Today I thought I’d share a fun little monster themed Muppet’s comic that I found in the 1980 Random House published Muppet Madness book. Unfortunately there aren’t any writers, artists, or contributors listed, not even a signature on the title page of the comic. The entire book was sort of a mish mash of random Muppet themed fare that reminds me of the sort of stuff that was found in the Muppet Magazines. I’m not sure, but this might be a collection of those, though I don’t know when Muppet magazine was being printed. Either way, it’s chock full of monsters, both the usual suspects (Sweetums for example) and a bevy of muppetized versions of more classic fare.
Muppets Book Cover Random House 1980 
So lets take a trip with the Muppets on their Holiday Haunt…
The Muppets are kind of a weird animal for me. Whenever I see them in any other medium other than as puppets, they tend to come off kind of stiff. I think one of the genius aspects to the whole thing is how well the puppeteers at Henson productions could convey emotion through all the felt. So when I see them drawn in comic form a lot of this emotion is lacking, if only because the artists are trying to stay on-model across mediums. For instance, in the 2nd panel above, I think Piggy is supposed to look annoyed as is her want, but she seems sort of, I don’t know, mildly interested. I think the artist nailed Fozzy though…
On the other hand you get to see stuff that you might not ordinarily see, like little artistic touches. Kermit’s captain’s hat for instance. Makes me want a driving hat…
I really like the watercolors in this. It give the characters a nice texture, maybe not fuzz and felt, but it’s something…
As a bonus, I’m also including a scan of the ghoulish Haunted Theatre board game that was also in this book. With one six sided die and some friends, you too can try and escape from the haunted theatre. Lookout for Miss Piggy on that last turn as she chases a ghost, she’d be libel to karate chop you a good one!
