Orphan Topsy Turner the lead singer with the Popps rock group was found to be granddaughter of the wealthy James Grimforth who hated pop music. Topsy begged to be allowed continue her pop career Mr Grimforth refused but Topsy was able to sneak out with help of a housemaid.
In 1983, the Tigers of Kushanti an army of cruel warriors had conquered almost the whole world including most of Britain. Wendy Maitland had been a code expert in the British army and returned to her home village where she took up her old job as school teacher. She discovered the invaders had installed secret listening devices in the school so they could overhear everything. Despite this Wendy was still able to secretly help the British resistance.
A school cruise excites her other classmates but Cressie Collins is apprehensive. Her friends help her get over her homesickness but not everything goes smoothly on the cruise. Cressie can cause problems by being impulsive luckily her friend May Hatton who was more sensitive, helps her gets out of tricky situations.
In the absence of Agamemnon, the Lion King, Mycenae was ruled by his cruel wife and her cousin, Aegisthus. When word came that Agamemnon’s fleet was becalmed, the Queen ordered that her eldest daughter, Iphigenia — Electra’s sister—should be sacrificed to the Sea God. Iphigenia was tied to a stake at the water’s edge. Electra pleaded to Zeus for her sister’s life. Without her sister Electra would be the last obstacle for the queen.
Jillian Jackson was brought up by her grandparents after her parents died. When her grandfather a steeple-jack develops eye problems, fifteen year old Jill leaves school to take over the business, but not everyone is ready to except a young girl as a steeple-jack.
Other Appearances:
Ellie Roberts, after having led a secluded life with her father on a remote farm in the Welsh mountains, was suddenly thrust into the turmoil of London. She had discovered a strange attraction in table tennis, her amazing thought-reading abilities enabling her to anticipate an opponent’s tactics. Her father became obsessed with her career, entering her for the National Junior Championships. She was kidnapped by a woman publisher who claimed to be her mother, but, after Ellie had been photographed for a magazine, she discovered that the woman had lied to her!
Young Madge Baker’s hobby is making badges – encouraged by her friend Tina. Madge finds her hobby comes in useful in all sort of situations.
Other Appearances
I’m a little late for reviewing this comic, but even though it is promoted as a “Halloween Spooktacular” it really can be enjoyed at anytime of year. After the ambitious variety of specials released by Rebellion last year, we only get a couple this year. This is the first Monster Fun special released (for the new generation) but it is really a follow up to the previously released Cor!! Buster specials under a “new” name. Nearly half the stories here, the new incarnations have appeared in the other specials, most with the same creative teams too, such as Gums, Sweeney Toddler and Creature Teacher to name a few. The Monster Fun name is more fitting for Halloween, and also I think more appealing for a new audience for an ongoing comic. Cor!! Buster is a bit more clunkier if you aren’t aware of the history of comics, and wouldn’t mean a lot to young readers, whereas a book advertising as fun with monsters I can see it enticing the readers. The exciting thing is this is becoming a regular comic beginning in April 2022, it will be coming out every 2 months. Way back in 2017 when the first Misty & Scream! Special came out, I speculated that if things went well we may see the return of regular issues, although it is not Misty & Scream it is heartening to see a new British comic ongoing. Monster Fun will be joining The Phoenix and Beano as another choice for young readers.
