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!! COMIC SYNOPSIS #52
(Final edition)
(by Linda Kay)
(from C&G 128 – July 2006)
Issue 187
29th December, 1973 No. 74
Christmas Edition
After one full year of the Goodies appearing as cartoon characters in Cor!! Comics their run came to an end with this special Christmas issue in which all of the comics revolved around holiday themes. The Goodies would go out in style, however, in this entertaining little story which may include the only time Santa has ever been quoted as saying the word "Vamoosed."
Header: THE GOODIES ARE OFF TO THE NORTH POLE - "BE-CLAUS" SANTA NEEDS HELP!
In this issue The Goodies banner logo is covered with snow.
The Goodies are sitting in their barren-looking office with only a few signs of Christmas around them: a ragtag sock nailed to the inside front door (with a tag that reads Santa), some Christmas streamers hanging from above and a little decorated tree in the background. Graeme is reading a letter to Tim and Bill.
GRAEME: Gosh! Listen to this ... *"In trouble ... there's a chance that presents might not get delivered this year ... can you help? Signed Santa"!*
BILL: *Wow!* How about *that?* A message from the *Goodiest* Goodie of them all!
SO, THE GOODIES SET OFF TO HELP SANTA ...
They Goodies are riding their trandem to the frozen North. They're wearing heavy clothing but Bill's beard and Graeme's glasses are frozen.
GRAEME: According to legend . . . Santa lives somewhere round the NORTH POLE!
They reach a tall, striped pole with a weather vane on top that bears a sign reading "North Pole."
TIM: AHA! There it is!
GRAEME: But where's Santa?
Bill takes it upon himself to climb the pole to look around.
BILL: I'll climb up and see if I can spot anything!
TIM: No need ... you're already *up the pole!* Ha, Haarr!
GRAEME: GROAN!
Bill is nearly to the top when the pole suddenly topples over. Bill hangs on and the pole acts as a lever to open a giant door to a cave in the nearby hill. A set of lights inside spells out "Santa's Grotto."
BILL: WHOAAA!
GRAEME: Look! There's a CAVE opening!
TIM: It's SANTA'S cave!
Tim and Graeme hop onto the trandem and ride inside the cave with Bill chasing them from a distance.
TIM: Now to find out what the trouble is!
They ride straight into what appears to be Santa's bedroom. The usually jolly man is sitting on a stool looking very forlorn.
TIM: There's Santa!
GRAEME: He doesn't look happy!
BILL: What's up, Santa?
SANTA EXPLAINED THE PROBLEM ...
Santa shows the Goodies a set of empty stables with the names Rudolf and Donner above them.
SANTA: Look at my stables ... EMPTY! My reindeer have *escaped!* VAMOOSED!
The Goodies immediately arm themselves with various nets, ropes, fishing poles and even a harpoon and take off on the hunt for the missing reindeer as Santa waves them off.
GRAEME: Don't worry, Santa ... we'll *ROUND 'EM UP* for you!
They spot the two missing reindeer (Rudolf with a blinking nose) running away and take chase.
TIM: There they go! *AFTER THEM!*
The reindeer bolt down a hill but the Goodies are racing right behind them, Graeme and Bill swinging lassoes over their heads.
BILL: YAHOOOO!
They manage to lasso the two reindeer at the bottom of the hill and the reindeer immediately take to the sky, pulling the trandem up after them!
TIM: *GOTT'EM!*
BILL: Eek! We're *AIRBOURNE!*
They swing by the opening of Santa's Grotto and Bill grabs Santa's sack of presents as they pass.
SANTA: Hey! What's going on?
BILL: Don't worry, Santa ... *we'll* do the job *for* you this year!
AND SO, THE GOODIES WENT INTO ACTION ...
The Goodies fly over the rooftops of London, dropping presents into chimney flues as children peek out of their bedroom windows into the night sky.
BUT, UP ON THE AIR MINISTRY ROOF ...
A Ministry military man is looking through a pair of binoculars and spots the Goodies flying by. A couple of other ministry men are respectively studying seaweed and weather figures.
MINISTRY MAN: I say! So *that's* who delivers our prezzies every year! The truth at last! *The Goodies!* I might've guessed!
THE NEWS SOON GOT AROUND ... AND ...
The Cortown Clarion newspaper features The Goodies on their front page with the headline "GOODIES DECLARED NATIONAL HEROES."
Even Santa has a copy of the paper and proudly shows off his Goodies t-shirt!
SANTA: They DID it! And now I'm their *NUMBER ONE FAN!* Ho, ho!
The final panel shows The Goodies back at their office with a festive feast spread out before them and pulling Christmas crackers (they're already wearing cracker paper hats) while toasting with wine.
THE GOODIES: MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE!
Sign-Off Line: Start The Year With A Good Laugh - Read Next Week's Cor!!
RATING (using the BLACK PUDDING RATING SYSTEM):
IIIII - Superstar.
What a perfect way for this series to come to a close! The idea of the Goodies going to the aid of Santa is so sweet and endearing kids must have loved it.
As usual there are a few fun things to notice in the background of some panels. In the first panel there are three cups stacked one atop another on a saucer on the desk in front of Graeme as he reads the letter from Santa. The top cup has a crack on it. This gives the impression they only have one saucer and must therefore all use it at the same time!
On the way to the North Pole a couple of polar bears are watching the Goodies from a hill while a penguin with a menu is standing to one side (a la Mary Poppins, undoubtedly). As they approach the North Pole there is a transmission tower in the background giving off waves with a sign that reads "Magnetic North." A TV rooftop ariel is poking up out of the snow, as is a person's hand reaching up with a coin to put into a parking meter which is barely visible.
Among all the crazy things the Goodies have taken along with them to catch the reindeer is a very ominously large looking bear trap! As the Goodies fly over the city dropping presents one of the presents bounces off the head of an owl who is sitting on a snow covered rooftop. A teddy bear has a tag which reads "Hardy Christmas." And finally the Goodies are pictures with halos and wearing medals in the newspaper picture while other smaller headlines read "Crisis, Riots, Strike and Gloom."
Overall this was a really nice wrap-up to the entire year of Goodies comics which graced the pages of Cor!! It would seem likely Cor!! only bought a one year licensing agreement to use the Goodies characters within their pages. It's a shame the comic only lasted 52 weeks but we're glad they put so much effort into creating this unique and fun extension of our favorite show.
As a footnote, it does not appear the Goodies comics ever appeared in any of the Cor!! Annuals which came out in summer and winter of each year. Some of the Cor!! comics and artwork were used in the promotional Goodies Fun Book for Cadbury some time later, but that appears to be all the Goodies comics ever produced.
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Editor's note:
On behalf of all of the readers of the C&G, I'd like to thank Linda for her amazing monthly contribution to the C&G since her first Cor!! comic synopsis was published back in December 2001. The Cor!! comics adventures are an integral part of the Goodies phenomena of the 1970's, yet most Goodies fans would not even have been aware of their existence if not for Linda's dedication in describing the dialogue, storylines and artwork in such well-written detail for the C&G each month as well as providing her own thoughts and opinions on each comic strip.
I'm sure that all Goodies fans have greatly appreciated the opportunity to enjoy reading a new Goodies adventure every month and are also a little sad that Christmas has now come in Cortown, meaning that the Goodies comic synopses have ended at midnight too. So our congratulations and many thanks to Linda for what has been a wonderful and very enjoyable long-term series of articles for the newsletter.
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