A LOOK AT COR!! STRIPS: TOMBOY

Who can kick three goals and six opponents in a playtime football game? Who can make the best go-cart in town? Who has the biggest collection of frogs, mice and creepy crawlies outside of the Zoo? … Tomboy! She was an unladylike little girl who always brought disappointment to her parents, particularly her Mother. Every week she would tell Mum she was up to something and Mother would imagine her offspring was finally turning into a lady, only to find out that Tomboy had a completely different thing on her mind. Each story ended with Mum saying That’s my Girl! 

Tomboy from COR!! dated 12th December, 1970 (No. 28)

Tomboy enjoyed playing cowboys and Indians, taking part in a girl-on-girl boxing match, watching wrestling on the telly, driving a tank, fighting bulls, taking karate lessons, taking part in motorcycle scrambling or a piano wrecking competition, etc. She even joined Hell’s Angels, wore a Nazi uniform (30th September, 1972, No. 122) and got into jail (10th March, 1973, No. 145). One might think the reason of her outrageous behavior was because a father wasn’t around. It’s true that the vast majority of Tomboy episodes featured her Mother and no Dad. But the truth is that Tomboy did have a Father who appeared quite regularly in the early episodes and occasionally later on in the series (for instance in issues 15th July 1972, 12th August 1972, 21st October 1972, 27th January 1973 (Nos. 111, 115, 125, 139)). My guess is that he got a job out of town soon after the strip was launched and was away from home most of the time... 

Tomboy from COR!! dated 20th May, 1972 (No. 103)

The feature did quite well in COR!! readers’ popularity polls. Tomboy ran from the first COR!! issue to the last, survived merger with BUSTER and continued there for another couple of years. The one-pager was in black and white until issue dated 8th April, 1972 (No. 97) and turned colour from 15th April, 1972 (No. 98). Tomboy made a front-page appearance in COR!! issue dated 1st June, 1974 (No. 209).

The illustrator was Brian Lewis. Mike Atwell is also credited with Tomboy artwork in Ray Moore’s Buster index.

A LOOK AT COR!! STRIPS: HIRE A HORROR

Hire a Horror was another long-running strip that continued throughout the entire run of COR!! Late 60s and early 70s saw the rise of comedy horror genre in British comics and Hire a Horror is a perfect example. The weekly one-pager was named after an agency that hired out all sorts of monsters to all kinds of clients who wanted them for various personal reasons. Customers’ schemes frequently backfired. The horrors occasionally fell victim to their own terror plots when things didn’t go as planned. Except for its services, the agency was a normal company in every respect: it had an office with a sign, a casual daily routine, a miserly boss and a gorgeous receptionist, a pool of secretaries, a cashier and a team of workers who sometimes grumbled about pay. The strip survived until the demise of COR!! and would have probably made it to the combined BUSTER AND COR!! but due to the similarity of the theme the editors had to choose between Hire a Horror and Rent A Ghost (an old-timer in BUSTER) and their decision was in favour of the latter.

Reg Parlett was the regular artist who worked on the strip until the issue of 8th April, 1972 (issue No. 97). All of his sets were in black and white. Starting from the issue dated 15th April, 1972 (No. 98) Reg Parlett was permanently replaced by Robert Nixon and Hire a Horror became a full-colour feature (with the odd b/w episode). In his interview in the Winter 1981 edition of GOLDEN FUN Robert Nixon recalls that Hire a Horror was his first IPC work after he quit DC Thomson and began to work for IPC exclusively. The first episode of the strip by Bob Nixon (in b/w) was in COR!! 29th January, 1972 (No. 87).

It’s interesting to note that as the comedy horror genre grew more popular, a number of ideas used in weekly Hire a Horror episodes were later developed into regular features for other IPC comics. Hideous Hole that appeared in COR!! issue of 17th October, 1970 (No. 20) later became ‘Orrible Hole in Whoopee! and Monster Hhand from COR!! dated 27th November, 1971 (No. 78) was developed into The Hand in Shiver and Shake. An attentive COR!! reader wrote in to tell the Editor that at the beginning of the tale the hand was a left hand, while in all other frames in was a right (I took the trouble to check and found out that it was actually the other way round – first right, then left…).

