A LOOK AT COR!! STRIPS: JASPER THE GRASPER

The original Jasper The Grasper was drawn by Ken Reid and appeared in WHAM! where it occupied  two pages and had a very short run in issues 42-47 (3rd April, 1965 – 8th May, 1965). It’s hard to tell why a brilliant feature like that was dropped so quickly but my guess would be that the artist had enough work as it were drawing weekly installments of Frankie Stein. The whole original Ken Reid series was reprinted in the first COR!! annual (1972) and served as a nice introduction to the sequel in COR!! that premiered in the first issue of 1972 dated January 1st (No. 83 ). 

The opening episode of the reprint of the original series in COR!! 1972 annual

The setting was different to that of all the other COR!! strips and offered a look at Cortown as it was in the Victorian times. The first episode tells us that many many years ago there lived a man of means who was a meanie of a man. His name was J.McGrab but those who knew him called him Jasper the Grasper. The new version of Jasper was similar to the WHAM! original: the looks and habits of the tight-fisted old skinflint remained unchanged and his talent to hear the “jingle” of a fallen coin from far away was as strong as ever. Jasper was obsessed with saving and hoarding and he wouldn’t spend a penny unless he absolutely had to. Jasper never got tired of devising new and crafty money saving ideas and putting them into practice with predictably unsatisfactory results. 

Occasionally he got himself a companion: nephew Silas came to stay with Jasper starting from 20th May, 1972 (issue No. 103) but said his good-byes 10 weeks later.  In the issue dated 7th July, 1973 (No. 162) a gypsy who was retiring because his rich uncle had left him a fortune gave Jasper his monkey as a present. For a short while Jasper acquired a new partner that caused him a lot of trouble but also inspired some fresh money-making ideas.

From COR!! issue dated 17th June, 1972 (No. 107), featuring nephew Silas

Toonhound.com has an excellent profile of Jasper the Grasper with lots of trivia here. When you read it, please, be aware that it has one major error: none of the episodes in COR!! weeklies were drawn by Ken Reid, nor there were any Ken Reid reprints in the weeklies. Trevor Metcalfe who was the artist of the second series in COR!! was in charge of the feature from the very start until the last installment in the penultimate issue of COR!! with the cover date of 8th June, 1974 (No. 210), signed by the artist.

From COR!! issue dated 10th November, 1973 (No. 180)

  

Jasper the Grasper started off as a one-pager and was promoted to 1 ½ pages from the issue dated 30th December, 1972 (No. 135). It made four front cover appearances in COR!! issues dated 21st July 1973, 15th September 1973, 12th January 1974 and 4th May 1974 (issue Nos. 164, 173, 189 and 205).

From COR!! issue dated 23rd March, 1974 (No. 199)

Here are details about appearances of Jasper the Grasper 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.

 

1972 COR!! Comic Annual – reprint of the full original Ken Reid series from Wham!

1972 COR!! Holiday Special – 1 episode by Trevor Metcalfe

1973 COR!! Comic Annual – 1 episode by Trevor Metcalfe

1973 COR!! Holiday Special – 1 episode by Trevor Metcalfe

1974 COR!! Comic Annual – 2 episode by Trevor Metcalfe

1974 COR!! Holiday Special – 1 episode by Trevor Metcalfe

1975 COR!! Comic Annual – 1 episode by an artist whose name I don’t know

1976 COR!! Comic Annual – 2 episodes, one by Trevor Metcalfe and one by Alf Saporito

1977 COR!! Comic Annual – 1 episode by Alf Saporito

1978 COR!! Comic Annual – 1 new episode in full colour by an artist whose name I don’t know

1978 COR!! Holiday Special – 1 new episode in b/w by Les Barton

1979 COR!! Comic Annual – 1 episode by Les Barton + 1 episode by John Geering

1980 COR!! Comic Annual – 2 episodes John Geering

1981 COR!! Comic Annual – one new episode by Trevor Metcalfe + one new episode by John Geering

1981 COR!! Holiday Special – 1 reprint

1982 COR!! Comic Annual – one new episode by Frank McDiarmid + one new episode by Trevor Metcalfe

1982 COR!! Holiday Special – 3 reprints + a new episode by Trevor Metcalfe

1983 COR!! Comic Annual – one new episode by Trevor Metcalfe

1983 COR!! Holiday Special – a new episode by Les Barton,

1984 COR!! Comic Annual – a new episode by Les Barton

1985 COR!! Comic Annual – a new episode by Les Barton

1986 COR!! Comic Annual – a new episode signed by Francis Boyle

FOOTBALL THEME IN BRITISH HUMOUR COMICS TO CELEBRATE EURO 2012 (DAY 18)

England has now dropped out of EURO 2012, unlike Manager Matt and his Mudchester United who didn’t lose a single match during their 1971 tour of Europe.  Read on to see how they tackled Spain and then were triumphant in the finals...

From SCORCHER AND SCORE dated 3rd July, 1971

From SCORCHER AND SCORE dated 31st July, 1971

FOOTBALL THEME IN BRITISH HUMOUR COMICS TO CELEBRATE EURO 2012 (DAY 17)

With England now warming up to play against Italy later this afternoon, it is appropriate to remember Ken Reid’s Manager Matt and his Mudchester  Eleven and see how they tackled their Italian opponents back in 1971. From the perspective of this day and age, the set looks somewhat racist and it is difficult to imagine one like this being included in a modern comic.

Now that I come to think of it, in the light of the recent banana incident during Italy's European Championship game against Croatia, the Frankie Stein episode in one of my previous football posts also comes across as racist.

From SCORCHER AND SCORE dated 17th July, 1971

I know I said my football posts were going to focus on humour comics but as I was searching my collection for interesting examples to show on this blog, I found an issue of TIGER AND HURRICANE with an episode of Roy of the Rovers and most importantly – a rough copy of a letter written by a young reader and long forgotten inside the paper. The boy was so upset with the referee’s decision in that week’s installment that he had to sit down and write this angry note to the editor. Isn’t it sweet to see how strongly the kid (whose name I have whited out) felt for his favourite characters...

A LOOK AT COR!! STRIPS: HELPFUL HETTIE

Helpful Hettie was a little girl who was always eager to lend a helping hand with predictably disastrous results. The feature originated in the pages of the short-lived GIGGLE comic in the late 60s where it had a short run in the early issues and was illustrated by Reg Parlett. The first few episodes in COR!! were also by the prolific Reg Parlett so they may very well be reprints from GIGGLE but I can’t be certain because I don’t have a full set of GIGGLE to check. Later in the series Helpful Hettie was taken over by other artists and was definitely new material. It started in COR!! on 1st January, 1972 (issue No. 83) as a half-pager, was promoted to a full page from the issue dated 5th August, 1972 (issue No. 114) and appeared quite regularly until 30th December, 1972 (No. 135).

From COR!! issue dated 8th January, 1972 (No. 84)

From COR!! issue dated 23rd December, 1972 (No. 134). It was the only episode in full colour

FOOTBALL THEME IN BRITISH HUMOUR COMICS TO CELEBRATE EURO 2012 (DAY 16)

Giant-size colour sets of Banana Bunch by Leo Baxendale graced the back page of the early issues of the BEEZER. This one is from issue No. 13. There is so much action going on in the last panel that I decided to split it in two to allow for a closer look at all the details.

FOOTBALL THEME IN BRITISH HUMOUR COMICS TO CELEBRATE EURO 2012 (DAY 15)

Here are three BUSTER football cover stories from very different eras: the first one from the early 60s is by Hugh McNeill, the second from the 70s by Angel Nadal and the third from the early 90s by Tom Paterson. Followed by a nice crowded set of Terrors of Tornado Street by Juan Rafart – another Spanish artist who freelanced for Fleetway.

 

From BUSTER dated 6th May, 1961

A LOOK AT COR!! STRIPS: THE SLIMMS

The Slimms. This was the last long-running IPC strip originally created for COR!! by Sheila and Terry Baves. In the second part of his article in the Summer 1986 edition of GOLDEN FUN Terry Bave recalls that slimming was a popular theme of the day, so his wife Sheila suggested that there might be makings of a good fun feature with slimming as the central theme. After some thought and some sketches, they came up with what they believed was one of their most successful features – The Slimms. It proved very popular with COR!! readers. The Baves supplied scripts for many weeks until other IPC writers took over; Terry Bave continued to draw The Slimms week by week until the paper folded.

From COR!! issue dated 19th January, 1974 (No. 190)

Little boy Sammy Slim has a problem and it’s his parents who are obese and Sammy is always ridiculed by other kids because of this. So he finally decides they can’t go on eating like this and will have to go on a diet, starting immediately. But Mum and Dad always manage to outwit Sammy and stuff themselves silly because they like being fat and enjoy grub too much to slim. Sammy is very persistent and schemes all kinds of plots to get his parents to diet or exercise. From what we can tell, Mum and Dad are unemployed so Sammy even tries to fix some jobs for them so that they can work off some of their weight

From COR!! dated 16th February, 1974 (No. 194)

The feature premiered in COR!! issue with the cover date of 1st January, 1972 (No. 83) and continued until the last edition of the paper dated 15th June, 1974 (No. 211).  A good share of the episodes were in colour, besides, The Slimms made as many as five front cover appearances on 23rd June, 1973 (No. 160), 10th November, 1973 (No. 180), 5th January, 1974 (No. 188), 20th April, 1974 (No. 203) and 18th May, 1974 (No. 207). 

Such was the popularity of the feature that after the demise of COR!! Terry Bave didn’t find it hard to persuade Bob Paynter that The Slimms be transferred to WHIZZER AND CHIPS where weekly appearances of the strip continued through to mid-1979. 

From COR!! dated 1st June, 1974 (No. 209)