A LOOK AT MONSTER FUN STRIPS: MUMMY’S BOY

Mummy’s Boy was a strip about the most possessive Mum that ever was, and her nine-year old son whom she treated as a baby and wouldn’t let him engage in normal kids’ stuff because she thought her Choochkins was too delicate. She wheeled him in a pram, dressed him in baby clothes, made him wear nappies and a silly baby bonnet, go to bed at 5:30, drink milk from a baby bottle and do all the other baby stuff which a grown lad like him found very embarrassing. Mumsy never addressed her boy by his proper name (it’s not even clear if he had one) and embarrassed him even further by calling him Diddums, Babykins, Kiddiwinky, Darling Duck, Cherub, Cutie Pie, Oody Boody Baba, Cuddlekins, Choochiface, etc.

Mumsy’s little treasure hated being treated like a baby, especially in public. He often ran away from ‘the silly old fusspot’ and acted naughty but she always tracked him down and re-organized things her way. 

Sometimes ‘the cherub’ was glad that he just couldn’t loose with Mum around:

In fact, Mummy’s Boy was a naughty little devil and a nuisance – a kind of Sweeny Toddler brought to heel, but with a crazy Mum like his that’s hardly surprising. I am trying to picture Mumsy’s relationship with her husband - yes, Diddums did have a Dad but in MFC he was only seen once, in issue No. 21; perhaps he took every opportunity to be away from home and his nutty spouse… I am sure Mumsy would have made an ideal Mum-and-son pair with WHOOPEE!’s Scared-Stiff Sam. This cross-over never happened but there were a couple others that did – in issue 33 Babykins tried using Teddy Scare’s tactics and in No. 51 he got some help from Brainy and his Monster Maker (in case you didn’t know, I’ll mention that Teddy Scare and Brainy and His Monster Maker were concurrent MFC strips).

Mummy’s Boy is one of the few strips in MFC with a dubious connection to the horror theme. On the other hand, come to think of it, having a Mum like this would certainly be a nightmare, so the strip takes horror comedy to the dimension of psychological terror.

Mummy’s Boy started in MFC issue No. 2 and continued till the last number (missing issues 16, 25, 47 and 57 in-between); all episodes were in b/w, except for the full-colour one in issue No. 33. The main artist was Norman Mansbridge; Terry Bave stepped in for him in issues 7 and 8. Mummy’s Boy made the jump to BUSTER when MFC was merged into it in 1976. The strip must have done really well in the popularity charts: it continued for more than a dozen years and was last seen in BUSTER cover-dated 12th September 1987. Of all the strips which originated in MFC, Mummy’s Boy came second only to X-Ray Specs in terms of the length of the run.