1979 COR!! COMIC ANNUAL

1979 COR!! Comic Annual. £1.10, 144 pages,

Here is a summary of the contents:  Jack Pott’s Jackpot game, Football Madd (1 new episode by Les Barton + 2 reprints from old COR!! weeklies), Helpful Hettie, Nightmare (new episode by Les Barton), Tomboy (3 episodes), Fiends and Neighbours (2 new episodes by Les Barton, both signed + 1 reprint from an old COR!! weekly), Tease Break feature (2 instalments), Ivor Lott and Tony Broke (6 reprints and 1 new episode), Teacher’s Pet (2 episodes), Jack Pott (2 episodes), Benny Bendo! (2 episodes), The Slimms (2 episodes + The Slimms Weight For it Game), The Gasworks Gang (4 reprints), Jelly Baby (2 episodes), Hire A Horror (5 reprints and 1 new episode), Whacky (5 episodes), Spotter, Jasper the Grasper (two original episodes, one by Les Barton and one by John Geering), Donovan’s Dad, Swopper Stan, Tricky Dicky (2 episodes), Football Quiz (by Les Barton), Wilfred the World’s Worst Wizard, Football Funnies (by Les Barton), Xmas Word puzzle, Val’s Vanishing Cream (2 episodes), Chalky, Patch-Eye Hooker, Mike’s Magic Mould, Gus Gorilla (3 episodes), "The Stairs” … A Silly Story, The Way-Out West jokes (by Jack Clayton), Willy Worry (2 episodes).

The annual was the first one that had no ‘proper’ colour pages but was probably still advertised as a full-colour book because all of its pages were presented in three-colours (save for a few pages that had no white or no black).

Two episodes of Tomboy were signed by Jim Watson:

The annual contained two new Jasper the Grasper stories: a two-pager by Les Barton (shown below in its entirety) and a 6-pager by John Geering (illustrated below with one panel):

The one-off The Stairs... A Silly Story, doesn't really qualify as a comic strip and is poorly drawn but here it is anyway:

 Jack Clayton contributed two nice pages of Wild West jokes:

What I like best about this annual is that it has as many as two original episodes of Fiends and Neighbours by Les Barton whose style suits the strip very well indeed. The level of detail suggests that the artist enjoyed drawing it. Editors must have liked Mr. Barton’s version because the two sets were the first out of many episodes of Fiends and Neighbours illustrated by Les Barton in subsequent COR!! holiday specials and annuals. Here is one of the two stories from the annual:

1978 COR!! HOLIDAY SPECIAL

1978 COR!! Holiday Special is the only gap in my collection of COR!! 

Information provided on the cover tells us it was 64 pages thick and cost 30 p. The aim of this post is to reserve a slot for the edition in the chronological sequence until I get hold of a copy and can take a look inside. 

Writing a comprehensive review of a comic and having a gap in the collection always leaves a possibility that other posts will have to be amended and supplemented when the gap is filled. Perhaps the missing Holiday Special contains a new Kid Chameleon story or maybe even a new episode of Jasper the Grasper by its original illustrator Ken Reid? This doesn’t sound very likely, but needs to be checked to be sure… 

Incidentally, does anyone have a copy they’d be willing to sell?

UPDATE ONE: A review of the 1978 COR!! Holiday Special can be found on toonhound.com here. Thanks to rainswept, a reader of this blog, for the heads up! 

UPDATE  TWO (July 24th, 2013):

I finally got my chance to bid on a copy of the only COR!! Holiday Special that I didn’t have, and I took it. I paid a bit more than I was meaning to initially but fellow collects will know the feeling when you find an item you’ve been hunting for a while and don’t want to waste the opportunity…  

Here is an account of the contents: 

Ivor Lott and Tony Broke (on front cover + 3 reprints), Ghost Ship (3 episodes), Val’s Vanishing Cream (2 episodes), Tease Break, Jelly Baby (3 episodes including two in full colour), Whacky (2 reprints),  The Slimms (by Terry Bave), The Gasworks Gang (3 Frank McDiarmid reprints), Jasper the Grasper, Jackpot, Andy’s Ants (by Terry Bave),  Whacky (2 reprints), Hire A Horror (4 reprints, including two in full colour), Chalky,  Tricky Dicky, Football Madd, Holiday Race Game centrespread in full colour, Nightmare, Tomboy (2 episodes), Donovan’s Dad (by Terry Bave), Teacher’s Pet (2 pages), Gus Giggles (2 pages), Swopper Stan (2 reprints), Gus Gorilla (reprint, on back cover in colour).

There were no thrilling surprises in the Holiday Special. Considering the long time it took me to get hold of a copy and the excitement when the package arrived, the contents were quite a disappointment. As can be seen from the list above, it is full of reprints of old COR!! material (21.5 pages are definitely reprints). The features that aren’t marked as reprints in the list are probably new material but still nothing to write home about. Tomboy episodes are nicely drawn though. Here is one in full:

Three ½ page episodes of Ghost Ship is the only feature that I don’t remember seeing in a COR!! publication before. The half-pager is probably a reprint but I don’t know where from (I haven’t included it in the sum quoted in the previous paragraph). Here are two examples, both by different artists:

 

Terry Bave was responsible for three two-pagers (all new material, I think) but this is dwarfed by the contribution of Les Barton who illustrated as many as 12 pages: Tease Break feature – 4 pages, Jasper the Grasper – 2 pages, Football Madd – 2 pages, Holiday Race game centrespread in full colour and 2 pages of Nightmare).  Here are some panels. Note Les Barton’s signature in Jasper the Grasper and Nightmare:

And here is a photo of the centrespread by Les Barton: