Dr. What and his Time Clock was a comedy version of BBC’s Doctor Who. It was strange tale
that appeared in just two COR!! publications but had quite an impressive page
count nonetheless.
The strip premiered in the second COR!! Summer Special (the one
published in 1972) and was 19 pages long. Dr. What invented a
time clock, a time machine in effect. Dr. What could set the clock to any year
and when the alarm went off, he was transported to the past or the future. In
the first episode he visited 1664 and nearly prevented Isaac Newton from formulating
his theory of gravitation because Dr. What caught the apple as it was about to
fall on the scientist’s head. His next trip was to the future and the year was
2072. Dr. What accidentally got on a space bus and ended up on the Moon. There
he discovered that the Moon was inhabited by Mooniks (some of whom were
Moonatics), law and order was guarded by Policemoons, while the government was
led by Prime Moonister. He fell off the Moon’s End and was taken prisoner by
Martians who thought he was a spy. He got rescued by a Plutonian Pilot from the
Planet Pluto. They escaped from Mars in the Plutonian’s flying cup but it took
a direct hit from Martian anti-flying cup fire. Dr. What travelled back in time
to 1972. From there he transported himself to the year 1026 where he met King
Canute and then Neptune. He decided he’d had enough when he was invited to join
Danish army on its way to conquer Norway. Dr. What was about to use the time clock
and make his escape but the Danish general suspected he was a Norwegian spy
trying to activate some secret Norwegian weapon and threw him overboard. Dr.
What had to wrestle giant marine creatures to get his clock back. Finally, Dr.
What saw a shore that he believed to be good old British soil. To his
disappointment, he found himself in Calais. He accidentally set his clock off
and ended up in 1789 when the French Revolution was still on. Dr. What tried
his hand at being the Scarlet Pimpernel and nearly got himself guillotined. He
managed to time-clock himself back to 1972 and lost his clock just before
reaching the White Cliffs but promised to invent another one.
Here are two sample pages from COR!! Summer Special 1972:
Dr. What was given a break of a year and reappeared in COR!!
Annual 1974 as another 12-page epic. The daft inventor shows up at the Patents
Office to patent his invention but the clerk doesn’t think much of it. Here are the the first two pages:
 |
|
Offshore radio stations were officially outlawed in the UK
in the late 60s.
This confirms that the strip is a reprint.
|
Dr. What decides to go to the year 1492 - Columbus’ times. After a lot of trouble that he gets from a sword fish and a giant gorilla he spends a short time on board Santa Maria but is thrown overboard for knocking Christopher Columbus out with a mop. He reaches the shore and beats Columbus at the discovery of America. Dr. What becomes the Great Whiter than White Chief of Red Indians who also take him for a weather man. Things get complicated when Dr. What is unable to stop the rain and Red Indians decide to scalp him. Dr. What uses his time clock again to travel to America of the 20th century where he finds himself in the company of entrepreneurial Luke Backwards, chairman of Coyote County’s historical reference library. Here is how the story ends:
Dr. What also made a brief appearance in one of the two episodes
of Jasper
the Grasper in the 1974 annual illustrated by Trevor Metcalfe:
 |
|
I am guessing that the three blokes behind the Gasworks Gang
in
the top right corner of the last panel may be
portraits of IPC artists or editors.
Does anyone know who they might be?
UPDATE: Peter Gray has answered this for me in his comment: of course, they are the Goodies! |
Something about reproduction quality and the way Dr. What stories are
structured suggests the strip may be a reprint but if that’s the case, I don’t
know where from. The name of the artist who illustrated the two long episodes of Dr.
What and his Time Clock in COR!! Summer Special 1972 and COR!! Comic
Annual 1974 is unknown to me but the artwork isn’t very impressive, IMHO.
