WEEKLY OUTPUT – GRAHAM ALLEN

A look at IPC comics cover-dated March 30th 1974 tells us Graham Allen was also quite busy at the time. His output that week amounted to 4 pages – 2 of Fiends and Neighbours in COR!!, plus 2 of Spy School in Whoopee!

The next post will cover Ken Reid's work in the comics cover-dated March 30th 1974, before we move on to the heavyweights...

Images are © Rebellion Publishing IP Ltd

Click on the POWER PACK banner in the right-hand column and get your copy of the POWER PACK OF KEN REID - the deluxe two-volume set of Ken’s strips in WHAM!, SMASH! and POW! comics of the ‘60s.

COR!! COMIC ANNUAL 1986

COR!! Comic Annual 1986, £2.50, 112 pages. The fifteenth and the last COR!! Annual was the first and the only COR!! publication with a barcode on the back cover.

Contents: Chalky (2 episodes), Nightmare (4 reprints from old COR!! weeklies), Teacher’s Pet (3 reprints), Young MacDonald and His Farm (2 episodes), Ivor Lott and Tony Broke (4 episodes by Sid Burgon, one signed + Ivor  & Tony’s Lucky ABC DEF Dip! Board game), Puzzles 1 (5 pages), Hire A Horror (2 episodes both signed by Trevor Metcalfe), Jack Pott (2 episodes both signed by Crocker), The Gasworks Gang (2 new episodes by Frank McDiarmid, both signed), Krazy Korner (jokes, riddles, cartoons - 3 instalments, signed by Melvin), Gus (2 episodes), Jasper the Grasper (signed by Francis Boyle), Wilfred the World’s Worst Wizard (2 episodes), Football Madd (3 reprints),  Fiends and Neighbours (by Nigel Edwards), Jungle Bells Jungle Bells gags, Puzzle Section 2 (4 pages), Donovan’s Dad, Lucky Charmer, Jelly Baby.

The last COR!! annual was again rich in non-comic content: a total of 15 pages (including 3 pages of Krazy Korner signed by Melvin) were allocated to puzzles, games, jokes, riddles, cartoons, etc.

All 4 episodes of Ivor Lott and Tony Broke were illustrated by Sid Burgon who had never done an episode of the strip in a COR!! publication before.

Trevor Mercalfe tried his hand drawing both episodes of Hire a Horror:

Frank McDiarmid contributed two new stories of the Gasworks Gang. Here are a couple of panels from one. Is it the artist himself having a cuppa in the foreground?

Jasper the Grasper travelled to the USA to visit his cousin Titus T.Tightfist and became a celebrity in New York City for being the first man to row the Atlantic, and in record speed too. Assuming the miser stayed in America for good, this episode (illustrated and signed by a new artist - Francis Boyle) can be regarded as a proper ending of Jasper the Grasper saga.

The last eposide of Fiends and Neighbours was illustrated by Nigel Edwards:

So that’s all of fifteen COR!! comic annuals accounted for! You can go through the whole COR!! annuals sequence by clicking here or by choosing the COR!! Annuals label in the column on the right.

P.S. It appears Fleetway had plans to publish one more annual for the X-mas of 1986 (COR!! Comic Annual 1987) but the book was scrapped at the last moment. You can read more about it HERE. 

COR!! HOLIDAY SPECIAL 1983

COR!! Holiday Special 1983, 50 p., 64 pages

Contents: Ivor Lott and Tony Broke (3 new episodes illustrated and signed by Crocker), Val’s Vanishing Cream (3 Mike Lacey reprints), Night Mare (3 reprints from old COR!! weeklies), Tease Break (2 instalments), Football Madd (3 reprints from old COR!! weeklies), Benny Bendo, Gus-On Holiday gags, Tomboy (2 reprints + one new in full colour), Yong MacDonald and his Farm (illustrated by Ron Turner), Donovan’s Dad (two new episodes by Terry Bave in full colour + one more in b/w), Chalky (reprint of an old episode from a COR!! weekly), Teacher’s Pet (2 reprints), Jasper the Grasper (a new story by Les Barton), Whacky (Mike Lacey reprint), Jelly Baby (3 reprints), Percy Puffer (reprint), Gus-Back Home gags, Hire A Horror (in colour), The Gasworks Gang (a new 4-pager by Frank McDiarmid + 1 reprint from an old COR!! weekly), Jeannie’s Genie (reprint), The Slimms (reprint), Jack Pott, Fiends and Neighbours (a new 3-pager), Gus, Gus Gags, Tell-Tale Tess (reprint).

This was the last COR!! Holiday Special. It was quite remarkable that the Specials lasted so long after the paper folded in 1974.

I may be imagining things, but I get an impression that whoever was responsible for compiling this last edition, he thought it appropriate to include a large number of old reprints of the various strips from the weeklies, some of which had been out of print for more than a decade since their original appearance in COR!!: the long forgotten original episodes of Tell-Tale Tess, Jeannie’s Genie and Percy Puffer from the old weeklies appeared alongside with strips that were reprinted on a regular basis.

That said, the Special was another successful combination of reprints and some high-quality new material: Terry Bave drew a couple of new sets of Donovan’s Dad, Crocker contributed three brand new sets of Ivor Lott and Tony Broke, Ron Turner illustrated another nice episode of Young MacDonald and Frank MacDiarmid drew and signed a new set of the Gasworks Gang’s antics:

Les Barton contributed three pages of Jasper the Grasper’s miserly adventures:

The episode of Fiends and Neighbours was by a new artist whose name is unknown to me:

And with this I’ll close the last chapter of COR!! Holiday Specials. You can go through the whole COR!! specials sequence by clicking here or by choosing the COR!! Holiday Specials label in the column on the right.