As promised on the page above, another Top Ten voting coupon was printed a week later, and also in the 25 September 1982 issue. The next results were published in the 02 October 1982 edition.
To understand what features were appearing in the comic between the previous results and those of 02 October 1982, let's first examine those that had ended between the two dates, which could be seen as the features being culled for failing to garner sufficient votes in the intervening period...
| START_DATE | END_DATE | CE_ELEMENT |
| 14-AUG-82 | 04-SEP-82 | 4 Comics Ring-A-Round Challenge |
| 01-MAY-82 | 25-SEP-82 | Frankie's Monster Awards |
| 01-MAY-82 | 25-SEP-82 | Jimmy Fixit |
Jimmy evidently couldn't fix it to stay in the comic. The 4 Comics Ring-A-Round Challenge was a promotional feature that ran for four weeks...
...I wonder if there was a hidden agenda behind this promotion and the IPC staff undertaking the calls were instructed to also quiz the readers about their likes and dislikes within the comics.
There was only one feature that started between the poll results...
| START_DATE | END_DATE | CE_ELEMENT |
| 18-SEP-82 | 09-OCT-82 | Toby's Animal Rescue Service booklet |
Not very many changes at all - so what were the ongoing features?...
| START_DATE | END_DATE | CE_ELEMENT |
| 09-FEB-80 | 25-JUN-83 | Smiler |
| 09-FEB-80 | 12-JAN-85 | Cover Feature |
| 09-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Bookworm |
| 09-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Bumpkin Billionaires |
| 09-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Calculator Kid |
| 09-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Frankie Stein |
| 09-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Lolly Pop |
| 09-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Mustapha Million |
| 09-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Paddywack |
| 09-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Stage School |
| 09-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Sweeny Toddler |
| 09-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Toy Boy |
| 16-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Chip |
| 01-MAR-80 | 19-JAN-85 | Top Ten voting coupon |
| 10-MAY-80 | 09-MAR-85 | Top Ten Results |
| 01-NOV-80 | 27-OCT-84 | Guy Fawkes Mask |
| 21-MAR-81 | 27-NOV-82 | Whoopee It's Quiz Time |
| 09-MAY-81 | 25-JUN-83 | Robot Granny |
| 12-SEP-81 | 25-JUN-83 | Tom Horror's World |
| 31-OCT-81 | 05-NOV-83 | Guy Fawkes Supermask |
| 02-JAN-82 | 25-JUN-83 | Teacher's Pets |
| 27-MAR-82 | 25-JUN-83 | Little Ed |
| 01-MAY-82 | 25-JUN-83 | Beaky |
| 01-MAY-82 | 25-JUN-83 | Kids of Class Five |
| 01-MAY-82 | 25-JUN-83 | Smile-In |
| 01-MAY-82 | 25-JUN-83 | Whoopee Winners |
| 22-MAY-82 | 25-JUN-83 | Cheeky (second run) |
Mustapha Million, Calculator Kid and Stage School, all of which had secured places in all 6 previous Top Ten polls, continued unchanged. Gran was still in her Robot Granny guise, Paddywack's former whole page strips had been cut back to a half page each week as of the comic dated 21 August 1982, and Cheeky was still enjoying the full page outings he was afforded during the initial phase of the second run of his eponymous feature.
So what was the readers' verdict on the comic's contents in the next set of results, published in the 02 October 1982 edition?...
Mustapha Million, who had topped the first three polls, was making a slow, elegant descent through the ranking, although maintaining 4th position for the 3rd time.
| Poll Date | Feature | Position |
| 10/05/80 | Mustapha Million | 1 |
| 15/11/80 | Mustapha Million | 1 |
| 20/06/81 | Mustapha Million | 1 |
| 20/02/82 | Mustapha Million | 3 |
| 07/08/82 | Mustapha Million | 4 |
| 21/08/82 | Mustapha Million | 4 |
| 02/10/82 | Mustapha Million | 4 |
Stage School continued to bounce around the lower half of the popularity stakes, this time coming in at number 5, their highest position so far.
| Poll Date | Feature | Position |
| 10/05/80 | Stage School | 8 |
| 15/11/80 | Stage School | 6 |
| 20/06/81 | Stage School | 10 |
| 20/02/82 | Stage School | 7 |
| 07/08/82 | Stage School | 8 |
| 21/08/82 | Stage School | 10 |
| 02/10/82 | Stage School | 5 |
Calculator Kid was, apart from the heights he hit in the second poll, hovering around the mid-point - a creditably consistent performance.
| Poll Date | Feature | Position |
| 10/05/80 | Calculator Kid | 4 |
| 15/11/80 | Calculator Kid | 2 |
| 20/06/81 | Calculator Kid | 5 |
| 20/02/82 | Calculator Kid | 4 |
| 07/08/82 | Calculator Kid | 6 |
| 21/08/82 | Calculator Kid | 5 |
| 02/10/82 | Calculator Kid | 6 |
Gran, who had registered at number 7 in the first post-Cheeky-merge poll results, had since been conspicuously absent from the top ten, despite her May 1981 relaunch as Robot Granny.
| Poll Date | Feature | Position |
| 10/05/80 | $6,000,000 Gran | 7 |
Neither Paddywack nor Cheeky had appeared among the top ten in any of the polls, despite the considerable efforts made to devise a format that would propel our toothy pal into the most popular features.
My examination of the fortunes of the ex-Cheeky Weekly funny folk in the Whoopee Top Ten polls continues in part 6.
Toy Boy and bumpkin Billionaires were there from the beginning of Whoopee and still very popular..
ReplyDeleteOf the two I prefer the Bumpkins, but yes they both had very long comic careers.
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