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THE MiGHTY MARVEL CHECKLiST: WEEK 65

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SATURDAY 21st OCTOBER 1989

I’ve got a bumper selection of nostalgia for you this week, with no less than five comics on the checklist and three contemporary comics adverts. Well, two are versions of each other but they still count. We kick things off as per usual with the covers of the two comics they’re all being pulled from.

Once again Brian Williamson, Dave Harwood and Robin Bouttell team up for The Real Ghostbusters and I’ve noticed in the way I’ve taken this photo that the sheen on the top-left clearly shows the higher paper grade both comics were enjoying around this time. For their outer 16 pages anyway. The funniest moment inside came from a tenuous link between a ghost pilot and dimensional planes in Spengler’s Spirit Guide, a page that was always guaranteed to raise a giggle.

Geoff Senior’s cover for Transformers and Action Force hinted at the return from the depths of the terrifying Thunderwing, but not before the American story continued to build towards the return of four classic characters in their new Pretender forms, namely Jazz, Bumblebee, Grimlock and Starscream. It was such an exciting time for me as a reader, the US and UK strips so simpatico with one another in each issue; side-by-side rather than the comic alternating between the two. Having four fan favourite characters I’d missed out on from earlier issues was the icing on the cake.

I mentioned before how the new look checklist would allow more comics to be covered upon occasion and this week is one such occasion. Ignore the listing of two strips as reprints for The Real Ghostbusters (possibly putting potential readers off), as discussed last time this was a mistake again. That Action Force story briefly mentioned in the entry for Transformers was superb, with the team disavowed while behind enemy lines. I’ve got great memories of that one with its superb original villains.

The cover to The Sleeze Brothers’ penultimate issue saw the duo’s idiotic faces coming out of an overflowing toilet, setting the scene perfectly for a misadventure in the sewers. Check it out in more depth in the full review at the link further below. The 13th edition of The Punisher began another new story that could easily have been set today, while the Thundercats got such a perfunctory description you have to wonder why the writer of the checklist even bothered.

On to our adverts. In this week’s Transformers the Deception Flamefeather came off the worse for wear thanks to his wannabe leader Thunderwing, but he got the star power treatment on the advert for the latest special.

Jeff Anderson’s pencils and Stephen Baskerville’s inks for the hugely enjoyable Enemy Action story were the stars of Collected Comics 14, one of the best reprint specials of the run which saw the Seacons, Firecons and Sparkler Minibots (the latter two groups based on pull-back-and-release toys that produced little sparks that were so much fun for us kids) up against none other than the always-entertaining Galvatron. Along with a superb annual story and some new A-Z fact-files it was a great special to see in the darker days with.

The other adverts were full-page and half-page variations for the new Incredible Hulk Presents, a weekly which saw the green one’s strip backed up with a variety of other tales from Action Force, Doctor Who and Indiana Jones. As a kid, the title star never appealed and his strips were the least interesting of those advertised, so I never tried the comic out. It didn’t last very long, just 12 issues and it ended one week before the checklists did, just two-and-a-half months after the premiere issue.

It had actually been launched the week before this but for some reason hadn’t made the cut for the checklists, despite there being plenty of room for it last time. I always thought it was a strange mix, what with Action Force and Doctor Who already having strips elsewhere. Although, apparently the Doctor’s stories here were brand new and would be reprinted in Doctor Who Magazine later. With four strips for what seemed like disparate audiences no wonder it didn’t last, becoming just another of a myriad of new comics launched by Marvel UK in 1988 and 1989 that disappeared quickly.

Next week, for the first time in 36 weeks there’ll be no checklist. Instead, one of our main comics gets an advert for those who were somehow unaware of it, or who maybe just needed a poke to buy one of the best comics around at the time. It’ll be here in seven days. Will you?

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SATURDAY 14th OCTOBER 1989

It took the talented trio of Brian Williamson, Dave Harwood and Robin Bouttell to produce the week’s cover for The Real Ghostbusters, while Andrew Wildman had to cope all on his lonesome to knock out this fantastic front page for Transformers and Action Force with some funny hidden gems in there (a toaster, bike pedal and a UK plug?).

