SPORTS THEME IN BRITISH COMICS TO CELEBRATE LONDON OLYMPICS 2012 (DAY 15)

Here is the last batch of the Moonsters sports covers from my SPARKY collection. Followed by two busy sets of The Terrors of Tornado Street from early issues of BUSTER.

From BUSTER dated 12th August, 1961

From BUSTER dated 2nd December, 1961

SPORTS THEME IN BRITISH COMICS TO CELEBRATE LONDON OLYMPICS 2012 (DAY 14)

SCHOOL FUN was a short-lived comic in the 80s that ran for just 33 issues before it was merged into BUSTER. What made the comic stand out were the lively wraparound covers, some of which were sports-themed. I don’t know the artist’s name but he did an excellent job drawing them.

SPORTS THEME IN BRITISH COMICS TO CELEBRATE LONDON OLYMPICS 2012 (DAY 13)

How about some school sports antics from the Swots and the Blots? 

From SMASH! dated 5th April, 1969

From SMASH! dated 13th September, 1969

From VALIANT AND SMASH dated 21st April, 1971

A LOOK AT COR!! STRIPS: BARON VON-BONKERS THE BIRDMAN

Baron Von-Bonkers the Birdman was introduced in COR!! issue dated 20th April, 1974 (No. 203) and continued for 9 weeks until the paper folded. What prompted the Editor to include this poorly drawn feature so near the end of the comic’s life is a mystery to me.

First episode from COR!! issue dated 20th April, 1974 (No. 203)

From COR!! issue dated 27th April, 1974 (No. 204)

And here I will congratulate myself on reaching the end of the list of strips in COR!! weeklies! Now I plan to re-visit several old blogposts in order to update them with details about COR!! 1973 and 1974 annuals that I didn’t have at the time of writing a few months ago. I will then take a look at the annuals and holiday specials published after COR!! folded and cover the features that only appeared in COR!! annuals and specials.

SPORTS THEME IN BRITISH COMICS TO CELEBRATE LONDON OLYMPICS 2012 (DAY 12)

With Team GB doing brilliantly at cycling disciplines in the Olympics, let’s take a look at the sport in comics over the years. 

From THE BEANO No. 796 (14th October, 1957)

From GIGGLE dated 24th June, 1967

SPORTS THEME IN BRITISH COMICS TO CELEBRATE LONDON OLYMPICS 2012 (DAY 11)

The Sludgemouth Sloggers was a team of human freaks assembled by the town of Sludgemouth to enter the world-wide ‘What-A-Lark’ competition (the Whacky World Cup for Holiday Resorts) with a noble mission of winning a prize of 50 thousand quid in order to build a dam and save the tourism industry of their town. The team required some special skills to tackle the various stunts and weird sports used in the contest. The strip is not much of a help in illustrating modern Olympic sports but it is another nice example of a story centered around a tough athletic competition with cheering crowds and extensive media coverage. 

But the main reason why I chose to include The Sludgemouth Sloggers in my series of Olympic blogposts is this particular 6-page set. All weekly installments in JET and later the combined BUSTER AND JET were illustrated by Douglas Maxted, but the episode from the rarely-seen 1972 Birthday Book For Boys was by the ever-excellent Joe Colquhoun:

A LOOK AT COR!! STRIPS: WALLY'S WEIRDIES

Wally's Weirdies was the second winner of the COR-Medy Choice competition, second series. The outer space weirdies who made friends with Wally in the pilot episode during the competition are now living at the bottom of his garden. In the first regular weekly episode Wally is off to school and his new pals volunteer to join him. On his way Wally meets Bossy Boots the bully who checks Wally’s satchel for grub but finds the miniature space ship and smashes it. The weirdies teach him a lesson. 

Both winners of the COR-medy Choice competition were introduced as regular weekly strips in COR!! issue dated 20th April, 1974 (No. 203) and ran for 9 weeks until the last issue of the paper. In the last COR!! episode of Wally’s Weirdies Mom tells Wally they are moving over to Buster.  The feature continued in the combined BUSTER AND COR!! for a brief period until 8th January 1975. If I am not mistaken, the illustrator was Tom Paterson who had recently joined the team of IPC artists.

From COR!! issue dated 20th April, 1974 (No. 203)

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