TERROR TV IN BUSTER AND MONSTER FUN – PART TWO

As promised, here is part two of the complete list of Terror TV programmes in BUSTER AND MONSTER FUN weeklies, all drawn by Barrie Appleby. Go to the previous post if you missed part one.

August 20, 1977 · The Six Million Horror Man with it’s hero – Steve Ghostin, the Bichronic Man. Magnus Murkysome thanks reader for programme idea

August 27, 1977 · Sportsfright hosted by Harry Carpenterror. Magnus Murkysome thanks reader for programme idea

September 3, 1977 · Magnus Murkysome tries to cancel a play by his ghosts and show some holiday sport instead but the ghosts disrupt his plan

September 10, 1977 · Celebrity Scares with Bob Punkhouse

September 17, 1977 · Demon Andrews introducing another dread-ition of This Is Your Fright, featuring Vincent Plight, horror film star supreme

September 24, 1977 · Terror TV’s Groanstand – featuring racing from Scatterick. Magnus Murkysome thanks reader for programme idea

October 1, 1977 · Terror TV reporter Bill Glumly interviewing gardening expert Percy Glower

October 8, 1977 · NO TERROR TV

October 15, 1977 · TERROR TV featured on front cover. Willie Freezer presenting Cookery Time

October 22, 1977 · Beastly Growler presents the special dreadition of Runaground contest

October 29, 1977 · Behind the screams look at Terror TV

November 5, 1977 · Captain Vulture and all the staff at Disgrace Brothers ask Are You Being Scared?

November 12, 1977 · Mangey Jam introducing Terror TV’s special version of “It Ain’t Half Horrid, Mum”

November 19, 1977 · Dank Stuff of Nationweird reporting on a new grimnasium opened in London’s Beast End

November 26, 1977 · Doctor Boo

December 3, 1977 · Moaning For A Song introduced by Arthur Feargus

December 10, 1977 · Chief  Inspectre Feargen and Sergeant Tartar of The Meanie investigating some local disappearances

December 17, 1977 · Feargen and Tartar, super cops from The Meanie – adventure continues. 

These two episodes stand out in the sense that the story spans two weeks; besides, there appears to be a crossover of at least two shows,  Coronation Street being one of them. Here are both episodes:

December 24, 1977 · A Fiend in Need is a Fiend Indeed

December 31, 1977 · Scarey-on Christmas

January 7, 1978 · The Fright Heather Club

January 14, 1978 · TERROR TV featured on front cover. Judith Alarmers takes viewers for a look round Horrids January Sale

January 21, 1978 · Knowall Dreadmunds introducing TTV’s version of Swap Shop

January 28, 1978 · A typical day at Fiender Fashions – otherwise known as The Nag Trade

February 4, 1978 · Record Quakers with Roy Ghastly

February 11, 1978 · Terror TV look at winter sports from St. Horridst

February 18, 1978 · Special Valentine’s Day programme. Lynsey Appalled reads out Valentines sent to her by viewers. LAST EPISODE. As was often the case, the strip simply disappeared without being given a proper ending of any kind.

TERROR TV IN BUSTER AND MONSTER FUN – PART ONE

A recent e-mail from a fan and researcher of Doctor Who requesting details about episodes of Terror TV strip featuring the Time Lord made me realise that I’ve left some loose ends when covering the strips that originated in MONSTER FUN COMIC and were transferred to BUSTER when the two titles merged in 1976. There were eight of them - Martha’s Monster Make-Up, Teddy Scare, Draculass, Terror TV, Kid Kong, Gums, Mummy’s Boy and X-Ray Specs. I covered their runs in MONSTER FUN COMIC in my detailed account of MFC a few years ago. I have no wish to go too deep into BUSTER territory but the relatively short runs of Martha’s Monster Make-Up, Teddy Scare, Draculass and Terror TV in BUSTER AND MONSTER FUN make me want to cover the four strips to their very end. 

I am not sure there’ll be much to say about all of them but Terror TV was a really interesting one. You can refresh your memories of the strip by revisiting my old article HERE. 

In MONSTER FUN COMIC, Terror TV was a two-pager, it ran for 24 weeks in issues 50 – 73. The illustrator was initially Ian Knox. Barrie Appleby took over from issue 67 and drew the strip till the end of the series in MFC. 

Barrie Appleby remained in charge of the feature after it transferred to BUSTER and became a one-pager. The first combined issue of Buster AND MONSTER FUN was cover-dated 6th November, 1976. Terror TV ended 68 weeks later in the issue with the cover date of 18th February 1978. It missed one week (October 8, 1977), so the total episode count in BUSTER came up to sixty-seven, all illustrated by Barrie Appleby. The strip made five front-cover appearances in colour.

The vast majority of the episodes lampooned real TV shows and required Barrie Appleby to draw lots of caricatures of real TV personalities. My knowledge of British television of the seventies is patchy and only a few of the names make sense to me (Fawlty Terrors = Fawlty Towers, Doctor Boo = Doctor Who, Looterror Colomboo = Columbo, John Claws = John Cleese, Jimmy Madville = Jimmy Savile, etc.). Below is part one of the complete list of the episodes with a few scans of the pages that I find to be interesting or nice. Part two will follow soon. Have fun identifying the names of the shows and TV stars and reporting your findings in the comments section :)

November 6, 1976 · New viewer for Terror TV visits Terror TV studios and gets a taste of some of their programmes – Miss Weird Contest, Weather Fearcast and Opportunity Knees-Knocks

November 13, 1976 · Saturday sports programme - Grimstand

November 20, 1976 · Nationweird hosted by Michael Baarghatt

November 27, 1976 · Comic couple – Eric and Ernie – Morescream and Wince

December 4, 1976 · TERROR TV featured on front cover. The Generaving Game, hosted by Bruce Forfright

December 11, 1976 · Terror TV’s Open Ghoulf Championship, presenter – Harry Carpenterror

December 18, 1976 · Christmas film shooting (Christmas on Creaky Island)

December 25, 1976 · Christmas Fright with Stars  - chat with your favourite disc jockeys Tony Bleakburn, Jimmy Madville, O.B.E. and Ed ‘Screwtop’ Stewart

January 1, 1977 · Terror TV’s Annual Pantomime – Jack and the Scream-Stalk

January 8, 1977 · Animal Panic, presenter – Johnny Morbid

January 15, 1977 · John Raving’s Newsround

January 22, 1977 · Fawlty Terrors

January 29, 1977 · Scaretrek - the Scareship Enterrorprise

February 5, 1977 · Tomorrow’s Weird presented by Raymond Backscare

February 12, 1977 · Filming the commercial for “Daze”

February 19, 1977 · Looterror Colomboo, your favourite TV cop

February 26, 1977 · Ghoulling for a Song hosted by Max Robertscream

March 5, 1977 · The Superscares – the programme where we find which star of sport stands up bests to being terrified

March 12, 1977 · Another tale of those wartime weirdos in Dad’s Scare Me

March 19, 1977 · Pot Bleak - TV spooker game hosted by Alan Freaks

March 26, 1977 · New Faceaches – the popular TV talent show hosted by Derek Horribleson

April 2, 1977 · TERROR TV featured on front cover. Interview between John Claws and Ronnie Corbite

April 9, 1977 · Scare of the Century – introduced by Nicholas Panics-on

April 16, 1977 · Angela Rave-on welcomes you to this year’s Eurofearsome Song Contest

April 23, 1977 · Multi-Horrored Shock Shop with Noel Demons

April 30, 1977 · Jim’ll Freak It! with Jimmy Savage

May 7, 1977 · Terror TV’s Special Weather Forecast

May 14, 1977 · Table Terror Tournament

May 21, 1977 · TTV’s new cowboy serial – The Revenge of Pocahauntus

May 28, 1977 · Scream Test hosted by Michael Odd. Magnus Murkysome thanks reader for programme idea

June 4, 1977 · TTV’s Annual Presentation of TV Awards

June 11, 1977  · Terrorzan of the Jungle film

June 18, 1977 · Raving Damp featuring that meanest of mean landlords, Mr. Rigsfear

June 25, 1977 · The Sky at Night hosted by Patshriek Moore

July 2, 1977 · Groan-in – TTV’s version of a phone-in programme where viewers ask people in the studio questions 

July 9, 1977 · TERROR TV featured on front cover. Wrestling match – Big Baddie vs Terror TV’s Box of Tricks

July 16, 1977 · Bat’s Life hosted by Esther Rantscream. Magnus Murkysome thanks reader for programme idea

July 23, 1977  · It’s a Shock-out hosted by Stuart Horror

July 30, 1977 · Scaresky and Hunch – the creepy crime-busters. Magnus Murkysome thanks reader for programme idea

August 6, 1977 · Top of the Shocks introduced by Dave Lee Terror 

August 13, 1977 · Horridge, your favourite prison series with its number one convict, Norman Stanley Freaker

COME BACK SOON FOR PART TWO OF THE COMPLETE LIST OF TERROR TV PROGRAMMES!

MONSTER FUN ANNUAL 1982 PART ONE

In comparison with the previous Annual, the page count shrunk even further from 128 to 112 and the price came up to £1.95.

