Krazy Kristmas Kountdown part 2

In the first part of our quick flick through the pages of Krazy dated 18 December 1976 in search of Cheeky's contributions, we didn't encounter any festive material. However, delving deeper into the comic the impending celebrations become more apparent, as on page 19 the forthcoming Krazy Christmas Number is given a plug ('number' being a rather archaic, even for the 1970s, comics way of referring to what today we would call an 'issue').

There is no Krazy Gang strip in this number issue, the gang probably having been bumped due to the presence of part 3 of the Krazy 1977 Diary. However fans of Cheeky's comic colleagues needn't be too upset as they do appear in the toothy funster's story this week (one of the aspects of Krazy that made it such a great comic was the regular crossing of characters from one feature to another - Cheeky had already done so in this issue as we saw in the previous post). Things start to get really Christmassy as the toothy funster is ejected onto the snowy streets of Krazy Town, and there's further crossing-over of characters as Cheeky meets Stumbly Fumbly, son of Detective Fumbly, whose Casebook was the subject of a weekly text feature in Krazy. Accident-prone Stumbly was a variation on Bump-Bump Bernie, who by this time had appeared once, in Krazy dated 31 October 1976.

Art: Frank McDiarmid
The bottom left panel is the payoff to the
gag set up on the page shown above.
Note background pee gag

Snail wasn't appearing every week yet - this is
his third appearance.
Note possible background pee gag in
panel 7 (in what manner was Willie
Cook's name inscribed in the snow?)
Note foreground pee gag

Frank renders a rather muscular Sporty

The Gang, including Cheeky who is wearing the same rather fetching red and white sweater he modelled on the cover, are also featured in the Krazy News Pound reader participation feature. Printing the gags in coloured ink is possibly not the best choice for legibility.

That concludes Cheeky's contributions to this issue. Hap-pee Christmas pals!

Krazy Kristmas Kountdown part 1

This time last year I examined Cheeky's contributions to Krazy's first Christmas edition, appropriately dated 25 December 1976. This time I'm looking back a week earlier to see what our toothy pal was up to as the inhabitants of Krazy Town geared up for the impending festivities.

Art: Mike Lacey

Cheeky gets to appear on the cover, sporting a snazzy red and white jumper instead of his usual red and black ensemble, tasked with publicising the Custard Pie Corner reader participation feature. Swiftly turning the pages in order to avoid being splatted by the incoming sloppy confection, we find the grinning gagster making an uncharacteristically joke-free guest appearance in the 12½ p Buytonic Boy adventure. As the story starts, the titular Steve Ford is happily collecting Christmas trees for the members of the Krazy Gang, yet soon the energy-boosting effect of the tonic he purchased in the first episode of this series (as depicted in the title panel for the benefit of latecomers to the strip who may be puzzling over the 'buytonic' reference) seems to be wearing off...

Art: Robert Nixon

Although he appears to have made a full recovery, the reason for Steve's sudden lassitude is not addressed.

In the aforementioned Custard Pie Corner, there are a couple of political pastings as Home Secretary Merlyn Rees and former Prime Minister Harold Wilson both cop a custardy facefull, along with kangaroo impersonator (apparently) and crooner Max Bygraves.

I'll be further delving into Cheeky's 1976 pre-Christmas capers soon.

Arthur Martin's Cheeky

From Krazy dated 22 January 1977 - this Micky Mimic story, including a cameo by the toothy funster, is drawn by Arthur Martin.

It would have been nice to see Teacher in this strip, but on at least one day that week he was off sick so wasn't available (he'd probably read the script for the above story and, realising that it culminated in the schoolmaster antagonist being sacked, threw a deft sickie).

Teacher did return to work, just in time to set up a Walter Wurx gag, later in that same comic...

Krazy 22 January 1977
Art: Frank McDiarmid

Immediately following the Micky Mimic story above, Cheeky appears again in the Krazy News-Pound half-pager, where he's drawn by Ian Knox, who was the regular artist on The Krazy Gang (which numbered Cheeky among its members) at this point.

Jubilee Japes

Peter Gray has posted some lovely Cheeky work from the Silver Jubilee edition of Krazy (in the days when Cheeky still had a 'K' on his jumper - he changed his pullover to one bearing a 'C' as of Krazy dated 20 August 1977 in his own strip, although it was a week later before the toothy funster's C jumper appeared on the Krazy Gang pages).

Cheeky history turned upside down

I was recently contacted via email by the seller of this piece on ebay. He had kindly thought of me when putting the item, which is very significant in the history of the toothy funster as Ian Knox's artwork initiated the whole Cheeky phenomenon, on sale. However as noted in my previous post I don't check my Cheeky emails every day, so I didn't become aware of this auction until it had closed. Had I known in advance, I would have mentioned it on the blog. I don't collect original art so wouldn't have entered the bidding myself.

I have also received an email from the proud new owner of this historic work, who prefers to remain anonymous but is understandably chuffed to have secured it. He writes "I thought you and your readers might be interested to know that a small piece of original artwork featuring the first appearance of Cheeky in Krazy Comic issue 1 still exists. This recently came up for auction on eBay and I was fortunate enough to be the highest bidder so the artwork will be making its way down under for the first time. Of course the whole page will be upside down when it arrives but I'll still be able to read the small caption at the bottom :) I'll dutifully preserve this remnant from a wonderful time in English comics".

Congratulations to our Antipodean pal - it's nice to know this important artwork is going to a good home where it will be appreciated.

Profile - The Knock-Knock Door

The self-propelled, talking Knock-Knock Door was certainly the most surreal of Cheeky's pals and definitely one of the most memorable.

By the time the door made its Cheeky Weekly debut in the 2nd issue of the toothy funster's comic (dated 29 October 1977), the entertaining entryway was already a veteran of Krazy comic, having to that date appeared in 47 editions of the title that spawned the Cheeky phenomenon.

Cheeky shares his inaugural joke with
the Knock-Knock Door in the debut
'Ello, It's Cheeky strip in the first issue of
Krazy
Art: Frank McDiarmid

In its first two Krazy appearances, Knock-Knock Door was situated as one would expect a door to be - within a wall - and the words 'The Door' were painted on the brickwork above it, but as of Krazy dated 30 October 1976 the door was seen propelling itself around Krazy Town on a pair of castors (as Peter Gray points out in his comment on this post, it appears Big Strong Sam\Steve was responsible for liberating the door from its brick surround), initially with 'The Door' painted on the door itself. A notice reading 'Please knock knock' was affixed to the door until Krazy's 27 November 1976 issue, and the words 'The Door' ceased to appear as of the 18 December 1976 comic. However both signs returned for a single time in Krazy's 12 February 1977 edition, and on two later occasions when Krazy covermeister Mike Lacey drew the door as the 'Ello, It's Cheeky strip made it onto the front page, Mike included the words 'The Door'.

Knock-Knock Door's origin was revealed in the Cheeky's Pal strip in Krazy's 30 July 1977 issue.

Art: Frank McDiarmid

Knock-Knock Door was honoured with a second Cheeky's Pal appearance in Krazy dated 22 October 1977 (the same week in which Cheeky Weekly made its debut), but on that occasion the page consisted of a selection of knock-knock gags.

Here's the first Cheeky Weekly appearance of Knock-Knock Door, in the second issue...

Art: Frank McDiarmid

The Cheeky's Week scriptwriter clearly wasn't short of knock-knock jokes as the door appeared in 110 issues of the toothy funster's comic (although it has to be admitted that gags with the punchline 'Doorchester' were used on several occasions). Not only were there plenty of knock-knock jokes, but Cheeky would usually deliver a door-based pun when the castor-propelled portal rolled into view.

In Cheeky Weekly dated 17 December 1977, Knock-Knock Door was somewhat incongruously present during the cinema interval, and in that year's Christmas issue Cheeky's wooden pal appeared with a shiny new nameplate bearing the words 'Knock-Knock Door', but the plate was never seen again.

A copy of the Mystery Comic was lodged in the door's letterbox on Friday in the 21 January 1978 edition, and the knock-knock gag in the 29 April 1978 issue...

Knock-Knock!

Who's there?

Hey, man!

Hey, man who?

Hey, man Andrews!

...was contributed by reader Michael (Banjo) Bange of Dundee, whose punchline was a reference to TV presenter Eamonn Andrews, best known at the time for his work on long-running biographically-based show This Is Your Life.

In the comic dated 05 August 1978 Teacher, who was suffering from some sort of mania for the duration of that edition, delivered a knock-knock gag much to Cheeky's annoyance, although order was restored when the toothy funster was able to complete a joke with the door the following day.

An aged Cheeky encountered a somewhat dilapidated door in 19 August 1978's 60-years-into-the-future issue, wherein our grinning chum and his portal pal were shown to be suffering similar symptoms of the advancing years.

Art: Frank McDiarmid

The knock-knock joke in Cheeky Weekly dated 02 September 1978 introduced Cheeky's pal Ding-Dong Debbie, and in the 09 September 1978 Smurf issue the door had a keyhole convocation with the small cerulean songsters. The strip makes reference to a line in The Smurf Song which rather puzzled me at the time because I misheard 'small keyhole' as 'smoky hole'.

Art: Frank McDiarmid

The door was first elevated to cover co-star status on the front of the comic dated 14 October 1978, and returned to page one in the 18 November 1978, 27 January 1979 and 12 May 1979 issues.

Knock-Knock Door was the source of The Mystery Comic for a second time in Cheeky Weekly dated 24 February 1979, and in the 31 March 1979 'Jersey' issue Knock-Knock Door was seen sporting a facsimile of the toothy funster's jumper.

In the 08 September 1979 comic Six-Gun Sam delivered the knock-knock joke and in the following week's comic Cheeky allowed Granny Gumdrop, Yikky-Boo, Dan-Dan the Lavender Man and Teacher to do gags with the door. In the Christmas 1979 issue it was Cheeky's Dad's turn to do the knock-knock joke, and in the following week's issue Knock-Knock Door was seen among the guests at Cheeky's new year party.

Cheeky's Cut-Out Comedy Catalogue of Knock-Knock Door Jokes appeared in the 17 November 1979 edition.

The final Cheeky Weekly appearance of Knock-Knock Door
in the last issue of the toothy funster's title, 02 February 1980
Art: Frank McDiarmid

Character	Total Issues	First Appearance	Final Appearance
Knock-Knock Door	110	29-Oct-1977	02-Feb-1980

Missing From Issues

22-Oct-1977

12-Nov-1977

10-Dec-1977

01-Jul-1978

02-Dec-1978

03-Mar-1979

25-Aug-1979

Count of elements by artist

Character	Artist	Total Elements
Knock-Knock Door	Frank McDiarmid	61
Knock-Knock Door	Frank McDiarmid pencils	21
Knock-Knock Door	Mike Lacey	18
Knock-Knock Door	Barrie Appleby	7
Knock-Knock Door	Dick Millington	5
Knock-Knock Door	Unknown Cheeky Artist 1	3
Knock-Knock Door	Jim Watson	1
Knock-Knock Door	Not known	1

Profile - Libby

The first of Cheeky's painful encounters with the business end of Libby's protest placard occurred on Friday in the third issue of Cheeky Weekly. After accusing the toothy funster of being a male chauvinist piglet due to his treatment of Nosy Nora, Libby (whose attitude, name and placard were of course humorous references to the Women's Liberation Movement) literally struck a blow for downtrodden females that left our grinning pal in need of medical attention.

Libby's first cranium-crushing appearance
Cheeky Weekly 05 November 1977
Art: Frank McDiarmid

This set the trend for the majority of Libby's 27 Cheeky Weekly appearances, as she responded violently to what she considered to be Cheeky's slights against female members of the supporting cast.

Libby had actually made her comic debut the week before in the 29 October 1977 issue of Krazy.

Page from the 'Ello, It's Cheeky strip,
Krazy 29 October 1977
Art: Jim Watson
Unfortunately Cheeky's final witticism is cut off at the
bottom of the page. I have seen two copies of this
Krazy issue and both have suffered from
the same printing error.

In a retaliatory move, our grinning pal deviously engineered a titanic punch-up between Libby and Louise in the 03 December 1977 issue.

Art: Frank McDiarmid pencils

On a few occasions Libby leapt to the defence of Ursula, only to realise that the lumbering lolly lady was more than capable of dealing with any insults.

Art: Unknown Cheeky Artist 1

The first of Libby's front page appearances was on the cover of the 17 December 1977 issue, where the feisty feminist was seen threatening Cheeky, and in the same comic she appeared throughout the Friday page.

In the 31 December 1977 edition, Libby was one of the guests at the Vicar's Boxing Day party but thankfully she appeared to have left her placard at home. However, Libby fetched Cheeky a nasty knock on the noggin the following day, and was back again on New Year's Eve, albeit only as a frightening figment of the toothy funster's imagination as he pondered who would be the first across the threshold of the Cheeky household at midnight. This issue featured the highest number of elements in which Libby appeared in a single edition of the comic. Unlike some of the Cheeky's Week cast, Libby never appeared throughout a whole week in a single issue (much to Cheeky's relief, no doubt).

