Welcome to the Cheeky Weekly blog!


Welcome to the Cheeky Weekly blog!
Cheeky Weekly ™ REBELLION PUBLISHING LTD, COPYRIGHT ©  REBELLION PUBLISHING LTD, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED was a British children's comic with cover dates spanning 22 October 1977 to 02 February 1980.

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Basic Stats
Cheeky Weekly Index - Cheeky Annuals and Specials Index
Cheeky Weekly Artist Index
Features by Number of Appearances
Cheeky Weekly Timeline
Major Characters from the Cheeky pages
Features Ordered by Date of Commencement

*** ALL IMAGES COPYRIGHT ©  REBELLION PUBLISHING LTD, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Used with permission. ***
*** CHEEKY WEEKLY, KRAZY, WHOOPEE!, WHOOPEE, WOW!, WHIZZER AND CHIPS and BUSTER ARE ™ REBELLION PUBLISHING LTD, COPYRIGHT ©  REBELLION PUBLISHING LTD, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ***
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Friday 29 January 2021

Frank McDiarmid RIP

I'm so sorry to pass on the news (as published on downthetubes) that Frank McDiarmid has passed away.

Frank was one of the mighty figures in British comics (see his obituary in the link above), and his zenith was undoubtedly Cheeky Weekly. I would go as far as saying that the toothy funster's title was Frank's comic, so inextricable was the link between the multitudinous funny folk of Krazy Town and the artist who illustrated their weekly pun-strewn escapades. Frank clearly had a lot of fun illustrating the gag-packed pages and he took full advantage of the freedom he was given, cramming extra jokes of his own into every imaginatively-constructed page. So much so that he became a character in his own comic.

From what I've read about Frank it's clear he was always happy to reply to Cheeky fans who contacted him and would often send them specially-drawn pictures of his striped-jersey-wearing creation.

Those of us reading comics in the late 70s were so fortunate to be able to experience the ground-breaking, hilarious Cheeky Weekly. Thanks for all the fun, Frank.

My condolences to Frank's family and friends.

Wednesday 13 January 2021

Cheeky Summer Special 1978

When I began writing this blog in the summer of 2010, my main goal was to complete an examination of all 117 issues of Cheeky Weekly. I finished that task back in February 2019, with my look at the final edition of the toothy funster's ground-breaking title (links to all those posts can be found in the Cheeky Weekly Timeline). For the duration of my project to document each weekly issue, I decided that I would not begin to explore the Cheeky Annuals and Summer Specials as that would slow my progress through the weeklies. Bruce very ably took on the task of enumerating the Cheeky-related non-weeklies and you can see his summaries beginning here and here.

However, I feel that now the time is right for me to begin to record the contents of those Cheeky spin-offs.

Cheeky Summer Special 1978

Art: Frank McDiarmid

Comic readers of the 1970s would eagerly anticipate the arrival of the Annual version of their favourite title. This hard-cover collection of strips was traditionally received as a Christmas gift, although Annuals went on sale in late summer/early autumn each year. Its October 1977 launch date meant that Cheeky Weekly had missed that year’s Annual window and thus the first Cheeky Annual was issued in the autumn of 1978, cover dated a year ahead as was the custom. The earliest Cheeky Weekly spin-off title, 1978’s Cheeky Summer Special, was first advertised in Cheeky Weekly dated 08 July 1978. To avoid confusion over its frequency of publication, the editor wisely chose to name it Cheeky Summer Special rather than Cheeky Weekly Summer Special which would have seen confused kids returning to the newsagent seven days after purchasing a copy and scanning the shelves for a new issue.

On the cover, beneath a banner promising 64 Pages of Fun! (a big selling point since that was double the page count of the weekly), our toothy pal, packing a fistful of Mr Whippy’s finest frigid fare (Cheeky evidently didn’t have the wherewithal to stretch to a 99), witnesses a photo opportunity involving those two extraordinary examples of the female form, Ursula and Lily Pop, who at first glance appear to have undergone a body swap. Snail launches himself skyward in appreciation of the seafront scene (I wouldn’t have thought that the salty, grainy beach is a location particularly appealing to molluscs), while the tam o’shanter-sporting photographer lines up the shot - Flash Harry was obviously detained on business in Krazy Town when this scene occurred. The Silly Seaside Snaps sign may have inspired Cheeky Weekly’s Silly Snaps filler feature which made its debut in the 02 September 1978 issue.

