Review by Ian Keogh

Created for Monster Fun in 1975, as drawn by Tom Nixon the good-natured young gorilla with a habit of causing mayhem was a firm favourite. The combination of the funny visuals available when the leading character’s a gorilla and the potential for chaos meant Kid Kong survived Monster Fun’s cancellation and was transferred to Buster, for a long run. The same personality and concept is readily adapted to the 21st century where Alex Worley and Karl Dixon now produce Kid Kong’s mishaps.

Wild cartooning has always been a feature, and Dixon’s able to go even wilder than Nixon, his Kid Kong a bounding lump of enthusiastic energy, limbs flying all over the place. He’s even funnier for having a tight fitting school blazer and a succession of different coloured stripey hats, and Dixon surrounds him with strange looking people, often more creature than human.

Whereas the old feature had Kid Kong largely restricted to annoying the neighbours, Alex Worley doesn’t apply such boundaries. This incarnation of Kid Kong is as likely to be annoying Egyptians in the past, aliens on a space station, or transforming the entire world into assorted variations. He even visits Santa and gets to work out if the Big Bad Wolf is actually that big and bad. Much of this is via the technology invented by his creative genius Gran, who’s also the voice of caution and control.

For some reason, possibly to pad out what would otherwise be a very slim book, the panels from what were originally three page strips have been reformatted and laid on colour backgrounds, making a collection running to 140 pages. Funny is funny, though, and this hits the spot.