'CADBURYS MONSTERS'

Well I haven't come across any pictures for 'Cadburys Monsters' cholate bars yet, but here is a picture of a promotional badge, just to confirm that my freind was right about what he remembered. I wonder how many more were in the set?

I did come across this website that has a similiar product by Cadburys called 'Monster Bar', the site has information about them as well as pictures of the wrappers and advertisements.

http://www.seven-wonders.co.uk/index.html

Thanks to darren for the badge picture.

'TREBOR MUMMIES'

I got these screen captures sent to me from an advert for 'Trebor Mummies' from 1980, is there anyone that remembers these or has any magazine adverts from them?

A freind of mine was on about a chocalate bar he remembers called 'Monsters' which featured on each wrapper a different monster such as King Kong, Dracula, Mummy etc. Anyone remember these too?

Also he remembers a Tudor crisps send away promotion for Wear-em Scare-ems, which were metal pendants of monster type characters I think. Any ads for these or scans/pictures of the Wear-em Scare-ems would be great to see too.

Thanks to Rich for the screen captures.

'HORROR BAGS' - Super horrid picture cards

The first post I did about these cards was that it featured only one of the six cards, now with kindness of Gutter from http://annexxed.blogspot.com/ who has let me use the image from his site we can now see the rest of the cards in the set and see the completed picture they form.

Thanks again Gutter.

'HORROR BAGS' - Ribs and Bones packets

Here is another 2 items to the growing Horror bags archive, this time it is empty wrappers of Vampire vinegar flavour Ribs and Salt and Vinegar flavour Bones. Thank goodness for somebody hanging onto these, as normally unless you are a collector of such items they would be normally thrown away and lost for posterity.

Thanks to steve C. for the pictures.

'HORROR BAGS' - Vinyl swimming bag

Well at last after probally 30 years I have now got a photo of the Horror bags swimming bag, here in the photo you can see that it is called 'HORROR BAG'. It is not how I seem to remember it when my freind had one, but it was a long time ago and I didn't have much chance to look at it properley. Now looking at this bag I think it is a great item and the picture on the front is wonderful and nicely detailed and I certainly would be proud to carry it around with me.

Thank you so much Steve C for the pic and reasurring my memory

'Monster Stickers'

I remember seeing these back in the late 1970's at a local toy shop, I think they were originally made in America, but as they are still part of Horror British culture I thought I would include them here. I suppose a lot of the monster toys we had as kids were produced in other countries as well. You don't really think when you are younger where the toys were made only that they were cool items to own and play with.

These stickers came in two different sizes and were made of a soft vinyl, were slightly raised and some if not all glowed in the dark. I do remember that if you did stick them onto any object they really did stick well and you had a job peeling them off to put onto something else without taking part of the object with them. I am not sure how many were in the set, but I would imagine that the first picture here shows possibly all of them.

Thanks to John for the first image.

'GLOW IN THE DARK STICKER'

I had this monster glow-in-the-dark sticker sent to me via email, they are not sure where they actually got it from. He said that it may have been something from 'Horror Bags' and that there were quite a few others in the set. Can anyone shed any light on this or maybe you have some yourself that you could send to The Cobbwebbed room.

Thanks to Steven for the scan.

'CREEPY COMIX' - Creepy Sleepy tales/Fangs of fear

'Creepy Sleepy Tales' from

'Cheeky' [15th July 1978]

'Cheeky' strip by Belardinelli

Cheeky [The character] whenever babysitting the Sweeny Toddler like baby 'Baby Burpo' would take along his copy of 'Creepy Sleepy Tales', although Cheeky ended up giving himself the creeps while walking back home after reading the tale. 'Creepy Sleepy tales' were clearly based on 'Badtime Bedtime Books' that appeared in issues of Fleetway's 'Monster Fun' [see pic]. Other forms of the Creepy Sleepy Tales were presented by the editor as TV shows, chapters in books, a trip to the cinema etc, so to avoid any monotomy of the format.

The reader would get a peek into that weeks tale, the strip below is from the 15th July 1978 issue.