Frank McDiarmid sets a breezy British seaside holiday postcard atmosphere with this appealing cover, so let’s settle into our deckchair and see how the Cheeky Weekly elements we love have been adapted to fit this debut Special.

Page 2 commences without any title and sees Cheeky and pals eagerly awaiting the arrival of the coach to transport them to their holiday camp destination. Jogging Jeremy risks a copyright claim from Hanna-Barbera by emitting an anticipatory Fred Flinstone-inspired exclamation before the gang pile into their charabanc. Lily Pop stops the traffic in her inimitable manner to allow the driver to get underway, telling Cheeky she’ll be along on the next coach. Very pleasingly, Frank McDiarmid is the artist for this strip, which reverts to the marginless page design that was a hallmark of Cheeky’s strips in Krazy (which had ceased publication in April 1978), but is not in evidence in the toothy funster’s own comic. Frank takes advantage of the slightly better quality of paper on which the Special is printed by shading his drawings with ink, something that we haven’t seen in the weekly, and which does indeed make this publication feel 'special'. It's good to see that plenty of the supporting cast from Cheeky's strip in his own title (including the Knock-Knock Door!) are accompanying him on holiday.

Frank again

 

As soon as the coach reaches its destination at the end of this four-page sequence (and yes, the driver does have to make an unscheduled stop due to the limited bladder capacity of Walter Wurx), Cheeky’s pals head for the beach, but our grinning chum has other plans...

 

Frank

6 Million Dollar Gran’s story is introduced with the TV screen title panel that we’re familiar with from the weekly comic. In keeping with the holiday theme, the aged automaton’s 3 page episode is set on the beach. Nigel Edwards provides the artwork in place of regular Weekly Gran illustrator Ian Knox (by the time this Special was published Nigel had deputised twice for Ian on the strip in Cheeky Weekly). It’s nice that Gran’s adventure is presented as a TV show watched by Cheeky, maintaining the framing of the strip that has been evident in the weekly comic. However, Gran’s weekly adventures always finish with Cheeky watching the closing credits of her TV show, whereas in the Special, the strip ends with no reference to its meta-televisual origin.

Art: Nigel Edwards

Over the page is a surprise (since he’s not, at present, among Cheeky Weekly’s roster of stars) appearance of the kid with the dialing digit, Ringer Dinger, a reprint sourced from Whizzer and Chips. There is no attempt to frame this Dinger story within Cheeky’s world, although the cricket element of the tale does at least suit the summer theme.

 

Art: Terry Bave
I suspect the title banner appears bigger on the above page than on its original outing,
in order to fill the space which would otherwise result due to the differing page height/width
ratios of Whizzer and Chips and the Cheeky Summer Special.


The various calamitous cricket crises having drawn to their conclusion, next up is another reprint, this time of a dramatic rather than humorous variety. The punningly-titled adventure tale Malice in Wonderland originally appeared in Shiver and Shake in 1973, its original run having been documented with his customary diligence by Irmantas. In the Cheeky Special, the story is presented in 2 parts, the first consisting of 6 pages and the second, which draws the Special to its (almost) conclusion, is made up of 8 pages. Irmantas tells us that the original series spanned 10 weeks, so assuming each of those episodes in Shiver and Shake were 2 pages, clearly editing took place to remove 6 pages worth of material (some of which would have been the ‘story so far’ captions) when preparing the story for insertion into the Cheeky Special. For example compare the page below from the Cheeky Special reprint with the originals which Irmantas posted on Kazoop.

Art: Ron Turner

There is no attempt to frame the first part of the story into Cheeky’s world, since it follows Ringer Dinger directly, and part one concludes with a note at the foot of the page reading, ‘Continued on page 57’.

Next up is Skateboard Squad. In the weekly comic there would usually be an introductory scene at the end of the preceding Cheeky page to introduce the Squad strip, but since our heroes appear immediately after the cliffhanger ending of the initial Malice in Wonderland sequence, there is no opportunity for such an intro. However, in keeping with the holiday theme, the terrific trio are at the seaside and their 2 page colour adventure drawn by Paul Ailey (deputising for regular Weekly artist Jimmy Hansen) concerns the Squad’s attempts to retrieve an errant kite (not of the bird variety). Paul later ghosted an episode of Speed Squad (the strip which replaced Skateboard Squad and starring the same intrepid heroes) in the weekly issue dated 03November 1979. However round about the same time that the 1978 Special was in the shops, Paul also had work published in the toothy funster's title dated 15 July 1978, to which he contributed a Sweeny Toddler strip in the Whoopee mini comic located within Cheeky Weekly that week.

Art: Paul Ailey
 

Flipping the page we witness Cheeky now on the beach. As the toothy funster progresses along the sand he swaps gags with many of his Krazy Town pals, and notices that the adult male contingent (including Teacher, Spiv and Sid the Street-Sweeper) are all in a euphoric daze. The reason for the ecstasy evident among the middle-aged masculine contingent of Cheeky's pals soon becomes evident…

 

Frank again

It’s no surprise then to find a Home Movie on the following page – we’re familiar with Oscar’s intro to this feature appearing on Cheeky’s pages in the weekly comic. The seaside-set film is screened over the next 2 pages, and is illustrated by the strip’s regular artist, Jack Clayton. As is the case in the weekly comic, there is no Home Movie title panel (although most weekly episodes end with a banner reading, 'Cut! Another try at a Home Movie next week!'), but the film titles inform us that the seaside location, and thus also the site of Cheeky's holiday, is Cockleshell-on-Sea. The final Home Movie to appear in Cheeky Weekly was printed in the 10 June 1978 edition, not long before this Special was published.

 

Art: Jack Clayton

Page 24 commences with Gunga Jim, Gloomy Glad and Baby Burpo conspiring to stop Cheeky entering for the Grand Joke-Telling Contest. Having tied up the toothy funster, the trio set off to enter the competition, confident that one of their number will win the prize now that the grinning gagster is incapacitated. Cheeky’s pals deliver their best rib-ticklers, but the judge is unaccountably delayed and… well you can guess the rest. The artwork for this 2-pager is by the artist I refer to as Unknown Cheeky Artist 1, whose final Cheeky Weekly work appeared in the 06 May 1978 edition (sorry, Bruce, I changed my mind about the identity of the artist on this Special feature back in 2012).

 

Unknown (by me!) Cheeky Artist 1

As if we hadn’t had enough hilarity already, next is Cheeky’s A-Z of Seaside Jokes (to be picky they’re not really jokes – more like humorous observations) illustrated by Jim Watson (whose final stint on the Cheeky pages in the weekly comic was in the issue dated 10 June 1978). Several of Cheeky’s pals are featured across this 2 page spread. I’ll bet you can guess which of the Krazy Town crew is associated with the letter P. This feature is the first time in the Special that we get to see Cheeky fully embracing the seaside atmosphere by stripping to his swimming trunks – not an edifying sight.

 

Art: Jim Watson

Having chuckled our way through the 26 alphabetical aphorisms, we turn the page only to have another encounter with the telecomms-toting tyke, Ringer Dinger, who is still enjoying the summer weather (of several years earlier as the strip is, of course, another reprint) as he accompanies his parents to the Women’s Guild Annual FĂȘte. The predictable dial-up disaster ensues, following which we meet another character exhumed from IPC’s file of defunct characters – this time it’s Soggy the Sea Monster from Shiver and Shake. The silly sea serpent saves Winnie Whale from being harpooned, then brings the miscreant mariners to justice. This story doesn’t specifically have any obvious links to summer, but its maritime setting does I suppose lend it a watery connection to the seaside.

By now we’re almost half way through the special, and next up we continue to follow Cheeky’s holiday doings, and excitement is building at the prospect of the Grand Treasure Hunt. In the final panel of this 2 page section, drawn by Frank McDiarmid and the first sequence drawn by him in this Special not to feature inked shading, Cheeky invites us to join in the treasure trail. The centre pages contain a beach scene drawn in colour by Cliff Brown, in which 12 ‘valuable objects’ have been concealed. Readers are challenged to locate the sneakily placed items. Sadly neither the toothy funster nor any of his pals are among the folks depicted disporting themselves beside the sea.

Over the page we find that Cheeky is on another hunt, and this time his quarry is the Mystery Comic, a search which readers of the toothy funster’s title witness on a weekly basis. This single-page sequence is drawn by Frank McD, and although it's in monochrome there is inked shading again. Nosy Nora, who is a contributor to the quest in every issue of Cheeky Weekly, is also present as our puzzled pal searches the seafront, and it’s she who locates the perplexing publication. Thus is introduced Mustapha Million’s adventure.

 

The Mighty Frank

Jim Crocker handles the Mustapha artwork duties (Reg Parlett was the original Mustapha artist in Cheeky Weekly, but Joe McCaffrey first deputised for Reg in the issue dated 14 January 1978, then again twice in July the same year - around the time of this Special - before taking over from Reg as the main artist on the feature as of February 1979) as the ever-generous Mustapha treats his chums to a 3-page-spanning beach holiday, following which our dog-and-bone-toting buddy Ringer Dinger is involved in a Herman Melville-inspired tale when a fruitless fishing trip leads to the telephonic summoning of Captain Ahab and his aquatic adversary, Moby Dick (the second whale to feature in this publication). Quite what a whale would feel about being transported to a river is not explored, nor is there any immediately apparent link within the story to summer or holidays.

The nautical narratives continue as Soggy the Sea Monster’s undersea nap is disturbed by intrusive marine biologists. No holiday elements in this tale, either.

Page 40 finds Cheeky wandering among the funfair attractions, as ever trading gags with his pals. At the conclusion of this 4-page sequence drawn by Frank McDiarmid without ink shading, Cheeky tells us that tomorrow he’ll see us at the coach excursion which will follow ‘in a few pages’ time’.

Over the page we join Skateboard Squad again, who are enjoying their holiday in Whitepool (clearly the intrepid trio chose to eschew the delights of Cockleshell-on-Sea), but the relaxed atmosphere is shattered when our 'boarder buddies witness a thief snatching the takings from the seaside rock stall (the theft of cash from various concerns is something with which readers of the Squad’s strips in Cheeky Weekly are very familiar). Needless to say, by the conclusion of this 2-pager drawn by Paul Ailey, our high-speed heroes have apprehended the villain, returned the pilfered cash and been rewarded with giant sticks of rock.

The dank catacombs beneath King's Reach Tower are again the source of the strip on page 46, as Ringer Dinger inadvertently unleashes a kilted highland games enthusiast when the rain prompts him to dial up a ‘mac’. No real summer connection to this story, although rain has been known to fall on occasion during that season in the UK.

Page 47 sees Cheeky and pals embarking on the promised coach excursion. The gang find that their destination is an agricultural one, and plenty of farmyard funnies ensue over this 4 page sequence drawn (including 2 pages in colour, but with no ink shading on the monochrome elements) by Frank McDiarmid. Cheeky Weekly's affable agriculturalist Farmer Giles does not feature in this adventure - he made his debut in the weekly dated 08 July 1978, coinciding with the publication of this Summer Special.

The Soggy the Sea Monster tale which follows commences with 2 shipwreck survivors clinging to the floating remains of their vessel. The titular titan deposits the drifting sailors on board a cruise ship, meaning there is a holiday aspect to this reprint adventure.

The next dilemma for young Ringer Dinger results from a misunderstanding of his request for a ‘chute’ (by which he means a playground slide) with the word ‘shoot’. Due to the telephonic tangle, a big game hunter appears, armed with a shotgun with which he commences to blast various objects (including a kite – not the bird – the second kite reference of this Special). Thankfully no-one gets hurt. I suppose the playground location when the strip begins could be seen as a holiday-related activity.

Cheeky is then seen on his way to the holiday camp cinema. While in transit he answers a call from the Telephone Pole Man, whose final Cheeky Weekly appearance was in the 24 June 1978 edition. TPM helpfully informs us that he’s got a part-time job working at the holiday camp. Maybe it turned into a permanent position which would explain why he never again serviced the communication systems of Krazy Town. UPDATE - Actually, TPM did return to Krazy Town in the pages of the Cheeky Annual 1979. Our toothy pal also encounters Krazy Town’s cinema commissionaire, who's on holiday so takes the opportunity to join the stampede into the film show. This single-page Cheeky sequence is drawn by Frank with ink shading, and leads into a Tweety and Sylvester strip representing the animated cartoon watched by Cheeky and chums on the big screen. Thankfully the tedious cat and bird antics are concluded on a single page, and next comes an advertisement for ‘Three Great Comics’, namely Cheeky Weekly, Whoopee and Whizzer and Chips. It would seem that in Cheeky’s universe IPC has the funds to mount a cinema campaign to promote its titles. At the bottom of this page is the small print including the copyright notice and year, 1978, which is how comic historians know the date of this Special, since IPC didn’t show a year on the covers although that was their practice with Annuals (one year ahead of the publication year as mentioned earlier).

Cheeky Weekly fans will be familiar with the next page, as it depicts the cinema show interval, drawn by Frank McDiarmid and shaded with ink. The toothy funster delivers a canary-related gag to his pals, evidently inspired by the Tweety cartoon which they have just enjoyed. Ursula, beats Cheeky in the rush to the cinema usherette selling refreshments (which is of course Ursula’s current role back in Krazy Town), and proceeds to buy the entire trayload of goodies, before the audience settle down to enjoy the concluding part of Malice in Wonderland, which ends on page 63.

All that remains is the back cover, consisting of a delightful full page illustration depicting Cheeky and pals on the coach as they head home, drawn by Frank and printed in colour.

A farewell from Frank for the
1978 Cheeky Summer Special

Frank's artwork on the Cheeky strips is, as ever, superb; the extra effort he has put into shading the strips enhances the visuals and demonstrates the love he has for illustrating Cheeky's world. Effort has been made by the creative team behind this Special to emulate the unique properties of Cheeky Weekly - there's an ongoing narrative concerning our toothy pal's holiday happenings, which mirrors the daily aspect of Cheeky's regular comic. Although not employed to the same extent as in the weekly, framing devices are evident around 6 Million Dollar Gran (presented as a TV show as weekly readers are familiar with), Home Movie, Tweety and Sylvester and the second chunk of Malice in Wonderland, preceded by an interval. The two Skateboard Squad adventures aren't introduced by Cheeky's sequences as they would be at this time in the weekly comic. The centre-page Treasure Hunt Game is incorporated into the narrative, a nice touch, but it's a pity that the beach scene doesn't include any of the Krazy Town characters. It may be that Cliff Brown's puzzle is in fact a reprint, which brings me on to the disappointing aspect of the Special.

Recycled material was common in IPC Specials of the period, but the shoehorning in of unrelated Ringer Dinger and Soggy the Sea Monster material into this Cheeky Special seems particularly obvious because Cheeky's weekly title at this time was unique, as mentioned above, in framing all the material within the toothy funster's week. Even the reprints were incorporated into Cheeky Weekly in imaginative ways - the Old Comic feature saw Cheeky making a weekly visit to the attic to examine a page from one of the titles in his dad's collection of vintage funny papers. It's a real shame that the editor didn't carry this idea over into the Cheeky Special - our grinning chum could have found some old comics (maybe even Summer Specials) in a junk shop, and presented summer escapades from years gone by. It's possible that it was felt by IPC that to be so blatant about presenting salvaged material in a Special costing over 4 times the 8p cover price of Cheeky Weekly at the time, but containing only twice the pages, risked the ire of readers (or their parents). The re-use of Malice in Wonderland is not so grating (it did after all concern events happening during Sammy Hunter's holiday in New York) and its second half is framed within Cheeky's holiday (and to be fair it's always a treat to see anything drawn by Ron Turner), but the presence of Dinger and Soggy is a real disappointment. Selecting reprints with a summer theme would have made their re-use less jarring, but IPC's seeming policy of associating particular reprint features with a later title (the telephone-toting tyke and silly sea serpent were to return in future Cheeky Specials and Annuals, and both eventually helped fill the pages of Cheeky Weekly in its declining months), meant that they were limited to the holiday-related plots that may have featured in the characters' original runs.

 
Dinger's debut in the 06 October 1978 issue of Cheeky Weekly was heralded with a banner reading, 'Here's a special appearance of a Cheeky Annual favourite!' and of course that may have been a little fib on the part of the editor, or it may actually be the case that the strip was popular and that readers were either unaware that the feature was being run out for a second time, or were aware but didn't have any objection to IPC's unfortunate parsimonious attitude to the content of their Specials.

There were 63 feature elements in the Special (in my comics database each page consists of elements which may be features or adverts of a full page or less), 42 elements were original (so for example 6 Million Dollar Gran is counted as 3 elements since the strip occupied 3 full pages) and 21 were reprint elements (the element on page 55 is an advert so that's not counted). Thus exactly one third of the elements included in the Special were reprinted material. Although I speculated above that the Treasure Hunt game (2 elements) may be a reprint, I have assumed for the purposes of this exercise that it is an original feature, as I have also done with Tweety and Sylvester.

