1978 COR!! COMIC ANNUAL

1978 COR!! Comic Annual, price £1, 144 pages.

Here’s the lineup: Chalky (2 episodes, one in full colour), Willy Worry (2 new episodes, one in full colour and one in b/w, both signed by Terry Bave), Jasper the Grasper (in full colour, a new episode drawn crudely by an unidentified artist), Gus Gorilla (5 reprints from COR!! weeklies), The Slimms (3 episodes), Soldier Spoon (4 episodes), Tomboy (2 episodes), The Gasworks Gang (original 4-page episode by Frank McDiarmid, signed), Mike’s Magic Mould (2 episodes), Teacher’s Pet (2 episodes), Donovan’s Dad (2 episodes), Tricky Dicky (2 episodes), Football Madd (5 episodes), Hire A Horror (3 reprints from old COR!! weeklies), Jelly Baby (2 episodes), Whacky (2 new episodes), Val’s Vanishing Cream (3 episodes), Night Mare (2 episodes, both signed by Les Barton), Andy’s Ants (2 episodes), Tease Break feature (2 instalments), Jack Pott (2 episodes, one in full colour), Super Spook (8 pages by Ron Turner), Patch-Eye Hooker (2 episodes of 4 pages each), Benny Bendo! (1 eposide, 4 pages), Fiends and Neighbours (nice original episode by Graham Allen), Skateboard Sammy (3 episodes), Teddi Vizzon – The Set That Makes You Scream (2 episodes), Marshal Law, Little Benny, Didi and her Teddybears (signed by Mike Brown), Ivor Lott and Tony Broke (in full colour - cover story + 4 pages inside).

Here are some nice examples of new episodes of well-familiar COR!! features: 

The 1978 Annual championed among all COR!! books and holiday specials in terms of the number of unfamiliar and one-off strips. It contained first instalments of Patch-Eye Hooker (reprints of the old pirate strip that originated in GIGGLE and continued in BUSTER) and Benny Bendo – a new strip that was to become a regular in COR!! specials and annuals from this issue onwards. Both will receive their dedicated posts later on, as will Super Spook by Ron Turner who made his third and last appearance in the pages of the Annual. Besides, there were as many as five one-offs, all of them looking like experimental sets put together in a rush to fill the space:

Skateboard Sammy was a crudely drawn strip about … little Sammy and his skateboard. As many as three episodes were included. Here's a taste:

Teddi Vision – The Set That Makes You Scream!  was a bit more interesting. Here is one of the two episodes from the Annual:

Marshal Law: a cowboy comedy feature drawn by an artist whose style looks like a combination of Mike Lacey and Mike Brown to me…

 

Little Benny: a medieval tale in the vein of General Nitt and His Barmy Army from WHAM! only with some wizardry thrown in:

Didi and her Teddy Bears – a set drawn and signed by Mike Brown: