A LOOK AT MONSTER FUN STRIPS: TEDDY SCARE

Teddy Scare was the second new strip (alongside Save Our Stan) to be introduced in MFC issue No. 20 (25th October, 1975). This is how the arrival of both new features was advertised in MFC No. 19 the week before:

In the opening episode little Eddie Bailey visited an old curiosity shop run by a strange old man and bought himself a second-hand Teddy Bear:

Eddie soon found out that his Teddy was a toy with a BIG difference because it could transform itself into a live giant-size scary bear. From then on the boy always carried Teddy around and unleashed it on evil-doers, meanies, crooks and bullies by telling the toy to ‘do its stuff’.  Teddy could also activate itself on its own initiative, if it saw a need to do so. With very few exceptions, weekly tales always followed the same pattern: some bully or meanie tried to take advantage of Eddie (or someone else), Teddy came to his aid by ‘doing its stuff’ and scaring the pest into a gibbering snotty wreck. Teddy then transformed back into its old toy-self and the bully often ended up looking foolish in the eyes of others.

Using this simple formula, the feature continued till the last issue of MFC and only missed one week (No. 47). The popularity of Teddy Scare secured it a regular slot on page 2 or 3 starting from issue No. 35. All sets were in b/w except for the episode in issue No. 26 which was in full colour. Teddy Scare got its own pull-out poster in issue No. 40. The first 35 episodes were illustrated by an artist whose name I don’t know (see two examples above). Starting from issue No. 56, Barrie Appleby took over and continued drawing it to the very end. Here are two examples:

The strip survived incorporation of MFC into BUSTER and continued in the combined paper until 10th December 1977. 

Teddy Scare pull-out poster from MFC No. 40

A LOOK AT MONSTER FUN STRIPS: S.O.S. (SAVE OUR STAN)

The saga of Stan Stilton began in MFC issue No. 20. Agent Stan Stilton was an employee of D.R.A.I.N. – Department for Removal of All Internal Nuisances. In the opening episode the daft agent believes he has captured a criminal mastermind, only to find out that his prisoner is in fact the Number One of D.R.A.I.N. Sick and tired of Stilton who is an idiot and a constant source of trouble, Chief decides to get rid of him by sending him on a mission to capture Gruesome Gannet Gunge and his gang of grisly midgets. The elusive World Enemy No. 1 strikes first by abducting Stilton and taking him to his gang’s secret hideout in Gungitrania. The abduction occurs in the middle of a ‘job interview’ for the position of Stilton’s assistant. Moments before Gannet Gunge drives Stan Stilton away in his Gungemobile, the trouble-prone agent hires a young assistant by the name of Charlie Cheddar who proves to be somewhat smarter and luckier than his boss...

This was the beginning of the 20-weeks long action-packed series of hairbreadth escapes and last-minute rescues for Stan Stilton as he repeatedly got in and out of Gannet Gunge’s clutches with the help of Charlie Cheddar and some other very strange aides. The plot developed at breakneck speed, in defiance of the laws of physics and logic, and was often jazzed up with Monty Python–like absurdity and mad intermissions which made S.O.S (Save Our Stan) stand out amongst traditional MFC strips.

Both opposing parties had friends and aides: Gannet Gunge and his midget menacing minions had Gunge’s Mumsy, Jorkins the torturer both of whom lived in Grisly Grange – the ancestral home of the Gunges, and a pack of Gungitranian monsters (croco-dorkles, the dreaded Boogly Woogie and others), while Stan Stilton and Charlie Cheddar had the undercover ally who was a master of disguise, the intrepid messenger parrot, a herd of patriotic British ferrets and last but not least – the readers of MFC. Every single episode of S.O.S (Save Our Stan) ended with a puzzle or a coded message which the readers were challenged to solve or decipher in order to help Stan get out of his weekly scrape. The readers were not expected to send their answers to MFC – the idea was that they solved the puzzles and imagined they were indeed helping the hero who would otherwise be doomed. In the beginning of each weekly instalment the scriptwriter pretended that readers’ essential help was received and well-appreciated, while the evil Gannet Gunge sometimes referred to readers of S.O.S (Save Our Stan) as meddlers.

The story ended when Stan’s young assistant disguised himself as a housemaid and laced the midgets’ tea with Gunge’s monster-making serum. The serum transformed them into monsters who then turned on their former master.

Let us not forget that the real reason why the chiefs of D.R.A.I.N. sent Stan Stilton on the mission was to get rid of the troublesome employee and they certainly didn’t expect the loopy agent to do away with the criminal mastermind. So when Stan phoned in with his "mission accomplished" report and requested transport back to D.R.A.I.N., No. 1 and No. 2 realised their plan had failed. They knocked up this last puzzle and hoped it would take Stan and Charlie years to work through, ‘unless those rotten readers’ helped them out.

Frankie Stein, the Honorary Editor of MFC, saw that Stan Stilton took a well-deserved holiday after MFC No. 39 which contained the finale of this interesting serial. IMHO the b/w two-pagers of S.O.S (Save Our Stan) with its wacky humour and weird puzzles were an excellent ingredient in the MFC package. The artist was Nick Baker who signed nearly all the sets. Starting from No. 28 the episodes of S.O.S (Save Our Stan) came with a double signature HITCH and Nick Baker:

Was Hitch the script writer? Mr. Baker included a few portraits of the artist, the writer and the editor in the strip. I don’t know if these are faithful caricatures or simply generic drawings of people in the professions, but here they are nonetheless:

I am sure I’ve seen the strip reprinted but I can’t remember where. I will update the post with the details when I come across those reprints again.

A LOOK AT MONSTER FUN STRIPS: THE LITTLE MONSTERS

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).