COR!! HOLIDAY SPECIAL 1981

COR!! Holiday Special 1981, price: 45 p., 64 pages.

Contents: Ivor Lott and Tony Broke (2 new episodes including one in full colour and one reprint), Andy’s Ants (3 reprints from old COR!! weeklies by Terry Bave), Whacky (4 reprints from COR!! weeklies by Mike Lacey, 1 in full colour), Tomboy (3 episodes, 1 in colour), Jasper the Grasper (a reprint of an old episode from COR!!), Hire A Horror (3 reprints including 2 in full colour), Gus Gorilla (by Tom Williams), The Gasworks Gang (2 reprints), Nightmare (illustrated by Les Barton), Val’s Vanishing Cream (2 episodes by Tom Williams), Teacher’s Pet (2 reprints, one in full colour), Just Joking, Fiends and Neighbours (brand new story illustrated by Les Barton), Football Madd (2 reprints), Donovan’s Dad (2 reprints by Les Barton), Chalky (3 episodes, one signed by Dick Millington), Benny Bendo, Tricky Dicky (reprint), Tease Break (2 instalments), Young Macdonald and his Farm (signed by Parko), Gus Gags, Jelly Baby, The Slimms (by Terry Bave).

Three stories had original mastheads that I mentioned in the previous post, two by Les Barton and one by Dick Millington: 

Here is one of the three sets of Ivor Lott and Tony Broke from the Special. I believe it is an original story, not a reprint, and the illustrator is probably Crocker. 

The episode of Gus Gorilla was a bit unusual because it was illustrated by Tom Williams:

GUS GORILLA - COR!! MASCOT AND COVER STAR

Gus Gorilla was COR!! mascot and cover star. He had his own strip named after him that occupied the front page and was in full colour for nearly three years until it was moved to the inside of the paper and turned monochrome. Gus’ weekly antics were followed by a bloke who always showed up out of nowhere in the last panel only to say that you can't make a monkey out of Gus. In the beginning of his career Gus wasn’t a character of many words. In quite a few early episodes he didn’t utter a single word. In fact, there were several covers with hardly any speech balloons at all. Unlike the majority of characters in children’s humour comics Gus rarely interacted with kids. His adventures usually involved grown-ups; a pair of chaps appeared more or less regularly, one was short and on the fat side while the other was tall and lean. They always tried and failed to have fun at Gus’ expense

Gus’ regular artist was Alf Saporito. Some episodes were illustrated by other artists such as Mike Lacey and Sid Burgon.

 Gus Gorilla on front page in colour:  13th June, 1970 – 14th April, 1973 (Nos. 2 – 150, except for the issue dated 6th January, 1973 (No. 136) when the strip was on the back cover because the front page was awarded to The Goodies to celebrate their first week in COR!!).

 Gus Gorilla in b/w inside the paper, usually on the same page with Picture Yourself feature: 21st April, 1973 – 15th June, 1974 (Nos. 151 – 211), full page in issues dated 30th April, 1974 (No. 203), 11th May, 1974 – 15th June, 1974 (Nos. 206-211). 

Gus starred in two other COR!! features: Gus Giggles and Gus Gags. Both ran on the front page concurrently with the Gus Gorilla strip when it was moved to the inside of the comic. Gus Giggles was a three-panel gag cartoon in the same vein as Gus Gorilla only there Gus managed without the moustached bloke and his usual punch line. It ran from 21st April, 1973 until 23rd March, 1974 (Nos. 151 – 199) and was dropped in favour of Gus Gags that appeared during a short period from 30th March, 1974 until 8th June, 1974 (Nos. 200 – 210 (the penultimate issue)). The gags (two of them every week) were drawn from reader’s ideas and contributors received one pound for each cover joke published. Gus Gags feature survived COR!!’s merger with Buster where it continued for as long as the very last issue of 1979.