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Mum's
the Word

This
one starred Mum, Dad and their son (referred to simply
as "Son", "Lad" or "Dear").
We were never actually told their
names. And that was the point. See, the strip was
a spoof
on the typical family unit, with Dad supposedly
in charge
of the house, always bossing his wife and child and
telling them what to do, when in actual fact it's sly
old
Mum working who's keeping the trio afloat from
behind the scenes...
Sexist? - Yep. Out of date? - Horribly, now. But it
was
certainly a brave attempt at something different from
Fleetway.
It even looked utterly different to those other strips,
with its
thick black shadows and fills, and hard crosshatched tones.
And there wasn't a pongy sock or ghost or zapping thing
in sight. Here are just two of the storylines:
Mum cannily cons Dad into buying expensive
Xmas
pressies for their Son.
Dad
wants to hog the tv all night, but Mum works
with the lad to unseat him
Of course, it all falls apart under scrutiny. Heck,
if Mum's
so darned clever, how come she got herself saddled with
that
balding old bossy boots in the first place?
Trivia Hounds will note that the family also owned a
pet
puppy, called Puddle (er, for obvious reasons). Here's
a rare
appearance from Whoopee! #25:
And that panel also reveals a second piece of 'useful'
trivia;
namely that our happy family lived at no. 38. Precisely
which
street that was, we're not told, but - hey - every bit
of trivia
counts...

...Like this little snippet from 7th December 1974,
in which
we learn that Dad was a rather musical fellow in his youth.
He used to play trumpet for Chilly Willy and his Red-Hot
Peppers at the local dance hall, which really got young
Mum grooving. Give it away, give it away now...
Mum's the Word didn't commence its run until Whoopee!
#15.
and although it survived the Shiver & Shake
merger in October
1974 , it was another one of those unfortunate strips to
be
given the runaround by Fleetway HQ. Appearances were
intermittent in 1975 and spotlighting an end date is
tricky.
Certainly, the family popped up in the September 6th
edition.
But whether they appeared again is proving ellusive right
now...
The strip didn't actually fare much better in the annuals
either,
only appearing up until the 1978 edition. But they did return,
five years later, in the Jackpot Annuals - and in colour
too...
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