A LOOK AT COR! STRIPS: COR-MEDY CHOICE, SECOND SERIES

Having witnessed the success of COR-medy Choice feature in 1973, the Editor made good on his promises and offered the readers another opportunity to choose new strips. COR-medy Choice, second series, started in the first issue of 1974 dated 5th January (No. 188) and continued for 6 weeks. This time a choice of only six new comedy ideas was offered. Here are brief synopses and the opening panels of all six entries:

No. 13 Jinx Street, 2 pages, 5th January, 1974 (No. 188): The Jinxes live in house No. 13 where things always go wrong, only not for the Jinxes who are a nice family but for their mean next door neighbour.

Hickory Dickory Doc., 2 pages. 12th January, 1974 (No. 189): A tale about a doctor who travels the Wild West in his horse-drawn wagon, gets attacked by Indians and robbers and defends himself with the help of his pills and bandages.

Willy - the World's Worst Werewolf, 2 pages, 19th January, 1974 (No. 190): The title says it all really: the tale is about a sorry kid werewolf who tries to scare poor living mortals out of their living daylights. The story is presented in the form of the werewolf’s letter to his uncle Dracula worded carefully to spruce up the truth and make a good impression on the mighty relative. The strip was reprinted in full colour in 1980 KRAZY annual.

Our Kid, 2 pages, 26th January, 1974 (No. 191): Adventures of a rough little kid who upsets his family and breaks things.

Wally's Weirdies, 2 pages, 2nd February, 1974 (No. 192): A tiny alien spaceship full of creatures (that look like pets of the Really-Ghastlies) lands in the garden of Wally’s violent fat neighbour who takes them for garden pests. Wally makes friends with the creatures. He finds out they can speak human language and one of them can turn himself into anything. Illustrated by Stan McMurtry.

The Spectre Inspector, 2 pages, 9th February, 1974 (No. 193): Chief inspector of the Ghouls Guild visits a Creepy Castle to check their haunting arrangements; threatening to have the lazy ghouls thrown out of the Ghouls Guild, he makes them do their ghosting job properly and the Creepy Castle is back in business big time. Illustrated by Jim Watson.

Voting coupon was printed in the issue dated 16th February, 1974 (No. 194) and results of the vote were announced in COR!! issue with the cover date of 30th March, 1974 (No. 200). 

It is interesting to note that the overall number of votes was about half the number cast in the first series. Was it a sign of declining sales, or was it simply because readers found the competition entries less exciting? Probably a combination of both.

The second series had not just one but two winners. The Spectre Inspector and Wally’s Weirdies both made their first appearance as regular weekly features in COR!! issue dated 20th April, 1974. Both survived merger with BUSTER only a few weeks later. Wally’s Weirdies continued in BUSTER until the beginning of 1975 and The Spectre Inspector – until September 1975.

The concept of allowing readers to choose strips for their comic was also used in other IPC companion comics: in the end of 1974 WHOOPEE! ran a similar feature called Pick-A-Strip.

SPORTS THEME IN BRITISH COMICS TO CELEBRATE LONDON OLYMPICS 2012 (DAY 6)

The Moonsters in Sparky took their sports very seriously. They are a great help in my search for examples of different Olympic sports to show on KAZOOP!! I don’t think it would be easy to find fencing, water polo or judo elsewhere… 

SPORTS THEME IN BRITISH COMICS TO CELEBRATE LONDON OLYMPICS 2012 (DAY 5)

Rick and Charlie Wild were super-athletes and the strongest boys in the World. Their adventures (illustrated by Mike Western and written by Tom Tully) appeared in Valiant weeklies for more than 10 years starting from 1964. I like this story from VALIANT Space Special 1968 because of the atmosphere and energy of a major sports competition that it carries.

A LOOK AT COR!! STRIPS: FIENDS AND NEIGHBOURS

The appearance of Fiends and Neighbours in COR!! issue dated 24th November, 1973 (No. 182) was probably the last good thing that happened to COR!!  Alfred Jones and his wife (whose name I haven’t found mentioned in the strip), a childless mid-aged traditional couple, got new neighbours Mr. and Mrs. Really-Ghastlies and their two kids – daughter Bella and son ‘Orrid (who had tiny horns and slept hanging down from the curtain rail). Later in the series the Joneses discovered that their neighbours also had a giant baby who used to go missing for weeks on end hiding in the bushes. Mister Really-Grastly’s name was Igor and the Mrs. was never addressed by name (as far as I can tell). 

In the opening episode the nosey Mrs. Jones is eager to meet their new neighbours so she pops round and pretends she wants to borrow a cup of flour. The lady is in for a series of shocks at the peculiar looks and ways of the new neighbours as she makes their acquaintance:

First episode in COR!! issue dated 24th November, 1973 (No. 182)

The Really-Ghastlies were a strange lot indeed, without any doubt they were close relatives of the famous Adams Family in America (no direct references were made in the strip though) and they also had family in Transylvania (we know that Bella’s grandmother lived there). The chambers of their crumbling mansion were decorated with coffins, skulls and old family portraits of witches, devils and fiends. The family’s favourite pet was a monster-octopus by the name of Cyril who appeared in many episodes. Little ‘Orrid had a pet vampire bat Grockle. Other pets included meat-eating fish and a jelly-monster by the name of Fido who fed on ant eggs. Besides, the Really-Ghastlies had a baby dragon and a vulture named Vernon, not to mention a whole swarm of other small creepy creatures that inhabited the mansion and the hideous man-eating plants that grew in the garden. Over the weeks the unfortunate Joneses also got to know their neighbours’ visiting relatives such as gnome cousins from the haunted wood and the giant cousin Boris. To make things even more exciting, in the last COR!! episode ‘Orrid made himself a Frankenstein friend by the name of Clunk-Click.

The comedy of the strip was created by “cultural differences” between the neighbours who never ceased to shock and surprise each other. There is probably no need to say which family always fell victim to the ‘shocks’ part of the bizarre neighbourly relationship. The Really Ghastlies, however, were also puzzled at the ways of the Jonses who they thought were a couple of very weird neighbours...

From COR!! issue dated 8th December, 1973 (No. 184)

The feature was beautifully illustrated by Graham Allen who drew all but one of the 30 episodes in COR!! weeklies (the episode in the issue with the cover date of 18th May, 1974 (No. 207) was by another artist). During the short run of the strip the Really Ghastlies appeared on two front covers of COR!! issues dated 1st December, 1973 and 2nd March, 1974 (Nos. 183 and 196). They also led the crowd of COR!! characters on the front cover of the last issue of COR!! marching to join the lineup of BUSTER. 

The feature survived merger with BUSTER and continued there until 22nd November, 1975. Ray Moore’s BUSTER index says that the script writer was Les Lilley, so I believe it is safe to assume that the same writer also contributed scripts for the COR!! episodes. 

I saw some Fiends and Neighbours reprints in the short-lived SCREAM horror comic of the 80s.

From COR!! issue dated 11th May, 1974 (No. 206)

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

1974 Special – 2 episodes by an artist whose name I don’t know

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

1976 Annual – 1 episode by an artist whose name I don’t know

1977 Annual – 1 episode signed by Tom Paterson

1978 Annual – 1 new episode by Graham Allen

1979 Annual – 2 episodes by Les Barton (one signed) + 1 reprint

1980 Annual – 2 episodes by Les Barton

1981 Annual – 2 episodes by Les Barton

1981 Special – 1 episode by Les Barton

1982 Annual – 2 new episodes, one by Les Barton and one by an artist whose name I don’t know

1982 Special – 1 episode by Nigel Edwards

1983 Annual – 1 episode Les Barton

1983 Special – 1 new episode by an artist whose name I don’t know

1984 Annual – 1 new episode by Les Barton

1985 Annual – 1 new episode by Les Barton

1986 Annual – 1 new episode by Nigel Edwards

SPORTS THEME IN BRITISH COMICS TO CELEBRATE LONDON OLYMPICS 2012 (DAY 4)

Let’s take a quick look at tennis today. As I mentioned it in my previous post, tennis was one of the privileged sports in British comics. Many popular characters tried a hand at the sport once in a while so it probably won’t be the last time that we see it in this series of Olympic posts…

This lively set appeared in 1977 SHIVER AND SHAKE Holiday Special and was a reprint of the Lion Lot from LION by Leo Baxendale

SPORTS THEME IN BRITISH COMICS TO CELEBRATE LONDON OLYMPICS 2012 (DAY 3)

Over the years, certain sports received considerably more attention in British comics than others. I am referring to football (of course!), cricket, motor sports, boxing and tennis. In addition to being “traditional” popular British sports that were very much part of the daily lives of many kids, they had strong comedy potential that could be exploited in comics. 

Cricket and motor sports are not part of the Olympic Games, so I will leave them out. Football has already been covered extensively last month but I found one or two interesting examples and will probably include them in later posts. Tennis can also wait a bit. Today’s post is all about BOXING, and there is certainly no shortage of strips with the boxing theme.

Here are some from BEEZER by Leo Baxendale:

From BEEZER No. 24 dated June 30th, 1956

From BEEZER No. 324 dated March 31st, 1962

Leo Baxendale is said to have signed all of his work for WHAM! so it is safe to assume that any unsigned instalments were by other artists:

And here are some examples by Ken Reid from two different periods of his career: 

From THE BEANO No. 754 dated December 29th, 1956

From THE BEANO No. 778 dated June 15th, 1957

From POW! No. 33 dated September 2nd, 1967