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Cheeky Weekly ™ REBELLION PUBLISHING LTD, COPYRIGHT ©  REBELLION PUBLISHING LTD, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED was a British children's comic with cover dates spanning 22 October 1977 to 02 February 1980.

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Sunday 23 August 2015

Cor!! what a poser!

I recently picked up these Cor!! annuals at a charity shop (well at 50p each it seemed impolite not to buy them), and it set me musing on a Cor!! curiosity...



...why did the Cor!! annuals start bearing the words 'comic annual' on their covers as of the 1976 edition? IPC's other annuals weren't called 'Whizzer and Chips Comic Annual' or 'Whoopee! Comic Annual'.

As has been documented elsewhere, the titular exclamation originated in days gone by when folk under duress sought a euphemistic substitute for the word God.

However, as time went on the word came to be employed as an expression of delight, such as 'Cor! What a lovely ice cream!' (which is the sense in which IPC intended its use, I suspect). But cor also became closely associated with unwanted male appreciation of the female form. Although such frank expressions are considered unacceptable today, back in less enlightened times it wasn't unusual to hear wolf-whistles and shouts of cor! as females progressed along UK streets. The exclamation was also used in this way by leering characters in TV and film comedy.

My guess is IPC were concerned that, given the salacious connotations of its chosen title (emphasised by the double exclamation marks), some may have purchased the Cor!! annual expecting it to contain racy cartoon humour of the kind that featured in contemporaneous publication Funny Half Hour, which Lew Stringer mentioned in a recent post. I suspect IPC hoped to reduce the number of disappointed adult punters by including the 'Comic Annual' tag on the cover.

6 comments:

  1. Well Hire a Horror receptionist was a COR!!! ;)

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    1. and Lily Pop was a Cor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  2. I agree with this analysis: the extra words were probably added to underscore its innocuousness. Otherwise any reader might have seen the cover and mistaken Ivor lording it over Tony as Razzle or whatever flying under different colours! Bit of needless sarcasm there; sorry.

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    Replies
    1. No need to apologise (goes into nostalgic reverie at mention of Razzle...)

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  3. Here’s another poser: Can you name the Football Madd artist from the 1983 Annual? Irmy and I can’t. Thought it was Alan Rogers (Rotten Egghead, Baron von Reichs-Pudding etc.) but it isn’t.
    http://kazoop.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/cor-comic-annual-1983.html

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    Replies
    1. Sorry, no idea. However TwoHeadedBoy seems pretty confident he's identified the artist in the latest comment on the Kazoop blog post.

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