GIGGLE – ONE DOWN, THREE MORE TO GO

I rarely visit eBay these days anymore because my collection of UK comics is as complete as I will ever want it to be, but I am still after a few elusive issues of BUSTER, GIGGLE and SPARKY.

A few days ago I crossed one more issue of GIGGLE off my wants list, and although it is not special in any way, I thought I might show its cover and a few inside pages here.

The comic offered a combination of humour and adventure, and had a large share of reprints of strips by UK and European artists, but I believe the pages below were all new (Helpful Hettie was later reprinted in COR!!, but I am unsure if this particular episode was).

At this point I only need GIGGLE issues cover-dated 2 Sept., 11 Nov. and 25 Nov., 1967. I would also buy the issue of 1 July, 1967 because my copy is missing its centre pages.

My wants list of BUSTER consists of the issues cover-dated 31 Dec., 1960, 4 Feb., 1961 and 4 July, 1964.

I am also after SPARKY issue No. 620 (4 Dec., 1976), and would buy a complete copy of No. 110 (25 Feb., 1967).

Please, let me know if you have copies of the above and wish to sell :)

 

  

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HELPFUL HETTIE SITUATION

The other day I checked the stats of my blog and was surprised to find that the normal daily rate of 150 – 200 pageviews surged to more than 1,000 for a few days, all at the expense of an old little post on Helpful Hettie that I did in my COR!! series last year. Turns out the post got a brief mention in THIS thread on Gunnerkrigg Court forum. I am not familiar with Gunnerkrigg Court webcomic by Tom Siddell, nor have I ever heard about the project that members of the forum are pursuing, but it looks fun. Frankly, I’ve got no clue what the discussion in the thread is about – I suppose one has to be familiar with the comic to make sense of it.

The strong interest that members of Gunnerkrigg Court forum have shown in the blogpost rightfully described in the thread as “probably not related too much” got me thinking that contemporary British-made comics have quite a large following and aren’t doing as poorly as I thought (albeit the majority of traffic appears to be from the US). Gunnerkrigg Court certainly attracts much more attention than old UK comics, at least those published by IPC and covered on this blog so far…

With nearly 2,000 views, Helpful Hettie is now the most popular post on Kazoop!! and is likely to remain at the top forever because the second most popular post only has just over 500 views. Why the article about the last months of COR!! is the second most popular post here is a mystery to me – I think there are many other strips and posts that deserve more attention :)

A LOOK AT COR!! STRIPS: HELPFUL HETTIE

Helpful Hettie was a little girl who was always eager to lend a helping hand with predictably disastrous results. The feature originated in the pages of the short-lived GIGGLE comic in the late 60s where it had a short run in the early issues and was illustrated by Reg Parlett. The first few episodes in COR!! were also by the prolific Reg Parlett so they may very well be reprints from GIGGLE but I can’t be certain because I don’t have a full set of GIGGLE to check. Later in the series Helpful Hettie was taken over by other artists and was definitely new material. It started in COR!! on 1st January, 1972 (issue No. 83) as a half-pager, was promoted to a full page from the issue dated 5th August, 1972 (issue No. 114) and appeared quite regularly until 30th December, 1972 (No. 135).

From COR!! issue dated 8th January, 1972 (No. 84)

From COR!! issue dated 23rd December, 1972 (No. 134). It was the only episode in full colour