Last year a fan of Ken Reid sent me Xeroxed
copies of a few complete Fudge and Speck
stories that he collected from The Manchester
Evening News. Some time ago I composed a 2-part illustrated summary of Fudge and The Magic Book – story No. 26
of the series (you can view the summary HERE and HERE), and now it’s time for another one.
Speck’s
Inventions was the second story of the series. It
was 899 panels long and ran between 12th May, 1947 and 1st May, 1948. Reprints
appeared in The Manchester Evening News between 26th January, 1974 and 28th June,
1975.
Here are the opening panels, colourised
nicely by John Ridgway:
NOTE: The rest of the scans are from
photocopies of newspaper clippings, so quality leaves a lot to be desired, but
all the images can be clicked to enlarge and are perfectly viewable and
readable.
Working in secret in a wooden shed by the
river, Speck builds a whale-shaped pedal-powered submarine and tests it in the quiet
country river, destroying a bridge and frightening an old lady in the process.
Fudge has his suspicions that the
mysterious creature might have to do with Speck, and confronts his mate about
it. Speck tells Fudge all about his new invention, aptly named Moby Dick, and invites
Fudge to go on a holiday cruise together.
At this point, the story flies off on a
tangent as Speck cooks up another invention – Giggle-Gas laughing vapour. His
idea is to use it to cheer up a gloomy photographer whose custom is in shambles
because his doleful countenance always makes people turn out looking miserable
in the pictures.
A mix-up occurs as Speck and Fudge add the
ingredients:
Speck’s concoction ruins the photo-shoot of
an all-cure pill advert, and sends the customer into rage.
Realising that it was all Speck’s fault,
the fuming entrepreneur chases the two elves. They rush to the submarine and
their voyage begins.
The submarine sails down the river and reaches Barnacle
Bay in the sea where Speck and Fudge see the Laughing Rock.
An old sailor tells them the legend of how
the rock came to be, and this is how they first hear about the mysterious Happy
Island and its inhabitants:
Later that morning they find an earthenware
vessel containing an SOS message signed by the people of Happy Island. They
also discover that the Laughing Rock has just fallen in a thunder storm, and
according to the legend, this means that the happiness on Happy Island was
broken…
They sail off in search of the island. During
their arduous voyage the two elves survive an encounter with
a pirate galleon:
… and then a sea serpent:
… but run out of luck when ‘Moby Dick’ is harpooned and sunk by a whaling ship:
Fudge and Speck build a crude raft which
takes them to a ship graveyard. There they meet a bathing mermaid who tells
them they are at the gates of Happy Island, and then takes a sudden leave frightened away by a large black creature winging its way overhead.
The entrance to the gates of Happy Island is guarded by a huge
whirlpool which sucks in the elves’ raft, and the two pals are separated:
Fudge emerges from a hole in the side of a
towering cliff and lands in a river below. After some reconnaissance, Fudge
draws this plan of the island and its fortifications:
Miles of forest stretch to the left of the
river. There is a high crag surmounted by a turreted castle in the distance,
and it looks like it is inhabited by sinister bat-like creatures:
Fudge sees a small party of armour-clad soldiers
entering the fortifications though a secret face-shaped gate, and sneaks into
Happy Island after them…
Speck is stranded too, but he decides to look for help in the turreted castle. Before long he is plucked from the ground by a
huge flying creature which takes him straight to the castle:
Meanwhile, Fudge disrupts a ceremonial
gathering of the Happy Islanders and is captured by temple guards:
It turns out Happy Island is at war. The
king’s adviser believes Fudge is an enemy spy and locks him up in a cold dark
cell with another prisoner…
… In the turreted castle amidst the forest,
Speck faces Klun – the leader of the evil batmen, who accuses the lad of spying
for the other side. The monsters plan to attack Happy Island in a
few days’ time, and they have an idea how to use Speck to achieve their evil ends. Klun
throws Speck in a prison cell where he meets Kipolas – King of Happy Island,
whom the ‘black-hearted’ batmen hold for ransom. Kipolas tells Speck the whole
story:
In the meantime on Happy Island, Fudge
finds out his cellmate is one of the batmen:
Fudge accidentally discovers that the creatures get
petrified with fear when they hear the sound of laughter:
The batman is not very smart and Fudge
easily tricks him into helping him to escape. He meets Professor Honk –
inventor of a new war weapon to fight the batmen. Professor doesn’t think Fudge
is a spy-type, and comes up with a plan to prove his innocence:
Prof. also tells Fudge about the Flower of
Happiness whose ornaments Fudge has seen in the temple:
Part two of the summary will follow soon...