1980 COR!! COMIC ANNUAL

1980 COR!! Comic Annual was priced £1.25 and was 144 pages thick.

Here is a summary of the contents:  Val’s Vanishing Cream (2 episodes), Football Madd (5 episodes including 3 by Les Barton and 1 reprint from an old COR!! weekly), Teacher’s Pet (4 episodes), Night Mare (3 episodes by Les Barton), Fiends and Neighbours (2 episodes by Les Barton), Swopper Stan (2 episodes), Tomboy (2 episodes), Jasper the Grasper (2 episodes by John Geering), Hire A Horror (2 episodes), Helpful Hettie (2 episodes), Donovan’s Dad (3 episodes), Jelly Baby (3 episodes), Wilfred Wizard, Tricky Dicky (3 episodes), Croc, Chalky (2 episodes), “Young” MacDonald and his Farm, The Superwits, The Slimms, The Gasworks Gang (2 reprints from old COR!! weeklies), Animal Jokes, Tease Break, Gus Gorilla (5 episodes), Our Amazing Maze feature, Benny Bendo, Ivor Lott and Tony Broke (3 episodes, including 2 reprints), Injun Trouble jokes (by Jack Clayton), Joker, Jack Pott, Patch-Eye Hooker, Spotter, Fun of A Gun jokes (by Jack Clayton), Andy’s Ants.

There were three one-off strips in the Annual:

The Superwits was illustrated by Nigel Edwards and would have been appropriate in my series of Olympic posts this summer. Here are all three pages of the set:

Joker was a guest strip that originated in Knockout and appeared for many years in Whizzer and Chips:

Croc was probably also a reprint from another IPC comic but I am not sure which. Whizzer and Chips?

The Annual had two sets of Jasper the Grasper by John Geering. Here is one:

My personal highlights in the 1980 COR!! Comic Annual are two sets of Fiends and Neighbours by Les Barton. Here is one: 

1979 COR!! COMIC ANNUAL

1979 COR!! Comic Annual. £1.10, 144 pages,

Here is a summary of the contents:  Jack Pott’s Jackpot game, Football Madd (1 new episode by Les Barton + 2 reprints from old COR!! weeklies), Helpful Hettie, Nightmare (new episode by Les Barton), Tomboy (3 episodes), Fiends and Neighbours (2 new episodes by Les Barton, both signed + 1 reprint from an old COR!! weekly), Tease Break feature (2 instalments), Ivor Lott and Tony Broke (6 reprints and 1 new episode), Teacher’s Pet (2 episodes), Jack Pott (2 episodes), Benny Bendo! (2 episodes), The Slimms (2 episodes + The Slimms Weight For it Game), The Gasworks Gang (4 reprints), Jelly Baby (2 episodes), Hire A Horror (5 reprints and 1 new episode), Whacky (5 episodes), Spotter, Jasper the Grasper (two original episodes, one by Les Barton and one by John Geering), Donovan’s Dad, Swopper Stan, Tricky Dicky (2 episodes), Football Quiz (by Les Barton), Wilfred the World’s Worst Wizard, Football Funnies (by Les Barton), Xmas Word puzzle, Val’s Vanishing Cream (2 episodes), Chalky, Patch-Eye Hooker, Mike’s Magic Mould, Gus Gorilla (3 episodes), "The Stairs” … A Silly Story, The Way-Out West jokes (by Jack Clayton), Willy Worry (2 episodes).

The annual was the first one that had no ‘proper’ colour pages but was probably still advertised as a full-colour book because all of its pages were presented in three-colours (save for a few pages that had no white or no black).

Two episodes of Tomboy were signed by Jim Watson:

The annual contained two new Jasper the Grasper stories: a two-pager by Les Barton (shown below in its entirety) and a 6-pager by John Geering (illustrated below with one panel):

The one-off The Stairs... A Silly Story, doesn't really qualify as a comic strip and is poorly drawn but here it is anyway:

 Jack Clayton contributed two nice pages of Wild West jokes:

What I like best about this annual is that it has as many as two original episodes of Fiends and Neighbours by Les Barton whose style suits the strip very well indeed. The level of detail suggests that the artist enjoyed drawing it. Editors must have liked Mr. Barton’s version because the two sets were the first out of many episodes of Fiends and Neighbours illustrated by Les Barton in subsequent COR!! holiday specials and annuals. Here is one of the two stories from the annual:

1977 COR!! COMIC ANNUAL

1977 COR!! Comic Annual cost £1 and had 144 pages.

Strips and features: Willy Worry (4 episodes, one in full colour), Give A Dog A Bone (6 episodes, one in full colour), Ivor Lott and Tony Broke (3 episodes, two in full colour), Gus Gorilla (3 episodes), The Return of Spooky-Spokes (6 pages), Soldier Spoon (4 episodes), Footbal Madd (2 episodes by Les Barton + 1 reprint from an old COR!! weekly), Whacky (2 episodes, one in full colour), Hire A Horror (4 Reg Parlett reprints from old COR!! weeklies), Teacher’s Pet, Tricky Dicky, Jelly Baby (2 episodes), Donovan’s Dad (two episodes, one in full colour), Party ‘Spot The Changes’ puzzle, The Gasworks Gang (two new episodes by Frank McDiarmid), The Slimms (three episodes, one signed by Terry Bave), Tomboy (2 episodes), Night Mare (2 episodes by Les Barton), Gus Gags (6 pages), Jasper the Grasper (by Alf Saporito), Hugh Reka (2 episodes), Jack Pott (2 episodes), Andy’s Ants (2 episodes), “Young” MacDonald and his Farm, Snow ‘Spot the Changes’ puzzle, Tease Break puzzles, Teacher’s Pet, Val’s Vanishing Cream (signed by Terry Bave), Tricky Dicky, Fiends and Neighbours (4 pages signed by Tom Paterson).

There were two one-offs in the Annual:

The Return of Spooky-Spokes was a detective comedy strip starring an invisible poltergeist, formerly known as the fiendish Ponsonby Prenderghast, and a spook detective, formerly the world-famous detective Deadlock “Spooky” Spokes. They team up with Arnold Twinge, the friendly Neighbourhood Detective, and round up a gang of jewellery shop robbers. Here are the opening two pages:

Hugh Reka was a tale about a boy who had a knack for inventions. In the two episodes included in the Annual he experimented with his ‘grow little’ and ‘grow big’ powders. Here are both episodes from the Annual side by side:

IPC in-house artists had become quite good at cutting up old COR!! artwork, resizing panels and constructing two-pagers out of original one-pagers. Give a Dog a Bone and Hire A Horror stories have been definitely tampered with and there are a few more that may have been re-shuffled as well (The Slimms, Willy Worry, Tricky Dicky). The rest are all original pages, as far as I can tell. Here are two examples of new sets by Les Barton:

I am a bit confused as to who illustrated Jasper the Grasper and Gus Gorilla in this Annual. Was it still Alf Saporito?  The style looks somewhat different from the previous years. Here is the last page of Jasper the Grasper and one episode of Gus Gorilla side by side (I believe both were by the same artist):

Finally, here is a 4-page treat of Fiends and Neighbours drawn and signed by Tom Paterson: