I wanted to give a heads up for the 45th anniversary of the first appearance of one of the long-running characters in British children’s humour comics – Frankie Stein who made his debut in the 4th issue of Wham! dated 11th July, 1964, alongside with his mad creator Professor Cube who was hoping to create a little pal and a real live playmate to his son Micky, but something went radically wrong…
Originally created and superbly drawn by Ken Reid, the crazy and occasionally violent adventures of Frankie Stein the friendly monster appeared in Wham! regularly for more than three years. The total page count came to 160, the majority of them drawn by Ken Reid. Towards the end of the run the appearances of Frankie Stein became less frequent and finally ceased altogether after Wham! issue No. 166 dated 19th August, 1967.
After Wham! folded, Frankie Stein took a 6-years break before starting his rise to genuine stardom in the pages of IPC comics of the seventies. Frankie Stein strip reappeared in the first issue of Shiver and Shake dated 10th March, 1973, complete with Professor Cube, but minus Mickey. Now drawn by Robert Nixon, it was stripped off its diabolically violent Reidian character and became considerably more “correctâ€. During the short run of Shiver and Shake, Frankie Stein apparently grew increasingly popular with the readers: the original 1 ½ pages in the early issues soon became 2 full pages, and then 3 pages, including front cover in full colour. Robert Nixon was responsible for nearly all the art, with just a few episodes drawn by Frank McDiarmid and several Ken Reid reprints from Wham!
Given the popularity of the strip, it was not surprising that Frankie Stein confidently survived the incorporation of Shiver and Shake into Whoopee in the Autumn of 1974. The first combined issue of Whoopee and Shiver & Shake dated 12th October 1974 ran a three page episode featuring an attempt to re-write history by presenting a new version of how Professor Cube first invented Frankie Stein, different from the original one in Wham! Frankie Stein appeared prominently and regularly throughout the 10-year run of Whoopee, drawn by Robert Nixon and several other artists, including Brian Walker. Being a star of the comic, Frankie Stein featured on pull-out posters and in cut-out minibooks. In addition to weekly episodes in the comic, Frankie Stein had his own holiday special (at least 8 editions that I am aware of) and his own annual – the Book of Frankie Stein (at least 2 editions in 1976 and 1977). At one point he even became too big for just one comic and took the position of “Honourary Editor†of Monster Fun Comic where he handled the Letters to Frankie page, appeared regularly on the Frankie's Diary page and presented the Ticklish Allsorts page.
Here are a few early Frankie Stein pages from Wham - my personal favourite version of Frankie Stein by Ken Reid. Enjoy!
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