SPORTS THEME IN BRITISH COMICS TO CELEBRATE LONDON OLYMPICS 2012 (DAY 3)

Over the years, certain sports received considerably more attention in British comics than others. I am referring to football (of course!), cricket, motor sports, boxing and tennis. In addition to being “traditional” popular British sports that were very much part of the daily lives of many kids, they had strong comedy potential that could be exploited in comics. 

Cricket and motor sports are not part of the Olympic Games, so I will leave them out. Football has already been covered extensively last month but I found one or two interesting examples and will probably include them in later posts. Tennis can also wait a bit. Today’s post is all about BOXING, and there is certainly no shortage of strips with the boxing theme.

Here are some from BEEZER by Leo Baxendale:

From BEEZER No. 24 dated June 30th, 1956

From BEEZER No. 324 dated March 31st, 1962

Leo Baxendale is said to have signed all of his work for WHAM! so it is safe to assume that any unsigned instalments were by other artists:

And here are some examples by Ken Reid from two different periods of his career: 

From THE BEANO No. 754 dated December 29th, 1956

From THE BEANO No. 778 dated June 15th, 1957

From POW! No. 33 dated September 2nd, 1967

A LOOK AT COR!! STRIPS: NIGHT MARE

Night Mare told the adventures of an over-energetic ghost horse who was always looking for action. The kind-hearted mare took every opportunity to help out her suffering living fellow horses by taking their place.

Night Mare started in COR!! issue dated 6th October, 1973 (No. 175) and continued without a break for 37 weeks until the last issue dated 15th June, 1974 (No. 211). The character made two front page appearances, one on 19th January, 1974 (No. 190) and then in the penultimate COR!! issue with the cover date of 8th June, 1974 (No. 210). Night Mare was the last of Reg Parlett’s many contributions in COR!! Later in the run illustrator’s duties were handed over to Arthur Martin.

From COR!! issue dated 3rd November, 1973 (No. 179)

From COR!! issue dated 26th January, 1974 (No. 191)

From COR!! issue dated 16th February, 1974 (No. 194)

SPORTS THEME IN BRITISH COMICS TO CELEBRATE LONDON OLYMPICS 2012 (DAY 2)

In the 70s VALIANT had nice Mike Western covers some of which featured outstanding Olympic athletes from different countries. You could actually learn things by reading comics then...

My intention is to focus on humour comics and I’ll start with this nice crowded Pirates’ Olympic set by Leo Baxendale from BUSTER dated November 25th, 1968:

SPORTS THEME IN BRITISH COMICS TO CELEBRATE LONDON OLYMPICS 2012

Having enjoyed doing the series of football posts during the recent EURO 2012 (all 24 entries can be viewed by clicking here), I now intend to run another one to celebrate London Olympics.

Sports theme was of course a very prominent one in British comics over the years and my intention is to find and show illustrations for every single modern Olympic sport. I’m not sure if this is a feasible mission but I will give it a try anyway :) Failing that, there are lots of interesting sports-related strips by many of my favourite artists to show and enjoy until the end of the Games on August 12th.

The series will run concurrently with my COR!! posts of which there are only a few left…

A LOOK AT COR!! STRIPS: WILLY WORRY

Willy Worry was a strip about a kid who always worried himself sick over nothing. Willy worried about all kinds of things and when he became worried about something, he’d start daydreaming and imagining the consequences of the idea or phrase that got him worried. In the opening episode Mum tells Dad (whose name is Bert) to tidy up the garden because if it carries growing wild, it’ll be like living in a jungle. The words trigger Willy’s worries and he imagines his family living in a jungle.

Willy’s worries began in COR!! issue dated 6th October, 1973 (No. 175) and continued regularly until the very last issue. After COR!! folded, Willy Worry found a new home in the pages of Whoopee! where the strip continued for as long as until the middle of 1978. Quite a large number of weekly episodes in COR!! were in full colour, besides Willy made one front cover appearance in the issue dated 28th January, 1974 (No. 191). The illustrator was David Jenner.

From COR!! issue dated 18th May, 1974 (No. 207)

From COR!! issue dated 25th May, 1974 (No. 208)

A LOOK AT COR STRIPS: VAL'S VANISHING CREAM

Val's Vanishing Cream joined the lineup of COR!! strips thanks to the readers’ vote in the COR-medy choice competition (first series). The pilot episode in which Val found a jar of vanishing cream in the bag of old cosmetics that her Mom asked her to pop in the bin appeared in COR!! issue dated 12th May, 1973  (No. 154). It started as a regular feature in COR!! issue with the cover date of 1st September, 1973 (No. 170) that also reprinted the pilot episode (in mini-format). Val used the vanishing cream to make things and people invisible. Illustrated by Mike Lacey, the strip ran regularly until the last issue of COR!! dated 15th June, 1974 (No. 211) and survived merger with BUSTER where it continued until the end of October, 1976. It made three front cover appearances in COR!! issues dated 1st September 1973, 23rd February 1974 and 27th April, 1974 (Nos. 170, 195 and 204). 

From COR!! issue dated 8th September, 1973 (No. 171)

From COR!! issue dated 22nd December, 1973 (No. 186)

A LOOK AT COR!! STRIPS: MY FAVOURITE ENTRIES IN THE COR-MEDY CHOICE FEATURE

In response to Peter’s request, below are full versions of my personal favourite entries in the first series of COR-medy Choice competition. 

As I have written in my reply to Peter's comment, had I had an opportunity to cast my vote, I would have been in the minority: I’d have been interested to see more of Sheik Oleg. I find the absurdity of this first episode quite amusing and wonder what would have followed. IMHO, Professor Potty, Fun-Time Machine and Snappy Sam were quite robust ideas with development potential. 

Of course, this is all from my current perspective as an adult; kids probably saw things differently. Seeing that Val’s Vanishing Cream and The Pipes of Stan got the majority of the votes, I find it a bit surprising how children wanted to see more of “kids-with-gimmicks” – type strips, despite having so many of them already in the pages of COR!! as well as other companion and rival comics.