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.

ARTIST SELF-PORTRAITS (PART 7)

Regular readers might remember the little series of self-portraits of those tireless but often anonymous and uncredited toilers of UK comics – the artists, that I did a year ago. You can view all the old posts HERE. I’ve found a few more cute examples in the course of 2013 and will show them in the next few posts before I switch to the Festive theme.

Let’s start with two nice examples featuring Tom Paterson, one from Buster cover-dated 2nd November, 1985:

…and one from The Beano No. 2356 from 1987:

 

More will follow soon.

1976 SHIVER & SHAKE ANNUAL

1976 SHIVER AND SHAKE Annual cost 95 p. and was 144 pages thick. Here is the list of strips and features included in the book. Red indicates the strip that wasn’t familiar to readers of Sh&Sh weeklies or earlier annuals and specials.

Spooks and Ladders game; Webster by Terry Bave, (3 episodes, two in full colour), Horrornation Street by Tom Williams (3 episodes, one in full colour); Demon Differences (Spot the difference puzzle featuring the Scream Inn); The Hand (2 episodes by the regular Sh&Sh artist), Grimly Feendish by Tom Paterson (5 episodes); Frankie Stein (a 4-pager by Robert Nixon and one Ken Reid reprint from WHAM!); Ghouldilocks; The Duke’s Spook (4 episodes); Wizard Prang and Demon Druid by Mike Brown (4 reprints from Smash!/Pow!); Scatty Bat (2 reprints from WHIZZER AND CHIPS); The Shiver Givers (two 2-pagers my Mike Lacey); Creepy Car (4 episodes, including two by Frank McDiarmid); Scream Inn (a 4-pager by Brian Walker);  Shake (6 episodes: two in full colour (including a 2-pager) and three in b/w by Mike Lacey, one in b/w by Terry Bave); Moana Lisa (3 episodes, one in full colour and two in b/w by Peter Davidson); The Desert Fox by Terry Bave (4 episodes, two in full colour); Sports School by Jim Watson (4 episodes, two in full colour); Tin Tramp and Tinker (4 episodes, including two in full colour);  Sweeny Toddler by Leo Baxendale (2 episodes); Mirth Shakers gags (2 instalments); Tough Nutt and Softy Centre by Norman Mansbridge; Blunder Puss by Jim Crocker (3 episodes); Lolly Pop by Sid Burgon (2 episodes); The Forest Legion (6 pages in b/w); Astro-Nut (in full colour, by The Forest Legion artist); The Ghost’s Revenge; Ghoul Getters by Bob Nixon (3 pages in full colour); Frankie Stein’s A-Maze-ing Brain maze by Robert Nixon.

The book followed the structure of the weeklies, i.e. SHAKE was inside SHIVER, framed by blocks of colour pages on both ends. Both sections featured their regular strips, just like in the not-so-distant old days when the comic was up and running. When the Annual came out, the weekly had already bit the dust and any survivors migrated to Whoopee! Check out this panel from the Annual in which Shake fights with some dude over a copy of his new favourite comic: 

1976 SHIVER AND SHAKE was the only Sh&Sh annual with Frankie Stein as the cover star. To me, it is one of the most (if not the most) scrumptious IPC annual covers ever. Frankie Stein also features prominently inside the book: Bob Nixon contributed a 4-page set and Frankie Stein’s A-Maze-ing Brain maze; as a bonus, the annual contains a reprint of one old Frankie Stein episode by Ken Reid from WHAM! No. 81 cover-dated 1st January, 1966. As was the custom, the original one-pager was cropped and re-arranged to fill two pages in the Annual and Micky’s presence was removed (this time it was an easy job because he only appeared in a single panel in the original). Check out the old episode from WHAM! and the reprint from the Annual below and see if you can spot more differences:

From WHAM! No. 81, 1st January, 1966

From SHIVER AND SHAKE 1976 Annual

In the new Frankie Stein episode by Robert Nixon, Prof. Cube tried (and failed) to get rid of his dreaded son by shrinking him to a safe size with a ray-gun. Mr. Nixon also illustrated the episode of Ghoul Getters Ltd. in the Annual. By a strange coincidence, plan “S” that Dad and his lad Arnold put into action this time involved the use of a special monster-shrinking ray gun to shrink the giant polar bear down to normal size. The shrinking ray-gun thing is a bit too repetitive, don’t you think?

 

The book offers a nice collection of familiar strips by the regular artists from Shiver and Shake weeklies as well as earlier Annuals and Holiday Specials. Terry Bave contributed as many as 15 pages of Webster, The Desert Fox and Shake artw0rk; Mike Lacey drew 10 pages of Shake and The Shiver Givers; Tom Williams’ input was 10 pages of Horrornation Street, Jim Watson illustrated 8 pages of Sports School, Jim Crocker, Peter Davidson and Sid Burgon contributed 6 pages of their regular strips each.

The Forest Legion foiled Boss’ and Butch’s cunning plot once again in a 6-pager illustrated by an artist whose style looks a tiny bit like Alf Saporito's to me, but it's hardly him. Here are two last pages of the set:

Astro-Nut was the only strip in this Annual that readers of Sh&Sh weeklies, specials and annuals hadn’t seen before. Readers of this blog pointed out that Astro-Nut was a reprint of Milkiway from the early years of BUSTER (later reprinted as Monty Muddle in SMASH!). BUSTER index says art was by Nadal / Juan Rafart.

The Shiver Givers appeared twice in the Annual. Below is the masthead of the first set (in which Squelch plays a new disc by Freddie Fang and the Werevolves (remember the character from COR!!?) and the stomping staff members crash through the floor plastering Shiver artists working below), and the last panel of the second one (in which Scream Inn’s Cooky rids the offices of mice with 500 year old Gorganzola), both by Mike Lacey:

Another strip that is well-worth mentioning is Creepy Car, particularly the two nice episodes by the excellent Frank McDiarmid. Here is one:

There are as many as five new Grimly Feendish episodes in the Annual, all are lovely new 2-pagers by Tom Paterson. Here is one:

A Shiver and Shake annual wouldn’t be complete without Scream Inn. In this one Scream Inn features in the Demon Differences puzzle (it is in fact the last panel of the set from the final issue of Shiver and Shake weekly - the French Onion Seller episode, with speech balloons removed):

 

…plus a 4-pager in which an unscrupulous bloke gate-crashes the New Year party at Scream Inn and faces the consequences. As always, Brian Walker’s artwork is a treat to the eye: