FOOTBALL THEME IN BRITISH HUMOUR COMICS TO CELEBRATE EURO 2012 (DAY 5)

Yesterday’s match between England and France in the Ukraine ended in a draw but France didn’t get so lucky when Mudchester United challenged them for the European Cup in this episode of Manager Matt from Scorcher by Ken Reid. Mudchester United also tackled two or three other teams during their 1971 tour of Europe but I’ll save those episodes for later – perhaps the teams will meet in EURO 2012 later in the tournament...

From Scorcher cover dated 19th June, 1971

Here’s another Beano with a football-themed cover that I managed to find:

I just love those scrumptious BUSTER football covers by Nadal and there’s enough of them to last until the end of the month!

FOOTBALL THEME IN BRITISH HUMOUR COMICS TO CELEBRATE EURO 2012 (DAY 3)

Angel Nadal drew a lot of football-themed Buster covers. Here is a nice sample:

Sub was one of the eight humour series in SCORCHER by Ken Reid from 1970 until 1974. The sample below is from the period when his Odhams career had ended and his work for IPC Magazines was limited to football strips in SCORCHER, until he started drawing Faceache in JET in the spring of 1971.

From Scorcher dated 7th March, 1970

I managed to find very few issues of The BEANO with football-themed covers, here is one by Dudley Watkins:

FOOTBALL THEME IN BRITISH HUMOUR COMICS TO CELEBRATE EURO 2012 (DAY 2)

From Scorcher cover dated 26th September, 1970

COR!! FLYERS AND ADVERTISEMENTS IN IPC COMPANION COMICS

The arrival of Cor!! was advertised in other IPC comics of the time, such as Whizzer and Chips, Buster, Smash! and even Scorcher. The campaign began in the issues with the cover date of May 23rd, 1970. They carried a half-page teaser to wet readers‘ appetites, urging them to watch out next week for more exciting news.

Cor!! teaser in Buster dated May 23rd, 1970

The news came a week later in the form of a 4-page pull out in which Gus Gorilla announced that the super new laughter weekly was due to be out next week.

Cor!! promotional flyer in Whizzer and Chips
dated May 30th, 1970.

A week later most companion comics came with another 4-page flyer – “COR!! OUT TODAY” proclaimed the sign on the front of the pull out. Centre pages showed a number of characters from the new comic and invited readers to guess their names by choosing from the list.

Cor!! No. 1 promotional flyer in Whizzer and Chips
dated June 6th, 1970

The launch of Cor!! coincided with a rough period for some IPC comics because their publishing schedules were disrupted by industrial action. It affected Buster, Smash! and Valiant that all came out with a double cover date of June 6th/13th, 1970. In effect this meant that there were no issues on 13th June and no ads for the second issue of Cor!! were published.

Scorcher wasn’t affected by the action and the issue of June 13th, 1970 had a full-page ad of Cor!! issue No. 2; so did Whizzer and Chips, but the ad was only ½ page in size.

Cor!! No. 2 ad page in Scorcher dated 13th June, 1970

Cor!! No. 2 ad in Whizzer and Chips dated June 13th, 1970

Next week things came back to normal, and Cor!! issue No. 3 was presented with a full page ad in all companion comics.

Cor!! No. 3 ad in Buster dated June 20th, 1970

The promotional campaign ended a week later with a half-page ad urging readers to place their regular order now.

Cor!! ad in Buster dated June 27th, 1970

Valiant appears to have run a somewhat scaled-down advertising campaign of Cor!! There was no teaser in the issue dated May 23rd, nor there was anything in the week preceding the premiere (although there is certainly a possibility that the pull-out was removed from my copy of Valiant, can anyone confirm please?). The double-dated issue of June 6th/13th, 1970 was different from other IPC comics of that week in the sense that it only had a single-page ad of Cor!! No. 1 rather than the full 4-page flyer as in other comics.

Cor!! No. 1 ad in Valiant dated  June 6th/13th, 1970