Brainy and
his Monster Maker was a tale about a boy named Brainy who
invented the World’s first monster-making ray gun. In this strip ‘monster’ meant ‘big’ rather than ‘horrible’, so don’t expect to see freaky monsters
here (save for the odd giant-sized bird, dog, crab, worm or insect) – only huge
hats, fruits, flowers, tarts, umbrellas, slippers, etc. Also the odd giant nose or toe because the the magical monster
maker could also be applied selectively (to enlarge a particular part only).
I find the
stories a bit boring and repetitive, and the artwork isn’t great too, so it
isn’t high in my personal list of favourite MFC features. Readers must have
seen it differently because Brainy and his Monster Maker
continued from the first issue of MFC to the very last (missing issues 16, 34,
39, 41, 47, 50, 51, 53, 56, 58, 61, 64, 66, 68, 70 and 71). The illustrator was
Vic Neil (I think). The strip was a one-pager, except in the penultimate issue
where two independent episodes were merged to look like one – a clear case of
not wanting to waste the artwork supplied by the cartoonist before the decision
not to transfer the strip to the combined BUSTER AND MONSTER FUN was made.
It’s noteworthy that the lettering for the words ‘Monster Maker’ is designed to give the strip an eerie feel that it completely lacks. We must remember Martha and her makeup, so it’s likely someone didn’t want to repeat the concept by having Brainy also turn things into actual monsters. There was also ‘Fiends Beans’ in Cracker comic that followed similar lines to Martha at this time, so Brainy was up against that as well.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. I am not familiar with Fiends Beans but I believe DCT were much less into horror comedy than IPC, which I find a bit surprising - the theme seemed to be such a hit in the 70s.
DeleteI have an example of Gordon Bell's "Fiend's Beans" on my own blog here... http://comics.brucelaing.id.au/fiendsbeans/
DeleteYou might also want to 'Plug' (ho, ho!) a few gaps in your DCT knowledge with this:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.topper-universe.co.uk/
That's an excelent site. Perhaps it would be a good idea for me to create something like this for the IPC titles which I have already covered here?
DeleteI don’t think it was Vic Neill, but I don’t know who it was :( The artist did several IPC strips.
ReplyDeleteReading Whizzer and Chips in the British Library today, I noticed that Brainy was reprinted in Chips for a very few issues around July 1984. This was the period that due to industrial action proved fatal for Tammy and Scream, and put 2000AD out of business for a month. I’m wondering if scarcity of material forced the use of reprints; the Beat Your Neighbour reprints made a brief comeback at this time, not so long after having been dropped. Rotten strikes.
ReplyDeleteMy understanding is that reprints were usually a sign of budgetary cuts.
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