More trivia stuff: two horrors later appeared as Creepy Creations in Shiver and Shake. The one from COR!! issue of 11th July 1970 (No. 6) reappeared as The Chip Chomping Tater Terror of Tring (Creepy Creation No. 2) in Shiver and Shake dated 17th March, 1973 and Igor from COR!! issue of 7th August, 1971 (No. 62) re-emerged as The Cowley Cowdog (Creepy Creation No. 9) in Shiver and Shake dated 5th May, 1973.  

Hire a Horror made three front cover appearances in COR!! issues dated 21st April 1973, 25th August 1973 and 22nd December 1973 (Nos. 151, 169 and 186). Terry Bave, another IPC great, contributed three episodes towards the end of the run (issues 9th March 1974, 16th March 1974 and 23rd March, 1974 (Nos. 197, 198, 199)). Robert Nixon signed his Hire a Horror set in the issue dated 1st June, 1974 (No. 209) - it was one of the very few signed pages in COR!!

As I was preparing to start this blog, I accidentally bumped into a piece of Reg Parlett’s original Hire a Horror artwork on eBay and couldn’t resist bidding on it. In his interview for the Winter 1979 edition of Golden Fun Reg Parlett told Alan Clark that his favourite materials were half and half – a heavy fashion board. He said he preferred this kind of board for two reasons – the first being that it was easier to work on and allowed a lot of errors to be corrected easily, and secondly because it was easier for packing when he sent work to IPC. The two photos below show the artwork beside the printed page in the paper (the original is 4 times the size of the comic) and the back of one of the halves with the issue number and date marked. Note the hand-written text and corrections of the caption. I have also scanned a couple of frames so that you can appreciate the linework close-up. Marvellous!

A LOOK AT COR!! STRIPS: THE GASWORKS GANG

The Gasworks Gang was a traditional British classroom comedy strip. The Gang was six school-boys: Boss, Tub, Dozy, Nosey, Brains and Tich, who made their Teacher’s life a misery. The Teach (sometimes referred to as ‘Sir’ by the Gang) was a dangerous-looking bloke who lived with his Mum. Other recurring characters were Janitor, Headmaster and Teach’s Mum. The Teacher got the upper hand occasionally, but the Gang usually prevailed.

The Gasworks Gang from COR!! dated 27th February 1971 (No. 39)

Illustrated by Frank McDiarmid, the strip occupied two full pages in black and white from the first to the very last issue of COR!! The two pages usually told a complete story every week but there were also three “serials”. The first one began in the issue dated 29th July, 1972 (No. 113), coinciding with the point when the strip was moved from its usual slot on pages 4 and 5 to the back of the paper. This is also the time when the artist began drawing a new logo for each weekly episode (with a few exceptions).

The first serial was entitled “All at Sea” and told a summer holiday story about how the Gasworks Gang accidentally sent Teach on an ocean-going cruise in the belly of a whale and set off to save him. Their voyage took them to the Arctic Circle, then they found themselves stranded on a desert island, got rescued by a submarine that took them to an exotic coast where they fell into the hands of cannibals. Cortown Zoo finally sent an airplane and arranged their free passage back in return for a crocodile, just in time for the start of school. The serial ran in 5 issues from 29th July, 1972 until 26th August, 1972 (Nos. 113 – 117).

The Gasworks Gang on an educational tour of Britain
in COR!! dated 4th November, 1972 (No. 127)

In their second “epic tale” the Gasworks Gang cheated in a School Authorities Competition and won the First Prize of an educational tour of Britain. The tour lasted 16 weeks (from 30th September, 1972 until 13th January, 1973 (Nos. 122 – 137)). The Gasworks Gang and Teach visited the Tower of London, Stonehenge, the Lake District, the White Cliffs of Dover, Scotland and Loch Ness, an oil rig in Scotland, Hadrian’s Wall, Stoke and its famous potteries, Wales and finally Cambridge before making it safely back to Cortown. Christmas and New Year episodes were also incorporated into the story which was given a proper ending in the issue of 13th January, 1973 (No. 137) when President of the Education Committee came to have a few words with the Gang for cheating to get on the tour.

The Gasworks Gang tour the Common Market countries:
French vinyards in COR!! 18th August 1973 (No. 168)

During their visit in Germany the Gang go to a china factory
and make a life-size china model of Teach. They try
firing it on a bonfire with a volume of Mein Kampf
tossed on top of it. A question here: is burning books
not a Nazi thing to do?
(from COR!! dated 15h Sept., 1973 (No. 172))

The last serial began in the issue dated 4th August, 1973 (No. 166): British kids were worried that school holidays were coming and instead of being locked up in school the Gang would be on the loose all day. Police officer realized the menace and decided that the Gang should be deported. Kids started collection right away to fund the deportation and several days later the police officer presented Teach with a sack of lolly and a mini-bus so that he could take the Gang on a tour of the Common Market countries for their holidays. That’s how the Gasworks Gang’s tour of Europe began. It lasted 10 weeks and included antics in France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Germany, Italy and Ireland. The tour ended in issue 6th October, 1973 (No. 175) when the Gasworks Gang returned to the UK.

Mail in the Postbag section suggests that readers had different opinions about the strip – some thought it was boring while some wrote in to tell how much they liked it. My vote would have been very much with the yeas. I surely don’t find it boring and Frank McDiarmid’s excellent artwork really makes the strip shine. For me it is easily one of the best series in COR!! I would very much like to get hold of an original set of Gasworks Gang art for my collection :)

Trivia stuff: the episode in the issue of 12th June, 1971 (No. 54) was illustrated by Les Barton. The Gasworks Gang made two COR!! front page appearances on 8th September, 1973 and  23rd March, 1974 (Nos. 171 and 199). Towards the very end of the run the strip was in three-colours on centre pages. Issue of 30th March, 1974 (No. 200) had a nice ‘full colour’ episode. I find that particular episode interesting in a number of ways: I think that the concept of characters demanding full-colour treatment and doing something about it is quite clever, I also like the way the idea is presented; the episode has a couple of small fun details, like the guest-appearance of Tomboy – a character from another COR!! strip (episodic guest appearances were rather common in COR!! by the way), and showing the Editor’s face. If you take a close look you’ll notice that it’s actually a mask because Ed’s real face was supposedly too horrible to be uncovered. Finally, you can see Frank McDiarmid’s self-portrait in two panels at the bottom of the second page.

The only "colour" episode in COR!! dated 30th March, 1974 (No. 200)

The Gasworks Gang bid their
farewells in the last issue of COR!!

Here are details about appearances of The Gasworks Gang outside of COR!! weeklies. As this one my favourite strips and one of the highlights in COR!!, there is a good chance to find examples of the artwork in my blogposts dedicated to the particular Holiday Specials and Annuals.

1971 COR!! Holiday Special – 1 episode by Les Barton

1972 COR!! Comic Annual – 1 episode by Frank McDiarmid and 1 by Les Barton

1972 COR!! Holiday Special – 1 episode by Frank McDiarmid

1973 COR!! Comic Annual – 2 episodes by Frank McDiarmid

1973 COR!! Holiday Special – 1 episode by Frank McDiarmid

1974 COR!! Comic Annual – 2 episodes by Frank McDiarmid

1974 COR!! Holiday Special – 1 episode by Frank McDiarmid

1975 COR!! Comic Annual – 1 episode by Frank McDiarmid

1975 COR!! Holiday Special – first one ever signed by Frank McDiarmid

1976 COR!! Comic Annual – 3 episodes (two original and one reprint)

1976 COR!! Holiday Special – 1 reprint + 1 new episode by Frank McDiarmid

1977 COR!! Comic Annual – 2 new episodes by Frank McDiarmid

1977 COR!! Holiday Special – 1 new episode by Les Barton + 2 reprints

1978 COR!! Comic Annual – 1 new episode by Frank McDiarmid, signed

1978 COR!! Holiday Special – so far I haven’t been able to get hold of a copy and check for myself but this review confirms that Gasworks Gang was included in the 1978 Special. I will add details when I can.  

1979 COR!! Comic Annual – 4 episodes, all reprints

1979 COR!! Holiday Special – 3 reprints, one in full colour

1980 COR!! Comic Annual – 2 reprints

1980 COR!! Holiday Special – 3 reprints

1981 COR!! Comic Annual – 4 reprints

1981 COR!! Holiday Special – 2 reprints

1982 COR!! Comic Annual – 3 reprints + 1 new Frank McDiarmid signed

1982 COR!! Holiday Special – 1 new episode by Frank McDiarmid

1983 COR!! Comic Annual – 4 reprints

1983 COR!! Holiday Special – a new 4-pager by Frank McDiarmid + 1 reprint

1984 COR!! Comic Annual – new episode signed by Frank McDiarmid

1985 COR!! Comic Annual – 4 reprints

1986 COR!! Comic Annual – 2 new episodes signed by Frank McDiarmid

A LOOK AT COR!! STRIPS: EDDIE and WHACKY

Now it’s time to take a look at all the strips in COR!! – nearly 70 of them all in all. I plan to cover them in the order in which they appeared in the weeklies so I’ll start with Eddie and Whacky that occupied pages two and three of the first issue.

