welcome and enjoy!

Hi and welcome to my blog about comics from other people’s childhood! It is dedicated primarily to British humour comics of the 60s and 70s. The reason they are not from my childhood is simply because I didn’t live in the UK back then (nor do I live there now). I knew next to nothing about them until fairly recently but since then I’ve developed a strong liking for the medium and amassed a large collection, including a number of complete or near complete sets. My intention is to use this blog as a channel for sharing my humble knowledge about different titles, favourite characters and creators as I slowly research my collection.

QUICK TIP: this blog is a sequence of posts covering one particular comic at a time. The sequence follows a certain logic, so for maximum results it is recommended that the blog is read from the oldest post up.

Copyright of all images and quotations used here is with their respective owners. Any such copyrighted material is used exclusively for educational purposes and will be removed at first notice. All other text copyright Irmantas P.



Showing posts with label Kid Kong. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kid Kong. Show all posts

Monday, February 23, 2015

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.

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

MONSTER FUN ANNUAL 1980, PART ONE



The fourth MF Annual was the first without Kid Kong on the cover; the big ape was replaced by Frankie Stein the friendly monster, drawn and signed by Robert Nixon. The book is 144 pages thick. My copy is price clipped, but looking at other Fleetway annuals released that year I think it will be safe to assume that the price was still £1.25.

Contents: Draculass (two 2-pagers in colour by Terry Bave, including one on front endpapers), Kid Kong (two 4-pagers by Bob Nixon, including one in colour), Hot Rod (6 reprints from Whizzer and Chips, including one in colour; artwork by Alf Saporito, Cyril Price and possibly someone else), Creature Teacher (two 3-pagers by Tom Williams), Teddy Scare (two 2-pagers),  The Little Monsters (two 2-pagers by Ed McHenry), Dough Nut and Rusty (two 4-pagers by Jim Crocker), George and his Magic Dragon (a 3-pager by Alan Rogers), Terror TV (two 3-pagers), A Christmas Phanto-Mime (a 4-pager, probably by  Mike Brown), Puzzles feature (a 2-pager), Art’s Gallery (a 2-pager by Terry Bave), Tom Thumbscrew (two 2-pagers), Frankie Stein (a 3-pager by John Geering and a 4-pager by Robert Nixon), Major Jump (a 4-pager), Badtime Bedtime Book – Second Showing – Robinson Gruesome (8 pages by Leo Baxendale, reprint of BBB No. 2 from MFC), Gums (two 3-pagers by Tom Williams and a 2-pager by Alf Saporito), Freaky Farm (two 3-pagers and a 4-pager, all by Jim Watson), Martha’s Monster Make-Up (two 2-pagers by Ken Reid), Brainy’s Monster Maker (two 2-pagers, including one in colour back endpapers),  King Arthur and his Frights of the Round Table (3 reprints from WHOOPEE!, artwork by Robert Nixon); Little Devil (a 2-pager by Tom Williams), Alfie’s Alphabet feature (2 pages by Mike Brown), Freaky Fairy Tales gags (1 page by Jack Clayton), Monster Maze puzzle (1 page), Animal Antics (2 pages of gags by Jack Clayton), The Haunted Wood (a 2pager by Les Barton), Dino-Sore spot the difference puzzle (by Cliff Brown), Dragon Fry! spot-the-difference puzzle (by Cliff Brown), X-mas Crossword (2 pages), Badtime Bedtime Story: Aladdin (8 pages by Mike Brown), X-Ray Specs (a 3-pager in colour by Mike Lacey).

Frankie Stein was the front cover star, so first let’s look at the two episodes of his adventures in this Annual. John Geering illustrated the one in which Prof Cube builds a robot programmed to destroy Frankie. “Robbie” serves his purpose and Frankie is smashed to bits. What Prof Cube hasn’t foreseen is that the robot will want to take Frankie’s place as Cube’s son. When the cruel scientist turns his back on him, the robot puts Frankie back together, brings him to life again and then self-destructs.

