Scream! (comics)

List of stories

Stories included:

• The Dracula File – the lead strip, about Dracula hunting in 1980s England. Written mainly by Gerry Finley-Day written by Simon Furman (famous for writing Transformers ).
• Fiends and Neighbors – 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 the comic’s fictional editor, Ghastly.
• Library of Death – one-off morality tales.
• Monster – serial about a man (‘Uncle Terry’) who grew up locked in an attic, similar to the Monster of Glamis . The strip borrowed from the ‘gentle monster on the run’ archetypeas espoused by the Hulk , as Terry escaped Inevitably, tending to murder people He Did not like due à son inhuman strength and Lack of social restraint. Notably the script for the first installment was credited to Alan Moore , with subsequent scripts credited to “Rick Clark,” a pseudonym of John Wagner . After  Scream!  closed Monster in  Eagle  for some years.
• The Nightcomers – About a Husband-and-Wife Investigator Team – Their children have been 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 ill-fated experiment to harness the psychic energy of cats resulted in local cats becoming enraged and attacking people in a small town. This too was written by Simon Furman.
• The Thirteenth Floor –  Scream! ‘  The most popular strip, concerning Max, has a crypted computer, in charge of an elevator in a 12-storey apartment building – when someone goes bad or evil steps inside, Max would take them to the Thirteenth Floor, a virtual reality where they would be tormented or killed. It continues in  Eagle  for several years after the demise of  Scream!  . The first 11 episodes were reprinted in Hibernia Books’ 2007 collection, ‘The Thirteenth Floor’. Originally written by John Wagner and Alan Grant (under the pseudonym Ian Holland).

Editor

Scream!  was edited by Barrie Tomlinson , Ian Rimmer and Simon Furman in the tradition of counterparts such as  2000 AD  and  Tornado  it was claimed by its fictional host , Ghastly McNasty.  ^[3]  Ghastly McNasty from a Liverpool band called Filthy McNasty.  ^[3]  Ghastly’s face was concealed by a hood, and a regular feature of the comic involved.

Cancellation

Despite fan speculation that  Scream!  IPC titles, ceased publication was in response to an industrial dispute.  ^{[3]  [4]  [2]}  It subsequently merged with  Eagle  to form  Eagle and Scream!  , in which the  Monster  series and  The Thirteenth Floor  were continued.  ^[3]  There were also six seasonal specials released, mostly consisting of reprints of horror-themed stories from IPC’s back catalog.

Collected editions

• Monster  ( Rebellion Developments , 2016, ISBN  9781781084533 )
• The Dracula File  (Rebellion, 2017, ISBN  9781781085998

2017 special issue

After Rebellion Developments acquired the rights to the stories, a  Scream! & Misty Halloween Special  published in October 2017. This included all-new stories based on characters from both comics.

Further reading

• ‘  IT’S GHASTLY’ The untimely demise of Scream!  (64 pages, Hibernia Comics, 2016)

References