Super Naturals #1

31 Oct 1987 - 13 Nov 1987; Cover price 40p.
32 pages. Colour & B&W.
Fleetway Publications.

Cover by Sandy James.

Free cardboard [Lionheart] Double Skull Mask.

Contents:

.2 Are you brave enough for... Super Naturals (quarter page) Introduction.

.2 The Legend of the Supernaturals w: UNKNOWN; a: John Gillatt (uncredited).

.7 Ghostlings! UNTITLED [Rock-Aid] w: UNKNOWN; a: Anthony Williams (uncredited).

11 The Doll UNTITLED [Meet the Marshals] w: UNKNOWN; a: Francesc Masip (uncredited).

16 The Tomb of Doom poster; illustrated by UNKNOWN.

18 The Scary Cat Challenge The Hunchback of Hinkley Rest w: UNKNOWN; a: Jim Watson (uncredited).

24 From the Depths of Ghostworld character biographies.

26 111 Stamps Free (half page) advertisement. / Free Stamp Collector Starter Kit (quarter page) advertisement. / Your Free Gift in This Issue! (quarter page).

27 Mount of Athos UNTITLED [The Sacred Coffer] w: UNKNOWN; a: Alan Langford (uncredited).

32 Win a Free Super Naturals Ghost Finder and Bat-Bopper competition.

The eighties saw a resurgence of horror properties, bolstered in no small part by successful properties like Ghostbusters, so Super Naturals rode that wave for all it was worth. Based on a short-lived line of Tonka toys, prominently-advertised in the comic, whose back-story is formulaic "hero figures versus villain figures, as seen in Action Force, Transformers and Masters of the Universe, though with a few quirks which sets the characters apart from their contemporaries - first and foremost being holograms, which are remarkably impressive even after all these years.

Not many figures were made for Super Naturals, and most are relatively easy to acquire. The Tomb of Doom playset compared well with Dungeons & Dragons' Fortress of Fangs, or Masters of the Universe's Castle Grayskull, and had a gimmicky magic trick as part of its appeal. That the line died such a quick death is a shame, as there were many opportunities for both setting and characters to develop in interesting ways.

It is the comic which contains these intriguing elements, and The Legend of the Supernaturals is where their story is laid out:

Throughout the centuries, men have found The Tomb of Doom! By entering its doors they have made the journey into Ghostworld, where they would be trapped until the force called Specter decided to release them... Release them with new powers.

Each becomes subject to the all-powerful, unseen power that governs Ghostworld. The presence known as Specter, for which neither good nor evil matters, save that both must be total.

Lionheart and Skull are introduced to their back-up, the Ghostlings, who seem happy to serve them. Specter also forbids conflict within Ghostworld, requiring the two groups to return to Earth in order to do battle. Windows, gates, and doors serve to return characters to our domain, though with no certainty as to when they would appear - the past, present, and future being their battlefield. On October the 31st, 1987, their battle begins in New Orleans...

Ghostlings contains our first glimpse of Specter: a towering column of smoke with a face. He intervenes when Ghostlings come into conflict, suggesting that they take their squabble to Earth. Weird Wolf slips away and finds himself at a Rock-Aid charity concert where The Ravers, The Green Morons, and Deke Diamond are playing. He considers this an opportunity to lift himself from a Ghostling to a full-scale Supernatural. Others follow Weird Wolf, but when heroic Ghostlings attempt to do so, they find themselves in the presence of Henry VIII.

12-year-old David Wickham and his 13-year-old brother Simon arrive at their new foster home at the beginning of The Doll. Frank Marshal and his wife Louise already have a son, Clive, who has been looking forward to meeting them. The Wickham brothers' mother died when they were young, and their father has suffered back injuries in a fall, hence their need for a suitable residence in the interim. When looking through a closet in their bedroom, David discovers a ventriloquist's dummy. You can almost hear the dramatic violin music.

Simon decides to ask if he can keep the doll, but the reaction of Frank and Louise upon seeing it is of shock. Frank grabs it from Simon's hands in a rage, and Louise explains that it belonged to Alan, a boy fostered previously. She states that the sight of it brought back painful memories, as Alan had an "accident." Frank places it in a bin outside, making sure that it is gone for good, but that night the doll pushes the lid off the bin, and pulls itself up.

It is easy to see why The Doll lingers in the memory of so many, with the creepiest opening imaginable. Elements of Magic and (not yet released) Child's Play converge in a sumptuously-drawn celebration of childhood nightmares, assured to have readers looking cautiously at their toys. It is very strange that so dark a story is chosen for reader feedback, with £5 on offer for those who send in ideas for future installments. Here's a suggestion: a tin of lighter fluid and a match. Just in case...

Whenever a comic strip states that the location is a sleepy little village, as Hinkley is, you know something is going to happen. The Hunchback of Hinkley Rest begins with three boys sitting in a park, talking. Boys being boys, Ian challenges his friends to come up with a dare for him, and he gets dared to spend the night in Hinkley Rest, the name given to the local graveyard. After some consideration, for it is said to be haunted, he accepts the dare. He is told that using torches is cheating, when discovered with one, so has to spend the night in darkness.

Finding a place to sit atop a tomb - having, apparently, never seen a horror film - he encounters Cornelius Grudge, a hunchback. Terrified that Ian is in actual danger, his friends rush off from their vantage point nearby and fetch police officers. As officers approach them, Cornelius vanishes into the night, and Ian makes his way out of the graveyard. Then he notices a familiar name on one of the stones...

With such a hokey tale to begin the done-in-one horror tales, there's a sense that this isn't being taken entirely seriously, though after the first part of The Doll I'm sure many a young reader were thankful. The art throughout is beautifully drawn, with evocative rendering of trees and gravestones raising this from being merely filler. This is, however, a story desperately in need of either danger or bittersweet realization to elevate it.

A battle between Skull and Lionheart, at Athos in Greece, ends with Lionheart falling from a cliff, certain death avoided by dint of hitting olive trees on his way down. Sanctus, Abbot of the Mount Athos monastery insists to his brothers that the sacred coffer, containing the remains of Saint Severius, must be preserved, but the intrusion of Burnheart and Snakebite terrifies the monks. The Abbot flees with his treasure as Thunderbolt and Eagle Eye arrive to take arms against their counterparts.

Some of the most accomplished artwork of the issue is within Mount of Athos, which presents a credible threat to characters, has a clear sense of priorities for Skull, and ramps up tension with Lionheart's injuries.

Unanswered Questions & Ruminations

Being bound to the will of a greater power raises prospects for Super Naturals future. What would happen if members of both parties decided they wished to free themselves of this force? It would have created four factions rather than the standard two, extending the life of the franchise significantly - bringing objectors into conflict with their associates. Specter's demand that alignment must be to one of the extremes also poses the question of what would happen if a villain had a crisis of conscience, or a hero became tempted by evil.

We aren't informed whether there are other Ghostlings (able to act on their own agency), nor why they are obligated to servitude. We are only shown the primary protagonists and antagonists, but there could be entire communities existing within Ghostworld who are neither heroic nor villainous enough to be permitted focus. What do they do all day? Are there previous exemplars of good and evil lurking around? And given that the Ghostlings can become fully-fledged Supernaturals should they perform an act of worthiness is a tantalizing prospect for where several characters might have ended up.

We aren't explicitly informed that Ghostworld is the only otherworldly realm, which is where an explanation for the formation of two diametrically opposed groups starts to make sense. If this is a desperate ploy to create defences against others of Specter's kind, then there must be multiple realms, with their own heroic and villainous factions, subject to the all-powerful, unseen powers governing those realms...

While there are no repercussions from the aggravation between the Ghostlings, we are informed that there will be should violence occur within Ghostworld. While powers are nullified, there is nothing to stop one of the Ghostlings picking up a rock and injuring or killing another in that manner. I'm not sure that Ghosts can die in this universe, but surely being a Ghostling is as low as it gets on the Super Naturals food scale. What worse fate lies in store for those who refuse to play by the rules.

Rarely do toy tie-ins open with this much opportunity. An uneven, though hugely entertaining, start, with untapped goodness running down to the core.

Scream! #1

24 Mar 1984; Cover price 22p.
32 pages. Colour & B&W.
IPC Magazines Ltd.

Edited by Ian Rimmer.

Cover by UNKNOWN.

Free Dracula fangs.

Contents:

.2 From the Depths... text introduction (uncredited).

.3 The Dracula File UNTITLED, part one, w: Gerry Finley Day; a: Eric Bradbury, lettering by John Aldrich.

.8 Monster What was the Terrifying Secret of the Locked Room?, part one, w: Alan Moore; a: Heinzl, lettering by Paul Bensberg.

12 The Thirteenth Floor The Thirteenth Floor Didn't Exist... Yet it was There..., part one, w: Ian Holland (Alan Grant & John Wagner); a: Jose Ortiz, lettering by Mike Peters.

16 Tales from the Grave "The Undertaker", part one, w: Tom Tully; a: Jim Watson, lettering by Tim Skomski.

19 A Ghastly Tale! w: UNKNOWN; a: UNKNOWN.

20 Fiends and Neighbours UNTITLED w: UNKNOWN; a: Graham Allen (uncredited).

r: Cor!! (IPC Magazines Ltd.) #[182] (24 Nov 1973).

22 Library of Death At Death's Door... w: Barrie Tomlinson; a: Cam Kennedy, lettering by Mike Peters.

27 The Terror of the Cats "No Harm...", part one, w: John Agee; a: Gonzalez, lettering by Peter Knight.

31 Dare You Read Scream! Next Week? (one third page) next issue information. / Advertisements (two thirds page)

32 Presented With Scream! illustration by UNKNOWN.

I vividly remember running around with Dracula fangs in my mouth when I first read Scream!, and the strange taste which they left in my mouth for a while after. Memories of this title appearing on the shelves of newsagents is still fresh in my mind all these years later, and coming to it after so long is... Well, it is weird. Separating the quality of contents from the memory of stories is an interesting experience, though mostly it holds up under scrutiny.

