Index
» Introduction
» #1
» #2
» #3
» #4
» #5
» #6
» #7
» #8
» #9
» #10
» #11
» #12
» #13
» #14
» #15
» #16
» #17
» #18
» #19
» #20
» #21
» #22
» #23
» #24
» #25
» #26
» #27
» #28
» #29
» #30
» #31
» #32
» #33
» #34
» #35
» #36
» #37
» #38
» #39
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» #52
GOODIES COR COMICS SYNOPSIS #16
(by Linda Kay)
(from C&G 87 – March 2003)
Issue 151
21 April, 1973 No. 39
One interesting aspect of the comics which appeared weekly in Cor!! was they often corresponded time-wise with the real world. Because issues were planned ahead, special issues could be released for specific holidays, such as Easter and Christmas. In those issues most of the comics would revolve around that particular holiday.
But there was a subtler correspondence between time and the comics, including those featuring the Goodies. Issues which came out in winter showed the Goodies dressed warmly and partaking in cold weather activities and situations while the summer issues featured more instances of the Goodies at the beach and suffering from too much heat.
This very quiet enhancement of the comics relating to the seasons must have added a very nice connection to the Cor!! comic for readers. The issue we'll be reviewing this month is from Cor!!'s special Easter Issue for 1973.
Header: THE GOODIES GET IN THE RUNNING FOR FUN AT AN EASTER SPORTS!
A government official is interrupting the Goodies' breakfast, explaining his predicament as the trio attempt to crack open hard boiled eggs ... Graeme pounding his with a hammer, Tim working on his with a hand drill and Bill hopelessly mangling his spoon while pounding in his.
OFFICIAL: The groundsmen haven't prepared the stadium for our International Easter Sports! You Goodies will have to get cracking!
BILL: That's what we're *trying* to do!
AT THE STADIUM ...
The Goodies are riding their trandem around the track of the stadium. Bill sits backwards on the back seat and drips white paint from a can onto the back tyre of the bike which creates a painted white line on the track in their wake. The official watches from the inside field.
BILL: This is a great way to mark out the track without 'tyre-ing' ourselves!
OFFICIAL: Good - but I've got more important work for you to do!
The official motions to a group of runners who are posed in the starting position nearby. Graeme stands in the foreground with a motor strapped to his back and holding a helmet with a propeller on the top.
OFFICIAL: The equipment shed's locked and we've no *starting gun*!
GRAEME: Leave it to me! I've been wanting to try out this *flying helmet* I invented!
Graeme dons the helmet and takes off into the sky like a shot. We see the others below, standing next to the official whose hat is flying up in astonishment.
OFFICIAL: What is the fool up to?
TIM: About a *thousand feet*, I'd say!
Graeme flies all around the stadium, then swings back around toward Tim, Bill and the official, who duck for cover.
TIM: Duck! Graeme's taken a dive!
As Graeme swings around past them (losing his glasses and scaring a bird in the process), there is a loud KERRAK! Tim and Bill shove their fingers in their ears to block out the sound.
TIM: Yikes, he's broken the sound barrier!
GRAEME: That should start them!
But instead the runners are startled by the boom so much they scurry from the track in a panic.
RUNNER: Mummy! WAH! Zat terrible noise!
OFFICIAL: *Start* them? You *startled* them so much they won't stop running until next Easter!
BILL: Oh well, what's the next *event*?
The official motions to the pole vaulters who are assembled nearby. Tim is grabbing the propeller helmet from Graeme's head (inadvertently strangling him at the same time).
OFFICIAL: It should be the pole vault, but the poles are locked in the shed, too!
TIM: Leave it to me, my ideas don't *flag*!
With the motor on his back., Tim carries the helmet over to a flag pole and uses the propellor to saw through the bottom of it while the pole vaulters stand by watching curiously. Graeme is still clutching his aching throat in the background.
TIM: I'll fell this flag-pole and the jumpers can use it to reach new heights!
BUT ...
The pole comes crashing down ... right on top of the group of pole vaulters. One athlete stands at attention in the background (saluting the fallen Union Jack), and the official's hat goes flying again.
TIM: Timberrr ... OOER!
OFFICIAL: *Eek*! Thanks to you the pole-vaulters have sunk to an all-time LOW!
The injured pole vaulters stumble out of the stadium while the official chastises the Goodies.
OFFICIAL: Another event ruined, you No-Goodies!
BILL: It's not OUR fault! Anyway, why don't you try some seasonal sport like cross-country Easter Egg-and Spoon Race!
Bill confronts the unimpressed official.
BILL: I'll fetch the equipment. You round up the athletes!
OFFICIAL: Very well!
A LITTLE LATER ...
Some distance from the stadium, Bill is panting his way up a hill carrying a box marked "GRADE B Easter Eggs" and several shovels. Tim, Graeme, the official and the athletes watch as he struggles to reach them.
BILL: Couldn't find any giant spoons to carry the big eggs, so I had to borrow some road-menders' shovels!
The athletes assemble at a starting line, each holding a shovel upon which they balance a large egg. The Goodies get ready to send them off on the race while the official sweats profusely in the background.
GRAEME: On your marks ...
TIM: ... get set ...
BILL:... GO!
As the racers approach the finish line where a line of officials are waiting, their eggs begin to melt and drip in front of them.
BILL: Gulp! Watch out - the chocolate eggs are melting!
The racers become mired in the chocolate and as their feet stick to the ground their shovels fly out of their hands. The shovels proceed to fly through the air and neatly slice off the tops of the hats of all the VIPs watching the race.
UNIDENTIFIED GOODIE: We've boobed ... let's scarper!
OFFICIAL: *Eek!* My precious tricorn hat!
We see an aerial view of the isle of Great Britain with arrows indicating a chase that has been happening, the good guys marked with white arrows which are running all over England and the Goodies as black arrows jumping off into the ocean.
UNIDENTIFIED GOODIE: I don't mind a cross country race - but this is ridiculous!
Sign-Off Line: Our T.V. chuckle champs return next week!
Additional material from this issue:
An advertisement ran in this issue for a Goodies Kids' T-Shirt offer. The design of the shirt was a white T with the classic three-color cartoon of the Goodies in hats riding their trandem (the same design on a t-shirt is currently available through the Goodies Rule O.K. website). They were sold for an amazing 75p each including postage and handling, but only kid's sizes were available. The ad shows a young boy proudly wearing his Goodies t-shirt and a coupon which could be cut out and mailed in to order. The offer was only available to readers in Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
RATING (using the BLACK PUDDING RATING SYSTEM):
I - Tripe on t' pikelets.
Sorry, but this outing is a real dud and, unlike Graeme, never really gets off the ground. The start is abrupt and moves even more abruptly into the scenes at the stadium. The only problem ever really presented is the lack of equipment due to a locked shed, not a particularly interesting or funny scenario, and the comic is taken up with the resolution of two such problems using the same piece of equipment. While Graeme flying around the stadium is funny, it's not enough to justify its use to scare off the athletes. Panel seven includes a now very politically incorrect caricature of an African athlete with dialogue to match (not uncommon in the comics of that time).
The set up and execution of the final race is a bit strange since it takes place outside of the stadium (possibly to let the athletes test out the sport of egg-and-spoon racing before trying it in front of the crowd? Only this is never explained). The melting eggs and damaged officials' hats don't tie in to anything previously in the comic, and the final panel with the map and chase is weak at best (and includes such oddities as a tiny doodle of a strange kind of bug-sheep with wings up near Scotland [identified as a haggis], and chase arrows which seem to indicate the officials ran all over the country alone while the Goodies jumped into the ocean). The dialogue is very stilted with the usual bad puns which aren't really good or bad enough to be notable. All in all, rather a disappointment from a comic strip which usually offered much better material.
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