Jack
Pott was a long-running strip in IPC comics that
originated in COR!! It was about
a lad who couldn’t keep out of amusement arcades and
funfairs and always hit the jackpot. He entered for all sorts of competitions
to win cash prizes, played cards, dice, bingo – everything went. Jack’s Dad didn’t
mind betting himself but couldn’t win, just as his son couldn’t lose. Occasionally
Dad tried to put Jack’s mind off gambling by giving him different chores but
Jack inevitably found ingenious ways of turning them into betting or gambling
games. Jack’s teacher Specky was another
recurring character who often caught the boy red-handed and told him to go back
to school.
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| First episode in COR!! dated 7th November, 1970 (No. 23) |
From
time to time amusement arcade managers remembered that their establishments
weren’t meant for children and kicked Jack out. Denied access to his regular
playground, Jack would invent ways to entertain himself by turning routine
every-day activities or simple objects into gambling games
 |
| From COR!! issue dated 13th February, 1971 (No. 37) |
Although
the strip continued to the very end of COR!!, Jack Pott was one of the very few
COR!! stars who didn’t make a single front cover appearance. Perhaps it was considered
that gambling wasn’t quite an appropriate theme in a children’s paper and was
better kept between the covers. Whatever the reason, it didn’t prevent Jack
Pott from having a whole new comic JACKPOT named after (well, nearly after) him
in the late 70s/early 80s where the lucky funster was given a second life in a
new series that continued in BUSTER for many years after JACPOT folded.
The
series in COR!! was illustrated by Joe McCaffrey. The first episode appeared in
the issue dated 7th November, 1970 (No. 23) and lasted until 15th June, 1974 (No. 211 (the last issue)).
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| From COR!! issue dated 1st July, 1972 (No. 109) Can you recognise all the other COR!! characters in the last panel? |
Interesting to look at this character and compare him with the lad from the Jackpot comic - it's clear that he got a make over (and aged a couple of years, perhaps) in the latter. Anyway, fun for me to see Jack's origins. Ta!
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