Cheeky Weekly's lost 23 December 1978 issue - Reconstructed! (part 4)

Element	Eventually published in	Published as	Notes
Wednesday	Cheeky Weekly 22 December 1979	Wednesday	Another cut-and-pasted head on new body replaces the title panel. Christmas card storyline continues. Final panel is clearly an intro to The Mystery Comic, but that came to an end in the 30 June 1979 issue, so the text has been changed to make it a Christmas card reference. Clever! In the 22 December 1979 issue, Mustapha Million followed Wednesday. Foot of page resized.

Art: Frank McDiarmid

Element	Eventually published in	Published as	Notes
Tub	Cheeky Annual 1980, page 57	Tub	This was the first of 2 Tub strips in the 1980 Cheeky Annual (the other, more Christmassy tale can be seen here). Both were sourced from material prepared for the missing December 1978 issues. I would guess that this strip was drawn for the abandoned 23 December 1978 pre-Christmas issue, as it has an icy/snowy setting. Note how the Mystery Comic's sci-fi cover background has been cut down to allow the Tub strip to be blown up to fill the width of the annual page - now why didn't they do the same for Tub's episode on page 120 of the annual, seen in the link above, which is left floundering at the centre? Thanks to the scanner of this annual page.

UPDATE 26 November 2012:

Element	Eventually published in	Published as	Notes
Disaster Des	Cheeky Weekly 20 January 1979	Disaster Des	This page, one of the two occasions on which Disaster Des occupied the Mystery Comic's cover, appears to include a strip from which Christmas references have been removed (as was the case with Elephant On The Run and Skateboard Squad in the 17 February 1979 Cheeky Weekly, and Calculator Kid in the same 20 January 1979 issue as this Des story). I suspect that Des's speech balloon in panel 2 on the second row originally read "I thought we were going to be home by Christmas, Cap'n!", and that in the following panel he originally said "It's not going to be much of a Christmas with only us two on board". In the final panel, it looks as though the Captain's balloon has been altered, probably the words "some fun" replaced "a party". I'd guess Des's closing balloon originally read "It isn't everyone who gets his own private Christmas circus!" I have assumed that this strip was originally intended for Cheeky Weekly's 23 December 1978 issue, but it's possible that the Disaster Des strip that was eventually printed in the 1980 Cheeky Annual (as seen in this post) was the one slated for the pre-Christmas issue, and this episode was intended for the Christmas issue.

Art: Mike Lacey

Cheeky Weekly's lost 23 December 1978 issue - Reconstructed! Part 5

The features - Tub

From our health-conscious, early 21st century viewpoint, the depiction of overweight characters as figures of fun will be seen by many as highly inappropriate. There were no such concerns in the comics of the 1970s; IPC's reluctant calorie counters The Slimms had been featuring in their titles since the early 70s. The Cheeky Weekly editor evidently felt there was scope for another corpulent comic character, so enter our chubby chum Tub in Cheeky Weekly's revamp issue dated 30 September 1978.

Tub's first, front garden-wrecking appearance
was on the first Mystery Comic cover
to be printed in the toothy funster's comic.

Tub's immense weight was usually the focus of his stories - sometimes it proved a hindrance to him (or quite often, his father) but on occasion it could bring benefits. Tub's dad and unnamed dog were the strip's co-stars. Dad would often attempt to enlist his overweight offspring in various weight-reducing schemes but to no avail. Our podgy pal was usually depicted wearing shorts, and a t-shirt with the number 1 printed on it.

The grand tradition of Cheeky Weekly plots featuring a villain nabbing the takings (cf Skateboard Squad (twice) and 6 Million Dollar Gran) extended to the rotund rascal. In his 25 November 1978 escapade, Tub inadvertently foiled a miscreant's attempt to make off with the fares from the bus company's office. The corpulent cove became wedged in the door frame, thus barring the pilferer's escape route. The large-bellied layabout also foiled an attempt at shoplifting after sitting on and squashing the thief's getaway motorbike in the 16 June 1979 comic, and thwarted a football trophy theft in the comic dated 19 January 1980.

Tub found a copy of Cheeky Weekly on his lawn in the issue dated 05 May 1979, meaning that the Mystery Comic and Cheeky Weekly occupied two overlapping, nested realities, with each comic existing in the other's universe.

Fellow Mystery Comic star Disaster Des made a cameo appearance in the final panel of Tub's tale dated 19 May 1979.

The concept of the Mystery Comic came to an end in Cheeky Weekly dated 30 June 1979. All the characters who featured in the perplexing publication continued to appear in the toothy funster's comic, but were no longer grouped together in the centre pages. Tub clocked up 34 appearances in the 37-issue run of The Mystery Comic, being bumped from the 13 and 20 January 1979 issues by the snap game in the centre pages, and from the 12 May 1979 comic when a Star Guest feature intruded upon the Mystery Comic. All of Tub's Mystery Comic appearances were on that comic's front cover.

In the post-Mystery-Comic era, Tub appeared in a further 26 issues. The first 14 Tub strips to appear in the immediate post-MC period were half-pagers. As of 17 November 1979, Tub gained truly full-page status for the first time - his Mystery Comic cover appearances had included the comic's title, as well as various amounts of artwork surrounding his strip, as in the example above. From the same date a rather unappealing new title panel was introduced in which the title character's name was spelled out in a conglomeration of sundry foodstuffs and a rather guilty-looking Tub was seen surrounded by the remnants of a furtive feast.

Tub's first post-Mystery Comic strip

The first true full-page Tub

Tub was one of the guests at Pete and Pauline Potts' party in the 6 Million Dollar Gran strip in Cheeky Weekly dated 06 October 1979.

43 Tub strips featured spot colour (always black, white and red). The circus-based Christmas 1979 Tub strip was the only one to be printed in Cheeky Weekly in full colour (or at least as full as IPC's rudimentary printing of the time would allow), and it appears that during the course of the story, Tub's jersey was afflicted by a mutant strain of Cheeky Weekly Inconsistent Hair Colour Syndrome.

All concerned are somewhat lacking
in Christmas spirit.
Cheeky Weekly 29 December 1979

For me, this was one of Cheeky Weekly's less enjoyable features. Tub is a rather unappealing character and the weight-related jokes soon pall. The succession of bullies, thieves and rascals with which the titular character had to contend, and Tub's unpleasant dad regularly threatening our podgy pal with physical violence, gave the series a rather uncomfortable feel (particularly noticeable in the surprisingly nasty Christmas 1979 story). Presumably this opinion was shared by a significant number of Cheeky Weekly readers as, while Tub survived to the final issue of Cheeky Weekly (missing only 5 issues between the demise of the Mystery Comic and the end of Cheeky Weekly's run), his was not among the strips which transferred to Whoopee! post-merge. Nevertheless, the big-boned buffoon clocked up a creditable 60 issue stint.

