'Frankly Feendish' (1992)

For a while, I considered submitting stuff to Buster (last of the legendary line of Fleetway juvenile titles) with a view to getting a spot of occasional colourwork.

It only got as far as the first (A2) page of the proposal and never received the gloomy wash which was envisaged - a bit of a shame really because I felt that the plot had something going for it but I just couldn't take the plunge back into cartooning.

The storyline comprised a sequel to the episodes in Whoopee which had seen the trashing of 'Mildew Manor' on a weekly basis for over a decade, as far as I could recall. It seemed as though enough was enough, so that plug and chain became both a souvenir for Frankie Stein and a reminder from Professor Cube of all that remained of the place while the pair headed towards a suitably cliche-ridden alternative residence for a slightly different scenario.

Cube's scheme was to capitalise on the only attribute that our lovable lunk seemed to exude by affording him an unbridled opportunity to wreck havoc for the amusement of obnoxious tourists (affluent Americans, obviously) who would become central to the catastrophe having already subscribed to a night in a 'Haunted Castle'.

So when everything had gone arbitrarily pear-shaped in the course of 3 pages and Frankie crashes through a few floors, ending up in a basement surrounded by hundreds of half-drunk barrels of wine; so enters an exceedingly drunk Grimly Feendish!

It was all some sort of allegory about the state of the British comics industry where two of its finest characters have the last laugh. Maybe someone with cartoony credentials could make it happen someday!