The last WHOOPEE! FRANKIE STEIN HOLIDAY SPECIAL came out
for the summer holidays of 1982. It had 64 pages and cost 50 p.
The central story was Frankie Stein
and Three Wishes – a 12-page, three-part tale illustrated by Frank
McDiarmid. Driven into despair, Professor Cube is brewing another magic anti-Frankie
potion, but Frankie causes an accident and some surprise chemical reaction
summons a Genie who now has to grant Prof. Cube three wishes. Guess what the
first one is:
The Genie turns out to be not a very smart one:
Dad realizes that now that he can’t see where his
creation is, Frankie is likely to cause even more damage so he begs that the Genie
takes the spell off Frankie. That’s one wish wasted. Dad is more careful when
wording his second one:
Poor Dad fails to realize that he and Frankie are ‘tied
up’ and when the Genie sends Frankie to Magic Land (that’s Genie’s idea of
billions and billions of miles away), the big lunk drags the parent with him.
In Magic Land they nearly fall under the spell of a cunning witch but her
concoction causes Frankie to sneeze hard and the two make their escape. The
blast of Frankie’s sneeze sends Prof. Cube flying on a carpet as though it were
a magic one. Their next encounter is with the King of Magic Land and his
daughter the whimsical princess who wants the magic carpet. Dad trades it for
the King’s royal spell which makes Frankie vanish. That’s when the princess realizes
that it is an ordinary carpet that won’t fly so both aristocrats set after Dad
who finds a hiding place in the bushes. The princess spots a croaking frog
which she kisses without hesitation hoping it will turn into a handsome prince (remember,
this is Magic Land). The kiss breaks the spell and it turns out it was Frankie
whom King had turned into a frog. Frankie accidentally gives Dad’s hideout away
and the King gets his revenge by sending them both back to where they came from.
That’s the second wish bungled.
Prof. Cube realizes that lots of his problems would disappear
if Frankie was tiny, and that’s what he wishes for. The Genie can now retire to
sleep for the next few hundred years. Dad locks Frankie in a small cage with a
hamster wheel and takes him aboard a cruise ship as he goes on holiday. Frankie
breaks loose and causes havoc on the ship. Check out the last two pages of the
story:
Except for the front cover and two pages of Frankie Stein gags by artists
whose names I don’t know, Frankie Stein and Three Wishes was
the only new Frankie Stein material. 4 pages of Frankie’s Diary (probably
by Jim Crocker) and two half-pagers of Ticklish Allsorts (by Les Barton) were
reprinted from MONSTER FUN COMIC, while Freaky Frankie three-panel strips
without speech balloons on the back page were the work of Sid Burgon for Shiver and SHAKE weeklies. That’s a total of 21 pages of Frankie Stein.
There were two new 4-page episodes of Monster
Movie Makers by Mr. Hill who signed his MMM sets for the first time.
Carlo Monte is upset because his assistant Jock has sold all their films and
they are now on TV with Director receiving no royalties. Carlo Monte orders his assistant to come up
with a fresh idea so that he can make money again. Jock suggests that a film
featuring a monster frog would be sensational. The filming proves to be a
disaster and what’s even worse, some TV cameramen capture everything on film.
Carlo Monte is furious because telly boys are now going to make another fortune
out of him!
In the second episode Jock is back from his holidays
and Director laments to him about a series of failures which occurred in Jock’s
absence because of their incompetent props team. Jock comes up with an idea of
a film about a giant jelly-fish but with the entire props department now fired,
he turns for help to canteen staff who make him a giant wobbling piece of strawberry
jelly. The reaction that the filmmakers get from children during filming on the
mock-up beach is nothing like they had expected because instead of getting
terrified with the 'jelly-fish' the kids start feasting on it. Everything turns out well in the end
for Monster Movie Makers because their new monster comedy is a trendsetter.
In a 4-page set by Alan Rogers Computer Cop deals with a
gang of museum robbers led by a master crook who steals pictures for his collection
and doesn’t know when to stop.
A Frightfully Funny Story… is by an artist whose name I don’t know but I find
his style rather interesting. The 4-page story is about a tall and lean boy
named Eric who is always hungry. He decides to enter for the monster fancy dress
competition at the town hall and try to win the first prize – a hamper of grub.
Eric is so broke he can’t afford a costume, so he uses the stuff he can find at
the local junk-yard. His disguises get him into lots of trouble and when he
finally makes it to the town hall, he doesn’t even need a costume to win the
prize:
5 pages were filled with new non-comic strip material,
such as puzzles, jokes and gags, nothing to write home about, really. The game on the centerspread seems somewhat
out of context to me:
As many as 18 pages were reprints of various
first-class IPC strips: you can find three early episodes of Terror TV by Ian Knox (from MONSTER FUN COMIC), three two-pagers of Wizards Anonymous by Brian Walker (from SHIVER AND SHAKE), three pages of Rent-A-Ghost
Ltd. by Reg Parlett (from BUSTER), two pages of Tom Thumbsrew by Norman Mansbridge
(from MONSTER FUN COMIC) and two episodes of The Hand - one by Frank
McDiarmid and the other one by I don’t know who (from SHIVER AND SHAKE).
All Images 2014 © Egmont UK
Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with
permission.
This post closes the chapter of FRANKIE STEIN
publications so it’s time to bid the friendly monster farewell for now and get
back to MONSTER FUN COMIC.