A slap-up feed is seen heading towards our portly pal's capacious gob, having been propelled from the far end of the seesaw on which he's perched, on the Pin-Up Pal poster in Cheeky Weekly dated 03 February 1979, drawn by Nigel Edwards, who did the artwork on all the Tub strips. Tub made an appearance in his pyjamas on the main cover picture of Cheeky Weekly's 27 January 1979 issue, in an image lifted from one of the panels of the adventure that would appear on 10 February 1979, two weeks later.

UPDATE 09 November 2013: I was surprised to learn on the Kazoop blog that a Tub strip appeared in the Shiver and Shake Annual 1983 - our portly pal also featured in the same year's Cheeky Annual. Tub's guest appearance in the S&S Annual appears to be a new strip, not a reprint.

Tub in the Cheeky Weekly Index

Feature	First Appearance	Final Appearance	Total Issues	Total Issues Missed In Run	Page History
Tub	30-Sep-78	02-Feb-80	60	8	9,10,11,13,16,21,25,27,29

Issues Missed In Run

13-Jan-79

20-Jan-79

12-May-79

28-Jul-79

11-Aug-79

22-Sep-79

29-Sep-79

03-Nov-79

Feature	Artist	Number of Issues	First Appearance	Final Appearance
Tub Mystery Comic	Nigel Edwards	34	30-Sep-1978	30-Jun-1979
Tub	Nigel Edwards	26	07-Jul-1979	02-Feb-1980

The ads - Cheeky Summer Specials, Annuals and 'place a regular order'

A number of adverts related to Cheeky Weekly itself, or associated with the Cheeky Summer Specials and Annuals, appeared within the weekly comic. The first Cheeky 'spin-off' publication to be promoted in the pages of the toothy funster's comic was the 1978 Cheeky Summer Special.

Comic publishers of the time saw the summer months, which included the long school holidays, as an opportunity to make extra sales. Kids would always be eager to read a double-sized edition of their favourite weekly title. Parents would often be equally keen on buying one or more specials to keep their offspring entertained on coach/train/car (and increasingly as the 70s progressed, plane) journeys to their holiday destination, or to keep the kids quiet on boring, rainy days. Evidently the demand for summer reading material was such that IPC would often continue publishing specials based on titles whose weekly version had ceased publication some years previously.

One disappointment with which the readers of IPC's summer specials often had to contend was the prevalence of ghost artists. It was common to find that the artwork on a particular strip in a title's summer special was produced by someone other than the artist who drew the strip in the weekly comic. This substitution was necessary because the regular artist, in many cases drawing multiple strips across a number of titles each week, had no time to take on extra work, or alternatively chose not to draw for the specials which I understand offered less remuneration than work on the weeklies.

No doubt to reduce costs, summer specials were regularly padded out with a number of reprinted features. These reprints were selected from strips of a sufficient vintage to make it unlikely that the young readers of a summer special would be aware that they were enjoying recycled material. However, reprinted artwork quite often exhibited the tell-tale signs of panel resizing or alterations to text which would signal 'reprint' to savvy readers.

The debut ad for Cheeky's first Summer Special appeared on page 15 of Cheeky Weekly dated 08 July 1978. Unlike annuals, summer/holiday specials didn't usually have a date on the cover. The ad reproduced the very nice Frank McDiarmid art on the special's cover (albeit in black and white) and included the curious line 'Cheeky is the comic kid who is going to set 'em all alight these holidays'. Eh? Is the toothy funster planning a spot of recreational arson? Very odd.

The three strips from the regular comic that are mentioned by name in the ad - 6 Million Dollar Gran, Mustapha Million and Skateboard Squad - were presumably among the most popular strips in Cheeky Weekly.  All three were ghosted in the Special, the honours being done by Nigel Edwards, Jim Crocker and Paul Ailey respectively. By the time 1978's Cheeky Summer Special appeared in newsagents, Edwards had deputised for regular Gran artist Ian Knox on 2 occasions in Cheeky Weekly. Ailey never drew The Skateboard Squad in the weekly comic, although he would later deliver one episode of Speed Squad, the strip into which Skateboard Squad would eventually evolve. Crocker contributed no art to Cheeky Weekly.

It feels a little disrespectful to refer to these luminaries of British humorous art, who were accomplished professionals in their own right, as ghost artists, but I believe that's the industry term for someone who stands in for the regular artist on a strip.

Neither of the two remaining named features in the ad were strips from the weekly comic. Cheeky's A to Z of Seaside Jokes was drawn by Jim Watson, whose run as a Cheeky's Week contributor had recently ended, after delivering artwork in 7 issues (a reprint of his, Hickory Dickory Doc from Cor!!, would appear in Cheeky Weekly dated 16 September 1978). The story which the ad refers to as Trip to Wonderland appeared in the Special with the punning title Malice In Wonderland, and was a reprint from Shiver and Shake, 1973 (thanks to Tony Ingram and Raven on the Comics UK Forum for identifying the source of this story). MIW was drawn by the great Ron Turner, whose Archie's Angels reprints would commence in Cheeky Weekly dated 12 August 1978.

The same ad appeared on page 26 of the following issue, sharing the page with an ad for companion title Whoopee!'s Holiday Special. I've never understood why some specials were designated as Holiday, while others on sale at the same time are classified as Summer. Both specials had the same page count, number of colour pages (although Whoopee! Holiday Special's pages were, according to its ad, 'fun-packed' while the ad for the Cheeky Special attributed no particular quality to its contents, as the '64 pages of fun' banner on the Special's cover had been cropped from the illustration) and cover price of 35p.

The Cheeky Summer Special's cover shows Ursula and Lily Pop posing for Silly Seaside Snaps, presaging the sporadic and related-only-by-name Silly Snaps feature which commenced in Cheeky Weekly dated 02 September 1978. The photographer appearing on the front page of the Special is certainly not Flash Harry, the character associated with Silly Snaps in Cheeky Weekly.

The third promotional push for 1978's Cheeky Summer Special within the pages of Cheeky Weekly came on page 22 in the 22 July 1978 issue, when the same ad appeared for the final time.

For me, the 1978 Cheeky Summer Special was the best of the Cheeky Specials, with some great Frank McDiarmid artwork.

The next Cheeky spin-off to be advertised was the Cheeky Annual 1979. Annuals exploited the need for easily-chosen Christmas presents. Most kids of the time would expect at least one annual to be awaiting their attention among the enticing pile of parcels beneath the tree on the morning of 25th December. In order to make the gift appear more substantial and suitable as a present than the Summer Specials, which had paper covers, most Annuals had glossy, board covers and a higher page count. As with the Summer Specials, in order to capitalise on the requirement for relatively cheap Christmas gifts, the closing months of the year saw newsagents' shelves arrayed with annuals based on then-current weekly comics, as well as new annuals based on weekly titles that had been defunct for some years.

Annuals went on sale in late summer/early autumn, and the annual-buying public associated them closely with Christmas, meaning sales were concentrated near the festive season, dropping off sharply in the new year. Summer and Holiday Specials didn't have such a focussed 'sell-by' date, and presumably carried on selling over a period of weeks until the spring/summer/autumn holiday season was over. It seems the short sales window of annuals was of concern to publishers, who developed a ploy they hoped would extend the selling period. This consisted of printing a year on the annual's cover that was one ahead of the year in which the annual was published. This strategy was quite often undermined by the annual featuring a Christmas-related scene on its cover (as is the case with the 1979 Cheeky Annual), and all readers were well aware that an annual dated in the current year had actually been published the previous year. Additionally, newsagents would sell leftover annuals at half price once Christmas had passed, in order to free up shelf space.

Like their Summer Specials, ghosting and reprints were much in evidence in IPC's annuals.

As Christmas 1978 approached, the first ad for the debut Cheeky Annual appeared in Cheeky Weekly dated 16 September. A Barrie Appleby rendition of the toothy funster, lifted from a panel on page 4 of the 22 July 1978 issue, points to the annual's cover, on which Cheeky is seen taking the P. The cover is again nicely done by Frank McDiarmid, but perhaps it's best not to dwell too long on the arrangement of balloons on the right hand side. Mercifully there are no threats of incendiary activity on the part of our toothy pal in this ad (although I could be wrong as the contents of the annual are said to be 'sizzling'), but the text shifts awkwardly from the first to the third person in the fourth sentence.

Once again it seems that 6 Million Dollar Gran must be popular with readers, as she gets a name-check in the ad, along with James Bold. Gran's two adventures in the annual are again ghosted by Nigel Edwards, and James Bold is by an artist I can't identify, but it’s a different hand to those who had depicted the ghost-hunter's spooky exploits, which had by this time concluded, in the pages of Cheeky Weekly.

The ad refers to the annual's 32 colour pages, a figure that includes the front and back covers.

Sadly, the annual features only one original internal page by the mighty Frank McDiarmid; a strip introduced as a Burpo Special that looks as though it may have been originally prepared for Krazy, the comic which begat Cheeky Weekly but had ceased publication in April 1978. The majority of the rest of the Cheeky features in the annual are drawn by another of the greats of British comics, Jim Petrie. Doubtless Frank had so many other commitments (Cheeky Weekly, Krazy, Roger the Dodger in The Beano) that he had no time for the annual, and Jim P does a very nice job. Jim Watson also provides some enjoyable Cheeky work.

Unlike the ads for the Summer Special, which appeared in three consecutive issues, the Cheeky Annual 1979 ads appeared at monthly intervals. Hence the same ad reappeared on 14 October and 11 November. It didn't appear in the 09 December issue, and no more issues of Cheeky Weekly were published in December 1978 due to industrial action.

In the issue dated 03 March 1979, Charlie and Calculator appeared in an ad encouraging readers to place a regular order for the comic and thus ensure their weekly helping of Cheeky chuckles without having to dash to the newsagent before they all sold out. This type of ad was common in comics of the period, presumably the publisher felt that if readers had a regular order for a title, they were less likely to be tempted by other comics along the newsagents' shelf.

The way the text in the ad is set out suggests that it was originally written for another comic, whose title had been removed and substituted with Cheeky, as there wasn't sufficient room to fit in Cheeky Weekly. Don't forget to have the coupon signed by your parent or guardian. I was always reluctant to put my comics on order, as more often than not the newsagent would write your surname across the back (or, if you were really unlucky, the front) of your favourite title, before stowing it under the counter to await your arrival to collect it. Similar disfigurement would occur to the comics of those lazy readers who chose to have their fun-papers delivered. Such folk also risked not only having their comic read by the paper boy or girl in the rain while in transit from paper shop to front door, but lack of care when inserting the now-thumbed, damp comic into the letterbox could result in further damage on its way onto the doormat.

The picture of Charlie (aka Calculator Kid) and Calculator featured in this ad is by IPC stalwart and one of the greats, Terry Bave, and is sourced from the first panel of their adventure in the 30 September 1978 comic, but cunningly reversed.

The same ad appeared again on 26 May 1979.

The first ad for the 1979 Cheeky Summer Special appeared a couple of weeks earlier than its equivalent of the previous year, this time on 23 June 1979. Alongside a reproduction of the Special's cover, drawn by Mike Lacey, is a rather odd-looking rendition of our toothy pal, who is seen without his customary striped jumper and adopting an insouciant pose to indicate he's on holiday.

In this ad, none of the strips inside the special are mentioned by name, but the appetites of prospective readers are whetted by mention of Lily Pop in a beauty contest. The centre spread on which the cracking crossing lady appeared can be seen on Bruce's blog here.

The 1979 Summer Special was the usual mix of ghosted strips (the Cheeky material being variously handled by Frank McDiarmid, Frank McDiarmid pencils and Mike Lacey) and reprints. There was no adventure story this time. The cover price had increased by 5p since last year, a whacking 14%, but Britain's economy was at the time enduring a period of high inflation, and the price of the weekly comic had undergone a similar percentage increase in the same period.

As happened a year earlier, ads for the 1979 Summer Special appeared for 3 consecutive issues, the final one appearing in the comic dated 07 July 1979.

The following week Calculator Kid was back to remind us yet again to place a regular order, in the same ad that had appeared twice earlier in the year.