At last the New York team got the same paper upgrade the Cybertronians had been enjoying on-and-off for a while. Speaking of things finally happening, that Pharaoh story mentioned in week 59’s checklist saw the light of day, but now of course Spengler’s Spirit Guide no longer matched up. A child’s letter questioned the science behind the naming of their Proton Packs and for once the comic gave a considered, serious response! Again, this issue was all-new but the checklist describes some stories as reprints. There could be a reason for this, one which we may get a definitive answer to on the blog in the future.

First, that Transformers cover represented a very funny strip also drawn by Andrew. It involved a double-dealing ‘bot and The Mechannibals in a tense stand off followed by a magnificent 80s-style bar brawl, but the highlight was (letter answerer) Dreadwind and his partner, Darkwing. Drunk on dodgy oil after the failure of their most recent mission several months back, the story jumped back and forth between their slurred speech and feeling-sorry-for-themselves comedy in every left-hand panel, while the drama and action played out in every right-hand panel. It’s hilarious stuff and indicative of the kind of thing the comic was perfect at in this three-story format. It also broke up all of that tension and darkness from previous weeks nicely.

As you can see, this week’s checklist was light on quantity but the comics featured made up for that in quality. Not only was the UK Transformers story magnificent this week, the imported US stories changed hands, with Brit Simon Furman now writing for both sides of the Atlantic. Hasbro had brought back four toys from the original line up as Pretenders and this was the beginning of Simon’s wonderful take on their reissue. From here until the end (in January 1992) Simon would do a magnificent job of creating back stories for any toy release they could come up with.

Also, check out the link below to see Lew Stringer introduce Dara O’Briain in Combat Colin! (Not really.)

The only other new point of interest this week was the latest issue of The Punisher and, while the comic itself did a better job of it (from what I’m told), I’m really not comfortable with how these checklists have generalised certain things (groups, historical moments, plot points) at times. It’ll be interesting to see how the comic itself portrayed these stories. In the meantime, you can look forward to an absolute bumper crop of goodies in next week’s post with five comics on the checklist and three new adverts. Well, two really. Well, technically three. You’ll see what I mean in seven.

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SATURDAY 7th OCTOBER 1989

Another pretty generic cover for The Real Ghostbusters comic this week, even without a free gift. It’s still a nice piece by John Marshall and Dave Harwood though, even if it is put to shame somewhat by Geoff Senior’s fantastic Transformers and Action Force cover featuring the Mayhem Attack Squad!

Geoff’s art really shone this week thanks to Marvel UK upping the paper quality again, the outer 16 pages adding a gorgeous gloss and weight to the comic, it was that good. Geoff also draws the black and white UK strip and it was an action-packed few pages after the tension building the past few weeks. Dare I say it but I think it looked even more stunning in black and white thanks to the dark nature of the story and the atmosphere Geoff brought to it with his inks. Maybe it’s due to the lack of colour that my eyes are picking out more details or perhaps Geoff was really able to go to town for the same reason. Simply incredible stuff and you can check out some highlights at the link below.

Inside The Real Ghostbusters it’s all brand new material again after some reprints, which the checklist gets wrong. Again. The list really hasn’t been working in this comic’s favour for a while now. With the final part of the multi-issue competition the editor finally decided it’s time to show us some photos and gave details of the plethora of prizes up for grabs. That list in full: a trike, jogging bottoms, hooded sweatshirt, a parka, a visor, a watch, a ghostly make-up kit, the new annual, a Ghostball, more books and book/cassette packs. Quite the haul! Not sure why I never entered it. Perhaps I didn’t want to be lumbered with the trike or make-up.

A quick glance of the (colour) checklist and the only other new entry was #11 of The Punisher weekly. Reading his bit I’d have been concerned about its worldviews being a bit restricted, a bit too 80s, if it weren’t for who the baddies were the last few weeks, so I know that’s not the case. I’m very aware of how certain hateful people in America wear the comic’s skull motif nowadays and how ridiculed they are for completely missing the point of the character and the stories he starred in. I’ll have to find out for myself one of these days. The Sleeze Brothers’ trip to an outer space Bates Motel continued to bring up the rear and that’s yer lot for this week.

