COR!! COMIC ANNUAL 1984

COR!! Comic Annual 1984, £1.95, 112 pages

Contents: Jack Pott (2 episodes illustrated and signed by Jim Crocker), Smartie Artie (2 episodes), Ivor Lott and Tony Broke (3 episodes signed by Crocker), Night Mare (2 reprints from old COR!! weeklies), Tomboy (2 reprints), Terry’s Tube Travels (3 episodes illustrated by Cliff Brown, one signed), Gus Gags (2 instalments), Football Madd (2 episodes), Jelly Baby (2 episodes), Young MacDonald and His Farm (2 episodes by Ron Turner), Benny Bendo, Teacher’s Pet (3 episodes), Percy Grower and his Fantastic Fertiliser, Tease Break (4 instalments), Chalky (2 episodes), Wilfred the World’s Worst Wizard (2 episodes), Whacky (2 episodes), Jasper the Grasper (new by Les Barton), Cheery Chuckles,  Spotter, Donovan’s Dad (2 old Les Barton episodes),  The Gasworks Gang (new set signed by Frank McDiarmid), Hire A Horror, Val’s Vanishing Cream, Fiends and Neighbours (new story illustrated by Les Barton).

As always, the annual was a combination of reprints and new material. In the introduction to the COR!! Specials and Annuals chapter of this blog I mentioned that in reprints the panels were usually cut up and rearranged so that original one-pagers from the weeklies became two-pagers in holiday specials and annuals. This meant that some panels had to be tampered with and extended. Sometimes this involved a small effort on behalf of IPC's staff artists: for example, only the last panel had to be ‘augmented’ in this Tomboy set that originally appeared in COR!! issue dated 12th January, 1974 and was reprinted in the 1984 Annual:

On other occasions more work was required, often resulting in awkward panelling and general layout, as can be seen by comparing the original set of Donovan’s Dad from COR!! dated 23rd December, 1972 and the reprint in the 1984 Annual:

The Annual had quite a large proportion of new material, as indicated by the number of strips marked in red in the contents summary above (I will repeat myself by saying that red means that the strips were either one-offs or their appearances were limited to COR!! Specials and Annuals and they will receive their own blogposts later on).

There was only one one-off strip in this annual and it was Terry’s Tube Travels. 3 episodes of it were illustrated by Cliff Brown who also drew Timothy Tester in Whizzer and Chips for quite a long time. The tale was about Terry and the telescope that he received as a gift from his Grandad who owned it as a lad. Whenever Terry looked through the telescope, he got transported to the place that he looked at (be it Mars, ant-heap or Easter Island):

In an earlier post I labelled Percy Grower and his Fantastic Fertiliser as an one-off. Well I was wrong because it made its second appearance in this Annual. The artist’s style is so distinctive that when I first looked I automatically assumed it was yet another episode of Benny Bendo. So, it is now official that Percy Grower and his Fantastic Fertiliser was not an one-off and appeared in two COR!! annuals.

The Annual contains new sets of two of my favourite strips in COR!! specials and annuals – The Gasworks Gang by Frank McDiarmid and Jasper the Grasper by Les Barton, both shown below in full. I particularly like the latter.

The episode of Fiends and Neighbours came with an original masthead. Here is the opening page:

COR!! HOLIDAY SPECIAL 1983

COR!! Holiday Special 1983, 50 p., 64 pages

Contents: Ivor Lott and Tony Broke (3 new episodes illustrated and signed by Crocker), Val’s Vanishing Cream (3 Mike Lacey reprints), Night Mare (3 reprints from old COR!! weeklies), Tease Break (2 instalments), Football Madd (3 reprints from old COR!! weeklies), Benny Bendo, Gus-On Holiday gags, Tomboy (2 reprints + one new in full colour), Yong MacDonald and his Farm (illustrated by Ron Turner), Donovan’s Dad (two new episodes by Terry Bave in full colour + one more in b/w), Chalky (reprint of an old episode from a COR!! weekly), Teacher’s Pet (2 reprints), Jasper the Grasper (a new story by Les Barton), Whacky (Mike Lacey reprint), Jelly Baby (3 reprints), Percy Puffer (reprint), Gus-Back Home gags, Hire A Horror (in colour), The Gasworks Gang (a new 4-pager by Frank McDiarmid + 1 reprint from an old COR!! weekly), Jeannie’s Genie (reprint), The Slimms (reprint), Jack Pott, Fiends and Neighbours (a new 3-pager), Gus, Gus Gags, Tell-Tale Tess (reprint).

This was the last COR!! Holiday Special. It was quite remarkable that the Specials lasted so long after the paper folded in 1974.

I may be imagining things, but I get an impression that whoever was responsible for compiling this last edition, he thought it appropriate to include a large number of old reprints of the various strips from the weeklies, some of which had been out of print for more than a decade since their original appearance in COR!!: the long forgotten original episodes of Tell-Tale Tess, Jeannie’s Genie and Percy Puffer from the old weeklies appeared alongside with strips that were reprinted on a regular basis.

That said, the Special was another successful combination of reprints and some high-quality new material: Terry Bave drew a couple of new sets of Donovan’s Dad, Crocker contributed three brand new sets of Ivor Lott and Tony Broke, Ron Turner illustrated another nice episode of Young MacDonald and Frank MacDiarmid drew and signed a new set of the Gasworks Gang’s antics:

Les Barton contributed three pages of Jasper the Grasper’s miserly adventures:

The episode of Fiends and Neighbours was by a new artist whose name is unknown to me:

And with this I’ll close the last chapter of COR!! Holiday Specials. You can go through the whole COR!! specials sequence by clicking here or by choosing the COR!! Holiday Specials label in the column on the right.

COR!! COMIC ANNUAL 1983

COR!! Comic Annual 1983, £1.95, 128 pages

Contents: Football Madd (by a new artist), Ivor Lott and Tony Broke (two 4-pagers signed by Crocker + 3 reprints), The Gasworks Gang (4 reprints from old COR!! weeklies), Artful Artie (2 episodes), Wilfred the World’s Worst Wizard (2 episodes, one signed by Alan Rogers), Tease Break (5 instalments), Jack Pott (2 episodes, one signed by Crocker), Whacky (4 reprints), Helpful Hettie (By Tom Williams), Willy Worry (3 reprints),  Jasper the Grasper (a new 4-pager by Trevor Metcalfe), Teacher’s Pet (3 episodes), Cheery Chuckles jokes (4 episodes), Gus Gorilla (2 episodes), Young MacDonald and his Farm (by Ron Turner), Benny Bendo (2 episodes), Hire A Horror (4 reprints from old COR!! weeklies), Puzzles page, Moose, Chalky (2 episodes), Donovan’s Dad (signed by Terry Bave), Nightmare (by Les Barton), Percy Grower and his Fantastic Fertiliser, The Slimms (signed by Terry Bave), Biffer (possibly by Mike Brown), Spotter (By Tom Williams), Briny Brain teasers, Jelly Baby (2 episodes), Gus’s Gags (2 episodes), Swopper Stan (new episode by Mike Lacey), Fiends and Neighbours (by Les Barton), Val’s Vanishing Cream.

In this annual Football Madd was illustrated by an artist whom I don’t remember seeing anywhere else. I have to admit I am not very well familiar with new British artists from the 80s:

There were four one-offs.

Artful Artie was a version of Smartie Artie – a strip that appeared in COR!! 1982 and 1984 annuals. Both Arties were illustrated by the same artist. It was basically the same strip with a variation of the name. Smartie Artie appeared in two books and technically is not a one-off so it will be covered separately (although frankly there’s little to cover – I don’t think much of the stories or the artwork). Here is a sample page of Artful Artie:

Percy Grower and his Fantastic Fertiliser was an one-off by the artist who illustrated Benny Bendo – a regular in COR!! Specials and Annuals. Does anyone know the artist’s name please?

The third one-off was Moose:

And last but not least, there was a set of Biffer, possibly illustrated by Mike Brown:

As can be seen from the summary of the contents, Crocker contributed and signed quite a large number of sets in this Annual. I can’t decide if he also drew the episode of Val’s Vanishing Cream, here is the opening page:

Les Barton was back with more creepy humour of Fiends and Neighbours, this time Mr Jones witnesses Mr. Really-Ghastly involved in some serious BDSM action with his weird guests. Here’s a taste: