MONSTER FUN ANNUAL 1981, PART ONE

In comparison with the previous edition, the Annual lost 16 pages and cost 55 p more, i.e. £1.80.

Contents: Freaky Farm (a 2-pager on front endpapers in colour by Jim Watson), Hot Rod (3 reprints from WHIZZER AND CHIPS, artwork by Alf Saporito), Frankie Stein (a 3-pager in colour by Brian Walker), Tom Thumbscrew (a 3-pager), King Arthur and his Frights of the Round Table (4 reprints from WHOOPEE!, including one in colour; artwork by Robert Nixon), Spot the Space Changes puzzle (2 pages), The Castaways (reprint from Whizzer and Chips, artwork by Ron Turner, 23 pages), Gums (a 3-pager by John Geering and a 3-pager by Tom Williams), Fun Wars (10 pages by Doug Baker), Teddy Scare (2 pages), Martha’s Monster  Make-Up (a 2-pager by John Geering),  Terror TV (a 4-pager by Barrie Appleby), Brainy and His Monster Maker (a 2-pager by Tom Williams), Draculass (two 2-pagers by Terry Bave), X-Ray Specs (a 3-pager by John Geering and a 2-pager by Tom Williams), The Heat is On maze, Terry Dactyl Stone Age Detective (a 4-pager), Major Jump (a 3-pager), The Ghost Train (7 pages of reprints from WHOOPEE!, including two in colour on back end-papers; artwork by Brian Walker), Sir Twistalot maze (artwork by Cliff Brown), Jason and his Joggernaut (2 episodes), Monster Mind-Mixers (1 page signed by Ian Bennett), Mummy’s Boy (a 2-pager by Norman Mansbridge, possibly a reprint), Grimly Feendish (a 4-pager by Paul Ailey), Kid Kong (a 3-pager by Tom Williams), The Adventures of The Scarlet Pimply-Neddy (reprint of the BBB from MFC No. 50), Dough Nut and Rusty (a 3-pager by Jim Crocker), Creature Teacher (a 3-pager in colour by Tom Williams).

Frankie Stein consolidated his front cover position but I am unsure who the illustrator was. Inside, there is only one Frankie Stein story, drawn by Brian Walker and presented in colour. Prof Cube makes Fredastein - a girl monster, hoping she will annoy Frankie and drive him away. Of course, he miscalculates again – Fredastein proves to be as disaster-prone as Frankie; as a side-effect, Frankie comes to appreciate the company of girls:

Kid Kong also received only one strip this time. Trying to help Gran redecorate the house, Kid smashes a few holes in the walls and goes to get a brick-man to fix them. In a weird twist of circumstances, he catches two bank robbers and spends his reward on house repairs and – surprise surprise – ‘nanas. The artist is Tom Williams who did quite a lot of work for this edition, including an episode of Creature Teacher in which a photographer calls to take a class photo of 3X and ends up getting photographed himself:

… an episode of Brainy and His Monster Maker in which Brainy monsterizes a mushroom:

… an episode of X-Ray Specs:

… and an episode of Gums in which the shark is eager to be allowed into the annual water carnival and demonstrates his talents as a clown and a performing seal. This time no one tries to take away his false teeth for a change:

Like Tom Williams, John Geering also illustrated one episode of Gums in which the shark wants to scare some divers who are after giant clams but finds himself in trouble with others of his own species:

… and an episode of X-Ray Specs in which Ray annoys other kids by winning all the games at a X-mas party but becomes popular again in the end:

Besides these two strips, John Geering contributed a double-pager of Martha’s Monster Make-Up in which Martha visits a new hair salon in town:

Jim Watson drew one episode of Freaky Farm in which the Farmer receives two wiseguys who’ve come to rob him:

Terry Bave’s contribution was two episodes of Draculass. Here is one:

The episode of Terror TV is by Barrie Appleby:

Major Jump is by the same ‘artist’ who drew it in the previous edition:

Those who put this Annual together probably thought one poorly draw strip wasn’t enough so they brought in more ‘talent’ to draw the episode of Tom Thumbscrew:

…and the episode of Teddy Scare:

54 pages of this book are definitely reprints, including Hot Rod, King Arthur and his Frights of the Round Table and Ghost Train which had already appeared in previous editions of MF Annuals. There are two new and welcome additions to the reprints package. One is The Adventures of The Scarlet Pimply-Neddy – the Badtime Bedtime Story from MFC No. 50. Pages of the reprint are twice the size of the original pull-out booklet – a perfect way to appreciate quality artwork by Mike Brown. I prefer the black and white version of the reprint to the cluttered colour presentation in the original BBB:

The other reprint is 23 pages of The Castaways by the excellent Ron Turner. The strip is originally from WHIZZER AND CHIPS where it ran from the first issue of 1972. Here are two sample pages:

In part two of my look at MONSTER FUN ANNUAL 1981 I will cover all the new strips featured in this book, including Fun Wars and Jason and his Joggernaut, and mention one or two artists who are new to me.

All Images 2015 © Egmont UK Ltd.  All rights reserved. Used with permission.

A LOOK AT MONSTER FUN STRIPS: DRACULASS

Draculass was a daughter of Dracula who came to England from Transylvania to stay with her relatives (Aunt, Uncle and cousin Maisie – all of them perfectly normal people). Draculass was a no-joke vampire – green-faced and sharp-fanged, she fed on human blood and was always on the lookout for unsuspecting victims to prang. Luckily for the victims, Draculass’ bite wasn't lethal and didn’t turn them into vampires, all they needed was a patch of sticking plaster. Nonetheless, the little vampire’s urges didn’t make her very popular amongst the townsfolk of Monsterville, and Maisie was her only friend (possibly because they had an arrangement that Draculass won’t try to prang her cousin). Her fangs always at the ready, every week Draculass schemed to take a bite at a nice neck or two; needless to say, her plots usually backfired. 

Draculass was illustrated by Terry Bave who devoted a couple of passages to the strip in his interview for the Summer 1986 edition of GOLDEN FUN. Mr. Bave recalls he created the character together with his wife Sheila when they had been invited to contribute to the new comic by way of creating a suitable ‘monster’ feature. Initially they thought of Draculadd but then Shiela suggested that a little vampire lass might prove more fun, and by replacing the two D’s with a couple of S’s they arrived at Draculass. Mr. Bave recalled that Draculass proved very popular with MFC readers and even attracted her very own brand of fain mail, “with many a reader (especially girls) exclaiming their sheer delight over the little vampire’s fangs”. In the interview Mr. Bave says: “Obviously, the emphasis was on ‘fun’ and not ‘fear’ so I had to play down the blood-letting aspect of the vampire characteristic. When the script called for an encounter between Draculass and one of her unsuspecting victims, I would first show the little vampire sizeing-up her victim, then with fangs at the ready, then the following frame would show Draculass flying away with a satisfied grin on her face while her perplexed victim would be shown to have acquired a cross-patch of sticking plaster on his or her neck! During my many ‘talks on comics’ with children of varying ages I have always found tremendous enthusiasm for this character.”

Draculass started in MFC No. 1 and continued to the very end without missing a week. The little vampire got her own poster in issue 22 (8th November, 1975) and a cut-out mask in issue No. 34 (31st January, 1976) – you can read about the making of the mask in the same interview of Mr. Bave in the Summer 1986 edition of GOLDEN FUN. The strip survived merger with BUSTER and continued there for another fourteen months until 10th December 1977.