1978 COR!! HOLIDAY SPECIAL

1978 COR!! Holiday Special is the only gap in my collection of COR!! 

Information provided on the cover tells us it was 64 pages thick and cost 30 p. The aim of this post is to reserve a slot for the edition in the chronological sequence until I get hold of a copy and can take a look inside. 

Writing a comprehensive review of a comic and having a gap in the collection always leaves a possibility that other posts will have to be amended and supplemented when the gap is filled. Perhaps the missing Holiday Special contains a new Kid Chameleon story or maybe even a new episode of Jasper the Grasper by its original illustrator Ken Reid? This doesn’t sound very likely, but needs to be checked to be sure… 

Incidentally, does anyone have a copy they’d be willing to sell?

UPDATE ONE: A review of the 1978 COR!! Holiday Special can be found on toonhound.com here. Thanks to rainswept, a reader of this blog, for the heads up! 

UPDATE  TWO (July 24th, 2013):

I finally got my chance to bid on a copy of the only COR!! Holiday Special that I didn’t have, and I took it. I paid a bit more than I was meaning to initially but fellow collects will know the feeling when you find an item you’ve been hunting for a while and don’t want to waste the opportunity…  

Here is an account of the contents: 

Ivor Lott and Tony Broke (on front cover + 3 reprints), Ghost Ship (3 episodes), Val’s Vanishing Cream (2 episodes), Tease Break, Jelly Baby (3 episodes including two in full colour), Whacky (2 reprints),  The Slimms (by Terry Bave), The Gasworks Gang (3 Frank McDiarmid reprints), Jasper the Grasper, Jackpot, Andy’s Ants (by Terry Bave),  Whacky (2 reprints), Hire A Horror (4 reprints, including two in full colour), Chalky,  Tricky Dicky, Football Madd, Holiday Race Game centrespread in full colour, Nightmare, Tomboy (2 episodes), Donovan’s Dad (by Terry Bave), Teacher’s Pet (2 pages), Gus Giggles (2 pages), Swopper Stan (2 reprints), Gus Gorilla (reprint, on back cover in colour).

There were no thrilling surprises in the Holiday Special. Considering the long time it took me to get hold of a copy and the excitement when the package arrived, the contents were quite a disappointment. As can be seen from the list above, it is full of reprints of old COR!! material (21.5 pages are definitely reprints). The features that aren’t marked as reprints in the list are probably new material but still nothing to write home about. Tomboy episodes are nicely drawn though. Here is one in full:

Three ½ page episodes of Ghost Ship is the only feature that I don’t remember seeing in a COR!! publication before. The half-pager is probably a reprint but I don’t know where from (I haven’t included it in the sum quoted in the previous paragraph). Here are two examples, both by different artists:

 

Terry Bave was responsible for three two-pagers (all new material, I think) but this is dwarfed by the contribution of Les Barton who illustrated as many as 12 pages: Tease Break feature – 4 pages, Jasper the Grasper – 2 pages, Football Madd – 2 pages, Holiday Race game centrespread in full colour and 2 pages of Nightmare).  Here are some panels. Note Les Barton’s signature in Jasper the Grasper and Nightmare:

And here is a photo of the centrespread by Les Barton:

1978 COR!! COMIC ANNUAL

1978 COR!! Comic Annual, price £1, 144 pages.

Here’s the lineup: Chalky (2 episodes, one in full colour), Willy Worry (2 new episodes, one in full colour and one in b/w, both signed by Terry Bave), Jasper the Grasper (in full colour, a new episode drawn crudely by an unidentified artist), Gus Gorilla (5 reprints from COR!! weeklies), The Slimms (3 episodes), Soldier Spoon (4 episodes), Tomboy (2 episodes), The Gasworks Gang (original 4-page episode by Frank McDiarmid, signed), Mike’s Magic Mould (2 episodes), Teacher’s Pet (2 episodes), Donovan’s Dad (2 episodes), Tricky Dicky (2 episodes), Football Madd (5 episodes), Hire A Horror (3 reprints from old COR!! weeklies), Jelly Baby (2 episodes), Whacky (2 new episodes), Val’s Vanishing Cream (3 episodes), Night Mare (2 episodes, both signed by Les Barton), Andy’s Ants (2 episodes), Tease Break feature (2 instalments), Jack Pott (2 episodes, one in full colour), Super Spook (8 pages by Ron Turner), Patch-Eye Hooker (2 episodes of 4 pages each), Benny Bendo! (1 eposide, 4 pages), Fiends and Neighbours (nice original episode by Graham Allen), Skateboard Sammy (3 episodes), Teddi Vizzon – The Set That Makes You Scream (2 episodes), Marshal Law, Little Benny, Didi and her Teddybears (signed by Mike Brown), Ivor Lott and Tony Broke (in full colour - cover story + 4 pages inside).

Here are some nice examples of new episodes of well-familiar COR!! features: 

The 1978 Annual championed among all COR!! books and holiday specials in terms of the number of unfamiliar and one-off strips. It contained first instalments of Patch-Eye Hooker (reprints of the old pirate strip that originated in GIGGLE and continued in BUSTER) and Benny Bendo – a new strip that was to become a regular in COR!! specials and annuals from this issue onwards. Both will receive their dedicated posts later on, as will Super Spook by Ron Turner who made his third and last appearance in the pages of the Annual. Besides, there were as many as five one-offs, all of them looking like experimental sets put together in a rush to fill the space:

Skateboard Sammy was a crudely drawn strip about … little Sammy and his skateboard. As many as three episodes were included. Here's a taste:

Teddi Vision – The Set That Makes You Scream!  was a bit more interesting. Here is one of the two episodes from the Annual:

Marshal Law: a cowboy comedy feature drawn by an artist whose style looks like a combination of Mike Lacey and Mike Brown to me…

 

Little Benny: a medieval tale in the vein of General Nitt and His Barmy Army from WHAM! only with some wizardry thrown in:

Didi and her Teddy Bears – a set drawn and signed by Mike Brown:

1977 COR!! HOLIDAY SPECIAL

1977 COR!! Holiday Special was still priced 25p and 64 pages thick. Here is a summary of the contents: Whacky (3 episodes), Andy’s Ants (new episode), Hire A Horror (2 Reg Parlett reprints from old COR!! weeklies (one in full colour) + one new episode in full colour), The Gasworks Gang (one new 3-page episode and 2 reprints from old from COR!! weeklies), Donovan’s Dad (2 episodes, one by Les Barton and one by Tery Bave), The Slimms (signed by Terry Bave), Football Madd (3 episodes), Val’s Vanishing Cream (in full colour), Tease Break feature, Mike’s Magic Mould (2 reprints from old COR!! weeklies), Gus Gorilla (3 episodes, one in full colour), Ivor Lott and Tony Broke (1 new episode, 5 reprints from old COR!! weekly, including one in full colour),  Jack Pott, Tricky Dicky, Chalky, Animal Crackers jokes (2 pages), Night Mare (by Les Barton), Willy Worry, Tomboy, Jelly Baby, Teacher’s Pet.

This was the only COR!! special (or annual) ever with no one-offs or ‘imported’ strips. As usual, the majority of sets in the Holiday Special were themed around summer holidays with characters chilling at the seaside…