Whizzer and Chips - The Cheeky Raids part 33

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. However, the Krazy Gang's Whizzer and Chips run ended in the issue dated 08 February 1986. Calculator Kid survived a little longer, his run of reprints coming to an end in the 26 July 1986 edition and leaving Mustapha Million as the sole Cheeky Weekly survivor.

Our middle-eastern moneyed mate was unmolested for 7 weeks following the unwanted attentions of Odd-Ball in Whizzer and Chips dated 14 February 1987, but this blissful state of freedom from Whizz-kid interference came to an end in the 11 April 1987 edition. Can you spot the furtive infiltrator? Scroll down where all will be revealed.

Whizzer and Chips 11 April 1987
Art: Barry Glennard

Oo-ar!, it be the rich-but-hating-it head of the Bumpkin household, Pa, who in the above story seems to be smuggling some of his cash into Mustapha's mansion, no doubt hoping to lose it amongst the piles of moolah already in there. The phrase 'I made a mug of Mustapha Million' (even in its Yokelese variant) is now getting annoying. STOP IT!

More (hopefully mug-free) 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
24 August 1985	Cheeky	Sid's Snake
14 September 1985	Odd-Ball Calculator Kid	Calculator Kid Store Wars
05 October 1985	Mustapha Million	Animalad
19 October 1985	Odd-Ball	Mustapha Million
23 November 1985	Sweeny Toddler Sweeny Toddler Sweeny Toddler	Calculator Kid The Krazy Gang (Cheeky) Mustapha Million
18 January 1986	Mustapha Million	Super Steve
25 January 1986	Odd-Ball Cheeky	Mustapha Million Odd-Ball
08 February 1986 The Krazy Gang ends this issue	Animalad	Mustapha Million
15 February 1986	Lazy Bones	Calculator Kid
15 March 1986	Odd-Ball	Calculator Kid
29 March 1986	Calculator Kid	Master P Brain
05 April 1986	Bumpkin Billionaires	Mustapha Million
12 April 1986	Animalad	Calculator Kid
31 May 1986	Lazy Bones	Calculator Kid
07 June 1986	Mustapha Million	Joker
28 June 1986	Sweet Tooth	Mustapha Million
26 July 1986 Calculator Kid ends this issue	No Cheeky-related raid this issue	No Cheeky-related raid this issue
16 August 1986	Mustapha Million	Joker
23 August 1986	Sweet Tooth	Mustapha Million
18 October 1986	Winnie the Royal Nag	Mustapha Million
06 December 1986	Toy Boy	Mustapha Million
13 December 1986	Mustapha Million	Odd-Ball
17 January 1987	Sid	Mustapha Million
14 February 1987	Odd-Ball	Mustapha Million
11 April 1987	Pa Bumpkin	Mustapha Million

Cheeky Weekly cover date 29 December 1979

Merry Christmas Pals! I’m not entirely sure who drew Lily Pop, busting with Christmas cheer, on this week’s festive cover, which maintains the tradition of the snow-bedecked masthead. Louise looks to me like the work of Frank McDiarmid, but Lily and Cheeky don't seem quite 'Frank' to my eyes.

Cheeky Weekly reaches its third Christmas, although this is only the second festive issue because last year’s failed to appear due to industrial troubles. As with the previous issue, several of the elements included this week were in fact prepared over a year ago. A while back I examined the edits which were necessary in order to incorporate the artwork a year later than intended, so I’ll be linking to those posts as we progress through the yuletide fun, beginning with Sunday, which was actually originally drawn as a Thursday page.

As mentioned in the above link. It’s not Speed Squad who follow ‘Sunday’, it’s young Charlie Counter and his battery-powered buddy. Charlie helps Dad clear the front path by rolling a snowball, but said frozen agglomeration goes rogue and fetches up in the local park. A bully gets covered in the white stuff just as the judging of the snowman contest (prize; a big box of chocs) commences. You’ve read enough comic strips to guess how the chilly tale concludes.

Art: Terry Bave

I suspect that the Calculator Kid strip that Terry Bave drew for the 1978 Christmas Cheeky weekly was eventually used in the 1980 Cheeky Annual - see the Wednesday link below. If I'm right then this week's strip is new and not held over.

There’s a distinct lack of festive fun on Paddywack’s page (maybe no readers sent in Chrimbo gags), after which it’s Monday (originally Sunday).

Instead of being followed by 6 Million Dollar Gran, it’s Mustapha who’s up next, having a Christmas Eve encounter with Santa, who is evidently on the little-known maritime leg of his annual deliveries. Our ever-generous middle eastern pal gives away all his toys to the giftless island-dwellers, and there’s a heartwarming conclusion to the story as the dilemma facing Mustapha’s pals is resolved.

Art: Joe McCaffrey

 

Joe again

There follows a reprinted adventure for Soggy the Sea Monster, which touches on the festive season only tangentially. More in a Christmas mood is Elephant on the Run, wherein The Man in the Plastic Mac, out shopping with his wife for a turkey, notices elephant tracks in the snow. Hunting down the errant pachyderm, TMITPM is dismayed to see his leathern-skinned quarry hopping on a waiting bus. Elephant's implacable pursuer launches his shopping bag, containing the turkey, at his fleeing foe...

Art: Robert Nixon

...the large-eared fugitive, having set the bus in motion by inadvertent trunkular engagement with the bell-ringing mechanism, avails himself of the frozen bird and a Slap Up Festive Feed (SUFF) ensues.

Christmas really kicks in with a bumper 3 Cheeky’s Week pages devoted to our toothy pal’s December 25^th, culminating in a full-page SUFF for Cheeky and pals.

Cheeky’s Cut-Out Comedy Catalogue of Christmas Jokes provides a whole-box-of-crackers-worth of festive funnies, after which it’s Boxing Day.

Tub has a rather tedious adventure at the Chistmas circus during which his jumper changes from white to pink for no apparent reason. Surprisingly, there’s no SUFF conclusion.

Pages 17 and 18 are the location of Cheeky’s Christmas card to readers, signed by the toothy funster, some of his pals and the Cheeky Weekly production team including Frank McDiarmid, writer Willie (Gordon) Cook and editor Bob Paynter. I realise Snail can’t hold a pen, but he could have ‘slithered’ a message, and he had over a year in which to add his greeting.

Cheeky and Louise are wearing the same hats as on the cover
Art: Frank McDiarmid

 

Six Million Dollar Gran is enduring a Christmas heatwave, but the local mountains (where is this supposed to be set?) provide the synthetic senior citizen with plenty of frozen flakes with which to cool down the town.

Art: Ian Knox

Cheeky is still consuming turkey on Thursday.

Why, Dad, Why’s SUFF begins with son considering it a dull affair due to the rather stuffy guests, then degenerates into a food fight but all ends happily.

Art: John Geering

 

There’s a yuletide filler on page 23 in the form of Cheeky’s Christmas Quiz, following which is a reprint episode of The Gang (originally appearing under The Double Deckers title). Last week’s Gang story was a Christmas one, which I suspect was the only genuine festive Double Deckers tale in the strip’s original run. Thus this week’s adventure has had some of the dialogue altered to refer to a Christmas party – the original probably concerned just a generic party (a reference to Disco Kid has also been added). Tiger’s references to her soft toy, also called Tiger in the TV series on which the strip is based, have been changed to ‘my toy’.

Turkey is still on the menu on Friday.

Then mean-spirited Mr Scroonge plots to spoil the kids’ Christmas party by luring Disaster Des past the venue. A pity the old miser didn't appear again – a nice character design by Mike Lacey.

Mr Scroonge is so mean he won't even give away a 'humbug'

Art: Mike Lacey

Art: Robert Nixon

 

...using their showbiz wiles, the kids relocate the food to their hut and a SUFF is enjoyed by all (except teacher).

We don't have to wait until 3pm for Cheeky's Christmas message on the Chit-Chat page...

Following which we reach the end of Cheeky’s Week.

Snail heads out into the snowy garden to see what his wildlife pals got for Christmas, bringing this super celebration issue to a conclusion.

We say goodbye to a number of Cheeky's pals in this issue, namely Crunching Chris, Flash Harry, Libby, Snoozin' Susan and Spiv. The members of Speed Squad also make their final appearance in Cheeky's Week. They actually ceased to appear in Cheeky's Week back in the 23 June 1979 issue, but this week's artwork was of course prepared some months before that date.

Frank McDiarmid does his usual excellent work this week, providing 13 festive fun-packed Cheeky's Week elements, plus the Christmas card. Here's looking forward to Cheeky Weekly's Christmas 1980 edition (irony).

Cheeky Weekly	Cover Date: 29-Dec-1979, Issue 112 of 117
Page	Details
1	Cover Feature 'Christmas Issue' 2 of 2 - Art Frank McDiarmid
2	Sunday - Art Frank McDiarmid
3	Calculator Kid - Art Terry Bave
4	Paddywack - Art Jack Clayton
5	Monday - Art Frank McDiarmid
6	Mustapha Million - Art Joe McCaffrey
7	Mustapha Million - Art Joe McCaffrey
8	Soggy the Sea Monster reprint from Shiver and Shake - Art Robert Nixon
9	Elephant On The Run - Art Robert Nixon
10	Tuesday - Art Frank McDiarmid
11	Tuesday - Art Frank McDiarmid
12	Tuesday - Art Frank McDiarmid
13	Cheeky's Cut-Out Comedy Catalogue 'Christmas Jokes'
14	Cheeky's Cut-Out Comedy Catalogue 'Christmas Jokes'
15	Wednesday - Art Frank McDiarmid
16	Tub - Art Nigel Edwards
17	Christmas Card (single appearance) - Art Frank McDiarmid (single art on feature)
18	Christmas Card (single appearance) - Art Frank McDiarmid (single art on feature)
19	6 Million Dollar Gran - Art Ian Knox
20	Thursday - Art Frank McDiarmid
21	Why, Dad, Why? - Art John K. Geering
22	Ad: IPC 'Shoot' 9 of 13 Ad: 'Penny' 1 of 3
23	Christmas Quiz (single appearance)
24	The Gang reprint from Whizzer and Chips - Art Robert MacGillivray
25	The Gang reprint from Whizzer and Chips - Art Robert MacGillivray
26	Friday - Art Frank McDiarmid
27	Disaster Des - Art Mike Lacey
28	Stage School - Art Robert Nixon
29	Chit-Chat
30	Saturday - Art Frank McDiarmid
31	Saturday - Art Frank McDiarmid
32	Snail of the Century - Art Frank McDiarmid

The Cut-Out Features – Cheeky's Cut-Out Comedy Catalogues

As I’ve mentioned before, some cut-out features were used as marketing tools, running simultaneously across IPC’s titles, such as 1978’s mini-comics or the same year’s spotter books promotion. Occasionally, however, a title would mount a go-it-alone cut-out feature such as the Cheeky's Cut-Out Comedy Catalogue series which commenced in the toothy funster’s comic dated 17 November 1979.

Cheeky Weekly 10 November 1979

The front and back pages of the first
Comedy Catalogue, Cheeky Weekly17 November 1979

Cheeky Weekly's final cut-out feature consisted of 11 comedy catalogues, all of which presented a collection of gags in text form accompanied by a scattering of graphics. Each catalogue contained jokes around a particular theme; 10 of them collected jokes pertaining to a particular character from the Cheeky’s Week supporting cast, and the remaining catalogue featured Christmas jokes. Each catalogue occupied 2 Cheeky Weekly pages (all the gag collections were printed in monochrome on pages 13 and 14), and readers were invited to snip out the pages, rotate them through 90 degrees, fold, then assemble into a 4-page anthology of corny gags.

 

I suspect that the real purpose behind the joke booklets was to cheaply fill some pages of the toothy funster’s comic by recycling a selection of Cheeky's gags from earlier issues, as the title wound down to its eventual cancellation after the 02 February 1980 issue. Cheeky Weekly had been featuring recycled material since its first edition, but in the comic's prime the reprints had been incorporated into the toothy funster's universe in an imaginative way. As the comic entered its final months a more cynical approach appears to have been adopted as some seemingly random old strips were dusted off and bunged in to fill up some space. In the 06 October 1979 issue Ringer Dinger was conscripted to revisit some of his earlier telephonic escapades, although Ringer was brought back from the comics graveyard only 3 times. Introduced in the same issue in which the Catalogues began, a resurrected Soggy the Sea Monster began a run of recycled adventures. What all these reprints had in common was that they were sourced from other IPC titles. The Comedy Catalogues saw the editor sustaining an ailing Cheeky Weekly by preying on its own archive and, by not presenting them in their original cartoon form, subvert IPC's apparent rule that reprinted material had to be at least a few years old.

The Comedy Catalogues appeared in every issue from 17 November 1979 to the penultimate edition dated 26 January 1980. The first gag booklet featured Knock-Knock Door jokes, commencing with what was described as Cheeky's 'first ever Knock-Knock joke', and indeed it was, from way back in the debut issue of Krazy.

So the question is, of course, were all the jokes in the catalogues in fact sourced from earlier issues? Readers of this blog will know that I am assiduous in my research but even for me, scouring the pages of every issue for every joke from every catalogue is too arduous a task. Instead I chose to focus on the Mr Chips booklet since, of the 10 Cheeky's Week characters featured, Mr Chips appeared in the fewest issues (21).

Here's a list of the Mr Chips gags as they appeared in the Cheeky's Week strips. I have paraphrased the jokes in the interests of brevity. Cheeky's carpentry-related ripostes (or those of Snail) are also included. The final column indicates whether the joke(s) featured in the Mr Chips Catalogue.

 

Issue Date	Setup	Payoff	In Catalogue?
28-Jul-79	A carpenter’s favourite TV show?	Plankety-Plank	Y
04-Aug-79	Any good as a joiner?	Joined the tennis club, joined the bridge club	N
11-Aug-79	What do you get if you put a sail onto a carpentry tool?	Plane-sailing	N
18-Aug-79	A firm who makes planks wants me to become a director	Offered me a seat on the board	N
25-Aug-79	Tired of people asking me to give them bits of wood	You’d think it grows on trees	Y
01-Sep-79	Roof-makers favourite chocolates?	Rafter Eights	N
08-Sep-79	Why is a short plank like a fed-up pygmy?	Both a little bored	N
15-Sep-79	Had to get my teeth checked	Mine are ok but my saw needs 3 fillings	Y
22-Sep-79	Your son looks like you	He’s a chips off the old block	Y
29-Sep-79	What kind of wood is made from fried potatoes?	Chipboard (sorry for my plank expression)	N/Y
06-Oct-79	Asked headmaster to hold a nail while I hammered it	I hit the head right on the nail	N
13-Oct-79	How do you get trees to the sawmill?	Along a trunk road (or if by train along a branch line)	N
20-Oct-79	What would a cowboy carpenter feel like after a long day?	Saddle saw (you are an old chiseller)	Y/Y
03-Nov-79	The Prime Minister asked me to help form the government	I’m a good cabinet-maker	Y
10-Nov-79	Scouts always have a carpenter on their staff	They’re good with knots	Y
17-Nov-79	The carpenters’ football team played a team from the factory where they make our tools	They hammered us (the scores were level at the start)	Y/N
24-Nov-79	Thinking of doing a double act with Mr Haddock	We’ll call ourselves Fish and Chips (or The Carpenters or Hinge and Haddock)	N
15-Dec-79	Why is a carpenter at home chatting to kings and queens?	He works with rulers every day	Y
05-Jan-80	I’m resolving to stop telling jokes	I’ll make my mind a complete plank	N
12-Jan-80	Why is a carpenter superstitious?	He’s always touching wood	N
26-Jan-80	Spent a week replacing floorboards and now the woman tells me she doesn’t like the colour	Completely floored me	N

And here is the full catalogue, indicating whether each of the gags was sourced from Cheeky's Week.

There are of course more jokes in the Catalogue (42) than there were in the comic so it's no surprise that a considerable number are 'new', but it's also evident that not all the gags that appeared on the Cheeky pages were included in the Catalogue (readers would have been a little aggrieved if Thursday's joke in the 26 January 1980 comic was also included in that issue's Catalogue so that particular funny was clearly precluded from use).

So the answer to my earlier question is a rather inconclusive "some of the jokes had appeared earlier, but some hadn't". My guess is that the answer would be the same for all of the catalogues, although the editor had far more pre-used gags to choose from in the case of the Knock-Knock Door, who featured in 110 issues so maybe there were fewer 'new' gags in the Catalogues focusing on the more frequently-appearing characters.

Also Lost To Posterity - unlike the cut-out posters, the Comedy Catalogues were printed on 2 sides of a sheet, so removing them from the comic would not result in any other feature being excised.

Catalogue Contents	Date
Knock-Knock Door Jokes	17/11/79
Manhole Man Jokes	24/11/79
Doctor Jokes	01/12/79
Six-Gun Sam Jokes	08/12/79
Mechanic Jokes	15/12/79
Constable Chuckle Jokes	22/12/79
Christmas Jokes	29/12/79
Jogging Jeremy Jokes	05/01/80
Farmer Giles Jokes	12/01/80
Petula Jokes	19/01/80
Mr Chips Jokes	26/01/80

Cheeky's Cut-Out Comedy Catalogue in the Cheeky Weekly Index