Whizz-ites vs Chip-kids - Part 7

This is another post in the series that sees me ruthlessly unmasking the traitorous characters who posed as both Whizz-kids and Chip-ites during their appearances in Whizzer and Chips. My investigation covers Whizzer and Chips' weekly editions dated 06 April 1985 to 28 April 1990. For the reasons why, see the first post in this series.

The uncompromisingly fastidious Fuss Pot evidently found favour with more than one generation of comic fans, since she enjoyed a career in weekly/fortnightly comics which spanned just over 28 years, commencing in the 12 June 1971 debut issue of IPC's Knockout, and concluding in Buster Fortnightly dated 29 September 1999.

Whizzer and Chips 25 January 1986
Art: Norman Mansbridge

Having arrived in Whizzer and Chips following Knockout's 1973 cancellation, Fuss Pot was dropped from the 'two comics in one' title at some point between 1973 and March 1985 (a period outside the scope of this series). The finicky female was reintroduced (for what may have been a trial outing, an emergency gap-filling exercise or an opportunity to plug the Best of Whizzer and Chips Monthly) in Whizzer and Chips dated 25 January 1986 (on page 23, within Chips), then returned in the edition dated 28 February 1987 (page 18, again in Chips territory). Our pointy-nosed pal thereafter featured in 108 of the 191 remaining Whizzer and Chips issues to be published, including an appearance in the comic's final edition dated 27 October 1990. However, for all her fussy fulminations, she wasn't too fussed about remaining true to the Chip-ite cause.

In the 13 August 1988 edition Fuss Pot was to be found on page 30, placing her inside Whizzer. This change of allegiance was not remarked on in the comic, and our choosy chum returned to the Chips fold the following week, remaining there until crossing over into Whizzer again in the 01 October 1988 issue. This was the beginning of what was to be a 3-week sojourn inside Whizzer. Again there was no acknowledgement of Fuss Pot's move across the border, and she returned to Chips as of the 22 October 1988 comic, remaining a Chip-ite until 28 April 1990, which was the final 32-page Whizzer and Chips and is the cut-off point for the investigations undertaken in this series of posts.

The picky subject of this post made a promotional visit to Cheeky Weekly dated 07 April 1979 as part of that year's Star Guest campaign. UPDATE 06 October 2024 - Fuss Pot also appeared in Cheeky Weekly dated 01 July 1978, where she was included in that issue's Whizzer and Chips Mini Comic.

Whizzer and Chips - The Cheeky Raids part 61

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 previous post in this series focused on Whizzer and Chips dated 24 February 1990, which is the fifth issue in which I have been unable to identify raiders into both Whizzer and Chips - there have been 3 issues where the Chip-ite raider into Whizzer has evaded me, and 2 in which no interloper into Chips has been evident (to me) - see the table below for more details. Now it may be that my observational skills are lacking and it's just that I haven't looked hard enough (although I have scoured each of the issues in question a number of times), or it's possible that the person in the W&C office whose task it was to secrete two pasted-in images in each issue, one within Whizzer and the other somewhere among the funny folk of Chips, was less than assiduous in performing their clandestine task. Each issue at this period included captions on the Sid's Whizz-kids and Shiner's Chip-ites pages warning that the opposition had sent a raider into their section of the comic, but sadly the culprits were no longer exposed the following week as had been the practice until the 30 July 1988 comic.

In the issue following from that examined in my previous post, I have been able to identify raiders into Whizzer and Chips, and since Mustapha Million, who by this point was the only surviving character who had originated in Cheeky Weekly, was not involved in either of the raids, I can eliminate it from my investigations.

The edition published a week later, dated 10 March 1990, is yet another perplexing one, as I have identified 2 raiders but they are both within Chips!

There's an infant infiltrator into Lazy Bones' story on page 19, as a glowering Sweeny Toddler observes the teacher spout his expository monologue in the first panel. This strip is reprinted from page 6 of Whizzer and Chips dated 06 April 1985, which was the first edition merged with Whoopee. Sweeny's ugly fizzog was in evidence in the same position on that occasion because the teeny terror was seen (or left evidence of his presence in the form of graffiti) several times in the the inaugural merge issue as he prowled the comic in order to establish on which page his story had been placed (in the process outing Mustapha Million as the raider into Whizzer). On the original printing of this Lazy Bones story, a message reading 'Where is my page?' appeared below Sweeny's face.

Lazy Bones had undergone a conversion to Chipitism as of the comic dated 06 January 1990, so while this tale concerning the lethargic lad originally appeared in Whizzer, its 1990 reprint was located in Chips.

JR and Mustapha Million are both to be found on Sid's Whizz-kids page, but as objects of ridicule, so these appearances do not constitute raids.

Lazy Bones art: Colin Whittock
Whizzer and Chips 10 March 1990

The second raid (which I'm viewing as this edition's 'official' whizz-kid intrusion upon Chips) is perpetrated on Mustapha Million. Can you identify the interloper? Scroll down to learn the identity of the trespasser...

Art: Frank McDiarmid

 

...it's Whizzer's prime prankster Joker, committing his sixth intrusion upon Mustapha.

Unfortunately, the Chip-ite raider into Whizzer (if such is actually present in this particular issue) has evaded my questing eyeballs.

Whizzer and Chips Cover Date	Raider	Raided
06 April 1985	Mustapha Million	Super Steve
04 May 1985	Bloggs (Store Wars)	Mustapha Million
11 May 1985	Joker	The Krazy Gang (Cheeky)
18 May 1985	Calculator Kid & Calc	Odd-Ball
01 June 1985	Animalad Mustapha Million	The Krazy Gang (Cheeky) Boy Boss
08 June 1985	Odd-Ball	Calculator Kid
06 July 1985	Toy Boy	Calculator Kid
13 July 1985	Pa Bumpkin	The Krazy Gang (Cheeky)
27 July 1985	Joker	Mustapha Million
24 August 1985	Cheeky	Sid's Snake
14 September 1985	Odd-Ball Calculator Kid	Calculator Kid Store Wars
05 October 1985	Mustapha Million	Animalad
19 October 1985	Odd-Ball	Mustapha Million
23 November 1985	Sweeny Toddler Sweeny Toddler Sweeny Toddler	Calculator Kid The Krazy Gang (Cheeky) Mustapha Million
18 January 1986	Mustapha Million	Super Steve
25 January 1986	Odd-Ball Cheeky	Mustapha Million Odd-Ball
08 February 1986 The Krazy Gang ends this issue	Animalad	Mustapha Million
15 February 1986	Lazy Bones	Calculator Kid
15 March 1986	Odd-Ball	Calculator Kid
29 March 1986	Calculator Kid	Master P Brain
05 April 1986	Bumpkin Billionaires	Mustapha Million
12 April 1986	Animalad	Calculator Kid
31 May 1986	Lazy Bones	Calculator Kid
07 June 1986	Mustapha Million	Joker
28 June 1986	Sweet Tooth	Mustapha Million
26 July 1986 Calculator Kid ends this issue	No Cheeky-related raid this issue	No Cheeky-related raid this issue
16 August 1986	Mustapha Million	Joker
23 August 1986	Sweet Tooth	Mustapha Million
18 October 1986	Winnie the Royal Nag	Mustapha Million
06 December 1986	Toy Boy	Mustapha Million
13 December 1986	Mustapha Million	Odd-Ball
17 January 1987	Sid	Mustapha Million
14 February 1987	Odd-Ball	Mustapha Million
11 April 1987	Pa Bumpkin	Mustapha Million
25 April 1987	Mustapha Million	Odd-Ball
20 June 1987	Toy Boy	Mustapha Million
27 June 1987	Mustapha Million	Memory Banks
25 July 1987	Lazy Bones	Mustapha Million
22 August 1987	Winnie the Royal Nag	Mustapha Million
12 September 1987	Mustapha Million	Sweet Tooth
19 September 1987	Odd-Ball	Mustapha Million
24 October 1987	Odd-Ball	Mustapha Million
12 December 1987	Joker	Mustapha Million
13 February 1988	Bloggs (Store Wars)	Mustapha Million
20 February 1988	Mustapha Million	Joker
12 March 1988	Odd-Ball	Mustapha Million
23 April 1988	Joker	Mustapha Million
28 May 1988 Readers asked not to let their Whizz-kid or Chip-ite sympathies colour their favourite strip votes	No Cheeky-related raid this issue	No Cheeky-related raid this issue
11 June 1988	Slippy	Mustapha Million
16 July 1988	Toy Boy	Mustapha Million
30 July 1988 New raids halted
05 August 1989 (raid reprinted from 25 Aug 1984)	Cheeky	Store Wars
12 August 1989 Resumption of new raids (one per week)	No Cheeky-related raid this issue	No Cheeky-related raid this issue
02 September 1989	Joker	Mustapha Million
16 September 1989	Slippy	Mustapha Million
23 September 1989 Weekly reciprocal raids resume	No Cheeky-related raid this issue	No Cheeky-related raid this issue
28 October 1989	Mustapha Million Sweeny Toddler	Bobby's Ghoul Mustapha Million
11 November 1989 - Tarman is the Chip-ite raider into Whizzer, but I have been unable to identify any raider into Chips
18 November 1989	Mustapha Million	Sid's Whizz-kids page
02 December 1989	Joker	Mustapha Million
23 December 1989 - Junior Rotter is the Chip-ite raider into Whizzer, but I have been unable to identify any raider into Chips
30 December 1989 - Slippy is the Whizz-kid raider into Chips, but I have been unable to identify any raider into Whizzer
27 January 1990 - Slippy is the Whizz-kid raider into Chips, but I have been unable to identify any raider into Whizzer
24 February 1990 - Joker is the Whizz-kid raider into Chips, but I have been unable to identify any raider into Whizzer
10 March 1990 - Sweeny Toddler intrudes upon Lazy Bones in a reprinted 'raid' from Whizzer and Chips dated 06 April 1985. I have been unable to identify any raider into Whizzer.	Joker	Mustapha Million