Profile - Posh Claude's Mum and Dad

Was Claude truly posh?

Cheeky's pompous pal's mum first appeared in the 24 December 1977 comic...

Art: Dick Millington

The above scene doesn't really clarify our uncertainty over Claude's background, but the next appearance by his mum, in the 01 April 1978 edition does suggest that his family has money (unless it was an April Fool gag)...

Art: Frank McDiarmid pencils

However, Claude's dad's first appearance, in the comic dated 03 February 1979, seemed to indicate that the snooty schoolboy's background was more humble than he claimed...

Art: Mike Lacey

But when he next appeared, in the 01 September 1979 issue, Claude seemed to have a different, more affluent dad (this was also the final appearance of Mummikins)...

Mike again

Yet in his final appearance, in the comic dated 03 November 1979, Claude's pater, assuming it was the one featured in the above strip, seemed to have suffered a reversal of fortune (but maybe it was the original dad again)...

More Mike

Maybe Claude had a stepfather?

None of Claude's three parents appeared in the Cheeky pages in Krazy.

Character	Total Issues	First Appearance	Final Appearance
Posh Claude's Mum	3	24-Dec-1977	01-Sep-1979

Character	Total Issues	First Appearance	Final Appearance
Posh Claude's Dad	3	03-Feb-1979	03-Nov-1979

Profile – Ivor E Tugger

In Cheeky Weekly’s first issue our toothy pal tracked down the latest edition of the Mystery Comic in the waiting room of dentist Ivor E Tugger, although the tooth-wrangler himself did not appear on that occasion. Considering Cheeky’s mouthful of magnificent munchers it’s surprising that dentists did not figure more regularly in his life, and the funster's next dental encounter was presented on the cover of the 02 September 1978 issue, in the What A Cheek strip. Presumably the forceps-equipped gentleman causing Cheeky's discomfort was Mr Tugger.

Mr Tugger's debut
Art: Frank McDiarmid

Our grinning hero's next interaction with the molarmeister came almost a year later in the 04 August 1979 edition, and it seems Ivor had grown a moustache in the intervening period.

Frank again

The dentist returned in the comic dated 08 September 1979, although his name had been removed from the plate by the surgery door at this stage (but his upper-lip adornment was more luxuriant than previously).

More Frank

 

The final dentist gag, a single-panel quickie, appeared in the 13 October 1979 edition, by which time the funny fang-fixer had evidently decided his 'tache was surplus to requirements. UPDATE - this wasn't in fact Ivor's farewell - see below.

NOT Mr Tugger's farewell
Frank once more

The above joke references Michael Bentine, the presenter of kids' TV show Potty Time, and Dentyne chewing gum.




 


UPDATE 14 March 2019 - I've just found another appearance by Mr Tugger, in the final edition of Cheeky Weekly - see below...

Mr T's final appearance in the last Cheeky Weekly
Frank

Ivor never appeared in the Cheeky pages in Krazy.

Character	Total Issues	First Appearance	Final Appearance
Ivor E Tugger	5	02-Sep-1978	02-Feb-1980

Profile - Hot Air Balloon

My decision to devote a Profile post to this particular Krazy Town inhabitant contradicts my declaration here that to qualify for this honour the character must possess a name. In fact, the 'character' under examination this time is an inanimate object (although there is a human being associated with it), but then again so are the Knock-Knock Door and time-traveling Phone Box, both of which have received a Profile post despite not having names as such, so let's press on.

It seems to me that the Hot Air Balloon (HAB) was a creation of a Cheeky's Week artist who I am unable to identify, and refer to on the blog as Unknown Cheeky Artist 1 (UCA1), since this artist was the only one to depict the blimp floating above Krazy Town. HAB made its debut appearance, being pursued by a large bird, on the Saturday page in the 11 February 1978 issue. This wasn't the first occasion on which UCA1 had drawn an aerially-drifting object, as the same artist included Bubblegum Boy (BB) hovering above Cheeky's home town in the comic dated 14 January 1978. That was the only occasion on which UCA1 drew the perpetually-drifting Fred Holroyd, so fortunately readers were spared the sight of a mid-air collision between HAB and BB.

Hot Air Balloon's debut
Art: Unknown Cheeky Artist 1

The next issue to include artwork by UCA1 was that dated 18 February 1978, but HAB was not in evidence on any of the 4 pages which the artist contributed that week. UCA1 next provided work in the 04 March 1978 edition, and 2 of the 5 pages that were delivered by the unidentified artist did feature the subject of this post; on Thursday the balloon was punctured by an arrow, the source of which was unseen, and the following day the perforated sphere continued to  Proooooop!! across the sky.

Art: Unknown Cheeky Artist 1

A week later 3 of the 6 Cheeky's Week elements drawn by UCA1 contained images of the still-damaged dirigible being propelled through the firmament by the gas leaking from its unwelcome aperture, the occupant remaining surprisingly mute considering his predicament.

UCA1 was next drafted in to provide visuals for the 25 March 1978 edition, which was the last to include the hot air balloon, and was the only time that its occupant spoke.

Please note the following page contains material which would be considered inappropriate today...

Hot Air Balloon's final appearance
Art: Unknown Cheeky Artist 1

HAB never appeared in the Cheeky strips in Krazy.

Character	Total Issues	First Appearance	Final Appearance
Hot Air Balloon	4	11-Feb-1978	25-Mar-1978

Count of elements by artist

Character	Artist	Total Elements
Hot Air Balloon	Unknown Cheeky Artist 1	7

Profile - 6 Million Dollar Gran

Readers who have been following this blog for some time will be aware that this series of Profile posts examines the named characters who appeared alongside the toothy funster in his daily ‘Cheeky’s Week’ pages. Cheeky Weekly’s USP (at least in its early days) was that the Cheeky elements acted as framing devices for all the other features in the comic. A number of the characters from the non-Cheeky features were shown to share the same universe as our grinning pal. For example, Skateboard Squad and Calculator Kid were seen on the Cheeky pages a number of times.

Other features had a metafictional relationship to Cheeky’s world; James Bold was the hero of a series of novels (and later a film) which Cheeky enjoyed, and Elephant on the Run was a strip in our grinning pal’s favourite funny paper, the Mystery Comic.

In some cases Cheeky Weekly blurred the reality boundary by incorporating fictional-from-Cheeky’s-perspective characters into the Cheeky pages; Paddywack was initially presented as the subject of a cartoon strip drawn by Doodle Doug, but was later seen at the cinema during a Saturday morning pictures sequence, and on one occasion the titular pachyderm from Elephant on the Run, plus his plastic-clad pursuer, turned up in Cheeky’s Week. Were these examples of the scriptwriter deliberately being playful with the whole concept of the ‘reality’ depicted in comics, or rather the result of lapses in concentration? You decide.

  

6 Million Dollar Gran, initially presented as the robotic star character in Cheeky’s favourite humorous sci-fi/fantasy TV show, made one transition across the fictionality interface into Cheeky’s world. In that particular case, I think we can excuse the comic’s creators for what some may consider to be a gaffe, since Gran’s sole Cheeky’s Week appearance occurred in the final issue of the toothy funster’s comic, during a sequence in which all those funny folk who would be transferring into Whoopee! the following week were shown meeting their new comic colleagues, and therefore the scriptwriter had no option other than to include the synthetic senior citizen. Additionally, the depiction of Gran as a TV character ceased following the 14 July 1979 edition of Cheeky Weekly (Gran’s being the final framing device to be dropped from the comic), and her former TV star status was never mentioned in Whoopee! so it was simpler to assign her to the same level of reality as her Cheeky chums in the final issue of Cheeky's mighty, if short-lived, title.

Gran's non-speaking role in the final Cheeky Weekly
Art: Frank McDiarmid

Any blog readers cross-referencing to the list of Cheeky's Week Characters will be understandably puzzled by the discrepancy between this post's mention of Gran's single appearance and that list's total of 5 appearances by the robotic senior citizen. The difference exists because the Cheeky's Week Characters list includes in the total Cover Features containing the relevant character, whereas the figures shown in these Profile posts excludes Cover Features. The description Cover Feature is one I use for elements that appear on page 1 but which are not comic strips (What a Cheek and its replacement Cheeky's Week were the main cover strips).

Gran's front page appearances that I have classified as Cover Features are on the 12 November 1977, 29 July 1978, 02 September 1978 and 21 July 1979 issues.

It's now apparent that my assignment of Cover Feature is not really adequate - I should have created an additional category called something like Cover Feature - Cheeky-Related, which would have meant that the single-panel Cheeky gag covers would have been identified separately from the cover features such as those listed above. Maybe I'll get round to reclassifying those elements one day.

Profile – Burpo’s Cousins

As if one terrifying toddler wasn’t enough for the toothy funster to contend with, the introduction to 26 November 1977’s Creepy Sleepy Tale revealed that there were in fact a further 5 (possibly more) belligerent babies in the same mould.

Art: Frank McDiarmid pencils

 

Despite the presence of the cousins, only Burpo was seen in the post-creepy-sleepy-tale scene as Cheeky left for home, and this was the case on all the subsequent occasions on which the myriad of mini marauders appeared prior to the Wednesday bedtime story.

The kiddie cousins’ next appearance was in the 'Ello It's Cheeky strip in Krazy dated 14 January 1978, the only time they featured in that title, in which we saw there were at least 6 mini mischief makers in addition to Burpo, although the line of Burpo-alikes was emerging from around a corner so there could have been many more.

Krazy 14 January 1978
Art: Frank McDiarmid

The toddler troupe’s next Cheeky Weekly appearance was in the 11 February 1978 edition, in which on Monday Cheeky hid himself among the nappy-wearing throng in order to enter the newsagent’s unseen for a free read of James Bold novel The Ghost Highwayman. The toothy funster’s usual perusal of 2-comic-pages-worth of the supernatural thriller was interrupted on the Suddenly page when the cousins gave him away, and he was propelled from the shop by the proprietor’s boot. The cousins were back on Wednesday in the same issue when, in the pre-Creepy Sleepy Tale sequence we witnessed 12 cousins in addition to the ‘orrible original, although once again only Burpo was in evidence in the post-Tale conclusion. This three-pages-of-cousins issue was the only one in which the toddling terrors appeared on more than one page, and also the only time they featured on any day other than Wednesday.

Cheeky was again waylaid by Burpo and rowdy relatives as he arrived for his Wednesday babysitting ordeal in the 06 May and 29 July 1978 issues.

Our toothy pal expected to be free of Burpo, let alone the attendant horde of diabolical dummy-suckers, when he embarked on a canal barge holiday in the comic dated 12 August 1978, but found himself being forced to walk the plank by a plethora of piratical potty-perchers.

The cousins’ final Cheeky Weekly appearance was in the 23 September 1978 comic, wherein the menacing multitude was so great that counting them was impossible. It seems that the intolerable infants were surplus to requirements once the depiction of Cheeky’s babysitting misfortunes was dropped from the comic.

 

The cousins' final appearance. Art: Frank McDiarmid pencils
By this time Creepy Sleepy Tale had come to an end, and in this issue the Wednesday page above was followed by the final instalment of the Crack-A-Joke Game

The cousins, none of whom were identified by name, terrorised our toothy pal in 6 issues of his comic.

Character	Total Issues	First Appearance	Final Appearance
Burpo's Cousins	6	26-Nov-1977	23-Sep-1978

Count of elements by artist

Character	Artist	Total Elements
Burpo's Cousins	Frank McDiarmid pencils	5
Burpo's Cousins	Frank McDiarmid	2
Burpo's Cousins	Jim Watson	1

Gaps between appearances

Prev Date	Next Date	Gap (weeks)
11-Feb-1978	06-May-1978	12
06-May-1978	29-Jul-1978	12
26-Nov-1977	11-Feb-1978	11
12-Aug-1978	23-Sep-1978	6
29-Jul-1978	12-Aug-1978	2

Profiles – The Other Cats of Krazy Town – Scruffbag and Tired Tom

Goalie Cat was of course the most frequent feline participant in the Cheeky’s Week pages, appearing in 71 issues, but there were two other memorable moggies among the supporting cast.

Scruffbag

A number of anonymous felines featured on the Cheeky pages during the early months of Krazy, the first to appear being a rather scruffy, wind-swept individual sporting a plaster on his rump who made his unnamed debut in the 04 December 1976 issue.

Krazy 04 December 1976
Art: Frank McDiarmid

We were formally introduced to school cat Scruffbag in Krazy’s 02 April 1977 issue, some 7 months before Cheeky’s own title shouldered its way onto newsagents’ shelves.

Krazy 02 April 1977
Frank again

The lethargic animal evidently suffered some trauma to his rear end during the summer of 1977 as his trademark bandaged tail became evident in Krazy's 02 July 1977 edition.

Krazy 02 July 1977
Frank

Krazy dated 27 August 1977 included a Cheeky’s Pal page devoted to the passive puss.

More Frank

Scruffbag’s Cheeky Weekly debut came in the 05 November 1977 edition, wherein the indolent moggy appeared on the Sunday Evening, Monday and Tuesday pages. This was the highest number of appearances he made in a single issue of Cheeky Weekly, the next highest being his Monday and Friday outings in the 21 January 1978 comic.

Frank

 

Nosy Nora suspects Scruffbag may have secreted the Mystery Comic about his purrson.
Art: Frank McDiarmid pencils

Cheeky’s feline friend appeared in the cinema during the interval in the comic dated 28 January 1978.

Scruffbag fell victim to the Cheeky Weekly Inconsistent Hair (Fur)

Colour Syndrome  when he unaccountably developed stripes

in the comic dated 18 March 1978.

Frank McDiarmid pencils

Fortunately the moggy was able to soon shake off the malady and by the time of his next appearance in the 22 April 1978 edition, had reverted to his normal scruffy self.

Scruffbag’s longest absence was the 32 weeks between his 09 December 1978 and 21 July 1979 farewell appearance. He contributed feline fun to 10 editions of the toothy funster’s comic.

Character	Total Issues	First Appearance	Final Appearance
Scruffbag	10	05-Nov-1977	21-Jul-1979

Count of elements by artist

Character	Artist	Total Elements
Scruffbag	Frank McDiarmid	10
Scruffbag	Frank McDiarmid pencils	2
Scruffbag	Unknown Cheeky Artist 1	1

Tired Tom

In the same 05 November 1977 issue of Cheeky Weekly that featured Scruffbag's debut in that title, Granny Gumdrop's cat Tired Tom also made his first appearance. This stripy feline evidently out-snoozed his school-based comrade.

Tired Tom's debut
Frank

Possibly because the comic couldn't really accommodate more than one fatigued feline, Tom made only one more appearance in the toothy funster's title, that being in the 17 December 1977 issue. Thus he avoided, by a whisker, falling into the one-offs category.

Tom snoozes his way out of the comic
Frank

Although he did put in an appearance (of sorts) in Krazy dated 18 March 1978, when Baby Burpo was the subject of the Cheeky's Pal page.

Profile - Zoot Soot

From our 21^st century perspective, with domestic heating available at the flick of a switch or click on a screen, it’s hard to imagine a time when the mere act of raising the temperature in the living area to a comfortable level involved lugging lumps of crumbly black carbon into the room, piling them in the fireplace and igniting them with the aid of bits of wood and scrunched up newspaper. After enjoying an all-too-brief cosy period, the grate would have to be cleared out and the dusty residue disposed of before the whole process was repeated. Making its way up the chimney as a result of the combustion process, in addition to all sorts of pollutants, was soot; a fine black powder which accumulated on the brickwork. Apparently a serious coating of soot in a chimney could result in the dust catching fire, although possibly this was a rumour put about by chimney sweeps, who were employed by fireplace users to ensure a clean and healthy flue.

I’m not sure how many kids of the late 1970s would have encountered a chimney sweep in real life. I suspect many would have been aware of Dick Van Dyke’s cockneytastic portrayal of Edwardian sweep Bert in Disney’s supercalorific (all those spoonsful of sugar) fantasy blockbuster titled, as Dick/Bert would have it, ‘Moiry Porpins’.

A considerable number of Krazy Town residents were clearly still reliant on coal for their heating, as chimney sweep Zoot Soot joined the Cheeky’s Week cast as of the 12 May 1979 edition of the toothy funster’s comic.

Cheeky's first brush with Zoot
Art: Mike Lacey

Zoot (whose name references the natty 1940s apparel), appears to have avoided the early uncertainty over his appearance which afflicted Ah Sew as well as Messrs Chips and Mutton, since the character design used by Mike Lacey above is also in evidence on the sweep’s second outing, drawn by Frank McDiarmid, and the third, by Jimmy Hansen.

Zoot's second appearance
Art: Frank McDiarmid

In the comic dated 07 July 1979 readers were introduced to the cheery chimney champion’s offspring. Sadly, the adolescent assortment was never seen again.

Frank again

Ursula gets fired
More Frank

Cheeky's grate chum was among the Krazy Town folk selected to appear alongside a mega-sized rendition of the toothy funster on the Giant Cheeky Poster.

Change was sweeping the country
Mike Lacey

Zoot’s final Cheeky Weekly appearance was as a non-speaking participant in the 19 January 1980 edition, in which Ursula dreamily reported on Crystal Belle’s prediction for the new year.

Farewell to the flue-fixing funnyman
Frank McDiarmid

The silly soot-shifter appeared in 14 issues of Cheeky Weekly, but never graced the Cheeky's strips in Krazy.

Character	Total Issues	First Appearance	Final Appearance
Zoot Soot	14	12-May-1979	19-Jan-1980

Count of elements by artist

Character	Artist	Total Elements
Zoot Soot	Frank McDiarmid	7
Zoot Soot	Mike Lacey	4
Zoot Soot	Frank McDiarmid pencils	2
Zoot Soot	Jimmy Hansen	1

Profile – Mr Mutton

Unsuitable for vegetarians it undoubtedly was, but meat-based humour appeared on the comedy menu as from Cheeky Weekly dated 15 September 1979, wherein the toothy funster had his first encounter with Krazy Town’s retailer of animal components, Mr Mutton.

Mutton's first appearance
Art: Mike Lacey

 

Mike Lacey’s artwork from Mutton’s first appearance was re-used on the veal vendor’s second outing, in the issue dated 22 September 1979. The rest of the page featured Frank McDiarmid's pencils, and the pasted-in art suggests to me that Frank hadn't seen Mike Lacey's design for the new character when he drew the set.

Art: Mike Lacey and Frank McDiarmid pencils

 

Mutton’s third appearance a week later, penciled and inked by Frank McDiarmid, wasn’t in fact an appearance – only his voice was heard/read. My guess is that there was still uncertainty as to the character design at the time that the page was drawn, resulting in this off-panel interjection. I have previously speculated on what seem to have been similar issues relating to the early visuals of Ah Sew and Mr Chips.

Frank McDiarmid

Frank gave us a splendid, full-length depiction when the silly sausage seller made his next outing in the 13 October 1979 edition.

Frank again

 

Next it was the turn of Jimmy Hansen to delineate the humorous hawker of ham, Jimmy seemingly taking inspiration for the butcher's stance from Frank’s rendition above.

Jimmy Hansen

Mike Lacey also adopted the leaning-out-of-shop-doorway pose in the 03 November 1979 comic.

Mike Lacey

 

Frank then treated us to a chipper, chopper-wielding Mutton.

Frank
Lena Zavaroni

 

Prior to the issue dated 24 November 1979, the steak seller had been limited to single-panel appearances, but in said issue he was seen in 2 panels, although shocked into silence in the second due to spectral presence in the minced beef.

