The pages - Page 3

Page 3 of the first 2 issues of Cheeky Weekly contained the Sunday feature.  This was because page 2 of those issues featured an introduction to the comic by Cheeky, plus instructions for assembly and usage of the free gifts.  However, from the third issue the introduction was dropped, allowing Sunday to migrate to page 2.  Following this move, the most frequent occupant of page 3 was the Skateboard Squad feature, which appeared there 44 times between 05 November 1977 and 23 September 1978.  After this date the Squad began their journey towards the rear of the comic, starting with a move to page 11 on 30 September 1978 and ending up on page 24 for their final appearance as the Skateboard Squad on 12 May 1979, before metamorphosing into the Speed Squad a couple of weeks later.

After the Squad vacated page 3, from 30 September 1978 the first page of 6 Million Dollar Gran's adventure became the most frequent subject, appearing on page 3 in a total of 38 issues.  But even the mighty Gran had to relinquish her grip on the page at times, as Calculator Kid then moved in for 3 weeks from 07 July 1979.  However, something of a tussle for control of the page ensued as Gran came back for 3 weeks from 28 July 1979 to 11 August 1979, then was deposed again by Calculator Kid.  After 10 more weeks of calculator-based fun on page 3, the ever-resilient Gran made one final bid for supremacy, wresting control of the page from Charlie and his calculator for one last time on 27 October 1979.  Calculator Kid was then firmly ensconced for 13 weeks until his final appearance on page 3, in the penultimate issue of Cheeky Weekly, dated 26 January 1980, before being shunted to page 16 the following week.

Why, Dad, Why? Made a sneaky, one-off appearance on page 3 of the final issue of Cheeky Weekly, suddenly getting to a prime spot in the comic after 51 weeks drifting between page 14 and the back cover.

A few other odds and ends occupied page 3 during the comic's history, and these can be seen in the table below.  A surprising one-off appearance on page 3 was published in late 1978.  The industrial relations problems that would eventually prevent publication of Cheeky Weekly for 3 weeks in December 1978 first became evident to readers in the 02 December 1978 issue, which had a reduced count of 28 pages instead of the usual 32.  Page 3 in that issue featured only the caption, 'The Publishers are sorry that some regular features of this issue have had to be omitted', effectively making this a 27-page comic!
Count of Elements (or distinct combinations thereof) appearing on Page 3

Elements	Total
Skateboard Squad	44
6 Million Dollar Gran 1/3	31
Calculator Kid	26
6 Million Dollar Gran 1/2	7
Sunday	3
Christmas Morning 2/2	1
Feature Omitted	1
Monday	1
Skateboard Squad 2/2	1
Sunday 2/2	1
Why, Dad, Why?	1

The features - Creepy Pantomime

Creepy Pantomime was a one-off variant of the Creepy Sleepy Tale strip, and appeared in the 31 December 1977 issue of Cheeky Weekly. In that issue, instead of reading Baby Burpo a scary bedtime story, Cheeky took the terrible toddler to see a spooky pantomime.  The result, however, was the same as we had become familiar with at the end of the Creepy Sleepy Tales - Burpo enjoyed the outing, but Cheeky was terrified.

Art: Keith Reynolds

Wednesday (conclusion) - Art: Frank McDiarmid

                                                                                                                                                         

Feature	First Appearance	Final Appearance	Total Issues	Total Issues Missed In Run	Page History
Creepy Pantomime	31-Dec-77	31-Dec-77	1	0	16,17

Issues Missed In Run

                                                                                                                                   

Feature	Artist	Number of Issues	First Appearance	Final Appearance
Creepy Pantomime	Keith Reynolds	1	31-Dec-1977	31-Dec-1977

                                                                 

Preceding Page	Count
Wednesday	1

                                                                 

Pages per Issue	Number of Issues
2	1

The features - Creepy Sleepy Tale

Creepy Sleepy Tale never had a conventional title panel, but inherited its title from the book from which Cheeky selected Baby Burpo's bedtime story on Wednesday evenings (although in the edition dated 28 January 1978 Cheeky is seen reading from a tome entitled 'Orrible Creepy Tales).  In the first issue of Cheeky Weekly, during his babysitting session, Cheeky drew a book titled Creepy Sleepy Tales from his pocket and chuckled "Hur, Hur!  I'll tell [Burpo] such a scarey tale, he'll not sleep for a week.  And I'll never be allowed to babysit for him again!  Cackle!"

Art Mike Brown

Art Mike Brown

This plan always failed because Burpo was never scared and Cheeky often ended the evening running home in terror, having frightened himself while reading the story.

The Creepy Sleepy Tale was always a 2-element feature, but the second element in each issue was not a full page in order to allow room for a 3-panel strip concluding Wednesday and showing Cheeky departing in haste, much to Burpo's amusement.

Art: Keith Reynolds

Creepy Tale Art: Keith Reynolds

Creepy Sleepy Tale ran in 43 issues, from the first issue of Cheeky Weekly until Cheeky read the final Creepy Sleepy Tale in issue 45 dated 26 August 1978.  The feature was absent from two issues during its run - in the Christmas issue dated 31 December 1977, Cheeky took Burpo to see a Creepy Pantomime (which was to all intents and purposes a Creepy Sleepy Tale), and in the special skateboard issue of Cheeky Weekly, dated 04 February 1978, Creepy Sleepy Tale's place was taken by two pages of the cut-out Skateboard Snap game.

Cheeky Weekly regularly had 4 pages in full colour - the cover, 2 centre pages and the back cover.  There were often extra full colour pages in the form of advertisements, but 4 feature pages in full colour was the norm.  In the first 3 issues, The centre pages were given over to full colour posters of Cheeky (issue 1), 6 Million Dollar Gran (issue 2) and Mustapha Million (issue 3), forcing the Creepy Sleepy Tale onto black and white pages.  From the fourth issue, the centre pages became vacant and Creepy Sleepy Tale moved in, taking advantage of the full colour that was available at this prime position in the comic.  It's not clear why a blue and white Creepy Sleepy Tale was printed in the 11 February 1978 issue, as only the front and back covers were in full colour that week. Maybe the reduced colour on the strip was due to budgetary constraints at the time.

Art: Keith again

Creepy Tale Art: Keith

Full colour Tales resumed the following week and continued until the 01 July 1978 issue, in which the Creepy Sleepy Tale was again printed in blue and white.  This was because page 9 printed the front and back cover of that week's Whizzer and Chips mini comic in full colour, and Calculator Kid was lucky enough to get the remaining full colour page.

The following three issues (08, 15 and 22 July 1978) all had black and white Creepy Sleepy Tales because each issue featured one page devoted to another mini comic front and back cover in full colour, and as before the remaining colour page was given to Calculator Kid.  Quite why the 01 July 1978 Creepy Sleepy Tale was blue and white while in the subsequent three issues the CSTs were black and white remains a bit of a puzzle.  It has to be said that a page printed in light blue ink is not a very comfortable reading experience, and maybe the editor abandoned the idea after the second blue and white strip appeared.

Art Tom Paterson

Art Tom Paterson

Creepy Sleepy Tale returned to full colour until August, when the 12 and 19 August 1978 Creepy Sleepy Tales were in black and white because Mustapha Million moved into full colour in these issues.  The final appearance of the Creepy Sleepy Tale, on 26 August 1978 was in black and white because the Monday feature and Calculator Kid were in full colour.  After the demise of the Creepy Sleepy Tales, Elephant On The Run became the most regular occupant of the coveted centre page full colour spread.

In total there were 32 full colour Creepy Sleepy Tales, with 9 black and white and 2 blue and white.

Art Mike Lacey

Art Mike Lacey

The Creepy Sleepy Tale art in the first issue was signed by Mike Brown, who went on to sign the strips dated 05 November 1977, 12 November 1977, 19 November 1977, 26 November 1977 and 03 December 1977.  The art on 29 October 1977 was also by Mike, although unsigned. Keith Reynolds took up the artwork duties as of the 10 December 1977 issue, with the exception of  15 July 1978 (Tom Paterson) and  05 August 1978 (Mike Lacey - Mike also drew the Wednesday conclusion that week).

The Creepy Sleepy Tales are sometimes said to be derivative of the evidently highly popular Badtime Bedtime Book strip which ran in Monster Fun. IPC Group Editor Bob Paynter probably felt it was an ideal opportunity to use a similar, albeit cut-down-to-2-pages-and-not-designed-to-be-removed-from-the-comic, format with one of the BBB artists, Mike Brown, returning to provide the visuals for at least a few weeks.

Creepy Sleepy Tale in the Cheeky Weekly Index
 

Feature	First Appearance	Final Appearance	Total Issues	Total Issues Missed In Run	Page History
Creepy Sleepy Tale	22-Oct-77	26-Aug-78	43	2	13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20

Issues Missed In Run

31-Dec-77 (replaced by Creepy Pantomime)

04-Feb-78

Feature	Artist	Number of Issues	First Appearance	Final Appearance
Creepy Sleepy Tale	Mike Brown	7	22-Oct-1977	03-Dec-1977
Creepy Sleepy Tale	Keith Reynolds	34	10-Dec-1977	26-Aug-1978
Creepy Sleepy Tale	Tom Paterson	1	15-Jul-1978	15-Jul-1978
Creepy Sleepy Tale	Mike Lacey	1	05-Aug-1978	05-Aug-1978

Cheeky Weekly cover date 04 February 1978

The special skateboard issue rolls into newsagents this week, with the main part of the cover given over to a depiction of a boarder and samples from the cut-out Skateboard Snap game (art on this part of the cover by Jimmy Hansen).  The usual Cheeky's Week gag is bumped from the cover by a truncated Sunday feature, in which Cheeky introduces the skateboard theme.  Even Snail is on a board.

