SPORTS THEME IN BRITISH COMICS TO CELEBRATE LONDON OLYMPICS 2012 (DAY 11)

The Sludgemouth Sloggers was a team of human freaks assembled by the town of Sludgemouth to enter the world-wide ‘What-A-Lark’ competition (the Whacky World Cup for Holiday Resorts) with a noble mission of winning a prize of 50 thousand quid in order to build a dam and save the tourism industry of their town. The team required some special skills to tackle the various stunts and weird sports used in the contest. The strip is not much of a help in illustrating modern Olympic sports but it is another nice example of a story centered around a tough athletic competition with cheering crowds and extensive media coverage. 

But the main reason why I chose to include The Sludgemouth Sloggers in my series of Olympic blogposts is this particular 6-page set. All weekly installments in JET and later the combined BUSTER AND JET were illustrated by Douglas Maxted, but the episode from the rarely-seen 1972 Birthday Book For Boys was by the ever-excellent Joe Colquhoun:

A LOOK AT COR!! STRIPS: WALLY'S WEIRDIES

Wally's Weirdies was the second winner of the COR-Medy Choice competition, second series. The outer space weirdies who made friends with Wally in the pilot episode during the competition are now living at the bottom of his garden. In the first regular weekly episode Wally is off to school and his new pals volunteer to join him. On his way Wally meets Bossy Boots the bully who checks Wally’s satchel for grub but finds the miniature space ship and smashes it. The weirdies teach him a lesson. 

Both winners of the COR-medy Choice competition were introduced as regular weekly strips in COR!! issue dated 20th April, 1974 (No. 203) and ran for 9 weeks until the last issue of the paper. In the last COR!! episode of Wally’s Weirdies Mom tells Wally they are moving over to Buster.  The feature continued in the combined BUSTER AND COR!! for a brief period until 8th January 1975. If I am not mistaken, the illustrator was Tom Paterson who had recently joined the team of IPC artists.

From COR!! issue dated 20th April, 1974 (No. 203)

From COR!! issue dated 25th May, 1974 (No. 208)

SPORTS THEME IN BRITISH COMICS TO CELEBRATE LONDON OLYMPICS 2012 (DAY 10)

Here are more of those excellent crowded Moonsters sets by Bill Ritchie from the front and back pages of SPARKY. 

SPORTS THEME IN BRITISH COMICS TO CELEBRATE LONDON OLYMPICS 2012 (DAY 9)

I will close this three-part mini series about sporty Frankie Stein with another WHAM! episode by Ken Reid in which the ‘friendly monster’ turns into a runner. I happen to be the proud owner of the original artwork for this episode, so below are several blown-up scans of individual panels for your enjoyment  :) 

From WHAM! No 59 dated 31st July, 1965

 

A LOOK AT COR!! STRIPS: THE SPECTRE INSPECTOR

The Spectre Inspector was one of the two winners of COR-medy Choice competition, second series. It was introduced as a regular weekly strip in COR!! issue dated 20th April, 1974 (No. 203) and ran for 9 weeks until the last issue of the paper. It migrated to BUSTER and continued there until September 1975.

In the first episode the Spectre Inspector disguises himself as a tourist and checks on the ghost at the ruins. The Inspector finds the ghost in a miserable condition and doing his job poorly so he shows how it should be done. The Inspector overdoes it when demonstrating a proper howl and reduces the ruins to a pile of rubble. In the further episodes the Inspector puts on different disguises and carries on with his job as a ‘mystery client’ making sure that members of the Ghouls Guild keep up their bad work in a proper way. Illustrated by Jim Watson.

From COR!! issue dated 27th April, 1974 (No. 204)

From COR!! issue dated 8th June, 1974 (No. 210)

SPORTS THEME IN BRITISH COMICS TO CELEBRATE LONDON OLYMPICS 2012 (DAY 8)

In this episode from 1980 Frankie Stein Holiday Special officials from the British Selection Board invite Frankie to train for the Olympics. Illustrator is probably John Geering.

If there are any Ken Reid fans reading this blog, be sure to come back tomorrow for the final part of this three-part mini-series about Frankie Stein the athlete because I have a special treat lined up :)

 

SPORTS THEME IN BRITISH COMICS TO CELEBRATE LONDON OLYMPICS 2012 (DAY 7)

Frankie Stein tried his hand at different sports. Here are his attempts at boxing and football during the early years in WHAM! when the strip was illustrated by Ken Reid:

From WHAM! No. 33, 30th January, 1965

From WHAM! No. 60, 7th August, 1965

Now let’s see what happened when Frankie Stein tried playing tennis. The episode is from WHAM! during the period when Ken Reid was ill or otherwise unable to work and another artist took over. It's a great pity that the 20-week period of Mr. Reid’s absence coincided with Frankie’s stay in the weird wilds of Scotland at Madam McAbre’s Academy for Frustrated Freaks (or Monster Manor) that was full of fiendish characters. One can only imagine how brilliant the episodes would have been, had they been illustrated by Frankie Stein’s original artist… 

From WHAM! No. 101, 21st May, 1966

Robert Nixon’s version of Frankie Stein was different but also nice in its own way, particularly in Shiver and Shake and the early issues of the combined WHOOPEE! and SHIVER AND SHAKE. In this “Big News Issue” of Shiver and Shake Frankie takes part in an International Athletics Meeting…

From SHIVER AND SHAKE dated 5th October, 1974 (No. 79, last issue)

 

Come back tomorrow to see what happened when Frankie Stein was officially invited to join Team GB for 1980 Olympics…