Yup, no new adverts to feature this time. In fact, not only do next week’s comics not feature any either, but the checklist has even less contents than normal! There’s a Transformers cover that brings back some funny memories though, so we’ll reminisce about that instead in seven days.

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SATURDAY 30th SEPTEMBER 1989

Today 37 years ago Brian Williamson and Dave Harwood teamed up again for The Real Ghostbusters and another cover promoting a gift with a somewhat generic image. Although, I did like the way the logo sticker was incorporated. Meanwhile, Andrew Wildman returns to Transformers and Action Force with a thrilling cover for a thrilling strip.

It wouldn’t be long until The Real Ghostbusters began importing American strips as their back up. The first would be the Ghostbusters II adaptation and in the meantime the comic seemed to be treading water, already relying on reprints just a year-and-a-half into its run. As a kid I hung on in there but I’ll admit I was close to cancelling my order at this stage if the reprints didn’t disappear. This week it was another from the first annual. Did they think less readers would catch on if it came from the book? Even the new story wasn’t groundbreaking, with ghostly doubles of the team being something the comic had already done more than once (as had the cartoon).

Decepticon Pretender Beast Carnivac continued to be an intriguing character. He was a Decepticon trying his best to do the right thing but his programming was so ingrained that he’d often do the right thing through some very dark means. Here he learned about guilt the hard way after deserting some human soldiers to save his own (metallic) hide. Lee Sullivan’s strip art really was second-to-none here. At the link below check out the final panel of the story in which Octopunch has Carnivac captured. This was top tier Transformers!

Elsewhere on this week’s checklist, “brain-washed refugees” actually referred to the Christian followers of an evangelical-type leader as they landed on foreign shores in The Punisher. I doubt many such-minded people today would see the irony. The fourth issue of The Sleeze Brothers’ six-issue run was one of my favourites. I missed out on it decades ago and only put that right in 2024 so the checklist didn’t really do its hype man job for me. That was my own fault, although the description here does sound a bit too run-of-the-mill for that comic. Read its entry above and then pop over to its full review at the link below to see just how different it really was!

One advert this week and it’s for another magazine rather than Marvel UK’s bread and butter. I’ll admit I’ve never been a huge Star Trek fan. I did enjoy a few of the movies as a teenager when they were on the telly but once they were over I kind of just moved on. A friend of mine has recently been trying to get me to watch Picard, despite the fact I never watched The Next Generation (although it always looked the most appealing of all the series). At the moment I’m on an umpteenth rewatch of Babylon 5 so Jean-Luc will have to wait for now.

We’re back to a little advert wasteland next week but the new look checklist will be in colour. Um, will that be enough to entice you back? I’ll guess I’ll find out in seven.

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SATURDAY 23rd SEPTEMBER 1989

John Marshall got a break thanks to Brian Williamson but Dave Harwood was still slogging away on the latest cover for The Real Ghostbusters this week in 1989, while Geoff Senior supplied us with superb Pretender Beasts action for Transformers and Action Force.

The cover for The Real Ghostbusters was another promoting the free gift rather than any story, just like last week’s and a recent one for Transformers back in week 57. It was the same type of gift as the latter, too. According to the checklist there are two reprints in the comic, but in reality (again) there was only one, taken from the annual we all received just the previous Christmas. They really hadn’t been the best at marketing this comic over the past few weeks, had they? Also, only 68 issues and one-and-a-half-years in and it was already relying on reprints? It was Marvel UK’s top-selling comic by this stage so this was a real disappointment, albeit a temporary situation.

In the UK Transformers strip we were reintroduced to Decepticon Pretender Beast, Carnivac. A friend of mine owned the toy at the time and I thought it was awesome, so it was a shame he’d cancelled his comic order not long before this. Joining the Autobot Wreckers and forming The Survivors (of both the Time Wars and Underbase sagas), he wasn’t necessarily evil but his programming was still Decepticon in nature. This made for a really interesting character over the following months; one of my very favourite arcs from the whole run actually. Simon Coleby’s art was superb too, with real weight behind the action scenes. Any fan should check it out at the link below.

The Real Ghostbusters finally told readers what the prizes were in that multi-issue competition, namely book and cassette packs, “ghostly” make-up sets, watches, Ghostballs and Rough Riders tricycles. A rather random mashup if ever there was one. More Christians-as-baddies storylines in this week’s The Punisher makes it seem rather contemporary in our modern 2026 world, never mind the 80s, and below that is a surprise entry for the Thundercats.

I say it’s a surprise because we haven’t seen them in a while. In fact, their celebratory (I’m assuming) 100th issue never featured on the checklists at all, which was rather strange. It’s also a surprise because many people I’ve spoken to on the blog’s socials were sure it was cancelled before it hit the big one-oh-oh. In actual fact, it would continue in its monthly guise for a while longer and revert to fortnightly with #105, eventually lasting until #129. Given how a formerly weekly comic becoming monthly usually signalled its death knell, kudos to the cats for continuing to fight the good fight for so long.

Two ads this week, the first for a Slimer spin-off which I didn’t buy as a child. We never got the Slimer TV show here in the UK (shown as part of a Real Ghostbusters hour-long slot in the States with the main show) and so the strips in this were weird to me as a kid. It had a childish art style, he had a bunch of human friends and a whole life away from the ‘busters, and in general Slimer was very different to the one I was enjoying in the weekly comic. This monthly of American import strips would last 13 issues before merging with the main comic, where I’d ignore the strips.

Our other advert shows all of the publisher’s range of Christmas annuals for 1989. Unbelievably, despite doing such a brilliant job of showcasing many of their books with individual promos in 1988, this was the one and only advert they produced for ’89. I don’t know why they didn’t bother doing the same thing (or a variation thereof) from the year before. The Transformers and Real Ghostbusters annuals were superb and deserved more publicity, and I would’ve loved to have found out more about Action Force and Dino-Riders, but unfortunately all we got were these teeny tiny cover images, so I never asked Santa for any more than my regulars.

More cover gifts and brutal action for our two main comics next week and a certain sci-fi franchise gets the magazine treatment. See you then.

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SATURDAY 16th SEPTEMBER 1989

Would John Marshall and Dave Harwood ever get time away from The Real Ghostbusters covers? Not that this week’s would’ve been particularly taxing with a huge gap designed to contain the free gift. Meanwhile, Lee Sullivan’s work for Transformers and Action Force told us more dark Deathbringer delights awaited us inside. 

Those Slime Slurps were bits of moulded plastic filled with a rubbery jelly sweet which I’d refill with a soft drink of my choice and freeze for future enjoyment. (Hey, it was nicer than the sweet!) There was an Egyptian mummy story this week but the title and creative team still didn’t match those erroneously written about in last week’s checklist. There was also the start of one of those multi-issue competitions both of these comics were keen on, although strangely with no indication of what the prize was.

Transformers felt different this week. Literally. The outer colour pages were of a really good paper grade and it felt terrific! Unfortunately this would only semi-regularly once in a while instead of every week. Artist Staz Johnson also debuted this issue with the second part of Deathbringer, following on from Geoff Senior last week. (No pressure for a newbie there!) Needless to say Staz did a great job and would become one of my favourite artists for the rest of the comic’s life. In fact, an Optimus Prime panel of his from this issue’s story had already been used six weeks ago in advert for the comic. Way to go to make an entrance, Staz.

A shame his incredible debut isn’t mentioned on the checklist, which gets the details of the UK strip completely wrong. There have been quite a few such errors recently on these lists, I must say. If this week’s issue of The Punisher was released in modern day Britain I’m sure we’d hear all about it from certain tabloids and politicians calling for it to be banned, don’t you think? Which would probably just increase sales with the rest of us.