The Cheeky Annual 1980 was first advertised in Cheeky Weekly dated 22 September 1979, a week later than its 1979 equivalent was first promoted. This ad leans rather heavily on the previous year's version, featuring as it does a familiar pic-and-word-balloon combination in which the toothy funster directs us toward the text which, as in the ad for the 1979 annual, plugs 6 Million Dollar Gran and James Bold by name.

The price of the 1980 annual had increased to £1.25, so at least IPC's pricing policy was consistent, as that represents another 14% hike. Total colour pages were again 32 including covers, although this year the ad didn't quantify the colour contents. The 6 Million Dollar Gran strip was drawn by regular artist in Cheeky Weekly, Ian Knox, but James Bold was again ghosted, by an artist I can't identify. Frank McDiarmid supplied a few Cheeky/Snail pages, but the majority of the strips featuring the toothy funster were drawn by Barrie Appleby. The cover featured another Christmas scenario and was again by Frank McDiarmid. There was a Mystery Comic title page on page 57, yet the Mystery Comic features were scattered through the annual; pages 6-8 (Mustapha Million), pages 18-19 (Why Dad Why), pages 57-59 (Tub followed by Why Dad Why), 92-93 (Disaster Des) 102-103 and 115 (Why Dad Why), 120 (Tub).

On 13 October 1979, Charlie and Calculator were back to admonish us for having still not placed a regular order. I would guess that by this time the writing was well and truly on the wall for Cheeky Weekly, but the publishers felt it was worth another push to maintain sales to ensure that the maximum number of ex-Cheeky Weekly readers could be delivered to boost Whoopee!'s circulation when the inevitable merge happened. A further attempt to boost regular orders occurred in the 03 November 1979 comic when, as if to emphasise the severity of the situation, an order form was printed in red.

In a surprise move, a different ad for the Cheeky Annual 1980 appeared in the 17 November and 22 December 1979 comics. A cut-and-pasted Cheeky face together with a drawing of his hand and arm have been combined with the annual cover, and now Calculator Kid, Why Dad Why, and Speed Squad have joined the list of the annual's contents. Additionally, it's been made clear that James Bold's contribution contains 'thrills and spills', always reassuring news for those considering the purchase of comic material. The wording of Cheeky's speech balloon remains unchanged.

Instead of appearing monthly from September to November as had the 3 ads for the previous year's annual, the 3 ads for the 1980 annual spanned 4 months, appearing once in September, once in November and again in December. It may of course have been the case that in 1978, IPC were aware of the possibility of the impending strike which halted publication for 3 weeks in December, so brought the ads forward.

To avoid any confusion over the frequency of their publication, the Cheeky Weekly Annuals and Summer/Holiday Specials didn't include the word Weekly in their titles.

Cheeky Weekly, which came to an end in February 1980 had a posthumous presence on newsagents' shelves, as Summer/Holiday Specials were published every year up to and including 1982, and the run of annuals finished with that dated 1985 (which of course went on sale in 1984).

In what now seems a rather cynical move, one last attempt to garner some more regular orders for Cheeky Weekly occurred when Charlie and Calculator appeared yet again with their familiar enjoinder to fill in the coupon, in the 12 January 1980 edition, just 3 issues short of the final Cheeky Weekly. Surely by this time the fate of the comic had been decided, and anyone setting up an order at this late stage must have been somewhat miffed to discover less than a month later that their comic of choice had come to an end.

All the ads shown above occupied half a page. When it came to in-house ads for IPC product, full pages were generally only used for comic launches. Sometimes more than one page was used to promote a new comic, as was the case with the flyer for Cheeky Weekly, which included a 'regular order' coupon before the comic had even appeared!

This completes my look at the ads for Specials, Annuals and 'place a regular order', but I'll be reviewing some more ads related to Cheeky Weekly within the comic itself in a future post.

Cheeky Weekly cover date 30 September 1978

As we reach Cheeky Weekly's 50th issue, there are signs on the cover that big changes are afoot.  It appears that the whole Mystery Comic is on view inside, and a new cover feature, Cheeky's Week…Sunday, takes over from What A Cheek, although the three-panel gag format of the previous strip continues.

Flipping over to page 2 reveals some more changes - there's no title to the Sunday page - we're now to infer that it follows on from the cover's Cheeky's Week…Sunday feature, and a What Did YOU Do Today? diary-type section occupies the bottom of the page.  It also appears that Cheeky's favourite TV show, 6 Million Dollar Gran, has been moved to a mid-day time slot, which is fortunate for us readers as the Sunday evening element of Cheeky's Week came to an end last week.

On page 6, Cheeky explains the purpose of the new diary section of his pages.  I think his rather ill-mannered Hoi! is something he picked up from Snail.

There's another new development when we arrive at the Monday feature - a panel reading 'Cheeky's Week…Monday' and displaying an extract from Cheeky's diary now introduces the strip instead of the Monday caption across the top of the page which appeared previously.  This, together with the What Did YOU Do Today diary area at the bottom of the page, appears once for each of the remaining days of Cheeky's Week in the comic (it doesn't appear on the Interval or second Saturday pages).

The Skateboard Squad title panel which appeared for the first time last week has been dropped in favour of a more streamlined banner-style introductory panel showing the team proudly flying a, er, banner.  The fact that the title panel now spans the width of the page means that the name of the strip can be displayed in full rather than being broken down into three words as it was last week.

On Wednesday, Cheeky dials 1978 in the time-travelling phone box and skips back a couple of days to the moment when the single copy of this week's Mystery Comic came off the printing press.  Never having seen a complete issue of this mysterious publication, we eagerly turn the page to view the cover, and get our first look at the Tub strip.  Next up is the first episode of Why, Dad, Why?, followed by the debut of adventure serial Mystery Boy (a retitled reprint of the Who Is Sandy? strip from Whizzer and Chips, 1971).

The following Mystery Comic page introduces us to the peripatetic pachyderm and his plastic-clad pursuer in the first instalment of Robert Nixon's 2-page Elephant On The Run, after which we encounter good old Mustapha Million, the only Mystery Comic character that we had seen up until now.

Rounding off the Mystery Comic section is another newcomer, juvenile jinx Disaster Des.

Page 21 returns us to Cheeky's Week for a look at the toothy funster's doings on Thursday, and Calculator Kid, who evidently survived the revamp, enjoys a robbery-foiling adventure on page 22.  Another non-Cheeky strip to remain is Paddywack, who fills page 25 with his customary confusion.

In the final panel of page 26, Cheeky tells us that there's an all-cartoon programme in this week's cinema show.  So after an interruption on the following page featuring an advertisement for The Superkids Club, promoting the Superkids range of boots and shoes, the first cartoon, in the form of a Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf reprint from Cor!!, hits the screen.  After the interval, the second cartoon starts and the bad news is that those blasted Warner Brothers cartoon strips have survived the revamp.  This week it's flippin' Tweety and Sylvester again.

The post-cinema conclusion to Saturday occupies the back cover, and includes a new feature within the page - a puzzle introduced by one of Cheeky's pals.  It's presented by Herman, and apparently he got it from The Traffic Warden's Bumper Fun Book.

All of the Mystery Comic features with the exception of Mustapha Million are new this week, as is the Cheeky's Pal Puzzle idea on the back cover.  The Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf feature makes its second and final Cheeky Weekly appearance.

There are no debuts or departures among the Cheeky's Week cast in this issue.  As always seems to be the case with special issues (for which we're all grateful), all the Cheeky's Week art this week is pure Frank McDiarmid.  I don't include Cheeky's appearance on page 6 (which is a Barrie Appleby rendition of the toothy funster) as a Cheeky's Week feature.

In the table below, the identifier 'Mystery Comic' after a feature indicates that it appears as part of The Mystery Comic.

Cheeky Weekly	Cover Date: 30-Sep-1978, Issue 50 of 117
Page	Details
1	Cover Feature 'Mystery Comic'\Cheeky's Week (first appearance) - Art Frank McDiarmid (first art on feature)
2	Sunday - Art Frank McDiarmid
3	6 Million Dollar Gran - Art Ian Knox
4	6 Million Dollar Gran - Art Ian Knox
5	6 Million Dollar Gran - Art Ian Knox
6	Hoi! What do you get up to all week? (single appearance)\Ad: IPC 'Knockout Annual' 1 of 3
7	Monday - Art Frank McDiarmid
8	Silly Snaps
9	Silly Snaps
10	Tuesday - Art Frank McDiarmid
11	Skateboard Squad - Art Jimmy Hansen
12	Wednesday - Art Frank McDiarmid
13	Tub (first appearance) 'Mystery Comic' 1 of 34 - Art Nigel Edwards (first art on feature)
14	Why, Dad, Why? (first appearance) 'Mystery Comic' 1 of 28 - Art John K. Geering (first art on feature)
15	Mystery Boy (first appearance) reprint from Whizzer and Chips 'Mystery Comic' 1 of 37 - Art John Richardson (first art on feature)
16	Elephant On The Run (first appearance) 'Mystery Comic' 1 of 34 - Art Robert Nixon (first art on feature)
17	Elephant On The Run (first appearance) 'Mystery Comic' 1 of 34 - Art Robert Nixon (first art on feature)
18	Mustapha Million 'Mystery Comic' 1 of 34 - Art Reg Parlett
19	Mustapha Million 'Mystery Comic' 1 of 34 - Art Reg Parlett
20	Disaster Des (first appearance) 'Mystery Comic' 1 of 30 - Art Mike Lacey (first art on feature)
21	Thursday - Art Frank McDiarmid
22	Calculator Kid - Art Terry Bave
23	Joke-Box Jury
24	Friday - Art Frank McDiarmid
25	Paddywack - Art Jack Clayton
26	Saturday - Art Frank McDiarmid
27	Ad: Superkids Club (single appearance)
28	Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? (final appearance) reprint from Cor!!
29	Interval - Art Frank McDiarmid
30	Tweety and Sylvester 'Tabs Keeping Tabby'
31	Tweety and Sylvester 'Tabs Keeping Tabby'
32	Saturday - Art Frank McDiarmid\Cheeky's Pal Puzzle (first appearance) 'Herman' - Art Frank McDiarmid (first art on feature)

Cheeky's Week Artists Cover Date 30-Sep-1978

Artist	Elements
Frank McDiarmid	10

The features - The Mystery Comic

As we have seen, Cheeky Weekly used framing devices as a way of incorporating certain strips within Cheeky's Week; James Bold's early adventures were presented as chapters of a novel which Cheeky read each issue, and episodes of the final Bold series were watched on the big screen by Cheeky and his pals during their Saturday morning trips to the cinema. The Mystery Comic was another framing device to introduce a new batch of features as from September 1978.

From the first issue of Cheeky Weekly, readers had been intrigued by Cheeky's weekly search for a copy of The Mystery Comic, a publication which was evidently not sold in the newsagents of Cheeky's neighbourhood.  In those early days, the toothy funster sought out a copy of the mysterious publication with the intention of reading only Mustapha Million's adventure, so no other strips from The Mystery Comic appeared in Cheeky Weekly.

However, our grinning pal's comic underwent a major revamp in the issue dated 30 September 1978, and from this date the whole of The Mystery Comic appeared in the centre pages of Cheeky Weekly.  This comic-within-a-comic format had been used by IPC a number of times before, most famously in the long-running Whizzer and Chips (and Cheeky Weekly itself would become a comic within Whoopee! after it merged into that title).  Unlike Whizzer and Chips, Cheeky Weekly didn't invite readers to extract the title located at the centre from within the main comic, neither was there any rivalry between the characters from the host and guest comic as there was in Whizzer and Chips, where 'raids' from one comic into the other happened on a regular basis - from Cheeky's viewpoint the characters in The Mystery Comic (with the exception of the lead characters from Elephant On The Run - see below) were presumably fictional, so raids were impossible.

The first Mystery Comic consisted of 5 new features;

• Tub

• Why, Dad, Why?

• Mystery Boy (a reprint of the Who Is Sandy? strip from Whizzer and Chips, 1971)

• Elephant on the Run (usually a 2-page strip in The Mystery Comic, except for issues dated 16 June 1979 and 30 June 1979, when it was a single page)

• Disaster Des

The other Mystery Comic strip was existing feature Mustapha Million which, for the duration of The Mystery Comic's run, relocated within its pages.

Feature	Total Mystery Comic appearances
Disaster Des	30
Elephant On The Run	34
Mustapha Million	34
Mystery Boy	37
Tub	34
Why, Dad, Why?	28

The Mystery Comic appeared as a conceptual grouping of features in 37 issues of Cheeky Weekly.  On the cover of the issue of Cheeky Weekly in which The Mystery Comic made its debut, was a headline which read "At Last!  The Mystery Comic is to be seen inside. ALL OF IT!", so it was evidently a rather thin offering at only 8 pages.  However, only 14 issues contained 8 pages of features in the Mystery Comic, which coincidentally was the same number of issues containing a 7-feature-page Mystery Comic.  7 issues had a 6-feature-page Mystery Comic and 2 issues (19 May 1979 and 16 June 1979) had Mystery Comics with only 5 pages of features, the lowest number of features to appear in the mysterious publication.  The reduced Mystery Comic page count was due to adverts, or cut-out features relating to Cheeky Weekly intruding into The Mystery Comic's pages.  For example, the cover of Cheeky Weekly dated 19 May 1979 tells readers that part one of the Spotter Book of Town and Around is inside, yet the pages of the book are printed within The Mystery Comic, although the mysterious publication's cover makes no mention of it.

The first Mystery Comic cover to appear in Cheeky Weekly

The cover of the first Mystery Comic incorporated a snake into the S in the comic's title.  The title appeared over a background, consisting of numerous faces, drawn by Ed McHenry.  Over its run, The Mystery Comic featured 5 title-and-background designs, which repeated at random over the weeks.  Accompanying the snake version of the logo was a background including King Kong, Elsie Tanner (from TV's Coronation Street), the Mona Lisa, Frankenstein's monster and Sherlock Holmes.  The second background had a food theme and featured anthropomorphised ice cream cones, lollies, chocolate bars and fruit.  In this version of the cover, the letter O in the word comic was represented by a ring doughnut out of which a bite had been taken  The third variant showed a rather threatening bunch of creepy-crawlies, with the second C of the word comic being substituted by a caterpillar, while the fourth showed a horde of musical instruments, in which the O of comic is represented by a drum skin with a beater resting on it (I think).  The fifth version had a science fiction motif, depicting among others Buck Rogers, Chewbacca, Tom Baker as Doctor Who and Mr Spock.  This version of the cover featured a cratered planet or moon in place of the O in comic.

I've never been able to work out what relevance the snake in the comic's title has to the background characters on that version of the cover.

The snake cover appeared 8 times, the food and creepies appeared 6 times each, music 9 times, and sci-fi on 5 occasions.  The snake and sci-fi backgrounds both surrounded the cover strip, while the remainder of the backgrounds were limited to the top of the page.

Tub was the cover star of 34 issues of The Mystery Comic, with Disaster Des occupying the cover twice, and Why, Dad, Why? featuring on the cover on one occasion.  Only the covers featuring Tub included the Ed McHenry backgrounds, the others had less elaborate backgrounds, or no background at all, and a different title design.

Mystery Comic cover featuring Disaster Des

The Mystery Comic covers weren't dated or numbered, neither was a price shown.  It seems that in Cheeky's universe The Mystery Comic was free, which would explain the low page count.

Most frequently The Mystery Comic was to be found commencing on page 13 and spanning 8 pages.  However, on occasion the mysterious publication was shunted forward within Cheeky Weekly.  The closest it got to the front of the host comic was in Cheeky Weekly dated 09 December 1978, one of the issues which was reduced to 28 pages due to an industrial dispute, when The Mystery Comic commenced on page 9.

The 02 December 1978 Cheeky Weekly (another reduced issue) was the only issue in which the cover of the Mystery Comic was situated on an even-numbered page (10), which is another reason why removing the mysterious publication from within its host was never advocated.

Elements from Cheeky Weekly would quite often appear in The Mystery Comic.  For example in The Mystery Comic dated 02 December 1978, the 'Big 4 Comics Saint Competition' appeared on the page after Tub.  In the 09 December 1978 issue (as mentioned above, a truncated Cheeky Weekly), the Thursday element of Cheeky's Week and the Smurfs competition intruded into The Mystery Comic, as both features followed Elephant On The Run but preceded Disaster Des.

The concept of The Mystery Comic came to an end in Cheeky Weekly dated 30 June 1979 in which Cheeky announced that the enigmatic funny paper was so popular that he had decided to incorporate it into his own comic, and thus the Mystery Comic title page was not seen again.  However all the strips from The Mystery Comic continued to appear in Cheeky Weekly, but they were no longer confined to the pages around the centre of the comic.

In the table below, where the cover of TMC is located on an odd-numbered page and the total number of TMC pages is odd, the procedure I wrote to gather the data extends the end of TMC to one page after the final TMC feature in that particular issue, to make an even number of pages.  For example in TMC in Cheeky Weekly dated 07 April 1979, the procedure considers page 22 of the host comic (featuring an ad) to be the final page of TMC that week.

Issue Date	Mystery Comic Contents (Cheeky Weekly page numbers shown)	Total Pages	Missing Features
30-Sep-1978	13-Tub/14-Why, Dad, Why?/15-Mystery Boy/16-Elephant On The Run/17-Elephant On The Run/18-Mustapha Million/19-Mustapha Million/20-Disaster Des	8
07-Oct-1978	13-Tub/14-Why, Dad, Why?/15-Mystery Boy/16-Elephant On The Run/17-Elephant On The Run/18-Mustapha Million/19-Mustapha Million/20-Disaster Des	8
14-Oct-1978	13-Tub/14-Why, Dad, Why?/15-Mystery Boy/16-Elephant On The Run/17-Elephant On The Run/18-Mustapha Million/19-Mustapha Million/20-Disaster Des	8
21-Oct-1978	13-Tub/14-Why, Dad, Why?/15-Mystery Boy/16-Elephant On The Run/17-Elephant On The Run/18-Mustapha Million/19-Ad: Weetabix/20-Disaster Des	8
28-Oct-1978	13-Tub/14-Mystery Boy/15-Ad: IPC/15-Ad: IPC/16-Elephant On The Run/17-Elephant On The Run/18-Mustapha Million/19-Mustapha Million/20-Disaster Des	8	Why, Dad, Why?
04-Nov-1978	13-Tub/14-Why, Dad, Why?/15-Mystery Boy/16-Elephant On The Run/17-Elephant On The Run/18-Mustapha Million/19-Mustapha Million/20-Disaster Des	8
11-Nov-1978	13-Tub/14-Why, Dad, Why?/15-Mystery Boy/16-Elephant On The Run/17-Elephant On The Run/18-Mustapha Million/19-Mustapha Million/20-Disaster Des	8
18-Nov-1978	13-Tub/14-Mustapha Million/15-Mustapha Million/16-Elephant On The Run/17-Elephant On The Run/18-Mystery Boy/19-Ad: Trebor/20-Why, Dad, Why?	8	Disaster Des
25-Nov-1978	13-Tub/14-Mystery Boy/15-Ad: Woodcraft Village/16-Elephant On The Run/17-Elephant On The Run/18-Mustapha Million/19-Mustapha Million/20-Disaster Des	8	Why, Dad, Why?
02-Dec-1978	10-Tub/11-Ad: Big Four Saint Competition/12-Mustapha Million/13-Mustapha Million/14-Elephant On The Run/15-Elephant On The Run/16-Mystery Boy/17-Disaster Des	8	Why, Dad, Why?
09-Dec-1978	9-Tub/10-Why, Dad, Why?/11-Mystery Boy/12-Mustapha Million/13-Mustapha Million/14-Elephant On The Run/15-Elephant On The Run/16-Smurfs competition/16-Ad: IPC/17-Thursday/18-Disaster Des	10
06-Jan-1979	13-Tub/14-Why, Dad, Why?/15-Mystery Boy/16-Elephant On The Run/17-Elephant On The Run/18-Mustapha Million/19-Mustapha Million/20-Disaster Des	8
13-Jan-1979	13-Disaster Des/14-Mustapha Million/15-Mustapha Million/16-Snap Game/17-Snap Game/18-Elephant On The Run/19-Elephant On The Run/20-Mystery Boy	8	Tub/Why, Dad, Why?
20-Jan-1979	13-Disaster Des/14-Mustapha Million/15-Mustapha Million/16-Snap Game/17-Snap Game/18-Elephant On The Run/19-Elephant On The Run/20-Mystery Boy	8	Tub/Why, Dad, Why?
27-Jan-1979	13-Tub/14-Why, Dad, Why?/15-Mystery Boy/16-Snap Game/17-Snap Game/18-Elephant On The Run/19-Elephant On The Run/20-Disaster Des	8	Mustapha Million
03-Feb-1979	13-Tub/14-Why, Dad, Why?/15-Mystery Boy/16-Snap Game/17-Snap Game/18-Mustapha Million/19-Mustapha Million/20-Disaster Des	8	Elephant On The Run
10-Feb-1979	13-Tub/14-Why, Dad, Why?/15-Mystery Boy/16-Mustapha Million/17-Mustapha Million/18-Elephant On The Run/19-Elephant On The Run/20-Disaster Des	8
17-Feb-1979	13-Tub/14-Why, Dad, Why?/15-Mystery Boy/16-Mustapha Million/17-Mustapha Million/18-Elephant On The Run/19-Elephant On The Run/20-Disaster Des	8
24-Feb-1979	13-Tub/14-Disaster Des/15-Mystery Boy/16-Elephant On The Run/17-Elephant On The Run/18-Mustapha Million/19-Mustapha Million/20-Why, Dad, Why?	8
03-Mar-1979	13-Tub/14-Why, Dad, Why?/15-Mystery Boy/16-Elephant On The Run/17-Elephant On The Run/18-Mustapha Million/19-Mustapha Million/20-Disaster Des	8
10-Mar-1979	13-Tub/14-Disaster Des/15-Mystery Boy/16-Elephant On The Run/17-Elephant On The Run/18-Mustapha Million/19-Mustapha Million/20-Why, Dad, Why?	8
17-Mar-1979	13-Tub/14-Disaster Des spot the difference/15-Mystery Boy/16-Elephant On The Run/17-Elephant On The Run/18-Mustapha Million/19-Mustapha Million/20-Why, Dad, Why?	8	Disaster Des
24-Mar-1979	13-Tub/14-Mystery Boy/15-Ad: IPC/16-Elephant On The Run/17-Elephant On The Run/18-Mustapha Million/19-Mustapha Million/20-Why, Dad, Why?	8	Disaster Des
31-Mar-1979	13-Tub/14-Mustapha Million/15-Mustapha Million/16-Why, Dad, Why?/17-Cheeky's Jersey Pattern/18-Cheeky's Jersey Pattern/19-Disaster Des/20-Mystery Boy	8	Elephant On The Run
07-Apr-1979	11-Tub/12-Elephant On The Run/13-Elephant On The Run/14-Star Guest/15-Tease Break/15-Ad: IPC/16-Top Ten Poster/17-Top Ten Poster/18-Mustapha Million/19-Mustapha Million/20-Mystery Boy/21-Disaster Des/22-Ad: WH Smith	12	Why, Dad, Why?
14-Apr-1979	11-Tub/12-Elephant On The Run/13-Elephant On The Run/14-Mystery Boy/15-Ad: IPC/15-Ad: IPC/16-Top Ten Poster/17-Top Ten Poster/18-Disaster Des/19-Star Guest/20-Mustapha Million/21-Mustapha Million/22-Ad: KP	12	Why, Dad, Why?
21-Apr-1979	11-Tub/12-Elephant On The Run/13-Elephant On The Run/14-Mystery Boy/15-Ad: IPC/15-Ad: IPC/16-Top Ten Poster/17-Top Ten Poster/18-Why, Dad, Why?/19-Ad: Palitoy/20-Mustapha Million/21-Mustapha Million/22-Ad: WH Smith	12	Disaster Des
28-Apr-1979	11-Tub/12-Elephant On The Run/13-Elephant On The Run/14-Star Guest/15-Ad: IPC/15-Ad: IPC/16-Top Ten Poster/17-Top Ten Poster/18-Ad: IPC/19-Why, Dad, Why?/20-Disaster Des/21-Mystery Boy/22-Ad: Palitoy	12	Mustapha Million
05-May-1979	13-Tub/14-Mystery Boy/15-Ad: IPC/16-Elephant On The Run/17-Elephant On The Run/18-Mustapha Million/19-Mustapha Million/20-Why, Dad, Why?	8	Disaster Des
12-May-1979	13-Why, Dad, Why?/14-Mustapha Million/15-Mustapha Million/16-Disaster Des/17-Star Guest/18-Elephant On The Run/19-Elephant On The Run/20-Mystery Boy	8	Tub
19-May-1979	13-Tub/14-Mustapha Million/15-Mustapha Million/16-Ad: Trebor/17-The Cheeky Spotter Book of Fun/18-The Cheeky Spotter Book of Fun/19-Mystery Boy/20-Disaster Des	8	Elephant On The Run/Why, Dad, Why?
26-May-1979	13-Tub/14-Mustapha Million/15-Mustapha Million/16-Elephant On The Run/17-Elephant On The Run/18-Star Guest/19-Mystery Boy/20-Why, Dad, Why?	8	Disaster Des
02-Jun-1979	13-Tub/14-Mustapha Million/15-Mustapha Million/16-Elephant On The Run/17-Elephant On The Run/18-Mystery Boy	6	Disaster Des/Why, Dad, Why?
09-Jun-1979	13-Tub/14-Mustapha Million/15-Mustapha Million/16-Elephant On The Run/17-Elephant On The Run/18-Mystery Boy/19-Why, Dad, Why?/20-Disaster Des	8
16-Jun-1979	13-Tub/14-Elephant On The Run/15-Star Guest/16-Why, Dad, Why?/17-Cheeky Hustle/18-Cheeky Hustle/19-Mystery Boy/20-Disaster Des	8	Mustapha Million
23-Jun-1979	13-Tub/14-Mustapha Million/15-Mustapha Million/16-Elephant On The Run/17-Elephant On The Run/18-Mystery Boy/19-Why, Dad, Why?/20-Disaster Des	8
30-Jun-1979	13-Tub/14-Mustapha Million/15-Mustapha Million/16-Elephant On The Run/17-Disaster Des/18-Mystery Boy/19-Ad: The Stickits/20-Why, Dad, Why?	8

