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
» #40
» #41
» #42
» #43
» #44
» #45
» #46
» #47
» #48
» #49
» #50
» #51
» #52
GOODIES COR COMICS SYNOPSIS #21
(by Linda Kay)
(from C&G 93 – September 2003)
Issue 156
26 May, 1973 No. 44
It was probably inevitable that some of the story premises covered in the Goodies Cor!! comic strips would be covered in the Goodies television series as well. But the comparisons usually ended with the basic premise. Since the Goodies comics were aimed at kids they stuck mainly with physical humor, visual silliness and painful puns while the Goodies delved deeply into all of these plus added a heaping dose of satire. In some cases the comics did a premise first, and this is one such case. The Goodies wouldn't tackle the world of newspaper publishing until 1975 with the episode Cunning Stunts. Cor!! made them newspapermen in 1973 with the entry we'll be reviewing this month.
Header: THE GOODIES ARE "PRESS-ED" INTO STARTING A NEWSPAPER!
We find the Goodies in their office where the Mayor of Cortown (wearing a medal which says 4F OFF) is addressing them. Graeme is opening a small cupboard to take something out.
MAYOR: It's time this town had a *local newspaper*! We've decided *you're* the people to start one!
GRAEME: That's good news, Mr. Mayor - it will give me a chance to use the *printing press* I invented!
Graeme struggles to pull a gigantic printing press out of the small cupboard. Tim watches on, impressed, as Bill dons a reporter's hat and grabs a notepad.
TIM: I never realised we had so much *cupboard space*!
BILL: Hey, I'll be a reporter, and go and interview that wrestler, *Alf Nelson*, who trains round the corner!
AND SO ...
Bill is outside the ring talking to Alf, who is in the middle of a wrestling match. His opponent, named Ed Locke, has Alf pinned down and is grabbing onto Alf's ear as well as biting his hand.
BILL: Hey, Alf! Could I have a *word* in your *ear*?
ED: Sorry, bate, I'be using id ride dow!
ALF: Grunt ... groan!
Bill excitedly clambers into the ring as Alf's opponent starts spinning Alf above his head.
BILL: I've got to get a story ... good job I know the *ropes*!
Ed Locke throws Alf Nelson down on top of Bill very violently.
BILL: Is your life all *ups and downs*? . . . wooops!
The next thing Bill knows he's completely caught up in a tangle between the two wrestlers on the mat.
BILL: *Arrrrgh!* Careful, fellows, I'm in here somewhere .. !
ALF: *YELP!*
A LITTLE LATER ...
A postman enters carrying Bill, who is tangled up into a ball (he's wearing a tag which reads "To the Goodies office." Graeme is working on the printing press while Tim is cutting some articles from other newspapers.
POSTMAN: Puff! Special delivery - pant! For you!
BILL: At least I got an "inside" story!
TIM: Crumbs! It's *Bill!*
Tim throws on a jacket and hurries to the door as Graeme starts to try to untangle Bill.
TIM: You were a Boy Scout once, Graeme - so you untie him, while I'll go get a real news item!
Tim is leaning against the wall of the office, notepad at the ready, when a man comes running by looking panicked and pointing behind him.
MAN: Hey, Goodie Tim, there's a *lion* escaped from the zoo!
TIM: Wow! That's a story worth *following up*!
The man ducks into an open doorway as the lion appears and starts chasing Tim down the street.
MAN: Oh, yeah? Well, he's *heading this way*!
TIM: Oh, *no*! Now the story's following *me*!
Tim races around a corner with the lion in close pursuit. We can see a couple of zookeepers running after the lion with nets and a whip, while a policeman directs traffic nearby, oblivious to the chase going on right near him. Tim hurls himself into the end of an open pipe laying on the ground.
TIM: I'll hide in one of these *pipes* - that lion is too big to follow me!
BUT ...
Tim's head pokes out of the other end of the pipe, but the pipe is much smaller on that end and
he can't get through.
TIM: Crumbs! This pipe must *taper* at this end - I'm *stuck*!
The zookeepers arrive and have grabbed the lion's tail, which is sticking out of the large end of the pipe, the lion having gone after Tim. They try to pull the lion out to no avail.
ZOOKEEPER: So's the lion, mate! He went in after you!
TIM: Gosh, I hope he's not 'long in the tooth'!
A LITTLE LATER ...
Graeme and Bill are sitting at a desk in their office, Graeme typing on a typewriter and Bill looking through a paper called the Cortown Arsenal (I thought they didn't have have a local paper??). They see Tim's head passing by the window.
BILL: Look, it's Tim going by!
GRAEME: That's *impossible* - we're on the *second floor*!
TIM: I've got my story, fellers!
Graeme looks out the window to see that Tim is at the top of the very long pipe, the bottom of which is on the ground with the lion's legs sticking out, the lion walking along on a lead held by one of the zookeepers so that it looks like a long pipe figure with a Tim head and a lion's legs.
GRAEME: Gosh! What a "tall" story!
TIM: We'll make it the "lead"!
LATER ...
The Goodies are exhausted as they get ready to finally print their newspaper.
BILL: With the bits we cut from the other newspapers, we've enough to put the paper to bed!
TIM: Good, I'm *tired*!
GRAEME: Oh, no! I've just remembered - we've no paper to *print* the issue on!
Refusing to give up, Graeme takes a pair of white overalls and lays them out across the printing press.
GRAEME: I know, we'll circulate our news with the help of these *white overalls* we bought for re-decorating the office!
They run the overalls through the printing press, printing copies of the Goodies Gazette all over them. Tim holds up the result excitedly, while Bill is slapped by a second pair and Graeme feverishly cranks the press' handle to print out the last pair.
TIM: Hey, you've printed the news *"over-all"* of them!
GRAEME: That's the idea! We'll be *newsboys*!
AND SO . . .
The Goodies ride down the streets of Cortown on their trandem, wearing the overalls printed with the news as men run alongside of them, paying money to read the print on their clothes. Graeme holds a flag which reads "The Goodies Gazette - 1p a Peep."
TIM: Huh, we started out to produce a paper, now we *are* the paper!
BILL: At least you can say *we're in the news!*
Sign-Off Line: Giggle With the Goodies Again Next Week!
Additional material from this issue:
In the reader's feedback section entitled Cor-ments, this letter and reply appear:
"Thank you for putting THE GOODIES in COR!! They are super, and I always read their adventures first when I get my COR!! - SARAH CHURCHILL, SHERBORNE."
"Always happy to please, Sarah . . . have a Goodie time with your 25p . . . Ed."
RATING (using the BLACK PUDDING RATING SYSTEM):
III - Goody goody yum yum.
There's enough fun stuff going on in this comic outing to make it well worthwhile. The art is good, although the lettering is a bit less relaxed than usual (and the letterer likes to use italics and commas quite a bit). While each panel doesn't offer a boffo joke, most offer at least a notable pun. But most of the really cute things are happening under the surface of this strip. The puns for the wrestler's names, Alf Nelson and Ed Locke, are very funny. Graeme taking a huge printing press out of a small cupboard is clever and very much in keeping with the Goodies style. Also Bill's needing to be mailed back to the office is a cute joke.
The scenario between Tim and the lion are accented by some very funny things in the background. For instance, as Tim is running away from the lion there is a workman's zone with a sign that shows a man leaning against his shovel and doing nothing. In a following panel a workman is seen standing in just this position, reading a paper. Also when Bill and Graeme are at their desk and see Tim go by the second story window there are some cute jokes on the desk itself. A homing pigeon sits in a cage which bears the words "Stop Press" and "Homer" while a phone sits on a hot plate beside it, bearing the words "Hot Line."
There are also some cute headlines stuck into the newsprint throughout the comic. When Tim's cutting out articles one bears the title "Man Bites Dog" (actually just "Man Bites" with a picture of a dog beneath). When they're about ready to go to press Bill holds an article with the headline "Tiddlywinks Results." And finally when Tim holds up the final result of the printing on the overalls there are some humorous headlines such as "How I Captured a Wild Lion - Exclusive", "Dutch Invade Holland" and "Balloon Prices up 100% - Inflation At It's Worse says Disraeli" while Bill's pair reads "Income Tax Abolished." Taken all together gems like this makes for a fun comic adventure.
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