Put a sock in it

April 11, 2015, 3:01 am

≫ Next: Features Ordered by Date of Commencement

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Bruce has posted a classic Elephant On The Run episode.

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Features Ordered by Date of Commencement

April 14, 2015, 7:34 am

≫ Next: The Rejects – Big Strong Sam\Steve

≪ Previous: Put a sock in it

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This is something that I should have posted a long time ago, but only started thinking about recently as I began looking at the latter few months of Cheeky Weekly in my series of issue summaries.

Here's a list of all the features to have appeared in Cheeky Weekly, ordered by the issue date in which they commenced (and in the case of multiple features commencing in the same issue, further sorted by the page number on which they made their debut within that edition). The feature's end date is also shown, as is its original source(s) in the case of reprints. The first column shows the feature's position in the sequence. A link to the the appropriate blog post (where available) is also provided.

Ordinal	Feature	Start	End	Reprinted From
1	Cover Feature	22-Oct-1977	02-Feb-1980
2	What a Cheek	22-Oct-1977	23-Sep-1978
3	Hiya I'm Cheeky	22-Oct-1977	22-Oct-1977
4	Sunday	22-Oct-1977	02-Feb-1980
5	Skateboard Squad	22-Oct-1977	12-May-1979
6	Sunday evening	22-Oct-1977	23-Sep-1978
7	James Bold	22-Oct-1977	05-Aug-1978
8	Monday	22-Oct-1977	02-Feb-1980
9	6 Million Dollar Gran	22-Oct-1977	02-Feb-1980
10	Tuesday	22-Oct-1977	02-Feb-1980
11	Old Comic	22-Oct-1977	26-Aug-1978	Chips,Comet,Film Fun,Jingles,Knockout,Radio Fun,School Friend,Sun Weekly,Swift,TV Fun,The Jester,Tiger,Tip Top,Whizzer and Chips,Wonder
12	Doug's Doodle	22-Oct-1977	14-Jan-1978
13	What's New, Kids	22-Oct-1977	17-Nov-1979
14	Pin-up pal	22-Oct-1977	31-Mar-1979
15	Wednesday	22-Oct-1977	02-Feb-1980
16	Creepy Sleepy Tale	22-Oct-1977	26-Aug-1978
17	Wednesday (conclusion)	22-Oct-1977	26-Aug-1978
18	Thursday	22-Oct-1977	02-Feb-1980
19	Home Movie	22-Oct-1977	10-Jun-1978
20	Friday	22-Oct-1977	02-Feb-1980
21	Mustapha Million	22-Oct-1977	02-Feb-1980
22	Saturday	22-Oct-1977	02-Feb-1980
23	Wile E Coyote	22-Oct-1977	07-Jan-1978
24	Interval	22-Oct-1977	02-Dec-1978
25	Space Family Robinson	22-Oct-1977	24-Jun-1978
26	Hello again	29-Oct-1977	29-Oct-1977
27	Bam Splat and Blooie	29-Oct-1977	17-Jun-1978	Buster
28	Cocky Doodle	29-Oct-1977	04-Mar-1978	Buster
29	Skateboard booklet	05-Nov-1977	26-Nov-1977
30	More joke strips	12-Nov-1977	12-Nov-1977
31	Friends of Cheeky competition	26-Nov-1977	26-Nov-1977
32	Henery Hawk	26-Nov-1977	04-Feb-1978
33	Diary	03-Dec-1977	24-Dec-1977
34	Joke-Box Jury	10-Dec-1977	02-Feb-1980
35	Daffy Duck	24-Dec-1977	11-Mar-1978
36	Christmas Morning	31-Dec-1977	31-Dec-1977
37	Christmas Dinner	31-Dec-1977	31-Dec-1977
38	Christmas Day	31-Dec-1977	31-Dec-1977
39	Boxing Day	31-Dec-1977	31-Dec-1977
40	Creepy Pantomime	31-Dec-1977	31-Dec-1977
41	New Year's Eve	31-Dec-1977	07-Jan-1978
42	Suddenly	07-Jan-1978	24-Jun-1978
43	The Cheeky Spotter Book of Fun	07-Jan-1978	28-Jan-1978
44	Tweety	14-Jan-1978	14-Jan-1978
45	Tweety and Sylvester	21-Jan-1978	02-Dec-1978
46	4 Comics competition	28-Jan-1978	28-Jan-1978
47	Skateboard Snap	04-Feb-1978	04-Feb-1978
48	Chimp on a skateboard photo	04-Feb-1978	04-Feb-1978
49	Oi! What is My Name	11-Feb-1978	11-Feb-1978
50	Road Runner	18-Feb-1978	03-Jun-1978
51	Basil Brush competition	11-Mar-1978	11-Mar-1978
52	500 T-Shirt Winners	11-Mar-1978	11-Mar-1978
53	Easter Sunday	01-Apr-1978	01-Apr-1978
54	Easter Monday	01-Apr-1978	21-Apr-1979
55	Saturday - April Fool's Day	01-Apr-1978	01-Apr-1978
56	Name the Snail results	22-Apr-1978	22-Apr-1978
57	Skateboard competition	29-Apr-1978	29-Apr-1978
58	Send a Father's Day message	29-Apr-1978	29-Apr-1978
59	Kite Competition winners	13-May-1978	13-May-1978
60	Hid Kid what does he look like	27-May-1978	27-May-1978
61	Basil Brush competition winners	03-Jun-1978	03-Jun-1978
62	Father's Day Messages	17-Jun-1978	17-Jun-1978
63	Skateboard Competition	17-Jun-1978	17-Jun-1978
64	Tennis Competition	24-Jun-1978	24-Jun-1978
65	Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf	24-Jun-1978	30-Sep-1978	Cor!!
66	Whizzer and Chips mini comic	01-Jul-1978	01-Jul-1978
67	Calculator Kid	01-Jul-1978	02-Feb-1980
68	Buster mini comic	08-Jul-1978	08-Jul-1978
69	Paddywack	08-Jul-1978	26-Jan-1980
70	Whoopee mini comic	15-Jul-1978	15-Jul-1978
71	5 Papers Competition	22-Jul-1978	22-Jul-1978
72	Mickey Mouse Mini Comic	22-Jul-1978	22-Jul-1978
73	Draw Hid Kid winners	05-Aug-1978	05-Aug-1978
74	Archie's Angels	12-Aug-1978	16-Sep-1978	Whizzer and Chips
75	Teacher's Teasers	26-Aug-1978	23-Sep-1978
76	Silly Snaps	02-Sep-1978	20-Oct-1979
77	Crack-A-Joke Game	02-Sep-1978	23-Sep-1978
78	Readers poll	09-Sep-1978	09-Sep-1978
79	Smurfs competition	09-Sep-1978	09-Dec-1978
80	Marx Toys Competition	16-Sep-1978	16-Sep-1978
81	Hickory Dickory Doc	16-Sep-1978	16-Sep-1978	Cor!!
82	Sonny Storm	23-Sep-1978	23-Sep-1978	Cor!!
83	Cheeky's Week	30-Sep-1978	30-Jun-1979
84	Hoi! What do you get up to all week	30-Sep-1978	30-Sep-1978
85	Tub	30-Sep-1978	02-Feb-1980
86	Why, Dad, Why?	30-Sep-1978	02-Feb-1980
87	Mystery Boy	30-Sep-1978	13-Oct-1979	Whizzer and Chips
88	Elephant On The Run	30-Sep-1978	02-Feb-1980
89	Disaster Des	30-Sep-1978	02-Feb-1980
90	Cheeky's Pal Puzzle	30-Sep-1978	02-Dec-1978
91	Laugh and Learn	07-Oct-1978	09-Dec-1978
92	The Terrible Trail to Taggart's Treasure	07-Oct-1978	02-Dec-1978	Shiver and Shake
93	Ghouldilocks	14-Oct-1978	14-Oct-1978	Jag
94	Hey Presto! Magic Show	21-Oct-1978	21-Oct-1978
95	Winners of Skateboard and Tennis competitions	28-Oct-1978	28-Oct-1978
96	Who's your Super-Star	18-Nov-1978	18-Nov-1978
97	Feature Omitted	02-Dec-1978	02-Dec-1978
98	Big Four Saint Competition	02-Dec-1978	02-Dec-1978
99	Chit-Chat	09-Dec-1978	02-Feb-1980
100	The Burpo Special	09-Dec-1978	30-Jun-1979
101	Chutes Away competition winners	06-Jan-1979	06-Jan-1979
102	Eagle Eye	06-Jan-1979	24-Feb-1979	Shiver and Shake
103	Snap Game	13-Jan-1979	03-Feb-1979
104	Goonburger Maze	20-Jan-1979	20-Jan-1979
105	Your chance to vote	27-Jan-1979	17-Feb-1979
106	Spaghetti Junction maze	27-Jan-1979	27-Jan-1979
107	Train Track Maze	03-Feb-1979	03-Feb-1979
108	Tease Break	17-Feb-1979	03-Nov-1979
109	Shrove Tuesday	03-Mar-1979	03-Mar-1979
110	Ash Wednesday	03-Mar-1979	03-Mar-1979
111	Menace of the Alpha Man	03-Mar-1979	30-Jun-1979	Shiver and Shake
112	Disaster Des spot the difference	17-Mar-1979	17-Mar-1979
113	Saint competition results	24-Mar-1979	24-Mar-1979
114	Smurfs competition results	24-Mar-1979	24-Mar-1979
115	Cheeky's Jersey Pattern	31-Mar-1979	31-Mar-1979
116	Star Guest	31-Mar-1979	28-Jul-1979
117	Top Ten Poster	07-Apr-1979	28-Apr-1979
118	Top Ten Poster instructions	07-Apr-1979	28-Apr-1979
119	Good Friday	14-Apr-1979	14-Apr-1979
120	Easter Saturday	14-Apr-1979	14-Apr-1979
121	Poster instructions	21-Apr-1979	08-Sep-1979
122	Cheeky Spotter Book of Town and Around	19-May-1979	09-Jun-1979
123	Speed Squad	26-May-1979	02-Feb-1980
124	Cheeky Hustle	16-Jun-1979	16-Jun-1979
125	Who Is The Alpha Man	16-Jun-1979	16-Jun-1979
126	The Gang	07-Jul-1979	02-Feb-1980	Whizzer and Chips
127	Stage School	07-Jul-1979	02-Feb-1980
128	Snail of the Century	14-Jul-1979	02-Feb-1980
129	My favourite Cheeky pals	04-Aug-1979	04-Aug-1979
130	Giant Cheeky Poster	18-Aug-1979	08-Sep-1979
131	Alpha Man competition results	18-Aug-1979	18-Aug-1979
132	James Bond competition	08-Sep-1979	08-Sep-1979
133	Ringer Dinger	06-Oct-1979	02-Feb-1980	Whizzer and Chips
134	Booklet instructions	17-Nov-1979	17-Nov-1979
135	Soggy the Sea Monster	17-Nov-1979	02-Feb-1980	Shiver and Shake
136	Knock-Knock booklet	17-Nov-1979	17-Nov-1979
137	Manhole Man booklet	24-Nov-1979	24-Nov-1979
138	Doctor Joke booklet	01-Dec-1979	01-Dec-1979
139	Six-Gun Sam booklet	08-Dec-1979	08-Dec-1979
140	Mechanic Jokes booklet	15-Dec-1979	15-Dec-1979
141	Cheeky Chuckles	15-Dec-1979	15-Dec-1979
142	Junior Jet Club Competition	22-Dec-1979	22-Dec-1979
143	Constable Chuckle booklet	22-Dec-1979	22-Dec-1979
144	Christmas Jokes booklet	29-Dec-1979	29-Dec-1979
145	Christmas Card	29-Dec-1979	29-Dec-1979
146	Christmas Quiz	29-Dec-1979	29-Dec-1979
147	Jogging Jeremy booklet	05-Jan-1980	05-Jan-1980
148	Farmer Giles booklet	12-Jan-1980	12-Jan-1980
149	Petula Jokes booklet	19-Jan-1980	19-Jan-1980
150	Spot the Difference	19-Jan-1980	19-Jan-1980
151	Jogging Jeremy's Weakly Exercise Routine	19-Jan-1980	19-Jan-1980
152	Mr Chips booklet	26-Jan-1980	26-Jan-1980

The Rejects – Big Strong Sam\Steve

April 21, 2015, 6:32 am

≫ Next: Whizzer and Chips - The Cheeky Raids part 9

≪ Previous: Features Ordered by Date of Commencement

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In previous instalments of this series of 'The Rejects' posts, I've examined supporting characters from the 'Ello, it's Cheeky\'Ello I'm Cheeky pages of Krazy who, despite being given a name, didn't accompany the toothy funster into the pages of his own comic. However, the character coming under the spotlight today failed to make the break into Cheeky Weekly even though he was given two names.

Scrap yard worker Big Strong Sam made his debut in Krazy issue 2, dated 23 October 1976. All the artwork below is by Frank McDiarmid.

Krazy 23 October 1976 This page also saw the debut of Manhole Man

A week later the Big Strong one returned, but now called Steve and seemingly the sibling of a Cheeky Weekly stalwart who made his debut on this page. This time Cheeky's muscular mate featured across a whole page, so at this point it looked as though he may become one of the regular cast of Cheeky's pals (if only the scriptwriter could sort his name out).

Krazy 30 October 1976

Sam\Steve was back in Krazy dated 27 November 1976 where he was unnamed among the Krazy Town FC 'supporters' at Saturday's match.

Krazy 27 November 1976

In the 04 December 1976 issue the mighty metal merchant reverted to his original name...

Krazy 04 December 1976

...but by the time of his next appearance in Krazy dated 26 February 1977 his name had changed back again...

Krazy 22 February 1977

And Steve it remained for his next Krazy outing...

Krazy 26 March 1977

Sam\Steve was then absent from Krazy until his final appearance, a silent and unnamed cameo in the first birthday issue dated 08 October 1977...

Krazy 08 October 1977

So despite a promising start, Cheeky's scrapyard stooge eventually fell into obscurity. Maybe the scriptwriter couldn't think of many 'strong' jokes. If Sam\Steve had transferred into Cheeky Weekly there would have been the opportunity to develop him into Ursula's boyfriend.

Whizzer and Chips - The Cheeky Raids part 9

April 28, 2015, 3:02 pm

≫ Next: The Mike Lacey and Jimmy Hansen Crisis! Part 1

≪ Previous: The Rejects – Big Strong Sam\Steve

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New readers start here... After Cheeky Weekly folded and was incorporated into Whoopee as of February 1980 six strips that had originated in the toothy funster's title survived the merge and continued to appear in the amalgamated comic. Whoopee itself foundered in March 1985 and was merged into Whizzer and Chips. Three of the surviving Cheeky Weekly strips successfully negotiated this second merge and went on to appear in the newly combined publication, rather inelegantly titled 'Whizzer and Chips now including Whoopee'. The survivors were Mustapha Million, Calculator Kid and (appearing only once) Stage School. Cheeky continued to appear, but as a member of The Krazy Gang, who had moved into W&C when Krazy, the comic in which the Gang originated, expired in April 1978.

Whizzer and Chips had a long tradition of sending characters from the Chips section into Whizzer and vice versa. These cross-comic forays were known as 'raids'. In this series of posts I'm chronicling the raids involving the ex-Cheeky Weekly characters who made the transition into Whizzer and Chips, all of whom were allocated to the Chips section. For the purposes of this series, although this particular manifestation of the toothy funster didn't directly descend from Cheeky Weekly, I'm including Cheeky's Krazy Gang appearances as those of an 'ex-Cheeky Weekly character'.

Two weeks after the previous raid involving an ex-Cheeky Weekly character, Mustapha Million's adventure (in which we meet his cousin Ahmed) was intruded upon by a rotten raider. Can you spot the infiltrator? Scroll down for the answer.

Whizzer and Chips 27 July 1985 Art: Joe McCaffrey

It's that pesky Whizz-Kid prankster, Joker.

The Mustapha story above reminds me of a joke that was often heard in the 1970s and directed at a UK car manufacturer that underwent a series of misfortunes during that troubled decade...

1^st Man: I'm getting my little boy a cowboy outfit for Christmas.

2^nd Man:Really?

1^st Man:Yes, I'm buying him British Leyland.

For the benefit of any mystified overseas readers, the joke plays on an alternate, informal use of  'cowboy', meaning incompetent, inefficient, dishonest.

No doubt there were other versions of the joke aimed at British Rail, The Post Office etc. 'Mickey Mouse outfit' was also often substituted.

This was the second time that Mustapha had been raided, but he had been a raider on two previous occasions. Ex-Cheeky Weekly characters had by this time perpetrated just 3 raids while suffering 7.

More raiding fun soon!

Whizzer and Chips Cover Date	Raider	Raided
06 April 1985	Mustapha Million	Super Steve
04 May 1985	Bloggs (Store Wars)	Mustapha Million
11 May 1985	Joker	The Krazy Gang (Cheeky)
18 May 1985	Calculator Kid & Calc	Odd-Ball
01 June 1985	Animalad Mustapha Million	The Krazy Gang (Cheeky) Boy Boss
08 June 1985	Odd-Ball	Calculator Kid
06 July 1985	Toy Boy	Calculator Kid
13 July 1985	Pa Bumpkin	The Krazy Gang (Cheeky)
27 July 1985	Joker	Mustapha Million

The Mike Lacey and Jimmy Hansen Crisis! Part 1

May 4, 2015, 6:58 am

≫ Next: The Mike Lacey and Jimmy Hansen Crisis! Part 2

≪ Previous: Whizzer and Chips - The Cheeky Raids part 9

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Regular readers of this blog will be aware of an ongoing series of posts in which I am documenting the 'Cheeky raids' in Whizzer and Chips. In order to research this series I embarked on, and continue, a programme of re-reading all the issues of Whizzer and Chips commencing from the Whoopee merge in March 1985. This is the first time I have looked at these issues since I bought them weekly as they were being published.

This exercise has been quite instructive in ways other than relating to the Cheeky raids. I have been pleasantly surprised to find how good the comic was as it reached this late stage in its life (I'm currently up to the February 1987 issues). The old faves - Odd-Ball, Joker, Sweeny Toddler to name but three - continued giving good value, and some fun newcomers - Bottom of the Class, Memory Banks, for example - kept the mix bubbling nicely. Furthermore, some gaps in my (far from comprehensive) comic knowledge have been filled as on a number of occasions during the period in question readers wrote in to W&C asking who drew particular strips. Thus was the true identity of the first Store Wars artist revealed a few weeks back. Now I have learned something that has exposed a serious deficiency in my comics knowledge and plunged me into a bit of a crisis.

Actually, this comics quandary began developing a few weeks ago when I read a W&C letters page in which a reader asked the name of the artist who drew Shiner. Now, I'd always believed that the stories of the head Chip-ite were drawn by Mike Lacey, so I was not a little surprised to read that the adventures of our black-eye-sporting buddy in fact originated from the pen of Jimmy Hansen. Jimmy's was a name that I was aware of, but for some reason had never attributed to any particular strips. My shock at learning I had mis-identified the hand behind Shiner for so many years (never mind the fact that I must have read the same letter when the comic first came out) induced a crisis of confidence in my artist-identifying skills, which I thought were pretty good in respect of IPC humour comics of the 70s and 80s. I realised I suffered an ingrained blindness as to the different styles of Messrs Lacey and Hansen and really couldn't identify one from the other. A very odd feeling. I then entered a state of denial about the whole episode.

My inability to accept the reality of the situation was shattered when I read the following letters page in Whizzer and Chips dated 28 Fenruary 1987...

That was another of my comics certainties destroyed - I'd always believed the Bumpkins to have been by Mike.

By this time it was clear I needed to re-evaluate any references to Mike Lacey on this blog.

First of all, let's have a look at the Bumpkins strip from the same issue of W&C in which the above letter appeared...

Art: Jimmy Hansen

And, for comparison, here's the Phil Fitt story from the same edition, and I think this is by Mike Lacey...

Using just one strip from each artist to identify their differences is difficult of course, but I have been studying multiple examples over the last couple of weeks and I think I'm now beginning to see the differences. It's hard to generalise about the divergences in their style, but I would say Jimmy's work goes more into extremes of action and facial expression (sometimes bordering on the grotesque), whereas Mike's work is a little more reserved.

I have now begun to re-evaluate the Cheeky Weekly work that I have heretofore attributed to Mike Lacey. I began by looking at Skateboard Squad and its successor Speed Squad.

Let's pick a page from each and have a look at the drawing style...

...I reckon the above is by Jimmy Hansen - note the face in panel 8; not a Mike Lacey expression..

..the women in this Speed Squad strip seem to be variations on a theme of Ma Bumpkin so I'm going for Jimmy Hansen again.

I'd welcome any comments about my re-identification, whether you agree with my conclusions or not, before I go ahead and update the blog (and then go on to look at the remaining work I have attributed to Mike). Cheers!

The Mike Lacey and Jimmy Hansen Crisis! Part 2

May 5, 2015, 7:15 am

≫ Next: The Mike Lacey and Jimmy Hansen Crisis! Part 3

≪ Previous: The Mike Lacey and Jimmy Hansen Crisis! Part 1

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I retrieved the issue of Whizzer and Chips with the same cover date as the first Cheeky Weekly. My plan is to identify (to the best of my ability) any work by Mike Lacey in that issue of W&C, then compare it with the first Skateboard Squad strip in Cheeky Weekly. I'm working on the assumption that Jimmy Hansen didn't begin providing artwork for IPC product until some years later.

First up in the potential-Mike-Lacey stakes is Sid's Snake. To me this seems to be classic Mike Lacey (even though the printing quality is rather rough).

The next contender is Shiner. The style is a bit different to the work on Sid (which has a kind of 'gentler', less extreme look about it, but of course there's not a lot of action in Sid's story), but assuming this was before the Jimmy Hansen era, I reckon it is Mike Lacey. The 'two parallel line legs' with little evidence of knees is a key indicator of Mike's work for me.

The final strip from this issue which has the hallmarks of Mr Lacey (to my eyes, anyway) is this Pete's Pockets. The style is closer to that evident on Shiner than the Sid artwork. However, I suspect this may be a reprint from some years earlier which could account for the slight difference in rendition. The legs, although somewhat obscured by Wellingtons, certainly seem to be typical of Mike. Thus my decision is that this is by Mike.

Now let's compare the work above with the first Skateboard Squad strip...

I don't know about you, but I can see a few Lacey legs in there. The style seems pretty close to that evident in Shiner above, so I'm relatively certain now that this Skateboard Squad is by Mike. Maybe I won't need to reassign the artwork credits after all. More investigations coming soon.

UPDATE - I was just glancing at some covers as I put the W&Cs away when I noticed this Sid story from the previous issue to that shown above. I believe this is by Mike, but the legs are more contoured than his Shiner and Pete legs. Did Mike, like Tom Paterson, concurrently use different styles of drawing for certain strips?

The Mike Lacey and Jimmy Hansen Crisis! Part 3

May 12, 2015, 6:48 am

≫ Next: Cheeky Weekly cover date 21 July 1979

≪ Previous: The Mike Lacey and Jimmy Hansen Crisis! Part 2

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I spent a while searching online for any info about Jimmy Hansen, to try to get some idea of when his first IPC work appeared. There hardly seem to be any online references to Jimmy, certainly no detailed ones. He's absent from Lambiek, but there are a few mentions of him on the Buster website, although none of them give any idea of his earliest work. There is no topic about him on Wikipedia.

A mention on Dez Skinn's site says Jimmy Hansen was working for IPC in (what I take to be) the early 70s, although in what capacity Jim was employed at that time is not made clear.

A search on the Comics UK forum returns 6 pages of posts referring to Mr H, but a lot of them pertain to his later work for DC Thomson and none that I could see mentioned the dates of his early stuff.

If it's true that Jimmy's first IPC work appeared in the mid-80s, then he can't have drawn anything in Cheeky Weekly. However, the reference to Jimmy in Dez Skinn's article means there is a possibility that Hansen art began appearing in IPC titles any time from the early 70s.

I've decided I'm going to leave unchanged all the artwork credits on this blog that I have assigned to Mike Lacey.

Crisis over...or is it?

Cheeky Weekly cover date 21 July 1979

May 20, 2015, 1:39 am

≫ Next: The Pages - Page 20

≪ Previous: The Mike Lacey and Jimmy Hansen Crisis! Part 3

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Art: Gran - Ian Knox (artwork originally appeared in Gran's strip in Cheeky Weekly dated 18 November 1978), Cheeky - Mike Lacey. Yet again Gran is described as Bionic, when it was clearly stated in her opening episode  that she is a robot.

Which is the most striking feature on this week's cover? The above-title banner which makes reference to the daily nature of Cheeky's strips? The dynamic depiction of synthetic senior citizen 6 Million Dollar Gran? The canine capers in which Cheeky and Petula are engaged? Well, if your pocket money is being stretched to its last penny chew, the most significant item is the cover price which has increased by 1p to 10p as of this issue. This inflationary attack on juvenile spending power is presided over by a beaming toothy funster, who seems delighted to see the new price.

However, readers should have arrived at the newsagent equipped with the requisite cash, since our grinning pal announced the impending rise in the cost of our favourite title on the final Saturday page of last week's issue.

This is the second price rise for Cheeky Weekly, the first saw the cost rise from 8 to 9p just 10 months ago, as of the 16 September 1978 edition (although on that occasion the unwelcome increase was offset by the presence of a prize competition).

On page 2 Frank McDiarmid depicts a typically side-splitting Sunday for the toothy funster, as Cheeky indulges in banter with a selection of Krazy Town folk while negotiating his weekly paper round.

Public-spirited Calc devises a plan, making use of a fortuitous fluctuation in atmospheric conditions, to clean up the streets in this weeks' Calculator Kid.

Art: Terry Bave

Further litter larks are in evidence during this week's adventure of The Gang...

Art: Robert MacGillivray. Reprinted from Whizzer and Chips where it appeared as The Double Deckers

Paying a Star Guest visit to Cheeky Weekly this issue is Whizzer and Chips' wee whippersnapper, Sammy Shrink.

Cheeky has an eerie encounter with a new pal on Thursday; it's that funny phantasm, the ghastly gagster himself, Spook.

Art: Frank McDiarmid pencils

There's farmyard fun on Saturday, culminating in a rustic repast courtesy of Farmer Giles...

Art: Frank McDiarmid pencils

...following which the comic rounds off with Snail of the Century.

Some characters from Cheek's Week make their final appearance in this issue - Baby Burpo's mum and dad, and Scruffbag the school cat.

The Cheeky's Week features in this issue consist of 5 which are pure Frank McDiarmid, and 4 that are inked by another artist (or Frank McDiarmid pencils as I usually refer to such art).

Cheeky's Week Artists Cover Date 21-Jul-1979

Artist	Elements
Frank McDiarmid	5
Frank McDiarmid pencils	4

Cheeky Weekly	Cover Date: 21-Jul-1979, Issue 89 of 117
Page	Details
1	Cover Feature '6 Million Dollar Gran' 3 of 3 - Art Ian Knox (final art on feature) 'Petula' 2 of 3 - Art Mike Lacey
2	Sunday - Art Frank McDiarmid
3	Calculator Kid - Art Terry Bave
4	6 Million Dollar Gran - Art Nigel Edwards
5	6 Million Dollar Gran - Art Nigel Edwards
6	6 Million Dollar Gran - Art Nigel Edwards
7	Monday - Art Frank McDiarmid
8	The Gang reprint from Whizzer and Chips - Art Robert MacGillivray
9	The Gang reprint from Whizzer and Chips - Art Robert MacGillivray
10	Joke-Box Jury\Ad: IPC 'Whoopee Summer Special' 2 of 2
11	Star Guest 'Sammy Shrink' - Art Terry Bave (single art on feature)
12	Tuesday - Art Frank McDiarmid
13	Disaster Des - Art Mike Lacey
14	Stage School - Art Robert Nixon
15	Stage School - Art Robert Nixon
16	Elephant On The Run - Art Robert Nixon
17	Elephant On The Run - Art Robert Nixon
18	Wednesday - Art Frank McDiarmid
19	Mystery Boy reprint from Whizzer and Chips
20	Mustapha Million - Art Joe McCaffrey
21	Mustapha Million - Art Joe McCaffrey
22	Thursday - Art Frank McDiarmid pencils
23	Speed Squad - Art Mike Lacey
24	Chit-Chat
25	Chit-Chat\Tub - Art Nigel Edwards
26	Friday - Art Frank McDiarmid pencils
27	Why, Dad, Why? - Art John K. Geering
28	Paddywack - Art Jack Clayton
29	Ad: IPC 'Jackpot Summer Special' 2 of 2 Ad: 'Puzzle Time' 1 of 6
30	Saturday - Art Frank McDiarmid pencils
31	Saturday - Art Frank McDiarmid pencils
32	Snail of the Century - Art Frank McDiarmid

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The Pages - Page 20

May 26, 2015, 2:59 pm

≫ Next: Jubilee Japes

≪ Previous: Cheeky Weekly cover date 21 July 1979

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As has been documented in earlier posts in this series, the distribution of features around the early issues of Cheeky Weekly was somewhat different to that which became established as the comic settled into a routine. Thus the concluding segment of Creepy Sleepy Tale - along with its inseparable companion piece Wednesday (conclusion) - was allocated a temporary resting place on page 20 in the first 2 issues of the toothy funster's comic. The cinematic slapstick of Home Moviethen moved in to the page in question, but was itself deposed a week later by the Friday element of Cheeky's Week. This initial period of volatility was then calmed somewhat by a 6 week return run of Home Movie. However, Friday then returned for a week, followed seven days later by a What's New Kids advertising feature page in the 07 January 1978 edition. This page may have tempted any readers with some spare Christmas money in the immediate post-festive period to lay out some cash on a Marx Toys plastic fort, Action Man books or (maybe a little less skewed towards the male readership) Thomas Salter Practical Joker kits which Cheeky was promoting.

Tubby Thomson and his Home Movie pals then returned to page 20 for a 3-week run, before being interrupted by for one issue by Cheeky and his Thursday doings. Home Movie enjoyed another 3-weeks in residence on page 20 before being rudely interrupted by a double dose of animal shenanigans on page 20 in the 04 March 1978 comic – namely Bam Splat and Blooie together with fellow Buster reprintee, Cocky Doodle (who was in fact cocking, in that issue, his final Cheeky Weekly doodle).

No doubt having swept the area of of any lingering evidence of poultry, Tubby Thomson and his intrepid band of cineastes resumed possession of page 20 for a further 7 weeks, during which they tackled such cinematic greats as 2001 A Space Oddity and Mary Popkins.

This filmic feast was interrupted by a page depicting Cheeky's Friday in the 29 April 1978 comic, after which Home Movie resumed for a valedictory 6-week run which brought the series to a conclusion and made it, at 26 episodes, the most frequent occupant of page 20.

The following week saw a skateboard competition fill the vacancy left by the departing movie moguls, while 7 days later, in the 17 June 1978 edition, the reader participation gagfest that was Joke-Box Jury shared page 20 with an ad for Twirly, the 'fantastic flying hover toy'. Manufacturer Humbrol no doubt planned on shifting as many of these plastic and balsa units as possible during the summer months.

Our moneyed mate Mustapha Million was the next to occupy the subject location, but his tenure on this occasion was brief as a week later Thursday moved back in and stayed for a total of 3 weeks. Mustapha then returned for 2 further weeks, before being displaced by Charlie Counter aka Calculator Kid making his single page 20 appearance.

The Friday element of Cheeky's week then fetched up for a single issue before Mustapha gained control of page 20 for 2 weeks, relinquishing his temporary resting place to Thursday for a further 2 issues.

Mustapha then returned, but a big change was introduced a week later, which saw the comic undergo some dramatic reorganisation.

That change was of course the incorporation of the Mystery Comic into Cheeky Weekly as of the 30 September 1978 issue, which saw a number of new strips occupy the centre pages of our favourite title. Newcomer Disaster Des staked his claim to page 20 as from that date and held his position for a run amounting to 7 weeks before he was deposed for one issue by his fellow Mystery Comic stars, the father-and-son-funsters of Why, Dad, Why? Des returned for a week but clearly his grip on page 20 had been loosened, as he gave way to Paddywack in the following issue dated 02 December 1978. No doubt you're asking why Paddywack, not a member of the Mystery Comic crew, came to rest on a page which should have been allocated to a MC strip. The answer is that the issue in question was the first of 2 editions which were truncated due to an industrial dispute, and the reduced contents were displaced as a consequence. Thus non-MC feature Joke-Box Jury found itself the surprise occupant of page 20 a week later for the same reason.

There then followed 3 weeks during which Cheeky Weekly failed to be printed.

On resuming publication with a full 32-page issue dated 06 January 1979, Disaster Des was once again ensconced on the page in question, but in the following 2 issues Des was deposed by the Mystery Comic's adventure serial, Mystery Boy. Des then returned for a further run, this time amounting to 4 weeks, before being replaced for the second time by Why, Dad, Why? The disastrous one then reappeared on page 20 for just a week, and was supplanted again by Why, Dad, Why? who moved in this time for a 3-week sojourn.

Mystery Boy then set up camp as of the 31 March 1979 issue, but remained for only 2 weeks, after which Mustapha Million resumed occupation, himself for just 2 issues. Disaster Des made his return a week later, but ceded control of page 20 to the irascible Dad and inquisitive Son antics of Why, Dad, Why? who occupied the subject location for just one week.

Our plucky World War 2 amnesiac chum, Mystery Boy, then found himself on page 20 again, but was displaced the following week by Disaster Des who in turn gave way, in what seemed to be a developing cycle, to Why, Dad, Why?

However, the titanic Des/Mystery Boy/Why Dad Why? tussle over page 20 was not in evidence in the comic dated 02 June 1979 when a segment of the Cheeky Spotter Book of Town and Around came to rest in that location. Having been thusly interrupted, Des resumed occupation for three more weeks. This run ended Des' tenure on page 20, where our pariah pal became the second most tenacious strip to feature (hardly a disaster), clocking up a creditable 19 visits.

In the following issue, dated 30 June 1979, the Mystery Comic as a comic-within-a-comic made its final appearance in Cheeky Weekly and MC stars Why, Dad, Why? enjoyed their final outing on page 20. For the following 2 editions page 20 was home, as the erstwhile centre-page-hugging MC strips found themselves scattered about the comic, to our boneheaded buddy Paddywack, but there followed 3 weeks in which Mustapha Million moved in. The aspiring showbiz students of Stage School then made a 2-week bid for control, but were dislodged by a returning Mustapha. However, Mustapha's hold on the page lasted for only 2 editions after which an advert for Trebor's Double Agents broke the big-spender's grip on page 20.

Reader participation features then monopolised page 20 for over 2 months; the Chit-Chat letters page moved in for a 6-week run before being ousted by Joke-Box Jury in the 27 October 1979 comic. A further run of Chit-Chat, this time lasting for 2 editions, ensued.

As of the 10 November 1979 issue Thursday took occupancy of page 20, lodging there for the 12 weeks that remained until Cheeky Weekly ceased publication with the 02 February 1980 edition, and making Thursday the third most regular page 20 denizen (and just 1 behind Des) with a total of 18 visits.

A quick look at my post on page 'churn' reveals that page 20 exhibited 52 churn events during its run, making it the 19th most-afflicted-by-churn* Cheeky Weekly location.

*I must admit that I now tend to think of churn as an affliction of comic pages purely because a high incidence of churn in a particular location requires more effort when writing these 'pages' posts. However, as a reader of comics I think a certain amount of churn makes a title more interesting and keeps it fresh. The Beano of the 1970s & 80s very seldom varied the pages on which the features appeared (I think the only time things moved was when one strip came to an end and was replaced by another) which contributed to making the comic, in my opinion, extremely tedious (sorry for the heresy, Beano fans!).

Count of Elements (or distinct combinations thereof) appearing on Page 20

Elements	Total
Home Movie	26
Disaster Des	19
Thursday	18
Mustapha Million 1/2	12
Why, Dad, Why?	8
Chit-Chat 1/2	7
Mystery Boy	5
Friday	3
Paddywack	3
Creepy Sleepy Tale 2/2\Wednesday (conclusion)	2
Advertisement: Trebor	1
Bam Splat and Blooie\Cocky Doodle	1
Calculator Kid	1
Cheeky Spotter Book of Town and Around 2/2	1
Chit-Chat	1
Friday 1/2	1
Joke-Box Jury	1
Joke-Box Jury 2/3	1
Joke-Box Jury\Advertisement: Twirly	1
Mustapha Million 2/2	1
Skateboard Competition	1
Stage School	1
Stage School 1/2	1
What's New, Kids	1

Jubilee Japes

June 1, 2015, 1:02 pm

≫ Next: The features – The Gang

≪ Previous: The Pages - Page 20

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Peter Gray has posted some lovely Cheeky work from the Silver Jubilee edition of Krazy (in the days when Cheeky still had a 'K' on his jumper - he changed his pullover to one bearing a 'C' as of Krazy dated 20 August 1977 in his own strip, although it was a week later before the toothy funster's C jumper appeared on the Krazy Gang pages).

The features – The Gang

June 9, 2015, 6:37 am

≫ Next: Cheeky Weekly Star Guests in Whizzer and Chips (part 9)

≪ Previous: Jubilee Japes

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Gangs of various descriptions have been a staple of British comics since newsagents began selling weeklies packed with strip cartoon fun. From the Casey Court Kids via their Bash Street colleagues to The Krazy Gang (numbering in their ranks a certain toothy funster of our acquaintance), comic fans have enjoyed seeing an unruly bunch of youths contending with authority in all its comic-portrayed forms (usually teachers or coppers). Cheeky Weekly hadn't indulged in gang-based fun prior to the 1979 revamp issue. Skateboard Squad/Speed Squad were too public-spirited (and too few) to be regarded as a gang, and although the huge cast of the Cheeky's Week features would certainly satisfy the requirements of a gang in numerical terms, they just weren't a cohesive bunch with the requisite 'them against the world' feel of a true gang.

Thus it was a bit of a surprise to find two gangs elbowing their way into the comic in a single week.

The second new gang of the aforementioned 07 July 1979 revamp edition, making their debut on page 14 of the issue in question and putting a showbiz spin on the archetypal kids-versus-teacher setup was Stage School. However, blazing the trail of Cheeky Weekly team-based fun as it premiered on page 10 was a strip so blatantly gang-focused that it bore a stark name  – The Gang. Was this, then, a distillation of all the gang strips that had preceded it, an utter refinement of the gang genre, ripping away all superfluous ideas and reducing the concept to a basic kernel of truth?

Er, actually, no, it was just a retitled reprint of The Double Deckers from Whizzer and Chips but no-one could be bothered to think of a better title.

Here Come The Double Deckers was a children's TV comedy/music show which premiered in the UK in January 1971. The titular youths lived in a London bus (static, I hasten to add), and the comic strip version commenced, under a banner reading 'Here's a brand-new fun feature with a new brand of laughter! The T.V. success...', in the Chips section of Whizzer and Chips dated 22 June 1971. The strip's title was reduced to 'The Double Deckers' and the title panel incorporated a vintage bus design as well as carrying the copyright of Twentieth Century Fox Films Inc (copyright on subsequent strips in the W&C run was assigned to Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. & Century Film Productions Ltd.).

Quite what sort of arrangement IPC had with the property's owners is a bit of a puzzle, but presumably the copyright at some point expired to a point which allowed the publishers, with a little judicious adjustment, to use the artwork again 8 years later.

The first episode of The Gang, Cheeky Weekly 07 July 1979. This is an adjusted reprint of the first Double Deckers story from Whizzer and Chips, 22 June 1971 Art: Robert MacGillivray, as is all the art below

Sections of the bus are only occasionally glimpsed in the course of the stories contained in the reprinted strips (and The Gang's unusual home is directly mentioned only in the 15 September and 06 October 1979 adventures), but the kids' vehicular lodgings weren't particularly prominent in most of those of the original which I have seen (the story in which The Double Deckers repaint their omnibus dwelling, which originally appeared in Whizzer and Chips dated 07 August 1981, wasn't among those reprinted in the Cheeky run). Along with the substitution of the title, removal of the bus motif, and excision of the copyright notice, certain further tweaking was performed in preparation for the strip's Cheeky Weekly outing. Billie's pigtail was removed and the offensive depictions of Spring (the black member of the team) were redrawn, while his name was changed to Joss (or Jos on one occasion). Brains' tie was also drawn out. Curiously, some onomatopoeiaic embellishments of the 'zip', 'zoom' variety were also added to certain panels. Despite these amendments, any Cheeky Weekly readers having a passing acquaintance with the Double Deckers' screen adventures (which had almost certainly been repeated at least once in the years since its premiere) would have instantly recognised the similarity between The Gang and the TV show.

An example of altered artwork. Original on the left. Evidently it was felt Brains''I say' was too posh and his tie was too smart!

The story that originally appeared in Whizzer and Chips dated 09 October 1971, concerning a children's party was, on its 29 December 1979 Cheeky Weekly reprinting, converted into a Christmas tale by the addition of some seasonal dialogue and Christmas decorations. Joss/Spring was, in a scene showing him dancing, allocated a speech balloon reading 'Disco Kid's been giving me lessons'. This wasn't the only occasion on which The Gang was tied in to Cheeky's Week - in the 02 February 1980 story, Scooper is seen reading a comic whose title has been altered to 'Cheeky'.

However, these were the only attempts made to connect The Gang with the rest of the toothy funster's comic. One of Cheeky Weekly's unique features - the linking of all the various strips into our grinning pal's week (e.g. James Bold being framed within Cheeky's Week as a novel read by Cheeky and later viewed at the cinema, Creepy Sleepy Tale being a bedtime story told to Baby Burpo etc) - was dropped as of the 1979 revamp. Cheeky Weekly was entering a decline by this stage in its life. Because of this connection between the arrival of The Gang and the drop in care taken over the production of the comic, I've always been unsure whether my dislike for the strip is justified. On reflection, I realise that I like Stage School, which appeared in the same circumstances (although to be fair Stage School isn't a reprint which is another reason why I'm not a fan of the young bus dwellers), so sorry Gang, but you just didn't do it for me.

Robert MacGillivray was the artist on all 31 Cheeky Weekly episodes of The Gang, all of which were 2-page stories. 15 stories were in spot colour (red) with the remainder in black and white. The reprint run was uninterrupted from its debut until the final issue. Wikipedia suggests there were 52 strips in the original Whizzer and Chips run of The Double Deckers.

The Cheeky Holiday Special 1980 included 2 Gang adventures reprinted from Whizzer and Chips, and 2 Gang adventures were featured in the Cheeky Annual cover-dated 1981. In the case of the Annual, the artwork was resized to convert each of what had originally been 2-pagers into stories spanning 4 Annual pages. Oddly, although Billie's hairstyle was redrawn for the reprints in the Holiday Special and Annual, as it had been in the weekly comic, no alterations were made to Joss'/Spring's face to match those made in the weekly Gang stories. The first Gang story in the Annual was printed in full colour (the second was in black and white) and had some text altered to refer to Krazy Town.

The Gang also participated in IPC's 1979 Star Guest promotion, ironically paying a visit to their comic of origin, Whizzer and Chips, dated 21July 1979. In this case it appears their story was edited down from 2 pages into a single page.

This page on a Double Deckers fan site suggests that The Gang was reprinted in an 'Australian magazine' in the late 1970s, but I suspect the reprints referred to are those from Cheeky Weekly. The example pages shown have been incorrectly paired up.

The Gang in the Cheeky Weekly Index

Feature	First Appearance	Final Appearance	Total Issues	Total Issues Missed In Run	Page History
The Gang	07-Jul-79	02-Feb-80	31	0	4,5,8,9,10,11,12,13,18,19,22,23,24,25

Feature	Artist	Number of Issues	First Appearance	Final Appearance
The Gang	Robert MacGillivray	31	07-Jul-1979	02-Feb-1980

Cheeky Weekly Star Guests in Whizzer and Chips (part 9)

June 16, 2015, 7:34 am

≫ Next: More on Mike Lacey and Jimmy Hansen (plus a few treats)

≪ Previous: The features – The Gang

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Week 17 of IPC's 1979 Star Guest promotion (in participating comics cover-dated 21 July 1979) means attention turns once again to Whizzer and Chips. In fact this is the 9^thand final Cheeky Weekly Star Guest visit to the famous 'two comics in one', as we have reached the promotion's penultimate week and Whoopee will be hosting the concluding Cheeky Weekly Star Guest.

So which strip has been chosen to make the final promotional sortie into Whizz-kid and Chip-ite territory?

Whizzer and Chips 21 July 1979 Art: Robert MacGillivray

Any long-time Whizzer and Chips readers will immediately recognise this strip as a rehash of The Double Deckers, who graced W&C's pages from 1971 – 1972. Reprints, altered and retitled somewhat unimaginatively The Gang, commenced in Cheeky Weekly just 2 weeks ago, in the issue dated 07 July 1979.

All the Double Deckers stories I have seen from the original run were 2-pagers and this, together with the fact that the above strip commences with our heroes in the midst of an arboreal predicament, suggests that this may just be the second page of what was originally a double-page spread.

Given that the strip originated in Whizzer and Chips it's a bit of an odd Star Guest choice. Admittedly there are unlikely to be many readers still taking the comic who were reading it 7 years ago when the first Double Deckers series ended and would recognise this as a W&C cast-off.But surely Star Guest should showcase the best/most popular features that Cheeky Weekly has to offer, and clearly there has not been sufficient time to collect any reader feedback on the popularity of the strip in the 2 weeks since The Gang first appeared.

To select an old and hacked-about story from an untried (in its altered form) strip just adds to my impression that IPC management had little enthusiasm for Cheeky Weekly by this stage, and were beginning to run the comic down as the inevitable merge loomed. 

The message at the bottom of the page wasn't wrong as The Gang did indeed appear in Cheeky Weekly every week from their debut in the 07 July 1979 comic until the final edition, meaning any readers adopting the toothy funster's title as of the concurrent issue would have 'enjoyed' 29 episodes of erstwhile Double Decker doings.

More on Mike Lacey and Jimmy Hansen (plus a few treats)

June 23, 2015, 9:15 am

≫ Next: The Framing Devices - A History

≪ Previous: Cheeky Weekly Star Guests in Whizzer and Chips (part 9)

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Art: Mike Lacey

Following my earlier posts about Mike Lacey and Jimmy Hansen, I thought I'd post this page from Whizzer and Chips dated 30 May 1987 since, thanks to reader Matthew Blaken's enquiry on the Whizz-kids page we know (as if there was any doubt) that the cover story is drawn by Mike Lacey.

Although Sid doesn't mention it (possibly because the strip in question is located within rival comic Chips), Mike also drew Phil Fitt in that issue.

Jimmy Hansen was responsible for the artwork on Shiner...

...and the Bumpkin Billionaires...

..I like the security guard with club and slavering hound, and it's always good to see Miss Wobblethrope get a namecheck.

Referring back to the Whizz-kids letters page, you may be wondering what Sid's 'bigger and brighter' remarks referred to. Here's a clue from the same issue...

Yes, that same week IPC stablemate Buster had undergone a 'bigger-brighter' transformation. Now, I haven't got many copies of Buster and I certainly don't have the issue referred to above. However, if it's anything like the 13 June 1987 issue of Whizzer and Chips (the first supposedly bigger issue), I think IPC were flirting with a somewhat fluid interpretation of the word 'bigger' as, while the pages of the new-style issue were slightly taller than those which preceded them, they were also narrower. The number of pages remained the same at 32, and although there was more colour, not all of the colour pages were in full colour. The paper quality was slightly improved resulting in clearer printing.

Anyway, all this excitement lay in the future for readers of the 30 May 1987 edition of Whizzer and Chips, which was a nice issue with a number of interesting happenings (in addition to those I've posted above) which I thought I'd share with you.

I like Tom Paterson's choice of pseudonym on this Sweeny Toddler page...

...good to see Cheeky getting a mention even though it is just the punchline to a botty joke.

Here's Sweet-Tooth, including an artist self-portrait wherein Trevor Metcalfe is seen accepting a bribe!

Up next is some manure-based merriment with Winnie, drawn by Ian Knox. This must be the only IPC strip to depict a rectal examination...

Let's see what our pecunious pal Mustapha is up to, still going strong 7 years after Cheeky Weekly folded...

...I really like Barry Glennard's work on Mustapha, it livened the strip up nicely.

I'll round off with Lazy Bones, in colour on the back cover and drawn by Bob Hill, who had taken over artwork duties on the strip from Colin Whittock when Colin started drawing Whizzer and Chips' two-pages-a-week Mizz Marble...

As if having the Lacey/Hansen uncertainty to contend with wasn't enough, an old controversy that I thought had been resolved has just re-emerged - in this interview, Colin Whittock refers to the artist above as Len Hill! I thought we'd solved the riddle of 'Mr' Hill's surname back here. I'm sticking with calling him Bob!

The Framing Devices - A History

July 7, 2015, 2:57 am

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The conversation in IPC's offices in 1977 may have proceeded something like this...

“Ok, so we've decided that we're going to launch a comic based around the Cheeky character from Krazy. The purpose of this meeting is to decide on the new comic's title and discuss the contents. Anyone got ideas for the title?”

“Cheeky's Comic?”

“Nah, any more?”

“Cheeky Chuckles?”

“Hmm, not really.”

“Toothy Fun?”

“Get out.”

“Er, how about Cheeky Weekly? The comic is published every week, see, and it almost rhymes and it's quite catchy...”

“Cheeky Weekly?..Cheeky Weekly! Yeah, I like it! We'll use it. So has anyone got any ideas for the contents? Obviously we need to feature Cheeky prominently...”

“Why don't we have Cheeky on the front and back page, with a mix of humour and adventure strips inside?”

“I want more Cheeky content that that.”

“Hey, I've got an idea...the comic's name, Cheeky Weekly, could have another meaning...each issue we follow Cheeky throughout the week, with a page for Sunday, Monday etc.”

“Aah, yes! I like it...”

“Yeah, and all the other strips are related to Cheeky's life in some way. So one strip he could watch as a TV show, another he reads in a book and so on. I don't think that's ever been done before.”

“Excellent, sounds like a winner to me. Someone get Frank McDiarmid on the phone...”

Whether the title came first or not, having all the features linked to Cheeky's week was a unique (as far as I'm aware) property of Cheeky Weekly. No doubt the idea of linking all the strips meant that more careful planning had to be carried out for each issue of Cheeky Weekly than for the typical humour/adventure title of the time, as the editor had to ensure that each framing device was correctly located in relation to its companion strip. I'm sure the extra trouble taken was appreciated by Cheeky fans.

As I've mentioned in recent posts, the 'linked strips' idea was finally dropped when Cheeky Weekly underwent its third major revamp in the 07 July 1979 issue, but the framing devices had in fact been falling away for some time. In this post I'm going to chart the history of each of the framing devices, examining them in the order in which they came to an end.

Please be aware that, to make the text less cumbersome, I'm using the term 'framing device' plus the words 'link', 'introduction' and 'connection' interchangeably.

The first lost framing device was that which depicted Cheeky enjoying a surreptitious Sunday bedtime read of his book, 'Fangs of Fear', which related the chilling exploits of ghost-hunter James Bold. Every week some event would occur to bring the toothy funster's nocturnal perusing to an untimely conclusion, always at a cliff-hanging moment in the narrative. Cheeky's final bedtime browse occurred in the 31 December 1977issue. However, that wasn't the last encounter with James Bold that Cheeky Weekly readers enjoyed – it was just the framing device which changed.

Art: Frank McDiarmid

The second page of that week's chapter of James Bold - Fangs of Fear Art: Massimo Belardinelli

The second lost link was that which connected a strip that wasn't named in the comic, so for ease of reference I have dubbed the feature in question Doug's Doodle. Cheeky's Pal Doodle Doug would threaten to reveal that the toothy funster had been dipping into his dad's comic collection (which was the subject of another link as we will see), forcing our grinning pal to publish Doug's latest gag strip.

This framing device surrounding Doug's artistic endeavours lasted 10 issues, making its final appearance in the 14 January 1978comic.

Art - Cheeky: Frank McDiarmid Pencils Doug's Doodle: Artie Jackson

As mentioned earlier, the James Boldstrips proved as indefatigable as the man himself, and returned to Cheeky Weekly for a new adventure entitled 'The Ghost Highwayman' in the 07 January 1978edition. In order to enjoy this particular Bold tale, the toothy funster visited the newsagents every week, intent on a free read of the latest novel. However, just as the story reached a peak of excitement, Newsagent would spot the clandestine page-surfer and eject him from the premises in a concluding framing device, Suddenly.

Art: Frank McDiarmid

Art: Frank again

The newsagent-based link (and its Suddenly companion) was employed to allow Cheeky to enjoy a free read of a further two Bold stories; Tower of Terror and The Frightened Village. The newsagent/Suddenly links came to an end in Cheeky Weekly dated 24 June 1978. As readers might have expected, this wasn't the last they would see of the indomitable Bold. Nor would it be the last time that a book would be used as a framing device.

The feature which I refer to as Old Comicran in 37 issues of Cheeky Weekly. The associated framing device saw Cheeky each week selecting a page from a comic collection in the attic. The collection was owned by Cheeky's dad, who professed to hate comics, although it was clear he enjoyed his son's funny papers. Old Comic, and consequently its framing device, came to an end in the 26 August 1978edition.

Art: The mighty Mr M

Art on Casey Court: sorry, don't know

The 26 August 1978 edition of Cheeky Weekly was a particularly fateful one as far as framing devices were concerned as, in addition to the Old Comic framing device documented above, a further two links were brought to an end in that same issue, namely that which introduced Creepy Sleepy Taleand its closing companion which I refer to as Wednesday (conclusion).

Creepy Sleepy Tale was a bedtime story that Cheeky told Baby Burpo, and was introduced by a series of panels showing the toothy funster arriving at the Burpo residence for babysitting duty and suffering some indignity at the hands of his infant charge. Our vengeful toothy pal would read Burpo a frightening fable from his book of nocturnal narratives with the intention of giving the belligerent babe a salutary and nappy-filling experience, but it was Cheeky himself who, in Wednesday (conclusion), was depicted departing for home in terror. Creepy Sleepy Tale, and thus its framing links, came to an end in the 26 August 1978 edition.

Art: Mike Lacey

Art: Keith Reynolds?

Art on Wednesday (conclusion): Barrie Appleby

One month later another long-running framing device came to an end – the one which linked Mustapha Millionto Cheeky's Week via our grinning pal's regular search for a copy of the mysterious comic in which Mustapha appeared. In Cheeky Weekly's first issue we witnessed the toothy funster arranging what appeared to be a classroom outing to the dentist. It only became apparent in the final panel of that first Friday page that the dentist's waiting room was the location in which the much-sought-after comic containing Mustapha Million's 2-page story was to be found. Cheeky Weekly readers were able to enjoy the Mustapha story that Cheeky read since it followed Cheeky's Friday page. Subsequent Mustapha strips were similarly located and introduced by Cheeky. The first 5 Mustapha tales saw Cheeky finding the comic in waiting rooms of various kinds (barber, chiropodist etc), but the sixth may have indicated that the scriptwriter was running out of suitable locations, as that week the mysterious publication was to be found in a gents' toilet.

Thereafter, Cheeky was was usually provided with a copy of the perplexing publication by one or other of his pals, but no matter who handed the toothy funster his copy of the Mystery Comic, Mustapha's strip was the only one he referred to and was the only one that Cheeky Weekly readers saw.

The first 36 Mustapha episodes were placed after the Friday page, but our monied mate was then relocated to follow the Thursday page for 13 weeks. The direct link between Cheeky and Mustapha ended on that 13^thweek (the comic dated 23 September 1978) as in the next issue the whole of the Mystery Comic moved in to the centre pages of Cheeky Weekly and a new link – that between Cheeky and the Mystery Comic – was established.

Art: Jim Watson

Mention should be made of Cheeky's pal Nosy Nora, who for a time played a significant role in the Cheeky/Mustapha link.

The next connections to be lost encapsulated the strips representing the main and supporting features screened during Cheeky's weekly visit to the Saturday morning picture show. This was the most complex sequence of links and consisted of...

• A scene showing Cheeky and pals arriving at the cinema and the inevitable confrontation with the Commissionaire.
• A strip representing the supporting feature (a cartoon in all but one case, that exception being the Hey Presto Magic Show which celebrated Cheeky Weekly's first birthday).
• A page showing the in-cinema happenings during the interval (featuring Ursula).
• An adventure strip representing the main feature.
• A scene showing Cheeky and pals emerging from the cinema.

Strips to fill the supporting feature slot were (in order of the date on which they bowed out of the comic)...

Feature	Start	Issues	End	Source (if known  to be reprint)
Wile E Coyote	22-Oct-1977	5	07-Jan-1978
Tweety	14-Jan-1978	1	14-Jan-1978
Henery Hawk	26-Nov-1977	3	04-Feb-1978
Cocky Doodle	29-Oct-1977	5	04-Mar-1978	Buster
Daffy Duck	24-Dec-1977	4	11-Mar-1978
Road Runner	18-Feb-1978	9	03-Jun-1978
Bam Splat and Blooie	29-Oct-1977	9	17-Jun-1978	Buster
Hickory Dickory Doc	16-Sep-1978	1	16-Sep-1978	Cor!!
Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf	24-Jun-1978	2	30-Sep-1978	Cor!!
Ghouldilocks	14-Oct-1978	1	14-Oct-1978	Jag
Hey Presto Magic Show	21-Oct-1978	1	21-Oct-1978
Tweety and Sylvester	21-Jan-1978	28	02-Dec-1978

It's possible that the Warner Brothers cartoon strips were reprints, but if they were I don't know where from.

...and here are the strips that were presented as adventure serials...

Feature	Start	Issues	End	Source (if known  to be reprint)
Space Family Robinson	22-Oct-1977	36	24-Jun-1978
James Bold in Island of Fear	01-Jul-1978	6	05-Aug-1978
Archie's Angels	12-Aug-1978	6	16-Sep-1978	Whizzer and Chips
Sonny Storm	23-Sep-1978	1	23-Sep-1978	Cor!!
The Terrible Trail to Taggart's Treasure	07-Oct-1978	9	02-Dec-1978	Shiver and Shake

The final Saturday morning picture show to be featured in Cheeky Weekly occurred in the 02 December 1978issue. The following week our toothy pal announced, "Some of you readers have been wondering what I do on Saturday afternoons, after I've been to the cinema. Today, I'm going to watch our local football team". The Saturday feature in that and all subsequent issues concentrated on the toothy funster's post meridiem pursuits.

Here's a complete Saturday morning pictures sequence. The elements featuring Cheeky are drawn by Frank McDiarmid. I don't know who drew Tweety and Sylvester. I believe James Bold in Island of Fear is by Mike White.

The Cheeky Weekly editor evidently felt that, despite the loss of the cinema visits, the comic still required an element of adventure. Thus junior sleuth Eagle Eyewas, like the final 'film serial' The Terrible Trail to Taggart's Treasure, resurrected from Shiver and Shake and commenced his reprinted adventures in Cheeky Weekly dated 06 January 1979. The framing device for this feature occurred on the Friday page where readers saw Cheeky in the classroom. In the introduction to the first episode of the new adventure strip, Cheeky said “I'll sneak a quick read of my new book, Eagle Eye”. However on Friday in the next issue, our grinning pal intercepted Do-Good Dora on her paper round and, offering to finish her deliveries, told readers “This was the only way I could think of to get my hands on Teachers' Weekly – they've started serialising the great Eagle Eye novel that Teacher confiscated from me”. All subsequent Eagle Eye episodes were introduced by Cheeky undertaking some classroom connivance to get hold of Teacher's magazine, until Eagle Eye came to an end in the 24 February 1979comic.

Art: Mike Lacey

A decision to end all the remaining framing devices appears to have been implemented in subsequent weeks.

The first of these surviving links to come to an end was the long-running connection between Cheeky's pages and Skateboard Squad. The link between Cheeky's universe and the terrific trio's first incarnation was the most-developed of all the framed strips, as not only did Skateboard Squad appear alongside Cheeky when he introduced their story each week, but the toothy funster and a number of his pals made reciprocal visits to the Squad's pages.

Art: Frank

The history of Skateboard Squad's introductory panels wasn't entirely smooth and it seems that an initial decision to discontinue the link was later overturned. The introductions were originally dropped a week after the 30 September 1978 revamp which saw the introduction of the Mystery Comic section. This necessitated a revision to the comic's layout which resulted in the Skateboard Squad being shunted from the page following Sunday to the page after Tuesday. The introductions were absent from 9 consecutive issues, but were reinstated (due to reader demand?) with the exception of one week in which Skateboard Squad was preceded by Paddywack, for the remainder of the Skateboard Squad' s run, which ended in the 12 May 1979edition. However, this is not quite the end of the framing devices associated with Skipper, Skatie and Wipe-out, as the team returned in their new guise of Speed Squadin Cheeky Weekly dated 26 May 1979, introduced once again by our toothy pal. These links continued up to and including the 23 June 1979edition. The following week the comic underwent its 3^rdrevamp and from this point the introductions were dropped and Speed Squad continued as a stand-alone strip.

Art: Mr M

The second and final link to be extinguished in that sameissue was that between Cheeky's universe and the collection of strips which were contained in the pages of the Mystery Comic. From Cheeky Weekly's aforementioned revamp edition dated 30 September 1978 , the centre pages of the toothy funster's title contained a mock publication whose front cover bore the legend Mystery Comic. Readers were asked to believe that this new central section represented the whole of the comic that they had previously witnessed Cheeky searching for in order to read Mustapha Million. Mustapha took up residence in this construct along with a selection of new strips. Cheeky's weekly search for the Mystery Comic now moved to Wednesday (which was situated such that it allowed enough space to accommodate the perplexing publication in the centre pages before the Cheeky features resumed with Thursday).

However, in keeping with the (seeming) new policy of discarding all links, the 23 June 1979issue of Cheeky was the last to feature the Mystery Comic as a grouping of strips behind a mock front cover. All the features which had previously been contained within the Mystery Comic continued, but in subsequent issues they were dispersed throughout Cheeky Weekly and no Mystery Comic title page was seen, nor were the erstwhile Mystery Comic features referred to in the Cheeky's Week strips.

Art: Mike Lacey

A week after the Speed Squad and Mystery Comic framing devices were dropped, two more links made their last appearance.

Charlie Counter, aka Calculator Kid, made his first Cheeky Weekly appearance (along with his battery-powered buddy, Calculator) in the edition dated 01 July 1978, wherein his adventure was introduced by Cheeky in the final panel of that week's Friday page. Thus commenced a run whereby all Calculator Kid stories (with one exception) were introduced by the toothy funster. These introductions continued not only when Calculator Kid got shunted forward to appear after Cheeky's Thursday page, but also after a further move to follow Monday. Charlie and Calc appeared with Cheeky in the majority of these intros. However the 30 June 1979issue was the last to include such preliminaries, concluding what had amounted to 46 introduced-by-Cheeky episodes.

Art: Frank again, doing a nice rendition of Charlie & Calc

The longest-surviving link was that between Cheeky's universe and a certain on-screen synthetic senior citizen. In the first issue of Cheeky Weekly our grinning pal was seen heading home at the end of the Sunday evening page, eager to catch the latest episode of his favourite TV show, 6 Million Dollar Gran. These introductory sequences to the Gran episodes became a fixture of Cheeky's week, and the intros continued even after the Sunday evening page was dropped and Gran was relocated to the page after Sunday (Cheeky explained Gran's programme had been moved to a mid-day slot) and also when Gran shifted again to the page following Monday. For the majority of the strip's run, each Gran episode ended with a panel showing Cheeky in front of the TV as the end credits rolled. Although 6 Million Dollar Gran continued to display a TV screen in her title panel until December 1979, the final Cheeky-rushing-to-see-TV framing device occurred in the 30 June 1979 comic, bringing to an end a run of intros that spanned 86 issues.

However, possibly due to an oversight on someone's part, this wasn't quite the end of the framing devices, as the final Gran strip to conclude with the Cheeky-watching-closing-credits final panel appeared in the 14 July 1979 comic.

Here's a 6 Million Dollar Gran sequence which commences with Cheeky failing to secure a place in front of the TV, but help appears from an unlikely quarter. Note how the caption above the Gran title panel reflects the events on the preceding page...

Art: Frank McDiarmid

Art: Ian Knox

I'm sure Cheeky Weekly readers appreciated the effort that the production staff and artists put in to these framing devices. While the quality of the actual strips remained unchanged, a link-less Cheeky Weekly just didn't have the same charm. Maybe by June 1979 the editorial team had decided that Cheeky Weekly was a hopeless case heading towards merger and felt it wasn't worth putting unnecessary effort into the title any more, so the opportunity was taken to end the links under cover of Cheeky Weekly's 07 July 1979 'new look' issue. In subsequent weeks it became clear to loyal readers that the comic's glory days were gone as their favourite title became burdened with even more reprints and rehashes.

N.B. While Snail of the Century, the comic's final original feature, which commenced on 14 July 1979, was a strip set in Cheeky's universe (it always featured the toothy funster and took place in his garden) it didn't have an introduction within Cheeky's Week and thus was an entirely stand-alone feature which doesn't qualify as a framed strip.

A Post About Bob

July 11, 2015, 8:40 am

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The late 1980s letters pages of Whizzer and Chips quite regularly featured reader enquiries as to the identity of the artist on a particular strip. Thanks to Lazy Bones fan Helen Dennis, whose question appeared in Whizzer and Chips dated 04 July 1987, I can finally lay to rest an uncertainty that has bugged me for some time - what was the first name of the artist who signed himself Mr. Hill?

Irmantas reported some time back that Denis Gifford in one of his volumes on British comics referred to the artist as Bob Hill, but I recently read an interview online in which a colleague referred to the person in question as Len Hill.

Not only do we now know without doubt that he's named Bob, we're aware of his previous occupation.

Let's enjoy Bob's work on that week's Lazy Bones episode.

Bob took over the artwork on Lazy Bones from Colin Whittock when Colin began drawing the 2-page-per-week rural whodunnit strip Mizz Marble. As mentioned above, Bob would often sign his work 'Mr. Hill', but none of his Lazy Bones strips that I have so far seen have been signed. Colin did sign his Lazy Bones work, so maybe the Whizzer and Chips editor didn't want to alert readers to the fact that artwork duties had been reassigned. Bob certainly did a good job of ghosting Colin's style

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Yikky Two!

July 14, 2015, 6:10 am

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Many thanks to Stephen Archer for this interesting info regarding the similarities between Cheeky's pal Yikky-Boo and a character who appeared in DC Thomson's Nutty some years later;

"Looking at Nutty in the British Library yesterday, I noticed there was a (fairly brief) villainess that Bananaman encountered in 1982 by the name of Yicky-Boo. Given John Geering’s connection to both Nutty and Cheeky this slightly shocked me, as he’d have surely told his editor about the similarity: they were both pests who yelled the same thing! I studied the speech panels closely to see if the female version was VICKY-Boo but no, spelt the same. This was late in 1982, by which time the party had been over for Cheeky for almost three years so perhaps someone thought they’d get away with it – or nobody would care. I did…"

Here are the strips in question drawn, as Stephen says, by John Geering;

I think we can allow Mr Geering the benefit of the doubt since, although he did draw for Cheeky Weekly, he never worked on the Cheeky pages so was quite possibly unaware of the original Yikky-Boo. John's no doubt busy schedule probably didn't allow him time to purchase and read all the comics in which his work appeared (he added swiftly, hoping to avoid legal action).

Bananaman is copyright DC Thomson & Co Ltd (he added even more swiftly).

P.S Yikky wasn't the only one to suffer appropriation - I see there are also references in the Bananaman strip to FOOM and ZOWEE BOWEE! Just joking! (he added in a frenzy of litigation - preventing notes).

Cheeky Weekly cover date 28 July 1979

July 22, 2015, 6:43 am

≫ Next: Cheeky Weekly Star Guests in Whoopee! (part 9)

≪ Previous: Yikky Two!

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Art: Dick Milington

Cheeky is joined on this week's cover by Doctor Braincell for horological hi-jinks drawn by Dick Millington.

Dick's contribution to this issue of Cheeky Weekly continues on page 2 where Cheeky is so preoccupied with gag-delivery that he parts with only one Sunday newspaper.

This week's is a classic 6 Million Dollar Gran strip, with some enjoyably surreal images from the mind of Ian Knox, as Gran encounters a surly scout master. It's evident from the rather sparse area at the right of the final panel that the strip was originally drawn with the Cheeky-watching-TV-conclusion, but the artwork has been altered to conform to the new 'no framing devices' editorial policy that was implemented as of the 07 July 1979'new look' issue.

On Monday Dick Millington seems to base one of his depictions of the toothy funster on a distinctive pose that Frank McDiarmid was evidently so pleased with that he drew it 3 times in the 21 April 1979 issue...

Art: Dick Millington

Art: Frank McDiarmid from Cheeky Weekly 21 April 1979. The centre image is the one on which Dick seems to have based the leftmost panel of his work above.

The concluding panel of this week's The Gang suggests to me that it may have been the final episode of the strip's original run in Whizzer and Chips. Thanks to Raven for confirming in the comment below that it was in fact the last Double Deckers episode.

Art: Robert MacGillivray

Speaking of conclusions, this is the 18th and final week of IPC's 1979 Star Guest promotion, and Bookworm is the last guest to pay a visit, with a rather atypical story in which Whoopee's bibliophile buddy spends most of the strip unconscious and subsequently exhibits symptoms of concussion. Not a very good choice of script for promotional purposes I would suggest.

Art: Barry Glennard

On Tuesday Cheeky introduces a new pal, the jovial joiner and woodwork wit, Mr. Chips.

Stage School Teacher has a classroom clash with a miniature Frank Carson - caution some of the humour in these clips would be considered inappropriate today -  who seems to be confusing his catchphrases with those of Basil Brush - caution some of the advice in this clip would be considered by some to be 'health and safety gone mad' today.

Art: Robert Nixon

On Friday Dick Millington includes a reference to his Cheeky Weekly colleague (I made this as large as possible but you'll still have to click on it to see the relevant detail)...

Cheeky's Week concludes with a Saturday spent at Doodle Doug's art class, and the comic rounds off with Snail of the Century in colour on the back cover.

Dick Millington supplies all of Cheeky's Sunday to Saturday strips, with Frank McDiarmid delivering Snail of the Century. This is the last time Dick will draw Thursday, Friday and Saturday, but he will supply artwork in one more edition of Cheeky Weekly.

Cheeky's Week Artists Cover Date 28-Jul-1979

Artist	Elements
Dick Millington	8
Frank McDiarmid	1

Cheeky Weekly	Cover Date: 28-Jul-1979, Issue 90 of 117
Page	Details
1	Cover Feature 'Dr Braincell' 1 of 3 - Art Dick Millington (single art on feature)
2	Sunday - Art Dick Millington
3	6 Million Dollar Gran - Art Ian Knox
4	6 Million Dollar Gran - Art Ian Knox
5	6 Million Dollar Gran - Art Ian Knox
6	What's New, Kids
7	Monday - Art Dick Millington
8	The Gang reprint from Whizzer and Chips - Art Robert MacGillivray
9	The Gang reprint from Whizzer and Chips - Art Robert MacGillivray
10	Joke-Box Jury
11	Star Guest (final appearance) 'Bookworm' - Art Barry Glennard (final art on feature)
12	Tuesday - Art Dick Millington
13	Disaster Des - Art Mike Lacey
14	Stage School - Art Robert Nixon
15	Stage School - Art Robert Nixon
16	Elephant On The Run - Art Robert Nixon
17	Calculator Kid - Art Terry Bave
18	Wednesday - Art Dick Millington
19	Mystery Boy reprint from Whizzer and Chips
20	Mustapha Million - Art Joe McCaffrey
21	Mustapha Million - Art Joe McCaffrey
22	Thursday - Art Dick Millington (final art on feature)
23	Ad: IPC 'Puzzle Time' 2 of 6 \Ad: North Pacific Flyers (final appearance)
24	Chit-Chat
25	Chit-Chat
26	Friday - Art Dick Millington (final art on feature)
27	Why, Dad, Why? - Art John K. Geering
28	Paddywack - Art Jack Clayton
29	Paddywack - Art Jack Clayton
30	Saturday - Art Dick Millington (final art on feature)
31	Saturday - Art Dick Millington (final art on feature)
32	Snail of the Century - Art Frank McDiarmid

Cheeky Weekly Star Guests in Whoopee! (part 9)

July 28, 2015, 9:42 am

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≪ Previous: Cheeky Weekly cover date 28 July 1979

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Well, this is the 18th and final week of IPC's 1979 Star Guest promotion and the burning question is; who has been selected from the ranks of Cheeky Weekly celebrities to make the final circulation-enhancing bid within the pages of Whoopee?

Whoopee! 28 July 1979 Art: Joe McCaffrey Many thanks to Irmantas for this scan

Our monied mate Mustapha Million is pressed into Star Guest service for the third time (and for the second occasion in Whoopee!). Mustapha's pal Jimmy continues to exhibit symptoms of Cheeky Weekly Inconsistent Hair Colour Syndrome.

The first panel encapsulates the Mustapha milieu, thus ensuring that any Whoopee! readers unfamiliar with the strip's premise are apprised without delay, and then we're off on a tale of papier machinations. Maybe this script, dealing as it does with the disposal of vast amounts of cash, is encroaching a little too closely on the territory occupied by existing Whoopee! stars, those reluctantly rich rustics the Bumpkin Billionaires.

However, any Whoopee! readers persuaded to return to the newsagent for a further helping of middle-eastern mirth would have been able to enjoy Mustapha's 2-page adventure in that week's Cheeky Weekly. Gratifyingly for anyone enticed by the above strip to place a regular order for the toothy funster's comic, Mustapha appeared in all the subsequent editions of Cheeky Weekly. Our pecunious pal also survived the merge when Cheeky Weekly ceased publication, and found himself back within the pages of Whoopee!

This strip was new and never appeared in Cheeky Weekly.

Cheeky Weekly Star Guest appearances in other comics - Conclusion

August 5, 2015, 3:08 pm

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The 1979 run of IPC's trans-comic promotional tool, Star Guest, spanned 18 weeks. During this period, features from Cheeky Weekly made visits to Whizzer and Chips and Whoopee! on alternate weeks, as has been documented in earlier posts in this Star Guest series.

It has to be said that, when reviewing the whole run of Cheeky Weekly Star Guest appearances in the other titles, the decisions on the distribution of the strips between Cheeky Weekly's companion comics, the choice of features, and the weeks in which they were placed seem to be rather ill-considered, not to say chaotic.

Let's work through those features chosen to appear as Star Guests, in alphabetical order;

Calculator Kid appeared twice, both times in Whizzer and Chips! On the occasion of his 23 June 1979 outing to Whiz-kid and Chip-ite territory, Charlie and Calc were absent from the same week's issue of Cheeky Weekly! (not a little disappointing for any W&C readers who, having enjoyed Calc in their comic, returned to the newsagent and bought the same week's Cheeky Weekly expecting to partake of more fun with Charlie and his electronic pal).

Cheeky appeared 5 times; 3 times in Whoopee! and twice in Whizzer and Chips. As is only fitting, Cheeky was the most frequent Star Guest envoy to the other titles. The reason for the Whoopee! bias is unclear. One visit to each of the companion comics was composed of panels that had previously appeared in Cheeky Weekly, but with new gags. This allowed readers unfamiliar with the toothy funster's title to enjoy some Frank McDiarmid artwork. Frank was no doubt too busy to take on any Star Guest assignments, so Barrie Appleby provided his usual high standard of work on 3 Cheeky strips. Sadly, as each Star Guest appearance was limited to a single page, it wasn't possible to give a flavour of the weekly nature of Cheeky's adventures, The fact that there was no hint of the framing devices which were Cheeky Weekly's unique selling point was somewhat irrelevant as those devices were dispensed with by the time Star Guest concluded.

Disaster Des appeared once in Whizzer and Chips,and once in Whoopee! In the week of his Whoopee! appearance he was absent from Cheeky Weekly!

Elephant On The Run appeared once (in Whoopee!) and that week the feature was absent from Cheeky Weekly!

Mustapha Million appeared twice in Whoopee! and once in Whizzer and Chips. On his second Whoopee! visit, Mustapha's story exhibited an uncomfortable similarity to the premise of the Bumpkin Billionaires, established stars of that comic.

Skateboard Squad appeared once (in Whizzer and Chips) and that week the feature was absent from Cheeky Weekly!

The Burpo Special appeared once (in Whoopee!).

The Gang appeared once (in Whizzer and Chips - which was rather an odd choice in which to locate it since the strip was a reprint from that very comic!). The Gang had begun being reprinted in Cheeky Weekly just 2 weeks before they were pressed into Star Guest service, so clearly there had been no time for the Cheeky editorial team to assess reader appreciation of the strip before it was selected. Cheeky Weekly had so many other original features on which the editor would have had feedback and would have made superior ambassadors so the reasoning which led to the inclusion of The Gang is hard to understand.

Why, Dad, Why? appeared once in Whizzer and Chips, and once in Whoopee!

One might imagine that the features chosen to represent Cheeky Weekly during Star Guest would be those considered by the editor to be most popular with readers of the toothy funster's comic, but the inclusion of The Gang, together with the general haphazard nature of the promotion (for example Calculator Kid appearing twice in Whizzer and Chips, but not in Whoopee!), makes me wonder whether any such consideration was made during the selection of candidates.

This sorry collection of doubtful choices and lack of co-ordination just reinforces my impression that IPC management had all but given up on Cheeky Weekly by this stage and were running the comic down in preparation for the customary merge into another title. I must stress that I have no doubt that the creative team were still striving to give readers the best possible entertainment, but it seems to me that support from the top brass was falling away.

But into which of the other IPC titles of the time would the toothy funster's comic be subsumed?

When the 1979 run of Star Guest ended there were four IPC humour/adventure titles that could have provided a home for Cheeky Weekly refugees. In addition to the aforementioned Whizzer and Chips and Whoopee! were two other IPC humour/adventure comics; the publisher's longest-running title in the field, Buster, and their newest entrant in the same market, Jackpot. You may ask why Buster didn't feature in this Star Guest promotion. Well, for reasons unknown (to me, anyway), Buster seems to have habitually exempted itself from all runs of Star Guest of which I'm aware. Jackpot was absent from this Star Guest run (as host and guest) because it commenced publication in May 1979, part-way through the promotion, and was the subject of its own publicity campaign within the IPC comics. It was never the case (as far as I'm aware) that a comic merged into a title whose launch date was later than its own, so that ruled out Jackpot from becoming host to Cheeky Weekly's survivors. Whizzer and Chips had welcomed the remnants from Krazy when that title folded in April 1978, in the process inheriting Cheeky in his role as a member of The Krazy Gang. Maybe it was felt that to merge Cheeky Weekly into a Whizzer and Chips already boasting the toothy funster would increase the goofy-teeth-quotient to unacceptable levels. As we know, when Cheeky Weekly ceased publication in February 1980 it merged into Whoopee!

There has long been speculation in certain quarters of British comics fandom that some titles were launched with the intention of building a following and then merging the newer title into a more established one. This would deliver a circulation boost to the senior comic as a proportion of the erstwhile readers of the defunct title chose to follow the surviving characters when they moved into their new home. Any new Cheeky Weekly readers recruited by the Star Guest promotion from among the existing followers of Whoopee! would, if they continued to maintain their weekly Whoopee! habit, fail to deliver any sort of circulation boost to Whoopee! when Cheeky Weekly met its untimely end, since they were already buying Whoopee! Readers with limited pocket money who liked what they saw of Cheeky and Co. during Star Guest may have opted to drop Whoopee! in favour of Cheeky Weekly, thus depleting the circulation figures of their original title of choice. Even when the merge came, it's unlikely all those new Cheeky fans would re-adopt Whoopee!

Maybe at the end of this Star Guest run IPC had not yet decided into which comic Cheeky Weekly would be merged. Nonetheless, IPC reduced the promotion's effectiveness as a means of boosting circulations in the long term by not including Buster in its run.

With the exception of the two reconstituted-Frank McDiarmid-art-with-new-gags pages, and The Gang's cut-down-to-one-page-from-two reprinted strip, all the Cheeky Weekly Star Guest pages in Whizzer and Chips and Whoopee! were new and never appeared in Cheeky Weekly.

Thanks once again to Irmantas for supplying the scans of the Cheeky Weekly Star Guests in Whoopee! that I have used during this series.

Date	Comic	Star Guest	Artist	Feature included in Cheeky Weekly that week?
31-Mar-1979	Whizzer and Chips	Calculator Kid	Terry Bave	Yes
07-Apr-1979	Whoopee!	The Burpo Special - Hid Kid	Frank McDiarmid	Yes. And Hid Kid appears (insofar as he ever appears) on Sunday
14-Apr-1979	Whizzer and Chips	Skateboard Squad	Mike Lacey	No
21-Apr-1979	Whoopee!	Disaster Des	Mike Lacey	No
28-Apr-1979	Whizzer and Chips	Cheeky	Barrie Appleby	Yes
05-May-1979	Whoopee!	Why,Dad, Why?	John Geering	Yes
12-May-1979	Whizzer and Chips	Why,Dad, Why?	John Geering	Yes
19-May-1979	Whoopee!	Elephant On The Run	Robert Nixon	No
26-May-1979	Whizzer and Chips	Mustapha Million	Joe McCaffrey	Yes
02-Jun-1979	Whoopee!	Cheeky	Barrie Appleby	Yes
09-Jun-1979	Whizzer and Chips	Disaster Des	Mike Lacey	Yes
16-Jun-1979	Whoopee!	Cheeky	Barrie Appleby	Yes
23-Jun-1979	Whizzer and Chips	Calculator Kid	Terry Bave	No
30-Jun-1979	Whoopee!	Mustapha Million	Joe McCaffrey	Yes
07-Jul-1979	Whizzer and Chips	Cheeky	Frank McDiarmid (page composed of art previously published in Cheeky Weekly)	Yes
14-Jul-1979	Whoopee!	Cheeky	Frank McDiarmid (page composed of art previously published in Cheeky Weekly)	Yes
21-Jul-1979	Whizzer and Chips	The Gang	Robert MacGillivray (page reprinted from Whizzer and Chips)	Yes
28-Jul-1979	Whoopee!	Mustapha Million	Joe McCaffrey	Yes

We care that you care

August 11, 2015, 9:32 am

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Whizzer and Chips 17 November 1984. The Krazy Gang have been running in the comic since Krazy folded back in 1978.  It's now over 4 years since Cheeky Weekly's demise. A Cheeky strip is still appearing in Whoopee, but it's been reduced to a single row of panels.

This week's Gang script requires artist Bob Hill to depict some of the gang's parents.

A lesser wielder of the pen would just bung in some generic parent types in respect of Cheeky's mum and dad. But oh no, Bob gives us proper likenesses of Cheeky's progenitors.

Bob, we salute you and your fellow artists who show in these little ways that you actually care about your readers.

Whizzer and Chips 17 November 1984

...here's the same week's Cheeky strip from Whoopee, showing the definitive version of Cheeky's mum from the pen of Frank McDiarmid ...

Whoopee 17 November 1984

...and here's Dad's first proper appearance, in Cheeky Weekly's debut issue dated 22 October 1977 (Dad first appeared in a single panel in Krazy dated 23 October 1976, but that was at a distance and in silhouette, although his flat cap was in evidence)...

Cheeky Weekly 22 October 1977 Art: Frank McDiarmid

In case anyone's confused (and I certainly am), this post is not part of the Whizzer and Chips - The Cheeky Raids series, as the issue of W&C from which the first image above was extracted predates the merge of Whoopee into W&C, the starting point for that series. So although Sid raided the strip above, I'm not going to mention it.

There will be more Bob Hill funnies soon.