This new look to the checklist led to them including more titles in the same space but for now it stuck to the usual four. The entry for Doctor Who Magazine squeezed an awful lot of information into a tiny space and the good ol’ Doc was also the star of this week’s new advert. DWM was celebrating its tenth anniversary with what appeared to have been a special issue, although there’s no indication of the celebratory nature of it on the checklist, strangely enough.

Why was Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor used? The series was by now starring its Seventh Doctor as played so wonderfully by Sylvester McCoy (that’s his series’ funky logo). Well, Tom’s Doctor was the star of the show and the magazine’s comic strips and news articles when it began back in 1979, that’s why (and this was the same image used for #1). In this series of blog posts we’ve already seen an advert for the special edition focussing on the show’s 25th anniversary and a checklist entry for the magazine’s 150th issue. The show celebrated its 60th a few years ago now, the magazine is only three years away from its own 50th and the current issue on sale at the time of writing is #634. Talk about feeling as old as a Time Lord!

I think I need a lie down after that realisation. Next week’s adverts include the launch of a spin-off from one of the above comics, as well as the one and only advert for all of Marvel UK’s annuals for Christmas 1989. I’ll definitely see you in seven, then.

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SATURDAY 9th SEPTEMBER 1989

John Marshall and Dave Harwood laughed it up with their cover to the latest issue of Marvel UK’s The Real Ghostbusters, and Geoff Senior’s stunning cover to Transformers and Action Force shocked us all! Two great comics on sale today back in 1989.

It seems there was some degree of miscommunication going on within the walls of Marvel UK as far as The Real Ghostbusters was concerned. Last week the checklist told us we should be happy with two reprint strips but everything inside was brand new. This week, we’re promised a tale called Curse That Pharaoh and as a nut for Ancient Egypt I was disappointed to see no such strip inside, despite Spengler’s Spirit Guide (which usually tied in with at least one of the stories) being a very funny guide to Egyptian burial tombs.

After last week’s blip, the British Transformers story was not only back on form, it was brilliant. An alien discovered Optimus Prime’s long-lost body, which had been jettisoned into space about 130 issues ago! This was the beginning of the UK’s preludes to what would become the epic Matrix Quest in the US strips. Writing for both sides of the Atlantic, Simon Furman was perfectly placed to give UK readers exclusive prequel stories, extra character development, foreshadowing for future events and more that would make our comic even more epic. A hugely atmospheric beginning too.

There were no new contemporary comic adverts this week again so you’ll have to make do with this checklist all on its own. The monthly Sleeze Brothers entry from last week is repeated but the rest are for weeklies so are all new. I can’t help feeling more could’ve been made of the Deathbringer description though. Then again, little did us kids know just how fantastic the following years of Transformers were going to be, and that it had all begun right before our eyes.

For The Punisher entry we must firstly remember this was 1989. It was a very different time, although with hindsight that’s still no excuse for the clichéd way in which South America is described. It’s not as bad as last week’s incredibly sexist Transformers story but still, put that and this checklist together and it doesn’t exactly scream of people who have seen much of the world outside of their male-dominated office in England. I guess that’s part and parcel of looking back on 80s comics though, in that we’re reminded of just how far we’ve come since.

It’s all change next week with a brand new look to the checklist that’ll eventually allow for more comics to take centre stage. Take a gander at the title graphic of every one of these posts for a clue (or to jog your memory) of what’s to come. Also next week, one of Marvel UK’s regulars reaches a landmark 10th anniversary! See you in seven.

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SATURDAY 2nd SEPTEMBER 1989

There was no let-up from John Marshall and Dave Harwood’s lengthy series of covers for The Real Ghostbusters this week in 1989, while Geoff Senior’s superb drawing for Transformers and Action Force doesn’t make up for the mess within.

In the former, while Egon waxed lyrical about ghosts of long dead plants in his Spengler’s Spirit Guide, the checklist entry for The Real Ghostbusters promised readers “a chance to revisit” two strips. That was a dreaded phrase, one we all hated, as it singled reprints. Another chance to read? But we never threw out our issues so we could reread them anytime! As it turned out this was a rather big error on the part of the checklist because everything inside this issue was brand new. Whoopsie.

