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:

1982 COR!! HOLIDAY SPECIAL

1982 COR!! Holiday Special, 50 p., 64 pages

Contents: Chalky (2 new episodes and 1 reprint), Hire A Horror (3 reprints from old COR!! weeklies, including 1 in full colour), Ivor Lott and Tony Broke, Tomboy (4 reprints, including 2 in full colour), Whacky (2 reprints), Young MacDonald and His Farm (2 episodes by  Ron Turner), Andy’s Ants (2 reprints), Donovan’s Dad (3 reprints including one in full colour), Nightmare (2 reprints from old COR!! weeklies), Benny Bendo (3 episodes), Jack Pott (one reprint from an old COR!! weekly), Tricky Dicky (2 reprints), Football Madd (a new episode by Les Barton  + 2 more episodes by other artists), Jasper the Grasper (1 reprint from an old COR!! weekly and a new 3-page episode by Trevor Metcalfe), The Gasworks Gang (new episode by McDiarmid), Gus Gags (2 episodes), If You Go Down to the Woods Today (join the dots colour centrespread by Ron Turner), Tease Break, Fiends and Neighbours (3-pager by Nigel Edwards).

The Special was unusual in that it featured two stories on the front cover: a dramatic panel offering a taste of the Young MacDonald and His Farm adventure strip appeared alongside with the regular cover stars Ivor Lott and Tony Broke. There were two 4-pagers of Young MacDonald inside, both illustrated by the ever-excellent Ron Turner. As I said before, the feature was a recurrent one in COR!! annuals and holiday specials and will receive its own dedicated post later on, so I won’t discuss the instalments here but they stood out prominently in this COR!! Special. Ron Turner also contributed the centrespread with a join-the-dots puzzle. The young owner did the puzzle in my copy many years ago, but that’s what it was there for, so I hope you won’t mind :)

There was only one episode of Ivor Lott and Tony Broke. It was illustrated by an artist whose name I don’t know but I am sure he drew a lot for IPC comics in the 80s. I hope someone will identify him for me. Here are two panels:

Frank McDiarmid drew a nice three-pager of The Gasworks Gang with a holiday theme. Here is a taste (the first panel and the last):

Trevor Metcalfe was back on Jasper the Grasper once again. It is interesting to note that a reprint of an episode from an old COR!! weekly was also included. Metcalfe’s style had changed almost beyond recognition over the decade, Jasper the Grasper became a cuddly character, nothing like the version in the early COR!! episodes. Here is a fragment of the reprint, followed by half a page of Metcalfe’s new version: 

Les Barton took a break this time and his contribution was limitd to just one new episode of Football Madd. It was good to see another artist illustrate Fiends and Neighbours for a change and the artist was Nigel Edwards whose beautiful three-pager is another highlight in this 1982 edition of COR!! Holiday Special. Here it is in its entirety:

In combination with some nice reprints from old COR!! weeklies this edition made quite an appealing package and I would probably rate it as my favourite COR!! Holiday Special.

A LOOK AT COR!! STRIPS: ROBBY HOOD AND HIS ONE MAN BAND, PART TWO

The third story ran from 13th February until 27th March, 1971 (issue Nos. 37 – 43). Robby and Muchflour accidentally find themselves on board a strange empty barge sailing along the canal. They discover that the whole boat is booby trapped. Three dangerous looking men stop the barge and leap on board. Robby and Muchflour hide in a secret compartment in the hull and find themselves in the company of Captain Horatio Spike, a retired Royal Navy officer. Captain Spike owns the barge and has booby-trapped it against the attackers. The background story is that three weeks ago he won a contract to haul coal for one of the local mines but a Ned Tarrant wanted the business so he and his men set to get captain Spike. The thugs fall victim to the different booby-traps but manage to scupper the boat just before jumping ashore. The barge goes underwater. Robby and Muchflour decide to go after the mob. They find Tarrant and his cronies preparing to cast off with their own horse-driven barge. Muchflour launches an unsuccessful attack on horseback and ends up on board the boat, unconscious. Robby follows the barge until it arrives at the coal depot and is about to start loading. He boards the boat and reunites with Muchflour. After a few action-packed episodes Tarrant and his mob throw Robby into the canal. The spectre saves him but since Muchflour is invisible to the thugs, they think that Robby walks on water. The invisible pal helps Robby persuade the thugs that he is a magician and the boy forces Tarrant to sign his barge over to Horatio Spike.

