Note: I’ve tried to get a link to this item to the Back From The Depths as well as Horrorcomic.org but I’ve never found it so hard to try to find (and fail) to contact someone. If you Ghastly McNasty let him know.
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I’ve previously mentioned that the UK comic OINK! from Fleetway was published in German by Bastei as Dr Rübenschweins OINK. None of those UK creators whose work was used were paid or credited.
This was not a one-off.
Fleetway/IPC/D. C. Thomson were making money from reselling creators work for a long time. The other example that I’ve written about a couple of times on CBO was Fleetways Vulcan which, in Germany, became Kobra with a mix of strips from Vulcan and other Fleetway titles -and it lasted many, many more issues than its UK counterpart.
I saw David Lloyd drawn Mr Pendragon strips in one taschenbuch (pocket book) and other British material over the years. And ghost/horror comics were popular in Germany.
So, it should not come as a surprise that Bastei, reknowned for its ghost comicsGespenster Geschichten and Spuk Geschichten (another lengthy item from CBO last week) should have a go at SCREAM the weekly horror comic that lasted 15 issues, hosted by Ghastly McNasty (there is a very good website, Back From The Depths that honours the comic).
Above, the cover to GGscream nr 1 which declares it has 64 pages -far, far more than in the weekly UK comic.
Below, your genial host now in colour -as are all the strips from the UK that were originally published in black and white. However, Bastei threw a few other things into the mix -not from UK Scream.
Below:Dracula, though I can’t remember this from the UK Scream. Mine are all tucked away somewhere so I can’t check! It IS a UK strip, though.
There were also strips from Interpubli such as Das Grauen Aus Dem Plinymoor/The Grey Of Plinymoor which has a quite British look to it, though considering the number of Europeans working for British comics that means nothing! I am sure I saw this in a UK comic title but I’m 54 years old and have been reading comics for 48 years so sue me if I forget one!
To me it looks almost John Ridgeway in style.
Below: Der Mann Der Alles Verkaufte/The Man Who Sold Everything. There is only a “Fleetway Publications” tag to this but it is unmistakable the art of none other than the late great Massimo Bernadinelli!
Original Fleetway title this appeared in….anyone know?
Below:Nach Dem Essen Zähne Putze Nicht Vergessen/After Eating Don’t Forget To Brush Your Teeth -or that’s as near a translation as I can think of. Bloody Germans: why can’t they speak English! By the same artist who drew the “Dracula” one pager? Definitely from Scream.
Below: The incredible cover to Scream nr.2 and there is a signature but we artists like to make them barely legible at times! Anyone recognise whose this is?
Below: Die Suche Nach Leben/The Search For Life only credited as “SI/Fleetway Publications” and this is one that appeared in a British comic and I’m not sure if it was2000 AD?
I really, really HATE this practice of not crediting writer, artist or letterer but just taking the money and running. I guess if names were included then the creators might do what Don Lawrence did and ask for more money.
Comics was and still is a crooked business.
Below: Im Bann Des Verdammten/Under The Spell Of The Damned from Interpubli and…oh lords -credited to E. Claves!
Below: Another strip that filled out the GGScream and made it even more interesting were the European strips and this one from Editions Lombard -Die Hüter Des Zauberschwertes/The Guardian of The Magic Sword and I’ve no idea who wrote/drew this!
Below: Die Zeitreise Project/The Time Travel Project introduced by “a” robot so I’m guessing a 2000 AD strip by…Dave Gibbons?
Below: John Ridgeway art on Die Magie Der Schwarzen Stunde/The Magic of The Black/Dark Hour or Summer Magic as it was titled in 2000 AD -I know early 1988 so around issue number …576 (if I’m wrong I can always blame dyspasia!). Wonder if Ridgeway was paid for the German language version? Yeah, right.
Below: Die Geburt des Ersten Werewolfs/The Birth Of The First Werewolf Again credited to Interpubli but is that Vampirella introducing the story? If so then this would be a strip from Warren Comics.
Below: Hey -they took a text story of Monster in which young Terry Corman and his “creature” uncle got into various scrapes. There were no text stories in Scream so this is probably from a later Eagle annual or special. Original artist on the Scream strip wasHeinzl but from issue 2 on Redondo took over (I think Heinzl had passed away by this time).
Below: Zwei Eiskalte Augen/Two Ice-Cold Eyes and I KNOW the art style but cannot remember the artist’s name! I really am going to have to go back over my old British comic collection!
Another 2000 AD strip introduced by Tharg himself: Der Grosse Knall/The Big Bang -is this Alan Davis work??
Below: Die Vision Des Schreckens/The Vision Of Secrets and I have a problem with identifying artists/strips because I grew up reading German and British not to mention American comics as the UKs only “horror” comics were for girls (?!), Misty andSpellbound (Misty’s memory being kept alive by a fan comic). Warren used European artists so everything is intermixed in what I like to call “my mind”!
Interestingly, as with OINK, GGScream does not appear on Comics.De which is quite odd unless they either do not want to include comics with strips that did not originate in Germany -which we can rule out otherwise the catalogue would be VERY small. Or, it’s only really old comic geeks like me remember these things.
Romuluz (yes, I eventually remembered his ‘name’) who sent me all the German scans I have back in 2005/2006, might know something about these GGScream editions, such as whether there were more than two issues or not. However, I lost contact with him six years back.
There MUST be German comic historians out there who know all these answers! If you are out there and read this let me know!
As with Vulcan/Kobra, Bastei intermixed strips -for Kobra from Fleetways huge back catalogue- and they did something similar for GGScream but added European strips. And they produced a far more interesting comic -Summer Magic, originally published in weekly parts was published in its entirety here.
We had a mix of horror/ghost/humour/sci fi etc. in our weekly comics but never a wholly British comic such as Spuk or Gespenster Geschichten and yet there was a strong urge amongst management at Fleetway/IPC to publish such a title. They just never dared.
In one of my visits to Fleetway before Maxwell moved in, I spoke to 2000 AD editor Steve MacManus who was very open about what was included in the title. At times it was quite violent and could be risque but “every few months management “upstairs” take a look at contents to see we’re not going over the top. That week we tone things down in the title so there are no problems!”
Managing Editor, and a MAJOR LOSS to the company once egmont took over, told me the same thing but confided: “Scream is not really a horror title. It needs to be more gory and have a free-hand strip-wise but we just cannot. The fellas on the top floor would not allow it!”
That said, the bosses had no problem reselling creators’ work over and over and making more money. I should think that very few, if any, of the creators who saw their work published across Europe even knew about it.
As a reasonably uh, young person, I knew none of this but simply enjoyed the comics however garishly they were coloured!
ADDENDA
The famous Paul Ashley Brown has been in touch with a few answers (He’s not read a comic since 1984 so this is all still fresh in his mind!). that IS John Ridgeway but…
“Mr H
Tried posting a comment on this post, but could’nt cuz it said comments were closed. Anyway,the artists-
Think the Dracula strip(and possibly the toothbrush one) might be Keith Page.
The Search for Life strip is by Mike White, who did Mean Arena and various other stints on various IPC comics.
Not sure you’re right about Bellardinelli,think it’s someone imitating him badly, or if it is him, he was feeling lazy.
There are two 2000AD strips, a Time Twister and a Future Shock, both written by Alan Moore.The first is undoubtedly drawn by Dave Gibbons, but the second isn’t by Alan Davis.The strip is one of my favourite shorts of the time, “They Sweep the Spaceways”, about Galaxy Roadsweepers, and it’s drawn by Garry Leach.
The one with the small boy and tramp-like character near the end may be Barrie Mitchell; it’s certainly one of the usual IPC/Fleetway “stock” artists, but like you, I can’t be definite.The way he draws legs, hands and feet suggest Mitchell.Though the faces remind me of someone else.
Not sure the one with the boy on the train is Ridgway, but it’s not a bad shout.”
And Chris B believes the artist on Der Mann Der Alles Verkaufte/The Man Who Sold Everything is John Stokes. I think he’s spot on there. Looking at it again I’m asking WHY I thought it was Belardinelli?!!
It occurred to me early this AM that the artist on Zwei Eiskalte Augen/Two Ice-Cold Eyes was Jim Watson. I thought Mr Brown was wrong about it being Barry Mitchell who has a much cleaner style. So I’ve just found all 15 issues and, yes, I believe that it is Jim Watson.
So, there you have it!
If you liked my post, f
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