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.
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| Art: Mike Lacey |
The 24 October 1987 issue of Whizzer and Chips was a rather special one. Not only did it celebrate the comic's 18th birthday (the first Whizzer and Chips was cover-dated 18 October 1969), but in that same coming-of-age edition the mighty Frank McDiarmid assumed the artwork duties on Mustapha Million. As if that wasn't enough, Frank's first strip reacquainted us with Mustapha's dad, and we saw young Master Million's mum for the first time. This story's recap of the Mustapha Million backstory was no doubt intended to bring new readers, who had been lured into buying the comic by the presence of the Adrian Mole pencil free gift, up to speed with our middle-eastern mate. Some older W&C readers may have recalled Mustapha's 1977 debut in Cheeky Weekly, when
Mr Million announced that his offspring was to spend a year in Britain. 10 years later Mustapha was still in Blighty - his dad announces it is the anniversary of his son's arrival, and of course it is, as Mustapha's first appearance was in the debut issue of Cheeky Weekly, dated 22 October 1977.
The only thing to mar the McDiarmid reboot of our charitable chum was the presence of a pesky Whizz-kid interloper. Can you spot them? The sneaky infiltrator is revealed below.
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Whizzer and Chips 24 October 1987
Art: Frank McDiarmid |
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Odd-Ball! Yet again the one-eyed Whizz-kid has gate-crashed Mustapha's strip, bringing to 5 the number of times Mustapha has been raided by the pliable pest.
More raiding fun soon!
Odd Ball was cleverly hidden...
ReplyDeletenice the anniversary was mentioned...
Odd-Ball didn't even have to change shape!
DeleteI remember W&C achieving adulthood with … puzzlement. I clearly recall thinking, “What’s the big deal about being eighteen?” It should be pointed out I was only six days short of my own fourteenth birthday which accounts for my naiveté. Nearly 32 years later my attitudes have naturally changed and I know now what I didn’t at the time: growing up isn’t really worth it.
ReplyDeleteFortunately comics allow us to connect with our younger selves.
Delete