The
fourth MF Annual was the first without Kid Kong on the cover; the big ape
was replaced by Frankie Stein the friendly monster, drawn and signed by Robert
Nixon. The book is 144 pages thick. My copy is price clipped, but looking at
other Fleetway annuals released that year I think it will be safe to assume
that the price was still £1.25.
Contents: Draculass
(two 2-pagers in colour by Terry Bave, including one on front endpapers), Kid
Kong (two 4-pagers by Bob Nixon, including one in colour), Hot
Rod (6 reprints from Whizzer and
Chips, including one in colour; artwork by Alf Saporito, Cyril Price and
possibly someone else), Creature Teacher (two 3-pagers by
Tom Williams), Teddy Scare (two 2-pagers), The Little Monsters (two 2-pagers by
Ed McHenry), Dough Nut and Rusty (two 4-pagers by Jim Crocker), George
and his Magic Dragon (a 3-pager by Alan Rogers), Terror TV (two 3-pagers),
A
Christmas Phanto-Mime (a 4-pager, probably by Mike Brown), Puzzles feature (a
2-pager), Art’s Gallery (a 2-pager by Terry Bave), Tom Thumbscrew (two
2-pagers), Frankie Stein (a 3-pager by John Geering and a 4-pager by
Robert Nixon), Major Jump (a 4-pager), Badtime Bedtime Book – Second Showing –
Robinson Gruesome (8 pages by Leo Baxendale, reprint of BBB No. 2 from
MFC), Gums (two 3-pagers by Tom Williams and a 2-pager by Alf
Saporito), Freaky Farm (two 3-pagers and a 4-pager, all by Jim Watson), Martha’s
Monster Make-Up (two 2-pagers by Ken Reid), Brainy’s Monster Maker
(two 2-pagers, including one in colour back endpapers), King Arthur and his Frights of the Round
Table (3 reprints from WHOOPEE!, artwork by Robert Nixon); Little
Devil (a 2-pager by Tom Williams), Alfie’s Alphabet feature (2 pages by
Mike Brown), Freaky Fairy Tales gags (1 page by Jack Clayton), Monster
Maze puzzle (1 page), Animal Antics (2 pages of gags by
Jack Clayton), The Haunted Wood (a 2pager by Les Barton), Dino-Sore spot the
difference puzzle (by Cliff Brown), Dragon Fry! spot-the-difference
puzzle (by Cliff Brown), X-mas Crossword (2 pages), Badtime
Bedtime Story: Aladdin (8 pages by Mike Brown), X-Ray Specs (a 3-pager in
colour by Mike Lacey).
Frankie
Stein was the front cover star, so first let’s look
at the two episodes of his adventures in this Annual. John Geering illustrated the
one in which Prof Cube builds a robot programmed to destroy Frankie. “Robbie” serves
his purpose and Frankie is smashed to bits. What Prof Cube hasn’t foreseen is
that the robot will want to take Frankie’s place as Cube’s son. When the cruel
scientist turns his back on him, the robot puts Frankie back together, brings
him to life again and then self-destructs.
 |
| The gory sight of Frankie's body parts lying about |
In
the 4-pager by Bob Nixon Prof Cube gets an idea that perhaps if he persuaded
Frankie he had double vision, the stupid lunk would go to hospital and Prof
Cube could enjoy peace and quiet. Just as the plan is about to succeed, Frankie
causes a traffic accident, Prof Cube suffers concussion and starts seeing
double…
Kid
Kong, the ousted cover star, features in two stories
in this Annual, both drawn by Robert Nixon (although one is unsigned). In the
first one Kid gets a Christmas job to earn some money to buy Gran a prezzy
(just like last year, remember?). He
fails as a postman, then as a supermarket hand and finally as Santa in a
department store but is rewarded in the end for giving presents to poor
children rather than the rich ones who have plenty already.
In
the second story Gran makes Kid Kong exercise because he is too
heavy. Gran looses her temper in the end and Kid takes shelter in sauna baths
for a few hours:
Tom
Williams is an important contributor to this book. He illustrated two Creature
Teacher tales. In the first one Teach’s temper is put to test during a
craft lesson and he (or is Teach an “it”?) has to transform into a giant mole
to restore order:
In
the second episode Sir takes class 3X to look around a historic galleon and
they resort to mutiny:
In
the first of the two episodes of Gums illustrated by Tom Williams
Bluey tricks Gums into swapping his old set of teeth for a new and shiny one
made of rock. It melts in the shark’s mouth, the predator recovers his old gnashers
and threatens to have Bluey for Christmas dinner but a little girl reminds them
that Christmas is supposed to be the season of goodwill and suggests the two of
them call a truce for the rest of the day:
In
the second episode Gums pretends to have lost its teeth and holiday makers believe
it is now safe to go out in the bay. This is one of those stories when Bluey
prevails and the shark ends up toothless.
The
third Gums tale was illustrated by Alf Saporito who drew quite a few
episodes in the weeklies towards the end of the run. In this one Gums
has a bad dream in which Bluey is a giant:
Let’s
get back to Tom Williams who also drew the double-pager of Little Devil. The
character was borrowed from KNOCKOUT comic where it appeared regularly in the
early 70s. Here is the episode from MF Annual 1980, followed by the first KNOCKOUT
episode:
And
while we are on the subject of revived KNOCKOUT strips, The Haunted Wood is also
originally from the seldom remembered first “all-colour” Fleetway comic where
it started in the first issue and was illustrated by Reg Parlett, succeeded by
Sid Burgon. The new episode in this MFC Annual 1980 was drawn by Les Barton.
Here it is in full, followed by the first episode in KNOCKOUT:
Both
KNOCKOUT “phoenixes” (Little Devil and The
Haunted Wood) appear to be new material created especially for this MF
Annual 1980.
Freaky
Farm is represented by as many as three episodes.
The first one is about a pair of motor-bikers who trespass on Freaky
Farm and encounter a giant sharp-fanged toad, a horde of monster mice
and the unfriendly farmhouse. When they flee in terror, police officers can’t
believe they are doing it on foot…
The
second is about an unfortunate veterinarian from the Ministry of Nitteries who calls
at Freaky
Farm to vaccinate cows against the suspected strength-sapping animal
flu and faces the consequences:
The
third visitor is I.Studyem, the well-known botanist, who is looking for ‘wild’
flowers. He most certainly finds more than he’s looking for. Here are the last two pages:
Ken
Reid contributed two episodes of Martha’s Monster Make-Up. In the
first one Martha puts some of her make-up on the next door neighbour’s cat so
that it wouldn’t be bullied by all the other cats in the neighborhood…
..
and in the second one she monstrifies her snowman and some snowballs to teach
the rotten bully a lesson; the script is rather lazy because it hardly differs
from Martha’s story in the previous MONSTER FUN annual.
Alan
Rogers illustrated George ‘n his (Magic) Dragon which looks like a mutation of Rex
strip from the previous MF Annual. George
and Cedric the magic dragon accept an offer to beat a carpet for 50 p. but
Cedric accidentally burns a hole in it and turns it into a flying carpet so
that they can fly off and get another one.
This
is the first MF Annual with Jack Clayton art:
Ed
McHenry drew two sets of The Little Monsters:
What
I find disappointing about this annual is the 4-pager of Major Jump in which Major
and Cosmo go to deepest Africa to catch the dreaded Stripey Buzzflap. For me, poor
artwork spoils even the best of stories. I am sure I could do better when I was
ten…
I
will save the rest for the second half of the overview.
All Images 2015 © Egmont UK
Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with
permission.
