welcome and enjoy!

Hi and welcome to my blog about comics from other people’s childhood! It is dedicated primarily to British humour comics of the 60s and 70s. The reason they are not from my childhood is simply because I didn’t live in the UK back then (nor do I live there now). I knew next to nothing about them until fairly recently but since then I’ve developed a strong liking for the medium and amassed a large collection, including a number of complete or near complete sets. My intention is to use this blog as a channel for sharing my humble knowledge about different titles, favourite characters and creators as I slowly research my collection.

QUICK TIP: this blog is a sequence of posts covering one particular comic at a time. The sequence follows a certain logic, so for maximum results it is recommended that the blog is read from the oldest post up.

Copyright of all images and quotations used here is with their respective owners. Any such copyrighted material is used exclusively for educational purposes and will be removed at first notice. All other text copyright Irmantas P.



Wednesday, October 10, 2012

COR!! COMIC ANNUAL 1985



COR!! Comic Annual 1985, £2.25, 112 pages.

Contents: Jack Pott (2 episodes signed by Crocker), Chalky, The Gasworks Gang (4 reprints from old COR!! weeklies), Teacher’s Pet (3 episodes), Hire A Horror (5 episodes, all reprints), Football Madd (3 episodes by a new artist), Ivor Lott and Tony Broke (4 episodes), Learn to Draw with Chalky, Wilfred the World’s Worst Wizard (2 episodes), Nightmare (2 episodes by Crocker), Spring Puzzles, Val’s Vanishing Cream (2 Mike Lacey reprints), Revenge of the Gnomes (2 episodes), Play the Game with Football Madd, Tomboy (2 episodes), Fiends and Neighbours (new episode by Les Barton), Benny Bendo, Fun Corner (2 instalments, possibly by Tom Paterson), Join Jack Pottholing, Summer Puzzles, Young MacDonald and His Farm (possibly by Les Barton), Gus, Ha Ha Tee Hee gags (by Jack Clayton), Jelly Baby (2 episodes), Time for a Rhyme (possibly by Mike Brown), It Pays to Advertise gags, Autumn Puzzles, Gus Gorilla, Blackboard Brain-Busters puzzle, Winter Puzzles, Donovan’s Dad (by Terry Bave), Jasper the Grasper (new episode by Les Barton), Monster Munch ad on rear cover.

What made the Annual different from all the earlier ones is that it had way more games, puzzles, gags and jokes than all the others. There were two pages of puzzles for every season of the year, Jack Pottholing maze and Blackboard Brain Busters (finish the famous sayings puzzle); Teacher’s Pet offered some test-time tips plus there was a page of Learn to Draw with Chalky and a page of Play the Game with Football Madd. That’s a total of 13 non-comic pages – surely a record for COR!! Here are some examples:


Then there were Ha Ha Tee Hee gags by Jack Clayton, It Pays to Advertise gags, possibly by the artist who illustrated Mum’s the Word in WHOOPEE! in the mid-70s, and Fun Corner, possibly by Tom Paterson: 


Once again, Jim Crocker and Les Barton contributed quite a large number of new pages. Here are some bits and bobs from Les Barton:


Three new episodes of Football Madd were illustrated by a new artist:


There were two one-offs. The first one - Time for a Rhyme - wasn’t exactly a comic strip but rather an illustrated rhyme with speech balloons. The illustrator was probably Mike Brown: 


Revenge of the Gnomes was a tale about garden Gnomes who were brought to life by a witch to look after her creepy cottage while she was off to see the world. Two episodes were included in the annual both by an artist whose name I don’t know but I find his style very appealing and would love to see more of his work, if only I knew where to look:


It was also the only annual that didn’t have identical front and back covers: the back cover was given to the Monster Munch advertisement:




4 comments:

  1. Revenge of the Gnomes is drawn by Mike (T) Green, who sometimes signed his work 'MTG'. http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=148&t=2380

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  2. Yes, all of the Fleetway 1985 annuals had Monster Munch on the back.

    I've forgotten who drew Revenge of the Gnomes, but he was probably best known for drawing the Drips in Whizzer and Chips, particularly in annuals.

    Some of Fun Corner was indeed drawn by Tom Paterson as you correctly identified, but only some of them - other artists included Artie Jackson.

    You're right to identify Mike Brown as the artist for Time for a Rhyme. I'll have a look at my copy upstairs to see if I can get any ideas for Football Madd's artist...

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  3. http://petergraycartoonsandcomics.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Michael%20%28T%29%20Green.

    Michael (T) Green drew the gnomes in Whizzer and chips 83-84...also The Drips..mid 80's..
    also Penny Dreadful in Wow! comic..
    He drew for Sparky comic as well..Jumbo and Jet
    Snip and Snap..
    also Weedy willy in Oink..

    It pays to advertise was a reprint from Krazy comic..
    Cor!! annuals look very good to collect..

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  4. Probably entirely off topic, but in the late 90s I had a friend in the UK by the name of Michael Green who was involved with Questors Theatre in Ealing, London, and wrote a few well-recommended books such as The Art of Coarse Acting, The Art of Coarse Rugby and other books with similar titles.

    ReplyDelete