One original feature, Home Movie, had in fact concluded in Cheeky Weekly by the time this Special was published, but which of the features that were running in Cheeky Weekly at the time had not been chosen for inclusion in the Summer Special? Since I don't know the precise publication date (as mentioned earlier the 1978 Cheeky Summer Special was first advertised in Cheeky Weekly dated 08 July 1978), I'm going to assume the Special was published on 01 July 1978...

Features running in Cheeky Weekly as of 01 July 1978 but not included in Cheeky Summer Special 1978

Cheeky Weekly Feature Cheeky Weekly Dates
Calculator Kid01-Jul-78 to 02-Feb-80
Cover Feature22-Oct-77 to 02-Feb-80
Creepy Sleepy Tale22-Oct-77 to 26-Aug-78
Easter Monday01-Apr-78 to 21-Apr-79
Friday22-Oct-77 to 02-Feb-80
Interval22-Oct-77 to 02-Dec-78
James Bold22-Oct-77 to 05-Aug-78
Joke-Box Jury10-Dec-77 to 02-Feb-80
Monday22-Oct-77 to 02-Feb-80
Old Comic29-Oct-77 to 26-Aug-78
Pin-up pal22-Oct-77 to 31-Mar-79
Saturday22-Oct-77 to 02-Feb-80
Sunday22-Oct-77 to 02-Feb-80
Sunday evening22-Oct-77 to 23-Sep-78
Thursday22-Oct-77 to 02-Feb-80
Tuesday22-Oct-77 to 02-Feb-80
Wednesday22-Oct-77 to 02-Feb-80
Wednesday (conclusion)22-Oct-77 to 26-Aug-78
What a Cheek22-Oct-77 to 23-Sep-78
What's New, Kids22-Oct-77 to 17-Nov-79
Whizzer and Chips mini comic01-Jul-78 to 01-Jul-78
Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?24-Jun-78 to 30-Sep-78

Calculator Kid started in Cheeky Weekly on 01 July 1978 so that's why he wasn't included in the Special. Creepy Sleepy Tale could have been incorporated into the Special as Baby Burpo was among the seaside revellers. Since Cheeky's holiday adventures aren't presented as days of the week, none of the weekdays with which readers of the weekly are so familiar are represented in the Special. James Bold did of course appear later in the Cheeky Annuals and could have replaced the Wonderland elements in the Special, but I've always suspected that the editor felt Bold's eerie adventures were more suited to gloomy winter months than bright summer days. Although Interval is listed above, there is an interval in the Special, it's just that I didn't describe it as such when recording it in my database (the query that is the source of the above table looks for non-matches on feature names, and I decided to name all the Cheeky elements in the Special as 'Cheeky' since those sequences are without titles). As discussed above, the opportunity to use the Old Comic feature in the Special was sadly not taken. Joke-Box Jury was a reader participation feature and as far as I know those didn't normally get transferred into Specials, and anyway the Special did feature 2 pages of Cheeky's A-Z of Seaside Jokes, which weren't actually jokes. Pin-up Pal was a series of posters so the introduction of one of those into the Special would have meant losing a page of funnies. What a Cheek was Cheeky Weekly's cover strip for a while. What's New, Kids was an advertorial feature and mercifully there is only one page of ads in the Special. The Whizzer and Chips mini comic was the first of of 1978's mini comics promotion to feature in Cheeky Weekly and promotions of that kind didn't extend to Specials. The animated cartoon element of the Special's cinema visit was fulfilled by Tweety and Sylvester so there was no need for Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? which performed the same role in the weekly on two occasions.

The Treasure Hunt Game, Malice in Wonderland, and Cheeky's A-Z of Seaside Jokes were features which never appeared in Cheeky Weekly. Ringer Dinger and Soggy the Sea Monster would later appear in our toothy pal's comic.

Despite my gripes about the reprints, I think all Friends of Cheeky would have been excited at the prospect of this first spin-off from the toothy funster's comic and I'm sure it was enjoyed by many during the summer of 1978.

Please note I have assigned a title of my own devising to each of the untitled Cheeky sequences in the table of contents below.


Cheeky Summer Special - published July 1978
Page Details
1Cover 'Silly Seaside Snaps' - Art Frank McDiarmid
2Cheeky 'The Coach Journey' - Art Frank McDiarmid
3Cheeky 'The Coach Journey' - Art Frank McDiarmid
4Cheeky 'The Coach Journey' - Art Frank McDiarmid
5Cheeky 'The Coach Journey' - Art Frank McDiarmid
66 Million Dollar Gran - Art Nigel Edwards
76 Million Dollar Gran - Art Nigel Edwards
86 Million Dollar Gran - Art Nigel Edwards
9Ringer Dinger reprint from Whizzer and Chips - Art Terry Bave
10Malice in Wonderland reprint from Shiver and Shake - Art Ron Turner
11Malice in Wonderland reprint from Shiver and Shake - Art Ron Turner
12Malice in Wonderland reprint from Shiver and Shake - Art Ron Turner
13Malice in Wonderland reprint from Shiver and Shake - Art Ron Turner
14Malice in Wonderland reprint from Shiver and Shake - Art Ron Turner
15Malice in Wonderland reprint from Shiver and Shake - Art Ron Turner
16Skateboard Squad - Art Paul Ailey
17Skateboard Squad - Art Paul Ailey
18Cheeky 'On The Beach' - Art Frank McDiarmid
19Cheeky 'On The Beach' - Art Frank McDiarmid
20Cheeky 'On The Beach' - Art Frank McDiarmid
21Cheeky 'On The Beach' - Art Frank McDiarmid
22Home Movie 'Ze French Foreign Legion' - Art Jack Clayton
23Home Movie 'Ze French Foreign Legion' - Art Jack Clayton
24Cheeky 'The Joke Contest' - Art Unknown Cheeky Artist 1
25Cheeky 'The Joke Contest' - Art Unknown Cheeky Artist 1
26Cheeky's A-Z of Seaside Jokes - Art Jim Watson
27Cheeky's A-Z of Seaside Jokes - Art Jim Watson
28Ringer Dinger reprint from Whizzer and Chips - Art Terry Bave
29Soggy the Sea Monster reprint from Shiver and Shake - Art Robert Nixon
30Cheeky 'Ready for The Treasure Hunt' - Art Frank McDiarmid
31Cheeky 'Ready for The Treasure Hunt' - Art Frank McDiarmid
32Treasure Hunt Game - Art Cliff Brown
33Treasure Hunt Game - Art Cliff Brown
34Cheeky 'Quest for The Mystery Comic' - Art Frank McDiarmid
35Mustapha Million - Art Jim Crocker
36Mustapha Million - Art Jim Crocker
37Mustapha Million - Art Jim Crocker
38Ringer Dinger reprint from Whizzer and Chips - Art Terry Bave
39Soggy the Sea Monster reprint from Shiver and Shake - Art Robert Nixon
40Cheeky 'At the Fun Fair' - Art Frank McDiarmid
41Cheeky 'At the Fun Fair' - Art Frank McDiarmid
42Cheeky 'At the Fun Fair' - Art Frank McDiarmid
43Cheeky 'At the Fun Fair' - Art Frank McDiarmid
44Skateboard Squad - Art Paul Ailey
45Skateboard Squad - Art Paul Ailey
46Ringer Dinger reprint from Whizzer and Chips - Art Terry Bave
47Cheeky 'The Excursion' - Art Frank McDiarmid
48Cheeky 'The Excursion' - Art Frank McDiarmid
49Cheeky 'The Excursion' - Art Frank McDiarmid
50Cheeky 'The Excursion' - Art Frank McDiarmid
51Soggy the Sea Monster reprint from Shiver and Shake - Art Robert Nixon
52Ringer Dinger reprint from Whizzer and Chips - Art Terry Bave
53Cheeky 'On the way to the Cinema' - Art Frank McDiarmid
54Tweety and Sylvester 'Get the Point'
55Ad: IPC 'Three Great Comics'
56Cheeky 'Interval' - Art Frank McDiarmid
57Malice in Wonderland reprint from Shiver and Shake - Art Ron Turner
58Malice in Wonderland reprint from Shiver and Shake - Art Ron Turner
59Malice in Wonderland reprint from Shiver and Shake - Art Ron Turner
60Malice in Wonderland reprint from Shiver and Shake - Art Ron Turner
61Malice in Wonderland reprint from Shiver and Shake - Art Ron Turner
62Malice in Wonderland reprint from Shiver and Shake - Art Ron Turner
63Malice in Wonderland reprint from Shiver and Shake - Art Ron Turner
64Cheeky 'The Coach Journey Home' - Art Frank McDiarmid