A LOOK AT SHIVER & SHAKE STRIPS: THE DESERT FOX

World War II history buffs will know that The Desert Fox was the nickname given by the British to Erwin Rommel, German Field Marshal and commander of the Afrika Korps. Editors of SHIVER AND SHAKE picked it as the title of a strip that had its scene set in the desert of North Africa during WWII and depicted the antics of a… fox. The sneaky crafty animal was running back and forth between German (sometimes Italian) and British (sometimes Aussie or French Foreign Legion’s) camps raiding army grub stores. Occasionally he wandered off into an Arab town and pinched food from the natives too.

The Desert Fox didn’t take sides and lived by the motto “All is Fair in Grub and War” but his thieving plots sometimes had side effects such as preventing an enemy attack or causing commotion that the enemy mistook for a surprise attack.

On rare occasions the Fox got rewarded (with food of course) for bringing about an unexpected outcome, but most of the time troops on both sides were busy trying to catch the notorious trickster. Their efforts, however, were usually doomed, as were their rations, because The Desert Fox just couldn’t be outfoxed. 

The feature appeared in the first issue of SHIVER AND SHAKE and continued until issue 74, missing three weeks inbetween (it was not included in issues 55, 71 and 72). Tom Williams was the original artist until issue 19 when Terry Bave took charge (Terry Bave also illustrated the episodes in issues 12 and 17). Starting from issue 32 it was moved from the inside pages of SHAKE to the back cover of the section and given the privilege of full colour presentation (except in issues 34, 53 and 54 when it turned b/w for a while).

A LOOK AT SHIVER AND SHAKE STRIPS: WEBSTER

Webster was a little black spider who would spin his extra-strong web in all the wrong places and take the consequences. His web was so strong that it made objects bounce right off it. In combination with the weird places that the spider chose for his web, the bouncing trick was the source of comedy in most weekly instalments. Although occasionally he got upset and wrought vengeance upon those who disturbed him, Webster was usually an agreeable and friendly creature, willing to use his super-strong web to help others out or punish crooks and bullies. 

The list of the places Webster considered peaceful enough for him to spin his web and have a rest included a set of church bells, a cannon, a chimney, a swimming pool trampoline, a tennis racket, and all kinds of other inappropriate objects and locations; besides, he had particular fondness for musical instruments. 

Illustrated by Terry Bave, the b/w feature was launched in SHIVER AND SHAKE No. 1 and continued until the last issue, missing three numbers towards the end of the run (Nos. 74, 76 and 78). It had a permanent slot on page 5 of the paper and was part of SHIVER section but was suddenly transferred to SHAKE starting from issue 44 (cover dated 5th January, 1974 - the first issue with the page count reduced from 36 to 32). Perhaps it was not ‘scary’ enough for SHIVER, or maybe space became scarce in the section after it lost 4 pages.

 

Webster survived merger with Whoopee! and appeared there occasionally until 1976.

COR!! BOOKS OF GAGS

COR!! Books of Gags 1976 and 1977 were published as soft-cover annuals. Both volumes had bright colour covers and black and white interior pages, 128 of them each, printed on rough pulp paper. The 1976 edition cost 75 p. A year later the second edition cost 85 p

The content was a mixture of cartoons, teasers, puzzles and jokes. Cartoons occupied most of the space. I am not sure as to what age group(s) the books were targeted at: although part of the content was children-oriented, the vast majority of cartoons wouldn’t have looked out of place in a regular humour publication for grown-ups. There is barely any connection to the comic and the reasons for using COR!! logo and Gus’ face on the covers are a mystery to me.

 

It is interesting to note that nearly all cartoons were signed by artists – Whittock, Stewart, Mortimer, Leon, Rali, Cav, Chic, Baxter, Ken Pyne, David Downe, Brian Platt and others. Most of the names or pseudonyms say nothing to me, but three contributors were well-familiar to readers of COR!! publications. I am referring to Crocker, Terry Bave and Sid Burgon.

From the first part of Terry Bave’s auto-biography published in the Winter 1985 edition of GOLDEN FUN fanzine we know that he did quite a lot of cartooning before taking up a career in comics. Judging from the drawing style and the signature, some of Mr. Bave’s cartoons in COR!! Books of Gags (especially in the first one) may very well be from his pre-comics cartooning days. Here are some examples to illustrate my point:

Terry Bave signed the gags with his real name but Sid Burgon used the pen-name SWAB. My impression is that SWAB was the biggest contributor in both books. Sid Burgon’s cartooning style was different from the one he used in comics, but it is still recognisable if you take a good look. Here are some examples:

 

Crocker was the second biggest contributor after SWAB. Same as Burgon’s, Crocker’s cartooning style was different from his comics work. I doubt I’d be able to identify him as the artist if the cartoons weren’t signed:

 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

This is officially my last blogpost on COR!!

I have now also updated my earlier posts dedicated to The Gasworks Gang, Jasper the Grasper and Fiends and Neighbours by adding details about appearances of the strips outside of COR!! weeklies.