British
comics had a long-time tradition of busy single-frame strips about naughty
kids. From Casey Court in Chips in the 40s to Hoot
Squad in HOOT in the 80s, with many memorable offerings
in-between (such as the early Banana Bunch sets in the BEEZER, Terrors
of Tornado Street in BUSTER, Lion Lot in LION, Moonsters
in SPARKY, etc.), they gave readers lots of pleasure in studying all the gags
and details.
MFC
provided the entertainment by way of The Little Monsters – a strip about
the antics of a crowd of little green creatures. It was added to the package from issue No. 16
and landed straight on the cover. Here are some examples:
The Little
Monsters appeared on the front cover of nearly
every issue until No. 35 when the front page was permanently reserved for Gums.
More often than not, the headline of the strip came with a by-line, such as The
Little Monsters visit the Motor
Show (…in Outer Space, …go Mountaineering;
…in Oil Strike, etc. etc.).
When the
strip was moved inside to make room for Gums, it became a half-pager and
looked like this:
Another
transformation took effect starting from issue No. 46 when The Little Monsters were given a full page and became
more like a ‘normal’ strip with several introductory frames and the final large
panel with all the action which Sid Burgon did so well.
Sid Burgon
was the main artist but a number of episodes were drawn by someone else. The style
that Sid Burgon used to draw his little green monsters was easy to imitate
so it is sometimes difficult to tell which sets were by the other artist. Mr.
Burgon liked to sign his work, so if in doubt, look for the signature, and if
it’s not there then it is most definitely drawn by someone else (both half-pagers shown above appear to be ghosted). The rule isn’t
universal because the set below is definitely by Mr. Burgon but his signature
is absent:
The Little
Monsters first appeared in MFC issue No. 16 and
lasted until No. 70. Here is the list of issue Nos. without the
Little Monsters: 37, 39, 41, 56 and 66. The monstrous midgets received their own
pull-out poster in issue No. 63 (21st August, 1976).
