The third Frankie
Stein Holiday Special (the first one to be called a holiday special after two
summer specials in 1975 and 1976) was the fifth Frankie Stein publication. It
cost 30 p. and was 64 pages thick. The front cover artwork was by Robert Nixon
whose only other contribution was the pull-out poster. Like in the first FS Special, the poster was actually a reprint of the drawing for the front cover
of SHIVER AND SHAKE (28th September, 1974 – the penultimate issue of the
paper):
There were 40 pages
of Frankie Stein and 24 pages of other stuff. The central story was Frankie
Stein in Jolly Holidays (Who’s Kidding Who?) consisting of 5 parts (4 pages
each), spread across the paper. Frankie and Prof. Cube are off on holiday again
but their flight to Spain is delayed. Frankie spends the time examining various
stickers on his travel suitcase and reminiscing about their previous holidays
which all turned out to be a disaster for poor Dad.
The memories of the
holidays past take up the first 4 parts until they are finally called to board
their flight and arrive in sunny Spain:
In part 5 of the
story Frankie wastes no time getting into trouble which prompts his desperate
parent to make the only attempt to get rid of the ‘big oaf’ in this long
20-page story by signing him up as a matador for a bull-fight.
All 20 pages of the
story were drawn by Andy Christine who had illustrated Grizzly Bearhug… Giant
and a few early episodes of Tom Thumbscrew in MONSTER FUN COMIC in 1975.
Unexpectedly, Andy Christine was the biggest contributor in this WHOOPEE!
FRANKIE STEIN HOLIDAY SPECIAL 1977 – he also drew Odd Men Out (a puzzle) and a
2-page set of Ghoul Getters Ltd. which I will mention later on.
The 4-page episode of
Monster Movie Makers was unusual in the sense that it featured the star of the
paper – Frankie Stein! In this episode assistant director is having a hard time
finding a suitable monster to shoot until he runs into Frankie. Illustrated by the artist who signed his work as Mr. Hill (the episode isn't signed though):
If I were to pick my
personal highlight in this magazine, it would certainly have to be The Curse of
Dr. Jackal by Mike Brown. The one-off story not only featured Frankie Stein as the presenter/story-teller but also the artist himself. I showed the whole set in
Part 8 of my series of artist self-portraits some time ago, you can find it
HERE (I highly recommend that you check it out!).
Speaking of
non-comic-strip Frankie Stein features, it is worthwhile mentioning Frankie’s
Fun Break and Prof. Cube: Inventor – two sets of 2 pages filled with gags by
the same artist who drew a few Frankie Stein stories in the earlier FS
publications (including Robinson Frankie and Frankie Stein Super-Freak in the
second FS annual). The artwork is rather poor but the artist identified himself
by signing a couple of gags so I can now confirm him as a Doug Baker:
There were a few
strips that were new to FS publications. In the mid-seventies Fun-Fear and
Ghoul Getters Ltd. ran side-by-side with Frankie Stein in WHOOPEE! weeklies, so
readers probably weren’t too surprised to see them in this WHOOPEE! FRANKIE
STEIN HOLIDAY SPECIAL 1977 for the first time. As was often the case, other
artists were invited to do the job for the regular ones. I am not sure who
substituted Bob Nixon on Fun-Fear but the place of Trevor Metcalfe – the
regular illustrator of Ghoul Getters Ltd. in the weeklies, was taken by Andy
Christine – the champion of this Holiday Special in terms of the page count (23
all in all):
Like the previous FS
publications, this one included reprints of The Haunts of Headless Harry (5
episodes) and Ghost Ship (3 episodes):
The lineup of
reprints was revised by dropping Crabbe's Crusaders and adding two 2-page sets of Barney’s Brainbox – a
short-lived strip from COR!! comic, and two 4-pagers of Patch-Eye Hooker Terror
of the Seas – a pirate tale from BUSTER of the late 60s (reprints of the strip
can also be found in COR!! Holiday Specials and Annuals in 1978 – 1980).
A few years ago original cover artwork for this magazine
was offered by Compal Comic Book Auctions. Here is how it was described
(please, note that they got the date and the name of the publication wrong once again): Frankie Stein original
cover artwork (1980) drawn and signed by Robert Nixon for Monster Fun Annual
1980 Frankie's fright is menacingly magnified! Poster colour on board. 16 x 15
ins. The winner paid £280; here is the image of the front cover
artwork taken from Compal Auctions website:
Images 2014 © Egmont UK
Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with
permission.