The other strip featured is from a thriller that Cheeky would dip into after receiving a tap off the bookshop owner. This paticuliar strip is called 'Fangs of Fear' and was illustrated by Belardinelli who went on to great things at 2000ad. I think this strip just ooozes atmosphere and reminds me of some of the strips that appeared in particuliar American horror comics such as 'Creepy', 'Eerie', 'Psycho', 'Nightmare' etc and also some strips that would appear in issues of the British 'Scream' comic as well as issues of 'Misty'. Belardinelli's artwork apperance in 'Cheeky' is a total contrast to the regular strips that would appear every week.

Thanks to John.

TV tie-in - 'SHADOWS'

This long running Thames TV show was aimed at children ran from 3rd September 1975 to 1st November 1978. Essentially a supernatural anthology series, in later series the theme would switch to more fantasy style stories. A total of 20 episodes were shown over 3 series. Episodes would cover themes such as an haunted railway station ['The Waiting room'], Witchcraft ['The Witch's bottle'], Strange powers ['After school'], Evil criminals ['Dutch Schitz's shoes'], Magicians ['And now for my next trick'], Curses ['The Rose of Puddle Fratrum'] etc. A character from the episode 'Dutch Schitz's shoes' first appeared in the cult TV series 'Ace of wands', with the gruesome name of Mr.Stabs, the character would also appear in an episode of 'Dramarama Spooky' entitled 'Mr.Stabs'. The episode from Shadows is highly recommended viewing, Mr.Stabs and his sidekick Luko are a great double act playing off each other with sinister wit. Both episodes from Shadows and Dramarama are included as extras on the Ace of Wands dvd boxset.

The TV tie-in 'The Best of Shadows' would only contain 7 of the 20 shadows stories. Published by Carousel books in 1979 and illustrated by Les Matthews, with stories by Joan Aiken, Josephine Poole, Ewart Alexander and 2 stories adapted by Peter Eldin.

Episodes covered in this book are: 'The Dark streets of Kimball's Green', 'The Inheritance', 'Eleven O'clock', 'And now for my next trick', 'The Rose of Puddle Fratrum', 'The Eye', and 'The Man who hated children'. I am not sure if another 'Shadows' tie-in was ever published, this is the only one I have seen.

Here is all the 'Shadows' episodes in order of broadcast:

Series 1

'The Future Ghost'

'After School'

'The Witch's bottle'

'The Waiting room'

'Optical Illusion'

Dutch Schlitz's shoes'

'The Other window'

Series 2

'The Dark streets of Kimball's Green'

'Time out of mind'

'The Inheritance'

'Dark Encounter'

'Peronik'

'The Eye'

Series 3

'Eleven o'clock'

'The Rose of Puddle Fratrum'

'And now for my next trick'

'The boy Merlin'

'The man who hated children'

'The Silver apple'

'HoneyAnn'

I am not sure if 'Shadows' will ever be released onto dvd, lets just hope so.

'COUNT DRACULA'S SECRET' ICE LOLLY ADS

Who remembers these back in the 1970's? 'Count Dracula's secret' ice lollys, black ice lolly with blood red soft centre. Hope you didn't have sensitive fangs/teeth back then.

'CREEPY COMIX' - 'Frankie Stein' Frankenstein

For your viewing pleasure here is a great peice of art from the popular comicstrip 'Frankie Stein', this image is almost on first viewing gives a look of a peice of art from a serious comicstrip, very filmic Frankenstein inspired. These panals are from 'Whoopee and Shiver and Shake' 12th October 1974.

CREEPY COMIX - 'Scream Inn'/'The Spooktacular 7'

Scream Inn is in my opinion certainly one of the most atmospheric of all the comicstrips featured in the Fleetway line. The illustrations were dark and full of creepy details, it really gave you a sense of a spooky place on a dark and stormy night. Scream Inn is to the TV series 'The Ghosts of Motley hall' that 'Hire a horror' is to TV's 'Rentaghost'. Although 'Scream Inn' remainded popular, the stories would run out of steam; so an evolution of stories and a change of title to 'The Spooktacular 7' would eventually appear in issues of 'Whoopee'. The scans here show the title panals from both titles and an example of 'Scream Inn'/'Spooktacular 7' artwork. Thanks to John.