Having got Sunday out of the way, it falls to the mighty Skateboard Squad to kick off proceedings for this special issue. The terrific trio enjoy a 2-page adventure commencing on page 2, in which they give a display at the new sports centre and, it goes without saying, foil a crime in the process.  Jimmy Hansen ties this tale into Cheeky's Week by placing the Vicar, Cheeky and 6 Million Dollar Gran among the spectators, although the decision to include Gran is a debatable one, since in Cheeky's universe the synthetic senior citizen is a fictional character from a TV show.  Actually, this tale is not quite a full 2 pages, as there's a banner across the bottom of the second page directing readers to page 15 where they can find the instructions for constructing and playing the skateboard snap game.  Quite why they didn't just print the instructions at the bottom of page 3 rather than taking up valuable space with a pointless banner remains a mystery. Page 15's instructions are on the reverse of the game - thus if readers follow the instructions and paste page 16 onto card, they will no longer be able to read the instructions!

On Sunday evening, Cheeky sticks to his plan of only speaking to people on skateboards, meeting the Vicar, Manhole Man (who's actually underneath a skateboard, but evidently that's good enough for the toothy funster), and providing boards for his mum and dad, but ignoring Louise, who is not on wheels.

For the first page-and-a-half of this week's 6 Million Dollar Gran story, it seems the skateboard theme is not going to intrude, but Gran eventually performs some boarding tricks on a trolley as she rescues a racing car driver.

This week's instalment of the James Bold tale, The Ghost Highwayman, doesn't include any skateboard references - I presume the editor felt that a ghost on a skateboard wouldn't be appropriate.  There are no skateboards or related items featured on the What's New, Kids page, either, nor are any to be found on the Old Comic page.

There is no Tuesday feature in this issue.  This doesn't seem to be due to a shortage of space, as later in the issue there is a 2-page Joke-Box Jury and a page containing a photo of a simian skateboarder, so I would guess that the second J-B J page and the chimpy pic were inserted to ease the burden on Frank McDiarmid.

Page 14 is given over to an advertisement for the first issue of IPC's new comic, Misty, which is on sale this week.

On Wednesday, Cheeky arrives at Baby Burpo's house where Burpo's dad suggests Cheeky challenges Burpo to play his new card game.  This is fortunate, as the centre pages, which usually feature the Creepy Sleepy Tale, this week carry the cut-out Skateboard Snap game.  The aforementioned 2-page Joke-Box Jury follows, with no skateboard-related jokes.

After a skateboard-packed Thursday with Cheeky, Oscar gets participates in this week's theme with a Home Movie concerning a mock bullfight in which the fearsome beast is portrayed by 2 kids on skateboards with a blanket thrown over them, then Mustapha Million converts his mansion into a skateboard park for the local kids.

The Henery Hawk and Bam Splat and Blooie strips have no skateboard content (not surprising, as they're reprints), nor does this week's instalment of Space Family Robinson.

Page 31 contains a filler feature referred to earlier - the photo of a chimp on a skateboard, and the back page carries a further set of Skateboard Snap cards.

It's great that the Cheeky's Week art on this special issue is provided by Frank McDiarmid, who delivers 8 Cheeky's Week elements (the remaining one being a single panel which concludes Saturday and looks like a cut-and-paste job to me).  It's nice that the skateboard theme is carried into the other humour strips in the comic, too (except, of course, the reprints).  On the downside, as I've mentioned before, I never like cut-out features, and the inclusion of the snap game seems rather uninspired, and were I not confident that the Cheeky Weekly editor believes that such cut-out features increased sales, I'd be tempted to describe the snap game as another filler .

There are no Cheeky's Week character debuts or departures this week, but we do say goodbye to Henery Hawk who will mercifully trouble us no more in future issues.  Now if they would just get rid of these Warner Brothers strips altogether…

Cheeky Weekly	Cover Date: 04-Feb-1978, Issue 16 of 117
Page	Details
1	Cover Feature 'Skateboard Issue' - Art Jimmy Hansen\Sunday - Art Frank McDiarmid
2	Skateboard Squad - Art Jimmy Hansen
3	Skateboard Squad - Art Jimmy Hansen
4	Sunday evening - Art Frank McDiarmid
5	6 Million Dollar Gran - Art Ian Knox
6	6 Million Dollar Gran - Art Ian Knox
7	6 Million Dollar Gran - Art Ian Knox
8	Monday - Art Frank McDiarmid
9	James Bold 'The Ghost Highwayman' 5 of 9 - Art Mike White
10	James Bold 'The Ghost Highwayman' 5 of 9 - Art Mike White
11	Suddenly - Art Frank McDiarmid\Ad: IPC 'Shoot' 6 of 13
12	What's New, Kids
13	Old Comic reprint from Chips 'Dickie Duffer' 2 of 2 reprint from Chips 'Rudolf the Red-Nosed Ranger'
14	Ad: IPC 'Misty No 1' 2 of 2
15	Wednesday - Art Frank McDiarmid
16	Skateboard Snap (single appearance) - Art Jimmy Hansen (single art on feature)
17	Skateboard Snap (single appearance) - Art Jimmy Hansen (single art on feature)
18	Joke-Box Jury
19	Joke-Box Jury
20	Thursday - Art Frank McDiarmid
21	Home Movie 'El Bullfighter' - Art Jack Clayton
22	Friday - Art Frank McDiarmid
23	Mustapha Million - Art Reg Parlett
24	Mustapha Million - Art Reg Parlett
25	Saturday - Art Frank McDiarmid
26	Henery Hawk (final appearance) 'The Flower Pot'
27	Henery Hawk (final appearance) 'The Flower Pot'
28	Interval - Art Frank McDiarmid\Bam Splat and Blooie reprint from Buster
29	Space Family Robinson 'The Search' - Art John Richardson
30	Space Family Robinson 'The Search' - Art John Richardson
31	Chimp on a skateboard photo (single appearance)\Saturday - Art Cut and Paste (final art on feature)
32	Skateboard Snap (single appearance) - Art Jimmy Hansen (single art on feature)

Cheeky's Week Artists Cover Date 04-Feb-1978

                                                                 

Artist	Elements
Frank McDiarmid	8
Cut and Paste	1

Profile - Lily Pop

The gorgeous Lily Pop appeared in 113 issues of Cheeky Weekly.  She was employed as a school crossing supervisor (or 'lollipop lady', hence her name), but she was guaranteed to stop the traffic even without her 'lollipop'.

Drooled over by most of the adult male characters in Cheeky's Week (most notably Cheeky's Dad and Teacher), it was Lily's job to deliver Cheeky safely across the road to school, but first she would demand a joke from the toothy funster.  On receipt of one of Cheeky's corny gags, Lily would step into the road and cause the traffic to halt, seemingly unaware of the looks of longing on the faces of all the male motorists.

The cracking crossing lady appeared on 3 Cheeky Weekly covers - in Cheeky's Week dated 14 April 1979 and 12 May 1979, and on the cover of the 1979 Christmas issue, dated 29 December.  She also appeared on the Pin-up Pal poster in the 18 February 1978 issue (which you can see on Bruce's Comic Archive), and was the subject of the Burpo Special on 09 December 1978.

Art Mike Lacey

Fortunately, Lily was never affected by the Cheeky Weekly inconsistent hair colour problem, and remained resolutely blonde throughout her appearances.

The cracking crossing lady was created for Cheeky Weekly, although after her debut she did appear in 2 issues of Krazy - 25 February and 15 April 1978.

No-one drew Lily like Frank McDiarmid, who brought out the full fwooarr factor whenever he depicted her.  Luckily for us, Frank was the most regular artist on Lily, drawing her in 66 elements.  All the art in the examples above is by Frank McDiarmid, except where noted otherwise.  For the breakdown of the other Lily elements by artist, see below.

Character	Total Issues	First Appearance	Final Appearance
Lily Pop	113	22-Oct-1977	02-Feb-1980

Missing From Issues

28-Jan-1978

17-Feb-1979

18-Aug-1979

22-Dec-1979

Lily Pop - Number of appearances by Element

Element	Number of Appearances
Friday	41
Monday	35
Suddenly	22
Saturday	11
Sunday	5
Wednesday	5
Cover Feature	4
Tuesday	4
Thursday	3
Cheeky's Week	2

Lily Pop - Number of appearances by Page

Page	Number of Appearances
25	23
7	16
26	15
8	14
11	13
12	11
31	8
1	6
2	5
10	4
21	3
30	3
6	2
9	2
15	2
20	2
5	1
18	1
19	1

Count of elements by artist

Character	Artist	Total Elements
Lily Pop	Frank McDiarmid	66
Lily Pop	Frank McDiarmid pencils	22
Lily Pop	Mike Lacey	20
Lily Pop	Barrie Appleby	10
Lily Pop	Unknown Cheeky Artist 1	6
Lily Pop	Dick Millington	6
Lily Pop	Not known	1
Lily Pop	Bob Hill	1

The features - What's New Kids

Personally, I would have been happier with a question mark at the end of this feature's title, but sadly we were never to get one in any of the 58 issues in which it appeared.

An advertising feature and therefore source of revenue for IPC, What's New, Kids appeared in the first issue of Cheeky Weekly and thereafter sporadically until its final run out in the comic dated 17 November 1979.  On the first appearance, Cheeky announced "All the latest info, boys and girls!  Read all about it here!".

The first item to be promoted was that grand old pursuit of the prepubescent British male baby boomer, the Airfix kit (in this case the Tornado jet fighter).  I would imagine that by the late 70s, the lure of 'locate and cement sprocket A into flange Z' was waning dramatically  In that first page, readers were also invited to write in and let Cheeky know of anything 'new and exciting'.  These reader recommendations were featured in a 'news' panel on the What's New, Kids page, which appeared occasionally from 04 February 1978, until bowing out on 03 June 1978.