Although bringing the Count into a modern era had been done several times before (most memorably in Dracula A.D. 1972), The Dracula File manages to retain visual aesthetics of more traditional interpretations while staying conscious of the political landscape of mainland Europe since WWII. The strip's weak spot is a thoroughly uninspiring logo, which doesn't capture the cold war spirit to any degree.

Taking a uniform from an East German military base near the border, a defector disguises himself in order to make a run for the barbed wire on the western side. Guards fire at him as he flees, and, as mines explode around him, he stumbles to safe harbour. Taken to a British military hospital in Western Germany, the officers in charge determine that he is Rumanian, and ponder whether he might be a valuable defector. It is an opening which could have been inserted into a contemporary James Bond film without changing much.

The jacket he wore during his escape is checked, and the British see a row of bullet holes - he man should have died from his injuries. Computer analysis of medical reports show his body is of indefinable age, but before information can be passed along a fire breaks out. Thinking that they are in a Len Deighton novel, the British consider the possibility that K.G.B. agents might have attempted to kill the defector, not realising that danger is closer than they think.

There are a few places where the story attempts to make leaps it can't quite reach, and the final panel is a touch too on-the-nose, but there's more to like than dislike in the manner Gerry Finley Day brings Dracula back to Britain. There was one aspect of the story which seemed far-fetched at the time of publication, but which have been proven correct in intervening years - bats can cross the Channel. It was something that bothered me, but since it ha been verified I'll refrain from pointing out how unlikely they are to show up on radar.

With an audacious sense of black humour, Alan Moore opens Monster with twelve-year-old Kenneth Corman burying his father's corpse in his back garden is nothing compared to how he closes out this installment - the boy walking slowly up the stairs to a locked door. There's so little event, yet so much detail. While we don't get introduced to the inhabitant of the room, we get enough background to know that there is a secret here which been maintained for a very long time. There is real emotions at play, and a solidity of setting which is a step above expectation.

Three years before Robert Maxwell bought IPC, there was Maxwell Tower...

Max, the digital protagonist of The Thirteenth Floor, is Scream!'s star attraction. It is difficult to justify an in-universe reason for a screen representing the software, but the visual adds so much to Max's character - a crackling screen of static and electricity with a mind of its own. Jerry, his controller, isn't as well defined, but there is obviously a close rapport in the scenes they share.

Jerry permits Max to take care of new tenants moving in, Mrs. Henderson and her son. As they settle in to their new home, Mr. Kemp (an unpleasant debt collector) arrives to harangue the recently-widowed woman about money she owes him. Max, naturally, is less than pleased at this state of affairs, and decides to teach him a lesson. Despite being built without a thirteenth floor, the traditional image of death (a skeletal figure in robes carrying a scythe) greets Kemp there.

Now that Rebellion own the character, there exists the (remote) possibility that we might get a personal assistant based on Max. So much more interesting than Siri, who would never dare suggest that someone annoying be disposed of in a gruesome-yet-appropriate manner.

Horror anthologies need good hosts. Dry wits capable of lightening the tone between tales, stepping in and out of the narrative to address the reader with offhand commentary on the events. Unfortunately, despite the best of intentions, The Leper isn't a good host. Yes, he looks appropriately hideous, but his schtick is decidedly one-note. How many ways can a leprous grave-digger be worked into a story? That Scream! already had Ghastly McNasty able to perform a similar role, The Leper is doubly redundant.

The grave in preparation is for Joshuah Sleeth, the undertaker, was a thoroughly unpleasant individual, not above assisting people to the other side in his quest for money. There is a great sense of atmosphere in the telling, and even the slightly cartoony touch which Watson brings to the strip works well. That the story feels very familiar might be down to having read the issue on publication, but I'm certain that there is more to it than that.

A Ghastly Tale! brings to mind Future Shocks in 2000 A.D., bring a sequence which blazes through a slight premise in a single page, never explaining more than it has to. So brief is the strip's presence that we don't find out the names of either of the main characters, nor why, precisely, they are reduced to appearing in a sideshow. An interesting experiment in storytelling, though one which is likely to become frustrating in the long term.

Good reprints - and specifically ones which are well-chosen for appropriateness in a title - are always welcome, and Fiends and Neighbours is a classic.

At Death's Door feels like a cop-out thanks to the "it was all just a dream" ending, but the visual of the ghost with a stick is fabulous. Yes, the story is derivative and hokey, but horror stories don't necessarily need to operate on logical foundations, and the telling is entertaining. It would have been better with more background to the family situation (and why the parents seem so stiff), but it is a continuing story.

What is the deal with cats? Cats. Are. Not. Scary.

Was someone at IPC bitten by a cat as a child? I'm not sure why both Misty and Scream! were launched with stories about cats, but as figures of dread they are lacking. Rats can be terrifying (ask James Herbert), dogs can - when handled well - hold a few scares, but domestic cats are far too unimposing to present a credible threat.

Terror of the Cats is based on the conceit that cats have turned on people, attacking randomly. There's not much more going on, and at no point in the story is there a sense that the story is being taken seriously. To end on such a low point is unfortunate.