On this day, 15 June 1974: Cor!! — GREAT NEWS FOR ALL READERS!

Jun 15

Jun 15 On this day, 15 June 1974: Cor!!

Cover artwork: Graham Allen and possibly others

This final issue of Cor!! shares its cover date with that of the final issue of June. It’s a sad, double-doom date for IPC comics, comparable to 30 March 1985, which saw the last issues of Whoopee! and Tiger. But while the last June (featured in another blog post today) was a rather low-key affair, Cor!! delivered more of the chutzpah normally associated with IPC’s mergers – a celebration of the forthcoming team-up of fun-pals, a jig across the graves of Cor!! readers’ loyalties and the promise of something excitingly new. It’s mergers such of these that give this blog its name, and I love them, although I know that’s an unpopular opinion.

Buster was the lucky recipient of the very best of Cor!!’s strong line-up of strips, and quite a few of them made the move, suggesting to me that this was one of those mergers made not so much because the junior comic was failing, but because it was seen as way of giving a substantial boost to sales of the senior title. Ivor Lott and Tony Broke, Chalky and Tomboy were among the Cor!! characters to make the move, and these three would last in Buster for an especially long time. Others to make the cut were Fiends and Neighbours, Football Madd, Val’s Vanishing Cream, Wally’s Weirdies and The Spectre Inspector, while Cor!!’s cover star Gus Gorilla continued his ‘Gags’ page in the new title.

This issue saw the final parts of Teacher’s Pet, Hire a Horror and The Gasworks Gang, among others. The Slimms rolled over the corridor to the pages of Whizzer and Chips, and Willy Worry crossed to Whoopee!, while a few other Cor!! stories went into hibernation for a few years before being resurrected in other titles. Jack Pott came back in the first issue of Jackpot, Andy’s Ants was rebooted as Adam and his Ants in Wow!, and Rat-trap was brought back in late 1980s Eagle.