COR!! COR-IOSITY: COR!! COMIC ANNUAL 1987

I will take a short break from MONSTER FUN COMIC and share this curious find which I came across a few days ago:

Stating the obvious, this is a picture of the front cover of COR!! Annual 1987, or to be more precise - the original artwork for the book. It was offered by Compal Comic Book Auctions in their 2010 Winter catalogue and went for £194. The piece was described as follows: Cor!! Annual front cover original artwork (1987) drawn and signed by Robert Nixon. Starring Ivor Lott and Tony Broke. Poster colour on board. 18 x 13 ins.

What’s so curious about it? – you might ask. Well, if any of you followed my COR!! series on this blog, you may recall that the last COR!! Annual came out in 1985 for the X-mas of 1986.

It turns out Fleetway had plans to publish one more COR!! Annual but then something made them reconsider. This finished cover with text and even the company logo suggests the book must have been cancelled when it was in an advanced stage of production, perhaps they’d even made a ‘dummy’.

Check out the promotional flyer that came with November 29th editions of BUSTER and WHIZZER AND CHIPS in 1986. I get an impression that the awkward empty spaces with text may have been originally intended for the annuals that were scrapped at the last moment and COR!! Annual 1987 appears to be one of them. Note how COR!!’s Ivor Lott and Tony Broke are still amongst the crowd of characters at the bottom of the centrespread:

And since we are on the subject of COR!!, I invite you revisit the opening article of my COR!! series HERE because I have recently updated it with some cracking images of the free gift that came with COR!! No. 1 back in 1970.

A LOOK AT COR!! COMIC: THE FEW REMAINING THINGS...

The purpose of this post is to get the last things out of the way so that I can close this series dedicated to COR!! comic and move forward :) 

Smartie Artie is the last remaining strip whose appearances were limited to COR!! annuals. It can be found in 1982 and 1984 COR!! Comic Annuals, two episodes in each. Smartie Artie was a version of Artful Artie from COR!! 1983 Holiday Special. Both strips were illustrated by the same artist, the stories were very simple and so was the art.

Professor Corn’s Daft Dictionary Definitions feature was mentioned briefly in one of my early COR!! posts (1974: A look at the last months of COR!!). I will add that the feature began in COR!! issue with the cover date of 6th October, 1973 (No. 175) and appeared regularly until the last issue of the weekly. Here is a sample from the issue dated 26th January, 1974 (No. 191):

Some of the reprints that ran in COR!! Annuals and Specials also got a brief mention in the earlier posts. Here are full details of their various appearances over the years:

Ug and Tug the Peace Makers was a Wild West comedy strip drawn by Nadal about an Indian kid and a settler kid. The stories were reprinted from Buster where the strip enjoyed a short run in 1965. Ug and Tug reprints appeared in:

1971 COR!! Summer Special (4 episodes)

1972 COR!! Comic Annual (5 episodes)

1972 COR!! Holiday Special (3 episodes)

1973 COR!! Comic Annual (3 episodes)

1974 COR!! Comic Annual (4 episodes)

Aqua Lad – reprints from the early issues of Whizzer and Chips where the strip was illustrated by Terry Bave. Aqua Lad reprints appeared in:

1974 COR!! Holiday Special (3 episodes)

1975 COR!! Comic Annual (3 episodes)

1975 COR!! Holiday Special (1 episode)

1976 COR!! Comic Annual (4 episodes)

Give A Dog a Bone – reprints from the early issues of Whizzer and Chips where the strip was illustrated by Graham Allen. The reprints appeared in:

1974 COR! Holiday Special (4 episodes)

1975 COR!! Comic Annual (2 episodes)

1976 COR!! Comic Annual (4 episodes)

1977 COR!! Comic Annual (6 episodes, one in full colour)

The Spectacular Adventures of Willie Bunk – reprints from the early issues of Whizzer and Chips where the strip was illustrated by the universal Frank McDiarmid. The reprints appeared in:

1974 COR!! Holiday Special (1 episode)

1975 COR!! Comic Annual (4 episodes)

Patch-Eye Hooker – reprints from BUSTER. Ray Moore’s BUSTER index says the story landed in Buster after it absorbed the short-lived GIGGLE comic in 1968. Artist unknown. Reprints of the strip appeared in:

1978 COR!! Comic Annual (2 episodes)

1979 COR!! Comic Annual

1979 COR!! Holiday Special (2 episodes)

1980 COR!! Comic Annual

The last remaining thing is to take a look at COR!! Books of Gags (two were published) which I hope to do very soon