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 tagline of "not for the nervous", "Scream!" was supposedly edited by the fictional Ghastly McNasty, similar to other British comics of the time which laid claim to fictional editors — such as the Starlord of the magazine of the same name, The Big E of "Tornado" and Tharg the Mighty of " 2000 AD". Ghastly's face was concealed by a hood, and a regular feature of the comic involved readers sending in drawings of what they believed he looked like.

15 issues were published before the title was cancelled due to a combination of controversy over its horror content, and production strikes at IPC. The cancellation was at such short notice that the final issue's strips contained previews for the next instalment. "Scream!" was absorbed by "Eagle", with the two most popular strips continuing in that publication. There were also five Summer Specials released, mostly consisting of reprints of horror-themed stories from IPC's back catalogue.

tories

Stories 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 - serial about a deformed 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' archetype as espoused by the Hulk, as Terry inevitably escaped, tending to murder people he didn't like due to his inhuman strength and lack of social restraint. Notably the script for the first instalment was credited to Alan Moore, with subsequent scripts credited to "Rick Clark," a pseudonym of John Wagner. After "Scream!" shut up shop Monster continued in "Eagle" for some years.
*The Nightcomers - about a haunted house which killed a husband-and-wife investigator team - their children were 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!"'s most popular strip, concerning a crazed computer. It continued in "Eagle" for several years after the demise of "Scream!". The first 11 episodes were reprinted in Hibernia Books' 2007 collection, 'The Thirteenth Floor'.

References

* [http://www.toonhound.com/scream.htm Toonhound - Scream!]
* [http://www.backfromthedepths.co.uk/ Back From The Depths]
* [http://www.2000adreview.co.uk/newsite/mambo/content/view/299/54/ 2000AD Review: The Thirteenth Floor collection]

External links

* [http://www.backfromthedepths.co.uk/ Fan site with an extensive archive of strips]
* [http://www.myspace.com/13thfloormax MySpace page for The Thirteenth Floor's Max]
* [http://www.2000adreview.co.uk/newsite/mambo/content/view/299/54/ Review of 13th Floor Collection from Hibernia]