The Features - Ringer Dinger and Soggy the Sea Monster

Cheeky Weekly, from its first issue, included reprints (not an unusual situation in comics of the time), but initially some imagination was used in the way those recycled strips were selected and framed within Cheeky's universe. For example Bam Splat and Blooie and Cocky Doodle, sourced from early 60s issues of IPC's mighty Buster, were used to represent the animated cartoons watched by Cheeky and his pals during their weekly outing to the Saturday morning picture show. The feature I refer to as Old Comic, showcasing even more venerable selections from IPC's inherited archive of funnies, was presented as Cheeky's choices from his dad's trunk full of comics in the loft. The James Bold stories, initially incorporated into Cheeky's universe by presenting them as a series of books read by the toothy funster (and later viewed by him on the big screen) were 'partial reprints' in that scripts written for Maxwell Hawke, again from Buster, were re-drawn for Cheeky Weekly.

As mentioned before, the use of reprints was standard practice in British comics of the time and it's entirely understandable that the Cheeky Weekly editor would seek to manage his budget by resorting to past successes to economically fill out a few pages of the toothy funster's comic. The majority of readers would be unaware that they were reading strips that had been enjoyed by earlier comic fans (except, of course, in the case of Old Comic where the whole point of the feature was to make readers aware of the vintage nature of the selections). However, over time the framing devices which made each issue of the comic a cohesive narrative were dropped, and whereas formerly reprints were used in a creative way that enhanced Cheeky Weekly's unique nature, towards the end of the comic's life seemingly random old strips were brought out of retirement to cheaply fill some space in what appeared to be a more cynical fashion.

Ringer Dinger, originally appearing in Whizzer and Chips in 1970 1971 (thanks to Stephen Archer for correcting me), began his Cheeky Weekly run of recycled telephonic tales in the issue dated 06 October 1979. However, loyal Friends of Cheeky would have been familiar with the character and his cordless companion as 4 reprinted escapades had featured in the 1979 Cheeky Annual which went on sale in late 1978. The strip was another of Terry Bave's kid-with-technology creations (see also Trevor's Treasure Tracker from Whoopee! and of course, Cheeky Weekly's own Calculator Kid). In this case young Dinger, the possessor of a magic telephone, could request assistance by dialing up whatever he required, inevitably resulting in the customary comic calamity

Dinger's Cheeky Weekly debut,
issue dated 06 October 1979
Art: Terry Bave
Note banner referencing Dinger's appearance in
the first Cheeky Annual.
I wonder if Dad's speech balloon in the final panel
was also blank when this strip was originally printed.
Update: See Stephen Archer's interesting comment below.

Ringer Dinger appeared in 2 further issues of Cheeky Weekly - the penultimate and final issues. One wonders why - if the telephonic tyke was such a 'favourite' as claimed in the banner above his Cheeky Weekly debut - he was absent for such a long period before his return in the final 2 issues*, being replaced in the intervening period by another reprint, this time featuring the aquatic adventures of a lovable leviathan.

Soggy the Sea Monster, retrieved from the dusty archives of Shiver and Shake, enjoyed his first watery Cheeky Weekly outing in the issue dated 17 October 1979. I'll let Irmantas apprise you of the salient details of Soggy's initial run (or should that be swim?), and summarise here the mirthful monster's reappearances in the toothy funster's comic some 6 years after he originally surfaced.

Soggy's Cheeky Weekly episodes commenced with one of the 2 strips from the original run that were drawn by Terry Bave. Like Ringer Dinger, Soggy had appeared in the 1979 Cheeky Annual, but unlike our dog-and-bone wielding pal, the silly sea serpent didn't get an above-strip banner advising readers that they may have seen him before.

Cheeky Weekly 17 October 1979
Art: Terry Bave

Whereas Dinger notched up a paltry 3 outings in his Cheeky Weekly reincarnation, Soggy's appearances in the toothy funster's comic amounted to a slightly more respectable 12, with both Dinger and Soggy appearing in the comic's final 2 issues.

*It's highly likely that by the time of the commencement of Ringer Dinger's Cheeky Weekly run, the decision had already been made to cancel the comic. It's therefore possible that, even if Dinger had engendered favourable feedback from his appearance in the previous year's annual, the editor decided that rather than squandering the strips in a comic under sentence of death, he would hold back his stock of RD strips to use in forthcoming Cheeky Annuals and Summer Specials, the publication  of which would continue for some years after the weekly comic had folded.


