1972: A LOOK AT THE THIRD YEAR OF COR!!

53 issues of the comic were published in 1972 (Nos. 83 – 135)

Important issues in 1972:

1st January 1972 (No. 83) – New Year issue + 4 new features

1st April 1972 (No. 96) – Easter issue

22nd April 1972 (No. 99) – re-shuffle of page slots
29th July 1972 (No. 113) – major revamp, 5 new features
29th April, 1972 (No. 100) – 100th issue

4th November 1972 (No. 127) – Bonfire night issue

30th December 1972 (No. 135) – Christmas issue

Line-up of the first issue of 1972 (1st January 1972 (No. 83)):

Gus Gorilla – front cover

Whacky

Cor!! Comment + POSTBAG + Picture Yourself features

The Gasworks Gang – 2 pages

Hire a Horror

Tomboy

Chalky

The Slimms

Andy’s Ants

Tease Break! feature

Ivor Lott and Tony Broke – 2 pages

Tricky Dicky

Swopper Stan

Kid Chameleon – in full colour on centrespread

Nippy Nibbs

Donovan’s Dad

Tell-Tale Tess

Freddie Fang

Helpful Hettie – ½ page

Jasper the Grasper

Eddie

Football Madd

Lucky Charmer

Nutty Noticeboard

Sonny Storm

Jack Pott

Spoilsport

Teacher’s Pet – in full colour

1972 New Year number

The first issue of the year brought some positive changes to the line-up by dropping The Chumpions that weren’t faring too well and introducing as many as four new fun features, two of which – The Slimms and Jasper the Grasper – were to become a big success.

The first issue of the year also saw the last Cor!! Comment headline and page 3 became COR!! POSTBAG for a while. Holiday Fun column on the editor’s page ended in issue 84, leaving the whole page just for readers’ mail and Picture YOURSELF feature. Editorial was dropped as a regular feature and the Editor’s contributions became limited to occasional brief comments of individual letters and the odd word on special occasions such as Easter, 100th issue or introduction of a new character.

100th issue

A major reshuffle of page-slots took effect starting from the issue dated 22nd April, 1972 (No. 99) with the Kid Chameleon (that used to be on the centre pages in full colour since the very start) reaching its natural conclusion. After the tale ended in the issue dated 15th April, 1972 (No. 98), it was decided to give the centrespread to the paper’s most popular strip Ivor Lott and Tony Broke and pretend it was now in colour. According to the Editor, the upgrade was a response to readers’ requests that the set should appear in colour, but in actual fact it was now in red (or blue), black and white. The two full-colour pages that became available after Kid Chameleon ended were moved from the centre to pages 9 and 26. Hire a Horror and Tomboy became regular occupants of the new colour slots. Sometimes the pages were given to other strips, mostly Jasper the Grasper and Teacher’s Pet, but Helpful Hettie and Whacky also appeared in full colour in the course of the year.

COR!! POSTBAG was given a new style in the issue dated 13th May, 1972 (No. 102) with a new frame (fat dots instead of small stars), a new masthead and removal of the Editor’s signature. The new look didn’t last long: in the issue dated 8th July, 1972 (No. 110) the Editor announced plans to launch the comic’s own news-sheet in the near future, inviting readers to become Cor!! COR-respondents and send in school news, sports news, holiday news, views, cartoons, etc. The first COR!! News sheet appeared in Cor!! issue dated 29th July, 1972 (No. 113). COR!! news sheets were numbered and the first issue was naturally No. 1; date and most importantly – issue number of the comic were also included. Therefore it wouldn’t be accurate to claim that Cor!! issues weren’t numbered because from issue 113 they actually were, albeit not on the front cover. COR!! NEWS SHEET feature was the place where readers were offered an opportunity to see their contributions in print. The news-sheet incorporated the successful reader participation PICTURE YOURSELF feature; it also had a correspondence column and printed readers’ gags, puzzles and jokes. A cash prize of 50p was paid for every item published.

Example of COR!! News Sheet

The issue dated 29th July, 1972 (No. 113) also saw the second re-shuffle of pages in the brief space of seven months since the beginning of the year. What used to be one-page POSTBAG, now renamed into COR!! NEWS SHEET, was moved from page 3 towards the back of the comic where it was given two full pages. The old-timer Gasworks Gang lost its regular slot on pages 4-5 and was tucked away to the back of the paper (pages 28 – 29). Single-page strips were also moved around quite a bit. Nutty Noticeboard feature, Lucky Charmer, Freddie Fang, Spoilsport and The Adventures of Sonny Storm were dropped altogether (making the issue dated 22nd July, 1972 (No. 112) the issue with the most last appearances in the comic’s lifetime) to allow room for as many as 5 pages of new strips – comedy one-pagers Zoo Sue and Shiver and Shake, plus the new weird adventure story Rat-Trap featuring the fiendish Dr. Rat that occupied as many as three pages. Guest Star feature also debuted in the issue dated 29th July, 1972 (No. 113). From that issue onwards every week Cor!! readers were introduced to a favourite funster from COR’s!! companion papers KNOCKOUT and WHIZZER and CHIPS, while COR!! stars made guest appearances in those other papers. One interesting point about the feature was that the guest appearances were all new episodes, not reprints of old material from the “home” comic.

1972 Christmas issue

From that point the comic continued without further overhauls until the end of 1972. Summing up, it was quite a rough year that saw two major slot reshuffles and brought a few sorry losses (Kid Chameleon) as well as a number of additions to the line-up, some of which enjoyed a long and happy run well beyond the demise of Cor!! (The Slimms in Whizzer AND Chips). The second revamp is probably an indication that the Editors felt changes were necessary to make sure the paper continued to sell. On the other hand it looks like at that point the comic was still doing sufficiently well because no free gifts were used to win more attention. 

Strips that ended in 1972

Nippy Nibbs – 11th March, 1972 (No. 93)

Danger Mouse – 8th April, 1972 (No. 97)

Kid Chameleon – 15th April, 1972 (No. 98) (ended by reaching its natural conclusion)

Spoilsport – 22nd July, 1972 (No. 112)

Freddie Fang – 22nd July, 1972 (No. 112)

Nutty Noticeboard – 22nd July, 1972 (No. 112)

Tell-Tale Tess – 22nd July, 1972 (No. 112)

Postbag feature – 22nd July, 1972 (No. 112)

The Adventures of Sonny Storm – 22nd July, 1972 (No. 112)

Lucky Charmer – 22nd July, 1972 (No. 112)

Nutty Noticeboard feature – 22nd July, 1972 (No. 112)

Helpful Hettie – 30th December, 1972 (No. 135)

Zoo Sue – 30th December, 1972 (No. 135)

Strips that started in 1972

The Slimms – 1st January, 1972 (No. 83)

Helpful Hettie – 1st January, 1972 (No. 83)

Jasper the Grasper – 1st January, 1972 (No. 83)

Lucky Charmer – 1st January, 1972 (No. 83)

Chip – 15th April, 1972 (No. 98)

Jelly Baby – 27th May, 1972 (No. 104)

Zoo Sue – 29th July, 1972 (No. 113)

Rat-Trap – 29th July, 1972 (No. 113)

Cor!! News Sheet feature – 29th July, 1972 (No. 113)

Guest Star feature – 29th July, 1972 (No. 113)

Shiver and Shake – 29th July, 1972 (No. 113)

Well, What do you Know funny facts feature – 5th August, 1972 (No. 114)

Wonder Worm – 18th November, 1972 (No. 129)

1972 COR!! Summer Special

1972 COR!! Summer Special cost 15 p. and had 96 pages.  The first advertisement of the special appeared in the weekly COR!! of 15th July, 1972. The line-up was as follows: Ivor Lott and Tony Broke (some in colour, all by Terry Bave), Dr What and his Time Clock, Whacky, Teacher’s Pet (in colour), Chip, Tell-Tale Tess, Ug and Tug the Peace Makers, Andy’s Ants, Spoilsport, Chalky, Helpful Hettie, Nutty Notice Board, Tricky Dicky, Lucky Charmer, The Gasworks Gang, Gus Gorilla (some in colour), Picture Crosswords page, Freddie Fang the Werewolf Cub, Swopper Stan, Eddie, Jasper the Grasper, Football Madd, Donovan’s Dad, Tomboy, Jack Pott, The Slimms, Teacher’s Pet, Trail-Blazer! (a western), and Hire a Horror (in colour). What distinguished this edition from the one published a year before was that the majority of its strips were drawn by the regular artists who did a really nice job on their pages and matched the quality of their art in the weeklies.

Once again, two new strips appeared alongside those familiar from the weekly comics and the 1971 Summer Special/1972 Annual. They were a comedy feature Dr What and his Time Clock (He’s the Craziest Scientist Ever!) and a western Trail-Blazer!

Dr What and His Time Clock from COR!! 1972 Summer Special

Trail-Blazer! from 1972 COR!! Summer Special

Dr What (19 pages of his antics) was a reprint from Boy’s World, a short-lived ODHAMS publication from the 60s (1963-1964). The western (a 10-page adventure) was beautifully drawn but looked a bit out of style. It was certainly a reprint but I’ve got no idea where from. 

COR!! Annual 1973

Promotion of the 1973 COR!! Annual started in the weekly edition of COR!! dated 9th September. The book was priced 65 p and had 160 pages. The annual had all the favorites from COR!! weeklies, plus what had become the usual helping of Ug and Tug the Peace Makers reprints from BUSTER. One thing that is worth-while mentioning is that the 1973 COR!! annual presented the first installment of Young MacDonald and his “Farm” – a series that only appeared in COR!! annuals and specials but not the weeklies. I intend to write a separate blogpost dedicated to Young MacDonald tales later on.

The strips included: COR!! “Mister Hire-A-Horror” Contest 1973 on pages 2 and 3 (in full colour), Whacky (in colour), Tell-Tale Tess (2 episodes, one in full colour), Gus Gorilla (3 episodes, one in full colour), Nutty Noticeboard feature (3 installments, 1 in color), Jack Pott, Chalky (3 episodes),  Ug and Tug the Peace Makers (3 episodes),  Spoilsport (2 episodes),  Danger Mouse (4 episodes, one in full colour), Eddie (3 episodes),  Four Alone and the Alpine Adventure (8 pages), Ivor Lott and Tony Broke (3 episodes), Chip (3 episodes), Swopper Stan (3 episodes), Donovan’s Dad (2 episodes), Nippy Nibbs (2 episodes),  The Gasworks Gang (2 episodes), Teacher’s Pet (2 episodes), Sonny Storm (2 episodes), Andy’s Ants (3 episodes), Follow the Dots puzzle (2 installments), Lucky Charmer (3 episodes), The Slimms (2 episodes), Freddie Fang the Werewolf Cub (2 episodes), Hire A Horror (3 episodes, one in full colour ), Tomboy (3 episodes, one in full colour), Tricky Dicky (2 episodes), Football Madd (2 episodes, one in full colour), Tease Break Feature, Jasper the Grasper, Young MacDonald and his “Farm” (8 pages).

Opening pages of the first installment of
Young MacDonald and his "Farm" in COR!! Annual 1973

1971: A LOOK AT THE SECOND YEAR OF COR!!

52 issues of the comic (Nos. 31 – 82) were published in 1971.

Important issues in 1971:

2nd January 1971 (No. 31) – New Year issue

3rd April 1971 (No. 44) – first issue with the new pence price only

10th April, 1971 (No. 45) – Easter issue

8th May, 1971 (No. 49) – bumper issue, 40 pages, JET adverts

12th June, 1971 (No. 54) – bumper issue, 40 pages, KNOCKOUT adverts

6th November 1971 (No. 75) – Firework issue

25th December 1971 (No. 82) – Christmas issue

Line-up of the first issue of 1971 (2nd January 1971 (No. 31)):

Gus Gorilla – front cover

Whacky

Editor’s page (includes POSTBAG, PROBLEM QUICKIES and PICTURE YOURSELF features)

The Gasworks Gang (2 pages)

Hire a Horror

Tomboy

Nobby’s Hobbies

Eddie

Football Madd

Tell-Tale Tess

Ivor Lott and Tony Broke

Sporting Sue and her Trainer Prue

Tease Break! feature

Swopper Stan

Kid Chameleon (centrespread in full colour)

Percy Puffer

Tricky Dicky

Andy’s Ants

Donovan’s Dad

Barney’s Brainbox (2 pages)

Little Geyser

Freddie Fang

Cor!! Nutty Noticeboard feature

Jack Pott

Robby Hood and his One Man Band (2 pages)

Spoilsport

Teacher’s Pet (in colour on back cover)

Was this cover story an inspiration for the
long-running Scream Inn series in
Shiver and Shake and Whoopee!
comics later in the 70s?

