Mummy’s Boy was a
strip about the most possessive Mum that ever was, and her nine-year old son
whom she treated as a baby and wouldn’t let him engage in normal kids’ stuff
because she thought her Choochkins was
too delicate. She wheeled him in a pram, dressed him in baby clothes, made him wear nappies
and a silly baby bonnet, go to bed at 5:30, drink
milk from a baby bottle and do all the other baby stuff which a grown lad like
him found very embarrassing. Mumsy never addressed her boy by his proper name (it’s
not even clear if he had one) and embarrassed him even further by calling him Diddums, Babykins,
Kiddiwinky, Darling Duck, Cherub, Cutie Pie, Oody Boody Baba, Cuddlekins, Choochiface, etc.
Mumsy’s little treasure hated being treated like
a baby, especially in public. He often ran away from ‘the silly old fusspot’ and
acted naughty but she always tracked him down and re-organized
things her way.
Sometimes ‘the cherub’ was glad that he just couldn’t loose with Mum around:
Sometimes ‘the cherub’ was glad that he just couldn’t loose with Mum around:
In fact, Mummy’s Boy was a naughty little devil and a nuisance – a kind of Sweeny Toddler brought to
heel, but with a crazy Mum like his that’s hardly surprising. I am trying to
picture Mumsy’s relationship with her husband - yes, Diddums did have a Dad but in
MFC he was only seen once, in issue No. 21; perhaps he took every opportunity
to be away from home and his nutty spouse… I am sure Mumsy would have made an ideal Mum-and-son pair with WHOOPEE!’s Scared-Stiff
Sam. This cross-over never happened but there were a couple others that did –
in issue 33 Babykins tried using Teddy Scare’s tactics and in No. 51 he got
some help from Brainy and his Monster Maker (in case you didn’t know, I’ll
mention that Teddy Scare and Brainy and His Monster Maker were concurrent
MFC strips).
Mummy’s Boy is one of
the few strips in MFC with a dubious connection to the horror theme. On the
other hand, come to think of it, having a Mum like this would certainly be a
nightmare, so the strip takes horror comedy to the dimension of psychological terror.
Mummy’s Boy started in
MFC issue No. 2 and continued till the last number (missing issues 16, 25, 47
and 57 in-between); all episodes were in b/w, except for the full-colour one in
issue No. 33. The main artist was Norman Mansbridge; Terry Bave stepped in for
him in issues 7 and 8. Mummy’s Boy made the jump to BUSTER when MFC was merged into it in 1976. The strip must have done really
well in the popularity charts: it continued for more than a dozen years and was
last seen in BUSTER cover-dated 12th September 1987. Of all the
strips which originated in MFC, Mummy’s Boy came second
only to X-Ray Specs in terms of the length of the run.
I always wondered whether the original idea was for the strip to feature an ancient Egyptian-style mummy which would have fit with MFC's horror theme.
ReplyDeleteNever liked this one when I was younger... Even today, when I try reading it as, like you say, a psychological horror, I still can't enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteI COULD say it's perhaps due to uncomfortable parallels with reality, but it's more likely because I was already familiar with a certain Viz character based on a similar theme, thanks to an auntie who'd read the strips out to us, but making sure to hide the swearing.
By comparison, Mommy's Boy just seemed redundant!
I meant to say "Mummy's Boy" there, obviously. My phone still seems to think I'm American, no matter how often I insist otherwise.
DeletePersonally I never enjoyed this strip, but each to their own - it had an amazingly long run!
ReplyDelete