Review by Frank Plowright

Ordinary people becoming monsters has a long literary tradition, with Steve Holland’s introduction to Slave of the Screamer mentioning predecessors, but not the obvious touchstone of the Hulk. The Monthroid is the result of scientific jiggery pokery from frankly unhinged lab assistant Mervin Small’s tinkering with alien dust samples (from the planet Monthro -geddit?) to generate monstrous transformations in others.

It was a gold dust concept for British serialised boys’ comics, as the theme of a monster on the run could be endlessly utilised for cliffhanger endings. Tom Tully, though, added audience identification via the monster’s true identity being Tony Steel, much loved sky-diver! He’s a public figure recognised throughout the country when not in his rampaging identity.

Steel, though, is just a bland hero figure and Tully’s effort is concentrated on characterising Small amusingly, set-upon at work and by his landlady, yet empowered into a raving maniac when using his transforming device on Steel. And indeed his landlady.

Tully’s having fun here, using ridiculous contrivances the young readers of the 1970s were too naive to pick up on. At one point Small wonders why the Monthroid has recovered instead of died, and conveniently he happens to have picked up a book speculating on what may have once roamed the planet Monthro.

For all the enjoyment Tully generates, Slave of the Screamer wouldn’t be worth seeing today were it not for the amazingly polished draughtsmanship of Jesús Blasco, an artist able to bring any scene to life, no matter how preposterous the circumstances. While similarities to the Hulk are notable, in the tradition of British boys’ comics the action is transferred to a nondescript fictional British town. Blasco can occasionally make the surroundings a little too opulent, but heavy shading broadly delivers the feeling of a kitchen sink drama with a monstrous intrusion. Blacsco’s people are distinctive with a life to them, especially Small, even if some of the cars seem imported from the USA.

Slave of the Screamer isn’t available through online bookshops, only directly from publisher Hibernia. Set your brain to pause, admire the art and indulge yourself.