The gory sight of Frankie's body parts lying about

In the 4-pager by Bob Nixon Prof Cube gets an idea that perhaps if he persuaded Frankie he had double vision, the stupid lunk would go to hospital and Prof Cube could enjoy peace and quiet. Just as the plan is about to succeed, Frankie causes a traffic accident, Prof Cube suffers concussion and starts seeing double…


Kid Kong, the ousted cover star, features in two stories in this Annual, both drawn by Robert Nixon (although one is unsigned). In the first one Kid gets a Christmas job to earn some money to buy Gran a prezzy (just like last year, remember?).  He fails as a postman, then as a supermarket hand and finally as Santa in a department store but is rewarded in the end for giving presents to poor children rather than the rich ones who have plenty already.

In the second story Gran makes Kid Kong exercise because he is too heavy. Gran looses her temper in the end and Kid takes shelter in sauna baths for a few hours:


Tom Williams is an important contributor to this book. He illustrated two Creature Teacher tales. In the first one Teach’s temper is put to test during a craft lesson and he (or is Teach an “it”?) has to transform into a giant mole to restore order:


In the second episode Sir takes class 3X to look around a historic galleon and they resort to mutiny:


In the first of the two episodes of Gums illustrated by Tom Williams Bluey tricks Gums into swapping his old set of teeth for a new and shiny one made of rock. It melts in the shark’s mouth, the predator recovers his old gnashers and threatens to have Bluey for Christmas dinner but a little girl reminds them that Christmas is supposed to be the season of goodwill and suggests the two of them call a truce for the rest of the day:


In the second episode Gums pretends to have lost its teeth and holiday makers believe it is now safe to go out in the bay. This is one of those stories when Bluey prevails and the shark ends up toothless.


The third Gums tale was illustrated by Alf Saporito who drew quite a few episodes in the weeklies towards the end of the run. In this one Gums has a bad dream in which Bluey is a giant:


Let’s get back to Tom Williams who also drew the double-pager of Little Devil. The character was borrowed from KNOCKOUT comic where it appeared regularly in the early 70s. Here is the episode from MF Annual 1980, followed by the first KNOCKOUT episode:



And while we are on the subject of revived KNOCKOUT strips, The Haunted Wood is also originally from the seldom remembered first “all-colour” Fleetway comic where it started in the first issue and was illustrated by Reg Parlett, succeeded by Sid Burgon. The new episode in this MFC Annual 1980 was drawn by Les Barton. Here it is in full, followed by the first episode in KNOCKOUT:



Both KNOCKOUT “phoenixes” (Little Devil and The Haunted Wood) appear to be new material created especially for this MF Annual 1980.

Freaky Farm is represented by as many as three episodes. The first one is about a pair of motor-bikers who trespass on Freaky Farm and encounter a giant sharp-fanged toad, a horde of monster mice and the unfriendly farmhouse. When they flee in terror, police officers can’t believe they are doing it on foot…


The second is about an unfortunate veterinarian from the Ministry of Nitteries who calls at Freaky Farm to vaccinate cows against the suspected strength-sapping animal flu and faces the consequences:


The third visitor is I.Studyem, the well-known botanist, who is looking for ‘wild’ flowers. He most certainly finds more than he’s looking for. Here are the last two pages:


Ken Reid contributed two episodes of Martha’s Monster Make-Up. In the first one Martha puts some of her make-up on the next door neighbour’s cat so that it wouldn’t be bullied by all the other cats in the neighborhood…


.. and in the second one she monstrifies her snowman and some snowballs to teach the rotten bully a lesson; the script is rather lazy because it hardly differs from Martha’s story in the previous MONSTER FUN annual.


Alan Rogers illustrated George ‘n his (Magic) Dragon which looks like a mutation of Rex strip from the previous MF Annual.  George and Cedric the magic dragon accept an offer to beat a carpet for 50 p. but Cedric accidentally burns a hole in it and turns it into a flying carpet so that they can fly off and get another one.


This is the first MF Annual with Jack Clayton art:


Ed McHenry drew two sets of The Little Monsters:


What I find disappointing about this annual is the 4-pager of Major Jump in which Major and Cosmo go to deepest Africa to catch the dreaded Stripey Buzzflap. For me, poor artwork spoils even the best of stories. I am sure I could do better when I was ten…


I will save the rest for the second half of the overview.

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