An eposide from the third story from COR!! issue dated 13th March, 1971 (No. 41)

The final story started in the issue of 3rd April and ended in the issue of 24th April, 1971 (issue Nos. 44 – 47).  Muchflour teaches Robby to fire arrows. A stray arrow startles a lady who was painting a picture behind the threes. They carry her up to the house and dial the ambulance but a strange bearded man secretly cuts telephone wires. While Robby and Muchflour are busy trying to revive the lady, the evil man uses a fishing rod to fetch one of the paintings lined along the walls of the room. The lady comes to her senses and recognises the strange man who is Ivan Popoff. The boy and his ghost pal rush forward to get him but Popoff grabs the painting and escapes with his car. The stolen picture is “The Stately Stag”. The lady’s name is Amelia Dawson, she is an artist and art collector. The background story is that she bought the painting 6 months ago. Soon after Ivan Popoff appeared and began to pester her into selling it to him. She refused because she liked the painting, so now he finally stole it. The two friends suspect there is something strange about that worthless work of art. Popoff suffers a car accident and Robby recovers the painting. He discovers there’s another one underneath and it’s a Rembrandt. Popoff confesses that he stole the painting from a famous museum last month, disguised it and hid it in a friend’s junk shop but then the old lady bought it in mistake and he had to try to get it back. Popoff goes to prison. Miss Dawson invites Robby to live with her in her house and Robby accepts with his pal’s approval. Muchflour is getting weary of the modern times and returns to sleep in a hollow oak from where he emerged in the beginning of the series.

An episode from the fourth story from COR!! dated 24th April, 1971 (No. 47).
This was the last episode of the series.

A LOOK AT COR!! STRIPS: ROBBY HOOD AND HIS ONE MAN BAND, PART ONE

Robby Hood and His One Man Band was yet another adventure serial in COR!! that occupied two pages of the paper and lasted from 7th November, 1970 until 24th April, 1971 (issue Nos. 23 – 47). The black and white feature was illustrated by Ron Turner. The script was by Scott Goodall who is said to have written all adventure tales in COR!!

Robby Hood lived with his step-father and step-brothers who were always making fun of his name and place of birth (Nottingham) until he finally decided to run away from home and vanish into the Sherwood Forest. There he met a weirdly-dressed bloke named Muchflour Amber, one–time miller from the parish of Mansfield who spoke in a peculiar way and was seeking a fellow by the name of Robin Hood. Robby realised that the bloke was a spectre from the Middle Ages on a quest to find the long-dead heroic outlaw and join his band of merry men. Saddened by the news that Robin Hood was no longer around, Muchflour offered to become Robby’s faithful servant. One peculiar thing about the ghost was that Robby was the only person who was able to see him (well, apart from the readers of COR!!) while all the other characters of the feature were completely unaware of his presence so Muchflour never failed to catch them off-guard. It was a great advantage because the characters who Robby Hood and his “one man band” had to deal with were usually dangerous criminals. 

The series consisted of the opening episode in the issue cover dated 7th November, 1970 (No. 23) and four serialised adventures.

The first story ran from 14th November until 12th December, 1970 (issue Nos. 24 – 28).  The pair accidentally encounter two armed thugs who have kidnapped Miss Rushton, a millionaire’s daughter, and are holding her for a ransom of 20,000 pounds. Robby tries to free the girl but the bandits capture him as well and take both of their prisoners to their hiding place. Muchflour brings their treachery to an end with the aid of his ancient acorn of wisdom and a young stag whom he summons with a blow-horn. In the process of liberating Robby and the girl, Muchflour sets the crooks’ hideout on fire and grounds their helicopter. The girl reunites with her father and the kidnappers are arrested. Robby and Muchflour stay in the Sherwood Forest.

An episode from the first story from COR!! issue dated 5th December, 1970 (No. 27)

The second adventure span over the period from 19th December, 1970 until 6th February, 1971 (issue Nos. 29 – 36). Muchflour and Robby meet old Dan Spooner who has a smallholding on the edge of the forest. A construction company has bought Spooner’s land and wants him to leave. The evil foreman Herbie Bennett and his construction men try different dirty plots to drive the old man off his land and make him abandon his hut. Muchflour and Robby try to help the old-timer as much as they can but the construction men finally bulldoze the house. Spooner, Muchflour and Robby discover a maze of tunnels underneath the hut and meet a strange dwarf Bimbo who turns out to be the wicked foreman’s accomplice and lures Robby into a trap. Construction men capture Robby and carry him to their quarters where he finds out that the real reason why Bennett and his gang were so desperate to evict old Dan Spooner and demolish his house was the soil. It contains a high percentage of iron ore and the tunnels under the house were made by Bennett and his thugs prospecting. Evicting Spooner was a deliberate fraud because mining rights for the area would guarantee a fortune. The thugs dump Robby and Spooner in a hole and are going to bury them under tons of quick-setting cement but Muchflour pulls them out. They follow the crooks and make them confess by using the “noise torture” administered with Muchflour’s ancient super-loud blow-horn.  Herbie Bennett and his cronies are taken away by the police. Mr. Spooner offers Robby to stay with him, but the boy prefers the company of his invisible friend.

An episode from the second story from COR!! dated 30th January, 1971 (No. 35)

The remaining two stories will be covered in the second post on Robby Hood and His One Man Band.