Scream!: The Specials 1985-2024 (2025)

Scream!: The Specials 1985-2024 (2025)

Author + Illustrators: Various (Too numerous to mention here. See CREATOR INFO at the bottom of the page for full list of known names.) | Page Count: 400

'It was three o'clock in the morning and Billy Billings was having his nightmare again... Only it wasn't a nightmare any more, it was real!'

A companion volume to 40 Years of Scream!: The Archival Collection (2024) that collects together much of the post-cancellation Holiday Specials, including those from the revived era (2017-24).

Slightly more than half of the book is vintage content from 1985-89. The reminder reprints everything Scream! related from 2017-24. See footnotes for a full list of what's included. [1]

It makes my day to see the 1980s specials get a second life, but it's not as complete as it could've been. I'm not trying to deter anyone from buying it, but I feel it's important to note certain details.

I own all but one of the original 80s Holiday Specials, so I was able to do a side-by-side comparison. The stories are there, which is without a doubt the most important part, but many of the additional features are missing, including each one's Contents Page, some of which are double-page spreads with creepy art and a customary introduction from Scream!'s 'inhuman editor' Ghaslty McNasty. I won't list all of what I know for sure is missing, but here's a rundown of what you don't get from Holiday Special #1 (1985):

• 01. Contents Page. A two-page illustration with some words from Ghaslty McNasty.
  
• 02. Ghastly's Quiz. Three pages of horror-themed quiz questions.
• 03. Chamber of Horrors. A three-page colour + BW article about an exhibition at Madame Tussaud's Waxwork Museum.
• 04. The Thirteenth Floor. A reprint of the first instalment of The Thirteenth Floor strip, from the very first issue of Scream!. If you bought the previous HC Collection, then you already have that, so it makes sense to exclude it.
• 05. The London Dungeon. A six-page colour + BW article about TLD.
• 06. Ghastly Giggles. A two-page collection of horror themed single-panel cartoons. 
• 07. Ghastly's Face Gallery. A two-page collection of reader-submitted art.
• 08. Ghastly's House of Horrors. A two-page full colour game for multiple players. It's the usual 'roll dice and move your counter onto the next square' kind of thing, with some squares having instructions on what to do should you land directly on it. [The previous HC collection had this game, even though it wasn't in the weekly issues.]
• 09. Spot the Difference. A single page puzzle with reprint from the weekly comic.
• 10. Haunted Wood. Another two-page spread. Like the Contents Page at the beginning, it has some words from Ghastly. I don't know if it's a new image or reprint.

Not everyone will care that the kind of stuff mentioned above isn't included, but I think most would agree that it's a fairly substantial number of pages - and that's the first special only. The subsequent specials had much the same kind of content, which is likewise not present in the new HC edition.

If the comic strips are all you want, then you've reason to celebrate because, as in Vol 01, the artwork looks great on glossy paper stock, especially the Vintage (B+W) stuff.

As mentioned previously, most of the second half of the book reprints relevant content from Scream!'s modern mini-revival, from the Scream! and Misty Halloween Special (2017) to the standalone 40th Anniversary Special (2024). (The Misty portion is absent, naturally.) It sucks that I have to report that it's also incomplete, to a degree. The Thirteenth Floor: The Return of Max (2023) isn't included, which makes both halves of the book feel incomplete. I plan to review The Thirteenth Floor Collections in a future post, so will write more on The Return of Max there.

All criticisms aside, I enjoyed revisiting the old stuff in a quality format.

[1] The book includes: Scream! Holiday Special #1 (1985); Scream! Holiday Special #2 (1986); Scream! Holiday Special #3 (1987); Scream! Holiday Special #4 (1988); Scream! Presents: Spinechillers Holiday Special (1989); Scream! and Misty - Halloween Special (2017); Scream! and Misty - Halloween Special (2018); Scream! Presents The Thirteenth Floor: Home Sweet Home (2019); Misty and Scream 2020 Special (2020); Scream! 40th Anniversary Special (2024). I reviewed some of those previously; click the links to be taken to the relevant page.

CREATOR INFO:

Some of the Vintage era strips were uncredited, and are thus now lost to time. The list below contains what's known from that era + all of the Modern era. In the order given:

Authors: Barrie Tomlinson / Ian Rimmer / Tom Tully / Guy Adams / Gráinne McEntee / Kek-W / Rich McAuliffe / Alec Worley / Keith Richardson / Cavan Scott / Alex Paknadel / Torunn Grønbekk / George Pooley / Anna Readman / V. V. Glass.

Artists: Robin Smith / Geoff Senior / Steve Parkhouse / Barry Kitson / John Richardson / Mike Western / Dave Gibbons / Eric Bradbury / Jesús Redondo / Keith Page / Blas Gallego / Ian Gibson / Jim Watson / José Ortiz / Henry Flint / Tristan Jones / John Stokes / Frazer Irving / Simon Coleby / Warwick Fraser-Coombe / Mike Hoffman / Kyle Hotz / Steve Mannion / Leigh Gallagher / DaNi / Henrik Sahlström / Tom Paterson / Abigail Harding / Vince Locke / Jimmy Broxton / V. V. Glass / Kelley Jones / Andreas Butzbach / Andrea Bulgarelli / Vincenzo Riccardi / Alejandro Aragón / Emily Schnall / Anna Readman.