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“How To Handle A Part-Time Monster”Every red-blooded boy needs his very own Monster, so when
a heavy-hearted Brady decides it’s long past time to
replace the one that ran away, he must then go to the
“Bank of Dad” and convince his Father to let him.
But ol’ thrifty Dad’s got an eye on the bottom line,
and only agrees to a bargain rate, part-time
Monster. So with visions of free medical care,
Maxwell Plunkett allows his son to bring
home a “Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde” Monster,
who was found holding a cardboard sign on a
freeway on-ramp “Will Perform Medical
Treatments For Food”. But it turns out that this
Doc is just a whacked-out chemist practicing “hor-
ror-istic” medicine while trying to find “the cure”
to his transforming ails. To that end, he exper-
iments on Brady and his family, tricking them
into taking a little sip of this or a little nibble
of that, until the Plunkett household literal-
ly become Monsters themselves. Everyone,
that is, except for Brady’s teenage sister
Arlene, who, to get spending cash, sells the
whole slathering bunch to a gypsy Monster
Trader passing through town.3 BRADY’S FAR-FLUNG SEARCH:
These stories would be about Brady trying to find his long lost pet Monster.
Brady will follow ectoplasmic evidence, slimy leads, and dripping clues in search
of his pet, only to always come up empty-handed. These stories would feel a bit
like a “detective story” as he hunts down clues.A story example in the “Brady’s Search” format:“How To Find Your Missing Monster”Brady, feeling like he has exhausted all options after his latest search, posts
a reward on his Website for anyone who might have crossed paths with
his missing Monster (and lived to tell about it). Unfortunately, this
instantly brings out every flimflam artist in town, all presenting Brady
with a string of broken down monsters and outright fakes, until the house
is literally overrun. Brady’s father comes home to this absolute chaos, and
kicks everybody out in short order, no one realizing he’s just slammed the door
in the face of a newcomer, who actually is Brady’s long lost Monster.Figure 6.1 Continued