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.

A LOOK AT COR!! STRIPS: MY FAVOURITE ENTRIES IN THE COR-MEDY CHOICE FEATURE

In response to Peter’s request, below are full versions of my personal favourite entries in the first series of COR-medy Choice competition. 

As I have written in my reply to Peter's comment, had I had an opportunity to cast my vote, I would have been in the minority: I’d have been interested to see more of Sheik Oleg. I find the absurdity of this first episode quite amusing and wonder what would have followed. IMHO, Professor Potty, Fun-Time Machine and Snappy Sam were quite robust ideas with development potential. 

Of course, this is all from my current perspective as an adult; kids probably saw things differently. Seeing that Val’s Vanishing Cream and The Pipes of Stan got the majority of the votes, I find it a bit surprising how children wanted to see more of “kids-with-gimmicks” – type strips, despite having so many of them already in the pages of COR!! as well as other companion and rival comics.

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

COR-Medy Choice feature was introduced in the issue dated 21st April, 1973 (No. 151) to give readers an opportunity of selecting a new fun-series from ten brand new comedy ideas presented over a period of ten weeks. Here is how the idea was packaged in the header and the footer of the weekly instalments:

Here are brief synopses and the opening panels of all ten entries:

The Fun-Time Machine, 2 pages, 21st April, 1973, issue No. 151: Boy and girl use a Fun-Time Machine invented by their Grandfather. They travel to Roman times and find themselves in the middle of a Roman arena facing a gladiator. They cause mayhem in the arena and return home safely. Illustrated by by Les Barton:

Scarey Crow, 2 pages, 28th April, 1973, issue No. 152: A crow is sick and tired of people trying to scare his kind with scarecrows, etc., so he decides to give humans a taste of their own medicine. His first attempt fails but he declares he is not done scaring humans yet... Illustrated by Terry Bave:

Seymore Son of Tarzan, 2 pages, 5th May, 1973, issue No. 153: Seymore who is a fat bald kid tries to build a new do-it-yourself tree house together with his assistants – a dumb-looking ape Cyril and an exotic animal that most probably is a wild boar; the effort involves a series of accidents and ends in destruction of the tree house and the tree. Illustrated by Stan McMurtry:

Val's Vanishing Cream, 2 pages, 12th May, 1973 , issue No. 154: Val finds a jar of vanishing cream in the bag of old cosmetics that her Mom asks her to pop in the bin. Val uses it well: she makes the teacher’s cane vanish and class is over without a single caning. Illustrated by Mike Lacey:

Snappy Sam and Flash Harry, 2 pages, 19th May, 1973, issue No. 155:  Snappy Sammy and Flash Harry are cameramen working for two competing papers – Morning Piffle and Daily Bilge. Sammy is a bespectacled kid and Harry is an evil grown-up who plays tricks on his rival and interferes with his job; in this episode they both have an assignment to take some pictures of a famous football player. Illustrated by Graham Allen:

Sheik Oleg, 2 pages, 26th May, 1973, issue No. 156: Sheik Oleg is a fat and short bloke who walks around with a pet – a strange rodent. He buys an old camel from Cyril Swindle (used camels salesman who looks a lot like Grimly Feendish) so that he can ride home in style; the camel immediately goes missing  and Sheik Oleg goes looking for it in a rubbish dump. He then takes the ponging camel to a camel wash but gets scrubbed himself instead. Illustrated by Stan McMurtry:

My Old Man's A Junkman, 2 pages, 2nd June, 1973, issue No. 157: Dusty Binn, Rag and Bone merchant, and his son Rusty live at the end of the posh Ritzy Avenue and run a scrap business to the great dissatisfaction of their wealthy neighbours. I don't know who the illustrator was. Any suggestions, please?

Professor Potty and Son, 2 pages, 9th June, 1973, issue No. 158: Professor Potty is a crazy scientist (who looks a lot like an older and bald version of Valiant’s Billy Bunter) tries to prove that well-accepted theories are wrong. In this episode he challenges two theories: the one that elephants don’t forget, and the one that sound vibrations can shatter things. Illustrated by Les Barton:

Doctor Quackpot, 1 page, 16th June, 1973, issue No. 159: A tale about a daft doctor who receives weird patients. In this episode the patient is a guy with a cowboy hat only he is not a cowboy. He uses the hat to cover his hair because he suffers from multiple dandruff. The whole room gets filled up with dandruff in a few moments and Dr. Quackpot calls his mate Vet for assistance. The Vet who appears to be just as daft brings penguins along so that they can enjoy themselves in the “snow”… Illustrated by Tony Goffe:

The Pipes of Stan, 1 page, 23rd June, 1973, issue No. 160: Stan has a pipe which turns people to stone while the second blow brings them back to their selves and so forth any number of times. This again looks like the work of Tony Goffe to me:

Voting coupon was included in COR!! issue dated 30th June, 1973 (No. 161), alongside with a recap of all 10 competition entries:

Results of the vote and the winner were announced in COR!! issue dated 18th August, 1973 (No. 168):