A LOOK AT COR!! STRIPS: THE GASWORKS GANG

The Gasworks Gang was a traditional British classroom comedy strip. The Gang was six school-boys: Boss, Tub, Dozy, Nosey, Brains and Tich, who made their Teacher’s life a misery. The Teach (sometimes referred to as ‘Sir’ by the Gang) was a dangerous-looking bloke who lived with his Mum. Other recurring characters were Janitor, Headmaster and Teach’s Mum. The Teacher got the upper hand occasionally, but the Gang usually prevailed.

The Gasworks Gang from COR!! dated 27th February 1971 (No. 39)

Illustrated by Frank McDiarmid, the strip occupied two full pages in black and white from the first to the very last issue of COR!! The two pages usually told a complete story every week but there were also three “serials”. The first one began in the issue dated 29th July, 1972 (No. 113), coinciding with the point when the strip was moved from its usual slot on pages 4 and 5 to the back of the paper. This is also the time when the artist began drawing a new logo for each weekly episode (with a few exceptions).

The first serial was entitled “All at Sea” and told a summer holiday story about how the Gasworks Gang accidentally sent Teach on an ocean-going cruise in the belly of a whale and set off to save him. Their voyage took them to the Arctic Circle, then they found themselves stranded on a desert island, got rescued by a submarine that took them to an exotic coast where they fell into the hands of cannibals. Cortown Zoo finally sent an airplane and arranged their free passage back in return for a crocodile, just in time for the start of school. The serial ran in 5 issues from 29th July, 1972 until 26th August, 1972 (Nos. 113 – 117).

The Gasworks Gang on an educational tour of Britain
in COR!! dated 4th November, 1972 (No. 127)

In their second “epic tale” the Gasworks Gang cheated in a School Authorities Competition and won the First Prize of an educational tour of Britain. The tour lasted 16 weeks (from 30th September, 1972 until 13th January, 1973 (Nos. 122 – 137)). The Gasworks Gang and Teach visited the Tower of London, Stonehenge, the Lake District, the White Cliffs of Dover, Scotland and Loch Ness, an oil rig in Scotland, Hadrian’s Wall, Stoke and its famous potteries, Wales and finally Cambridge before making it safely back to Cortown. Christmas and New Year episodes were also incorporated into the story which was given a proper ending in the issue of 13th January, 1973 (No. 137) when President of the Education Committee came to have a few words with the Gang for cheating to get on the tour.

The Gasworks Gang tour the Common Market countries:
French vinyards in COR!! 18th August 1973 (No. 168)

During their visit in Germany the Gang go to a china factory
and make a life-size china model of Teach. They try
firing it on a bonfire with a volume of Mein Kampf
tossed on top of it. A question here: is burning books
not a Nazi thing to do?
(from COR!! dated 15h Sept., 1973 (No. 172))

The last serial began in the issue dated 4th August, 1973 (No. 166): British kids were worried that school holidays were coming and instead of being locked up in school the Gang would be on the loose all day. Police officer realized the menace and decided that the Gang should be deported. Kids started collection right away to fund the deportation and several days later the police officer presented Teach with a sack of lolly and a mini-bus so that he could take the Gang on a tour of the Common Market countries for their holidays. That’s how the Gasworks Gang’s tour of Europe began. It lasted 10 weeks and included antics in France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Germany, Italy and Ireland. The tour ended in issue 6th October, 1973 (No. 175) when the Gasworks Gang returned to the UK.

Mail in the Postbag section suggests that readers had different opinions about the strip – some thought it was boring while some wrote in to tell how much they liked it. My vote would have been very much with the yeas. I surely don’t find it boring and Frank McDiarmid’s excellent artwork really makes the strip shine. For me it is easily one of the best series in COR!! I would very much like to get hold of an original set of Gasworks Gang art for my collection :)

Trivia stuff: the episode in the issue of 12th June, 1971 (No. 54) was illustrated by Les Barton. The Gasworks Gang made two COR!! front page appearances on 8th September, 1973 and  23rd March, 1974 (Nos. 171 and 199). Towards the very end of the run the strip was in three-colours on centre pages. Issue of 30th March, 1974 (No. 200) had a nice ‘full colour’ episode. I find that particular episode interesting in a number of ways: I think that the concept of characters demanding full-colour treatment and doing something about it is quite clever, I also like the way the idea is presented; the episode has a couple of small fun details, like the guest-appearance of Tomboy – a character from another COR!! strip (episodic guest appearances were rather common in COR!! by the way), and showing the Editor’s face. If you take a close look you’ll notice that it’s actually a mask because Ed’s real face was supposedly too horrible to be uncovered. Finally, you can see Frank McDiarmid’s self-portrait in two panels at the bottom of the second page.

The only "colour" episode in COR!! dated 30th March, 1974 (No. 200)

The Gasworks Gang bid their
farewells in the last issue of COR!!

Here are details about appearances of The Gasworks Gang outside of COR!! weeklies. As this one my favourite strips and one of the highlights in COR!!, there is a good chance to find examples of the artwork in my blogposts dedicated to the particular Holiday Specials and Annuals.

1971 COR!! Holiday Special – 1 episode by Les Barton

1972 COR!! Comic Annual – 1 episode by Frank McDiarmid and 1 by Les Barton

1972 COR!! Holiday Special – 1 episode by Frank McDiarmid

1973 COR!! Comic Annual – 2 episodes by Frank McDiarmid

1973 COR!! Holiday Special – 1 episode by Frank McDiarmid

1974 COR!! Comic Annual – 2 episodes by Frank McDiarmid

1974 COR!! Holiday Special – 1 episode by Frank McDiarmid

1975 COR!! Comic Annual – 1 episode by Frank McDiarmid

1975 COR!! Holiday Special – first one ever signed by Frank McDiarmid

1976 COR!! Comic Annual – 3 episodes (two original and one reprint)

1976 COR!! Holiday Special – 1 reprint + 1 new episode by Frank McDiarmid

1977 COR!! Comic Annual – 2 new episodes by Frank McDiarmid

1977 COR!! Holiday Special – 1 new episode by Les Barton + 2 reprints

1978 COR!! Comic Annual – 1 new episode by Frank McDiarmid, signed

1978 COR!! Holiday Special – so far I haven’t been able to get hold of a copy and check for myself but this review confirms that Gasworks Gang was included in the 1978 Special. I will add details when I can.  

1979 COR!! Comic Annual – 4 episodes, all reprints

1979 COR!! Holiday Special – 3 reprints, one in full colour

1980 COR!! Comic Annual – 2 reprints

1980 COR!! Holiday Special – 3 reprints

1981 COR!! Comic Annual – 4 reprints

1981 COR!! Holiday Special – 2 reprints

1982 COR!! Comic Annual – 3 reprints + 1 new Frank McDiarmid signed

1982 COR!! Holiday Special – 1 new episode by Frank McDiarmid

1983 COR!! Comic Annual – 4 reprints

1983 COR!! Holiday Special – a new 4-pager by Frank McDiarmid + 1 reprint

1984 COR!! Comic Annual – new episode signed by Frank McDiarmid

1985 COR!! Comic Annual – 4 reprints

1986 COR!! Comic Annual – 2 new episodes signed by Frank McDiarmid

A LOOK AT COR!! STRIPS: EDDIE and WHACKY

Now it’s time to take a look at all the strips in COR!! – nearly 70 of them all in all. I plan to cover them in the order in which they appeared in the weeklies so I’ll start with Eddie and Whacky that occupied pages two and three of the first issue.

EDDIE

Eddie – Yawn! I’m bored! (later Eddie – He’s Always Bored). The subtitle explains it all – Eddie was a kid who was always looking for ways to keep himself from being bored.  Usually his attempts resulted in trouble for him or his unfortunate parent. Illustrated beautifully by Graham Allen who contributed a lot of strips in COR!!, Eddie enjoyed a healthy run of 137 episodes from the first issue to issue dated 13th January, 1973 (Nos. 1 – 137).

The page on the right was the last episode of Eddie in COR!! weeklies

 WHACKY

Whacky – He’s Always Getting Whacked! Little to add here – the subtitle says it all once again. But for poor Whacky punishment wasn’t limited to just the old slipper or cane from his sadistic teacher Mr. Thwackery. The boy also suffered from a whole arsenal of mechanical gadgets: he got it from a spinning turnstile at the stadium entrance and from tennis balls fired from a tennis-ball cannon; he was whacked with windshield wipers while being stuck between car grill and bumper. There were more exotic ways of whacking too – like getting it from an elephant while being stuck in a kangaroo’s sack with only his arse sticking out... Teacher Thwackery also got a fair share of whacking from the headmaster, the odd bloke or even Whacky himself.

The episode on the left is the first full-page set from issue
dated 12th September, 1970 (No. 15)

Whacky’s sufferings continued from the first issue until 29th September, 1973 (Nos. 1 – 174). At first the strip occupied 2/3 of a page. Starting from the issue of 12th September, 1970 (No. 15) it was promoted to a full-page feature. Several episodes were in full colour and there was one front-page appearance in the issue dated 30th June, 1973. The series was given a proper ending of sorts: Mr. Thwackery announced his retirement. The class presented him with an inscribed cane and Whacky thought his misery was over but he immediately got into trouble with his new neighbour who proved to be no one other than old Mr. Thwackery… Illustrated by Mike Lacey.

GUS GORILLA - COR!! MASCOT AND COVER STAR

Gus Gorilla was COR!! mascot and cover star. He had his own strip named after him that occupied the front page and was in full colour for nearly three years until it was moved to the inside of the paper and turned monochrome. Gus’ weekly antics were followed by a bloke who always showed up out of nowhere in the last panel only to say that you can't make a monkey out of Gus. In the beginning of his career Gus wasn’t a character of many words. In quite a few early episodes he didn’t utter a single word. In fact, there were several covers with hardly any speech balloons at all. Unlike the majority of characters in children’s humour comics Gus rarely interacted with kids. His adventures usually involved grown-ups; a pair of chaps appeared more or less regularly, one was short and on the fat side while the other was tall and lean. They always tried and failed to have fun at Gus’ expense

Gus’ regular artist was Alf Saporito. Some episodes were illustrated by other artists such as Mike Lacey and Sid Burgon.

 Gus Gorilla on front page in colour:  13th June, 1970 – 14th April, 1973 (Nos. 2 – 150, except for the issue dated 6th January, 1973 (No. 136) when the strip was on the back cover because the front page was awarded to The Goodies to celebrate their first week in COR!!).

 Gus Gorilla in b/w inside the paper, usually on the same page with Picture Yourself feature: 21st April, 1973 – 15th June, 1974 (Nos. 151 – 211), full page in issues dated 30th April, 1974 (No. 203), 11th May, 1974 – 15th June, 1974 (Nos. 206-211). 

Gus starred in two other COR!! features: Gus Giggles and Gus Gags. Both ran on the front page concurrently with the Gus Gorilla strip when it was moved to the inside of the comic. Gus Giggles was a three-panel gag cartoon in the same vein as Gus Gorilla only there Gus managed without the moustached bloke and his usual punch line. It ran from 21st April, 1973 until 23rd March, 1974 (Nos. 151 – 199) and was dropped in favour of Gus Gags that appeared during a short period from 30th March, 1974 until 8th June, 1974 (Nos. 200 – 210 (the penultimate issue)). The gags (two of them every week) were drawn from reader’s ideas and contributors received one pound for each cover joke published. Gus Gags feature survived COR!!’s merger with Buster where it continued for as long as the very last issue of 1979.

1974: A LOOK AT THE LAST MONTHS OF COR!!

24 issues of the comic were published in 1974 (Nos. 188 – 211)

Important issues in 1974:

5th January 1974 (No. 188) – New Year issue

30th March, 1974 (No. 200) – New look issue 200

20th April, 1974 (No. 203) – Easter issue

15th June, 1974 (No. 211) – last issue before merger with Buster

Line-up of the first issue of 1974 (5th January, 1974 (No. 188)):

The Slimms / Gus Giggles on front page

Chalky

Jack Pott

Cor-Medy Choice – second series (2 pages)

Willy Worry

Wonder Worm

Hire a Horror

Tomboy (in full colour)

Rat-Trap (2 pages)

Star Guest feature (2 pages)

Picture Yourself feature + Gus Gorilla

Night Mare

Ivor Lott and Tony Broke (2 centre pages)

Andy’s Ants

Cor!! News Readers’ Special feature

Fiends and Neighbours (2 pages)

Jasper the Grasper (1 ½ pages)

Teacher’s Pet (in full colour)

Tease Break feature

Val’s Vanishing Cream

Professor Corn’s Daft Dictionary Definitions feature

The Gasworks Gang (2 pages)

Football Madd

Jelly Baby

The Slimms (in full colour on back page)

The New Year issue introduced the second series of Cor-Medy Choice feature. In the Christmas issue of 1973 the Editor explained that the first series produced a strong response and proved to them that readers enjoyed choosing a new character for Cor!! so it was decided to run a new series in 1974. This time the candidate list was shorter and consisted of 6 new ideas. The feature ran for six weeks from the first issue of the year until the issue dated 9th February, 1974 (No. 193). Voting coupon was printed in the issue dated 16th February, 1974 (No. 194) and results were announced 6 weeks later in the issue dated 30th March, 1974 (No. 200). 

Until then it was business as usual; there are two small things worth mentioning: first is that for some reason Ivor Lott and Tony Broke temporarily swapped slots with The Gasworks Gang and the latter was given the centre pages from the issue dated 23rd February, 1974 (No. 195) to the issue dated 23rd March, 1974 (No. 199). 

COR!! News Readers' Special with
Knock! Knock! jokes, issue dated
23rd March, 1974 ( No. 199)

Second is that the issues dated 2nd March, 1974 (No. 196) – 23rd March, 1974 (No. 199) trumpeted about the arrival of yet another companion comic Whoopee!, only this time the number of pages wasn’t increased. Incidentally, at about the same time COR!! NEWS printed the first jokes of the KNOCK! KNOCK! series that later became a regular popular feature in Whoopee! (the first one appeared in Cor!! issue dated 12th January, 1974 (No. 189); a few more were in the issue dated 23rd March, 1974 (No. 199) and then in issues No. 205 and No. 206). 

Issue 200 - new cover l

The issue dated 30th March, 1974 (No. 200) was given a new look. The front page was again redesigned and both changes had to do with Gus. First, his familiar screaming face was re-drawn and moved to the right. Second, Gus Giggles feature was dropped and replaced with Gus Gags. A generous prize of £1 (in addition to the star, front cover billing) was offered to the sender of each cover joke published. The response must have been overwhelming and the quantity of material received was enough for two annual-type soft cover COR!! Books of Gags produced in 1976 and 1977. 200 issues old and still storming along!! – boasted the Editor in his special address on page 2:

Cor-Medy Choice No. 2 results were announced. The Editor chose to print total number of votes registered for each entry, confirming that the interest in the feature was indeed fantastic. This time there was not just one but two winners - The Spectre Inspector and Wally’s Weirdies, both to survive merger with Buster that was a little more than 2 months away. The Gasworks Gang enjoyed an excellent part-full-colour treatment that week – a very nice and unusual episode involving play with colours. 

1974 Easter issue

Easter issue dated 20th April, 1974 (No. 203) was the last in which new characters were introduced. Adding new strips to a comic that was about to go under sounds like a daft idea, but there wasn’t much of a choice because two of the three newcomers were winners of the Cor-Medy Choice series that must have been designed and launched before the decision to end the paper was taken. The third was Baron Von-Bonkers the Birdman – a very-amateur looking experiment IMHO and the motives for its inclusion are impossible to understand.

From retrospect we now know that the paper was living its last months, but looking at the early issues of 1974 one can hardly see signs of decline. Sales, however, must have been dwindling. In the last attempt to keep the comic afloat the editors included a large ordering coupon with the comic’s favourite characters. There were nine coupons all in all, the first one in the issue dated 22nd December, 1973 (No. 189) and the last one in the issue dated 11th May, 1974 (No. 206), by which time the writing was on the wall and the days of the comic were numbered. 

In the last weeks signs of decay were beginning to show more prominently – Hire a Horror resorted to reprints of a couple of early Reg Parlett episodes, editors turned a blind eye on some artists (Trevor Metcalfe and Robert Nixon in particular) signing their artwork and some of the sets started looking a bit rushed or were ghosted.

Last issue: front cover and the page of the great news

The infamous Exciting News for all readers was announced in the issue dated 15th June, 1974 (No. 211). The last edition of the paper came with a beautiful cover and Gus’s screaming head was back on the left-hand side of the page where it always belonged. A number of characters (the bloke from Gus, Dr. Rat, The Gasworks Gang, Jelly Baby, Teacher’s Pet, Micky Madd’s dog) bid farewell to the readers in one way or another. And that was the end of COR!!

That week’s BUSTER also broke the news about the forthcoming merger to its readers. The news was on the front cover and occupied one full page inside:

Buster of 15th June, 1974: front cover and the inside page with the news
about merger with COR!!

Strips that started in 1974:

COR-Medy Choice feature, second series – 5th January, 1974 (No. 188)

Gus Gags – front cover feature – 30th March, 1974 (No. 200)

The Spectre Inspector – 20th April, 1974 (No. 203)

Wally’s Weirdies – 20th April, 1974 (No. 203)

Baron Von-Bonkers the Birdman – 20th April, 1974 (No. 203)

Strips that made it to the combined Buster and Cor!!:

The Spectre Inspector

Wally’s Weirdies

Gus’s Gags feature

Ivor Lott and Tony Broke

Val’s Vanishing Cream

Football Madd

Chalky

Tomboy

Fiends and Neighbours

The Slimms landed in the pages of Whizzer and Chips. Hire A Horror found itself in SHIVER & SHAKE, albeit only for a short span of 10 weeks. Willy Worry ended up in WHOOPEE! where it continued until well into 1978. Jack Pott resurfaced in 1979 in JACKPOT and then migrated to BUSTER after the two comics merged in 1982.

