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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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Wednesday 3 March 2021

Cheeky Summer Special 1979

Cheeky Weekly underwent two revamps in 1978; the first and relatively minor rejigging of the comic’s content occurred in the summer of that year, but a more substantial overhaul was implemented as of the issues dated 30 September and 07 October 1978, which saw the termination of 7 features and the introduction of the Mystery Comic section into the centre pages, along with 10 ‘new’ (one was a reprint) features. These changes happened a few weeks after the publication of the first Cheeky Annual, so the 1979 Cheeky Summer Special was the first of the non-weeklies to have the opportunity to reflect the new line-up.

Whereas 1978’s Cheeky Summer Special was first advertised in that year’s 08 July issue of Cheeky Weekly, readers were initially alerted to the existence of the 1979 Summer Special in the toothy funster’s comic dated 23 June 1979.

 

This year’s Special cover is rather reminiscent of last year’s – Cheeky is once again on the promenade with the sea in the background, although whereas on the front of last year’s Special our toothy chum was relaxed and enjoying the seaside atmosphere, this year he’s regretting his choice of headgear and fleeing from the osculatory threat posed by Louise. Spiv seems to have relocated from the Krazy Town alley where he usually plies his disreputable trade. Snail is absent, but Bubblegum Boy is drifting above the waves and possibly intending to descend upon an unsuspecting seagoing holidaymaker. Mike Lacey does a nice job of setting the holiday ambience.






Page 2 sees the commencement of a 4-page set entitled Cheeky On Holiday, a bit of a misnomer since our punster pal doesn’t actually take a vacation in this section. The artwork for this sequence is, I believe, a collaborative effort between the pencils of Frank McDiarmid and another artist doing the inking, a team that I refer to in respect of Cheeky Weekly as Frank McDiarmid pencils. I have mentioned before my theory that the inker may well be Tom Paterson, and I must say that I’m getting a huge Patersonian vibe from these pages.



At the end of this set, Cheeky can’t decide on a single holiday destination and tells us, ‘I know! I’ll try different kinds of holiday, and tell you how I like them!’

One person who’s in no doubt about where to spend his leisure time is Tub, who we meet over the page just as he’s settling into his deckchair beside the swimming pool, an act that brings him into contention with a Brylcreemed bully. Tub was among the contingent of strips constituting the Mystery Comic section which began appearing in Cheeky Weekly dated 30 September 1978. However, Tub’s strip in this Special follows immediately from Cheeky’s, so it seems there will be no attempt to emulate the comic-within-comic format. A possible reason for the lack of reference to the Mystery Comic is that its final appearance was in Cheeky Weekly dated 30 June 1979, around the time this Special went on sale. 10 pages of this Special are devoted to characters from the perplexing publication, so another possible reason for not gathering them in the centre pages of this Special is that it would be a rather thin Mystery Comic Summer Special when compared to the other contents. Also the centre page spread has been reserved for a Cheeky-related feature. Tub’s poolside plight is illustrated by his regular artist, Nigel Edwards.

 


Next is an appearance of that well known strip, ‘     ‘. It’s actually a reprint of a Copy Kate story from Knockout (the 1971 – 73 version). I’ve explored some of the ruses used by the compilers to disguise the recycled nature of various strips in the Cheeky Summer Special 1978 and Cheeky Annual 1979. Yet this missing first panel doesn’t appear to be such a ploy because there is evidence of re-sizing of panels to expand the area covered by the strip, so there wasn’t any need to fiddle with the title to eliminate gaps as was the case with other reprints in the aforementioned publications. In the original Copy Kate strips that I’ve seen, the title panel is simply text, so the removal of the first panel here is inexplicable. There’s no real summer or holiday element to this aerial tale. I think the artist is Tom Williams - there's not much evidence in the strip below of the distinctive style Tom would later develop (which we'll see later on Disaster Des), but there are more hints of Tom's hand in some Kate pages later in the special.


The balloon salesman would appear
to be a relative of Spiv.


There’s no question of the title of the feature on the next page, as the old enlarge-the-title-banner ploy has been used to resuscitate a Ringer Dinger strip from Whizzer and Chips. However, whereas an individual sub-title relating to each story was allocated to each revived Dinger episode in the 1979 Annual as a way of filling some space, no such addition has been made here. Cheeky fans are becoming familiar with the telephonic tearaway as he has featured in the first Summer Special as well as the aforementioned Annual, but not the weekly comic (that would happen later). No seasonal aspect to this story, either.

Art: Terry Bave

Flipping the page we encounter another character from IPC’s back-catalogue, and it’s one who has not previously appeared in Cheeky Weekly, last year’s Special or the first Annual. Straw-sucking Bertie Bumpkin first ambled into the pages of Jet, but was later transferred to Buster. This posed me something of a problem when recording the strip's origin in my database, since the source of any particular strip could be Jet, the amalgamated Buster and Jet, or Buster. I decided to opt for ' Jet and/or Buster', which is for a number of reasons not particularly satisfactory but will have to do until I can pinpoint the issues in which each of the strips originally featured. The yokel and his colourful country colloquialisms were possibly inspired by Rambling Syd Rumpo, the character played by Kenneth Williams in radio comedy Round the Horne, although it's only in the first of the Bertie reprints in this Special that our bucolic buddy fully embraces the agricultural vernacular. I suspect there’s been some resizing to increase the height of the panels in rows 2, 3 and 4, thus making the page sit better in the Special, but fortunately Bertie’s title panel is still present.

 

Art: Terry Bave
 

There’s no particularly summery feel to Bertie’s tale, whereas strong sunshine is a prominent feature of Gran’s adventure commencing on the next page. There’s no explanation (for the benefit of kids not familiar with Cheeky Weekly and whose parents have bought them this Special hoping it’ll keep them quiet) as to how Gran is able to perform her superhuman feats as she helps Pete and Pauline with their horticultural endeavours, nor is there any framing of this story as a TV show watched by Cheeky (other than the TV-screen title panel familiar from the regular comic) as there were in Cheeky Weekly. However, summer 1979 saw the gradual cessation of the framing devices in Cheeky Weekly, Gran’s final framed strip appearing in the comic dated 14 July. Nigel Edwards deputises for Cheeky Weekly’s regular Gran artist, Ian Knox, and provides some nice ink-shaded work for this 4-page set.

 


 

Another feature which would be included in the Mystery Comic section of Cheeky Weekly appears next, but as was the case with Tub, there’s no mention of the mysterious publication – it’s Why, Dad, Why? The protagonists are at the beach, and Dad’s request for Son to buy him a pair of trunks results in confusion when the misguided lad heads off to the luggage shop. This page-and-a-half escapade is drawn by John Geering, the regular artist on this feature in Cheeky Weekly (and/or Mystery Comic depending on your preference for accuracy). There is evidence that the Cheeky Weekly version of Why, Dad, Why? re-used old scripts originally written for the strip of the same name which appeared in Whizzer and Chips, but with new artwork, so that may be the case here. While the artwork for this strip has not been resized, it seems to me that the story could have been condensed onto a single page, so it’s possible that it is indeed based on a script originally intended for a one-page story, as I believe all the original WDW epidodes were.

Sharing the page with the concluding section of Why, Dad, Why? is a pair of puzzles – the first is a maze through which readers must guide Wipe-Out,  the canine Speed Squad (who we have yet to meet in this Special) member, in order that he can secure the bone located at the centre. The second puzzle is of the spot-the-difference variety, and readers’ powers of observation are put to the test with 2 similar beach scenes featuring Cheeky and a selection of his pals. Artie Jackson provides the artwork on these brain teasers.

Page 16 sees the first internal feature in colour as young Charlie Counter and his ever-present arithmetical advisor undergo a number of challenges at the beach. With the assistance of his silicon-chipped sidekick, Charlie sorts out a bully and saves a young swimmer in difficulties, both feats involving the excavation of large amounts of sand with his bucket-and-spade-type digging implement. Thanks to some wily calculations on the part of his chum, the consequent boost to his muscles wins young Master Counter a box of chocs. Regular Calculator Kid artist Terry Bave does the honours on this 2-page episode.

 

Is Terry portraying himself as the young Cheeky fan at the left?

 

Cheeky is back on page 18, and is about to embark on his first investigation into various holiday activities. It’s no surprise. since we witnessed similar mass decamping of Krazy Town's citizenry in last year’s Summer Special and the Cheeky Annual 1979, that a selection of his pals accompany him. This 6-page section is pure Frank McDiarmid, who opts for the marginless page design familiar from Cheeky’s strips in Krazy (unlike the earlier Cheeky on Holiday sequence which was surrounded by margins). Frank clearly likes to employ this page design when he’s drawing material for Specials or Annuals (marginless pages were never seen in Cheeky Weekly). It is a bit of a risky strategy, as occasionally some dialogue will stray too near the edge of the page and be cut o



On the second day of his investigation into various modes of holiday, Cheeky travels to a caravan site where he meets his mum, dad and of course more of his Krazy Town chums. The grinning gagster signs off on page 23, having decided, ‘This camping and caravanning isn’t bad at all!’, and tells us he’ll deliver his verdict on which type of holiday is best, ‘At the end of the book’.

Ringer Dinger is sweltering at the opening of his summery adventure overleaf. Seeking relief from the heat by dialing up an ice cream man on his phone results in the appearance of a fellow dressed in middle-eastern style, who bellows, ‘I scream man! I’m the Shriek of Araby!’, and whose yelling drives the daft events that follow.

Bertie Bumpkin then has an encounter with some peevish picknickers in his second resized adventure of this Special.

Jimmy, well-known to Cheeky Weekly readers, arrives at Mustapha Mansion to suggest a weekend of camping at the start of the next story. Mustapha prefers a caravan but, not content with a single mobile home, the friends set off in a caravan of caravans. Due to the winding country lanes on which they’re travelling, the caravans come loose and scatter across the countryside. The youngsters end up at the conclusion of this 3-pager (spoiler alert) in a tent. Barry Glennard is the artist. Barry never drew Mustapha in Cheeky Weekly, although he did provide some Star Guest artwork, an episode of Elephant on the Run and 3 Stage Schools. However, he would later become the artist on Mustapha Million after the strip transferred into Whizzer and Chips. There's no explanation of Mustapha's wealth, but the strips's title, the 'Mustapha Mansion' sign in the first panel, plus the 'wealthy Arab' stereotype which was a common one in the 1970s (fuelled, if you'll pardon the pun, by the 'energy crisis'), means any readers who have not encountered our moneyed mate before will readily understand the situation.

Readers’ brain cells are then taxed once more as Artie Jackson delivers a whole page packed with puzzles and entitled Cheeky’s Summer Tease Break – a reference to Cheeky Weekly’s occasional Tease Break which began in the 17 February 1979 issue and concluded in the comic dated 03 November the same year. Among the challenges is a ‘spot the similarities’ poser featuring 6 versions of the toothy funster’s grinning fizzog, a very similar puzzle having appeared in the 1979 Cheeky Annual.

2 pages of single panel gags then follow, featuring the dithering dunderhead familiar to readers of Cheeky’s regular comic and entitled Paddywack Around the World. Paddywack made his Cheeky Weekly debut in the 08 July 1978 edition, too late for him to be included in that year’s Summer Special. Jack Clayton, the regular artist on the character in the toothy funster’s comic, provides the artwork on this globe-trotting gag collection. In Cheeky Weekly, Paddywack was presented as a cartoon strip drawn by Doodle Doug, but this framing device was dropped as of the 07 July 1979 'new look' issue, from which point Paddywack's page continued to appear but with no reference to Doug as its artist. Paddywack's appearance on this page is also Doug-free, although the young artist will be witnessed doodling a Paddywack later in the Special.

We’ve now arrived at the centre pages, the location of a spread entitled Beauty Parade. The 1970s were indeed a very different time from our own. Interesting to see Gran and Paddywack among the Krazy Town folk, both of whom were, in Cheeky's universe, fictional (in the early days at least - both did eventually cross the boundary into Cheeky's world).


Cheeky begins sampling a health farm holiday on page 34. Unfortunately for the inmates, Auntie Daisy is the cook, eliciting an apprehensive ‘Boilk!’ from our grinning chum’s digestive system. I always enjoy seeing a Boilk! After 6 pages of health farm humour drawn by Frank McDiarmid, Cheeky departs the establishment at speed pursued, as he was on the cover, by love-struck Louise.

 

Art: Frank McDiarmid

Copy Kate, complete with title panel this time, then decides to emulate some yacht owners by appropriating one of their vessels, in this re-sized reprint. Over the page we find...Copy Kate again. This time there’s no title panel, but the adjacent artwork has been expanded to fill the space originally occupied by the title, and further resizing is evident as the strip progresses. In this run-on episode the titular mimic is determined to dig for treasure in the manner of a pirate, but is duped by a lazy lad into digging a garden, a chore imposed on him by his grandad. The strip ends with Kate being rewarded by the grandad with a trip to the funfair so I suppose that does have a summer association.

Art: Tom Williams
Interesting alternative spelling of 'Phew'

There’s definitely no summery feel on page 42 as Soggy the Sea Monster tells us in the first panel that he’s in the ‘frozen north’, and indeed he spends the entire episode beneath the ice. Despite being below the frigid H2O, our behemoth buddy manages to assist a Mountie in detaining a fleeing baddie. Adjustments to the artwork, reprinted from Shiver and Shake, are evident in the bottom row of panels.

There are no art adjustments (other than an enlarged title banner) over the page as Ringer Dinger dials up bulbs for his dad’s garden but instead gets an electrician with glass orbs of the light-emitting variety. Occupying some space at the foot of the page are the answers to the puzzles on page 29.

Appearing side by side on the next two pages are a pair of scenes depicting Gran at the beach, digging with her spade and echoing Calculator Kid’s adventure earlier in the Special. There’s also a link to an earlier Copy Kate, as one of the items unearthed (or more accurately, unsanded) is a treasure chest formerly owned by Captain Kidd. Readers are invited to spot the 12 differences in the 2 drawings showing the chaos caused to fellow beach-goers by the aged automaton’s frantic excavations. Pete and Pauline Potts are seen enjoying the sandy pandemonium, but sadly Nigel Edwards doesn’t include any of the Krazy Town crew in his suitably summery puzzle.

Tom Williams is then drafted in to illustrate an adventure of another Mystery Comic occupant, Disaster Des. Mike Lacey was the regular artist on the strip in the weekly. Tom contributed to just one issue of the toothy funster's comic, providing the art on 2 features in the Whizzer and Chips mini comic which appeared in Cheeky Weekly dated 01 July 1978. Des casts his destructive fluence over a stately home in this 2-pager which boasts ink shading. The arrival of tourists who find the now-ruined visitor attraction appealing at the story’s conclusion gives it a link to summer and holidays.

'Loburn Hall' references Woburn Abbey

 

Bertie Bumpkin then enjoys a full colour outing in a tale concerning the increasing tension as the time of the local fruit and vegetable contest approaches. A jealous neighbour destroys Bertie’s giant marrow, but the yokel is eventually awarded a hamper of fruit by the squire in this re-sized escapade.

A page of Paddywack coastal quickies then follows. This collection of single panel gags featuring the blundering buffoon is entitled Paddywack by the Sea, and benefits from colour printing.

Speed Squad, the successor strip to Skateboard Squad, had begun in Cheeky Weekly dated 26 May 1979. Skipper, Skatie and Wipe-Out begin a monochrome adventure on page 50 of this Special under the Speed Squad title, using the same title banner design as employed in the first 2 Speed Squad episodes in Cheeky Weekly. Whereas the strip’s name change in Cheeky Weekly allowed the scriptwriter more flexibility to show the terrific trio using a variety of modes of transport, in this Special story the team are seen on skateboards only, so it’s possible that it was originally intended to appear as a Skateboard, rather than Speed, Squad adventure. It’s drawn by regular Squad artist Jimmy Hansen and features a small amount of ink shading. The strip commences with the Squad on holiday in the countryside but, finding the lumpy terrain less than conducive to ‘boarding, they’re pleased to discover what they believe to be a ‘super giant-sized skateboard rink’. They enjoy speeding across the smooth surface of this apparatus, not realising that it’s actually the dish of a radio telescope, causing not a small amount of excitement followed by consternation to the scientists monitoring the signals from the space-scanning equipment. This is a rare episode where the Squad are the miscreants, not the righters-of-wrong.

Joe McCaffrey, who by this time was the regular artist on Mustapha Million in Cheeky Weekly, provides the artwork on our moneyed mate’s story which plays out across the next 2 pages and sees our wealthy but sympathetic pal mete out poetic justice to a pair of bullies who burst the balloons of some younger kids. No summer or holiday aspects to this story.

‘    ‘ then returns on page 54 – yes, it’s another Copy Kate reprint minus a title panel. Some resizing to Tom William’s art on this story is evident. The young heroine hires a punt after seeing a gent enjoying some leisure time on the water, but collides with a team of rowers. The recreational element of spending time on the water does give this strip a holiday/summer element.

I can see more of
Tom Williams' style here

Kate is back on the next page. As was the case in one of her earlier outings in this Special, the title panel has been removed but the gap has been filled by moving and adding to the original artwork. It’s another watery tale, this time set at the river and concerning Kate’s copying of a fisherman’s piscatorial pursuits. The alternate spelling of ‘phew’ is also in evidence again.

We’re nearing the end of this Special now, and on page 56 IPC put in a plug for what they describe as ‘4 Top Comics’ – Cheeky Weekly, Jackpot, Whizzer and Chips and Whoopee! Sample covers of each of the titles are shown, and in the case of the toothy funster’s comic, the 10 February 1979 edition has been selected for display. The cover shows the price of 9p, but that increased to 10p as of the 21 July 1979 issue, published a couple of weeks after this Special went on sale. The text of the ad includes the words On Sale Weekly for the benefit of any interested parties who may be unfamiliar with the frequency of comic production at the time. The equivalent ad in the 1978 Cheeky Summer Special appeared as ‘Three Great Comics’ - Jackpot was absent from the line-up back then as it was added to the roster of IPC’s humour/adventure titles with a May 1979 launch. It’s a bit of a puzzle as to why the mighty Buster doesn’t get a mention in these ads.

 

Soggy, whose previous adventure on this Special was a chilly one, is now enjoying the weather as he sunbathes on a tropical isle. This reprint definitely has summer/holiday connections. There's no evidence of re-sizing in this very appealing page by Robert Nixon, so it may have originally appeared in a Shiver and Shake Annual or Special (or possibly Shiver and Shake underwent a change in page height/width ratio during Soggy's original run, making its pages compatible with this Special).

 


A literal brain teaser occupies page 58 – entitled Great Martian Brain Maze, readers are challenged to find a path from one ear to the other via the grey (or possibly green – it’s in black and white) matter of a bulbous-craniumed inhabitant of the red planet whose head fills the page (printed sideways). Not sure who the illustrator is on this non-summer-related page, the design has something of Cliff Brown about it, but it’s not signed as Cliff would usually do.

A resized Bertie Bumpkin is practising his tuba over the page. The yokel’s less-than-harmonious efforts displease a gardener working nearby, who tips sneezing powder into the brass instrument. You can imagine the sternutatory progress of the remainder of the story. No particular summer or holiday connections with this one, either.

Jimmy Hansen is the artist for the final Cheeky sequence in this Special, and he decides to employ a more conventional, margined page design in contrast to Frank's earlier marginless contribution. Jimmy had been providing art for Cheeky Weekly since its first issue, initially on Skateboard Squad and then on Speed Squad. However, his first Cheeky’s Week art appeared in the weekly comic dated 19 May 1979, so it’s possible, given the lead time required for preparation of this Special, that this set was actually the first time Jimmy had illustrated the toothy funster and pals. Our grinning chum is trying out a holiday camp in this 4-pager, and at the end he delivers his decision as to which type of holiday is best.

The final 'Paddywack as a strip drawn by Doodle Doug' sequence
appeared in Cheeky Weekly dated 30 June 1979

 

Ringer Dinger is given the honour of bringing this Special to a conclusion, with an adventure (re-) printed in colour on the back cover. In another angling-based script, the young hero wants to measure the fish he’s just caught. Dialing ‘ruler’ conjures up a medieval monarch by the name of King Pinn who gets pushed into the river and suffers more indignities (or indingernities) before evaporating as all those summoned by Dinger’s phone inevitably do. Having decided that the earlier fishy fun in this Special had, by means of its leisure time associations, connections to summer and holidays, I am bound to allow the same leeway here.

There are 22 pages of Cheeky material in this Special (the Cheeky on Holiday strips plus the Beauty Parade centre spread), not including the cover. The 1978 Summer Special featured 26 pages of Cheeky (excluding the cover). Sadly none of the Cheeky pages in the 79 Special featured the inked shading which enhanced much of the toothy funster content in the previous year.

Copy Kate joins the reprint material this year, having first been associated with Cheeky in the 1979 Annual. Unlike Soggy and Dinger, Kate would never be featured in Cheeky Weekly. It’s a shame that, with the exception of the centre spread, all the colour pages are allocated to non-Cheeky strips. Of the 8 colour pages, only half feature new material (the cover, Calculator Kid’s 2-pager and Paddywack), with the remainder containing reprints.

Reprints account for 23% of the feature elements, compared to 33% reprint content in the 1978 Summer Special. 14 pages of last year’s Special were devoted to Malice in Wonderland, an adventure serial salvaged from Shiver and Shake. There is no adventure feature in this Special. Cheeky Weekly always included at least one dramatic strip until Mystery Boy came to a conclusion in the issue dated 13 October 1979, so the editor had probably decided by the time that work began on the 79 Special that the comic was soon to become all-humour until its February 1980 demise. Having said that, the Cheeky Annuals continued to include Bold strips until the one cover-dated 1982.

The cover price has increased from 35p last year to 40p, a hike of 14.28%. As mentioned earlier, the price of Cheeky Weekly increased from 9p (the price it was at the time of the 78 Special) to 10p in July 1979, an increase of 11%. Monthly UK inflation climbed from 9.34% in January to 17.24% by the end of the year. The 78 and 79 Specials both contained 64 pages, and both included 8 pages in colour.

Unlike the 1978 Summer Special, there are no features present in the 79 Special that had come to an end in the weekly comic prior to this Special's publication (I'm assuming a publication date of 01 June 1979 for this Special). The procedure that populates the table below selects features from the weekly which have no exact match in the Special, thus Paddywack is shown because his strips in the Special have augmented titles, and Tease Break appears for the same reason. Cover Feature refers to anything that occupies Cheeky Weekly's front page that is not a strip - e.g. the announcement of a competition or a mention of the contents. The front page of a Special I just call Cover, so that's why there's a mismatch.

Features Currently running in Cheeky Weekly but not in Cheeky Summer Special

Cheeky Weekly Feature Cheeky Weekly Dates
Cheeky Spotter Book of Town and Around19-May-79 to 09-Jun-79
Cheeky's Week30-Sep-78 to 30-Jun-79
Chit-Chat09-Dec-78 to 02-Feb-80
Cover Feature22-Oct-77 to 02-Feb-80
Elephant On The Run30-Sep-78 to 02-Feb-80
Friday22-Oct-77 to 02-Feb-80
Joke-Box Jury10-Dec-77 to 02-Feb-80
Menace of the Alpha Man03-Mar-79 to 30-Jun-79
Monday22-Oct-77 to 02-Feb-80
Mystery Boy30-Sep-78 to 13-Oct-79
Paddywack08-Jul-78 to 26-Jan-80
Saturday22-Oct-77 to 02-Feb-80
Silly Snaps02-Sep-78 to 20-Oct-79
Star Guest31-Mar-79 to 28-Jul-79
Sunday22-Oct-77 to 02-Feb-80
Tease Break17-Feb-79 to 03-Nov-79
The Burpo Special09-Dec-78 to 30-Jun-79
Thursday22-Oct-77 to 02-Feb-80
Tuesday22-Oct-77 to 02-Feb-80
Wednesday22-Oct-77 to 02-Feb-80
What's New, Kids22-Oct-77 to 17-Nov-79



Cheeky Summer Special Features Currently running in Cheeky Weekly

Cheeky Summer Special Feature Cheeky Weekly Dates
Mustapha Million22-Oct-77 to 02-Feb-80
6 Million Dollar Gran22-Oct-77 to 02-Feb-80
Speed Squad26-May-79 to 02-Feb-80
Disaster Des30-Sep-78 to 02-Feb-80
Why, Dad, Why?30-Sep-78 to 02-Feb-80
Calculator Kid01-Jul-78 to 02-Feb-80
Tub30-Sep-78 to 02-Feb-80



Cheeky Summer Special Features running later in Cheeky Weekly

Cheeky Summer Special Feature Cheeky Weekly Dates
Ringer Dinger06-Oct-79 to 02-Feb-80
Soggy the Sea Monster17-Nov-79 to 02-Feb-80



Cheeky Summer Special Features never running in Cheeky Weekly

Cheeky Summer Special Feature
Beauty Parade
Bertie Bumpkin
Cheeky on Holiday
Cheeky's Summer Tease Break
Copy Kate
Cover
Great Martian Brain Maze
Paddywack Around the World
Paddywack by the Sea
Spot the Difference
Wipe-Out Skateboard Maze

There is no attempt to frame any of the non-Cheeky strips in this Special, nor is there any reference to the Mystery Comic. However, as explained above, both these elements of Cheeky Weekly were drawing to a conclusion in the regular comic around this time. Nevertheless, despite the odd, un-titled Copy Kate pages which give the impression of a lack of care on the part of those compiling the contents, most of the Special is good fun and I'm sure it brightened the summer of 1979 for many Friends of Cheeky, and hopefully others who had not been previously aware of the large-toothed laughter-maker.


Cheeky Summer Special - published June 1979
Page Details
1Cover 'Kiss Me Quick' - Art Mike Lacey
2Cheeky on Holiday - Art Frank McDiarmid pencils
3Cheeky on Holiday - Art Frank McDiarmid pencils
4Cheeky on Holiday - Art Frank McDiarmid pencils
5Cheeky on Holiday - Art Frank McDiarmid pencils
6Tub - Art Nigel Edwards
7Copy Kate reprint from Knockout (IPC) - Art Tom Williams
8Ringer Dinger reprint from Whizzer and Chips - Art Terry Bave
9Bertie Bumpkin reprint from Jet and/or Buster - Art Terry Bave
106 Million Dollar Gran - Art Nigel Edwards
116 Million Dollar Gran - Art Nigel Edwards
126 Million Dollar Gran - Art Nigel Edwards
136 Million Dollar Gran - Art Nigel Edwards
14Why, Dad, Why? - Art John K. Geering
15Why, Dad, Why? - Art John K. Geering\Wipe-Out Skateboard Maze - Art Artie Jackson\Spot the Difference - Art Artie Jackson
16Calculator Kid - Art Terry Bave
17Calculator Kid - Art Terry Bave
18Cheeky on Holiday - Art Frank McDiarmid
19Cheeky on Holiday - Art Frank McDiarmid
20Cheeky on Holiday - Art Frank McDiarmid
21Cheeky on Holiday - Art Frank McDiarmid
22Cheeky on Holiday - Art Frank McDiarmid
23Cheeky on Holiday - Art Frank McDiarmid
24Ringer Dinger reprint from Whizzer and Chips - Art Terry Bave
25Bertie Bumpkin reprint from Jet and/or Buster - Art Terry Bave
26Mustapha Million - Art Barry Glennard
27Mustapha Million - Art Barry Glennard
28Mustapha Million - Art Barry Glennard
29Cheeky's Summer Tease Break
30Paddywack Around the World - Art Jack Clayton
31Paddywack Around the World - Art Jack Clayton
32Beauty Parade - Art Frank McDiarmid
33Beauty Parade - Art Frank McDiarmid
34Cheeky on Holiday - Art Frank McDiarmid
35Cheeky on Holiday - Art Frank McDiarmid
36Cheeky on Holiday - Art Frank McDiarmid
37Cheeky on Holiday - Art Frank McDiarmid
38Cheeky on Holiday - Art Frank McDiarmid
39Cheeky on Holiday - Art Frank McDiarmid
40Copy Kate reprint from Knockout (IPC) - Art Tom Williams
41Copy Kate reprint from Knockout (IPC) - Art Tom Williams
42Soggy the Sea Monster reprint from Shiver and Shake - Art Robert Nixon
43Ringer Dinger reprint from Whizzer and Chips - Art Terry Bave
44Spot the Difference - Art Nigel Edwards
45Spot the Difference - Art Nigel Edwards
46Disaster Des - Art Tom Williams
47Disaster Des - Art Tom Williams
48Bertie Bumpkin reprint from Jet and/or Buster - Art Terry Bave
49Paddywack by the Sea - Art Jack Clayton
50Speed Squad - Art Jimmy Hansen
51Speed Squad - Art Jimmy Hansen
52Mustapha Million - Art Joe McCaffrey
53Mustapha Million - Art Joe McCaffrey
54Copy Kate reprint from Knockout (IPC) - Art Tom Williams
55Copy Kate reprint from Knockout (IPC) - Art Tom Williams
56Ad: IPC '4 Top Comics'
57Soggy the Sea Monster reprint from Shiver and Shake - Art Robert Nixon
58Great Martian Brain Maze
59Bertie Bumpkin reprint from Jet and/or Buster - Art Terry Bave
60Cheeky on Holiday - Art Jimmy Hansen
61Cheeky on Holiday - Art Jimmy Hansen
62Cheeky on Holiday - Art Jimmy Hansen
63Cheeky on Holiday - Art Jimmy Hansen
64Ringer Dinger reprint from Whizzer and Chips - Art Terry Bave

9 comments:

  1. I think it was John Geering who drew Copy Kate, not Tom; comparing his take on Pansy Potter for Sparky with Kate seems to illustrate this. Alas, the wonderful Topper Universe's no more for further details.

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    1. The artwork on the first Copy Kate strip in the Cheeky Special of 1979 (the balloon story) does indeed have the look of Geering about it. The later CK story regarding the punt has a hint of Williams, more in the lettering of the Punts for Hire sign and the onomatopoeia to be honest. I'm currently working on a post examining the 1980 Cheeky Annual, and some of the Copy Kate strips in that are definitely by Williams. I assumed that Copy Kate was Williams' early work and that the distinctive style with which we associate him developed as time went on. However, the same development of style would apply to Geering, and it's entirely possible that Williams may have replaced or deputised for Geering on the CK run. Was Geering drawing Pansy Potter around 1971 (the time of Kate's original run)? If so I'll have to try to locate some of his work on Potter so that I've got something to compare with.

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    2. Also, do you have any thoughts on my suggestion that Tom Paterson did the inking on the first Cheeky On Holiday page above? I know you've been kind enough to not entirely dismiss this theory of mine when I mentioned it a while back, although you weren't entirely convinced. Does this latest example do anything to change your mind?

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  2. Lilypop...bikini... faint...

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    1. Somebody get Peter a glass of water...

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  3. It’s precisely the inability to check Tom’s run on Pansy that makes Topper Universe’s loss ache so much. Incidentally, I might’ve been sitting opposite the site’s creator at Colindale Newspaper Library in 2013; there was certainly a bloke reading Sparky once. I don’t remember discussing Tom with you at all, save the above comment. It’s one of three things that happens when you get older. The first is your memory goes ... can’t remember the other two ;-) I may’ve also been fretting over eerie snakes or hands at the time. Seriously, or as close as I can manage anyhow, could you remind me of the date or something to assist my addled memory?

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    1. The other thing that happens with age is that one misreads Paterson as Williams! Understandable as both are Toms. You commented on my earlier Patersonian post here back in September 2019. I remembered it 'cos you're the only person who hasn't told me I'm completely wrong in my theory!

      I don't think I was ever familiar with the Topper Universe (not a great DC Thomson fan), but a search for it using DuckDuckGo returns a link http://www.topper-universe.co.uk/buzz/neroandzero.php, Unsurprisingly it's dead, but I did try entering the url at the Wayback Machine. This generated an error Fail with status: 503 Service Unavailable - I think this may mean that the Wayback Machine is currently offline. I tried entering my blog's url and that failed with the same error. You might like to try again at a later date.

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    2. Please disregard the demented ravings in my second paragraph above - just go to the Wayback Machine and enter Topper Universe and you'll find some archived pages from the site. Since I never visited I don't know if the whole site is available but I'll let you have a look around. Let me know if you find anything that might confirm that John Geering is the Copy Kate artist.

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  4. Thanks for the reminder; with some googling the On This Day site gives Geering as Copy Kate’s artist twice so I’ll explore the remnants of Topper Universe with care. It’d be upsetting to see it emaciated – and yes I do tend to get upset easily. Expect it won’t help you in the least that I still can’t be sure if the ’81 Sweeney is Tom’s artwork. Looks more like Leo Baxendale or possibly his son Martin. Tried comparing it to other Sweeney stories? BTW speaking (as I did) of Colindale Newspaper Library, on Monday I found a train seat reservation ticket at Lea Bridge Roundabout, dated Fri 08/11/13: the date Colindale closed. I know, I was there. Not ashamed to say I left a little tearful, regardless of being a grown man nine days into his 41st year. Onwards and upwards … to their Rare Books and Music reading room seven months or so later.

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