Fungus the Bogeyman

Product Information

His first three major works, Father Christmas, Father Christmas Goes on Holiday (both featuring a curmudgeonly Father Christmas who complains incessantly about the "blooming snow"), and Fungus the Bogeyman, were in the form of comics rather than the typical children's-book format of separate text and illustrations. A co-production with Pilot Theatre, the show was directed and adapted by Marcus Romer and designed by Ali Allen. Hamish Hamilton London 1982 First Edition VG (illus hardcover sl rubbed and worn, sl faded, internally book is clean and bright and all pop ups appear to work! Making things go bump in the night can be satisfying in its way, and a pint of slime goes down nicely after work. That is what I loved this time around, Fungus did not know why he scares people, why he puts boils on them and why he does this day after day.

There will probably be words that a young child will not know such as ‘pullulate’ (regarding Fungus’s underwear), and ‘horripilation’ (lady in the tub) but that is half the joy of this book - discovering new words for noxious stuffs and effects. I mean, it’s a complete classic, although I do prefer Ug, Boy Genius of the Stone Age, for its philosophical musings, although the quotations from Southey, Clare, et al in this book do make me smile. Skip forward [mumble mumble] years -- yes, that many -- and I've just found the very same book hiding in a forgotten, dusty stack at my parent's house. The family has an addition, a daughter named Mucus, and Fungus' son Mould (who featured in the original book) is a teenager going through a rebellious phase: cleaning things instead of dirtying them.And although I do believe that especially boys will likely and perhaps even definitely enjoy much of the presented text and be especially captivated with and by the at times rather disgusting, overtly ribald potty-type humour, I do not necessarily think that they will all that easily understand all or even most of the more sophisticated allusions, parodies and such (and I equally do warn parents who are considering reading Fungus the Bogeyman with or to their children to actually consider at least skimming the entire book before using it for their little ones just to make certain that they themselves do not end up with both narrative and illustrative surprises they might personally consider inappropriate). Yes, ultimately the joke is one-note (everything in bogeydom is more or less the reverse of things in the human world, so bogeymen prefer dirt to cleanliness, cold to warmth, wet to dry, and so on, though there are occasional inconsistencies), but Briggs pulls off so many brilliant variations on it, and paces them out so carefully as he narrates Fungus's typical "day" (read night) of frightening and irritating people, all the while wondering what purpose his job serves, that the joke somehow never gets tired. He would start his journey and that page was full of paragraphs about the history of every place he passed and the function of every item mentioned. Briggs continued to work in a similar format, but with more adult content, in Gentleman Jim (1980), a sombre look at the working class trials of Jim and Hilda Bloggs, closely based on his parents.

Instead we are left with this dense and contemplative literary work that doesn't talk down to children but rather treats them as intelligent readers and throws in references to the likes of John Milton, Alfred Tennyson, William Oldys, Thomas Carlyle and John Donne. It also reads in the style of a non-fiction guide with and lots of information about 'Bogeys' and their different lifestyle. The story, such as it is, follows a day in the life of the eponymous Fungus, a hard-working Bogeyman who is going through an existential midlife crisis, questioning both his purpose and the system in which he works. You had to keep stopping in the story to have every aspect of life explained and then try to get back into the story again. Best known for his more conventional children's books such as The Snowman, Briggs, like Roald Dahl, has an uncanny sense of what really appeals to children -- gross stuff and toilet humor.His graphic novel Ethel and Ernest, which portrayed his parents' 41-year marriage, won Best Illustrated Book in the 1999 British Book Awards. As his day progresses, he undergoes a mild existential crisis, pondering what his seemingly pointless job of scaring surface people is really for. The level of detailed world building of Bogeydom makes this such a fun and worthy inclusion to the 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow-up. Bogeydom is not a place I would particularly like to visit, but I am glad I am aware of it, and that while reading about its goings-on my dinner, and sense of humour, remained intact. Combine that rudimentary appeal with a very adult level of punning and an endearing melancholy and you have Fungus.

For while Fungus' world and his daily life are indeed often minutely, engagingly and even in a strange way beautifully described and depicted (and the accompanying illustrations are gorgeously drawn and actually, amazingly sparkle with their very and often intense general ugliness), really and truly, for and to me, the constant and ever-present referrals to farting, vomiting, grottiness, slime, mould and the like does tend to become rather frustratingly dragging. One of my earliest book-related memories is of my parents taking me to the local library so I could rumage through the cluttered jumble of children's books, always in the hope of finding this buried treasure.On this night, he startles a vicar, a woman in her bath, and stinks out a couple’s bedroom using his Bogey umbilical cord. Briggs not only gives the reader a clear indication of what the Bogeyman wears, eats and wash’s himself with but also the bogeyman’s hobbies, habitat and modes of transport.