Editorials were getting shorter (and in some issues weren’t included at all) to allow more space for the increasingly popular POSTBAG, PICTURE YOURSELF and PROBLEM QUICKIES participation features, now all crammed on one page (page 3). One interesting plug in the first two issues of the year were advertisements of A CAVALCADE OF BRITISH COMICS – the first ever exhibition of weekly children’s comics at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London (1/4 page advertisement in the issue dated 9th January, 1971 (No. 32)). An interesting sign of the times is reflected in the Editor’s comments in the issues dated 27th March, 1971 (No. 43) and 3rd April, 1971 (No. 44) where he tells that at the time of writing the editorial, the readers’ entries to POSTBAG and NUTTY NOTICE board were being held up owing to postal difficulties – a hint that postal workers were on strike then.

1971 was the year when Cor!! started getting more advertising – it wasn’t unusual for as many as 3 pages to be devoted to full-page or half-page ads of sweets, chocks, pops, competitions, car and aircraft models, toys, post-stamps and other IPC comics. Kodak cameras, Fruity Pops and Super Mousse (the latter illustrated by Peter Ford) were advertised in comic format.

Super Mousse adverts in comic format, drawn by Peter Ford

Fruity Pops and Kodak adverts. Kodak illustrated by Eric Bradbury

Acting on a reader’s suggestion, in the issue dated 6th March, 1971 (No. 40) the Editor modified the voting coupon by providing space for the feature readers disliked the most. Apparently this worked well and the change became permanent from the issue dated 1st May, 1971 (No. 48). Readers did not restrict themselves to the voting coupon to voice their dislikes. The first “hate” mail was printed in the issue dated 7th August, 1971 (No. 62) (the complaint was about Tricky Dicky) and soon became quite common in the POSTBAG section. The Chumpions received the biggest share of it by far. Other sets that readers wrote in to complain about were Kid Chameleon and The Gasworks Gang, but quite a few letters also spoke strongly in their favour, so there was a kind of discussion going on. Another ongoing discussion was between readers who wanted more football features and those who thought the idea was terrible.

1971 Firework number

The editorial in the issue dated 31st July, 1971 (No. 61) was quite unusual in the sense that some attention was paid to the artists. A reader enquired whether she was right in thinking that some Cor!! artists were also working on Knockout. The editor confirmed it was perfectly true and explained that star writers and comic artists from companion comics Whizzer and Chips and Cor!! had between them created a whole host of new characters and Knockout had proved a smash hit in true Cor!! and Whizzer and Chips style. Of course, the Editor remained faithful to the early IPC rules and no artists’ names were mentioned. There’s probably no need to say that artists never signed their art in Cor!! but for truth’s sake it has to be noted that Joe Colquhoun initialled a panel of his Kid Chameleon set in the issue dated 24th April, 1971 (No. 47), and towards the end of the comic’s life Robert Nixon signed an episode of Hire a Horror in the issue dated 1st June, 1974 (No. 209), while Trevor Metcalfe signed a few last episodes of his long-running Jasper the Grasper (from the issue dated 13th April, 1974 (No. 202) until the issue dated 8th June, 1974 (No. 210)). That’s all I managed to spot in the entire run, but maybe I missed a signature or two…

Example of the Editor's page with the
HOLIDAY FUN feature

Starting from the issue dated 25th September, 1971 (No. 69) Problem Quickies was replaced with Holiday Fun feature – another one in the line-up of Cor!! reader participation features where readers shared their holiday experiences and collected 25p for every letter published. Incidentally, a reader observed that Cor!! was very generous with its prize money – they very rarely gave less than £8.50 away in each issue.

