MONSTER FUN COMIC SUMMER SPECIAL 1976

The second and the last MONSTER FUN COMIC Summer Special came out for the Summer holidays of 1976, it had 64 pages and cost 25 p.

Contents: Frankie Stein’s “Wish You Were Here” Postcards (3 pages, including one in full colour on back page, all by Jim Crocker), Kid Kong (two episodes – a 3-pager and 2-pager, both by Robert Nixon), Martha’s Monster Make-Up (a 2-pager by Frank McDiarmid), Stoneage Brit Ancient Nit (6 pages of reprints from COR!!, including two in full colour), The Robot Maker (6 pages of reprints from COR!!, including two in full colour, artwork by Frank McDiarmid), Brainy and His Monster Maker (a 2-pager), Sam’s Son (a 2-pager by Robert Nixon), Hot Rod (3 pages of reprints from WHIZZER AND CHIPS, artwork by Alf Saporito), Penalty Point (spot-the-difference puzzle with a panel from Hire A Horror or Rent A Ghost by Reg Parlett), Dough Nut and Rusty (a 2-pager by someone, possibly Jim Crocker, ghosting Trevor Metcalfe), Swing Along With Kong (spot-the-difference puzzle with a panel from an episode in the weekly by Robert Nixon), X-Ray Specs (a 3-pager), Mummy’s Boy (a 2-pager by Norman Mansbridge), You Gotta Laugh! (2 pages of gags by Mike Lacey), Freaky Farm (a 2-pager by Les Barton), Teddy Scare (a 2-pager in colour on the centerspread by the regular artist), Clean up With Teach (spot-the-difference puzzle with a panel from the weekly, artwork by Tom Williams), Draculass (a 2-pager by Terry Bave), Well, What do You Know! (2 pages of jokes by Mike Lacey), The Little Monsters (one page by Jim Crocker), Monsters from an Unknown Planet feature (3 pages), Art’s Gallery (a 2-pager), Meanie McGenie (1 page), Creature Teacher (a 4-pager by Tom Williams), Film Funny Feature (1 page), Gums (a 2-pager by Artie Jackson).

The lavish front cover by Bob Nixon promised an exciting episode of Gums inside. Disappointingly, it was only a rushed two-pager tucked away towards the end of the paper.

Some of the other MFC stars got a better treatment. As could be expected, there was quite a lot of Kid Kong. Robert Nixon illustrated two stories. In the first one Kid tries to find a way to cool down on a hot day at the seaside and in the other one he has a very intense craving for ‘nanas:

In Creature Teacher the teach takes Class3X on their summer outing to an old castle where the little horrors find temporary shelter behind thick medieval walls. This time it takes the teach quite an effort to subdue Class3X: first he transforms himself into a mechanical digger to fill the moat, then turns into a battering ram to smash through the gates and finally grows a shell to protect himself against artillery fire. Class3X end up in the chamber of little horrors in the dungeons. Artwork by Tom Williams.

X-Ray Specs was also given the privilege of a 3-pager but was illustrated by someone else rather than the regular artist. I get an impression he was undecided whom he wanted to ghost – Terry Bave or Mike Lacey:

In the 2-page episode of Martha’s Monster Make-Up illustrated by Frank McDiarmid Martha is enjoying herself on the pier and brings her monster make-up with her.

Draculass, the other female MFC star, had some fun biting people’s necks at the swimming pool:

The list of reprint strips was expanded by adding Alf Saporito’s Hot Rod from Whizzer and Chips to the usual pair of Stoneage Brit Ancient Nit and The Robot Maker, both from COR!! A few of the episodes of the latter two were coloured-in. Stoneage Brit looks tolerable in colour but the artwork of Frank McDiarmid is too fine and detailed for added colour in The Robot Maker, IMHO.

The 3-page feature Monsters from an Unknown Planet promoted a new film presented by Miracle Films. The images used in this Summer Special were b/w but the advert says the film was in colour.

For dessert, here are two complete stories. The episode of Freaky Farm was the first one ever by Les Barton who did an excellent job drawing it. Mr. Barton was very good at monsters.

Sam’s Son is a strip I don’t remember seeing elsewhere. Another one-off experiment, perhaps?

Earlier in this post I said this was the last MFC Holiday Special but the truth is that after MFC was absorbed by BUSTER, starting from 1977 BUSTER was given two Holiday Specials every year: one was BUSTER HOLIDAY SPECIAL and the other one was BUSTER AND MONSTER FUN HOLIDAY SPECIAL. The practice continued for many years: the last edition with the combined title that I have in my collection is from 1994, and there may have been more later on. I will not cover them in this series because I think they are in the BUSTER territory, but I'll show a small selection of covers. Here are some earlier ones:

…and here are a few from the nineties:

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