CREEPY COMIX - Ken Reid art

One of the Fleetway comics main artists was Ken Reid - The artist's artist, creator of Frankie Stein, Faceache, etc.

The scans here are some of Reid's illustrations used for 'Creepy Creations', 'World wide Weirdies', etc. These series of pictures would appear for several weeks in a number of Fleetway's line of comics, the full page pictures usually appeared on the back pages.

'Wanted' comes from 'Whoopee' (15th June 1974), 'Creepy Creations' - 'Shiver and Shake' (5th January 1974), 'World wide weirdies' - 'Whoopee' (14th October 1978).

If you would like to see more of these series of illustrations please let me know.

Thanks to John for scans/info.

TV tie-in - 'THE HAUNTING OF CASSIE PALMER'

The TV tie-in sections will concentrate on those spooky shows that were shown during the 60's, 70's, and 1980's, of which a vast number were made either as a serial, anthology or one offs. I think that British TV made some of the most entertaining and spookest shows on TV, there was classic dramas from the likes of 'Supernatural', 'Classic adaptations of famous horror stories such has 'Dracula', 'Frankenstein', 'Fall of the house of Usher', 'Carmilla', etc featured in 'Mystery and Imagination'. Many anthology shows were made during the three decades, not all would feature a tie-in book. Titles included: 'Shades of Darkness', 'Dead of night', 'Menace', 'Shadows of fear', 'Beasts', 'Hammer house of horror', etc. One of most popular children's supernatural anthology series 'Shadows' was also one of the longest running. Other classic children's supernatural series included 'The Clifton house mystery', 'Nobodys house', 'Children of the stones', 'The Watch house', 'The Owl service', 'Chocky' 'Moon dial', 'Lizzie Dripping', 'Secret world of Polly Flint', etc and Comedies such as 'Ghosts of Motley hall', 'Rentaghost'.

Some supernatural series stories were based on true stories, series such as 'Worlds beyond', 'The mind beyond', 'Leap in the dark', and 'West country tales'.

The first tie-in I want to show you is from the 1982 six part series 'The Haunting of Cassie Palmer', which starred Helen Probyn as Cassie, Geoffrey Rose as Deverill [both featured here on the cover], and Elizabeth Spriggs as Mrs.Palmer. The show was made by TVS for ITV and directed by Dorothea Brooking. This children's supernatural drama tells the story of Cassie Palmer the seventh child of a seventh child, who inherits her mother's psychic powers. Her mother is a not so successful medium who wants to teach and develop Cassie's psychic powers of which Cassie doesn't want to except she has these powers. On a dare she attemps to call upon a spirit in the local graveyard with her sister and brother. Instead of a little girl, Cassie instead raises the spirit of a tall gaunt man dressed in black named Deverill, whom Cassie is the only one who can see him and speak to. Deverill begins to haunt Cassie, appearaing along side her while walking from school etc. She befreinds him, but wants to know what Deverill's purpose is.

CREEPY COMIX - 'Hire a horror'

'Hire a Horror' was a comicstrip that appeared in 'Cor' comic. This was about an agency that hired out monsters etc to clients to use to scare someone in particuliar situations. The panels here were taken from the 17th April 1971 issue.

CREEPY COMIX - 'Grimly Feendish'

Here is another comicstrip character that first appeared in 'Wham' [along side George Michael - no of course not, could you imagine though?]. He was the main villain in the comicstrip 'Eagle-eye Junior Spy'. The picture above is from issue no.30 (9th January 1965). Odham's Press Publishers of 'Wham' comic launched a second comic title called 'Smash' in which Grimly got his own strip on the back pages, this time he had a greenish tint to his skin. I am sure he must be inspired by The Addams family character Uncle Fester, certainly there is a likeness, especially from the original Charles Addams illustrations. Eventually Fleetway/IPC obtained the rights to Odham's Characters and Grimly Feendish would be seen again in 'Shiver and Shake' (1973/74). The black and white strip above is from the Pick-a-strip page when Shiver and Shake were incorporated with Whoopee. Dated 9th November 1974. [Thanks to John for the Eagle-Eye strip]

CREEPY COMIX - Krazy Spooky issue/Buster spooky stories

Although 'Krazy' comic had not featured any spooky type strips for 70 odd issues, there came a special themed issue from 26th Febuary 1977. Other non-horror/spooky comics sometimes had a special themed issue or special, and not always around Halloween which many general comics/magazines choose to do a spooky special. 'Beano' comic published a few spooky specials in recent years and 'Buster' had a couple of softcover annuals - 'Buster book of spooky stories' 1975 and in 1976. These were comicstrips, stories and real life spooky stories and legends.

I am sure there are many others, of which I will post as soon as I find out about any ones of interest. Thanks to John for the Krazy cover.

CREEPY COMIX - 'FRANKIE STEIN'

The Creepy Comix sections of The Cobwebbed Room will feature the several spooky type comicstrips that appeared in British comics during the 1960's, 70's, and 80's. Although there were not that many comics on the British market that catered for the horror fan, there were plenty that did feature a spooky/monster type comic strip. Many of these comic titles were published by the company Fleetway, a leader in comic publishing. Titles of which included Whoopee, Whizzer and chips, Buster, etc. The two titles that Fleetway did publish with a monster theme were Shiver and Shake and Monster Fun, both of which were short lived.

'Frankie Stein' first appeared in 'Wham' comic published by Odhams in 1964. Frankie Stein would eventually be a regular in 'Shiver and Shake', also apperaring in 'Monster Fun' As well as the two Fleetway titles;his apperances were also so seen in Monster Fun and Shiver and Shake annuals, Whoopee, and also having his own Whoopee holiday specials.

Frankie Stein was first created by comic artist Ken Reid whose original drawings of Frankie looked a little darker in style untill artist Robert Nixon took over the design of the character and made the comicstrip character more fun looking showing the innocence of the character. Another reguliar character in the Frankie Stein comicstrips was Professor Cube whom Frankie referred to has 'Dad'. Cube was always finding ways of trying to himself of his creation. The Professor also featured in his own strips in the specials and annuals.

Take a look at the difference in styles of Ken Reid's Frankie Stein and Robert Nixon's.

'BEAVER BOOK OF HORROR'

Here is another great book I used to have when I was much younger, The beaver book of horror by Daniel Farson [grandson to Bram Stoker]. What especially attracted me to this book was this wonderful painted cover by Alan Lee, which extends to the back of the book too. I kind of love the innocence of the characters, even though the monsters look quite grusome, they also look innocent enough to just look at the book the children are reading. For some reason I can't find any pictures of this actual painting, even on websites about Alan Lee and his work.

The book itself covered a wide spectrum of subjects such as true stories about ghosts, vampires, werewolves etc, as well as people such as Vlad the Impaler, Countess Bathory, Rasputin etc. There is a look at the classic horror stories such as Dracula, Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde, Frankenstein etc. An almost human section that looks at The Elephant Man, wolf children, The Lambton worm, etc. other sections include Horror on stage and screen and a guide to places of horror such as Translyvania, Haiti, Whitby, Highgate cemetery etc. This is a highly recommended read and has 16 pages of photos. 206 pages of grusome reading.

'HORROR BAGS' super horrid picture cards ad

Well here is another Horor Bags ad from 1976/77. This time for Super Horrid Picture cards, a set of six cards that form a big? scary 6inch square picture and on the back of the cards a spooky story about the Dracula character.
The ad artwork is a little cruder than the other ads featured in The Cobbwebbed room, although I quite like the picture of Dracula. This must of been one of the cheaper promotional items for Horror Bags. Now what is needed is advertisements for the serpents and stairs game and the vinyl swimming bag. If there is anyone that can provide scans of these or any others not featured all ready, please get in touch.
Thanks to neil for this contribution.