In Cheeky Weekly's
debut issue, page 15 was the home of the What's New, Kids advertising
feature, as it was in issue number two. However, in issue three, the
concluding part of that week's Creepy Sleepy Tale and the related
Wednesday (conclusion) came to rest on page 15 for the only time in the
comic's run (CST was prevented from appearing in what became its
regular centre-pages slot in the first 3 Cheeky Weeklies due to the
presence of posters in the middle of those issues).
With effect from the 12
November 1977 comic, the Wednesday element of Cheeky's Week commenced
a run on page 15 that would last for 34 issues.
When that run concluded, for the following 2
weeks page 15 was home to advertisements for the first Cheeky Summer Special and a '5 Papers competition' (in which readers of IPC's
humour line could win prizes of super summer games) respectively. The following week a half-page Joke-Box Jury
and ad for the Whoopee! Holiday Special shared page 15.
Wednesday was then back
on page 15 for 2 weeks, after which Thursday moved in for a fortnight (its only appearances in this location) until Wednesday regained control for another run, this time of 4 weeks duration.
In the 23 September 1978 issue, the second page of that week's Silly Snaps feature landed on page 15 for the only time in the feature's
run, because big changes to Cheeky Weekly were afoot...
Cheeky Weekly dated 30
September 1978 saw the comic undergo a major overhaul, the most
significant change being the introduction of The Mystery Comic, a
comic-within-a-comic idea akin to Chips in IPC's long-running Whizzer and Chips. Since for this and the following 36 issues, the centre
pages would be the home of The Mystery Comic, a whole new set of
features shouldered their way onto page 15 as the weeks progressed. The first of these was Mystery Boy, Mystery Comic's wartime adventure serial. Mystery Boy, whose real
name was David but was known for the duration of this adventure as
Sandy, appeared on page 15 for 4 weeks until his run in this location
was interrupted in the 28 October 1978 comic by 2 half-page ads, one
for the 1979 Shiver and Shake Annual (S&S being another comic to
adopt the one-comic-inside-another template) and the other for
Whoopee! which that week included the customary Guy Fawkes mask as it always
did in the run up to bonfire night (or did it? See later).
Mystery Boy/Sandy/David
then resumed his page 15 slot for another 2 weeks until he was ousted
for 4 weeks - firstly by the second page of Mustapha Million's story, then an ad for
the Woodcraft Village modelling kit, after which the second
page of the Elephant On The Run 2-pager came to rest on page 15 for 2 issues. Our plucky
wartime amnesiac chum then returned to page 15 for one week before being
dislodged again by page 2 of Mustapha Million for 2 weeks.
Not to be deterred,
Mystery Boy then commenced an 8 week page 15 run, until in the 24
March 1979 comic he was displaced by an ad for the first issue of IPC's new adventure
title, Tornado.
The following week saw
page 2 of Mustapha Million return to page 15, and the week after that
the same location was home to a half-page Tease Break puzzle
collection and an ad for IPC's 'Comics Go Pop' posters promotion
running across Whoopee!, Whizzer and Chips and Cheeky Weekly.
For the next 4
issues, IPC ads appeared on page 15, and it's apparent that IPC were
pushing Tornado hard, as 2 more ads for their new comic appeared on
page 15 (Tornado ads appeared in 4 issues of Cheeky Weekly in total).
| Date | Details |
| 14-Apr-79 | Ad: IPC 'Tornado' 3 of 4 Ad: 'Buster and Monster Fun Spring Special' 1 of 3 |
| 21-Apr-79 | Ad: IPC 'Tornado' 4 of 4 Ad: 'Cor Holiday Special' 2 of 2 |
| 28-Apr-79 | Ad: IPC 'Jackpot No 1'Ad: 'Buster and Monster Fun Spring Special' 3 of 3 |
| 05-May-79 | Ad: IPC 'Free milkshake promo' 2 of 3 |
An ad alerting kids that sachets of Kellogg's milkshake were to be given away in IPC's humour titles appeared on page 15 in the comic dated 05 May 1979.
Page 15 in the next 5 issues was again home to the second page of Mustapha Million's stories, then a 'Star Guest' feature, which IPC ran in their humour line to
introduce readers to characters from their other titles (in this case
Sheerluck and Son from Whoopee! ghosted by Barry Glennard in place of regular artist Trevor Metcalfe) appeared in the 16 June 1979 comic.
Mustapha Million then
returned for 2 further weeks, the second of these 2 appearances
coinciding with the final appearance of The Mystery Comic in the 30
July 1979 issue, as Cheeky Weekly geared up for another revamp.
Cheeky Weekly dated 07
July 1979 was that revamp issue, which saw the arrival of the second
page of a new strip on page 15 – Stage School. However, the
following week old favourite Mustapha Million was back on page 15,
but for the next 2 issues the newcomers of Stage School moved
back in before relocating elsewhere in the comic for the remainder of its run.
An ad for Palitoy's
Pippa doll occupied page 15 in the 04 August 1979 Cheeky Weekly, then
our middle-eastern mate Mustapha was back for one week before being
displaced by What's New, Kids.
Another ad relating to IPC's nascent title, Tornado, appeared in Cheeky Weekly dated 25 August
1979. However, this ad informed readers that, just 22 weeks after its
debut, Tornado had folded and been absorbed into 2000AD. Somewhat
confusingly, the ad claimed the first combined 2000AD and Tornado was
on sale 'next week' and also 'out now' (it was in fact on newsagents' shelves that
week). Sharing the page with
the news of Tornado's untimely assimilation was an ad for the second issue
of IPC's Walt Disney's Puzzle Time.
In a surprise move, the
final page of that week's 6 Million Dollar Gran occupied page 15 of
the 01 September 1979 issue, the only occasion on which the synthetic
senior citizen fetched up on page 15. What's New, Kids was then back
for 2 weeks, a brief run that brought its page 15 appearances to an end.
Elephant On The Run
then made its second and final page 15 showing, before Mystery Boy
made three more appearances in that location, the third bringing his
story to a happy conclusion in Cheeky Weekly dated 13 October 1979.
In the following issue, 2 IPC ads shared the fifteenth page, one for
the 1980 Krazy Annual, and the other for Whoopee! which for bonfire
night 1979 seems to have foregone the Guy Fawkes mask and in place
included the final part of a cut-out Gunpowder Plot Game.
Mustapha Million then
made the last of his 14 page 15 appearances, before Wednesday moved
back in for a 14 week run, culminating in Cheeky Weekly's final
issue. This makes Wednesday the feature to occupy page 15 the most
times, with a total of 54 appearances, followed some way behind by the WWII escapades of Mystery Boy with 18 appearances, then in third place Mustapha, who flaunted his Millions on page 15 a total of 14 times.
Count of Elements (or distinct combinations thereof) appearing on Page 15
| Elements | Total |
| Wednesday | 54 |
| Mystery Boy | 18 |
| Mustapha Million 2/2 | 14 |
| Advertisement: IPC | 10 |
| What's New, Kids | 5 |
| Stage School 2/2 | 3 |
| Elephant On The Run 2/2 | 2 |
| Thursday | 2 |
| 6 Million Dollar Gran 3/3 | 1 |
| Advertisement: Palitoy | 1 |
| Advertisement: Woodcraft Village | 1 |
| Elephant On The Run | 1 |
| Joke-Box Jury\Advertisement: IPC | 1 |
| Silly Snaps 2/2 | 1 |
| Star Guest | 1 |
| Tease Break\Advertisement: IPC | 1 |
| Wednesday (conclusion)\Creepy Sleepy Tale 2/2 | 1 |
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