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 .| 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 |
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