Frank's Dodgy Years

Even the mighty Frank McDiarmid couldn't be expected to deliver a whole Cheeky's Week every issue so, as we have seen, a number of other artists stood in from time to time. While Frank was drawing Cheeky's escapades in Cheeky Weekly, he also drew 44 Cheeky pages in Krazy comic during the 26 weeks that Cheeky Weekly and Krazy shared space on the newsagents' shelves.

However, his work during this period wasn't limited to Cheeky Weekly and Krazy, in fact it wasn't even limited to publisher IPC - Frank was also illustrating Roger the Dodger for rival DC Thomson's iconic title, The Beano. Frank's gig on Roger lasted almost ten and a half years - an impressive run.

The McDiarmid style on Roger was restrained in comparison to his Cheeky work, no doubt to comply with Thomson's requirements, and Frank was clearly ghosting Ken Reid's style when drawing The Dodger's face. Again, this may have been at the request of Thomsons since Reid had been the original artist on the strip, or else it was Frank's homage to Roger's creator.

Here is the first of Frank's Roger strips, from The Beano dated 13 December 1975. Previous Roger artist Tom Lavery's title panel has been retained.

Here's Frank's Roger from The Beano dated 22 October 1977 - the same cover date as the first Cheeky Weekly.

This one's from The Beano with the same cover date as the final Cheeky Weekly - 02 February 1980.

Below is Frank's final Roger strip from The Beano dated 24 May 1986.

Frank also drew at least one Bash Street Kids story in The Beano in 1975.

Roger the Dodger is copyright DC Thomson & Co. Ltd.