Blimey! It's Slimer! (Marvel UK)

Blimey! It's Slimer! is the name given to the original UK-produced Slimer comic strip published by Marvel Comics Ltd (Marvel UK), as distinct from the American stories reprinted from NOW Comics. The strip appeared within the UK edition of the Slimer! comic, which ran for 13 monthly issues from October 1989 through October 1990,¹² and it also generated two collected editions: Blimey! It's Slimer! Collected Comics 1 Holiday Special (October 1989)³ and a horizontal-format album that collected "Blimey! It's Slimer!" strips alongside The Real Ghostbusters UK stories.⁴ The "Blimey, It's Slimer" artwork used a distinctly British visual rendering of the character that differs from both the NOW Comics version and Marvel UK's own Real Ghostbusters house style.

Background and the "Blimey, It's Slimer" Style

Marvel Comics Ltd began publishing The Real Ghostbusters bi-weekly in the UK from March 1988,⁵ building a substantial domestic readership before branching out into Slimer-specific product. The first dedicated Slimer content appeared in It's Wicked!, a 17-issue weekly anthology (May to September 1989)⁶⁷ in which Slimer shared space with original British comedy-horror strips. That series was, in many respects, a placeholder that tested the market for a standalone Slimer comic. When the dedicated Slimer! monthly launched in October 1989, it imported the character design and strip style established in It's Wicked!, which the Fandom community has catalogued under the name "Blimey, It's Slimer" (also styled "It's Slimer").

The Blimey-style design shows Slimer rendered in a rounder, more cartoonish manner than the NOW Comics equivalent published simultaneously in the United States. Four of the thirteen UK issues used wholly original covers rather than adapted NOW Comics artwork, and three of those four (issues #4, #11, and #13) display the Blimey-style character design.⁸² Issue #9's original cover instead draws on the look of Slimer as rendered in Marvel UK's The Real Ghostbusters series.⁹

The UK Slimer! run concluded with issue #13 in October 1990, making 13 issues total. Combined with the 17 issues of It's Wicked!, Marvel UK produced 30 Slimer-fronted comic issues, set alongside the 193-issue main Real Ghostbusters run.