   

I don't normally adjust the quality of my scans but the amount of ink soaking
through from the other side of this page necessitated an attempt at corrective action.
Art: Jim Watson

A Cheeky's Pal strip (the forerunner of Cheeky Weekly's Burpo Special) was devoted to Libby in Krazy dated 28 January 1978.

Krazy 28 January 1978
Art: Jim Watson

Libby suffered another unfortunate interval event in the 03 June 1978 issue.

Art: Jim Watson

Libby's third and final Krazy appearance came in that comic's final issue dated 15 April 1978 as the toothy funster and his pals encouraged readers to follow them to Cheeky Weekly.

Back in Cheeky Weekly, the pugnacious protester was seen in the 24 June 1978 Skateboard Squad episode.

Libby made her second and final front page appearance, as a member of the Joke-Box Jury panel, on the cover of the 17 February 1979 edition and on the J-B J page, three jokes elicited a 'snigger' from the placard-wielding wildcat.

The cantankerous campaigner appeared in only 4 issues in 1979; 13 January (with a note from Frank McDiarmid reading “Remember Libby, kids?” as her previous appearance had been in the 07 October 1978 comic), 17 February (the aforementioned Joke-Box Jury), 09 June and the Christmas issue dated 29 December, which was the final time she featured in the comic. However, I suspect that the Cheeky's Week pages that appeared in the 29 December 1979 issue were drawn for the Christmas 1978 edition, which failed to appear due to an industrial dispute. If I'm right, this would mean that Libby's 09 June 1979 outing was the last to be written and drawn. Maybe Hypno-Tessa's influence turned out to be permanent.

Cheeky Weekly 09 June 1979 - Libby's real final appearance?
Art: Frank McDiarmid pencils

Character	Total Issues	First Appearance	Final Appearance
Libby	27	05-Nov-1977	29-Dec-1979

Count of elements by artist

Character	Artist	Total Elements
Libby	Frank McDiarmid pencils	12
Libby	Frank McDiarmid	9
Libby	Unknown Cheeky Artist 1	4
Libby	Barrie Appleby	3
Libby	Jim Watson	2
Libby	Mike Lacey	1
Libby	Dick Millington	1

The Rejects - Lily Pop's Little Sister

A recent request to show this particular strip has prompted me to kick off a new series of posts that I've been planning for a while - The Rejects.

As we have seen, a number of the cast of the Cheeky's Week strips in Cheeky Weekly originated in the 'Ello, it's Cheeky/'Ello, I'm Cheeky pages in Krazy. However, some characters who appeared in those same Krazy pages failed to make the transition to Cheeky's own comic. This new series will focus on the toothy funster's Krazy pals who didn't make it to Cheeky Weekly.

This Cheekys' Pal page from Krazy dated 25 February 1978 introduced readers to luscious Lily Pop's little sister. Maybe the relationship established here between Baby Burpo and young Miss Pop was deemed to deviate too radically from the terrible tyke's tough toddler image, but for whatever reason Lily's sister was never seen again either in Krazy or Cheeky Weekly.

Burpo introduced Lily again in the first episode of Cheeky Weekly's run of Burpo Specials almost 10 months after the above strip was published.

Krazy Covers

Peter Gray has posted a whole load of Krazy covers (possibly the covers of the whole run, I didn't count), many of which feature a certain toothy funster of our acquaintance.

The Ads - Krazy

In this new series of posts I'll be looking at some of the advertisements that appeared in Cheeky Weekly. I'm sure that some readers begrudged the ads appearing in their favourite comic, thinking that a page promoting a new chocolate bar or ice lolly was taking up valuable space that could otherwise be filled with cartoon fun or thrills. However, the presence of advertising was of course crucial to the survival of the comic, or at least to maintaining an affordable cover price.

Cheeky Weekly's publisher IPC featured advertising across all its late 70s comics, although rival publisher DC Thomson, producer of iconic British titles The Beano and The Dandy among others, did not feature paid-for ads at the time. Those readers who resented the intrusion of ads into their comic reading no doubt enjoyed Thomson's ad-free approach, but for me it gave the impression that DCT existed in a strange, Scottish limbo with little relevance to the modern world, and contributed to my view that their titles were all rather old-fashioned when compared to IPC's output.

From today's perspective, Cheeky Weekly's advertising content gives us an insight into the leisure-time pursuits of late 70s children, or at least the products that the advertisers hoped would catch the imagination of kids of the day.

