Previewing ‘Monster Fun’ #7: The Time Travel Special

by Richard Bruton

More Monstrous Funnies for you with the seventh issue of Monster Fun – out right now and full of classic Brit humour characters brought bang up to date…

Haven’t done one of these for a while, not since previewing Issue 3, but even though there’s been some changes in the strips and the creators behind them, there’s been no change in the fun (or the monsters), no let up in the quality, no easing up of the laughs. It really is a grand way to show the world just how good, just how enjoyable these wonderful old characters of Brit humour comics were back then and how great they can be now.

Issue 7 is the time travel special, meaning you’ve got the chance to see Gums in prehistoric waters, Kid Kong heading back to Ancient Egypt, Draculass dreaming of Ancient Rome, and Hire A Horror meet up with historical monstrosities.

Alongside those time travel-infused lovelies, there’s the continuing longer adventures of Steel Commando, teaming up with Captain Condor to battle Maxine Von Klorr and more Leopard From Lime Street. And of course, we also have some brand-new for these days characters and strips, with the brilliant Hell’s Angel, plus Witch Vs Warlock and Space Invaded.

It’s one of those comics where there’s absolutely something fun for everyone and your favourites and mine may be different – but there’s certainly enough to fill everyone with a giggle and a guffaw.

For me, It starts with a beautiful one-two-three punch with Gums, Kid Kong, and Hell’s Angel. Three very different strips of course, but all of them absolute delights. That one-page Gums is great, Brett Parson drawing the life out of Stacey Whittle’s simple but simply great script as Gums heads down a conveniently found time tunnel back to prehistoric times and a nasty surprise.

Kid Kong‘s consistently been a highlight of all the Monster Fun issues I’ve seen, just Alec Worley and Karl Dixon going completely silly – as they should – with Kid finding Gran’s old time-travel scooter, meeting Cleopatra and then getting sent off to deal with a mummy… it’s just full of great gags, although Worley did miss just one trick – surely Kid commenting on Cleopatra’s ‘very pretty nose’ should have been in there, for no other reason to make the Asterix fans happy.

And completing the top trio, Chris Garbutt‘s Hell’s Angel, another one that’s been a consistent highlight from the first issue, just Garbutt playing with this child of the devil and coming up with ridiculous and funny gags all along. Just like this one, where Hell’s Angel and her Pa are answering questions from humans (nope, that makes no sense but that’s not the point – it’s all about the funny, it doesn’t have to make sense!) about how the dinosaurs became extinct. Was it an asteroid? Was it a volcano? Well, if you’re ‘Big D’ you can make it be whatever you want…

See, now when isn’t dino farts funny? There’s a loooong tradition of fart gags in kid’s comics and it’s damn good to see it continue.

Well, I could go on and on about Monster Fun, about how it gets pretty much every strip spot on, ho wit’s full of all sorts of comedy, how there’s bound to be something in here to get the kids giggling – or even the kid inside the older you guffawing again like you maybe used to reading Monster Fun, Whoppee, Buster, Whizzer & Chips, or any of the seemingly countless number of great British humour comics of old.

There’s even the inclusion of the two longer strips to carry on tradition. Sure, Steel Commando might have a surface sheen of modern, thanks to Dan Boultwood’s great cartooning, but it’s still just a wonderful gag fest with a story behind it. And as for the Leopard From Lime Street, that’s traditional as well. Not just because the Leopard is one of the most well-loved adventure strips from the 70s but because it was often the case that humour comics would have a couple of serious adventure strips inside. Here it might be light on actual Leopard action, but that’s more than made up for with the introduction of Billy Farmer’s recently discovered sister, Iris, as Alleycat…

The Leopard from Lime Street by Simon Furman and PJ Holden

Monster Fun is out right now in the shops of the UK. There are plenty of subscription choices at their website. Surely you want all this fun in your life?

And if you didn’t hear already, with the next issue, out on 7th June, Monster Fun is going monthly. Yes, after seven issues of kids waiting a couple of months for a new issue – way too long when you’re as young as the Monster Fun fans hopefully are – it’s now proved popular enough and sold enough to make it into a monthly comic.

Okay then, time for a look inside…

GUMS – By Stacey Whittle and Brett Parson