CONTENTS: Martha’s Monster Make-Up (two 2-pagers by Ken Reid, including one in colour), Kid Kong (a 4-pager in full colour by Frank McDiarmid), Monster Mirths (2 pages of gag cartoons by Artie Jackson, one in colour), The Ghost Train (8 pages of reprints from WHOOPEE!, artwork by Brian Walker),  Hot Rod (6 pages of reprints from WHIZZER AND CHIPS, artwork by Alf Saporito), Gums (two 2-pagers by John Geering), Tom Thumbscrew (two 2-pagers by Barrie Appleby), Freaky Farm (a 3-pager by Russel Brooke and a 4-pager by Ian Knox), Fiery Fun (1 page of gags by Artie Jackson), Creature Teacher (two 3-pagers by Tom Williams), Major Jump Horror Hunter (2 reprints from MFC comic, artwork by Barrie Appleby), Draculass (two 2-pagers by Terry Bave, including one in colour), Mummy’s Boy (a 2-pager and one reprint from MFC, both by Norman Mansbridge), Frankie Stein (three 2-pagers reprinted from WHOOPEE!, artwork by Robert Nixon), Ghostly Giggles (1 page of gags by Artie Jackson), King Arthur and His Frights of the Round Table (three 3-pagers reprinted from WHOOPEE!, artwork by Robert Nixon), X-Ray Specs (two 2-pagers by Mike Lacey and a 3-pager by Paul Ailey), Doug Nut and Rusty (a 3-pager and a 2-pager in colour on back endpapers, both by Jim Crocker), Brainy and His Monster Maker (two 2-pagers by Tom Williams), George ‘n his Magic Dragon (a 4-pager by Alan Rogers), Frankie’s Monster Mountain Game (reprint from MFC), Art’s Gallery (a 3-pager), Little Monsters (two 2-page sets by Martin Baxendale), Monster Mind (2 pages of puzzles), Terror TV (a 4-pager by Barrie Appleby), Teddy Scare (a 2-pager by Barrie Appleby).

As had become a custom in MF Annuals, a large proportion of the book was filled with reprints - I can confirm 36 pages but there are probably more. The majority is first-class material from the hands of Alf Saporito (on Hot Rod), Brian Walker (on Ghost Train):

… and Bob Nixon on Frankie Stein and King Arthur and His Frights of the Round Table).  They even did a good job processing one episode into a full-colour affair; check out both versions side-by-side. The b/w one is from WHOOPEE! No. 5 (click to enlarge):

Barrie Appleby was once again the champion in terms of page-count, but I am unsure how many were new and how many were reprints. I know for sure that both sets of Major Jump were reprinted from MONSTER FUN COMIC weeklies (Nos. 33 and 37) but Tom Thumbscrew, Teddy Scare and Terror TV may very well be new material. Here is the opening page of Terror TV:

Barrie Appleby mastered a prefect imitation of Reg Parlett’s monsters, don’t you think?:

Ken Reid provided two double-page episodes of Martha’s Monster Make-Up. This is a third year in a row (!!) that one of the stories involves bullies whom Martha teaches a lesson with the help of a monsterized snowman and some snowballs:

In the second story Martha uses her cream on a tramp for a change and helps him prove he’s not useless because he can now take a job as a scarecrow…

Tom Williams, another regular contributor in MF Annuals, provided two sets of Brainy and his Monster Maker and two sets of Creature Teacher. In one Teach takes class 3X to visit the local fire-station:

… while the other one comes with this dramatic logo:

… and shows class 3X get medieval on the poor woodwork teacher:

… and build a coffin for Teach:

John Geering’s input is four pages of Gums. In the first episode Bluey tricks Gums out of his false teeth by making him get rid of the old set and replace it with one made of steel, and then using a super-strong magnet to pull it out of the shark’s jaws. Bluey smashes the old false teeth to bits but two fossil collectors reconstruct the set. Gums ambushes them and is back in business again. Here are the opening pages of both episodes. I like the way Mr. Geering experimented with his layouts in this Annul:

There is quite a lot of X-Ray Specs this time: although Mike Lacey was the regular illustrator of the feature in MFC and later BUSTER weeklies, he rarely did X-Ray Specs for MF Annuals. Here is one of the two sets by Mr. Lacey:

There is also one by another artist who I believe is Paul Ailey:

In George ‘n his Magic Dragon by Alan Rogers George and Cedric the dragon deal with Bully Bloggs:

And before I finish this first part of the overview, here are two out of the 4 pages of gags drawn in this annual by Artie Jackson:

In Part Two I will look at some of the pleasant surprises contained in this Annual, such as Frank McDiarmid’s take on Kid Kong, two episodes of Freaky Farm by illustrators who’d never worked on the feature before and some super-nice artwork by an artist who’d learned from the best....

All Images 2015 © Egmont UK Ltd.  All rights reserved. Used with permission.