MONSTER FUN ANNUAL 1980, PART TWO

I may be mistaken, but it seems to me that Barrie Appleby was not available to contribute to MONSTER FUN Annual 1980 and the strips which would have been drawn by him were given to another artist (or other artists) to illustrate. I can’t decide whether it was Joe McCaffrey or Reg Parlett, or maybe both of them on different strips. Or perhaps it was Barrie Appleby all along, imitating Reg Parlett?

They include both sets of Terror TV. The first one featured The Multi-Horror Swap Shock! show and the other one – All Creatures Big and Small. Here it is in full:

Two episodes of Teddy Scare also fall within the category:

  

… as do both episodes of Tom Thumbscrew:

… as does Brainy and His Monster Maker. One of the two episodes is called Brainy’s Monster Maker. I can see traces of Barrie Appleby, Reg Parlett/Joe McCaffrey and even Frank McDiarmid in this one, here it is in full:

So, who do you think illustrated these?

The Annual contains a fair share or reprints, including the second Badtime Bedtime Book (Robinson Gruesome by Leo Baxendale) from the second issue of Monster Fun Comic weekly. The reprint is twice the size of the original BBB and is printed in b/w:

Now for the highlights, which, for me, are the strips from the hand of Mike Brown. I believe he was responsible for three in this Annual, although none were signed. A Christmas Phanto-Mime is first in line and the only one I have some doubts about regarding artwork credits. I tend to think it is by Mike Brown, but drawn a few years earlier when he was just starting to work on Badtime Bedtime Books in MONSTER FUN COMIC. See for yourselves and let me know what you think:

Alfie’s Alphabet is a hilarious one-off:

And finally, here is the indispensable new Badtime Bedtime Story – Aladdin - a mad combination of the oriental tale, Star Wars and whatnot. There's even the artist's self-portrait on page two. Enjoy!

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

MONSTER FUN ANNUAL 1979, PART ONE

The third Monster Fun Annual was 144 pages thick and cost £1.25. The unusual cover design with just the large portrait of Kid Kong by Bob Nixon is not the only thing that makes it stand out amongst other MF Annuals: unusually for the times, it was printed on quality white paper which doesn’t look like it is prone to browning. Unlike the previous two editions, this one has no adventure stories.

Contents: Draculass (two 2-page stories by Terry Bave, one in b/w and one in colour on front endpapers), Monster Mirth feature (2 pages, including one in full colour), Kid Kong (three 4-pagers: two by Bob Nixon (UPDATE: They were probably by Rob Lee - thanks, Andy, for pointing this out!)), including one in colour, and one by another artist), The Ghost Train (7 pages (2 episodes) of reprints from the early issues of WHOOPEE!, art by Brian Walker), Hot Rod (4 episodes, all reprints from WHIZZER AND CHIPS, art by Alf Saporito), Rex (a 6-pager by Alan Rogers), Ticklish Allsorts feature (2 installments by Les Barton), King Arthur and his Frights of the Round Table (reprints from the early issues of WHOOPEE!, art by Bob Nixon, three 3-pagers), Lunchin’ Vulture (3 episodes reprinted from the early issues of WHOOPEE!, art by Frank McDiarmid), Boggles Super Ace Detective (Badtime Bedtime Story by Mike Brown, 8 pages), The Little Monsters (3 spot-the-difference puzzles, 2 full pages each by Tom Williams, and two 2-pagers by Sid Burgon), Mucky Mick (3 episodes – two 2-pagers and one single page episode by an artist whose name  I don’t know),  Brainy and His Monster Maker (two 2-pagers by Barrie Appleby), Gums (a 4-pager by John Geering), X-Ray Specs (two episodes – a 3-pager featuring Mummy’s Boy and a 4-pager, both by Tom Williams), Martha’s Monster Make-Up (a 2-pager by Ken Reid), Freaky Farm (a 4-pager by Jim Watson), Dough Nut and Rusty (two episodes – a 4-pager and a 3-pager in full colour by Jim Crocker) , Croc (reprint from WHIZZER AND CHIPS, art by Mike Lacey), Frankie Stein (two 2-pagers - reprints from the early issues of WHOOPEE!, art by Bob Nixon), It’s a Scream feature (2 pages of gags by Jim Crocker), Fun Fear (a 2-pager, probably by Mr. Hill), Ghost Town (a 2-pager reprinted from WHIZZER AND CHIPS, artwork by Tom Williams), Art’s Gallery (a 4-pager by an artist whose name I don’t know), Tom Thumbscrew (a 6-pager by Barrie Appleby), Terror TV (a 4-pager by Barrie Appleby), Creature Teacher (a 4-pager by Tom Williams), Major Jump (a 4-pager by Barrie Appleby), Teddy Scare (a 2-pager in colour by Barrie Appleby), Mummy’s Boy (a 2-pager in colour on back endpapers by Trevor Metcalfe, possibly a reprint).

The Annual is a bit on the heavy side of reprints but Hot Rod is the only reprint strip seen in earlier MF books. The list of reprints was expanded with first rate artwork by some of IPC’s top talent from the early issues of WHOOPEE! and includes The Ghost Train by Brian Walker, Lunchin’ Vulture by Frank McDiarmid:

... Frankie Stein by Bob Nixon and the absolutely beautiful King Arthur and his Frights of the Round Table, also by Bob Nixon:

All in all, that's 23 pages of reprints of early WHOOPEE! strips. Looking at them I couldn’t help pulling out the box with my early WHOOPEE! comics and admiring the quality artwork that the paper was chock-full from cover to cover in the mid-seventies. I really must get round to doing that detailed review of WHOOPEE! I’ve been meaning to do for so long…

Mr. Nixon’s early work in the reprints is a lot more detailed in comparison with his new strips. Looking at his two Kid Kong sets in this annual, I even wonder if they are indeed Mr. Nixon’s work (UPDATE: they aren't. In all likelihood both episodes were illustrated by by Rob Lee - thanks, Andy, for pointing this out in your comment below!): 

In the first of the two episodes that I believe are by Robert Nixon, Kid enjoys the white Christmas and in the second one he tries to earn some money to buy Gran a Christmas present. In the 4-pager by another artist Kid and Gran check into a posh hotel and Kid nearly gets them kicked out but the flood caused by Kid’s tears puts out a fire in the kitchen. As a reward, the hotel manger allows them to stay and the chef treats them to the Christmas dinner of Kid’s dreams:

The style looks familiar but I can’t put a name to it:

The episode of Gums was illustrated by John Geering. In it Bluey tricks Gums into taking a bite on his surfboard made of sticky toffee and pulls his false teeth out.  The shark resorts to playing dead in order to get his choppers back.

There are two completely new stories in this book.  Rex is about a gluttonous baby Tyrannosaurus Rex who hatches from the egg found in an ancient box labelled “not to be opened until 1978” buried deep under the ground. First he wins a fancy dress competition, then a short-sighted kid takes him to school:

Mucky Mick is about a boy whose “gimmick” is getting dirty and hating to wash. I don’t know the name of the artist but wasn’t he the one who illustrated Goon Platoon in the early issues of WHOOPEE! ? UPDATE: the character originally appeared in KNOCKOUT in the early 70s, so in all likelihood it is a reprint rather than new material drawn especially for this MF Annual 1979.

Fun Fear was a regular strip in WHOOPEE! (usually drawn by Bob Nixon and occasionally by Brian Walker) and is seen for the first time in a MF publication. I wouldn’t bet mo money on it, but I think the episode in this book may have been drawn by Mr. Hill:

Group Captain Brown (aka Mike Brown) contributed a classic 8-page Badtime Bedtime Story Boggles Super Ace Detective about Airborne Division of Police Air H.Q. and the daft aces Boggles and Wingco. 

The pair are sent on a mission to fight the fiendish Doktor Grotti who bombards London with his giant mushroom missiles and infests the city with toadstools. 

More by accident than by design, the villain and his henchman end up in the soup… 

Like many classic BBBs, this one had side gags, loony advertisements, jokey riddles and interruptions by the reader’s adviser and of course ‘the Amazing Leonard Rottingsocks’.

Santa Claus calls at Freaky Farm to give Farmer his present but quickly comes to regret it:

In Martha’s Monster Make-Up Martha ‘monstrifies’ a snowman and a pile of snowballs to teach the trickster a lesson:

Tom Williams and Barrie Appleby were the two artists who were particularly busy drawing stuff for this book: the former illustrated 19 pages, while the latter – as many as 20, all new material. This is where I’ll take a break and leave the rest for part two.

All Images 2014 © Egmont UK Ltd.  All rights reserved. Used with permission.

MONSTER FUN ANNUAL 1978 – PART TWO

This is part two of my detailed look at MONSTER FUN ANNUAL 1978. You can read the first part in the previous post HERE.

Ian Knox illustrated and signed the three-page set of Terror TV lampooning Top of the Pops with Tony Blackout (= Tony Blackburn) as host. Here we meet some performers who are now almost forgotten: 

... and some stars who are still big today: 

Both two-pagers of Ticklish Allsorts with Les Barton artwork were in the best tradition of Monster Fun Comic weeklies. Here is one:

The book had another story of Terry and the ‘Dactyl, the second one after 1977 Annual. In it Terry Briggs and his pet – the great flying prehistoric reptile – descend from their home in Inca gold city high on a plateau to recover the gold plate which they accidentally dropped down. Down on the ground, they confront a ruthless gang of bearded desperado raiders and liberate Argentine doctor senorita Isabella Mendez whom they have kidnapped for ransom. The gorgeous good doctor rewards the lad with the gold plate given to her as a gift by the natives, and Terry and the ‘dactyl return to the safety of their home on the great plateau. The best thing about the story is that the illustrator had sneaked in his signature in one of the panels which helped me identify him as Giorgio Giorgetti. This means that I can now confirm the name of the artist who illustrated quite a few adventure strips in IPC comics, including The Ghostly Galleon in SHIVER AND SHAKE and most importantly Rat Trap in COR!!

Panel with the artist's signature

The Annual had one more adventure thriller called The Menace of Formula X. It first appeared in COR!! weeklies and all 20 pages of the original story were reprinted the Annual. I covered it in detail HERE a couple of years ago.

Other reprints included the usual selection of Hot Rod, Stoneage Brit Ancient Nit and The Robot Maker, all re-arranged into two-pagers and some coloured-in. With the two installments of The Robot Maker in this Annual, the number of reprints of the strip in MFC publications summed up to 19 which meant that the stock of original episodes from the COR!! run in 1970 was now exhausted.

The most exciting thing about this Annual is that it has two Badtime Bedtime Books. Both are classic BBBs in everything except that they aren’t pull-outs.

The Story of Traffic Island by Robert Loony Stevedore is presented by none other than Leonard Rottingsocks – ‘office boy, wit, and prehistoric chip buttie collector’, whatever this means. The Traffic Island is actually a plot of lush greenery inside a busy traffic roundabout. Little Jim Ladd is sent there to fetch the Mayor’s hat that was blown off and landed there. He meets two weird inhabitants of the island – the poor Ben Gooni who was accidentally left behind when the road was built, and the evil Long Gone Silver who was ‘deported’ by the Mayor and now wears Mayor’s hat in revenge. Jim is a smart lad: not only does he recover the hat but he also helps Ben Gooni break free from the island. 

The story was interrupted a few times by promotional intermissions featuring the loony Dr. Bonce, 'noted brain surgeon and twit':

I don’t know the name of the artist but he was not nearly as good as Mike Brown who drew the second BBB - the absolutely brilliant Badtime Bedtime Annual Story Starchy and Butch. Here it is in full:

All Images 2014 © Egmont UK Ltd.  All rights reserved. Used with permission.