Scream!

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For other uses, see Scream.

Scream! was a British weekly comic anthology with a horror theme, running from March 24, 1984 until 30 June 1984, published by IPC Magazines.

With a subtitle of Not for the Nervous, Scream! was supposedly edited by Ghastly McNasty, in a similar way to a number of other comics of the time who had ficitonal editors - like the Starlord of the magazine of the same name, The Big E of Tornado and Tharg the Mighty of 2000 AD. Ghastly was hooded, and an ongoing feature became readers sending in drawings of what they believed he looked like.

Scream! was only published for 15 issues, unexpectedly cancelled due to a combination of controversy over its horror content, and production strikes at IPC - the final issue's strips even contained previews for the next issue. It was absorbed by Eagle, but produced five Summer Specials, mostly consisting of reprints of horror-themed stories from IPC's back catalogue.

[edit] Strips

Strips included:

• The Dracula File - the lead strip, about Dracula hunting in 1980's England and occasionally written by Simon Furman(famous for writing Transformers).
• Fiends and Neighbours - a reprint from a more mainstream IPC comic Cor!!, about a family of monsters living next door to an ordinary couple
• A Ghastly Tale - one-off strips introduced by Ghastly himself
• Library of Death - one-off morality tales
• Monster - a deformed man ('Uncle Terry') who grew up locked in an attic, similar to the Monster of Glamis. The strip borrows from the 'gentle monster on the run' archetype as espoused by the Hulk, as Terry inevitably escapes, tending to murder people he doesn't like due to his inhuman strength and lack of social restraint. Notably the first installment was written by Alan Moore. After Scream! shut up shop Monster continued in Eagle for some years.
• The Nightcomers - about a haunted house which kills a husband-and-wife investigator team - their children are drawn to the house to continue the investigation
• Tales from the Grave - short stories illustrating the depravity of Victorian era London
• Terror of the Cats - an awry experiment to harness the psychic energy of cats, resulting in local cats enrage and attack people in a local town
• The Thirteenth Floor - Scream!'s most popular strip, which also continued in Eagle for several years

[edit] External links

• Fan site with an extensive archive of strips