A LOOK AT MONSTER FUN COMIC FEATURES: MONSTER HITS

Monster Hits (Top 10 Gags) was a regular reader participation feature in MONSTER FUN COMIC in which readers were offered cash prizes for sending in their jokes. Every week contributors of the gags ranked 10 to 2 in the “chuckle charts” received a pound each, while the sender of that week’s chart-topper (printed at the bottom of the page) collected 2 quid. Production process took approx. two months, so the names of the first participants appeared in MFC No. 8.  We may not know who sat on the “panel of experts” that compiled the charts and ranked the jokes at MFC offices but we know who the illustrators were – and this is what matters. 

A few of the weekly sets were by Artie Jackson who drew the jokes in MFC Nos. 1, 4 (together with Mike Lacey), 49, 50, 52, 61 and 70. Mike Lacey illustrated the chart in MFC No. 2 and drew some of the jokes in No. 4 (others were by Artie Jackson). Here is the page from MFC No. 4 with Artie Jackson’s and Mike Lacey’s work side-by-side:

Leslie Harding drew three sets in MFC issues 5, 6 and 7:

Starting from MFC issue No. 8 the vast majority of the sets were by Tom Paterson whose style was still shaping itself at the time. It looks like at that stage he was studying and trying to imitate Graham Allen – his other strong influence besides Leo Baxendale. Here are two early examples from MFC No. 8 and 14:

Monster Hits continued throughout the entire run of the comic, missing only one issue (No. 3). All were in b/w except in issues 11, 24 and 26 were they were printed in full colour. This one is from No. 24:

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

A LOOK AT MONSTER FUN STRIPS: MEANIE MCGENIE

Meanie McGenie was a funny little strip about a mean kilt-wearing highlander genie known by the name of Meanie McGenie. Like all genies, he lived in a magic oriental lamp and emerged from it when someone rubbed on it. What made Meanie McGenie different from his kind was that he hated being disturbed and would only grant one wish. Furthermore, Meanie McGenie annoyed his “customers” by always finding a cheap way to fulfil their wishes and thus lived up to his name. It is no surprise that the folks who found the lamp didn’t hesitate to toss it away for someone else to find (and get disappointed) in the next episode.

From MFC No. 70. Art by Mike Lacey

The modest 17-episode run of Meanie McGenie started in MFC No. 2. The strip then disappeared for nearly 6 months and was re-introduced in issue 27 but failed to keep a regular schedule and ended in issue 70. Here is the list of MFC issues where Meanie Mcgenie can be found: 2, 27, 28, 30-33, 35, 38, 40, 43, 47, 53, 59, 64 and 70. All the episodes were 1/2 page long.

From MFC No. 61. Art by Mike Lacey

12 episodes of Meanie McGenie were illustrated by Mike Lacey. Tom Williams drew the episodes in issues No. 38 and 43, and the sets in Nos. 40, 59 and 64 were by yet another artist whose name I don’t know. Here are examples of Tom Williams’ and the other artist’s work:

 

A LOOK AT MONSTER FUN STRIPS: ART’S GALLERY

Art was a boy who inherited his uncle’s mansion and found stacks of paintings inside. He came up with an idea to open an art gallery to exhibit the collection but didn’t realise these were no ordinary paintings – the characters painted in them were alive and able to climb out of their frames and interact with each other and the real world. The worst thing about them was that they were all lazy-bones who hated being put on display to be ‘gawped at’ by ‘silly visitors’. The enchanted paintings plotted various schemes to send visitors packing, while Art used his wits to get the better of the misbehaved picture characters.

In the beginning the strip was tied-in with a participation feature (Art’s Potty Pictures) in which the readers were invited to send picture ideas involving play on words and win £1 for every picture published. Readers’ contributions were printed on the same pages as the strip or the page opposite. The participation feature was discontinued after issue 19 which included a bumper final selection of potty pictures. My version of the reason why it ended was the introduction (in MFC No. 16) of Ticklish Allsorts – a feature that accommodated jokes of every kind, including those of the play-on-words variety that were the specialty of Art’s Potty Pictures.

