A LOOK AT COR!! STRIPS: WILFRED THE WORLD'S WORST WIZARD

Wilfred the World’s Worst Wizard was a story that only appeared in COR!! annuals and was illustrated by Alan Rogers. The title says it all – the loony wizard’s spells usually went wrong and put him in trouble, most frequently with his wife. The scene of the Wilfred tales was set in Medieval times.

Here is a quick account of all Wilfred the Wizard tales:

1979 Annual: two 3-page episodes, one immediately after the other. Wilfred tries to get a job as a court wizard with one of the local kings but fails his audition; then he comes across a mean princess in distress whom he saves from the dragon and marries but soon comes to regret it.

Wiflred's first encounter with his future wife

1980 Annual: a 4-page episode (the only one with the short version of the title, Wilfred Wizard) in which Wilfred Wizard tries to help Peterkin find a wife to look after him and tidy his cottage.

1981 Annual: two 4-page episodes. In the first Wilfred Wizard tries to make the King’s sad-faced daughter (probably his wife’s little sister) laugh and win a reward of 100 crowns. For once he succeeds but only thanks to his clumsiness, not the magic. In the second episode (signed by the artist) Wilfred tries being a knight-errant but ends up on his usual night errand when his beefy wife refuses to move off her sofa to make him supper.

1982 Annual: one 4-page episode signed by the artist. Wilfred Wizard sparks a war between the King and his nasty neighbour Baron Wasteland. All turns out well in the end thanks to Wilfred’s spells that actually work but the King and his men still prefer to excuse themselves when the Wizard wants to demonstrate more of his tricks.

1983 Annual: two 4-pagers. In the first one the King makes Wilfred Wizard take the place of his knight whom the nit renders unfit for the jousting tournament. In the second tale (signed by the artist) Wilfred decides to make himself big and strong so that he can run all the errands and appease his mean wife. Here is the whole episode:

1984 Annual: two 4-pagers. In the first Wilfred goes to cut himself some wood to warm his chambers and brings home a dragon who is grateful to the daft wizard for (accidentally) lighting his fire with a Roman candle and saving his life. In the second episode Wilfred uses his magic to get a new cart so that he and his wife can make it to Aunt Griselda’s castle on time for lunch:

1985 Annual: two 4–page episodes, both signed by the artist. In the first story Wilfred joins the King’s court on their way to the picnic at the sea-side. When the tide washes the cart out to sea, Wilfred Wizard transports the King and his party home on an improvised flying carpet, without realising it is tartan cloth that will take them to Scotland. In the second tale Wilfred Wizard tries to please his wife and get her a bearskin coat like the one her sister has. The missus is in for a shock when Wilfred’s spell makes all of her clothes disappear leaving her bare-skin:

1986 Annual: two 4-page episodes, both signed by the artist. In the first tale Wilfred is the only one in the castle who is not ill with cold and succeeds in repelling the attack of the army of the King’s enemy Baron McBadd. In the last tale Wilfred tries his best entertaining auntie Groanface at the King’s banquet. It turns out he picked a cook book to learn his tricks from while the cook used Wilfred’s spell book to make his special soup that turned all the guests into frogs…

A LOOK AT COR!! STRIPS: SUPER SPOOK

This is the first post in the series dedicated to features that only appeared in COR!! annuals and holiday specials.

Let me start with SUPER SPOOK - a superhero tale that appeared in three COR!! annuals, one story in each. It was about a mighty muscular miner Jeremiah Smith who was crushed to death in a mine beneath a mountain during Gold Rush while trying to save other people. His selfless courage and bravery were rewarded by the gift of eternal life and supernatural powers such as flying. He travelled the World wearing a silly skin-tight costume and doing good deeds as the invisible Super Spook. The illustrator was probably Ron Turner (I am sure about the last story, not so much about the first two).

The first story was a six-pager in COR!! annual 1975. It started with an intro that told readers about Jeremiah Smith who was one of the best and the biggest miners during Gold Rush in Canada in the year 1896. The blond-haired giant of a man was known and loved by everyone, especially children. Sadly, he perished in a crumbling cavern sacrificing himself in order to save villagers during a terrible storm that caused Yellowrock mountain to collapse. Jeremiah Smith finally broke free from under the mountain into the modern world. Miner of old, now an invisible ghost, Jeremiah Smith, aka Super Spook, saw much that he did not understand – National Junior Racing Car Championships, for example. In this first adventure after his return he helped Gary Johnson win the Championships and taught the rich foul-player Jack Schneider a lesson. Here is a taste:

The second story was 8 pages long and appeared in COR!! annual 1976. Once again, readers were given a quick reminder about the origins of Super Spook and his dedication to helping people (those in the right, that is). In this episode Super Spook helps a bunch of kids who call themselves Dirty Hands Gang catch Simple Simon Snell and solve the robbery of the local bank. Here are the last two pages of the episode:

The third and last story appeared two years later in COR!! Annual 1978 and was an eight-pager. Quite unusually for a British comic story, this episode came with a splash panel in the vein of American comics:

In this episode Super Spook, righter of wrongs, ghostly guardian of peace and justice, is on the side of Ginger Thomas and other proprietors of a little family fairground who are bullied by villainous Vic Finesilver and his black leather cronies. The thugs want the fairground to move in order to have all the business to themselves. Super Spook uses his special sleep suggestion and plants an idea of resistance in Ginger Thomas’ brain. The villains stand no chance and loose their business in the end. Here are two pages of the story:

COR!! COMIC ANNUAL 1986

COR!! Comic Annual 1986, £2.50, 112 pages. The fifteenth and the last COR!! Annual was the first and the only COR!! publication with a barcode on the back cover.

Contents: Chalky (2 episodes), Nightmare (4 reprints from old COR!! weeklies), Teacher’s Pet (3 reprints), Young MacDonald and His Farm (2 episodes), Ivor Lott and Tony Broke (4 episodes by Sid Burgon, one signed + Ivor  & Tony’s Lucky ABC DEF Dip! Board game), Puzzles 1 (5 pages), Hire A Horror (2 episodes both signed by Trevor Metcalfe), Jack Pott (2 episodes both signed by Crocker), The Gasworks Gang (2 new episodes by Frank McDiarmid, both signed), Krazy Korner (jokes, riddles, cartoons - 3 instalments, signed by Melvin), Gus (2 episodes), Jasper the Grasper (signed by Francis Boyle), Wilfred the World’s Worst Wizard (2 episodes), Football Madd (3 reprints),  Fiends and Neighbours (by Nigel Edwards), Jungle Bells Jungle Bells gags, Puzzle Section 2 (4 pages), Donovan’s Dad, Lucky Charmer, Jelly Baby.

The last COR!! annual was again rich in non-comic content: a total of 15 pages (including 3 pages of Krazy Korner signed by Melvin) were allocated to puzzles, games, jokes, riddles, cartoons, etc.

All 4 episodes of Ivor Lott and Tony Broke were illustrated by Sid Burgon who had never done an episode of the strip in a COR!! publication before.

Trevor Mercalfe tried his hand drawing both episodes of Hire a Horror:

Frank McDiarmid contributed two new stories of the Gasworks Gang. Here are a couple of panels from one. Is it the artist himself having a cuppa in the foreground?

Jasper the Grasper travelled to the USA to visit his cousin Titus T.Tightfist and became a celebrity in New York City for being the first man to row the Atlantic, and in record speed too. Assuming the miser stayed in America for good, this episode (illustrated and signed by a new artist - Francis Boyle) can be regarded as a proper ending of Jasper the Grasper saga.

The last eposide of Fiends and Neighbours was illustrated by Nigel Edwards:

So that’s all of fifteen COR!! comic annuals accounted for! You can go through the whole COR!! annuals sequence by clicking here or by choosing the COR!! Annuals label in the column on the right.

P.S. It appears Fleetway had plans to publish one more annual for the X-mas of 1986 (COR!! Comic Annual 1987) but the book was scrapped at the last moment. You can read more about it HERE.