Front page of the first cimbined BUSTER and COR!!

Welcome message to COR!! readers in the first combined BUSTER and COR!!

Announcement of the merger in SHIVER and SHAKE dated 22nd June, 1974.
A similar advert was printed in that week's issue of VALIANT
and possibly other IPC companion comics

1974 COR!! Summer Special

1974 COR!! Summer Special cost 20 p. Page count was down from the usual 96 to just 80. Only one advert appeared in the weekly COR!! on June 15th, 1974 (the last issue). Here is the line-up: Night Mare, Ivor Lott and Tony Broke, Wonder Worm, Whacky, Andy’s Ants (some in colour), Fiends and Neighbours, Gus Gorilla, Tease Break feature, The Gasworks Gang, Jack Pott (some in colour), Give a Dog a Bone, Spot the Sun Spots (puzzles page), Chip, “Young” MacDonald and His Farm (adventure, 8 pages), Aqua Lad, Teacher’s Pet (in colour), The Spectacular Adventures of Willie Bunk, Jasper the Grasper, Chalky, Val’s Vanishing Cream, Swopper Stan, Donovan’s Dad and Tomboy.

This time there were four features that weren’t familiar to regular readers of the weeklies; they included two comedy strips: Give a Dog a Bone and Aqua Lad, both reprints from the early Whizzer and Chips where the former was drawn by Graham Allen and the latter by Terry Bave, and two adventure features: The Spectacular Adventures of Willie Bunk, again from the early Whizzer and Chips where it was illustrated by the universal and prolific Frank McDiarmid, and “Young” MacDonald and His Farm by Ron Turner who contributed numerous adventure serials to WHIZZER AND CHIPS in the 70s. I may be wrong but “Young” MacDonald and His Farm looks like new material drawn especially for COR!!  More stories about Young MacDonald appeared in a few later editions of COR!! specials and annuals.

Give a Dog a Bone in 1974 COR!! Summer Special

Aqua Lad from 1974 COR!! Summer Special

The Spectacular Adventures of Willie Bunk from 1974 COR!! Summer Special

"Young" MacDonald and his Farm in 1974 COR!! Summer Special

1975 COR!! Annual cover

Annuals were usually released in the end of Summer or early in the Autumn, so COR!! 1975 Annual appeared after the weekly had already folded. It cost 80 p. and had 160 pages. Here is the line-up of characters: Chalky (some in colour), Hire a Horror (some in colour), Jelly Baby (some in colour), Gus Gorilla (in colour), Jasper’s Money Maze (maze page), Teacher’s Pet (some in colour), Wonder Worm, Ivor Lott and Tony Broke (some in colour), The Spectacular Adventures of Willie Bunk (4 stories, 4 pages each), Football Madd, Jack Pott, Aqua Lad, Andy’s Ants,  Give a Dog a Bone, Night Mare, Val’s Vanishing Cream,  Willy Worry, Tomboy, The Gasworks Gang, Whacky, Chip, Super Spook (adventure, 6 pages), TEASE BREAK feature, Tricky Dicky, Swopper Stan, Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf (some in colour), The Slimms, Rat-Trap (5 pages, Christmas story), Fiends and Neighbours, Gus Giggles, Helpful Hettie and Jasper the Grasper.

Like in the 1974 Summer Special, there were many reprints of Aqua Lad, Give a Dog a Bone and especially The Spectacular Adventures of Willie Bunk from the early WHIZZER AND CHIPS. The only unfamiliar name to readers of the weeklies or the 1974 COR!! Summer Special was Super Spook. The tale was about a mighty muscular miner Jeremiah Smith who was crushed to death in a mine beneath a mountain during the Gold Rush while trying to save other people. His selfless courage and bravery was rewarded by the gift of eternal life and supernatural powers such as flying. He travelled the World wearing a silly skin-tight costume and doing good deeds as Super Spook. I am not sure if it’s a reprint but some panels look cropped so it may very well be one.

Two sample pages of Super Spook from 1975 COR!! Annual

Some of the regular sets from the weeklies illustrated by their usual artists were particularly nice. Robert Nixon did a marvellous job on his Hire A Horror and Ivor Lott and Tony Broke pages in the annual both in colour and monochrome:

A nice set of Hire a Horror by Robert Nixon in 1975 COR!! Annual

Two sample pages of Robert Nixon's
Ivor Lott and Tony Broke in 1975 COR!! Annual

COR!! Holiday Specials and Annuals continued well into the 80s. I intend to cover them on this blog after I finish the overview of individual strips in the comic (which may take quite a while…)