Initially Art’s Gallery occupied the two pages which formed the centrespread after the pull-out booklet or the poster was detached from the comic. From issue No. 19 the strip was reduced to one page and continued like that for the remainder of its modest run untill issue No. 34, missing issues No. 21 and 24 (also 16, in which there was no story, only the potty pictures). The illustrator was Mike Lacey (except in No. 12 where a ghost artist stepped in). Mr. Lacey’s output was quite amazing at the time – in addition to Art’s Gallery, he was also in charge of X-Ray Specs in MFC, plus he drew weekly instalments of Scared-Stiff Sam (a two-pager) and The Bumpkin Billionaires (front cover and two inside pages) in Whoopee!  On top of that, we was also the illustrator of Sid's Snake and Shiner in WHIZZER AND CHIPS. This makes at least 10 pages every week! Perhaps this was one of the reasons why Art’s Gallery was soon reduced from two pages to one and then dropped altogether. 

A LOOK AT MONSTER FUN STRIPS: X-RAY SPECS

Ray was as an ordinary boy until a mystery optician (I.Squint) gave him a pair of specs with x-ray vision. From then on he became one of those kids with gimmicks that were so common in IPC comics. The specs were quite a peculiar piece of eyewear – they enabled Ray to see through things – humans, walls, ground, bushes – everything. The specs also worked in reverse: 

… they worked fine even when covered with paint: 

… they granted x-ray vision to anyone who put them on, including animals: 

… and this is what happened if you put them on a camera lens in a TV studio during a live broadcast: 

His magical specs gave Ray the advantage of being able to warn people of looming dangers, help them find lost things, see hidden passages and tunnels, etc. Quite often he put his x-ray vision to good use by helping catch crooks and robbers, expose cheats and teach bullies a lesson. On a few rare occasions he himself was seen cheating or trying to use the x-ray vision for his own ends but his efforts usually backfired.

At first other people didn’t realize Ray had this special talent but soon it became common knowledge among his friends and family. Friends sometimes hated him because the specs made him such a know-all; at the same time, wearing them was quite taxing: x-ray vision could be tiring at times and wouldn’t go away even if Ray took his specs off :

Wearing the specs could also be rather stressful for those who weren’t used to them. The episode below is from issue No. 62:

Monster Fun COMIC was a ‘horror’ paper, so each strip was supposed to have a scary element in it.  In X-Ray Specs it was the skeletons that Ray (and the readers) could see courtesy of x-ray vision. There were two or three nice episodes with real spooks; here is one from issue 57:

Speaking of skeletons, in the episode in MFC No. 7 Ray found a free shaking skeleton in a packet of cornflakes. A similar freebie was offered with the third issue of MFC and from the look of it in the drawing below, the two were exactly the same. It would be interesting to know if a free skeleton was indeed offered by some cornflakes manufacturer at that time.

Free gift offered with MFC No. 3

Free shaking skeleton from a package of cornflakes as seen in MFC No. 7

X-Ray Specs first appeared in MONSTER FUN COMIC No. 1. The strip didn’t miss a single week during the 73-week run of MFC and survived merger with BUSTER where it lasted till the final issue of the comic and nearly made it to the 21st century! The vast majority of the 73 episodes in MFC were illustrated by Mike Lacey; Terry Bave contributed three sets in issues 11, 12 and 13, and five episodes in issues 37 to 41 were drawn by an artist whose name I don’t know. The first episode was only one page long, but starting from MFC No. 2 the strip was given 1 ½ pages and a more-or-less permanent slot on pages 8 – 9 and later 10 – 11. X-Ray Specs must have done very well in the popularity charts because starting from issue 33 it became a two-pager and was moved forward to pages 4 – 5. X-Ray Specs made four front cover appearances in issues 3, 6, 15 and 20. Here is an example:

Incidentally, the idea of Ray scanning through the insides of a comic was re-used in the strip two weeks later (in issue No. 8) when Ray used x-ray vision to read MFC without buying it and Frankie (in his capacity of the Honorary Editor) wasn’t so thrilled about it…

I will finish this post with a complete episode from issue No. 55 which I find rather funny: