Grimly Feendish

Real Name: Grymleigh Gartside Fiendstein

Identity/Class: Unrevealed

Occupation: Would-be world conqueror

Affiliations: His monsters, Squelchy (his favourite monster); Shiver Givers

Enemies: Eagle-Eye, Colonel Thynne, Kinky

Known Relatives: Fred Feendish (nephew)

Aliases: The Rottenist Crook in the World

Base of Operations: U.K.

First Appearance: Wham! #4 (11th July 1964, Odhams Press)

Powers/Abilities: Scientific genius. Able to deploy a variety of monsters at his command.

History: Grimly Feendish is a supervillain who seeks to conquer the world, using both his monsters and bizarre plot devices (such as exploding treacle), to do so. He is usually thwarted by Eagle-Eye, Junior Spy.

Comments: Created by Leo Baxendale

Thanks to Paul Muir for providing information and images.

Doug Sulipa of Comic World notes "Grimly Feendish appears as a villain in the Wham! comics series "Eagle-Eye Junior Spy" (2 pages in each issue). He was more popular than the main character in Junior Spy. Grimly Feendish was an Addams-Family-like character; Fred Feendish (nephew of Grimly) also occasionally appears. He was eventually awarded his own comic strip as “Grimly Feendish: The Rottenest Crook in the World!” in other UK comics; (Smash! & some UK Annuals).

Leo Baxendale's Grimly Feendish character from looks a lot like the Uncle Fester character from Addams Family. Baxendale had apparently written for the New Yorker a few of the jokes that Addams had drawn; Uncle Fester might have been the inspiration. Grimly Feendish, now a cult favorite character, was the subject of a song of the same name by The Damned in 1985. Apparently Neil Gaiman was involved in a modern Grimly Feendish short story project, but I am unsure where it was printed. These issues of Wham! all which feature Grimly Feendish as the Villain in "Eagle-Eye Junior Spy": #4, 6, 8 through 17, 32, 33, 83, 88, 93, 98, 100 through 103, 105, 106, 107, 121, 124, 125, 127, 132, 133, 139, 148, 149, 150, 152, 153, 159, 160, 164, 168, 169, 170, 171; other issues may include him, but the following are confirmed as having no Grimly Feendish appearances: WHAM #5, 18, 20-22, 25, 26, 34, 84, 91, 92, 111, 112, 115, 117, 118, 123, 136, 137, 141, 144-146, 162, 163, 165-167."

After his run in Smash! ended, Grimly resurfaced in Shiver and Shake, both in his own strip and as part of the Shiver Givers, the name given to the various monsters whose strips populated the horror part of Shiver and Shake; even among the ghouls and ghosts, Grimly proved himself not to be a team player, being caught stealing from his fellow monsters on a few occasions.

Grimley reappeared as part of a massive ensemble cast of British characters, and his true name was finally revealed, in Wildstorm's Albion.

CLARIFICATIONS: None.

Any Additions/Corrections? Please let me know.

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