Frank

Mike Lacey returned to draw Mr Mutton in the 01 December 1979 comic, using again the leaning-out-of-doorway pose. A week later Frank took his pencil to the meaty mirthster, showing him behind his counter, and in the 15 December 1979 edition Frank drew the second 2-panel Mutton gag, giving us a rare (but well done) view of the rear of the butcher’s establishment. The third and final 2-panel offal drollery occurred in the 19 January 1980 comic, and a week later Mutton made his farewell Cheeky Weekly appearance in the penultimate issue dated 26 January 1980.

Mike Lacey
After this, Cheeky Weekly readers heard nothing more
from Mutton. Not a sausage.

The perky purveyor of pork featured in 15 editions of the toothy funster's comic.

Character	Total Issues	First Appearance	Final Appearance
Mr Mutton	15	15-Sep-1979	26-Jan-1980

Count of elements by artist

Character	Artist	Total Elements
Mr Mutton	Frank McDiarmid	8
Mr Mutton	Mike Lacey	5*
Mr Mutton	Jimmy Hansen	1
Mr Mutton	Frank McDiarmid pencils	1*

*When I created my comic database, I designed it to assign artists by element per page only, not by individual panel. Although it can assign more than one artist at element level (see for example Laugh and Learn), it can't accurately reflect instances such as Mutton's second appearance where in one panel the artist was Mike Lacey and Frank McDiarmid pencils, while the rest of the element has been assigned to just Frank McDiarmid pencils - if I assigned the art on this element to Mike Lacey and Frank McDiarmid pencils, all characters within the element would inherit the same dual (strictly speaking triple in this case due to the FMcD/Pencils attribution) art credit. Instances of more than one artist working on a single panel are extremely rare so adverse impact on the data as things stand is negligible. Maybe a way of recording this unusual circumstance will get addressed if I ever get round to designing comic database version 2.0. Anyway, you may consider that Mike Lacey should be credited with 6 Mutton appearances, although it could be argued that since one of those 6 actually re-used previously published artwork, 5 is in fact the correct number. Whatever your view, there were in truth no depictions of Mutton by the artwork team I refer to as Frank McDiarmid pencils.

Profile - Mr Chips

One of the later entrants into the Cheeky's Week supporting cast, joiner Mr Chips (whose name referenced wood chips I suppose, but also the book Goodbye, Mr Chips) was first introduced in a single-panel gag appearing in the comic dated 28 July 1979. Quite what the comedy carpenter was constructing at the time remains unclear.

Mr Chips' debut
Art: Dick Millington and...?

His second appearance was drawn by Frank McDiarmid, including a rendition that's notably similar to the one above. I suspect that at the time Dick drew the panel above, he hadn't seen Frank's version of the character and that someone other than Dick added Mr Chips to the panel at a later date (you may recall I have a similar suspicion about Dick's handling of Ah Sew).

Art: Frank McDiarmid

Chips junior (first name Woody?) made a single appearance, in the comic dated 22 September 1979.

Artist unknown (to me)

Chips' gnashers get an airing thanks to Yikky-Boo
Frank again

More Frank

Despite his resolution to cease the jokes in the new year edition dated 05 January 1980, Cheeky's sawdust-strewn stooge made two further Cheeky Weekly appearances, the final one in the penultimate issue.

Mr Chips' valedictory gag in the issue dated 26 January 1980
Art: Mike Lacey

The jovial joiner was given the honour of having a Cheeky's Cut-Out Comedy Catalogue in his name, devoted to carpentry-related humour, included in the same last-but-one issue. Chips appeared in 21 issues of the toothy funster's title.

Mr Chips was created for Cheeky Weekly and never appeared in Cheeky's strips in Krazy.

Character	Total Issues	First Appearance	Final Appearance
Mr Chips	21	28-Jul-1979	26-Jan-1980

Count of elements by artist

Character	Artist	Total Elements
Mr Chips	Frank McDiarmid	10
Mr Chips	Mike Lacey	7
Mr Chips	Not known	2
Mr Chips	Bob Hill	1
Mr Chips	Frank McDiarmid pencils	1