EDDIE

Eddie – Yawn! I’m bored! (later Eddie – He’s Always Bored). The subtitle explains it all – Eddie was a kid who was always looking for ways to keep himself from being bored.  Usually his attempts resulted in trouble for him or his unfortunate parent. Illustrated beautifully by Graham Allen who contributed a lot of strips in COR!!, Eddie enjoyed a healthy run of 137 episodes from the first issue to issue dated 13th January, 1973 (Nos. 1 – 137).

The page on the right was the last episode of Eddie in COR!! weeklies

 WHACKY

Whacky – He’s Always Getting Whacked! Little to add here – the subtitle says it all once again. But for poor Whacky punishment wasn’t limited to just the old slipper or cane from his sadistic teacher Mr. Thwackery. The boy also suffered from a whole arsenal of mechanical gadgets: he got it from a spinning turnstile at the stadium entrance and from tennis balls fired from a tennis-ball cannon; he was whacked with windshield wipers while being stuck between car grill and bumper. There were more exotic ways of whacking too – like getting it from an elephant while being stuck in a kangaroo’s sack with only his arse sticking out... Teacher Thwackery also got a fair share of whacking from the headmaster, the odd bloke or even Whacky himself.

The episode on the left is the first full-page set from issue
dated 12th September, 1970 (No. 15)

Whacky’s sufferings continued from the first issue until 29th September, 1973 (Nos. 1 – 174). At first the strip occupied 2/3 of a page. Starting from the issue of 12th September, 1970 (No. 15) it was promoted to a full-page feature. Several episodes were in full colour and there was one front-page appearance in the issue dated 30th June, 1973. The series was given a proper ending of sorts: Mr. Thwackery announced his retirement. The class presented him with an inscribed cane and Whacky thought his misery was over but he immediately got into trouble with his new neighbour who proved to be no one other than old Mr. Thwackery… Illustrated by Mike Lacey.

GUS GORILLA - COR!! MASCOT AND COVER STAR

Gus Gorilla was COR!! mascot and cover star. He had his own strip named after him that occupied the front page and was in full colour for nearly three years until it was moved to the inside of the paper and turned monochrome. Gus’ weekly antics were followed by a bloke who always showed up out of nowhere in the last panel only to say that you can't make a monkey out of Gus. In the beginning of his career Gus wasn’t a character of many words. In quite a few early episodes he didn’t utter a single word. In fact, there were several covers with hardly any speech balloons at all. Unlike the majority of characters in children’s humour comics Gus rarely interacted with kids. His adventures usually involved grown-ups; a pair of chaps appeared more or less regularly, one was short and on the fat side while the other was tall and lean. They always tried and failed to have fun at Gus’ expense

Gus’ regular artist was Alf Saporito. Some episodes were illustrated by other artists such as Mike Lacey and Sid Burgon.

 Gus Gorilla on front page in colour:  13th June, 1970 – 14th April, 1973 (Nos. 2 – 150, except for the issue dated 6th January, 1973 (No. 136) when the strip was on the back cover because the front page was awarded to The Goodies to celebrate their first week in COR!!).

 Gus Gorilla in b/w inside the paper, usually on the same page with Picture Yourself feature: 21st April, 1973 – 15th June, 1974 (Nos. 151 – 211), full page in issues dated 30th April, 1974 (No. 203), 11th May, 1974 – 15th June, 1974 (Nos. 206-211). 

Gus starred in two other COR!! features: Gus Giggles and Gus Gags. Both ran on the front page concurrently with the Gus Gorilla strip when it was moved to the inside of the comic. Gus Giggles was a three-panel gag cartoon in the same vein as Gus Gorilla only there Gus managed without the moustached bloke and his usual punch line. It ran from 21st April, 1973 until 23rd March, 1974 (Nos. 151 – 199) and was dropped in favour of Gus Gags that appeared during a short period from 30th March, 1974 until 8th June, 1974 (Nos. 200 – 210 (the penultimate issue)). The gags (two of them every week) were drawn from reader’s ideas and contributors received one pound for each cover joke published. Gus Gags feature survived COR!!’s merger with Buster where it continued for as long as the very last issue of 1979.