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!! COMIC ANNUAL 1985

COR!! Comic Annual 1985, £2.25, 112 pages.

Contents: Jack Pott (2 episodes signed by Crocker), Chalky, The Gasworks Gang (4 reprints from old COR!! weeklies), Teacher’s Pet (3 episodes), Hire A Horror (5 episodes, all reprints), Football Madd (3 episodes by a new artist), Ivor Lott and Tony Broke (4 episodes), Learn to Draw with Chalky, Wilfred the World’s Worst Wizard (2 episodes), Nightmare (2 episodes by Crocker), Spring Puzzles, Val’s Vanishing Cream (2 Mike Lacey reprints), Revenge of the Gnomes (2 episodes), Play the Game with Football Madd, Tomboy (2 episodes), Fiends and Neighbours (new episode by Les Barton), Benny Bendo, Fun Corner (2 instalments, possibly by Tom Paterson), Join Jack Pottholing, Summer Puzzles, Young MacDonald and His Farm (possibly by Les Barton), Gus, Ha Ha Tee Hee gags (by Jack Clayton), Jelly Baby (2 episodes), Time for a Rhyme (possibly by Mike Brown), It Pays to Advertise gags, Autumn Puzzles, Gus Gorilla, Blackboard Brain-Busters puzzle, Winter Puzzles, Donovan’s Dad (by Terry Bave), Jasper the Grasper (new episode by Les Barton), Monster Munch ad on rear cover.

What made the Annual different from all the earlier ones is that it had way more games, puzzles, gags and jokes than all the others. There were two pages of puzzles for every season of the year, Jack Pottholing maze and Blackboard Brain Busters (finish the famous sayings puzzle); Teacher’s Pet offered some test-time tips plus there was a page of Learn to Draw with Chalky and a page of Play the Game with Football Madd. That’s a total of 13 non-comic pages – surely a record for COR!! Here are some examples:

Then there were Ha Ha Tee Hee gags by Jack Clayton, It Pays to Advertise gags, possibly by the artist who illustrated Mum’s the Word in WHOOPEE! in the mid-70s, and Fun Corner, possibly by Tom Paterson: 

Once again, Jim Crocker and Les Barton contributed quite a large number of new pages. Here are some bits and bobs from Les Barton:

Three new episodes of Football Madd were illustrated by a new artist:

There were two one-offs. The first one - Time for a Rhyme - wasn’t exactly a comic strip but rather an illustrated rhyme with speech balloons. The illustrator was probably Mike Brown: 

Revenge of the Gnomes was a tale about garden Gnomes who were brought to life by a witch to look after her creepy cottage while she was off to see the world. Two episodes were included in the annual both by an artist whose name I don’t know but I find his style very appealing and would love to see more of his work, if only I knew where to look:

It was also the only annual that didn’t have identical front and back covers: the back cover was given to the Monster Munch advertisement: