A year after Fredric Wertham's controversial study Seduction of the Innocent, British parliament passed the Children and Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act 1955, under which the first prosecution occurred in 1970.

Instead, homegrown British titles gravitated towards war, adventure and humour, a combination that remained steadfast even when the Silver Age saw superhero sales rebound in America.

Dummy copies were made of the title, which advanced enough that a full-length episode of planned dark fantasy story "Black Beth" was produced, drawn by Spanish artist Blas Gallego.

[2] However the company found themselves in the midst of controversy in 1976 when the influential Mary Whitehouse of the National Viewers and Listeners Association and the tabloid press were among the groups to criticise IPC's hard-edged Action.

This culminated in managing editor John Sanders being criticised for his poor moral character by presenter Frank Bough on BBC1's flagship magazine show Nationwide, and any thoughts on a horror title were shelved.

As Tomlinson had a wide range of titles he was responsible for (including Eagle, Tiger, Roy of the Rovers and 2000 AD - though in practice he left the latter largely to the devices of Steve MacManus[4]), he hired Ian Rimmer as editor.

was to de-emphasise the horror label and deliberately not repeat the style of its more controversial precursors, making it more tongue-in-cheek for younger readers, as evidenced by its cover strap-line "not for the nervous".

[7] Ghastly's face was concealed by a hood, and a regular feature of the comic involved readers sending in drawings of what they believed he looked like, with any 'correct' entrants being rewarded with £50.

[8] Despite these attempts the tone was more horrific than Sanders had anticipated; he and the IPC board were wary of a repeat of the Action controversy, especially as the horror genre was closely linked to the video nasties outcry.

[9] Furman also remembered that management were unhappy with the story and requested it be concluded swiftly[5] while Tomlinson recalled he and Gil Page presented an issue to an executive only to see it "pulled to pieces".

[4] As a result of the industrial action many of the strips were stopped at short notice instead of being brought to a natural end;[3] Furman had produced a conclusion for "The Nightcomers" that was ultimately not used.

A deformed man ('Uncle Terry') who grew up locked in an attic inevitably escapes, tending to murder people he didn't like due to his inhuman strength and lack of social restraint.

Rebellion Developments purchased the rights to the post-1970 IPC library in 2016, and editor Keith Richardson soon began looking at ways of reactivating the classic properties available.

's "grimy, finger-staining sense of the illicit", while co-artist Frazer Irving noted the darker tone fitted in with his tastes at the time and interest in horror via video nasties.

logo being larger on the cover of the special, Misty creator Pat Mills complaining it made the title seem like a "poor relation" and that Rebellion perhaps didn't understand the female market.