Wacky Comics!: Monster Fun

Showing posts with label Monster Fun. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 21, 2021

The Return of Monster Fun

After an absence of almost half a century, the much-loved British comic Monster Fun is making a comeback under its new owners Rebellion. Admittedly, the nostalgia for the title is probably stronger than the love for comic itself during its initial run, only 73 issues of the weekly edition were printed until it merged with the far more successful Buster comic on 6th November 1976. I certainly find it interesting that not a more popular title was chosen for the first Fleetway comic to make a comeback, but I am nonetheless very excited for it.

No longer a weekly, the revived Monster Fun will begin publishing in April next year with promises of a new issue every two months. The comic will be 32 pages and will feature many of the original favourite characters such as Frankie Stein, Kid Kong and Sweeny Toddler - not all Monster Fun originals but certainly characters who became popular in the comic's original run.

To pass the time until April, the Monster Fun Halloween Spooktacular will be going on sale next month. 48 pages thick, it is crammed full of classic stories from well-known artists, including that spectacular front cover illustrated by none other than Tom Paterson.

As I understand it, Monster Fun will be available in the stores but online subscribers will receive special free gifts. No word on what those gifts are just yet, but I wonder if they'll be reminiscent of plate wobbler, freaky spider ring or super shaking skeleton that each came with the first three issues of its 70s predecessor. I also wonder if this new version will feature the 'Badtime Bedtime Storybooks' - centre pages encouraged to be pulled out and compiled into mini-comics, much to the bane of collectors today who seek out complete copies.

Do check out the website and subscribe to make sure you don't miss an issue.

https://monsterfun.co.uk/

Sunday, September 22, 2013

What Monster Fun Almost Looked Like

What you see above is the printer's colour proof for the front cover of the very first issue of Monster Fun, and on the right is the final version, both illustrated by Robert Nixon. It seems that after they saw the one on the left in its final form they decided against it and changed it to the more familiar version on the right. I can see one possible reason for the change and that is with the logo. On the original the word 'Monster' appears on the top line, and the words 'Fun Comic' appear on the bottom. This could lead to the comic being called just Monster when it's actual name in Monster Fun.

The original design is good but the final one is better and I'm glad they chose it. It's interesting to see this unique piece of British comic history, but unfortunately this is the best image of it I have.

So, which one do you prefer?

Friday, December 14, 2012

Fleetway Firsts... Martha's Monster Makeup and X-Ray Specs

Monster Fun brought us some great characters when it was launched in 1975. Amongst others Ken Reid started out on another of his brilliant horror comics, this time about a girl called Martha who was the star of the strip Martha's Monster Make-Up! However, with strips like this one sometimes you can't help but wonder how they came across the item such as Martha's make-up in the first place! Well, here is Martha's 'Fleetway First'...

Mike Lacey's X-Ray Specs had a very similar beginning, and only appeared one page before Martha! Here it is:

X-Ray Specs was much more popular than Martha, and he survived in Buster comic right up until the very last issue, where Jack Edward Oliver sent him off with a single panel, on that famous back page.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Freaky Farm

Freaky Farm began in Monster Fun in issue 40 dated 13th March 1976. This post is here because last Monday I wrote a post about a Monster Fun comic that appeared 36 years ago this week (you can read it here), and I didn't know who the artist was.

Anyway, enjoy the strips!

From issue 40.

From issue 46.

From issue 49.

Monday, October 22, 2012

This Week In... 1976 - Monster Fun!

This week 36 years ago saw the last but one issue of Monster Fun land on the shelves! By the end of the comics run Gums was the cover star, a comical rip-off of the box office hit Jaws in 1975. Unlike a lot of comics where th efront cover story ended on the back cover, Gums continues over the page inside the comic.

Of course, the reason for this was because the back cover was given to an advertisement fot TerborLand, which were various toys you could get for free - providing you had enough Trebor bar wrappers of course!

Ken Reid was incredible at drawing monsters, so of course an entire comic about them was right up his street (although admittedly, nothing ever matched his art for the Power comics)! His contribution to Monster Fun was Martha's Monster Make-Up. This make up would turn anything it touched into a living fiend! Well, everything except the jar it was kept in and Martha's finger to flick it with!

Just because Monster Fun was ending didn't mean that Fleetway's comic industry was going with it, as the bottom advert for an early Krazy issue proves!

Robert Nixon no longer drew Gums for the front cover, but he did draw Kid Kong, a strip about a giant gorilla with an everlasting hunger for bananas!

A lot of the strips that appeared in Monster Fun managed to survive the merge into Buster, but one that didn't was Barrie Appleby's Freaky Farm. This particular episode however, was illustrated by Les Barton (Cheers Andy!).

Monster Fun folded after just 73 issues, barely a year after it had first started in 1975. Not only did it feature some of the weirdest characters ever to appear in a comic, but it involved some of the best cartoonists as well, with Leo Baxendale's final weekly work appearing within its pages.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Mike Brown's Bedtime

Title box for book No. 3

Leo Baxendale's last weekly comic work was for Monster Fun, where he was given the centre spread for his Badtime Bedtime Story Books! However, when reading the below one entitled 'At The Apple's Core', I noticed the artist was Mike Brown - not Bax!

Does anybody know if he drew any other books?

Sleep well.....

Friday, July 6, 2012

Monster Fun Summer Special 1976

It's coming up to the summer holidays, and it would be around this time that the Summer/Holiday specials would be hitting the stores (well, back when they were making them anyway)! This is the second and final Monster Fun special, coming out in 1976 for 25 pennies(the title, which cost 8p at the time, would fold a few months later, in October). The cover starred Gums (a parody of Jaws, obviously), by the excellent Robert Nixon! The cover was a frame of a Gums strip inside redrawn by Nixon, although I can't identify the artist of the original strip as it looks like a ghost artist.

The cover star if the previous special was Kid Kong (also based on a famouse movie monster), and he was still a popular choice with readers, appearing as the first strip inside the comic. In this episode, all Kid want's to do is cool down, but is that really too much to ask? Well yes, if your a 50ft tall gorilla! Illustrated by his regular artist - Robert Nixon!

Also movie based is this three page advert for Monsters From An Unknown Planet! It was put in comic strip form, and wasn't brilliant, but was pretty funny to read! Has anybody seen this movie?

Sometimes in summer specials you can find a board game across the centre spread, sadly not in this one though, instead there is a two page Teddy Scare strip by a ghost artist, but the usual artist for this strip is Barry Appleby.

Inventors from the stone age are a bit of a common theme in comics (I might even do a post about this soon), and Monster Fun had Stoneage Brit - Ancient Nit (I still think this would sound better as 'The Ancient Nit')! Brit is actually a reprinted strip from Cor!, where it was illustrated by Tony Goffe.

A nice holiday feature in the comic were Frankie Stein's wish you were here Postcards! Illustrated by Sid Burgon, these were cards sent to people who were probably more than pleased that Frankie had gone. The postcards seem normal enough, but the images show that everything is not quite as it seems!

I'll be looking at some more Summer/Holiday Specials soon!

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Monster Fun Joins Buster

Monster Fun was launched in 1975 and, just over a year later, it folded, becoming Buster's 7th merger on 6th November 1976. With it, Monster Fun brought a whole bunch of different characters, the most famous strips being Gums, Kid Kong and X-Ray Specs. All the new characters were shown on the front cover.

Even though Buster's strip didn't acknowledge the merge with Monster fun, there was a letter from him at the bottom of his page, welcoming all the new readers to Buster!

Gums also had a welcome message, politely introducing himself as he destroys a smiling Bluey's boat!

Another new strip is Terror TV, illustrated by Barrie Appleby. It's all about a television studio that scares the living daylights out of everybody! I haven't read many episodes, but I imagine it would start to get a bit repetitive after a while, but it's run wasn't too short, lasting just over a year when it finished in Febuary 1978.

A strip that didn't come from Monster Fun is Leo Baxendale's Clever Dick (I think this is a reprint as Leo had left comics by this time, but if not it could have been his son Martin who drew this strip). Clever Dick was always a brilliant strip, well written, well drawn and possibly inspiring kids around the country to have a go at making Dick's gadgets for themselves! Of course, his idea's would nearly always backfire somehow - even when the plan seemed flawless!

Ken Reid, the mastermind moster doodler, had several pages in this weeks issue, one comic strip (Martha's Monster Make-Up) and two more pages for a Funny Monster Competiton. All you had to do was guess the name of the monster from the selection underneath, save them and do the same for the next three issues. When you're done simply send in your answers and you could win a Detector Products Viking Transmitter Receiver (as used by the police) - that's a metal detector - and a Decimo Vatman pocket calculator! So, what names would you give to these fine beasts? (Options for above monster: A. Octo-Pussy, B. Pollupuss C. Bog Moggy. Options for below monster: A. Snuff-Grumpus B. Rhino-Snitch C. Elephantom.)

The War Children is an adventure serial written by Scott Goodall about a group of children who were captured by the Nazi's and ordered to do whatever they were told "without question". Naturally, they didn't like the sound of that, so they escaped and now have a hideout in the woods. This strip also shows that Nazi's can be easily defeated by a wild pig! Artwork by John Stokes.

Intrestingly, Gus's Gags is still the main jokes section, after two years since it joined Buster from Cor! in 1974.

Roy of the Rovers got his very own comic in 1976, just a number of days before Monster Fun merged with Buster! So of course, Fleetway would try and do everything they could to make it a success. Here is a half page advert, advertising the free gift - 'Roy Race's Favourite Footballers!' booklet.

Because of all the excitment about the merge most of the comic strips seemed to have forgotten that it was fireworks night when the comic came out (or maybe that was celebrated in the previous issue?). Apart from a small message at the bottom of Chalky's page, not a thought is given to it!