Cheeky's weekly scouring of Krazy Town for his copy of The Mystery Comic usually ended with one of his pals handing the toothy funster a copy of the mysterious publication.  The source of the comic always remained unknown as Cheeky never asked his pals where they got it.  During the period that Mustapha Million was the only Mystery Comic strip printed in Cheeky Weekly, Cheeky sought out a copy on Fridays (issues 22 October 1977 to 24 June 1978) or Thursday (issues 01 July 1978 to 23 September 1978), but for the duration of the full Mystery Comic's run, Cheeky went in search of it on Wednesday. This shunt forward in the week was obviously due to the need to get The Mystery Comic into the centre of Cheeky Weekly.

In the issue of Cheeky Weekly in which the full Mystery Comic made its debut, Cheeky visited the printers to get hold of what he told us was the "one and only copy", and in the 09 June 1979 comic Lily Pop told Cheeky she had found "this week's only copy" of TMC.  The fact that, in Cheeky's universe, only one copy of each issue exists probably explains why no price is shown on the cover.  In the 10 February 1979 issue Cheeky tells us that the Mystery Comic can't be found in shops, although on more than one occasion Cheeky found a copy of TMC in Granny Gumdrop's shop (admittedly not for sale).

In Cheeky Weekly dated 12 May 1979, The Mystery Comic is dropped by either The Elephant or Man in the Plastic Mac from Elephant On The Run, as they dash past Cheeky's Dad.

All of the main characters from The Mystery Comic appeared on Pin-Up Pal posters in Cheeky Weekly, with the exception of Mystery Boy.  Mustapha Million's poster appearance pre-dates the debut of the full Mystery Comic.

Feature	Cover Date	Subject	Artist
Pin-up pal	05-NOV-77	Mustapha Million	Reg Parlett
Pin-up pal	06-JAN-79	The Elephant	Robert Nixon
Pin-up pal	20-JAN-79	Disaster Des	Mike Lacey
Pin-up pal	03-FEB-79	Tub	Nigel Edwards
Pin-up pal	10-MAR-79	Why Dad Why	John Geering

The Mystery Comic, or characters appearing therein, made it to Cheeky Weekly's main cover feature on 9 occasions, with Mystery Boy and Mustapha Million getting the cover treatment twice each.

Date	Cover elements
21-Jan-78	Cover Feature 'Mustapha Million' 1 of 2 - Art Reg Parlett\What a Cheek - Art Frank McDiarmid
30-Sep-78	Cover Feature 'Mystery Comic'\Cheeky's Week (first appearance) - Art Frank McDiarmid
07-Oct-78	Cover Feature 'Mystery Boy' 1 of 2 \Cheeky's Week - Art Mike Lacey
14-Oct-78	Cover Feature 'The Elephant' - Art Robert Nixon\Cheeky's Week - Art Frank McDiarmid
04-Nov-78	Cover Feature 'Mustapha Million' 2 of 2 - Art Reg Parlett\Cheeky's Week - Art Mike Lacey
11-Nov-78	Cover Feature 'Why Dad Why' - Art John K. Geering\Cheeky's Week - Art Frank McDiarmid
25-Nov-78	Cover Feature 'Disaster Des' - Art Mike Lacey\Cheeky's Week - Art Frank McDiarmid
27-Jan-79	Cover Feature 'Tub' - Art Nigel Edwards\Cheeky's Week - Art Mike Lacey
10-Feb-79	Cover Feature 'Mystery Boy' 2 of 2 \Cheeky's Week - Art Barrie Appleby

In Cheeky Weekly dated 19 August 1978, Crystal Belle gives Cheeky a glimpse into his life in the year 2038.  On Thursday in that issue, the toothy funster of 2038 visits the library to peruse their bound volumes of The Mystery Comic.

The Mystery Comic exists in Cheeky's universe, but is evidently not included in the Cheeky's universe version of Cheeky Weekly, since in the toothy funster's world only one copy of TMC is printed each week. Therefore, the version of Cheeky Weekly available in Cheeky's universe either must have had a different feature on the page where Mustapha Million appears in the version of Cheeky Weekly available in our universe from the first issue until the comic dated 23 September 1978, and also must have either had partially different content or been reduced in page count from 32 to 24 pages when TMC began being printed in full in Cheeky Weekly dated 30 September 1978.

This reference to the first Mystery Comic (which of course
Cheeky Weekly readers never saw) was rather ironically
printed in Cheeky Weekly dated 30 June 1979, the final
issue to include the perplexing publication as a grouping
of strips in the centre pages.
Art: Dick Millington, who appears to be basing his
rendition of the toothy funster in the leftmost panel
on the rather distinctive pose depicted by
Frank McDiarmid in the 21 April 1979 issue.

In Cheeky Weekly dated 12 May 1979, Cheeky's Dad is seen holding a copy of TMC. The Why, Dad, Why? strip is shown on the back cover, yet it was actually on the front cover in the version of TMC that was printed in our universe.

Although all the strips which had hitherto been contained within the Mystery Comic continued to appear after the concept was dropped, there was one casualty of the decision to terminate the idea. Nosy Nora, whose role in Cheeky's Week was related to the puzzling publication, was dropped from the Cheeky's Week supporting cast after one more, silent appearance in the issue dated 14 July 1979.