Tom Horror's World
    
                             
    Tom was forever designing and inventing apparatus and
    apparel to make life easier for his burly father. And his
    Dad was keen to see his son succeed with his mad plans
    and get whisked away on the wings of success. But there
    was an alterior motive behind this father-son relationship.

    You see, almost without fail, Tom's "helpful" creations
    would backfire and cause mayhem and destruction around
    the house, and invariably, Dad would end up on the butt
    end of the chaos. And that meant that we'd have a
    regular final panel with Dad bandaged and suppported
    in a hospital bed!
     
     

    The strip's title was a pun on the name of the BBC's
    long-running science programme "Tomorrow's World".
    But Tom's crazy ideas weren't as wild or hi-tech as one
    might have imagined. Rather, they were low-tech
    handcrafted affairs, using various household appliances
    and handyman's tools to get the job done. Or half-done,
    as it turns out.

    Tom's inventions included the likes of a tennis serving machine,
    a propeller driven lawnmower,a car-powered car wash and a
    wall-mounted combination bed and wardrobe. And Dad
    frequently lost his wig as his son's crazy plans backfired,
    went awry, or disintergrated:

     

    Tom Horror was created by cartoonist and writer Glyn Wall,
    who submitted the idea to IPC with a view to his writing and
    drawing the strip. In the end, though, the drawing duties were
    handed over to Ken Reid. But Glyn got his writing gig, and
    the strip opened the door to a stack of writing commissions
    for him. Glyn's Fleetway credits included Mike's Bike,
    Bookworm, Mustapha Million and many more.

    Ken Reid's artwork was superb. At the time, Ken was the 
    monster master of Fleetway St. with Frankie Stein, Faceache
    and Martha's Monster Make-up under his belt. It was  
    fsacinating to see a Reid strip here without any "munsters",
    or fantasy trappings.

    But look there, below, that's Tom's neighbour Grumpy
    Grimshaw who appeared in Whoopee! 26th April 1983.
    He looks awfully like Faceache's abominable teacher
    Snipe, doesn't he?

   

    On occasion, another Fleetway talent John Geering took
    on strip duties. When Dad took a tumble it was with
    typical Geering panache - all extended limbs and an
    extreme line of action through the character; fabulous!

    Tom Horror followed in the footsteps of that other famous
    Fleetway inventor, Timothy Tester. The strip hung around
    for a year-or-two in the pages of Whoopee! but was dropped
    when WOW! merged with the title in June 1983...