As well as paid-for ads, Cheeky Weekly also heavily featured IPC's in-house ads for Annuals, Summer Specials, (relating to Cheeky Weekly as well as other titles from IPC's line) and new comic launches.

In this first look at the ads, I'm focusing on the IPC ads relating to Krazy, the comic that spawned Cheeky Weekly, and which came to an end with issue dated 15 April 1978.

Our first Cheeky Weekly encounter with a Krazy-related ad was in fact promoting the 22 April 1978 issue of IPC's long-running title Whizzer and Chips. The issue being plugged was the first merged issue with Krazy, but surprisingly the ad doesn't lead with the news of the two comics joining forces, but focuses on the cut-out Space Spectacular, although Freaky from Krazy's Krazy Gang strip is the featured character. As there were no earlier ads for Krazy in the toothy funster's coimic, it may be the case that since Cheeky Weekly's debut issue on 22 October 1977, Krazy was considered a lost cause, and not worth advertising.

However, despite Krazy's demise, the title did get advertised again a number of times, the first occasion being on 06 May 1978, when an ad for that year's Krazy Holiday Special appeared. With a lead time of several months, this special was possibly instigated before the decision to close the comic was taken, but holiday special versions of IPC's comics often continued years after the weekly title had been consigned to comics history, as was the case with Krazy.

In fact another Krazy Special followed swiftly behind the first Holiday Special and, under the headline 'A Comic Comeback!', The Best Of Krazy was advertised in the 24 June and 01 July 1978 issues of Cheeky Weekly. A 'Best Of' compilation from a defunct comic was a rare event at this time (it's billed on the cover as an 'extra-special'), and it seems from the introductory message from the editor that it was a try-out for a larger format version of Krazy, but the fact that it was mainly reprint presumably limited sales and a revitalised Krazy never appeared, although the holiday specials and annuals continued.

The 1979 Krazy Annual was advertised in Cheeky Weekly issues dated 07 October and 25 November 1978. Annuals were of course dated one year ahead, so that they had a shelf-life beyond the end of the year in which they were published, although newsagents usually sold any annuals still in stock after new year's day at half price.

The 1979 Krazy Holiday Special featured in ads in Cheeky Weekly dated 05, 12, and 19 May 1979.

The 20 October and 24 November 1979 issues of Cheeky Weekly carried two different ads for the 1980 Krazy Annual. These were the last Krazy ads to appear in Cheeky Weekly, which itself ceased publication in February 1980.

Adverts Subject Krazy

Issue Date	Page	Page Type	Advertiser	Subject
22-Apr-1978	24	Normal	IPC	Whizzer and Chips merge with Krazy
06-May-1978	24	Normal	IPC	Krazy Holiday Special
24-Jun-1978	31	Normal	IPC	The Best of Krazy
01-Jul-1978	18	Normal	IPC	The Best of Krazy
07-Oct-1978	23	Normal	IPC	Krazy Annual
25-Nov-1978	6	Normal	IPC	Krazy Annual
05-May-1979	29	Normal	IPC	Krazy Holiday Special
12-May-1979	8	Normal	IPC	Krazy Holiday Special
19-May-1979	24	Normal	IPC	Krazy Holiday Special
20-Oct-1979	15	Normal	IPC	Krazy Annual
24-Nov-1979	27	Normal	IPC	Krazy Annual

Goodbye Krazy

In the same week that Cheeky Weekly number 26 hit the newsagents, readers of Krazy comic, in which the Cheeky character had originated, learned that the current issue was to be the last, and as from next week Krazy would merge into one of IPC's long-running titles, Whizzer and Chips.  Merges were the customary fate of comics whose sales figures had fallen below viable levels.  By merging the most popular strips from the failed title with an existing, more successful comic, the publishers hoped to deliver a circulation boost to the established title, in the form of the erstwhile readers of the defunct comic.

Krazy, which launched on 16 October 1976, almost exactly a year before Cheeky Weekly appeared, was a bold attempt to try something new; a melding of the traditional British humour comic with a less rigid, Mad Magazine-influenced style.  In Krazy, one-off humorous features appeared alongside the standard weekly strips, so that readers were never entirely sure what each issue would contain.  Some found this approach refreshing, but maybe it was too unsettling for those who preferred a comic consisting of the same strips every week.

Launching spin-off title Cheeky Weekly may in fact have hastened Krazy's demise.  Not all comic readers had access to unlimited budgets, and a significant number of those who had up until then read Krazy may have opted to drop Cheeky's progenitor title in order to fund their purchase of Cheeky Weekly.

Ironically, Cheeky made a reference to Krazy comic on the Tuesday page of Cheeky Weekly issue 26, which shared the same cover date as the final Krazy.  Krazy's precarious state would have been obvious to readers of Cheeky Weekly, as in the issues dated 14 January 1978 and 25 March 1978 the slogan 'Save a comic - buy Krazy' had been seen in the Cheeky's Week strips.  Presumably the decision to bring Krazy to an end had already been made by that stage.  The demise of  their comic would not have been a surprise to Krazy readers, either, as the cover of Krazy's 11 March 1978 issue, had read 'Save this comic, buy it'.

Cheeky had featured in 2 regular strips in Krazy; his own 'Ello, It's Cheeky feature, and The Krazy Gang where he appeared as a member of the titular group.  The Krazy Gang (with Cheeky) survived the merge and continued to appear in Whizzer and Chips.  'Ello, It's Cheeky did not continue after the merge, except in the sense that its format continued in the Cheeky's Week strips in Cheeky Weekly.  An intermittent Krazy series that began under the title Cheeky's Pal eventually evolved into The Burpo Special, a feature that was resurrected in the pages of Cheeky Weekly some 8 months after Krazy's cancellation.

In Krazy's final 'Ello, It's Cheeky strip, the toothy funster introduced his pals from Cheeky Weekly and invited readers to join him in his own comic, thereby risking a split in readership as some decided to move to Cheeky Weekly, while others opted to follow their Krazy pals into Whizzer and Chips.

In addition to the work he did in Cheeky Weekly, the prolific Frank McDiarmid had produced a total of 44 Cheeky-related pages in Krazy since Cheeky Weekly's launch, including the final 'Ello, It's Cheeky strip.  As with his Cheeky's Week work in Cheeky Weekly, Frank's terrific workload was eased by other artists on the Cheeky-related strips in Krazy.  The other artists' Cheeky output in Krazy since Cheeky Weekly started breaks down as follows; Barrie Appleby 7 pages, Dick Millington 18, Jim Petrie 4, Jim Watson 25, and there is one artist whose name I don't know, who drew the Bird Spotting page (a Cheeky-related feature) in Krazy dated 25 February 1978.

Bruce looks at Cheeky's Pals from Krazy

Bruce has posted a couple of the Cheeky's Pals pages from Krazy comic here.

Cheeky - the Krazy years

Cheeky Weekly was a little different to the traditional British humour/adventure comic because it was largely based around a single character, Cheeky, who we followed through a week of adventures each issue. There were other strips in the comic, but it's mainly remembered for Frank McDiarmid's freewheeling depiction of Cheeky and his pals, with plenty of comic asides, notes to the readers (including references to himself as the artist), and inventive page construction with panels leaning at giddy angles.

Maybe it was never intended that Frank would be the sole provider of art on the Cheeky pages. In fact, given the high number of pages featuring Cheeky each issue, it would seem unreasonable for the editors to expect one artist to generate all the Cheeky content every week. However, the general opinion seems to be that Cheeky was Frank's baby, and Frank was the only artist to sign the Cheeky features. For me, Frank certainly is the definitive artist for the nutty world of Cheeky and his friends.

Cheeky first appeared in another IPC comic, Krazy, where, on page 3 of the launch issue of that title dated 16 October 1976, Cheeky was drawn by Ian Knox. Gangs of various descriptions were a recurring theme in British comics, and Cheeky was depicted on this page as a member of Krazy's own gang, The Krazy Gang. The human members of said group of characters all bore a 'K' on their various upper garments.

However, on page 20 of the same issue, Cheeky appeared in his own strip, 'Ello, It's Cheeky (later retitled 'Ello, I'm Cheeky), drawn by Frank McDiarmid. The style of that strip was slightly more restrained than it would later appear, but the basic elements of Frank's Cheeky had already been established.

This is that first appearance of Frank's Cheeky...



















...note how the toothy funster bears the K jumper even on his own pages.

We must assume that over the weeks, the feedback from Krazy readers was such that the publishers felt Cheeky could support his own comic.  The first hint that Cheeky was emerging as a star in his own right came when the K was dropped from the front of his jersey and replaced with a C in his own strip as from Krazy dated 20 August 1977 (and in The Krazy Gang from the following week).  This may also indicate that plans for his own title were afoot from this point.