1976 COR!! HOLIDAY SPECIAL

1976 COR!! Holiday Special still had the cover price of 25 p but the page count came down to 64.  It was the first one to feature Ivor Lott and Tony Broke on the front cover (signed by Robert Nixon). The characters remained cover stars of all COR!! specials and annuals from this edition onwards.

Here is the lineup of strips and features: Gus Gorilla (3 new episodes by Alf Saporito), Ivor Lott and Tony Broke (2 Reg Parlett reprints from old COR!! weeklies and one new episode by Robert Nixon in full colour on the centrespread), Andy’s Ants (new episode by Terry Bave), Tomboy (new episode), Mike’s Magic Mould (4 reprints from old COR!! weeklies, two in full colour), Hire A Horror (4 Reg Parlett reprints from old COR!! weeklies, two in full colour), Donovan’s Dad (new episode by Terry Bave), Dial “T” for Twit (2 pages by Tom Paterson, signed), Soldier Spoon (4 episodes), Football Madd (4 reprints from old COR!! weeklies), Whacky (new episode), The Gasworks Gang (one reprint from an old COR!! weekly and one new episode by Frank McDiarmid), Look… Look… Look..! puzzle (by Les Barton), The Slimms (new episode), Jack Pott (new episode), Tease Break feature  (3 pages), Travel Ticklers gags (2 pages), Teacher’s Pet (new episode), Jollidays jokes (2 pages), Night Mare (new episode by Les Barton), Tricky Dicky (new episode), Jelly Baby (new episode), Willy Worry (signed by Terry Bave), Chalky (by Les Barton).

The special had only one one-off and it was a set of Dial “T” for Twit drawn and signed by Tom Paterson. It was one of those special agent comedy strips that were so common in British comics in the 60s and the 70s. Clumsy Sam Twitt and his assistant Cyril deal with enemy agents Ivan and Otto (an unlikely duo of a Russian and a German, unless he was from East Germany…) who attempt to steal a secret shrinking device invented by Prof. Klott:

Terry Bave and Les Barton drew quite a few pages for this edition. Here are three puzzle pages by Les Barton. Note Les Barton’s versions of many COR!! star characters in the Tease Break feature (pages 2 and 3 below):

1976 COR!! COMIC ANNUAL

1976 COR!! Comic Annual cost 95 p. and was 160 pages thick. It was the last COR!! annual with Gus Gorilla on the front cover. One more thing that it had in common with early COR!! annuals was that newly drawn strips still made up quite a large portion of the contents. Speaking of early COR!! annuals, those of you who have been reading the blog since the very start may remember that I didn’t cover the annuals of 1973 and 1974 when writing the respective yearly reviews  because I didn’t have copies then. Well, now I have filled the gaps and included details about the two books. You can read about 1973 COR!! annual here. Click here for the post with details of 1974 COR!! annual.

  

Here is a summary of the contents of 1976 COR!! Comic Annual: Willy Worry (4 episodes, one in full colour), Whacky (in full colour), Tricky Dicky (2 episodes, one in full colour), Gus Gorilla (4 episodes, two in full colour), Stowaway Steve (5 episodes, one in full colour), The Slimms (3 episodes, one in full colour), Aqua Lad (4 episodes), Jack Pott (3 episodes), Ivor Lott and Tony Broke (3 episodes), Jelly Baby (3 episodes), Val’s Vanishing Cream (3 episodes), Give A Dog A Bone (4 episodes), Andy’s Ants (3 episodes), Hire A Horror (3 episodes, one in full colour), Fiends and Neighbours (by ghost artist), Teacher’s Pet (2 episodes, one in full colour),  Tease Break feature (3 instalments), Jasper the Grasper (2 episodes, one by Trevor Metcalfe and one by Alf Saporito), Night Mare (4 episodes, one by Tom Paterson), The Gasworks Gang (2 new episodes and one reprint), Big Bad Butch, Soldier Spoon (3 episodes), Tomboy (3 episodes), Super Spook (8 pages), Peril in Pantoland (8 pages), What do You Know feature (by Alf Saporito), Jest For A Laugh feature (by Alf Saporito).

One offs: Big Bad Butch – a cowboy comedy feature set in the Wild West. I am not quite sure but it looks like the work of Alf Saporito to me:

Peril in Pantoland. The story was about young Dick Whittington and his sister Jill who went looking for their cat and found themselves in the weird world of mechanical fairy-tale monsters manufactured by the crazy scientist Demon-King. The kids encountered Caliph of Baghdad and his rubber servants, Long John Silver and a shark, Aladdin’s wicked uncle, Mummy and a giant before the police came to their rescue. I wonder who the illustrator was?

Robert Nixon did an excellent job on all of his sets in the annual (Hire a Horror and Ivor Lott and Tony Broke). Hire a Horror instalments were paricularly scrumptious:

Frank McDiarmid contributed two new episodes of The Gasworks Gang. Here is one in its 4-page entirety:

Alf Saporito drew quite a few pages for the annual: Gus Gorilla (all new sets as far as I can tell), a 4-pager of Jasper the Grasper and two features – What Do You Know and Jest For A Laugh. I believe he was also responsible for the Big Bad Butch set. Here is a panel from Jasper the Grasper: 

COR!! 1975 HOLIDAY SPECIAL

1975 COR!! Holiday Special was the first one to be published after the weekly folded. It was priced 25p and had 80 pages. It was also the last COR!! holiday special to have Gus Gorilla on the front cover. 

Here is the list of strips and features (here and further on the strips that had never appeared in COR!! weeklies will be marked in red): 

Tomboy, Soldier Spoon (4 episodes),  Ivor Lott and Tony Broke (2 episodes), Stowaway Steve (3 episodes, reprint from old COR!! weeklies), Gus Gorilla (4 episodes, some reprints from old COR!! weeklies), Donovan’s Dad, Seaside “Spot the Changes” feature, Val’s Vanishing Cream, Barny Owl, Andy’s Ants, Whacky (2 episodes), Football Madd (4 episodes, one in full colour signed by Tom Paterson), Ice Screams gags, Aqua Lad,  Cor-Toon Column jokes feature (3 instalments), The Slimms (2 episodes), Fairground ‘Spot the Changes’ feature, The Gasworks Gang (new episode, the first one ever signed by Frank McDiarmid), Travelling Tease Break feature, Hire a Horror (3 episodes, two reprints from old COR!! weeklies ), Opportunity Knox, Night Mare, Countryside ‘Spot the Changes’ feature, Jack Pott, Tricky Dicky, ‘A-Maze-ing’ Coach Tour puzzle, Four Alone Beside the Seaside (illustrated by Rat Trap artist, 5 pages), Jelly Baby, Willy Worry,  Teacher’s Pet.

There were two one-off strips in the special:

Barny Owl by Terry Bave was about “the wisest owl around” that helped other animals with their problems. 

Opportunity Knox was about an optimistic guy who was always hoping for better things. Here’s a taste:

The magazine showed signs of IPC relaxing their policy of artists’ anonymity – Robert Nixon, Tom Paterson, Frank McDiarmid and Terry Bave signed some of their sets. Nixon’s signature was on the front cover illustration.

Football Madd

The Gasworks Gang

The Slimms

Ivor Lott and Tony Broke