On 7th June 1975 (cover dated 14th June) IPC launched the newest of their humour weekly line; Monster Fun Comic. It was another comic based around a theme. In this case, funny monsters. The cover (above) was drawn by Robert Nixon.
Issue 1 came with a free Plate Wobbler. Here it is, from my collection...
Page 2 had Frankie Stein as honorary editor, introducing us to the comic. Frankie had been created in 1964 for Wham!, illustrated by Ken Reid, then revived by Robert Nixon in the 1970s for Shiver and Shake, and then found a home in Whoopee when it absorbed that comic.
The lead strip in Monster Fun Comic was Kid Kong, also drawn by Robert Nixon...
X-Ray Specs made his debut in Monster Fun Comic too, with art by Mike Lacey. This character became very popular and enjoyed a long run, surviving the merger of the comic into Buster and lasting until that comic's last issue in 1999.
No British humour comic about monsters would be complete without a Ken Reid strip, and here he gave us Martha's Monster Make-Up.
It has to be said that most of the content was pretty standard IPC fare, with an emphasis on gentle fun rather than laugh-out-loud funny. One of the exceptions was the Badtime Bedtime Storybook; a 4 page pull-out section that folded into an 8 page mini-comic. Written and illustrated by Leo Baxendale it was the highlight of the comic. (Later issues were drawn by other artists after Leo quit comics.)
There was one token adventure strip in the comic; March of the Mighty Ones, drawn by the sometimes under-rated Mike White, an excellent artist...
On the back page of this 32 page comic was Cinders, about a dragon who has the hots for a knight. Funny stuff, drawn by Norman Mansbridge...
Here's the advert for issue 1, scanned from Vulcan dated 14th June 1975...
Monster Fun Comic only lasted for 72 weeks before merging into Buster. However it proved to be a popular addition to the senior comic and the Buster and Monster Fun Holiday Special ran for several years afterwards.
Freaky Farm and Creature Teacher were quite amazing pages...they really stood out..
ReplyDeleteas a kid they really freaked me out...But also had to reread..
discovered them in Buster and Monster fun specials...
How on earth have you managed to hang onto the comics and free gifts for all this time Lew? Pretty much everything I had from my childhood is long gone, through lack of space, changing interests etc.
ReplyDeleteAll part of being a collector I suppose. I have thrown out a lot of comics over the years though. I was 16 when Monster Fun was published and it was one of the last British humour comics I had for a few years (until I started looking at them from a professional viewpoint).
ReplyDelete