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.

WHOOPEE! FRANKIE STEIN HOLIDAY SPECIAL 1980

WHOOPEE! FRANKIE STEIN HOLIDAY SPECIAL 1980 had 64 pages and cost 45 p. Frankie Stein was given 20 pages, including the front cover and the pull-out poster by Robert Nixon whose style had changed dramatically for the worse since the first FS publications. The poster is nice, though:

John Geering drew 2 Frankie Stein stories – an 8-pager and a 6-pager. 1980 was the year of Moscow Summer Olympics which was boycotted by many countries because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. British athletes competed under the Olympic flag and it looks like Frankie Stein nearly made it to Moscow as part of Team UK. I showed the story in its entirety in the series of London Olympics blogposts a couple of years ago, you can view it HERE.

In the second Frankie Stein story Professor Cube realises that nasty accidents happen to mountaineers so he takes Frankie to conquer some peaks. Sure enough, a series of accidents does occur and Dad is at the receiving end once again. Frankie meets a Yeti and his family but Prof. Cube causes an avalanche which brings the Yeti hut down, alongside with a village at the foot of the mountain. Now Dad has to share Mildew Manor with four monsters instead of just one:

This is the first FS Holiday Special with Nigel Edwards as part of the roster of artists. He drew three pages of Freaky Frankie and two pages of Monster Mirth, all in full colour; two pages of Mind-Bender Mansion puzzles in b/w are also by him. Here is some of Freaky Frankie:

There were four non-Frankie Stein strips that weren’t reprints:  Monster Movie Makers (4 pages by Mr. Hill), Computer Cop (4 pages by Alan Rogers) and Gook-TV Spook (2 pages by Artie Jackson) were familiar to readers from previous FS books and magazines, while Animal Olympics (5 pages by Martin Baxendale) was new to them. 

Monster Movie Makers manufacture a live dummy Bigfoot and travel to the USA to film on location in Timber Country. All is well until they upset the real Bigfoot:

Computer Cop is on duty outside the secret inventions laboratory but a gang of crafty crooks outsmart him and steal a super-magnet which attracts anything the operator wants. The crooks are off to do some “window-shopping” with the jewellers but Computer Cop prevails in the end.

In Animal Olympics Mr. Frost the Head Zookeeper is off to watch the Olympics on the telly leaving all his chores to Fred the Assistant Zookeeper. A sports enthusiast that he is, young Fred organises his ‘alternative’ Olympics with Zoo animals as athletes. The style of Martin Baxendale strongly reminds that of his Father’s, perhaps he got some advice and assistance from Leo Baxendale when drawing the set.

As far as reprints are concerned, WHOOPEE! FRANKIE STEIN HOLIDAY SPECIAL 1980 has 2 pages of Ghoul Guides (from KNOCKOUT), 3 pages of Monkey Nuts (from I don’t know where) and 1 page of Tell-Tale Tess (from COR!!) – all seen in previous FS publications. The one that wasn’t was The Ghostly Galleon – the longest story in the magazine, spanning 18 pages. The story appeared in Shiver and Shake weeklies No. 71 – 79 and is reprinted in full, except that readers of SH&SH who followed the serial had an opportunity to win some cash which wasn't offered to readers of the Holiday Special. I reviewed the story in my series of SHIVER AND SHAKE strips, you can check the article out HERE (frankly, it is not exactly the best SHIVER AND SHAKE adventure strip).  

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

WHOOPEE! FRANKIE STEIN HOLIDAY SPECIAL 1978

The fourth WHOOPEE! FRANKIE STEIN HOLIDAY SPECIAL 1978 had 64 pages and cost 35 p. 

If I were a kid who bought it in the summer of 1978 I would have probably been disappointed with the low amount of Frankie Stein content – only 27 pages featured the friendly monster. This includes the front cover, the pull-out poster of Frankie Stein in a space suit drawn by Robert Nixon – not a reprint this time, 4 pages of Freaky Frankie Puzzles by Artie Jackson, Ghoulish Picture Crossword by Cliff Brown and 19 pages of Frankie Stein antics serialised in three interconnected stories: Adventure in Space (8 pages), African Safari (6 pages) and Holiday Cruise (5 pages).

Watching 'Warstars' and seeing Frankie enjoying it very much gives Dad an idea to send him on a trip into space. As Prof. Cube’s luck goes, he accidentally finds himself on board the spacecraft together with Frankie. 

They run into some space creatures and Dad gives them Frankie as a gift, telling them he is a slave robot. Frankie proves to be completely useless as a servant and the aliens kick him out.

Frankie and Dad’s space journey continues and they find themselves in the middle of an inter-stellar war. 

Frankie helps the clashing space tribes make peace and is rewarded with a spaceship to transport him home. Dad makes his last attempt to get rid of the ‘big lunk’ by programming the spacecraft to take him to the Sun but a massive explosion on the surface of the Sun destroys the craft and the pair land on planet Earth in the middle of Africa. This is where the space adventure ends and the African safari begins. Dad’s ploys during the safari include dropping lion skin on Frankie in hope that hunters will shoot him down, encouraging Frankie to take a boat to see some nasty waterfalls up close and finally losing him in the desert. 

Digging for water in desert sands, Frankie strikes oil, sells the well, catches up with Dad and suggests that they go home on a luxury liner. 

While on the holiday cruise, Dad throws Frankie into the ocean to play with the sharks, then attempts to poison him by putting ‘stuff’ in his salt and finally leaves him stranded on a desert island inhabited by cannibals. 

Frankie leaves the island on the back of a whale but soon finds himself stranded on a coral reef. I like the ending:

I may be mistaken but it looks like the illustrator was the same Doug Baker who signed two Frankie Stein gags in the previous Holiday Special and drew a number of FS tales in other Frankie Stein publications earlier on. If it was indeed him, his style had improved somewhat since the second Frankie Stein annual (Robinson Frankie and Frankie Stein Super-Freak stories) and grey wash also made the drawings look better.

Let’s look other new stories. In Monster Movie Makers Carlo Monte and his crew are shooting their latest epic – ‘The Loch Ness Monster’. The budget prevents them from hiring extras for the crowd scenes so they take their cameras to the actual loch, hoping to scare the holidaymakers with a dummy monster and film their reaction. Things don’t go as planned but turn out well for the daft movie makers in the end. The artist was Mr. Hill who also drew Monster Movie Makers for the previous FS Holiday Special (as well as the subsequent ones).

Computer Cop was a new strip drawn by Alan Rogers. It was about a super robo-cop. Here is the last page of this 4-page episode:

Five WHOOPEE! strips (The Hand, Fun-Fear, ‘Orrible Hole (by Les Barton), Gook-TV Spook (by Artie Jackson who is also responsible for five pages of puzzles and gags in this magazine) and Webster (by Terry Bave)) look like new material drawn especially for this Holiday Special. Here are both pages of Fun-Fear. I wonder who drew them? Looks like Mr. Hill to me:

They stopped reprinting The Haunts of Headless Harry and Ghost Ship but introduced reprints of a few strips previously unseen in FS publications: there were 2 episodes of Ghoul Guides from KNOCKOUT (IPC version), 2 episodes of Monkey Nuts by Graham Allen (I can’t remember where the reprints are from) and 5 pages of Tell Tale Tess by Joe McCaffrey from COR!!

For the second time after the previous FS Holiday Special, this edition also has 2 episodes of Barney’s Brain Box, reprinted from COR!!

I will round up this post by showing a page of gags by Artie Jackson:

…and Frankie Stein pull-out poster:

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