The
conversation in IPC's offices in 1977 may have proceeded something
like this...
“Ok,
so we've decided that we're going to launch a comic based around the
Cheeky character from Krazy. The purpose of this meeting is to decide
on the new comic's title and discuss the contents. Anyone got ideas
for the title?”
“Cheeky's
Comic?”
“Nah,
any more?”
“Cheeky
Chuckles?”
“Hmm,
not really.”
“Toothy
Fun?”
“Get
out.”
“Er,
how about Cheeky Weekly? The comic is published every week, see, and it almost rhymes and it's quite
catchy...”
“Cheeky
Weekly?..Cheeky Weekly! Yeah, I like it! We'll use it. So has anyone
got any ideas for the contents? Obviously we need to feature Cheeky
prominently...”
“Why
don't we have Cheeky on the front and back page, with a mix of humour
and adventure strips inside?”
“I
want more Cheeky content that that.”
“Hey,
I've got an idea...the comic's name, Cheeky Weekly, could have another meaning...each issue we follow Cheeky throughout the week, with a
page for Sunday, Monday etc.”
“Aah,
yes! I like it...”
“Yeah,
and all the other strips are related to Cheeky's life in some way. So
one strip he could watch as a TV show, another he reads in a book and
so on. I don't think that's ever been done before.”
“Excellent,
sounds like a winner to me. Someone get Frank McDiarmid on the
phone...”
Whether
the title came first or not, having all the
features linked to Cheeky's week was a unique (as far as I'm aware)
property of Cheeky Weekly. No doubt the idea of linking all the strips meant that more careful
planning had to be carried out for each issue of Cheeky Weekly than
for the typical humour/adventure title of the time, as the editor had
to ensure that each framing device was correctly located
in relation to its companion strip. I'm sure the extra trouble
taken was appreciated by Cheeky fans.
As
I've mentioned in recent posts, the 'linked strips' idea was finally
dropped when Cheeky Weekly underwent its third major revamp in the 07
July 1979 issue, but the framing devices had in fact been falling
away for some time. In this post I'm going to chart the history of
each of the framing devices, examining them in the order in which
they came to an end.
Please be aware that, to make the text less cumbersome, I'm using the term 'framing device' plus the words 'link', 'introduction' and 'connection' interchangeably.
The
first lost framing device was that which depicted Cheeky enjoying a
surreptitious Sunday bedtime read of his book, 'Fangs of Fear', which
related the chilling exploits of ghost-hunter James Bold.
Every week some event would occur to bring the toothy funster's
nocturnal perusing to an untimely conclusion, always at a
cliff-hanging moment in the narrative. Cheeky's final bedtime browse
occurred in the 31 December 1977
issue. However, that wasn't the last encounter with James Bold that
Cheeky Weekly readers enjoyed – it was just the framing device
which changed.
 |
| Art: Frank McDiarmid |
 |
The second page of that week's chapter of
James Bold - Fangs of Fear
Art: Massimo Belardinelli |
The
second lost link was that which connected a strip that wasn't named
in the comic, so for ease of reference I have dubbed the feature in
question Doug's Doodle.
Cheeky's Pal Doodle Doug would threaten to reveal that the toothy
funster had been dipping into his dad's comic collection (which was
the subject of another link as we will see), forcing our grinning pal
to publish Doug's latest gag strip.
This
framing device surrounding Doug's artistic endeavours lasted 10 issues, making its final appearance in the
14
January 1978
comic.
Cheeky had another creative pal, Oscar, whose efforts as a film director were seen in the Home Movie series, drawn by Jack Clayton. In the early days of the toothy funster's title, Oscar would invite Cheeky to view his latest celluloid masterpiece, which readers would witness on the following page. The final Home Movie appeared in the issue dated 10 June 1978, although Oscar made his final appearance in the issue dated 17 June 1978, but on that occasion Cheeky declined the junior director's invitation, so no Home Movie strip was seen in that issue.
As
mentioned earlier, the James Bold
strips proved as indefatigable as the man himself, and returned to
Cheeky Weekly for a new adventure entitled 'The Ghost Highwayman' in
the 07
January 1978
edition. In order to enjoy this particular Bold tale, the toothy funster visited the newsagents every week, intent on a free read of the
latest novel. However, just as the story reached a peak of excitement, Newsagent would spot the clandestine page-surfer and eject
him from the premises in a concluding framing device, Suddenly.
 |
| Art: Frank McDiarmid |
 |
| Art: Frank again |
The
newsagent-based link (and its Suddenly companion) was employed to
allow Cheeky to enjoy a free read of a further two Bold stories;
Tower of Terror and The Frightened Village. The newsagent/Suddenly
links came to an end in Cheeky Weekly dated 24
June 1978.