As a kid I always felt it cringeworthy that the one and only female Transformer had to suffer the indignity of having pink lipstick. Previous to this issue one reader had actually written in to complain about this and asked why there weren’t more women robots. The response? We had Arcee, that would do. This origin strip for poor Arcee is demeaning and incredibly patronising. An awful editorial to start the issue doesn’t help either and overall everything comes across as nothing more than sexist drivel. It’s a world away from modern Transformers comics I’m glad to say. Thankfully Action Force and a laugh-out-loud Combat Colin from Lew Stringer more than made up for these five pages of garbage.

Formatting and grammar mistakes aside, the checklist detailed winning comics to make up for the Marvel UK top-seller’s misstep. However, the ‘Don’t Miss…’ box had gone the way of the dodo for the remainder of the series, meaning the brand new issue of The Sleeze Brothers had to slum it with the rest of the comics. A shame, because every issue of that short series was an event when I read them for the first time a couple of years ago, so they each deserved all the hype the checklists could muster. I have to say though, I don’t envy the writer who had to summarise any of The Sleeze Brothers stories into one paragraph!

The sixth issue of The Punisher gets a rather grin-worthy summary of its own. Listing off such adult themes as just run-of-the-mill everyday occurrences definitely would’ve piqued interest in the younger readers. It certainly did for me but my reserve list was already full and there were just too many other comics to sample first issues of back in 1988 and 1989. It’s still possible The Punisher could make it to the blog to see what I missed out on, but then again I’ve also thought that for The Marvel Bumper Comic and Action Force and Spider-Man and Zoids and…

There’s a shocking cover for Transformers next week that really took me by surprise when I first saw it all those years ago. It accompanies the last checklist you’ll see in this format. Changes are afoot. See you in seven. 

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SATURDAY 26th AUGUST 1989

John Marshall and Dave Harwood (surprise, surprise) unwrapped another cover for The Real Ghostbusters, while this week’s Transformers and Action Force Jeff Anderson cover was one of those rare occasions when it didn’t relate to anything inside.

Instead, the focus was on the free gift, one of those temporary children’s tattoos where you’d place it on your arm, dampen it and then it should (operative word being “should”) peel off leaving the image on your skin. It was a neat idea but I can’t remember it working as well as the drawing! Storywise, the excitement at the inclusion of new toys of mine was dampened by some awful American colouring that rendered them unrecognisable. Ironically, the toys come across much better in the black and white UK strip which gave the Micromasters a proper backstory. They were created because of energy shortages. A neat idea.

The big news in the companion comic was the return of Zuul from the original Ghostbusters movie. Although, the creative team fudged their research and misnamed her Gozer. The story was a funny one though. Janine experienced everything from the famous Sigourney Weaver fridge scene, only for her to throw a wooden spoon which the hell hounds chased back inside the appliance while she gave Zuul/Gozer a kick up the bum and slammed the door on her. The grumpy online fanboys out there would probably say it belittled the film but it’s a funny comic and it’s a funny little strip so it’s a winner in my eyes.

Death’s Head was hanging on in there on the checklist, refusing to go quietly into the night with his final issue. With hindsight I have to say The Punisher could be a strange comic, what with its ‘For Mature Readers’ label on the cover while giving away badges and stickers. He nabbed another ‘Don’t Miss…’ after the yellow box disappeared for the previous couple of weeks. Any chance of our top-selling weeklies getting in on some of that action one of these days? Don’t bet on it, the box’s days were numbered.

There were no less than three new adverts for Marvel UK’s range this week. The Punisher’s previous half-page ad was basically expanded to full size with no further information. The Real Ghostbusters ad was also light on actual info, but then again did we really need anything other than to know it was available? The fans would’ve been all over it regardless. “What’s a TV Special?”, I don’t hear you cry. From what little I can recall they were back on TV screens, split into two parts every Saturday morning on ITV’s children’s magazine shows, so it was most likely to tie in with that instead of the usual changing of the seasons. Not that they needed an excuse.