Ringer Dinger in the Cheeky Weekly Index

Feature	First Appearance	Final Appearance	Total Issues	Total Issues Missed In Run	Page History
Ringer Dinger	06-Oct-79	02-Feb-80	3	15	7,11,28

Feature	Artist	Number of Issues	First Appearance	Final Appearance
Ringer Dinger	Terry Bave	3	06-Oct-1979	02-Feb-1980

Date	Page	Feature	Page	Feature
06-OCT-79	28	Ringer Dinger
17-NOV-79	11	Soggy the Sea Monster
24-NOV-79	11	Soggy the Sea Monster
01-DEC-79	11	Soggy the Sea Monster
08-DEC-79	4	Soggy the Sea Monster
15-DEC-79	11	Soggy the Sea Monster
22-DEC-79	11	Soggy the Sea Monster
29-DEC-79	8	Soggy the Sea Monster
05-JAN-80	11	Soggy the Sea Monster
12-JAN-80	12	Soggy the Sea Monster
19-JAN-80	11	Soggy the Sea Monster
26-JAN-80	7	Ringer Dinger	12	Soggy the Sea Monster
02-FEB-80	11	Ringer Dinger	17	Soggy the Sea Monster

Soggy the Sea Monster in the Cheeky Weekly Index
 

Feature	First Appearance	Final Appearance	Total Issues	Total Issues Missed In Run	Page History
Soggy the Sea Monster	17-Nov-79	02-Feb-80	12	0	4,8,11,12,17

Feature	Artist	Number of Issues	First Appearance	Final Appearance
Soggy the Sea Monster	Terry Bave	1	17-Nov-1979	17-Nov-1979
Soggy the Sea Monster	Robert Nixon	11	24-Nov-1979	02-Feb-1980

The features – Snail of the Century

Snail had been Cheeky's faithful (but silent) slimy sidekick since issue 6 of Krazy in November 1976, but over two and a half years later our mollusc mate was elevated to become the star of his very own feature. Snail of the Century was the last original strip to commence in Cheeky Weekly, making its debut in the edition dated 14 July 1979 and completing the comic's 'new look' which had been initiated a week earlier.

First appearance of Snail of the Century
Cheeky Weekly 14 July 1979
Art: Frank McDiarmid

 

The strip (the title, which had first appeared on the cover of Cheeky Weekly dated 02 June 1979, being a play on Parsonstastic TV quiz show of the time, Sale of the Century) was a spin-off from the Cheeky's Week pages and Snail thus joined Baby Burpo to become the only characters from Cheeky's supporting cast to make it into their own regular strips (The Burpo Special in the case of the notorious nappy-wearer). Additionally, both Snail's and Burpo's own features bore titles referencing TV shows of the era.

Despite the much earlier competition in which readers were invited to send in suggestions for Snail's name, none of the winning entries published in the 22 April 1978 edition were ever used in either Cheeky's Week or Snail of the Century (seemingly not the first time IPC had neglected to use a name supplied by a reader).

Frank again

 

Although the strip was clearly set in Cheeky's universe, there was no introduction within the CW strips, since Cheeky Weekly's framing devices had been dropped as of the aforementioned 'new look' issue dated 14 July 1979. However, there was framing within each SotC episode, as at the beginning of every story the inimitable invertebrate would observe Cheeky's current preoccupation before slithering out into the garden to meet his back yard buddies. The end of each episode saw Snail return indoors to view the latest state of affairs in the Cheeky household. Snail, Cheeky, his parents, Baby Burpo and school gardener Dan-Dan the Lavender Man were the only characters from the Cheeky's Week pages to feature in SotC, and none of the SotC supporting cast appeared in Cheeky's Week.

Most memorable among the SotC characters was Weevil Knievel (whose surname underwent a number of different spellings in the early weeks of the feature), the motorcycle stunt rider. The mini motorcyclist (a spoof of course on Evel Knievel) either appeared or was mentioned in every SotC episode.

 

Snail's nephew appeared just once

 

Snail of the Century was missing from just 3 issues after its commencement, appearing in 27 editions in total. The feature was most often to be found on Cheeky Weekly's back cover, benefiting from the colour printing available in that location on 25 occasions. Frank McDiarmid drew 25 episodes, with Barrie Appleby supplying 2.

Missed opportunity for a gag -
surely Snail's fave disc is Me Shell by The Beatles

I mentioned above that Snail of the Century was a spin-off from Cheeky's Week, but really it was more like a knock-off. It attempted to relocate Cheeky's pun-fests to the back garden, but sadly Snail, while a great sidekick, didn't really have the personality to front a strip on his own. Having no arms or legs and only a rudimentary face meant the star of the strip was visually a little dull. Nor were the mirthful mollusc's mates as engaging a bunch as Cheeky's pals. Not being a fan of anything with more than 4 legs or lacking a backbone, the strip never really appealed to me.

Snail of the Century in the Cheeky Weekly Index

 

Feature	First Appearance	Final Appearance	Total Issues	Total Issues Missed In Run	Page History
Snail of the Century	14-Jul-79	02-Feb-80	27	3	12,23,32

Issues Missed In Run

04-Aug-79

22-Sep-79

10-Nov-79

Feature	Artist	Number of Issues	First Appearance	Final Appearance
Snail of the Century	Frank McDiarmid	25	14-Jul-1979	02-Feb-1980
Snail of the Century	Barrie Appleby	2	13-Oct-1979	20-Oct-1979

Preceding Page	Count
Saturday 2/2	25
Ringer Dinger	1
Joke-Box Jury	1

Pages per Issue	Number of Issues
1	27

The features – The Gang

Gangs of various descriptions have been a staple of British comics since newsagents began selling weeklies packed with strip cartoon fun. From the Casey Court Kids via their Bash Street colleagues to The Krazy Gang (numbering in their ranks a certain toothy funster of our acquaintance), comic fans have enjoyed seeing an unruly bunch of youths contending with authority in all its comic-portrayed forms (usually teachers or coppers). Cheeky Weekly hadn't indulged in gang-based fun prior to the 1979 revamp issue. Skateboard Squad/Speed Squad were too public-spirited (and too few) to be regarded as a gang, and although the huge cast of the Cheeky's Week features would certainly satisfy the requirements of a gang in numerical terms, they just weren't a cohesive bunch with the requisite 'them against the world' feel of a true gang.

Thus it was a bit of a surprise to find two gangs elbowing their way into the comic in a single week.

The second new gang of the aforementioned 07 July 1979 revamp edition, making their debut on page 14 of the issue in question and putting a showbiz spin on the archetypal kids-versus-teacher setup was Stage School. However, blazing the trail of Cheeky Weekly team-based fun as it premiered on page 10 was a strip so blatantly gang-focused that it bore a stark name  – The Gang. Was this, then, a distillation of all the gang strips that had preceded it, an utter refinement of the gang genre, ripping away all superfluous ideas and reducing the concept to a basic kernel of truth?

Er, actually, no, it was just a retitled reprint of The Double Deckers from Whizzer and Chips but no-one could be bothered to think of a better title.

Here Come The Double Deckers was a children's TV comedy/music show which premiered in the UK in January 1971. The titular youths lived in a London bus (static, I hasten to add), and the comic strip version commenced, under a banner reading 'Here's a brand-new fun feature with a new brand of laughter! The T.V. success...', in the Chips section of Whizzer and Chips dated 22 June 1971 22 May 1971 (thanks to Stephen Archer for the correction). The strip's title was reduced to 'The Double Deckers' and the title panel incorporated a vintage bus design as well as carrying the copyright of Twentieth Century Fox Films Inc (copyright on subsequent strips in the W&C run was assigned to Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. & Century Film Productions Ltd.).

Quite what sort of arrangement IPC had with the property's owners is a bit of a puzzle, but presumably the copyright at some point expired to a state which allowed the publishers, with a little judicious adjustment, to use the artwork again 8 years later.

The first episode of The Gang,
Cheeky Weekly 07 July 1979.
This is an adjusted reprint of the first
Double Deckers story from Whizzer and Chips,
22 May 1971
Art: Robert MacGillivray, as is all the art below

Sections of the bus are only occasionally glimpsed in the course of the stories contained in the reprinted strips (and The Gang's unusual home is directly mentioned only in the 15 and 22 September and 06 October 1979 adventures), but the kids' vehicular lodgings weren't particularly prominent in most of those of the original which I have seen (the story in which The Double Deckers repaint their omnibus dwelling, which originally appeared in Whizzer and Chips dated 07 August 1971, wasn't among those reprinted in the Cheeky run). Along with the substitution of the title, removal of the bus motif, and excision of the copyright notice, certain further tweaking was performed in preparation for the strip's Cheeky Weekly outing. Billie's pigtail was removed and the offensive depictions of Spring (the black member of the team) were redrawn, while his name was changed to Joss (or Jos on one occasion). Brains' tie was also drawn out. Curiously, some onomatopoeiaic embellishments of the 'zip', 'zoom' variety were also added to certain panels. Despite these amendments, any Cheeky Weekly readers having a passing acquaintance with the Double Deckers' screen adventures (which had almost certainly been repeated at least once in the years since its premiere) would have instantly recognised the similarity between The Gang and the TV show.

An example of altered artwork.
Original on the left.
Evidently it was felt Brains' 'I say' was too posh
and his tie was too smart!

The story that originally appeared in Whizzer and Chips dated 09 October 1971, concerning a children's party was, on its 29 December 1979 Cheeky Weekly reprinting, converted into a Christmas tale by the addition of some seasonal dialogue and Christmas decorations. Joss/Spring was, in a scene showing him dancing, allocated a speech balloon reading 'Disco Kid's been giving me lessons'. This wasn't the only occasion on which The Gang was tied in to Cheeky's Week - in the 02 February 1980 story, Scooper is seen reading a comic whose title has been altered to 'Cheeky'.

