I will start my overview of Monster Fun Comic with a blogpost on adverts
in IPC sister publications. The launch of both comics that I have already
covered on Kazoop! (COR!! and SHIVER AND SHAKE) was advertised with four-page
pull-outs in companion papers. For some reason MONSTER FUN COMIC was not given
the privilege – I checked my copies of the issues of four titles that came out at the time
and none have promotional pull-outs for MFC.
WHOOPEE! and WHIZZER AND CHIPS ran a
full-scale campaign for 6 consecutive weeks from June 7th through to July 19th,
1975.
Both papers had full-page advertisements in
the issues cover-dated 7th June, 1975 (a week before the premiere). The adverts
were identical except that WHOOPEE! had the face of Frankie Stein where WHIZZER
AND CHIPS had the figure of a robot (Dough Nut from one of the strips in MFC). It
made sense to include Frankie Stein in the advert in WHOOPEE! because the character
was one of the big stars of the paper and his endorsement was probably regarded
by the Editor as an important factor in helping the young reader decide to give the
new magazine a try.
A
week later (14th June, 1975 – the date that was also on the cover of the first
issue of MFC) WHOOPEE! and WHIZZER AND CHIPS both had full page adverts of the new
picture weekly and the free gift that came with it. Once again, Frankie Stein
in WHOOPEE! occupied the spot that was given to Dough Nut in WHIZZER AND CHIPS:
This
is how the second issue of MFC and the free gift were advertised in WHOOPEE! and
WHIZZER AND CHIPS in the issues cover-dated June 21st, 1975:
The
adverts occupied 1/2 page. Note the small differences: there is a speech balloon
coming from Frankie’s mouth in the WHOOPEE! version of the ad. Just like in the
two previous weeks, the direct endorsement from Frankie was probably intended to encourage his fans to buy MFC. The same applies to the advertisement
from the issues of both comics dated June 28th (the Frankie Stein says... version is from WHOOPEE):
The
other three advertisements in WHOOPEE! and WHIZZER AND CHIPS issues cover-dated
July 5th, 12th and 19th, 1975 were identical and looked like this:
I
also checked BUSTER – the comic that MFC would eventually be merged into a year
and a half down the line. Buster (or
BUSTER AND COR!!, to be exact) was hit by industrial action and missed two last
weeks of May, 1975. As opposed to WHOOPEE! and WHIZZER AND CHIPS, the arrival
of the new comic wasn’t mentioned in the issue of BUSTER cover-dated June 7th,
1975. Perhaps they didn’t have enough space for the ad because that issue had
an impressive amount of advertisement as it were: The Airfix Modellers Club – full page, Matchbox
Battle Kings – full page, Buster
Holiday Special - 1/2 p., Motor bike
models - 1/2 p., Scalecraft plane models - 1/2 p., Donald
and Mickey - 1/2 p., Tizzer T-shirts
- 1/2 p., post stamps - 1/4 p., Stunt Flyer plane model - 1/4 p., Battle Picture Weekly – Big Battle Game
- 1/2 p., Louis Marx – The Lone Ranger
– full page in colour on back cover. It is also interesting to note that from
June 14th, 1975 MONSTER FUN COMIC had to compete for advertising space in
sister publications with another new kid on the block that was LINDY (the first
issue of the paper came out on June 21st, 1975).
Starting
from the issue of June 14th, 1975 BUSTER promoted MFC with exactly the same
adverts that can be found in WHIZZER AND CHIPS. Here are some examples:
The
only difference was the layout of the last ad in BUSTER dated July 19th, 1975:
I
checked VALIANT as well. Production of the title
was also affected by industrial action and it missed the dates of May 31st and June 7th. There was nothing about MFC in the issue
of VALIANT dated 14th June. VALIANT joined the fun starting from June 21st. The
advertisements in VALIANT were the same as in BUSTER, except that the layout of
the one in the issue of June 28th, 1975 was different:
