The
hardcover book came with a poorly drawn cover that had nothing to do with the Frankie Stein story inside; it was 112 pages thick and cost £2.25.
Contents:
The Abominable Ho-Ho Man (gags in
full colour on front endpapers by Artie Jackson), Draculass (3 two-pagers by
Terry Bave, including one in colour), Freaky Farm (2 three-pagers by
Russel Brooke, including one in colour), King Arthur and His Frights of the Round
Table (a three-pager and 2 two-pagers, reprints from WHOOPEE!, two by
Robert Nixon and one by a ghost artist), The Little Monsters (three sets by Martin
Baxendale: at The Zoo; at the Sports Day;
at the Garden Centre), Kid Kong (a four-pager and a three-pager
(reprint) by Robert Nixon), Art’s Gallery (2 two-pagers by Mike
Lacey, probably reprints), Brainy and His Monster Maker (a
two-pager by Tom Williams and 2 two-pagers by someone else), Mummy’s
Boy (2 two-pagers by Norman Mansbridge), Hot Rod (2 two-pagers of reprints
from WHIZZER AND CHIPS, artwork by Alf Saporito), Major Jump (a two-pager
and a one-pager, both reprints from MFC weeklies, artwork by Ian Knox), The Ghost
Train (2 three-pagers reprinted from WHOOPEE, artwork by Brian Walker),
Frankie
Stein (a 6-pager by Robert Nixon), X-Ray Specs (3 three-pagers, all reprints,
artwork by Mike Lacey), Terror TV (a 4-pager and a 3-pager, artwork
by Barrie Appleby), Monster Mirth (1 page of gags by Artie Jackson and 1 page of
gags in colour by Tom Paterson (reprints)), Badtime Bedtime Story: One
Billion Years B.C. (an 8-page set by Mike Brown); Frankie’s Fun Pages (2 two-pagers
of puzzles), Ronnie’s Robot (a 2-pager by Mike Brown), Gums (a 2-pager by Robert
Nixon); Tom Thumbscrew (a 2-pager by Norman Mansbridge), Strong
Silent Type (Frankie Stein
strip cartoons by Sid Burgon, reprints from Shiver
and Shake), Dough Nut and Rusty (a 3-pager in colour by Jim Crocker), Teddy
Scare (a 3-pager in colour by Barrie Appleby).
Russel
Broke was put in charge of Freaky Farm for the second year in a
row. In the first episode two treasure seekers visit Freaky Farm armed with
their metal detectors and run into a giant worm with a machine gun, a speaking
tree, a monster queen bee and a freaky tractor:
In
the second episode the army pick Freaky Farm for their exercise:
In
Kid
Kong Gran’s uncle Bert comes to visit from Australia:
Robert
Nixon’s other contribution was a new 6-page episode of Frankie Stein. In it
Prof. Cube tries to get rid of the ‘gormless goon’ by building a swing with
rubber ropes and using it to catapult Frankie out of his life, but ends up with
more repair and damage bills. He becomes a street artist and musician to raise
money. Frankie decides to help him and proves to be so good at it that a record
company offers him a big contract:
In
one of her three stories in this Annual Draculass finds her chamber of
horrors in a French restaurant:
The
two shows featured in the double-helping of Terror TV in this Annual
were The Ghoul Old Days and Some Monsters Do ‘ave ‘em. Both were
drawn by Barrie Appleby who also illustrated the episode of Teddy
Scare:
It’s
good to see a new Badtime Bedtime Story after a two-year break. In One
Billion Years. B.C. school boy Terry shares a story of how he went back
in time. Here are the opening two pages:
This
was the last Badtime Bedtime Story ever but it wasn’t Mike Brown’s only work in this Annual:
Mike
Brown isn’t the only disciple of Leo Baxendale whose work features in this book
- Martin Baxendale provided three panoramas of the Little Monsters and here’s
one:
There
are two more MFC Annuals remaining …
That reminds me - I lettered some pages of Martin Baxendale for a Holiday Special back in 1985 or '86. I felt quite honoured to be working on the art of Leo's boy. Anyone know what Martin's doing nowadays?
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