However, these were the only attempts made to connect The Gang with the rest of the toothy funster's comic. One of Cheeky Weekly's unique features - the linking of all the various strips into our grinning pal's week (e.g. James Bold being framed within Cheeky's Week as a novel read by Cheeky and later viewed at the cinema, Creepy Sleepy Tale being a bedtime story told to Baby Burpo etc) - was dropped as of the 1979 revamp. Cheeky Weekly was entering a decline by this stage in its life. Because of this connection between the arrival of The Gang and the drop in care taken over the production of the comic, I've always been unsure whether my dislike for the strip is justified. On reflection, I realise that I like Stage School, which appeared in the same circumstances (although to be fair Stage School isn't a reprint which is another reason why I'm not a fan of the young bus dwellers), so sorry Gang, but you just didn't do it for me.

Robert MacGillivray was the artist on all 31 Cheeky Weekly episodes of The Gang, all of which were 2-page stories. 15 stories were in spot colour (red) with the remainder in black and white. The reprint run was uninterrupted from its debut until the final issue. Wikipedia suggests there were 52 strips in the original Whizzer and Chips run of The Double Deckers.

The Cheeky Holiday Special 1980 included 2 Gang adventures reprinted from Whizzer and Chips, and 2 Gang adventures were featured in the Cheeky Annual cover-dated 1981. In the case of the Annual, the artwork was resized to convert each of what had originally been 2-pagers into stories spanning 4 Annual pages. Oddly, although Billie's hairstyle was redrawn for the reprints in the Holiday Special and Annual, as it had been in the weekly comic, no alterations were made to Joss'/Spring's face to match those made in the weekly Gang stories. The first Gang story in the Annual was printed in full colour (the second was in black and white) and had some text altered to refer to Krazy Town.

The Gang also participated in IPC's 1979 Star Guest promotion, ironically paying a visit to their comic of origin, Whizzer and Chips, dated 21July 1979. In this case it appears their story was edited down from 2 pages into a single page.

This page on a Double Deckers fan site (link is now dead - here is an archived version of the page via the Wayback Machine) suggests that The Gang was reprinted in an 'Australian magazine' in the late 1970s, but I suspect the reprints referred to are those from Cheeky Weekly. The example pages shown have been incorrectly paired up.

The Gang in the Cheeky Weekly Index

 

Details of the source material for all The Gang episodes

Feature	First Appearance	Final Appearance	Total Issues	Total Issues Missed In Run	Page History
The Gang	07-Jul-79	02-Feb-80	31	0	4,5,8,9,10,11,12,13,18,19,22,23,24,25

Feature	Artist	Number of Issues	First Appearance	Final Appearance
The Gang	Robert MacGillivray	31	07-Jul-1979	02-Feb-1980

The Features – Stage School

First episode, Cheeky Weekly 07 July 1979
Art: Robert Nixon

Making its debut in Cheeky Weekly number 87 (the 'New Look' issue), Stage School brought a new twist to that staple of British comics, the eternal battle between schoolkids and their teacher. The spin in this case was that the pupils all aspired to careers in show-business and would thus rather be spending time in the Stage School located across the playground from the 'real class' in which most of the stories took place. Real lessons were taught by a typically bad-tempered teacher wearing the traditional robe and mortarboard, who detested all matters relating to entertainment. The kids' showbiz teacher appeared only occasionally but, in contrast to the real teacher, was a cheery sort who sported a cravat, an item of neckwear which was a late 1970s shortcut to denote 'arty' types – see also Are You Being Served?, The Dick Emery Show, The Two Ronnies etc.

Each of the kids focused on a particular branch of showbusiness. The class included, among others, a mini-magician, a ballerina, Jo-Jo the trainee clown, Merla the mindreader and a junior ventriloquist. The kids employed their own peculiar talents and skills to disrupt the progress of lessons in real class. Perhaps the most memorable student was incompetent escapologist Houdanny (cf Erich Weisz aka Harry Houdini), who spent most strips failing to emerge from a sack wrapped in chains and padlocks.

A panel in the strip dated 19 January 1980, in which Sir drives the kids out of town then dumps them, leaving them to make their own way back to school (his idea of an initiative test), shows our heroes travelling back on a bus going to Kensal Rise, an area of north London, suggesting that the educational establishment is situated somewhere in that area. The Kensal Green/Rise area is now, rather appropriately, home to a number of celebrities but in the late 1970s was considerably less salubrious than of late.