As readers might have expected, this wasn't the last they would see
of the indomitable Bold. Nor would it be the last time that a book
would be used as a framing device.
The
feature which I refer to as Old Comic
ran in 37 issues of Cheeky Weekly. The associated framing device saw
Cheeky each week selecting a page from a comic collection in the attic.
The collection was owned by Cheeky's dad, who professed to hate
comics, although it was clear he enjoyed his son's funny papers. Old Comic, and consequently its
framing device, came to an end in the 26
August 1978
edition.
 |
| Art: The mighty Mr M |
 |
| Art on Casey Court: sorry, don't know |
The
26 August 1978 edition of Cheeky Weekly was a particularly fateful
one as far as framing devices were concerned as, in addition to the
Old Comic framing device documented above, a further two links were
brought to an end in that same issue, namely that which introduced Creepy Sleepy Tale
and its closing companion which I refer to as Wednesday (conclusion).
Creepy Sleepy Tale was a bedtime story that Cheeky told Baby Burpo, and was introduced by a series of panels showing the toothy funster arriving at the Burpo residence for babysitting duty and suffering some indignity at the hands of his infant charge. Our vengeful toothy pal would read Burpo a frightening fable from his book of nocturnal narratives with the intention of giving the belligerent babe a salutary and nappy-filling experience, but it was Cheeky himself who, in Wednesday (conclusion), was depicted departing for home in terror. Creepy Sleepy Tale, and thus its framing links, came to an end in the 26 August 1978 edition.
 |
| Art: Mike Lacey |
 |
| Art: Keith Reynolds? |
 |
| Art on Wednesday (conclusion): Barrie Appleby |
A short-lived framing device relating to Wednesday did replace that associated with Creepy Sleepy Tale - in the three issues which followed the final Tale, the final Wednesday panel saw Cheeky assisting Burpo in the assembly of the Crack-A-Joke Game which replaced Creepy Sleepy Tale on the centre pages of the issues in question.
One
month after CST finished another long-running framing device came to an end –
the one which linked Mustapha Million
to Cheeky's Week via our grinning pal's regular search for a copy of
the mysterious comic in which Mustapha appeared. In Cheeky Weekly's
first issue we witnessed the toothy funster arranging what appeared
to be a classroom outing to the dentist. It only became apparent in
the final panel of that first Friday page that the dentist's waiting
room was the location in which the much-sought-after comic containing Mustapha
Million's 2-page story was to be found. Cheeky Weekly readers were
able to enjoy the Mustapha story that Cheeky read since it followed
Cheeky's Friday page. Subsequent Mustapha strips were similarly
located and introduced by Cheeky. The first 5 Mustapha tales saw Cheeky finding the comic in waiting rooms of various kinds (barber, chiropodist etc), but the sixth may have indicated
that the scriptwriter was running out of suitable locations, as that
week the mysterious publication was to be found in a gents' toilet.
Thereafter,
Cheeky was was usually provided with a copy of the perplexing
publication by one or other of his pals, but no matter who handed the toothy funster his copy of the Mystery Comic, Mustapha's strip was the only one he referred to and was the only one that Cheeky Weekly readers saw.
The
first 36 Mustapha episodes were placed after the Friday page, but our
moneyed mate was then relocated to follow the Thursday page for 13
weeks. The direct link between Cheeky and Mustapha ended on that 13th
week (the comic dated 23
September 1978) as
in the next issue the whole of the Mystery Comic moved in to the
centre pages of Cheeky Weekly and a new link – that between Cheeky
and the Mystery Comic – was established.
 |
| Art: Jim Watson |
Mention should be made of Cheeky's pal Nosy Nora, who for
a time played a significant role in the Cheeky/Mustapha link.
The
next connections to be lost encapsulated the
strips representing the main and supporting features screened during
Cheeky's
weekly visit to the Saturday morning picture show.
This was the most complex sequence of links and consisted of...
- A
scene showing Cheeky and pals arriving at the cinema and the
inevitable confrontation with the Commissionaire.
- A
strip representing the supporting feature (a cartoon in all but one case, that exception being the Hey Presto Magic Show which celebrated Cheeky Weekly's first birthday).
- A
page showing the in-cinema happenings during the interval (featuring
Ursula).
- An adventure strip representing the main feature.
- A
scene showing Cheeky and pals emerging from the cinema.
Strips
to fill the supporting feature slot were (in order of the date on which they
bowed out of the comic)...
| Feature |
Start |
Issues |
End |
Source (if known
to be reprint) |
| Wile E Coyote | 22-Oct-1977 | 5 | 07-Jan-1978 | |
| Tweety | 14-Jan-1978 | 1 | 14-Jan-1978 | |
| Henery Hawk | 26-Nov-1977 | 3 | 04-Feb-1978 | |
| Cocky Doodle | 29-Oct-1977 | 5 | 04-Mar-1978 | Buster |
| Daffy Duck | 24-Dec-1977 | 4 | 11-Mar-1978 | |
| Road Runner | 18-Feb-1978 | 9 | 03-Jun-1978 | |
| Bam Splat and Blooie | 29-Oct-1977 | 9 | 17-Jun-1978 | Buster |
| Hickory Dickory Doc | 16-Sep-1978 | 1 | 16-Sep-1978 | Cor!! |
| Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf | 24-Jun-1978 | 2 | 30-Sep-1978 | Cor!! |
| Ghouldilocks | 14-Oct-1978 | 1 | 14-Oct-1978 | Jag |
| Hey Presto Magic Show | 21-Oct-1978 | 1 | 21-Oct-1978 | |
| Tweety and Sylvester | 21-Jan-1978 | 28 | 02-Dec-1978 | |
It's possible that the Warner Brothers cartoon strips were reprints, but if they were I don't know where from.
...and
here are the strips that were presented as adventure serials...
The final
Saturday morning picture show to be featured in Cheeky Weekly
occurred in the 02 December 1978
issue. The following week our toothy pal announced, "Some
of you readers have been wondering what I do on Saturday afternoons,
after I've been to the cinema. Today, I'm going to watch our local
football team". The Saturday feature in that and all subsequent
issues concentrated on the toothy funster's post meridiem pursuits.
Here's a complete Saturday morning pictures sequence. The elements featuring Cheeky are drawn by Frank McDiarmid. I don't know who drew Tweety and Sylvester. I believe James Bold in Island of Fear is by Mike White.
The Cheeky Weekly editor evidently felt that, despite the loss of the
cinema visits, the comic still required an element of adventure. Thus junior sleuth Eagle Eye
was, like the final 'film serial' The Terrible Trail to Taggart's Treasure, resurrected from Shiver and Shake and commenced his reprinted
adventures in Cheeky Weekly dated 06 January 1979. The framing device
for this feature occurred on the Friday page where readers saw Cheeky
in the classroom. In the introduction to the first episode of the new
adventure strip, Cheeky said “I'll sneak a quick read of my new
book, Eagle Eye”. However on Friday in the next issue, our grinning
pal intercepted Do-Good Dora on her paper round and, offering to
finish her deliveries, told readers “This was the only way I could
think of to get my hands on Teachers' Weekly – they've started
serialising the great Eagle Eye novel that Teacher confiscated from
me”. All subsequent Eagle Eye episodes were introduced by Cheeky
undertaking some classroom connivance to get hold of Teacher's
magazine, until Eagle Eye came to an end in the 24
February 1979
comic.
 |
| Art: Mike Lacey |
A decision to end all the remaining framing devices appears to have been implemented in subsequent weeks.
The
first of these surviving links to come to an end was the long-running connection between Cheeky's pages and Skateboard Squad. The link
between Cheeky's universe and the terrific trio's first incarnation was the
most-developed of all the framed strips, as not only did Skateboard Squad appear alongside Cheeky when he introduced their story each week (although sometimes the Squad was obscured by the clouds of dust raised as they raced through the panel to their next adventure), but the toothy funster and a
number of his pals made reciprocal visits to the Squad's pages.
 |
| Art: Frank |
The
history of Skateboard Squad's introductory panels wasn't entirely
smooth and it seems that an initial decision to discontinue the link was later overturned. The introductions were originally dropped a week
after the 30 September 1978 revamp which saw the introduction of the
Mystery Comic section. This necessitated a revision to the comic's layout which resulted
in the Skateboard Squad being shunted from the page following Sunday
to the page after Tuesday. The introductions were absent from 9
consecutive issues, but were reinstated (due to reader demand?) with
the exception of one week in which Skateboard Squad was preceded by Paddywack,
for the remainder of the Skateboard Squad' s run, which ended in the
12
May 1979
edition. However, this is not quite the end of the framing devices
associated with Skipper, Skatie and Wipe-out, as the team returned in
their new guise of Speed Squad
in Cheeky Weekly dated 26 May 1979, introduced once again by our
toothy pal. These links continued up to and including the 23
June 1979
edition. The following week the Squad were absent from the comic and in the 07 July 1979 issue the title underwent its 3rd
revamp. From this point the introductions were dropped and Speed Squad continued as a stand-alone
strip. The Squad did appear in the final panel of the Thursday page in the comic dated 22 December 1979, but this wasn't an introduction to their strip, as it didn't commence until 8 pages later. The following week the Squad appeared on Sunday, but their strip didn't actually feature in that issue. The 2 aforementioned Squad appearances were originally drawn for comics intended to be published a year earlier, a time when the links were still being featured.
 |
| Art: Mr M |
The original conceit surrounding the Paddywack feature (which commenced in the comic dated 08 July 1978), was that the titular character's adventures were drawn by Cheeky's pal Doodle Doug, who would each week be seen handing the toothy funster his latest crop of gags. This interaction would serve as the introduction to Paddywack who would follow on the next page. These introductions came to an end in the 30 June 1979 edition as the comic prepared for its 'new look' which would debut a week later.
The
second link to be extinguished in that same
issue was that between Cheeky's universe and the collection of strips
which were contained in the pages of the Mystery Comic.
From Cheeky Weekly's aforementioned revamp edition dated 30 September 1978 , the centre pages of the toothy
funster's title contained a mock publication whose front cover bore
the legend Mystery Comic. Readers were asked to believe that this new
central section represented the whole of the comic that they had
previously witnessed Cheeky searching for in order to read Mustapha
Million. Mustapha took up residence in this construct along with a
selection of new strips. Cheeky's weekly search for the Mystery Comic
now moved to Wednesday (which was situated such that it allowed
enough space to accommodate the perplexing publication in the centre
pages before the Cheeky features resumed with Thursday).
However,
in keeping with the (seeming) new policy of discarding all links, the 30
June 1979
issue of Cheeky was the last to feature the Mystery Comic as a
grouping of strips behind a mock front cover. All the features which
had previously been contained within the Mystery Comic continued, but
in subsequent issues they were dispersed throughout Cheeky Weekly and
no Mystery Comic title page was seen, nor were the erstwhile Mystery
Comic features referred to in the Cheeky's Week strips.
 |
| Art: Mike Lacey |
The 30 June 1979 edition was indeed a fateful one for the framing devices, as a further 2 links were also brought to an end;
Charlie
Counter, aka Calculator Kid,
made his first Cheeky Weekly appearance (along with his
battery-powered buddy, Calculator) in the edition dated 01 July 1978,
wherein his adventure was introduced by Cheeky in the final panel of
that week's Friday page. Thus commenced a run whereby all Calculator
Kid stories (with one exception) were introduced by the toothy
funster. These introductions continued not only when Calculator Kid got shunted forward to appear after
Cheeky's Thursday page, but also after a further move to
follow Monday. Charlie and Calc appeared with Cheeky in the majority
of these intros. However the 30
June 1979
issue was the last to include such preliminaries, concluding what had
amounted to 46 introduced-by-Cheeky episodes.
 |
| Art: Frank again, doing a nice rendition of Charlie & Calc |
The
longest-surviving link was that between Cheeky's universe
and a certain on-screen synthetic senior citizen. In the first issue
of Cheeky Weekly our grinning pal was seen heading home at the end of
the Sunday evening page, eager to catch the first episode of what was to become his
favourite TV show, 6 Million Dollar Gran. These Cheeky-rushing-home-to-catch-his-fave-TV-show introductory
sequences to the Gran episodes became a fixture of Cheeky's week, and
the intros continued even after the Sunday evening page was dropped
and Gran was relocated to the page after Sunday (Cheeky explained
Gran's programme had been moved to a mid-day slot) and also when
Gran shifted again to the page following Monday. For the majority of the strip's run, each Gran episode ended with a panel showing Cheeky in front of the TV as the end credits rolled. Although 6 Million
Dollar Gran continued to display a TV screen in her title panel until
December 1979, the final Cheeky-rushing-to-see-TV framing device
occurred in the 30 June 1979 comic, bringing to an end a run of
intros that spanned 86 issues.
However, possibly due to an oversight on someone's part, this wasn't quite the end of the framing devices, as the final Gran strip to conclude with the Cheeky-watching-closing-credits final panel appeared in the 14 July 1979 comic.
Here's a 6 Million Dollar Gran sequence which commences with Cheeky failing to secure a place in front of the TV, but help appears from an unlikely quarter. Note how the caption above the Gran title panel reflects the events on the preceding page...
 |
| Art: Frank McDiarmid |
 |
| Art: Ian Knox |
I'm
sure Cheeky Weekly readers appreciated the effort
that the production staff and artists put in to these framing devices. While the quality of the actual strips remained unchanged, a
link-less Cheeky Weekly just didn't have the same charm. Maybe by
June 1979 the editorial team had decided that Cheeky Weekly was a
hopeless case heading towards merger and felt it wasn't worth putting
unnecessary effort into the title any more, so the opportunity was taken to end the
links under cover of Cheeky Weekly's 07 July 1979 'new
look' issue. In subsequent weeks it became clear to loyal readers that the comic's glory days were gone as their favourite title became burdened with even more reprints and rehashes.
N.B. While Snail of the Century, the comic's final original feature, which commenced on 14 July 1979, was a strip set in Cheeky's
universe (it always featured the toothy funster and took place in
his garden) it didn't have an introduction within Cheeky's Week and thus was an entirely stand-alone feature which doesn't qualify as a framed strip.
