Yikky first Booed in the 21 January 1978 issue of Cheeky Weekly...
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| Art: Frank McDiarmid |
The loud lad wasn't always successful in his scare attempts - an abortive attack on Ursula during the cinema interval in the 25 February 1978 comic resulted in him being Yikky-Booted out of the picture house by the lumbering lolly lady, much to the delight of the Commissionare.
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| Frank McDiarmid |
A more successful encounter with Nosy Nora in the 25 March 1978 issue (seen here) seems to have traumatised the schoolgirl snooper into abandoning what had been a 23-issue run in which she dogged Cheeky's weekly search for the Mystery Comic.
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| Art: Mike Lacey |
Granny Gumdrop encased the strident stripling in a knitted Yikky-Boo cosy in the 20 May 1978, 31 March 1979 (the jersey edition) and 12 May 1979 issues. Yikky-Boo was unable to rouse somnolent schoolgirl Snoozin' Susan from her slumbers in the 24 June 1978 comic.
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| By the year 2038, Yikky's Boos are rather enfeebled. Art: Frank McDiarmid |
In the 16 September 1978 edition, the raucous rapscallion's exclamation launched Cheeky into a tree wherein our toothy pal discovered that week's copy of the Mystery Comic. It was Yikky's turn to get a fright (emitting a Yikky-Yike!) in the comic dated 09 December 1978 when he had an unexpected close-up encounter with Ursula.
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| Frank McDiarmid |
The resonant runt's first front cover appearance was on the 10 February 1979 issue, the same edition in which he appeared, somewhat under the weather, in a Burpo Special focusing on Auntie Daisy whose cooking had elicited a Yukky-Boo! The loud lad was on the front page of the 14 July 1979 comic, inside which he was unwise enough to sample another of Aunty Daisy's culinary concoctions, this time generating a Yikky-Groogh! The noisy nutcase was the subject of the cover illustration of the comic dated 25 August 1979, and his final front page appearance was on 05 January 1980's new year edition in which, on the Sunday page, he was seen being pursued by all the people he had frightened during 1979.
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| Teacher suffers the effects of drinking too much cake Art: Dick Millington |
Yikky appeared on the Pin-Up Pal poster in the comic dated 17 June 1978, where he was seen intruding upon the slumbers of one of the many Krazy Town cats, and the egregious ear-splitter was the subject of 06 January 1979's Burpo Special.
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| Frank McDiarmid |
Yikky-Boo appeared in the final issue of Cheeky Weekly, the 99th issue to feature his cacophonous contribution. He never appeared in Krazy comic.
Yikky's name and exclamation may have been inspired by the Lurgi Strikes Britain episode of vintage BBC Radio comedy series The Goon Show. In that programme, victims of the dreaded Lurgi are heard to exclaim 'Eeeeeeeeh Yakka-Boo' as they succumb to the malady. A transcript can be found here and an excerpt can be heard here.
| Character | Total Issues | First Appearance | Final Appearance |
| Yikky-Boo | 99 | 21-Jan-1978 | 02-Feb-1980 |
Count of elements by artist
| Character | Artist | Total Elements |
| Yikky-Boo | Frank McDiarmid | 54 |
| Yikky-Boo | Mike Lacey | 18 |
| Yikky-Boo | Frank McDiarmid pencils | 15 |
| Yikky-Boo | Barrie Appleby | 8 |
| Yikky-Boo | Unknown Cheeky Artist 1 | 3 |
| Yikky-Boo | Dick Millington | 3 |
| Yikky-Boo | Jim Watson | 3 |
| Yikky-Boo | Bob Hill | 1 |
| Yikky-Boo | Not known | 1 |
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…
ReplyDeleteThat's a very interesting nugget of info. If I can find some scans of the Nuttys in question somewhere on the internet I might do a post on it - will credit you with the discovery of course. Thanks for following the Cheeky blog. I tried to join your page, but I don't understand this 'circles' business (much less the 'hangout' - what's that all about?), so having been technologically thwarted I'll just have to follow you in spirit.
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