It wasn't just toys that were featured, new films were quite often given a plug.  James Bond's 1977 film outing, The Spy Who Loved Me, was featured in the second issue, in a double whammy film-and-Corgi-Lotus-Esprit tie-in.  The first instalment of the Star Wars saga was plugged in the issue dated 10 December 1977, with the related action figures being featured in the 08 April 1978 comic.

A surprising (from our current perspective) number of books were featured on What's New, Kids.  Gyles Brandreth seems to have had some arrangement with the comic, as his books were plugged on 3 occassions.

Judging by these pages, kids' bedrooms of the time were filled with toys, books and board games, and the explosion in home entertainment, which was to erode comic readership across subsequent decades, is hardly evident.

Occasionally, a character from Cheeky's Week who was in some way related to the product being advertised would be pressed into service on the What's New, Kids page.  For example, Lily Pop (the cracking crossing lady) introduced The Ladybird book of Road Sense.


On 16 June 1979 the What's New, Kids page was revamped, with a different typeface for the title, and no further appearances by Cheeky or his pals.

Ever eager to promote the other titles in its range of comics, IPC would quite often insert in-house ads when there was a suitable space on the What's New, Kids page.




Rather ironically, the final appearance of the feature, in the comic dated 17 November 1979, presaged the upheaval to come, as it introduced two products based on the insidious silicon chip, Simon and Merlin.  Who could have guessed that these two primitive games would open the floodgates of the home electronics revolution which would sweep comics (and Airfix kits) from their comfortable position as a mainstay of kids' entertainment and leave them struggling for survival?



The Cheeky artwork on this feature was a variety of cut-and-paste assemblages, some of which were rather alarming, such as the 'left hand on right arm' example which was seen on more than one occasion. An example of this unsettling image can be seen in the scan at the top of this post. The incongruently-appendaged illustration of the toothy funster originally appeared on the back cover of Cheeky Weekly's first issue.

This somewhat peripatetic feature dodged around the comic, most regularly following the Old Comic feature (9 times), 6 Million Dollar Gran (7 times) and Calculator Kid (6 times).

48 of the features covered a single page, with 10 appearances being a half-page or less.

                                                                                                                                                             

Feature	First Appearance	Final Appearance	Total Issues	Total Issues Missed In Run	Page History
What's New, Kids	22-Oct-77	17-Nov-79	58	48	4,5,6,7,8,9,11,12,14,15,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,27,31

Cheeky Weekly cover date 28 January 1978

Flying Fred Holroyd, aka Bubblegum Boy, is back on the cover to see Cheeky announce a Four Comics competition.  What a Cheek is bumped from the cover by a teaser advising skateboarders that they will find super news on page 30.

On the second panel of the Sunday page, Cheeky sets Baker's Boy a riddle and allows him a whole week to provide the answer.  Those curious to learn the answer should look here.

Skateboard Squad have an unpleasant encounter with the terrible Thomson twins.  Is this a dig at IPC's rival comic publisher, DC Thomson?  Probably not.

There's some nice artwork from Ian Knox on this week's 6 Million Dollar Gran episode, which sees Gran retrieve a lost dog and foil a robbery (of course).

On page 11 is the cut-out coupon required to enter the Four Comics Competition, also running in Krazy, Whizzer and Chips and Whoopee!  Readers are invited to identify the two identical kites from the ten shown, then enter their choices on the coupon and get an adult to sign it to certify that it is the entrant's own, unaided work.  All that remains is to cut out and post the coupon for the chance to win one of 500 Peter Powell Stunt Kites ('stunt kite' is a phrase one has to be very careful with to avoid an unintentional spoonerism), 250 Peter Powell T-shirts, or one of 250 packs containing stickers and a year's membership of the Kite Club.  Readers can enter as many times as they like, so why not buy another of the Fabulous Four comics this week for an extra entry form?  The message is further enforced on page 30, which carries a half-page ad for what this time are referred to as the Funtastic Four Comics (the same titles again).  IPC are really battling to increase comic sales, and who can blame them?

Page 4 carries 2 in-house adverts, more evidence of the publishers' campaign to boost sales.  The first is for the debut issue of Misty, 'the fantastic new mystery paper for girls', which will be on sale on Monday January 30.  The free gift given away in the debut issue is a shimmering blue fish bracelet.  Not sure what connection there is between fish and the contents of the comic, but I don't think that's a prime consideration when editors are sourcing free gifts.  The other ad is for Shoot, which this week includes 2 more packets of stickers for your Football 78 Album.  These 2 ads demonstrate the multi-gender nature of Cheeky Weekly's target audience.

On the Wednesday page preceding the Creepy Sleepy Tale, Cheeky emerges from his house to find Krazy Town has had a fall of snow.  However, when Cheeky departs Burpo's house at the conclusion of the tale, no snow is in evidence.  By Thursday it's back, but gone again on Friday.  The artwork for Wednesday (main), Thursday and Friday is all by Frank McDiarmid Pencils 2, and one might have expected consistency within a single penciller/inker collaboration in a single issue.  I suspect, however, that on occasion, if they were short of artwork for a particular day of Cheeky's Week, the editor would substitute a page from the collection of unpublished pages they were holding for later issues.

