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Hi and welcome to my blog about comics from other people’s childhood! It is dedicated primarily to British humour comics of the 60s and 70s. The reason they are not from my childhood is simply because I didn’t live in the UK back then (nor do I live there now). I knew next to nothing about them until fairly recently but since then I’ve developed a strong liking for the medium and amassed a large collection, including a number of complete or near complete sets. My intention is to use this blog as a channel for sharing my humble knowledge about different titles, favourite characters and creators as I slowly research my collection.

QUICK TIP: this blog is a sequence of posts covering one particular comic at a time. The sequence follows a certain logic, so for maximum results it is recommended that the blog is read from the oldest post up.

Copyright of all images and quotations used here is with their respective owners. Any such copyrighted material is used exclusively for educational purposes and will be removed at first notice. All other text copyright Irmantas P.



Friday, September 28, 2012

1982 COR!! HOLIDAY SPECIAL



1982 COR!! Holiday Special, 50 p., 64 pages

Contents: Chalky (2 new episodes and 1 reprint), Hire A Horror (3 reprints from old COR!! weeklies, including 1 in full colour), Ivor Lott and Tony Broke, Tomboy (4 reprints, including 2 in full colour), Whacky (2 reprints), Young MacDonald and His Farm (2 episodes by  Ron Turner), Andy’s Ants (2 reprints), Donovan’s Dad (3 reprints including one in full colour), Nightmare (2 reprints from old COR!! weeklies), Benny Bendo (3 episodes), Jack Pott (one reprint from an old COR!! weekly), Tricky Dicky (2 reprints), Football Madd (a new episode by Les Barton  + 2 more episodes by other artists), Jasper the Grasper (1 reprint from an old COR!! weekly and a new 3-page episode by Trevor Metcalfe), The Gasworks Gang (new episode by McDiarmid), Gus Gags (2 episodes), If You Go Down to the Woods Today (join the dots colour centrespread by Ron Turner), Tease Break, Fiends and Neighbours (3-pager by Nigel Edwards).

The Special was unusual in that it featured two stories on the front cover: a dramatic panel offering a taste of the Young MacDonald and His Farm adventure strip appeared alongside with the regular cover stars Ivor Lott and Tony Broke. There were two 4-pagers of Young MacDonald inside, both illustrated by the ever-excellent Ron Turner. As I said before, the feature was a recurrent one in COR!! annuals and holiday specials and will receive its own dedicated post later on, so I won’t discuss the instalments here but they stood out prominently in this COR!! Special. Ron Turner also contributed the centrespread with a join-the-dots puzzle. The young owner did the puzzle in my copy many years ago, but that’s what it was there for, so I hope you won’t mind :)


There was only one episode of Ivor Lott and Tony Broke. It was illustrated by an artist whose name I don’t know but I am sure he drew a lot for IPC comics in the 80s. I hope someone will identify him for me. Here are two panels:


Frank McDiarmid drew a nice three-pager of The Gasworks Gang with a holiday theme. Here is a taste (the first panel and the last):


Trevor Metcalfe was back on Jasper the Grasper once again. It is interesting to note that a reprint of an episode from an old COR!! weekly was also included. Metcalfe’s style had changed almost beyond recognition over the decade, Jasper the Grasper became a cuddly character, nothing like the version in the early COR!! episodes. Here is a fragment of the reprint, followed by half a page of Metcalfe’s new version: 



Les Barton took a break this time and his contribution was limitd to just one new episode of Football Madd. It was good to see another artist illustrate Fiends and Neighbours for a change and the artist was Nigel Edwards whose beautiful three-pager is another highlight in this 1982 edition of COR!! Holiday Special. Here it is in its entirety:


In combination with some nice reprints from old COR!! weeklies this edition made quite an appealing package and I would probably rate it as my favourite COR!! Holiday Special.

7 comments:

  1. The Ivor and Tony story is by an artist whose name is either Vic Niell or Vic Neill. I've seen both spellings of his surname and have no idea which is correct.

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  2. Thanks, Niblet, I was sure you'd be able to help me with the name :) !

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  3. Vic Neill, indeed. Vic worked for both DCT and Fleetway/IPC, sometimes at the same time. DCT work included Wee Ben Nevis and the McTickles (both Beano) and Peter Piper (Sparky) in the 70s and Tim Traveller and Billy Whizz (both Beano) in the 1990s, while IPC work included the start of Spare Part Kit in Wow (1982), Top of the Class (Buster, later handing over to Nigel Edwards, in 1982), the School Team (School Fun) and a pile of other stuff.

    Vic, Bob Nixon, John Sherwood and John Geering all died within a couple of years of each other. They were a very big loss to comics.

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  4. While you don’t quite say so, I think 50% of the cover was a big mistake and I think you can guess which 50% I mean. Simply put, they should’ve stuck with Ivor and Tony’s battle and not introduced realistic characters – if there’s any such thing as realism when you’re talking about a man being chased by a dinosaur!

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    1. I see what you mean. Those combinations worked well on Buster covers in the early 60s but much less so in 1982.

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  5. Are you sure Frank drew the Gasworks Gang? It looks very much like Jim Watson's artwork to me. RIP to them both either way.

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