The Duke's Spook
    
                             
    The Duke was the owner of a vast crumbling estate
    (complete with Longleat-style mini zoo!) and the Spook
    was Shiver - a phantom with an ever-rumbling tum who
    haunted the stately rooms and corridors. In the way of
    Shiver's hungry tum was the Duke's Right-hand, Grimes,
    a ne'er-do-well Butler with a portly belly and shrunk-to-fit
    dinner suit who was constantly thieving, scheming and
    undercutting the Duke's requests.

    Grimes would do his uppermost to berate poor Shiver,
    and Shiver sought to redress Grime's scheming when
    e'er he could...

    

    But it didn't really make much sense. How could a see-thru
    spirit possibly gain sustenance from all those platters and
    those cakes, or indeed, physically eat the stuff in the
    first place? And how come the Duke wore a crown all
    the time? (Only a King would do that!). And why did we
    never see any other staff in such a massive estate...?
    And - oh, never mind - what's important is that ol' Shiver
    was the selfsame Shiver from the comic title, who was
    originally called Shake, and you can read all about his
    past and future here...

     
   Interesting to see how, in the first panel of the first ever strip
   (ShSh #1), Shiver is seen happily serving the Duke breakfast
   in bed. Then in the second panel, the spook spies a note
   on the front door advertising for a butler. So what gives?
   The Duke appeared delighted with the sevice Shiver was
   offering. What a two-faced, back-stabbing old ninny!

   Although Shiver survived the merger with Whoopee! in
   October 1974, the Duke and Grimes did not. The last Duke's
   Spook weekly strip - October 5th 1974 - ended with the Duke
   chasing his bolshy butler around the estate, enraged. That
   left Shiver free to tuck in to a hearty supper at last - slurp!  

   Though there weere no more weekly strips, the Duke and
   his Spook reappeared annually, as a regular in the
   Shiver & Shake Annuals...