Stage School was absent from just 5 of the issues published after its commencement, notching up appearances in 26 issues, including the final edition of the toothy funster's comic dated 02 February 1980. All but 3 episodes were drawn by Robert Nixon, with Barry Glennard deputising in Mr Nixon's absence. 22 stories were 2-pagers, the remainder concluding within a single page. A single SS strip was in colour, the rest being in black and white.

Robert Nixon

The feature's original title panel depicted a stage with spotlight shining on Teacher as he retracted the sleeve of his cane-wielding arm, the more easily to apply a thrashing to a perspiring pupil's posterior. This somewhat discomfiting tableau was replaced as of the 24 November 1979 issue by a panel simply displaying the strip's title surrounded by stars. This revised intro frame design (with its customary snow-bedecked variant in the Christmas 1979 issue) continued to appear until the end of the Cheeky Weekly run.

Was Houdanny yet another Cheeky Weekly
Inconsistent Hair Colour Syndrome sufferer?
Or was he just experimenting with hair dye as part
of his showbiz course?

The showbiz shenanigans extended to the Cheeky Weekly Holiday Special 1980 and the 1981 Summer Special, each of which contained a single, 2-page Stage School story drawn by Barry Glennard. Teacher and his theatrically-inclined students also appeared in the Cheeky Annuals cover-dated 1981 (1 story, drawn by Barry Glennard), 1982 (1 story, Robert Nixon), 1983 (1 story, Jim Watson), 1984 (1 story, Barry Glennard) and 1985 (three 3-page instalments of a story drawn by Doug Jensen). In the same Annual we also witness Cheeky reading a Stage School tale, which sets our toothy pal cogitating on a possible career for himself in the footlights.

Our mini showbiz chums' tyrannical teacher (never named in the stories) was among the characters who met their future Whoopee colleagues as the merge with that title was announced in the final issue of the toothy funster's comic.

Art: Robert Nixon

The strip then became a permanent fixture in Whoopee until that title was itself cancelled and merged into Whizzer and Chips as of April 1985. This commendable 5-year run in Whoopee had seen the characters referred to in Cheeky Weekly as Olga and Shakespearian Sam rechristened Margot and Hammy respectively. The character who would be known as Marvo in Whoopee was referred to as Tony in Cheeky Weekly dated 13 October 1979., while Merla the Mind-Reader became Gypsy Rosie in Whoopee. Strongo and Jo-Jo the clown both underwent character redesigns following their move to Whoopee.

The school's headmaster, who appeared only once in Cheeky Weekly, became a semi-regular character during the strip's Whoopee run.

Stage School was among the 3 strips that had originated in Cheeky Weekly which made the transition into Whizzer and Chips when Whoopee folded. However, the feature's survival was as fleeting as many a showbiz career since it made just a single Whizzer and Chips appearance in the 20 April 1985 issue. UPDATE 11 August 2016 - Many thanks to Stephen Archer for pointing out that Stage School made a second Whizzer and Chips appearance in the issue date 13 July 1985.

A nice fun feature benefiting from Robert Nixon's lively artwork, Stage School was among Cheeky Weekly's highlights and its extended Whoopee run made it the second longest surviving strip to have emerged from the Cheeky stable.

Over the years I'd come to assume that this strip was inspired by the movie Fame, but it seems the film premiered some months after the strip made its debut.

Stage School in the Cheeky Weekly Index

Stage School - The Whoopee Years 

Feature	First Appearance	Final Appearance	Total Issues	Total Issues Missed In Run	Page History
Stage School	07-Jul-79	02-Feb-80	26	5	4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,14,15,16,17,19,20,21,24,25,28,29

Issues Missed In Run

25-Aug-79

08-Sep-79

15-Sep-79

29-Sep-79

20-Oct-79

The features – Speed Squad

Post updated 14 June 2016 - artwork previously assigned as being by Mike Lacey now attributed to Jimmy Hansen.

There was no indication at the conclusion of the 76^th Skateboard Squad episode, in Cheeky Weekly dated 12 May 1979, that it was to be the final outing for the trio under this title. Squad members Skipper, Skatie and Wipe-Out were absent from the following issue (Cheeky's attempts to discover what was transpiring were repelled), but they reappeared in the 26 May 1979 comic, the first of what were to be 32 appearances in their new guise of Speed Squad.

As the opening panel of the initial episode under the new title made clear, the terrific trio's mode of travel was no longer limited to the skateboard, although our heroes hadn't entirely abandoned their original conveyance of choice, as they used skateboards (on occasions motorised) regularly in the ensuing adventures. Despite these changes, the Squad continued to perform the righting-of-wrongs and general do-goodery that was evident in their earlier incarnation.

The first Speed Squad episode,
Cheeky Weekly 26 May 1979
Art: Jimmy Hansen

Cheeky's introduction to the first Speed Squad strip can be seen here.

