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.
The next raid to involve our middle eastern mate occurred in Whizzer and Chips dated 16 July 1988. Once again Mustapha was the raidee rather than the raider. Can you spot the interloper toying with Mustapha's strip this week? Scroll down to see the rotten raider reveal themself.
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| Art: Frank McDiarmid |
Yes, once again Toy Boy is the culprit, invading a story which takes a European perspective on Mustapha, something of a change since his stories usually revolved around him contending with British society and customs. The plaything-preoccupied Whizz-kid had previously raided Mustapha in the issues dated
06 December 1986 and
20 June 1987. The infiltrator is also smugly employing the oft-used 'mug' slogan, which just shows the paucity of imagination among those pesky Whizz-kids.
Panel 8 on the first page of the story references
Harry Enfield's satirically crass 'Loadsamoney' character, who had featured on a single released earlier that year, having first come to prominence in Channel 4's Saturday Night Live.
More raiding fun soon!
I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s unsettling to see Toy Boy gloating over raiding Mustapha’s page(s), when not so many years before they were comrades residing in the same title; it’s unsettling to me anyway.
ReplyDeleteThe whole Whizzer and Chips ethos was very divisive.
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