FOOTBALL THEME IN BRITISH HUMOUR COMICS TO CELEBRATE EURO 2012 (DAY 18)

England has now dropped out of EURO 2012, unlike Manager Matt and his Mudchester United who didn’t lose a single match during their 1971 tour of Europe.  Read on to see how they tackled Spain and then were triumphant in the finals...

From SCORCHER AND SCORE dated 3rd July, 1971

From SCORCHER AND SCORE dated 31st July, 1971

FOOTBALL THEME IN BRITISH HUMOUR COMICS TO CELEBRATE EURO 2012 (DAY 17)

With England now warming up to play against Italy later this afternoon, it is appropriate to remember Ken Reid’s Manager Matt and his Mudchester  Eleven and see how they tackled their Italian opponents back in 1971. From the perspective of this day and age, the set looks somewhat racist and it is difficult to imagine one like this being included in a modern comic.

Now that I come to think of it, in the light of the recent banana incident during Italy's European Championship game against Croatia, the Frankie Stein episode in one of my previous football posts also comes across as racist.

From SCORCHER AND SCORE dated 17th July, 1971

I know I said my football posts were going to focus on humour comics but as I was searching my collection for interesting examples to show on this blog, I found an issue of TIGER AND HURRICANE with an episode of Roy of the Rovers and most importantly – a rough copy of a letter written by a young reader and long forgotten inside the paper. The boy was so upset with the referee’s decision in that week’s installment that he had to sit down and write this angry note to the editor. Isn’t it sweet to see how strongly the kid (whose name I have whited out) felt for his favourite characters...

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

FOOTBALL THEME IN BRITISH HUMOUR COMICS TO CELEBRATE EURO 2012 (DAY 16)

Giant-size colour sets of Banana Bunch by Leo Baxendale graced the back page of the early issues of the BEEZER. This one is from issue No. 13. There is so much action going on in the last panel that I decided to split it in two to allow for a closer look at all the details.

FOOTBALL THEME IN BRITISH HUMOUR COMICS TO CELEBRATE EURO 2012 (DAY 15)

Here are three BUSTER football cover stories from very different eras: the first one from the early 60s is by Hugh McNeill, the second from the 70s by Angel Nadal and the third from the early 90s by Tom Paterson. Followed by a nice crowded set of Terrors of Tornado Street by Juan Rafart – another Spanish artist who freelanced for Fleetway.

 

From BUSTER dated 6th May, 1961

A LOOK AT COR!! STRIPS: THE SLIMMS

The Slimms. This was the last long-running IPC strip originally created for COR!! by Sheila and Terry Baves. In the second part of his article in the Summer 1986 edition of GOLDEN FUN Terry Bave recalls that slimming was a popular theme of the day, so his wife Sheila suggested that there might be makings of a good fun feature with slimming as the central theme. After some thought and some sketches, they came up with what they believed was one of their most successful features – The Slimms. It proved very popular with COR!! readers. The Baves supplied scripts for many weeks until other IPC writers took over; Terry Bave continued to draw The Slimms week by week until the paper folded.

From COR!! issue dated 19th January, 1974 (No. 190)

Little boy Sammy Slim has a problem and it’s his parents who are obese and Sammy is always ridiculed by other kids because of this. So he finally decides they can’t go on eating like this and will have to go on a diet, starting immediately. But Mum and Dad always manage to outwit Sammy and stuff themselves silly because they like being fat and enjoy grub too much to slim. Sammy is very persistent and schemes all kinds of plots to get his parents to diet or exercise. From what we can tell, Mum and Dad are unemployed so Sammy even tries to fix some jobs for them so that they can work off some of their weight

From COR!! dated 16th February, 1974 (No. 194)

The feature premiered in COR!! issue with the cover date of 1st January, 1972 (No. 83) and continued until the last edition of the paper dated 15th June, 1974 (No. 211).  A good share of the episodes were in colour, besides, The Slimms made as many as five front cover appearances on 23rd June, 1973 (No. 160), 10th November, 1973 (No. 180), 5th January, 1974 (No. 188), 20th April, 1974 (No. 203) and 18th May, 1974 (No. 207). 

Such was the popularity of the feature that after the demise of COR!! Terry Bave didn’t find it hard to persuade Bob Paynter that The Slimms be transferred to WHIZZER AND CHIPS where weekly appearances of the strip continued through to mid-1979. 

From COR!! dated 1st June, 1974 (No. 209)

FOOTBALL THEME IN BRITISH HUMOUR COMICS TO CELEBRATE EURO 2012 (DAY 14)

Here is a triple helping of Dennis the Menace footy action by David Law:

From BEANO No. 858 (27th December, 1958)

From Dennis the Menace 1962 Annual