Whizzer and Chips - The Cheeky Raids part 9

New readers start here... After Cheeky Weekly folded and was incorporated into Whoopee as of February 1980 six strips that had originated in the toothy funster's title survived the merge and continued to appear in the amalgamated comic. Whoopee itself foundered in March 1985 and was merged into Whizzer and Chips. Three of the surviving Cheeky Weekly strips successfully negotiated this second merge and went on to appear in the newly combined publication, rather inelegantly titled 'Whizzer and Chips now including Whoopee'. The survivors were Mustapha Million, Calculator Kid and (appearing only twice) Stage School. Cheeky continued to appear, but as a member of The Krazy Gang, who had moved into W&C when Krazy, the comic in which the Gang originated, expired in April 1978.

Whizzer and Chips had a long tradition of sending characters from the Chips section into Whizzer and vice versa. These cross-comic forays were known as 'raids'. In this series of posts I'm chronicling the raids involving the ex-Cheeky Weekly characters who made the transition into Whizzer and Chips, all of whom were allocated to the Chips section. For the purposes of this series, although this particular manifestation of the toothy funster didn't directly descend from Cheeky Weekly, I'm including Cheeky's Krazy Gang appearances as those of an 'ex-Cheeky Weekly character'.

Two weeks after the previous raid involving an ex-Cheeky Weekly character, Mustapha Million's adventure (in which we meet his cousin Ahmed) was intruded upon by a rotten raider. Can you spot the infiltrator? Scroll down for the answer.

Whizzer and Chips 27 July 1985
Art: Joe McCaffrey

It's that pesky Whizz-Kid prankster, Joker.

The Mustapha story above reminds me of a joke that was often heard in the 1970s and directed at a UK car manufacturer that underwent a series of misfortunes during that troubled decade...

1^st Man: I'm getting my little boy a cowboy outfit for Christmas.

2^nd Man: Really?

1^st Man: Yes, I'm buying him British Leyland.

For the benefit of any mystified overseas readers, the joke plays on an alternate, informal use of  'cowboy', meaning incompetent, inefficient, dishonest.

No doubt there were other versions of the joke aimed at British Rail, The Post Office etc. 'Mickey Mouse outfit' was also often substituted.

This was the second time that Mustapha had been raided, but he had been a raider on two previous occasions. Ex-Cheeky Weekly characters had by this time perpetrated just 3 raids while suffering 7.

More raiding fun soon!

Whizzer and Chips Cover Date	Raider	Raided
06 April 1985	Mustapha Million	Super Steve
04 May 1985	Bloggs (Store Wars)	Mustapha Million
11 May 1985	Joker	The Krazy Gang (Cheeky)
18 May 1985	Calculator Kid & Calc	Odd-Ball
01 June 1985	Animalad Mustapha Million	The Krazy Gang (Cheeky) Boy Boss
08 June 1985	Odd-Ball	Calculator Kid
06 July 1985	Toy Boy	Calculator Kid
13 July 1985	Pa Bumpkin	The Krazy Gang (Cheeky)
27 July 1985	Joker	Mustapha Million