1971 Christmas issue

All in all 1971 was a year when Cor!! was steadily going strong with no big changes taking place, although a number of new comedy strips such as The Chumpions weren’t very successful, and new adventure serials, particularly the revival of Four Alone, were rather weak IMHO. The strongest addition to the line-up that proved to be a big success in the long run was Chalky – it outlived Cor!! and successfully migrated into Buster where it continued to appear for many years to come. Another notable positive development was the increase of the page count of the comic’s most popular feature Ivor Lott and Tony Broke to 2 full pages.

Strips that ended in 1971:

Barney's Brain Box – 2nd January, 1971 (No. 31)

Robby Hood and His One Man Band – 24th April, 1974 (No. 47) (ended by reaching its natural conclusion)

Sporting Sue and her Trainer Prue – 8th May, 1971 (No. 49)

Nobby's Hobbies – 17th July, 1971 (No. 59)

Little Geyser – 21st August, 1971 (No. 64)

Four Alone Fight Formula X – 18th September, 1970 (No. 68) (ended by reaching its natural conclusion)

Percy Puffer – 2nd October, 1971 (No. 70)

The Chumpions – 25th December, 1971 (No. 82)

Strips that started in 1971

The Chumpions – 9th January, 1971 (No. 32)

Four Alone Fight Formula X – 1st May, 1971 (No. 48)

Danger Mouse – 8th May, 1971 (No. 49)

Chalky – 24th July, 1971 (No. 60)

Nippy Nibbs – 28th August, 1971 (No. 65)

The Adventures of Sonny Storm – 25th September, 1971 (No. 69)


The launch of COR!! in the summer of 1970 left no time to prepare a holiday special or an annual, therefore the first editions were produced only a year later when the comic was already going strong.

Front page of COR!! 1971 Summer Special

COR!! 1971 Summer Special was the first in the series of holiday specials that continued at least until 1983. The first advert of COR!! 1971 Summer Special appeared in the weekly issue dated 3rd July, 1971 (No. 57). The mgazine cost 15p and was 96 pages thick. Here is the line-up of strips: Whacky, Ug and Tug the Peace Makers, Gus Gorilla, Nutty Noticeboard feature, Teacher’s Pet, School for Spacemen, Eddie, Danger Mouse, The Chumpions, Andy’s Ants, Freddie Fang, Donovan’s Dad, Hire A Horror, Nobby’s Hobbies, Ivor Lott and Tony Broke (in full colour on the centre spread), Tell-Tale Tess, Spoilsport, Football Madd, The Gasworks Gang, Little Geyser, Jack Pott, Swopper Stan, Percy Puffer, Shiver and Shake, Tricky Dicky, Tomboy, Tease Break! feature and Willie’s Worms.  As can be seen from the list, all but three were regular features from the weekly but in the Summer Special many of the sets were drawn by substitute artists and looked rushed. The three unfamiliar features were Ug and Tug the Peace Makers, School for Spacemen and Willie’s Worms. Ug and Tug the Peace Makers was a comedy strip drawn by Nadal about an Indian kid and a settler kid. It was a reprint from Buster where it enjoyed a short run in 1965. School for Spacemen was an adventure serial. It was a heavily edited reprint of a series with the same name in the short-lived Champion from 1966. Willie’s Worms looked like new material. Perhaps it was one if the ideas that the Editor considered in the planning stages of COR!! but decided in favour of Andy’s Ants.

School For Spacemen from COR!! 1971 Summer Special

Willie's Worms from COR!! 1971 Summer Special

Front cover of COR!! 1972 Annual

COR!! Annual 1972 was the first in the series that lasted until 1986; the first advertisement of the 1972 Annual appeared in the weekly issue dated 4th September, 1971 (No. 66). The book had 160 pages and cost 60p. The annual had all the popular weekly strips; quite a few of the features – Dogsbodies Academy, Stone Age Brit Ancient Nit, Barney's Brain Box, Nobby’s Hobbies, Sporting Sue and her Trainer Prue, Little Geyser, Four Alone, Percy Puffer and The Chumpions, had already been dropped by the end of 1971. As was common in many IPC annuals and holiday specials, many strips were drawn by substitute artists and the art came nowhere close to the quality and detail of that in the weeklies. Here is the line-up of the annual: Gus Gorilla (front cover and inside, some pages in colour), Teacher’s Pet (some pages in colour), Swopper Stan (some pages in colour), Danger Mouse, Dogsbodies Academy, Ug and Tug the Peace Makers, Tease Break feature, Nutty Noticeboard feature, Ivor Lott and Tony Broke, Four Alone in the Castle of Fear, Tricky Dicky, Freddie Fang, Jack Pott, Eddie, Football Madd, Nobby’s Hobbies, Donvan’s Dad, Whacky, Jasper the Grasper, Percy Puffer, Little Geyser, Sporting Sue and her Trainer Prue, Tell-Tale Tess, Andy’s Ants, Tomboy, Hire A Horror, Barney’s Brain Box, Space Jinx, The Gasworks Gang, The Chumpions, Stoneage Brit Ancient Nit, Spoilsport, Kid Chameleon (in colour). 

Although there isn’t much to say about the comic’s regular characters in the annual, there are a few points that deserve to be mentioned. The annual had two adventure tales – Four Alone in the Castle of Fear (by the strip’s regular artist) and Kid Chameleon (drawn by an artist other than Kid’s regular Joe Colquhoun). Both were new stories and will be covered in their own posts later on.

Space Jinx from COR!! 1972 Annual

There were three stories that were not familiar to readers of the weeklies. Space Jinx was a version of the infamous Jonah from the Beano. The feature was a reprint of the complete original series from the pen of Brian Lewis that appeared in the first issues of Odham’s Power Comic Smash! Jasper the Grasper was about a Victorian penny-pinching miser and was a reprint of the complete original series from another Odham’s Power Comic Wham! drawn by the legendary Ken Reid. The character was subsequently given a second life in the weekly: Jasper the Grasper was introduced as a regular feature in COR!! issue dated 1st January, 1972 (No. 83). It was drawn by Trevor Metcalfe and continued until the end of the comic’s life in 1974. The third unfamiliar tale was Ug and Tug the Peace Makers – a reprint of the comedy feature from 1965 Buster weeklies about an Indian boy and a settler kid whom the readers had already seen in the 1971 Summer Special.

Ug and Tug the Peace Makers from COR!! 1972 Annual

1970: A LOOK AT THE FIRST YEAR OF COR!!

30 issues (Nos. 1- 30) of the comic were published in 1970.

Important issues in 1970:

6th June, 1970 (No. 1) – first issue, free gift

13th June, 1970 (No. 2) – second issue, free gift

20th June, 1970 (No. 3) – third issue, free gift

12th September, 1970 (No. 15) – bumper issue, 40 pages, SCORE 'n' ROAR adverts

10th October 1970 (No. 19) – first double-priced issue

17th October, 1970 (No. 20) – bumper issue, 40 pages, THUNDER adverts

7th November 1970 (No. 23) – Firework issue + 5 new features inside

26th December, 1970 (No. 30) – Christmas issue

Front page of the second issue of COR!! dated 13th June, 1970

The first three issues of COR!! came with free gifts: the first one had a sachet of GULP fruit drink mix; easy to follow instructions were provided on page three. The second issue had a double gift – Super Anglo Bubble Gum and 2 instant picture sheets of Letraset Dry Transfers – eight figures in full colour. No. 3 came with a Super Mystery gift. What is it? – Squeeze Gently and See – said the text on the gift. It was one of those cardboard sleeves with a rubber band and a metal hoop inside that made a rasping sound as it spun around inside the envelope. I am not sure if this was the first time that FLEETWAY or IPC used it for a free gift but it surely wasn’t the last: they even re-used it with the same comic only some two and a half years later (Cor!! issue dated 6th October, 1973 (No. 175)).

Front page of the third issue of COR!! dated 20th June, 1970

Here is the full line-up of characters who appeared in the first issue (6th June, 1970):

Eddie – by Graham Allen

Whacky – by Mike Lacey

The Gasworks Gang – by Frank McDiarmid (2 pages)

Hire a Horror – by Reg Parlett

Tomboy – by Brian Lewis

Donovan’s Dad – Terry Bave

Percy Puffer

Football Madd

Harriet and her Horse – by Les Barton

Ivor Lott and Tony Broke – by Reg Parlett

The Robot Maker – by Frank McDiarmid

Tricky Dicky – by Cyril Price

Stone Age Brit

Kid Chameleon – by Joe Colquhoun (centre spread in full colour)

Wally and Olly

Andy’s Ants – by Terry Bave

Spoilsport – by Graham Allen

Freddie Fang the Werewolf Cub – by Reg Parlett

Barney’s Brain Box (2 pages)

Little Geyser

Jeannie and her Genie

Dogsbodies Academy – by Nadal

Four Alone on the Abandoned Island – by Mike Noble (2 pages)

Stowaway Steve

Mike’s Magic Mould

Teacher’s Pet – by Norman Mansbridge (in full colour)

This was quite a strong line-up from the very start. A number of the features such as Gus Gorilla, The Gasworks Gang, Hire a Horror, Tomboy, Football Madd Ivor Lott and Tony Broke (of course!!), Andy’s Ants and Teacher’s Pet survived the entire 4-year run of the comic; three of them – Ivor Lott and Tony Broke, Football Madd and Tomboy even survived the demise of COR!! Quite a few others such as Kid Chameleon, Spoilsport, Eddie (who was always bored), Donovan’s Dad, Freddie Fang, Tricky Dicky and Whacky enjoyed long runs in COR!! Individual strips won’t be covered in this post because I plan to devote a separate one to each and every one of them in the future (hopefully).

There was an anonymous welcome message on page three of the first issue. Starting from issue 3 the column got the name of COR!! MENT and was signed by the Editor. In the early issues the Editor mostly used the space to build the hype by telling readers how great the comic was doing and how much reader mail they were getting, always urging to send in more. The Editor also addressed some practical issues, e.g. he explained why there was not going to be a Holiday Special in 1970 and apologised for not having enough time to prepare a 1971 annual; on more than one occasion he explained how due to production process it was not possible for readers to send in jokes and letters one week, and have them published in the NEXT issue; in the issue dated 3rd October, 1970 (No. 18) he broke the bad news that the price of COR!! was to be increased by one penny to meet the rising costs of production; in Firework issues he urged to follow the Firework Code and pointed out the most important rules to be observed. He dropped hints about new stories in the making and plugged next week’s extra-special bumper editions.

Editor's page from COR!! issue No. 24 dated
14th November, 1970

But let us get back to the first issue. In the welcome message (that would soon become the COR!! COMENT Editor’s column) readers were encouraged to join in the fun by sending their entries in the NUTTY NOTICE BOARD – jokes, riddles, puzzles, limericks, tricks – anything amusing. Contributors were offered cash prizes if their submissions were published. Surprisingly, the NUTTY NOTICE BOARD feature premiered in the very first issue of the paper, complete with names of the lucky readers who collected £1 pocket money each.

The welcome word in the first issue also introduced KIDS’ COMIC PROBLEM COLUMN – “another great fun feature” earmarked for the second issue. Readers were invited to send in their problems while Cor!! promised to offer some advice… and even if the advice doesn’t help, the cash prize for the published items will! – said the call for contributions. Each week the Editor would choose one Problem of the Week and offer “counselling” in illustrated form. One or two (sometimes more) deserving problems would be addressed in the Quickies section in a simple “question-and-answer” format, always showing how witty the Editor was and never missing an opportunity to plug the name of the comic. Due to lack of space, the Editor would occasionally skip Problem of the Week, leaving just Quickies. Illustrated Problem of the Week continued until the issue dated 17th October, 1970 (No. 20), afterwards illustrations were dropped and the feature became simply Kid’s Problem Column or Problem Quickies.

Examples of Kid's Problems Column
from the early issues

There was a voting coupon for writing down your three favourite features and sending them to Cor!! It’s a shame that editors never shared information about how different strips were faring. It isn’t difficult to guess that the strips which were dropped quickly weren’t doing well in the popularity charts. On the other hand readers’ letters and the Editor’s comments printed in the Postbag section left little doubt about who the favourites were, but I for one would have loved to follow a Top 10 chart and its developments over time. In fact, one reader whose letter was printed in the Postbag feature told how she was doing a graph of the stories liked best by COR!! readers, taken from letters she read in POSTBAG.

Nutty Noticeboard from COR!! No. 12
dated 22nd August, 1970

Postbag reader participation feature was promoted in the first four issues and made its debut in the issue dated 4th July, 1970 (No. 5). Again, pocket money prizes were offered for every item published. The first prizes went to readers who wrote in to tell how much they liked the comic, how fantastic and side-splitting fun it was, what their favourite features were, how they placed a regular order or how their friends or relatives were like Cor!! characters. Soon, however, readers realized more effort was required to get their letters printed. Several ardent fans wrote in to tell how they named their pet after a favourite Cor!! character or compiled lists of words that started with COR. Others pointed-out mistakes they had spotted in Cor!! strips (e.g. drawing a MIDI-coat and calling it a MAXI). But a new and truly weird trend started in the issue dated 14th November, 1970 (No. 24) with a contribution by Andrew Morris of West Bridgford who counted all exclamation marks in an earlier issue of Cor!! The overall stats were 776, with Gasworks Gang having the greatest number of 62. WOW!!!!!!!!!!! – was all the Editor had to say in response and Andrew collected his pocket-money prize of 5/-. Other readers joined in and before long they were counting and re-counting exclamation marks (with two readers coming up with considerably different sums for the same issue – but presumably both pocketed their prizes), sound effects and noises, ants on the Andy’s Ants page, fireworks in the Firework edition, presents in the Christmas issue and Easter eggs in the Easter issue, stars framing the POSTBAG page, words printed in the comic and the number of actual letters in all and even the number of letter “C”s in an entire issue. One reader bothered to count the number if characters’ legs in the comic (1,350 legs).  Phew!.. Counting mania remained prominent in readers’ mail during the entire run of the comic. POSTBAG section was apparently proving a big success, some readers even mentioned it as their most favourite feature, demanding that it be given more space. The Editor always seemed to be keen to devote as much room as possible to Postbag, but ½ or 2/3 of a page was the maximum he could afford at that stage.

TEASEBREAK feature from COR!! No. 28 dated 12th December, 1970

Further two reader participation features were added in 1970. TEASE BREAK! debuted in the issue dated 17th October, 1970 (No. 20) with as many as two pages of puzzles. In his COR!! MENTS column the Editor said the feature was included because so many Cor!! readers had written in and requested it. TEASE BREAK! became a regular one-page feature (with an occasional extra page) from the issue dated 7th November, 1970 (No. 23) and continued to appear in Cor!! on a semi-regular basis until the end of the comic’s life.

Firework issue 1970 (7th November, 1970)

In issue 24 (14th November, 1970) the Editor announced plans to launch a new feature called Picture yourself and provided a detailed description of how it was going to work. Cash prizes were offered again. The first winner in the brand new Cor!! participation feature was announced (and had his portrait printed) in the issue dated 28th November, 1970 (No. 26). Form that issue onwards the feature stayed on the pages of Cor!! until the demise of the comic in 1974. 

Editor's page from COR!! No. 29 (19th December, 1970)

Strips that ended in 1970:

Stowaway Steve – 12th September, 1970 (No. 15)

Mike's Magic Mould – 26th September, 1970 (No. 17)

The Robot Maker – 17th October, 1970 (No. 20)

Wally and Olly – 17th October, 1970 (No. 20)

Dogsbodies Academy – 24th October, 1970 (No. 21)

Harriet and her Horse – 31st October, 1970 (No. 22)

Jeanie and her Gennie – 31st October, 1970 (No. 22)

Four Alone on the Abandoned Island – 31st October, 1970 (No. 22) (ended by reaching its natural conclusion)

Stone Age Brit Ancient Nit – 7th November, 1970 (No. 23)

Strips that started in 1970:

Swopper Stan – 12th September, 1970 (No. 15)

Tease Break! feature – 17th October, 1970 (No. 20)

Nobby's Hobbies – 7th November, 1970 (No. 23)

Tell-Tale Tess – 7th November, 1970 (No. 23)

Jack Pott – 7th November, 1970 (No. 23)

Robby Hood and His One Man Band – 7th November, 1970 (No. 23)

Sporting Sue and her Trainer Prue – 21st November, 1970 (No. 25)

COR!! Christmas Issue 1970 (26th December, 1970 (no. 30))