As for the contents themself, this is all strong stuff and jam packed with stories (20 in total), mostly shorter humour strips but we also get a longer more drama tale with The Leopard From Lime Street (by Simon Furman and Laurent Lefauvre). The return of teen Billy Farmer as the leopard was one of my favourites here, it quickly gives a run down of how Billy got his powers, introduces his family and friends, then sets a new plot with the villain Totem. It was nice that they kept the classic title banner as well. Fans of Tom Paterson will be delighted to see he is not only responsible for the cover but 3 stories inside as well, Sweeny Toddler, Gah! The Gobblin’ Goblin and Grimly Feendish, my personal favourite being the latter as Grimly’s plan to sneak monsters into Funstation 5 console boxes to give to people doesn’t go quite as planned. Hell’s Angel (by Chris Garbutt) is also a fun strip where cute little demon Helly causes her dad trouble by being to nice in Hell. Frankie Stein (by Cavan Scott and John Lucas), introduces the book as the editor and also gets the first strip of the book where he is entered into a Monster of the Year competition at the Evil Scientist Convention. Part of the fun of that story is spotting all the background characters at the convention, including Missy (Doctor Who), Willy Wonka, Dr Evil, The Spider and The Monarch and Dr Girlfriend (The Venture Brothers).
That’s only a small selection of the stories on offer, in the comic, there’s plenty of other good reads in here. It is aimed at an 8-13 age range, and there is young humour (plenty of puns) as well as modern references (mobiles and social media are very present), but certainly older readers can enjoy it too. I hope that the ongoing will gather support and be successful as it is high quality and nice to see more ongoing comics available for young readers. The subscription to the new comic (or if you want to buy just the Halloween comic to check it out) is available here: https://monsterfun.co.uk/
Jackie Munroe and Alison Brown meet on the first day of school and immediately hit it off. They are shocked to discover at the end of the day, when talking to their mothers, that the girls are actually half sisters. Both mothers have reasons to dislike the other, Ms Munroe because her husband left her for Mrs Brown, when she was still pregnant with Jackie and Mrs Brown because when her husband got sick Ms Munroe wouldn’t let him reconcile with Jackie before he died. Their mothers don’t know the girls have become friendly and on hearing their mothers’ stories, at first Jackie and Alison decided the other wouldn’t be a good friend after all, but after being paired up in class they realise they still like each other. They decide to continue their friendship but have to hide it from their mothers.
This leads to episodic story where each week the girls miss out in something or get in trouble trying to keep their friendship secret, and at the end of the episode conclude it’s still worth it to be friends. Such events include Jackie sneaking Alison to her birthday party but when her mum comes back early, Alison has to sneak out and accidentally breaks an ornament. Jackie has to pay for it and Alison also gives her money towards replacing so they can’t afford tickets to go to concert they wanted to see. They both miss out on being form rep when a teacher sees them getting in trouble with police for leaving café without paying, they can’t explain to teacher that it was all cleared up and they did leave money but rushed out to avoid being seen by Mrs Brown. When a picture is taken of the girls together at opening of new school library, they expose the film, but that means Jackie doesn’t get her memento photo of presenting flowers to Duchess either. Alison is caught out in one of her lies when she sneaks out to meet Jackie, meaning she is grounded for a month. Jackie has to spend all her money on a top she doesn’t like, to avoid trouble with a shopkeeper, who thinks the girls are messing when they try to avoid her mum. Another time Jackie hurts her leg when she thinks Alison’s mom is going to catch them together, but it turns out to be someone else.
Meanwhile their mom’s begin to ask about friends, Mrs Brown insists she invites her best friend around for tea. They get new girl Sylvia to agree to pretend to be her best friend, but then she wants to hang around as a threesome all the time, and the girls find she is selfish and not so nice. Luckily Sylvia finds a more suitable friend by the end of the episode. With the school holidays approaching Alison and Jackie are not looking forward to it, because it will be harder to meet each other. Ten the Brown’s get into an accident, hearing about it on radio, Alison goes to see Jackie, who is luckily not badly injured but her mum is and will need to stay in hospital. Later at home Alison is surprised when her mum arrives with Jackie. She explains to Alison when she heard about the accident, she felt bad for Jackie who already lost her father and may have lost her mother, as Alison and Jackie share a father, they are the closest thing to family Jackie has so she has taken her in. She asks Alison to try and make an effort with her. Jackie and Alison discuss the situation and decide it is best to not let her know they were already friends. When Mrs Brown recovers she is grateful for the Munroes taking Jackie in. They decide to put past behind them and form a relationship for their daughters.
Like I mentioned above, it is quite an episodic story, with the set up each issue being how their secret friendship causes them trouble, but although they lose out on something they still think it is worth it. There might have been a bit more opportunity to dive into family issues particularly with their dad. How does Jackie feel about being raised without her dad and never meeting him? After finding out he wanted a relationship with her before he dies seems odd she doesn’t does she ever ask Alison more about him (at least from what we see). Does she feel resentment to her mother for not allowing her to get to know him before he died? For Alison, there is less than a year between the girls, so it does seem likely her dad had an affair does this make her feel and differently about her parents now? While it is briefly addressed in the first episode, with the girls taking their respective mother’s side of stories at first, they quickly move past it and decide what happened back then shouldn’t effect them, but it could have been interesting to see them have more conflicted feelings about their parents even if Jackie and Alison weren’t holding resentment against each other.
While they continue to have trouble with hiding the friendship and this means some conflict with their mothers, such as Jackie being grounded because she lied about where she was, the mothers never actually find out what the girls are doing. Perhaps if they talked to them, they could have resolved the feud earlier, but at least the mothers do come around in the end on their own terms. There have been other stories with this theme of two families falling out and the children have to hide their friendship, such as Let’s Pretend or The Secret Friends . For this category of story, it is is quite a strong entry, the actual reason for the mothers disliking each other in this story are quite reasonable motives (even if it would have been nice to dive into it more) and Alison and Jackie are likeable, each episode you hope for once something will work out for them. Each situation they find themselves in is interesting, and Maria Dembilio, who would become a staple artist for M&J, is a perfect choice for depicting the the girls problems. It is a relief to see at the end the girls get their wish of becoming family and no more secrets.
Damian Darke tells the story of a cursed Doll’s House and how it affects each new owner.
The story starts in the the 19th century, with Charlotte and her new doll’s house, that she shows off to visitors; Amanda Carter and her father. We think this will be the house of the story title, but when jealous Amanda causes Charlotte to fall on the house and break it, we know it can’t be. Instead Amanda asks her father for an even better doll house than Charlotte’s had been. He commissions a talented craftsman to build it, but then he cheats the Mr Sugam out of money pushing him to floor when Sugam protests. Sugam curses the Carters as they leave and later dies of his head injury. The police show up to question Mr Carter just as Charlotte is showing off her new house to Amanda. Charlotte is shocked to see the figure of Mr Sugam in her doll house lying unconscious on the floor, although no-one else can see it, she blurts out everything and the police arrest her father. After her father went to prison Charlotte was sent to a home for destitute children and the doll house ended up in a second-hand dealer’s shop.
Some months later a girl Lynn spots the Doll House and begs her adoptive mother to buy it for her birthday. But while her husband is away Mrs Blake can’t afford to buy it for her, instead she gives her a family necklace. Lynn ungrateful put it on stuffed parrot in the attic. When Mr Blake does return he buys the doll house for their daughter Alice’s birthday, thinking the girls can share it. Lynn is seething with jealousy and says Alice is clearly the favourite “real” daughter. When an opportunity arises for one of the girls to be painted as part of an advertising campaign, Lynn pushes Alice into a quarry getting rid of her competition. She rushes home and goes to find the old necklace in the attic to wear, she gets a shock to see one of the doll’s now life size in the attic with her and the door locked. Alice luckily surviving the fall rushes to her parents to tell them what happened, but they can’t find Lynn anywhere. Alice later sees 2 dolls in the attic of her dollhouse, one of which looks curiously like Lynn, it disturbs her so much she gets rid of the house.
It was bought by Sir Martyne for his children Elizabeth and Max. They were spoilt and ill-tempered and didn’t improve even as they grew up and their parents died. They raised the rent on their tenants to keep up their lifestyle and when they discover that one of their tenants have a girl they fostered that may be a long-lost heiress they force the Harrises to give the girl to them, hoping to get her fortune. The girl, Maggie, is allowed to play with the doll house, when she sees it on fire she douses it with water, angering Max, who calls her a liar. Later a fire breaks out in the actual house, Maggie tries to warn the siblings but they don’t believe her, she runs for help but it’s too late for the Martynes. Maggie does discover se is an heiress and is able to buy the land for her now adoptive parents the Harrisses. The doll house which was salvaged from the fire is sold off.
It appears again in the 1920s, by now legends have build up about the house that it can avenge evil and foretell the future. Milly who next gets the house is fascinated by the idea it could tell the future. Later it appears to come true, as her father is at a meeting, Milly sees the mother doll fallen out of bed onto the floor. She check on her own mother and sees her in a similar state, and looking older. Unfortunately the phone lines are down, forcing Milly to ride her horse in a storm to get help. She rides through the nearest village but it is now a run down ghost town. She meets a man who tells her a business man built a chemical plant in the village then an explosion killed half the people. Milly sees the old sign on the chemical plant has her father’s name on it, the man continues telling her the businessman died of heart attack and a little later his daughter found her mother on the ground sick from grief, she rode off in storm for help but fell when her horse stumbled. Milly begs him to stop, that it can’t be true, then she wakes up in her own bed, her parents beside her. When she tells o her dream, it turns out the meeting her father was at was about building a chemical plant, but he now changes his mind.
Finally in more recent time the Doll’s house is owned by Barbara, she notices a new figure in the house when suddenly a girl appears at the window. She talks a bit strange saying the house drew her there, and seems to vanish when Barbara goes to introduce her mom. Her mother goes to visit the new neighbours who seem to be cagey about their daughter. After another visit from the girl to Barbara, the family confront the neighbours with a handkerchief they found. It turns out their daughter is in a coma, when Barbara goes to talk with her, she wakes up and everyone is delighted. Damian Darke ends the tale saying the girls have now grown up and the Doll house is changing hands again perhaps someone has already bought it for the reader.
Halloween is the perfect time for a Damian Darke story. The storyteller had a few picture story library books, unlike the first book; Beyond a Strange Door… which had 4 different stories with a common theme, this book has the same object, connecting them all. The story starts with a good misdirect, as we see Charlotte with her new doll’s house we think this will be the story’s namesake, so it is surprising when it gets broken. After Amanda gets her house and Mr Sugam is cheated out of his money and he places the curse, it looks like nonsense words but appears to be just backwards, if we translate forwards he say “I curse – I curse…. no joy or..” we don’t see what comes after the “or” I wonder if there was addendum for good people as the strange house’s powers seem to evolve from punishing bad people to helping deserving people by warning them of future events.
The first 2 stories have jealous and spiteful girls being punished, the third story also has nasty people making their end, but also a change when Maggie is able to escape the fire and Martyne’s because of the doll house. The next story the helps Milly by showing her a premonition and in final story it seems to call to the comatose Fran helping her to get well again. It is strange that it evolves from punishing people when they do something wrong, to actively helping good people, certainly a very powerful house/curse! In particular things seem very elaborate in Millys story as not only does she something in the doll house but a very realistic and detailed dream of a whole village being wiped out. The creepiest story is Lynn’s end to become trapped as a doll in the attic, while it may be seem deserving after attempting to kill Alice, the Blakes were actually willing to forgive her and get the mental health treatment she needs (very generous and progressive of them!), of course they never find her, and Lynn is fleft to her horrible fate. After beginning with some unsettling stories, the last story is quite positive as the doll house helps both a comatose girl and it’s owner to find a lifelong friend, then with it’s ending of Damian Darke saying that the house could end up in a reader’s hands, the thought may be that it could help you… if you are a good person. But also could be considered a warning if you have any jealous or greedy thoughts!