This week's Home Movie, Frankystein, features an irate milkman.  Again the editor/scriptwriter decided not to use a character from Cheeky's Week who may have fitted the bill (Milkie in  this case), instead featuring a generic pinta purveyor from the stock of cartoon extras.

Page 30 carries the super news for skateboarders - next week's Cheeky Weekly will be a special skateboarding issue, including a cut-out skateboard snap game.  Order it now!

The current cut-out feature, The Cheeky Spotter Book of Fun, reaches its concluding instalment this issue.  There are no character debuts or departures this week.  The Cheeky's Week artwork consists of 5 elements by Unknown Cheeky Artist 1, 4 by Frank McDiarmid Pencils and 1 by Frank McDiarmid.

This post updated 03 September 2020 to revise artwork attribution on 'Skateboarders! Super News' cover feature from Mike Lacey to Jimmy Hansen (and to add Spoonerism reference above).

Cheeky Weekly	Cover Date: 28-Jan-1978, Issue 15 of 117
Page	Details
1	Cover Feature 'Kite Competition' - Art Frank McDiarmid 'Skateboarders! Super News' - Art Jimmy Hansen (first art on feature)
2	Sunday - Art Frank McDiarmid pencils
3	Skateboard Squad - Art Jimmy Hansen
4	Sunday evening - Art Frank McDiarmid pencils
5	6 Million Dollar Gran - Art Ian Knox
6	6 Million Dollar Gran - Art Ian Knox
7	Monday - Art Frank McDiarmid pencils
8	James Bold 'The Ghost Highwayman' 4 of 9 - Art Mike White
9	James Bold 'The Ghost Highwayman' 4 of 9 - Art Mike White
10	Suddenly - Art Cut and Paste (single art on feature)
11	4 Comics competition (single appearance)
12	Tuesday - Art Frank McDiarmid pencils
13	Old Comic reprint from Swift 'Our Gang'
14	Ad: IPC 'Misty No 1' 1 of 2 Ad: 'Shoot' 5 of 13
15	Wednesday - Art Unknown Cheeky Artist 1
16	Creepy Sleepy Tale - Art Keith Reynolds
17	Creepy Sleepy Tale - Art Keith Reynolds\Wednesday (conclusion) - Art Frank McDiarmid
18	Joke-Box Jury
19	Thursday - Art Unknown Cheeky Artist 1
20	Home Movie 'Franky Stein' - Art Jack Clayton
21	Friday - Art Unknown Cheeky Artist 1
22	Mustapha Million - Art Reg Parlett
23	Mustapha Million - Art Reg Parlett
24	Saturday - Art Unknown Cheeky Artist 1
25	Daffy Duck 'Ducking Out'
26	Daffy Duck 'Ducking Out'
27	Interval - Art Unknown Cheeky Artist 1
28	Space Family Robinson 'The Captives' - Art John Richardson
29	Space Family Robinson 'The Captives' - Art John Richardson
30	Ad: IPC 'Funtastic Four comics'
31	The Cheeky Spotter Book of Fun (final appearance) - Art Jim Petrie (final art on feature)
32	The Cheeky Spotter Book of Fun (final appearance) - Art Jim Petrie (final art on feature)

Cheeky's Week Artists Cover Date 28-Jan-1978

Artist	Elements
Unknown Cheeky Artist 1	5
Frank McDiarmid pencils	4
Cut and Paste	1
Frank McDiarmid	1

The pages - Page 2

It's not surprising that the Sunday feature (or variants thereof - see below) was the most regular occupant of page 2, appearing 114 times.  Seeing as Cheeky was the star of the comic, it's logical for a Cheeky's Week page to be the first to appear inside each issue, and given the week-based nature of the Cheeky strips, there's not much option other than to start with Sunday.  Also, IPC had a policy of not including adverts (except in-house promotions) on the first 3 pages of their titles - at least I don't remember seeing an IPC comic with an ad that early in an issue.

There are of course exceptions to every rule, and in the case of page 2, those exceptions were…

22 October 1977 - Page 2 of the first issue saw Cheeky welcome readers to the comic ('Hiya I'm Cheeky'), a panel alerting readers that details of a free competition are coming next week, and the instructions for assembly and deployment of the Red Jet Rattler free gift.

29 October 1977 - Page 2 of the second issue contained another message from Cheeky ('Hello again'), instructions for the Fun Wallet free gift, and details of the Fun Phone reader participation vehicle.

04 February 1978 - The first page of a 2-page Skateboard Squad story ousted Sunday from its rightful position on page 2 of this issue, which was the special skateboard number.  The Sunday feature had been shifted to the cover to allow room for the extra page of Skateboard Squad inside.

Here's the breakdown of features to appear on page 2.  As mentioned above, there are some variants of Sunday, such as Christmas Morning and Easter Sunday.  Also please note that 1/2 denotes this is the first of 2 pages containing that feature in a particular issue.
Count of Elements (or distinct combinations thereof) appearing on Page 2

Elements	Total
Sunday	110
Christmas Morning 1/2	1
Easter Sunday	1
Hello again	1
Hiya I'm Cheeky	1
New Year's Eve	1
Skateboard Squad 1/2	1
Sunday 1/2	1

Profile - Teacher

Chronic dandruff sufferer and Cheeky's nemesis, Teacher (whose surname was Smith, as we learned in the In the 22 January 1977 issue of Krazy) made his first Cheeky Weekly appearance in issue 5, dated 19 November 1977, and featured in 109 issues of the comic.

Teacher's second Cheeky Weekly appearance was on the cover of the 26 November 1977 issue, where he acted as straight man for Cheeky's What a Cheek gag.  Teacher appeared in a further 4 What a Cheek cover strips, in which he variously appeared with white, ginger and red hair, and in his final What a Cheek, memorably changed from having white hair to red hair within a single strip.

Not only was Teacher another victim of the Cheeky Weekly inconsistent hair colour plague, but his scalp condition was not constant throughout the comic's run.  In his first Cheeky Weekly appearance he was dandruff-free, despite his flakes being present in Krazy from his second appearance in that title in the issue dated 23 October 1976.

Cheeky and Teacher were locked in a titanic struggle for classroom supremacy.  Cheeky usually arrived late for class with an outlandish excuse for not completing his homework, and often received lines as a punishment for his lack of application.

In the final Cheeky's Week panel of the 29 July 1978 issue, Teacher told Cheeky "I'm going to get my revenge on you lot for all you've made me suffer in school - by behaving even worse than the worst of you!  Hee-hee!".  In retrospect, this outburst seems to herald some form of breakdown, as in the comic dated 05 August 1978 Teacher appeared throughout the week, taking on the characteristics of Cheeky and some of his pals.  First he dressed as Six-Gun Sam, then usurped Cheeky's place for a joke with the Knock-Knock Door.  He also appeared in a nappy as Baby Burpo, and obtained the Mystery Comic before Cheeky had located it (and read it while riding a unicycle), then turned up for the cinema show disguised as a schoolboy.  However in the final Cheeky's Week panel of this comic Teacher's rampage came to an end as he appeared at his front door, dressed in a pinny with saucepan and washing up brush in hand, to tell Cheeky "My dear wife has just come back from visiting her mother and discovered that I haven't done any [housework] since she left.  I'm not allowed out!".

Teacher was featured on the Pin-up Pal page in the 12 August 1978 issue, and was the subject of 05 May 1979's Burpo Special, which was another flake-free appearance.  He also appeared as a supporting character in 16 June 1979's Burpo Special, in which the subject was Burpo himself.  Teacher presented the Laugh and Learn feature which appeared in 5 issues between 07 October 1978 and 09 December 1978.  The podgy pedagogue briefly had his own puzzle page, Teacher's Teasers, which appeared in the 26 August 1978, 02 September 1978 and 23 September 1978 issues.

Character	Total Issues	First Appearance	Final Appearance
Teacher	109	19-Nov-1977	02-Feb-1980

Missing From Issues

22-Oct-1977

29-Oct-1977

05-Nov-1977

12-Nov-1977

03-Dec-1977

02-Jun-1979

18-Aug-1979

25-Aug-1979

Teacher - Number of appearances by Element

Element	Number of Appearances
Friday	41
Suddenly	24
Monday	21
Saturday	20
Thursday	9
Tuesday	7
Wednesday	5
What a Cheek	5
Sunday evening	4
Sunday	3
Interval	2
The Burpo Special	2
Easter Saturday	1
Good Friday	1

Teacher - Number of appearances by Page

Page	Number of Appearances
25	27
11	15
26	12
31	12
8	9
7	8
12	8
10	6
1	5
4	4
15	4
20	4
30	4
9	3
19	3
28	3
32	3
2	2
21	2
22	2
24	2
3	1
5	1
6	1
13	1
16	1
18	1
23	1

Count of elements by artist

Character	Artist	Total Elements
Teacher	Frank McDiarmid	72
Teacher	Frank McDiarmid pencils	28
Teacher	Mike Lacey	24
Teacher	Barrie Appleby	7
Teacher	Dick Millington	6
Teacher	Unknown Cheeky Artist 1	5
Teacher	Not known	1
Teacher	Bob Hill	1
Teacher	Cut and Paste	1

Your vote counts!

Bruce's Baby Burpo vs Sweeny Toddler vote has been extended, and as Bruce has moved his blog, if you voted on the old blog, you'll need to vote again here - scroll to the bottom of the page.  I'm pleased to say that currently Burpo is in the lead, but we need to make sure he stays ahead, so vote Burpo!

Cheeky Weekly cover date 21 January 1978

Mustapha Million is the featured character on this week's cover, in a blown-up panel from the Mustapha tale inside.  The What a Cheek strip features an unfortunate stooge who's destined for a plummet down a manhole.  I presume Bump-Bump Bernie was unavailable due to injury.  Somebody really should have a word with Manhole Man about leaving his aperture uncovered.

There may be further evidence of the Cheeky Weekly inconsistent hair colour epidemic as on Sunday evening Cheeky's Mum, who last week had light-coloured hair, is now sporting dark tresses.  However, in fairness, we must acknowledge that maybe she has had her hair dyed in the period since her previous Sunday evening appearance.






On Monday Cheeky meets Mechanic, who for the first time is not under a car. Normally all we see of Mechanic is his feet, but on this occasion only his face remains hidden.

The Old Comic feature this week reprints a page from Tip Top comic, 1953, containing The Happy Family strip plus Merry Moments at Sunnyside School.  Unfortunately the reduction in size necessary to fit the page into Cheeky Weekly renders the contents of the speech balloons practically illegible.  Maybe Tip Top was a broadsheet-sized comic, in which case perhaps it wasn't the best choice to reprint in a tabloid publication.

Pages 22 and 23 feature the Mustapha Million strip, where the mighty Reg Parlett turns in some nice work on a winter-themed tale.

More manhole-related fun is evident in this week's Home Movie, Dr Zuzz.  There was an opportunity to integrate the strip into Cheeky's world by drawing Manhole Man as the irate subterranean worker, but maybe the editor felt that depicting Manhole Man angrily chasing Hooter Harrison and pals in the final frame would upset the readers.






In the cinema interval, as Cheeky settles down to watch Space Family Robinson, he speaks the lines about Mrs Robinson going missing that were mistakenly included in last week's issue.









A half page in-house ad on page 30 announces a competition next week, also running in stablemates Whoopee!, Whizzer and Chips and Krazy.  There's an air of desperation in the underlining of extra comic.

This issue of Cheeky Weekly is turning into something of a manhole special, as there's another missing cover in this week's instalment of the Spotter Book, which closes the issue, art by Jim Petrie.

On Sunday evening Cheeky says he will be introducing some new pals this week, and these new arrivals are Yikky-Boo, Petula, Gunga Jim and Six-Gun Sam.  Skipper from the Skateboard Squad also makes his first appearance in Cheeky's Week as the Squad speed past Cheeky on the way to their latest adventure.

The artwork on Cheeky's Week this issue is a mix of unadulterated Frank McDiarmid (8 elements), Frank McDiarmid pencils (3 elements) and Unknown Cheeky Artist 1 (1 element).

A new feature this week is Tweety and Sylvester (zzzzzz….)

Cheeky Weekly	Cover Date: 21-Jan-1978, Issue 14 of 117
Page	Details
1	Cover Feature 'Mustapha Million' 1 of 2 - Art Reg Parlett (first art on feature)\What a Cheek - Art Frank McDiarmid
2	Sunday - Art Frank McDiarmid
3	Skateboard Squad - Art Jimmy Hansen
4	Sunday evening - Art Frank McDiarmid
5	6 Million Dollar Gran - Art Ian Knox
6	6 Million Dollar Gran - Art Ian Knox
7	6 Million Dollar Gran - Art Ian Knox
8	Monday - Art Frank McDiarmid
9	James Bold 'The Ghost Highwayman' 3 of 9 - Art Mike White
10	James Bold 'The Ghost Highwayman' 3 of 9 - Art Mike White
11	Suddenly - Art Frank McDiarmid (first art on feature)
12	Tuesday - Art Frank McDiarmid
13	Old Comic reprint from Tip Top 'The Happy Family' reprint from Tip Top 'Merry Moments at Sunnyside School' 1 of 2
14	What's New, Kids
15	Wednesday - Art Frank McDiarmid
16	Creepy Sleepy Tale - Art Keith Reynolds
17	Creepy Sleepy Tale - Art Keith Reynolds\Wednesday (conclusion) - Art Frank McDiarmid
18	Joke-Box Jury
19	Thursday - Art Frank McDiarmid pencils
20	Home Movie 'Dr. Zuzz' - Art Jack Clayton
21	Friday - Art Frank McDiarmid pencils
22	Mustapha Million - Art Reg Parlett
23	Mustapha Million - Art Reg Parlett
24	Saturday - Art Unknown Cheeky Artist 1
25	Tweety and Sylvester (first appearance)
26	Tweety and Sylvester (first appearance)
27	Interval - Art Frank McDiarmid pencils
28	Space Family Robinson 'The Plain of Bubbles' - Art John Richardson
29	Space Family Robinson 'The Plain of Bubbles' - Art John Richardson
30	Ad: IPC '4 Papers Kite Competition next week'Ad: 'Shoot' 4 of 13
31	The Cheeky Spotter Book of Fun - Art Jim Petrie
32	The Cheeky Spotter Book of Fun - Art Jim Petrie

Cheeky's Week Artists Cover Date 21-Jan-1978

Artist	Elements
Frank McDiarmid	8
Frank McDiarmid pencils	3
Unknown Cheeky Artist 1	1