WEEKLY OUTPUT – FRANK MCDIARMID

After my previous post about the weekly output of Leo Baxendale I thought it would be fun to check how many pages other humour comics artists were producing in the space of one week. I picked a random week of 1974 (March 30th) and pulled all IPC comics with that date – COR!!, Whoopee!, Whizzer and Chips, Shiver & Shake and Valiant. I was disappointed to discover that Buster didn’t come out that week, probably because of a strike. I looked for pages by Mike Lacey, Brian Walker, Frank McDiarmid, Terry Bave, Robert Nixon, Graham Allen and Reg Parlett. It turns out all were at least as productive as Leo Baxendale, while some of them proved to be real drawing machines and surpassed Leo quite considerably!

I will share my findings in the next few blogposts. I’ll start with Frank McDiarmid. He only managed 3 pages that week – a page of Lunchin’ Vulture in Whoopee! and two beautiful pages of The Gasworks Gang in COR!! I am sure he became a lot more productive later on when IPC put him in charge of Cheeky Weekly, but this series is a snapshot of the state of affairs in March 1974. Come back soon to see Brian Walker’s weekly output!

 Images are © Rebellion Publishing IP Ltd

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COR!! COR-IOSITY: COR!! COMIC ANNUAL 1987

I will take a short break from MONSTER FUN COMIC and share this curious find which I came across a few days ago:

Stating the obvious, this is a picture of the front cover of COR!! Annual 1987, or to be more precise - the original artwork for the book. It was offered by Compal Comic Book Auctions in their 2010 Winter catalogue and went for £194. The piece was described as follows: Cor!! Annual front cover original artwork (1987) drawn and signed by Robert Nixon. Starring Ivor Lott and Tony Broke. Poster colour on board. 18 x 13 ins.

What’s so curious about it? – you might ask. Well, if any of you followed my COR!! series on this blog, you may recall that the last COR!! Annual came out in 1985 for the X-mas of 1986.

It turns out Fleetway had plans to publish one more COR!! Annual but then something made them reconsider. This finished cover with text and even the company logo suggests the book must have been cancelled when it was in an advanced stage of production, perhaps they’d even made a ‘dummy’.

Check out the promotional flyer that came with November 29th editions of BUSTER and WHIZZER AND CHIPS in 1986. I get an impression that the awkward empty spaces with text may have been originally intended for the annuals that were scrapped at the last moment and COR!! Annual 1987 appears to be one of them. Note how COR!!’s Ivor Lott and Tony Broke are still amongst the crowd of characters at the bottom of the centrespread:

And since we are on the subject of COR!!, I invite you revisit the opening article of my COR!! series HERE because I have recently updated it with some cracking images of the free gift that came with COR!! No. 1 back in 1970.

COR!! INTERMISSION – 1978 HOLIDAY SPECIAL UPDATE

Those of you who followed my COR!! series on this blog last year may remember that it didn’t include a review of COR!! 1978 Holiday Special for the simple reason that I didn’t have a copy to review. 

Well, I have recently won a copy on eBay and my collection of COR!! is now as complete as it can ever be (except that I have only one of the four free gifts that were offered with the paper during its lifetime). When writing the series I deliberately reserved a slot for the Special and have now updated it with full details and a review. You can read it HERE.