As mentioned before, the use of reprints was standard practice in British comics of the time and it's entirely understandable that the Cheeky Weekly editor would seek to manage his budget by resorting to past successes to economically fill out a few pages of the toothy funster's comic. The majority of readers would be unaware that they were reading strips that had been enjoyed by earlier comic fans (except, of course, in the case of Old Comic where the whole point of the feature was to make readers aware of the vintage nature of the selections). However, over time the framing devices which made each issue of the comic a cohesive narrative were dropped, and whereas formerly reprints were used in a creative way that enhanced Cheeky Weekly's unique nature, towards the end of the comic's life seemingly random old strips were brought out of retirement to cheaply fill some space in what appeared to be a more cynical fashion.
Ringer Dinger, originally appearing in Whizzer and Chips in
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| Dinger's Cheeky Weekly debut, issue dated 06 October 1979 Art: Terry Bave Note banner referencing Dinger's appearance in the first Cheeky Annual. I wonder if Dad's speech balloon in the final panel was also blank when this strip was originally printed. Update: See Stephen Archer's interesting comment below. |
Ringer Dinger appeared in 2 further issues of Cheeky Weekly - the penultimate and final issues. One wonders why - if the telephonic tyke was such a 'favourite' as claimed in the banner above his Cheeky Weekly debut - he was absent for such a long period before his return in the final 2 issues*, being replaced in the intervening period by another reprint, this time featuring the aquatic adventures of a lovable leviathan.
Soggy the Sea Monster, retrieved from the dusty archives of Shiver and Shake, enjoyed his first watery Cheeky Weekly outing in the issue dated 17 October 1979. I'll let Irmantas apprise you of the salient details of Soggy's initial run (or should that be swim?), and summarise here the mirthful monster's reappearances in the toothy funster's comic some 6 years after he originally surfaced.
Soggy's Cheeky Weekly episodes commenced with one of the 2 strips from the original run that were drawn by Terry Bave. Like Ringer Dinger, Soggy had appeared in the 1979 Cheeky Annual, but unlike our dog-and-bone wielding pal, the silly sea serpent didn't get an above-strip banner advising readers that they may have seen him before.
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| Cheeky Weekly 17 October 1979 Art: Terry Bave |
Whereas Dinger notched up a paltry 3 outings in his Cheeky Weekly reincarnation, Soggy's appearances in the toothy funster's comic amounted to a slightly more respectable 12, with both Dinger and Soggy appearing in the comic's final 2 issues.
*It's highly likely that by the time of the commencement of Ringer Dinger's Cheeky Weekly run, the decision had already been made to cancel the comic. It's therefore possible that, even if Dinger had engendered favourable feedback from his appearance in the previous year's annual, the editor decided that rather than squandering the strips in a comic under sentence of death, he would hold back his stock of RD strips to use in forthcoming Cheeky Annuals and Summer Specials, the publication of which would continue for some years after the weekly comic had folded.
Ringer Dinger in the Cheeky Weekly Index
| Feature | First Appearance | Final Appearance | Total Issues | Total Issues Missed In Run | Page History |
| Ringer Dinger | 06-Oct-79 | 02-Feb-80 | 3 | 15 | 7,11,28 |
| Feature | Artist | Number of Issues | First Appearance | Final Appearance |
| Ringer Dinger | Terry Bave | 3 | 06-Oct-1979 | 02-Feb-1980 |
| Date | Page | Feature | Page | Feature |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 06-OCT-79 | 28 | Ringer Dinger | ||
| 17-NOV-79 | 11 | Soggy the Sea Monster | ||
| 24-NOV-79 | 11 | Soggy the Sea Monster | ||
| 01-DEC-79 | 11 | Soggy the Sea Monster | ||
| 08-DEC-79 | 4 | Soggy the Sea Monster | ||
| 15-DEC-79 | 11 | Soggy the Sea Monster | ||
| 22-DEC-79 | 11 | Soggy the Sea Monster | ||
| 29-DEC-79 | 8 | Soggy the Sea Monster | ||
| 05-JAN-80 | 11 | Soggy the Sea Monster | ||
| 12-JAN-80 | 12 | Soggy the Sea Monster | ||
| 19-JAN-80 | 11 | Soggy the Sea Monster | ||
| 26-JAN-80 | 7 | Ringer Dinger | 12 | Soggy the Sea Monster |
| 02-FEB-80 | 11 | Ringer Dinger | 17 | Soggy the Sea Monster |
Soggy the Sea Monster in the Cheeky Weekly Index
| Feature | First Appearance | Final Appearance | Total Issues | Total Issues Missed In Run | Page History |
| Soggy the Sea Monster | 17-Nov-79 | 02-Feb-80 | 12 | 0 | 4,8,11,12,17 |
| Feature | Artist | Number of Issues | First Appearance | Final Appearance |
| Soggy the Sea Monster | Terry Bave | 1 | 17-Nov-1979 | 17-Nov-1979 |
| Soggy the Sea Monster | Robert Nixon | 11 | 24-Nov-1979 | 02-Feb-1980 |
the first mobile!
ReplyDeleteMaybe somebody will develop a Ringer Dinger app for Android.
DeleteI can confidently state that Ringer's dad would've said, "It's all daft to me," as he said this at the end of most or all of his W&C appearances. Why it was felt necessary to remove this statement of befuddlement here, however tidily, I have no idea.
ReplyDeleteYou're right - I've looked through a further 19 reprinted episodes of Ringer Dinger (the final 2 in Cheeky Weekly and the remainder from the Cheeky Specials) and with one exception they all feature Dad in the final panel making reference to the daftness of the situation. We have already seen some inexplicable tweaks to reprinted strips in the Whizzer and Chips Cheeky Raids posts (for example here). Maybe some art assistants felt they needed to make edits to justify their continued employment. But why did they leave Dad's ghostly, transparent speech balloon? Daft.
DeleteThe most I can tell is that the line at the bottom of the balloon pointing northeast’s thicker than the rest, telling us there WAS a removal. The balloon’s bigger than usual, so dad might have said, “Let’s hope things aren’t as daft next week,” or something. This’d validate the removal as the strip wasn’t in Cheeky Weekly for long. I’ve already started to look through Whizzer & Chips at the British Library; the strip wasn’t around in 1970, so there’s an assertion of yours to eliminate for a start.
ReplyDeleteIt'd be great if you could find the original version of this particular RD strip. My reference for the Ringer Dinger original publication year was page 84 of Terry Bave's autobiography, where there's a pic of Ringer Dinger with a caption below reading 'Ringer Dinger - Whizzer and Chips 1970'. However, on the previous page it says 'For the 1971 New Year we created...Ringer Dinger' so I evidently chose the wrong year. Thanks for flagging up the error - now changed.
Delete"Dinger's dafter than ever!" - 11/9/71. Also, the first speech bubble says, "Our conkers are out early this year! I'll have no one to play against!" This kept it more in line with the current time of year when it was reprinted 8 years later.
ReplyDeleteThanks for tracking down the original strip. I suppose the '..than ever' closing comment was felt inappropriate for Cheeky Weekly fans who hadn't read the previous year's annual, since they'd likely have never seen Dinger before so had no levels of daftness with which to compare. A bit sloppy to leave the speech balloon outline, though.
DeleteYes, I thought that: it suggested continuousness that didn't really exist for Dinger's Cheeky Weekly readers. Funny your post should've been written exactly 46 years later.
ReplyDelete