The most exotic equipment at Speed Squad's disposal were the 'copter packs that featured in several of their escapades, although where they obtained such advanced (not to mention dangerous – ooh, I mentioned it) technology was never explained. It's unlikely that Skipper built them himself, as the flying machine he attempted to construct in the 26 January 1980 comic failed to leave the ground.

Whereas Skateboard Squad featured several guest appearances by various Cheeky's Week characters, only two of Cheeky's pals crossed over into Speed Squad. Constable Chuckle was on hand to take into custody the miscreants who had been apprehended by the Squad in the 26 May, 16 June, 18 August and 24 November 1979 issues, and jovial journalist Rex Press (who had made his debut in Cheeky Weekly dated 29 September 1979) featured prominently in the 15 December 1979 adventure, although curiously he wasn't named.

Speed Squad art:Jimmy Hansen
(Cheeky Chuckles filler art by Mike Lacey)

Readers had known Skipper and Skatie were brother and sister since the 03 June 1978 Skateboard Squad episode, and their dad was first seen in the Skateboard Squad 02 September 1978 adventure...

Skateboard Squad 02 September 1978
Jimmy Hansen

Presumably the woman who appeared in the 04 November 1978 Skateboard Squad was the team's mum (well, of the team's human members, anyway)...

Skateboard Squad 04 November 1978
Jimmy Hansen

Dad was seen again, seemingly having abandoned his wig and glasses, along with a rather different Mum, in Speed Squad dated 25 August 1979.

Art:Jimmy Hansen

A couple of artists deputised for Jimmy Hansen during Speed Squad's run - Paul Ailey did the honours in the 03 November 1979 issue, drawing a Mum modelled on Jimmy's original version...

Art: Paul Ailey

 ... and Colin Whittock drew the Squad's 10 November and 01 December 1979 adventures (the latter featuring a mum based on Jimmy Hansen's revised design).

 Colin Whittock

The introductory Speed Squad episode covered a page-and-a-half, and barring the Rex Press adventure above which was just over a half-page, all the rest were single-pagers.

Skipper, Skatie and Wipe-Out continued their occasional introductory appearances in the final panel of the Cheeky's Week page preceding their story, although their newly changeable mode of transport proved somewhat problematic for the artists drawing the intro panel - Frank McDiarmid drew the Squad's lower halves obscured by the bottom of the panel in the 23 June 1979 issue...

...a good try, but in the ensuing tale the Squad were travelling by go-cart.

The intrepid trio's next visit to Cheeky's Week occurred in the comic dated 22 December 1979, one of the issues that was constructed from elements prepared for the aborted Christmas 1978 comics. Since the Thursday page in question had been drawn months before the team evolved into Speed Squad, the terrific trio were depicted on their skateboards in the intro panel (although the wording of Cheeky's speech balloon was altered to refer to them by their new name). However, Speed Squad in that issue, in which our brisk buddies were variously travelling by bike, go-cart and skateboard, appeared after the Friday element of Cheeky's Week so given the 24 hour gap between appearances, the differing methods of travel weren't incongruous.

The final Cheeky's Week crossover for Speed Squad came a week later when, in another comic compiled from elements created over a year earlier, the team were seen again on their skateboards. Since a Speed Squad strip was absent from this issue no continuity error resulted.

Although Speed Squad continued until Cheeky Weekly was wound up, the intrepid trio weren't among the strips from the toothy funster's comic that made the transition into Whoopee! However, Speed Squad did make some further appearances;

In Cheeky Summer Special 1979, the publication of which coincided very closely with the debut of the team under their new name (the Special was first advertised in Cheeky Weekly dated 23 June that year), the Speed Squad adventure saw them on skateboards and I suspect the strip was actually produced as a Skateboard Squad story but the title was changed near to publication date to tie in with their relaunch in the weekly comic.

There were 2 Speed Squad strips in Cheeky Annual 1980 (on sale in autumn 1979), and a colour outing for the team in Cheeky Holiday Special 1980. 2 Speed Squad stories, plus a Speed Squad Grand Prix Game in the 1981 Cheeky Annual were followed by a 2-page adventure in Cheeky Summer Special 1981. Speed Squad had a single adventure in Cheeky Annual 1982, but they failed to appear in Cheeky Summer Special 1982 (the final Cheeky Special). The indefatigable trio were back in Cheeky Annual 1983 and their final annual outing was in Cheeky Annual 1984 and thus they were absent from the toothy funster's concluding yearly offering in 1985.

Speed Squad in the Cheeky Weekly Index

Feature	First Appearance	Final Appearance	Total Issues	Total Issues Missed In Run	Page History
Speed Squad	26-May-79	02-Feb-80	32	5	10,11,22,23,24,28

Issues Missed In Run

09-Jun-79

30-Jun-79

14-Jul-79

28-Jul-79

29-Dec-79

Feature	Artist	Number of Issues	First Appearance	Final Appearance
Speed Squad	Jimmy Hansen	29	26-May-1979	02-Feb-1980
Speed Squad	Paul Ailey	1	03-Nov-1979	03-Nov-1979
Speed Squad	Colin Whittock	2	10-Nov-1979	01-Dec-1979

The features - The Burpo Special

While the format of the Cheeky's Week elements of the toothy funster's own comic was clearly based on the Krazy strips 'Ello it's Cheeky and 'Ello I'm Cheeky, The Burpo Special was the only strip to appear under the same name in both Krazy and Cheeky Weekly.

In Krazy, The Burpo Special evolved from a feature called Cheeky's Pal, each episode of which focused on one of a rotating band of supporting characters from Krazy's Cheeky strips, with the toothy funster himself occasionally introducing the action. However, Baby Burpo introduced the Cheeky's Pal strip in Krazy's 17 December 1977 issue, saying “For this week's Burpo Special, me tell you all about Jogging Jeremy – Cheeky's pal from his own comic”. Despite Burpo's opening comment, the strip was titled Cheeky's Pal rather than The Burpo Special, and it was also the first time that Burpo had hosted such a page.

Krazy 17 December 1977
- the first reference to a Burpo Special
Art: Jim Watson

Krazy's Cheeky's Pal series continued intermittently, with occasional appearances by Burpo. The Cheeky's Pal in Krazy dated 18 March 1978 had a Burpo Special sub-heading, but the penultimate issue of Krazy, dated 08 April 1978 included a strip titled The Burpo Special, the subject of which was Bump-Bump Bernie in only his second Krazy appearance. This was the only Krazy strip to bear The Burpo Special as its main title.

Krazy 08 April 1978
- the first proper Burpo Special
Art: Jim Watson again

The Burpo Special then appeared to have perished along with Krazy, (although there was a page in the Cheeky Annual 1979, published in September 1978, that would seem to have been intended for Krazy but never included there, which the terrifying toddler introduced as a Burpo Special although its title was The Doors Are Open) until the feature was resurrected in the truncated Cheeky Weekly dated 09 December 1978. Burpo introduced the revived strip, saying “Me back with another series of Burpo Specials. Me going to interview famous people for you”. The subject of this initial outing of the Cheeky Weekly run of Burpo Specials was Lily Pop.

Cheeky Weekly's first Burpo Special
Love the Vicar praying for strength to
resist impure thoughts!
Art: Frank McDiarmid

All the subsequent Burpo Specials (the feature was absent for just 4 issues between 09 December 1978 and 30 June 1979) followed the same pattern - Krazy Town's teeny terror would interview one of the Cheeky cast, using a carrot instead of a microphone when the strip was drawn by Frank McDiarmid.

Burpo himself was the subject of the 16 June 1979 Burpo Special.

Art: Frank McDiarmid

The first 11 Burpo Specials were in black and white, but thereafter the strip moved to the back cover and consequently the remaining 12 episodes were in colour. The notorious nappy-wearer suffered a bout of Cheeky Weekly Inconsistent Hair Colour Syndrome when, in the 19 May 1979 strip, he was depicted with brown locks.

A brown-haired Burpo
Art: Frank McDiarmid

A Burpo Special in all but title kicked off the run of Cheeky Weekly Star Guest appearances in Whoopee! dated 07 April 1979.

As mentioned above, the final Burpo Special appeared in Cheeky Weekly dated 30 June 1979, and the following week the comic was revamped with a 'new look'.

It's generally accepted that after Krazy folded, its surviving strips merged with Whizzer and Chips, but as we have seen, The Burpo Special actually transferred posthumously from Krazy to Cheeky Weekly.

The strip's title was based on that of the 70s TV series The Burke Special.

The Burpo Special in the Cheeky Weekly Index

Feature	First Appearance	Final Appearance	Total Issues	Total Issues Missed In Run	Page History
The Burpo Special	09-Dec-78	30-Jun-79	23	4	11,21,25,29,32

Issues Missed In Run

24-Feb-79

24-Mar-79

31-Mar-79

02-Jun-79

Feature	Artist	Date
The Burpo Special Lily Pop	Frank McDiarmid	09-Dec-1978
The Burpo Special Yikky-Boo	Frank McDiarmid	06-Jan-1979
The Burpo Special Dr Braincell	Frank McDiarmid	13-Jan-1979
The Burpo Special Cheeky's Dad	Frank McDiarmid	20-Jan-1979
The Burpo Special Uncle Hamish	Mike Lacey	27-Jan-1979
The Burpo Special Bump-Bump Bernie	Mike Lacey	03-Feb-1979
The Burpo Special Auntie Daisy	Frank McDiarmid	10-Feb-1979
The Burpo Special Gloomy Glad	Frank McDiarmid	17-Feb-1979
The Burpo Special Posh Claude	Frank McDiarmid	03-Mar-1979
The Burpo Special Constable Chuckle	Barrie Appleby	10-Mar-1979
The Burpo Special Square Eyes	Frank McDiarmid	17-Mar-1979
The Burpo Special Spiv	Frank McDiarmid	07-Apr-1979
The Burpo Special Farmer Giles	Frank McDiarmid	14-Apr-1979
The Burpo Special Ursula	Frank McDiarmid	21-Apr-1979
The Burpo Special Jogging Jeremy	Mike Lacey	28-Apr-1979
The Burpo Special Teacher	Mike Lacey	05-May-1979
The Burpo Special Mechanic	Mike Lacey	12-May-1979
The Burpo Special Doodle Doug	Frank McDiarmid	19-May-1979
The Burpo Special Manhole Man	Frank McDiarmid	26-May-1979
The Burpo Special Hypno-Tessa	Mike Lacey	09-Jun-1979
The Burpo Special Baby Burpo	Frank McDiarmid	16-Jun-1979
The Burpo Special Crystal Belle	Frank McDiarmid	23-Jun-1979
The Burpo Special Sherlock	Mike Lacey	30-Jun-1979

The features – Menace of the Alpha Man

Cheeky Weekly 24 February 1979

Keeping up Cheeky Weekly's adventure quotient (alongside Mystery Boy) in the 18 issues spanning cover dates 03 March to 30 June 1979 was Menace of the Alpha Man, reprinted from its original run in Shiver and Shake in 1974. The initial outing of this story has been covered in typically comprehensive style over at the Kazoop blog, so I won't attempt to summarise the plot, but will instead concentrate on other aspects of the strip following its exhumation from IPC's vaults some 5 years after its original appearance.

Menace of the Alpha Man was chronologically the eleventh straight reprint feature to appear in Cheeky Weekly (not including the strips in the Old Comic series), and the third sourced from the pages of Shiver and Shake. Those earlier strips resurrected from S&S, The Terrible Trail toTaggart's Treasure and Eagle Eye,  were shorn of their original competition elements when occupying the pages of Cheeky Weekly, but Alpha Man's reprint run did in fact conclude with a cash-prize competition in the manner of its original appearance. At the conclusion of his adventure in Cheeky Weekly the week before Alpha Man's recycled tale began, Eagle Eye told readers "Next week, look out for a new serial starring 'The Alpha Man'! You could win some cash!"

All the Cheeky Weekly episodes of Alpha Man
were read on Friday by Cheeky who would sneak a read
of Teachers' Weekly
Art: Frank McDiarmid

Recycling a comic competition could give an unfair advantage to any Cheeky Weekly readers with access to a Shiver and Shake collection (maybe lovingly hoarded by an older sibling), so the canny editor chose to make some alterations to the suspect's names in the Alpha Man strip on its second run. Compare the list of suspects below with their Shiver and Shake counterparts over at Kazoop.

Cheeky Weekly 23 June 1979

However, the basic idea of the story - that the initial letters of the words describing each of the methods used by the Alpha Man to pursue his nefarious ends could be rearranged to spell out his real name - was unchanged. Thus, following some judicious juggling of letters by staff in the Cheeky Weekly office, in his 1979 run the Alpha Man was revealed to be not Bert Gash as he was in 1974, but Seth Brag. Despite this change, anyone with access to Shiver and Shake would have found it easy to substitute the new name for the original since the characters' faces were not altered.

Whereas in 1974 there were 50 £1 prizes on offer (although 51 winners were listed as can be seen over at Kazoop – Andrew and Alison Little presumably shared their prize), in 1979 the same number of prizes were available but had doubled in value to £2.

Cheeky Weekly 18 August 1979
There was no explanation of the solution as there had been
when the list of Shiver and Shake winners were printed

Alpha Man's original run appeared in Shiver and Shake from 09 March 1974 and its outing in Cheeky Weekly commenced almost exactly 5 years later on 03 March 1979. Yet, despite both runs occupying 18 issues, the final Cheeky Weekly installment appeared in the comic dated 30 June 1979, whereas the Shiver and Shake story ended in the 03 August 1974 issue. The later conclusion of its first run is due to a printers' strike which halted publication of Shiver and Shake for the whole of July 1974.

 Menace of the Alpha Man in the Cheeky Weekly Index

Feature	First Appearance	Final Appearance	Total Issues	Total Issues Missed In Run	Page History
Menace of the Alpha Man	03-Mar-79	30-Jun-79	18	0	26,27