouette of the ship going down, a few lifeboats of survivors being all that’s left of life on board and the sound effect of the TARDIS.
Not only does this not sit well with me but I just don’t think the Doctor would ever have allowed it to happen. The Tunguska Event is one thing, in this version it just singed a couple of people. Then the final event in the strip involves the Bermuda Triangle as Flight 19 (each time period brought to the page by a different artistic team really works a treat) is accidentally taken through time. But we know the Titanic saw the deaths of over 1,500 people. That’s not something for the Doctor to basically think, ‘Whoops, better get out of here before I’m caught’!
Throughout the strip Deadbeat has his nose in a book which he seems to be getting more and more engrossed by as the story goes on. On the last page we see he wasn’t ignoring what was happening around him, in fact each time he was trying to stop his brother from causing these bad things to happen, almost as if he knew what consequences their actions were going to have. As the story draws to a close the Doctor kicks the brothers out of his TARDIS and takes off with the captured Monk, then Deadbeat throws his book away and we finally see what he was reading all along.
Okay, so exactly why was the sinking of the Titanic in a book about ‘Unexplained Mysteries and Disasters’? Anyway, despite the passage of time and the acquiring of much Titanic knowledge (it’s become a fascination of mine this past decade or so) resulting in one part of this strip taking on a whole new meaning, I can appreciate when it was written and that I probably would’ve just found it daft at the time. However, The Sleeze Brothers themselves have definitely made an impression.
They may not be much more than a spot of comic relief, and the whole story could be summed up that way as well, but they’re really fun comic relief. Despite essentially no information on who they are or why they guest starred in this Doctor Who strip (if you didn’t know their own comic was on the way), they still come across as well defined characters, as clear individuals with potential depth. As a tease for what’s to come it’s made me impatient for their premiere issue.
Right now though, I want to take a quick dive into one particular subject in the rest of this issue of Doctor Who Magazine.
The last time I showed a strip from DWM I also included what was a brief mention of an up and coming Doctor Who story called Remembrance of the Daleks. It would be part of the 25th series’ anniversary celebrations and the first appearance of his longest-surviving enemies for the Seventh Doctor. Because of this, marketing went into overdrive and the Daleks were everywhere. The hype pulled me right in and I can remember sitting down to watch part one of that story in my bedroom.
I was amazed by it. It seemed like a completely different show to the one I’d seen my older siblings watch years before. Several months after its transmission this issue published an episode guide for the season, an interview with the story’s writer and plenty of discussion about what still remains (36 years later) one of my very favourite stories from the show. While it’s a bit cheeky to say the eight-page episode guide is “free” on the cover (in reality the issue was only four more pages than normal), it does contain that lovely opening page above on glossy paper.
It’s less of an episode guide and more of a list of things that were left out from the final production, but it stills bring back happy memories of the four weeks it was on and the anticipation for the next part after each belter of a cliffhanger. Much more in-depth is the four-page interview with writer Ben Aaronovitch. Given this was his first commissioned strip for the show it’s a hell of an ambitious first foray into the world of the Doctor.
There are some interesting nuggets of information there such as the fact there was meant to be more of a focus on the whole “more than just a Time Lord” thing, which reminds me of the recent Timeless Child story that also injected some much needed mystery back into the character, and which I’m excited to see play out in future seasons. Also, when Ben mentions that ‘Masters of the Universe’ thing, it’s a reference to Dalek flying gun platforms based on something similar in the awful He-Man film from 1987. BBC budgets being what they were, this was changed to the Special Weapons Dalek, a fan favourite design to this day.
Elsewhere, a writer by the name of David J. Howe is adamant that Remembrance has to have been set in an alternative universe because it simply doesn’t gel with his own conclusions about the Doctor’s past from previous series. This sounds an awful lot like certain ‘fans’ online in recent years and in a piece by Gary Russell about the story The Greatest Show in the Galaxy it appears certain types aren’t confined to the modern era and social media (check out that middle paragraph).
Finally, on the back page is an advert for the William Tell graphic novel. This collected together the unpublished strips created for a new fortnightly comic that was cancelled before it had even launched (advertised in Marvel UK comics the previous year). With that, it’s time to wrap up this jaunt back to 1989 aboard the TARDIS and look forward to the first issue of The Sleeze Brothers proper.
As I’ve said previously I only ever read the first issue of their comic at the time and haven’t since 1989, yet the way they acted in this tiny tease of a strip feels so familiar to me. The idea of full-length, full-colour strips on a monthly basis with these two as the stars is almost too much excitement to contain for another three months! But that’s what I must do because the review of #1 of The Sleeze Brothers won’t be here until Monday 24th June 2024.
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