Finally, the big news was the launch of Fantasy Zone, a magazine covering new fantasy and sci-fi movies, and the occasional TV show. It never took off and didn’t last long, although it did produce a couple of specials dedicated to new films such as Ghostbusters II. It was launched the same month as Visual Imagination’s similarly-titled TV Zone, “The Magazine for Cult Television”. I was a regular reader of TV Zone for several years with an order at my newsagent and it proved somewhat more successful, racking up 231 issues compared to Fantasy Zone’s measly little six.

Oh, I’ve come over all nostalgic for TV Zone now! I remember the main reason I bought it was for Babylon 5, although I was soon swept up in its Stargate SG-1 coverage (that’s how I discovered the show) and loved its occasional retrospectives of two favourites of mine, Knight Rider and War of the Worlds. Must. Stay. Away. From. EBay!

Right, I’m off to NOT look at a famous auction site and I’ll see you all back here in seven days for more checklist goodness.

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SATURDAY 19th AUGUST 1989

Frankenstein’s Monster makes an appearance on John Marshall’s and Dave Harwood’s cover for The Real Ghostbusters, surely two months early for such a classic horror staple? Meanwhile, there’s something missing from the Lee Sullivan cover of the latest Transformers.

Where’s Action Force? Perhaps this was when their new (canned) fortnightly comic was due and they’d have stopped appearing, and it was too late to put them back in (it was cancelled)? Or it’s something to do with timings for the Transformers strips, since the editor would be planning several months ahead. Who knows. Instead, alongside a continuing reprint were two new Transformers stories starring Micromasters. In this issue the plot involved the Decepticons’ difficulties in building microscopic components so they were trying to steal the Autobots’ secrets. The advantages of their tiny forms were really played up to and as a result they were so cocky. No wonder I loved them. The UK strips gave them proper personalities too, unlike the US ones.

It was rare for any ghosts to return in The Real Ghostbusters. Almost all of its stories were self-contained but on occasion we’d get a nice surprise and see a fan favourite once more. This happened this week. A giant gorilla movie monster returned from a previous prose story for a comic strip sequel, albeit much smaller and now working in Holywood. No prizes for guessing which role he was best suited for. Given the cover star for this week’s prose story this meant we basically had another themed issue. That’s three in a row! Could the comic make a home run next week?

The Punisher is the only other new release and that final issue of the superb Death’s Head is hanging on in there. The main story in the former certainly sounds exciting and it was such a shame that my reservation list at the newsagent was already maxed out. I didn’t want to cancel any of them to add The Punisher, so I missed out. The ‘Nam began its run as back up strip too, a series that sounded fascinating (especially the real time factor of its storytelling, at least initially) but which has escaped me thus far.

We’ve two adverts this week taken from the middle pages of Transformers so they’re both in black and white. A few weeks late, The Punisher finally gets promoted beyond the checklist with the famous quote that adorned the cover of the only issue I owned. Always found that funny! The other advert sees the very welcome return of the strip ads, this time for The Sleeze Brothers, a comic which was teased before release for longer than any child’s attention span. I’ve seen this advert in full colour in Death’s Head #5 (check it out in the brothers’ introduction post) but this is the only way it would appear in either of the comics I’m pulling these checklists from.

At the time of writing this post I’ve just recently reviewed Some Like It Fresh, the one-shot special released in 1991, two years after their mini-series was first released. It was a blast to read a new story featuring the dire detectives, so this advert is well timed right now and has brought a great big stupid grin to my face. Although, it’s been printed in Transformers two months after their series began and the comic was less than 32 pages, so I’m not sure how this slipped through at this stage. Oh well, who cares? It’s still fun.

I hope you enjoyed it too because that’s the last strip advert we’ll see in this series. Boooo! Oh well, next week we’ve three new ads for your perusal so don’t be missing out on them, as well as the latest checklist of course. See you in seven.

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