Trying to identify two 70s/80s UK comic strips

[unclezebulon]

Hi all,

For years I have been fruitlessly trying to identify a couple of comic strips that I remember from my childhood in the late 1970s or early 1980s. I’m hoping that someone here will be able to put me out of my misery!

1. A boy goes for a cross country run (a thunderstorm is possibly brewing) and ends up being chased by a scarecrow. Can’t remember the end, but I do remember being terrified of scarecrows as a result!

2. A spherical spaceship splashes down in the sea and splits into two hemispheres joined by a central cylinder, possibly witnessed by the crew of a nearby ship.

Not much, I know, but the images have stuck with me for 40+ years! My memory of the two strips is that they were both in a tatty and coverless annual that I bought at a jumble sale, but I can’t really be sure this was actually the case.

Thanks in advance for any help!
Simon