1978 COR!! COMIC ANNUAL

1978 COR!! Comic Annual, price £1, 144 pages.

Here’s the lineup: Chalky (2 episodes, one in full colour), Willy Worry (2 new episodes, one in full colour and one in b/w, both signed by Terry Bave), Jasper the Grasper (in full colour, a new episode drawn crudely by an unidentified artist), Gus Gorilla (5 reprints from COR!! weeklies), The Slimms (3 episodes), Soldier Spoon (4 episodes), Tomboy (2 episodes), The Gasworks Gang (original 4-page episode by Frank McDiarmid, signed), Mike’s Magic Mould (2 episodes), Teacher’s Pet (2 episodes), Donovan’s Dad (2 episodes), Tricky Dicky (2 episodes), Football Madd (5 episodes), Hire A Horror (3 reprints from old COR!! weeklies), Jelly Baby (2 episodes), Whacky (2 new episodes), Val’s Vanishing Cream (3 episodes), Night Mare (2 episodes, both signed by Les Barton), Andy’s Ants (2 episodes), Tease Break feature (2 instalments), Jack Pott (2 episodes, one in full colour), Super Spook (8 pages by Ron Turner), Patch-Eye Hooker (2 episodes of 4 pages each), Benny Bendo! (1 eposide, 4 pages), Fiends and Neighbours (nice original episode by Graham Allen), Skateboard Sammy (3 episodes), Teddi Vizzon – The Set That Makes You Scream (2 episodes), Marshal Law, Little Benny, Didi and her Teddybears (signed by Mike Brown), Ivor Lott and Tony Broke (in full colour - cover story + 4 pages inside).

Here are some nice examples of new episodes of well-familiar COR!! features: 

The 1978 Annual championed among all COR!! books and holiday specials in terms of the number of unfamiliar and one-off strips. It contained first instalments of Patch-Eye Hooker (reprints of the old pirate strip that originated in GIGGLE and continued in BUSTER) and Benny Bendo – a new strip that was to become a regular in COR!! specials and annuals from this issue onwards. Both will receive their dedicated posts later on, as will Super Spook by Ron Turner who made his third and last appearance in the pages of the Annual. Besides, there were as many as five one-offs, all of them looking like experimental sets put together in a rush to fill the space:

Skateboard Sammy was a crudely drawn strip about … little Sammy and his skateboard. As many as three episodes were included. Here's a taste:

Teddi Vision – The Set That Makes You Scream!  was a bit more interesting. Here is one of the two episodes from the Annual:

Marshal Law: a cowboy comedy feature drawn by an artist whose style looks like a combination of Mike Lacey and Mike Brown to me…

 

Little Benny: a medieval tale in the vein of General Nitt and His Barmy Army from WHAM! only with some wizardry thrown in:

Didi and her Teddy Bears – a set drawn and signed by Mike Brown:

1977 COR!! HOLIDAY SPECIAL

1977 COR!! Holiday Special was still priced 25p and 64 pages thick. Here is a summary of the contents: Whacky (3 episodes), Andy’s Ants (new episode), Hire A Horror (2 Reg Parlett reprints from old COR!! weeklies (one in full colour) + one new episode in full colour), The Gasworks Gang (one new 3-page episode and 2 reprints from old from COR!! weeklies), Donovan’s Dad (2 episodes, one by Les Barton and one by Tery Bave), The Slimms (signed by Terry Bave), Football Madd (3 episodes), Val’s Vanishing Cream (in full colour), Tease Break feature, Mike’s Magic Mould (2 reprints from old COR!! weeklies), Gus Gorilla (3 episodes, one in full colour), Ivor Lott and Tony Broke (1 new episode, 5 reprints from old COR!! weekly, including one in full colour),  Jack Pott, Tricky Dicky, Chalky, Animal Crackers jokes (2 pages), Night Mare (by Les Barton), Willy Worry, Tomboy, Jelly Baby, Teacher’s Pet.

This was the only COR!! special (or annual) ever with no one-offs or ‘imported’ strips. As usual, the majority of sets in the Holiday Special were themed around summer holidays with characters chilling at the seaside…

1977 COR!! COMIC ANNUAL

1977 COR!! Comic Annual cost £1 and had 144 pages.

Strips and features: Willy Worry (4 episodes, one in full colour), Give A Dog A Bone (6 episodes, one in full colour), Ivor Lott and Tony Broke (3 episodes, two in full colour), Gus Gorilla (3 episodes), The Return of Spooky-Spokes (6 pages), Soldier Spoon (4 episodes), Footbal Madd (2 episodes by Les Barton + 1 reprint from an old COR!! weekly), Whacky (2 episodes, one in full colour), Hire A Horror (4 Reg Parlett reprints from old COR!! weeklies), Teacher’s Pet, Tricky Dicky, Jelly Baby (2 episodes), Donovan’s Dad (two episodes, one in full colour), Party ‘Spot The Changes’ puzzle, The Gasworks Gang (two new episodes by Frank McDiarmid), The Slimms (three episodes, one signed by Terry Bave), Tomboy (2 episodes), Night Mare (2 episodes by Les Barton), Gus Gags (6 pages), Jasper the Grasper (by Alf Saporito), Hugh Reka (2 episodes), Jack Pott (2 episodes), Andy’s Ants (2 episodes), “Young” MacDonald and his Farm, Snow ‘Spot the Changes’ puzzle, Tease Break puzzles, Teacher’s Pet, Val’s Vanishing Cream (signed by Terry Bave), Tricky Dicky, Fiends and Neighbours (4 pages signed by Tom Paterson).

There were two one-offs in the Annual:

The Return of Spooky-Spokes was a detective comedy strip starring an invisible poltergeist, formerly known as the fiendish Ponsonby Prenderghast, and a spook detective, formerly the world-famous detective Deadlock “Spooky” Spokes. They team up with Arnold Twinge, the friendly Neighbourhood Detective, and round up a gang of jewellery shop robbers. Here are the opening two pages:

Hugh Reka was a tale about a boy who had a knack for inventions. In the two episodes included in the Annual he experimented with his ‘grow little’ and ‘grow big’ powders. Here are both episodes from the Annual side by side:

IPC in-house artists had become quite good at cutting up old COR!! artwork, resizing panels and constructing two-pagers out of original one-pagers. Give a Dog a Bone and Hire A Horror stories have been definitely tampered with and there are a few more that may have been re-shuffled as well (The Slimms, Willy Worry, Tricky Dicky). The rest are all original pages, as far as I can tell. Here are two examples of new sets by Les Barton:

I am a bit confused as to who illustrated Jasper the Grasper and Gus Gorilla in this Annual. Was it still Alf Saporito?  The style looks somewhat different from the previous years. Here is the last page of Jasper the Grasper and one episode of Gus Gorilla side by side (I believe both were by the same artist):

Finally, here is a 4-page treat of Fiends and Neighbours drawn and signed by Tom Paterson:

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):