1972: A LOOK AT THE THIRD YEAR OF COR!!

53 issues of the comic were published in 1972 (Nos. 83 – 135)

Important issues in 1972:

1st January 1972 (No. 83) – New Year issue + 4 new features

1st April 1972 (No. 96) – Easter issue

22nd April 1972 (No. 99) – re-shuffle of page slots
29th July 1972 (No. 113) – major revamp, 5 new features
29th April, 1972 (No. 100) – 100th issue

4th November 1972 (No. 127) – Bonfire night issue

30th December 1972 (No. 135) – Christmas issue

Line-up of the first issue of 1972 (1st January 1972 (No. 83)):

Gus Gorilla – front cover

Whacky

Cor!! Comment + POSTBAG + Picture Yourself features

The Gasworks Gang – 2 pages

Hire a Horror

Tomboy

Chalky

The Slimms

Andy’s Ants

Tease Break! feature

Ivor Lott and Tony Broke – 2 pages

Tricky Dicky

Swopper Stan

Kid Chameleon – in full colour on centrespread

Nippy Nibbs

Donovan’s Dad

Tell-Tale Tess

Freddie Fang

Helpful Hettie – ½ page

Jasper the Grasper

Eddie

Football Madd

Lucky Charmer

Nutty Noticeboard

Sonny Storm

Jack Pott

Spoilsport

Teacher’s Pet – in full colour

1972 New Year number

The first issue of the year brought some positive changes to the line-up by dropping The Chumpions that weren’t faring too well and introducing as many as four new fun features, two of which – The Slimms and Jasper the Grasper – were to become a big success.

The first issue of the year also saw the last Cor!! Comment headline and page 3 became COR!! POSTBAG for a while. Holiday Fun column on the editor’s page ended in issue 84, leaving the whole page just for readers’ mail and Picture YOURSELF feature. Editorial was dropped as a regular feature and the Editor’s contributions became limited to occasional brief comments of individual letters and the odd word on special occasions such as Easter, 100th issue or introduction of a new character.

100th issue

A major reshuffle of page-slots took effect starting from the issue dated 22nd April, 1972 (No. 99) with the Kid Chameleon (that used to be on the centre pages in full colour since the very start) reaching its natural conclusion. After the tale ended in the issue dated 15th April, 1972 (No. 98), it was decided to give the centrespread to the paper’s most popular strip Ivor Lott and Tony Broke and pretend it was now in colour. According to the Editor, the upgrade was a response to readers’ requests that the set should appear in colour, but in actual fact it was now in red (or blue), black and white. The two full-colour pages that became available after Kid Chameleon ended were moved from the centre to pages 9 and 26. Hire a Horror and Tomboy became regular occupants of the new colour slots. Sometimes the pages were given to other strips, mostly Jasper the Grasper and Teacher’s Pet, but Helpful Hettie and Whacky also appeared in full colour in the course of the year.

COR!! POSTBAG was given a new style in the issue dated 13th May, 1972 (No. 102) with a new frame (fat dots instead of small stars), a new masthead and removal of the Editor’s signature. The new look didn’t last long: in the issue dated 8th July, 1972 (No. 110) the Editor announced plans to launch the comic’s own news-sheet in the near future, inviting readers to become Cor!! COR-respondents and send in school news, sports news, holiday news, views, cartoons, etc. The first COR!! News sheet appeared in Cor!! issue dated 29th July, 1972 (No. 113). COR!! news sheets were numbered and the first issue was naturally No. 1; date and most importantly – issue number of the comic were also included. Therefore it wouldn’t be accurate to claim that Cor!! issues weren’t numbered because from issue 113 they actually were, albeit not on the front cover. COR!! NEWS SHEET feature was the place where readers were offered an opportunity to see their contributions in print. The news-sheet incorporated the successful reader participation PICTURE YOURSELF feature; it also had a correspondence column and printed readers’ gags, puzzles and jokes. A cash prize of 50p was paid for every item published.

Example of COR!! News Sheet

The issue dated 29th July, 1972 (No. 113) also saw the second re-shuffle of pages in the brief space of seven months since the beginning of the year. What used to be one-page POSTBAG, now renamed into COR!! NEWS SHEET, was moved from page 3 towards the back of the comic where it was given two full pages. The old-timer Gasworks Gang lost its regular slot on pages 4-5 and was tucked away to the back of the paper (pages 28 – 29). Single-page strips were also moved around quite a bit. Nutty Noticeboard feature, Lucky Charmer, Freddie Fang, Spoilsport and The Adventures of Sonny Storm were dropped altogether (making the issue dated 22nd July, 1972 (No. 112) the issue with the most last appearances in the comic’s lifetime) to allow room for as many as 5 pages of new strips – comedy one-pagers Zoo Sue and Shiver and Shake, plus the new weird adventure story Rat-Trap featuring the fiendish Dr. Rat that occupied as many as three pages. Guest Star feature also debuted in the issue dated 29th July, 1972 (No. 113). From that issue onwards every week Cor!! readers were introduced to a favourite funster from COR’s!! companion papers KNOCKOUT and WHIZZER and CHIPS, while COR!! stars made guest appearances in those other papers. One interesting point about the feature was that the guest appearances were all new episodes, not reprints of old material from the “home” comic.

1972 Christmas issue

From that point the comic continued without further overhauls until the end of 1972. Summing up, it was quite a rough year that saw two major slot reshuffles and brought a few sorry losses (Kid Chameleon) as well as a number of additions to the line-up, some of which enjoyed a long and happy run well beyond the demise of Cor!! (The Slimms in Whizzer AND Chips). The second revamp is probably an indication that the Editors felt changes were necessary to make sure the paper continued to sell. On the other hand it looks like at that point the comic was still doing sufficiently well because no free gifts were used to win more attention. 

Strips that ended in 1972

Nippy Nibbs – 11th March, 1972 (No. 93)

Danger Mouse – 8th April, 1972 (No. 97)

Kid Chameleon – 15th April, 1972 (No. 98) (ended by reaching its natural conclusion)

Spoilsport – 22nd July, 1972 (No. 112)

Freddie Fang – 22nd July, 1972 (No. 112)

Nutty Noticeboard – 22nd July, 1972 (No. 112)

Tell-Tale Tess – 22nd July, 1972 (No. 112)

Postbag feature – 22nd July, 1972 (No. 112)

The Adventures of Sonny Storm – 22nd July, 1972 (No. 112)

Lucky Charmer – 22nd July, 1972 (No. 112)

Nutty Noticeboard feature – 22nd July, 1972 (No. 112)

Helpful Hettie – 30th December, 1972 (No. 135)

Zoo Sue – 30th December, 1972 (No. 135)

Strips that started in 1972

The Slimms – 1st January, 1972 (No. 83)

Helpful Hettie – 1st January, 1972 (No. 83)

Jasper the Grasper – 1st January, 1972 (No. 83)

Lucky Charmer – 1st January, 1972 (No. 83)

Chip – 15th April, 1972 (No. 98)

Jelly Baby – 27th May, 1972 (No. 104)

Zoo Sue – 29th July, 1972 (No. 113)

Rat-Trap – 29th July, 1972 (No. 113)

Cor!! News Sheet feature – 29th July, 1972 (No. 113)

Guest Star feature – 29th July, 1972 (No. 113)

Shiver and Shake – 29th July, 1972 (No. 113)

Well, What do you Know funny facts feature – 5th August, 1972 (No. 114)

Wonder Worm – 18th November, 1972 (No. 129)

1972 COR!! Summer Special

1972 COR!! Summer Special cost 15 p. and had 96 pages.  The first advertisement of the special appeared in the weekly COR!! of 15th July, 1972. The line-up was as follows: Ivor Lott and Tony Broke (some in colour, all by Terry Bave), Dr What and his Time Clock, Whacky, Teacher’s Pet (in colour), Chip, Tell-Tale Tess, Ug and Tug the Peace Makers, Andy’s Ants, Spoilsport, Chalky, Helpful Hettie, Nutty Notice Board, Tricky Dicky, Lucky Charmer, The Gasworks Gang, Gus Gorilla (some in colour), Picture Crosswords page, Freddie Fang the Werewolf Cub, Swopper Stan, Eddie, Jasper the Grasper, Football Madd, Donovan’s Dad, Tomboy, Jack Pott, The Slimms, Teacher’s Pet, Trail-Blazer! (a western), and Hire a Horror (in colour). What distinguished this edition from the one published a year before was that the majority of its strips were drawn by the regular artists who did a really nice job on their pages and matched the quality of their art in the weeklies.

Once again, two new strips appeared alongside those familiar from the weekly comics and the 1971 Summer Special/1972 Annual. They were a comedy feature Dr What and his Time Clock (He’s the Craziest Scientist Ever!) and a western Trail-Blazer!

Dr What and His Time Clock from COR!! 1972 Summer Special

Trail-Blazer! from 1972 COR!! Summer Special

Dr What (19 pages of his antics) was a reprint from Boy’s World, a short-lived ODHAMS publication from the 60s (1963-1964). The western (a 10-page adventure) was beautifully drawn but looked a bit out of style. It was certainly a reprint but I’ve got no idea where from. 

COR!! Annual 1973

Promotion of the 1973 COR!! Annual started in the weekly edition of COR!! dated 9th September. The book was priced 65 p and had 160 pages. The annual had all the favorites from COR!! weeklies, plus what had become the usual helping of Ug and Tug the Peace Makers reprints from BUSTER. One thing that is worth-while mentioning is that the 1973 COR!! annual presented the first installment of Young MacDonald and his “Farm” – a series that only appeared in COR!! annuals and specials but not the weeklies. I intend to write a separate blogpost dedicated to Young MacDonald tales later on.

The strips included: COR!! “Mister Hire-A-Horror” Contest 1973 on pages 2 and 3 (in full colour), Whacky (in colour), Tell-Tale Tess (2 episodes, one in full colour), Gus Gorilla (3 episodes, one in full colour), Nutty Noticeboard feature (3 installments, 1 in color), Jack Pott, Chalky (3 episodes),  Ug and Tug the Peace Makers (3 episodes),  Spoilsport (2 episodes),  Danger Mouse (4 episodes, one in full colour), Eddie (3 episodes),  Four Alone and the Alpine Adventure (8 pages), Ivor Lott and Tony Broke (3 episodes), Chip (3 episodes), Swopper Stan (3 episodes), Donovan’s Dad (2 episodes), Nippy Nibbs (2 episodes),  The Gasworks Gang (2 episodes), Teacher’s Pet (2 episodes), Sonny Storm (2 episodes), Andy’s Ants (3 episodes), Follow the Dots puzzle (2 installments), Lucky Charmer (3 episodes), The Slimms (2 episodes), Freddie Fang the Werewolf Cub (2 episodes), Hire A Horror (3 episodes, one in full colour ), Tomboy (3 episodes, one in full colour), Tricky Dicky (2 episodes), Football Madd (2 episodes, one in full colour), Tease Break Feature, Jasper the Grasper, Young MacDonald and his “Farm” (8 pages).

Opening pages of the first installment of
Young MacDonald and his "Farm" in COR!! Annual 1973