Cheeky Weekly cover date 12 May 1979

Art: Frank McDiarmid

This week's cover strip features portal punnery with the Knock-Knock Door, swiftly followed by larks with luscious Lily Pop as she takes delivery of her copy of The Sunday Stunner. And where exactly is Cheeky's gaze directed in the final panel? Certainly not at Lily's face (or her hand which for some reason has turned yellow).

Ominous news on page 2
Art: Frank McDiarmid

6 Million Dollar Gran is this week engaged in a search for her bloomers which have blown away with the rest of the contents of her washing line. In a convoluted plot, the lost laundry is propelled through the Earth's crust and the synthetic senior citizen burrows down to locate her errant undies in Australia, allowing another outing for that oft-used British comic device; depicting life in Australia as being upside-down. Do Australian comics show Britain in the same inverted fashion?

Art: Ian Knox

There's further washday wit on page 7 as Calculator Kid enjoys another profitable day courtesy of his electronic chum. I always enjoy seeing Charlie's dad's extravagantly wavy moustache, the curls of which are echoed on young Master Counter's bonce.

Art: Terry Bave

On Wednesday Elephant and The Man InThe Plastic Mac make their only crossover into Cheeky's Week as the toothy funster's dad provides his grinning offspring with the latest copy of the Mystery Comic.

This week's issue of the Mystery Comic is the only one to feature Why, Dad, Why? on the cover. As Dad expounds on the subject of gravity we learn why the Antipodeans depicted in this week's 6 Million Dollar Gran episode didn't fall off the planet.

Art: John Geering

Usual Mystery Comic cover star Tub is entirely absent this week, and for the fourth time a Star Guest is occupying one of the pages of the perplexing publication. This time it's Uncle Rich and Willoughby of Super Store who are attempting to boost sales of Whizzer and Chips. As we return to the Cheeky Weekly section of the comic, an ad on page 21 informs us that readers of that very comic are this week enjoying a free sachet of milkshake mix as IPC's promotion reaches its penultimate fourth week. The toothy funster's comic will be the last title to carry a free packet of raspberry-flavoured powder next week.

As of Thursday, the artwork duties on Cheeky's Week are handed over from Frank McDiarmid to Mike Lacey. On that same page Cheeky introduces us to a new pal, Zoot Soot the chimney sweep. Zoot will go on to appear in a further 13 issues of Cheeky Weekly.

On the following page Jimmy Hansen draws his 76^th and final episode of Skateboard Squad, although there is no indication in the strip that this is to be the last outing for the sensational skateboarders under this title. The intrepid trio will return as of the 26 May 1979 issue in their new guise of Speed Squad.

On Friday Cheeky gets another eyeful of cracking crossing lady Lily Pop, and it seems to be doing his peepers no good at all. Luscious Lily delays a vital consignment of IPC product as she transports the toothy funster across the carriageway.

Art: Mike Lacey

Rainham reader Emily Jacob takes our toothy pal to task on the Cheeky Chit-Chat page regarding the What did YOU do today? diary section which has been appearing at the foot of each daily Cheeky's Week page since 30 September 1978's revamp issue. Ms Jacob isn't happy about removing said sections from her comic, which is a little odd as I'd never believed the diary was supposed to removed. Cheeky democratically solicits reader reaction to the idea of ceasing the diary.

On Saturday we see a selection of Cheeky's pals struggling with the curious culinary concoctions on offer at Auntie Daisy's party. Fortunately there's a happy resolution.

Art: Mike Lacey

The comic rounds off for the 6th consecutive week with a Burpo Special (this time focusing on Mechanic).

As mentioned above, the Cheeky's Week artwork duties in this issue are shared between Frank McDiarmid and Mike Lacey with, in a nice touch, the Auntie Daisy's party storyline being handed over between the two artists, each of whom contribute 5 elements of the toothy funster's week.

Cheeky Weekly	Cover Date: 12-May-1979, Issue 79 of 117
Page	Details
1	Cheeky's Week - Art Frank McDiarmid
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	Monday - Art Frank McDiarmid
7	Calculator Kid - Art Terry Bave
8	Ad: IPC 'Jackpot' 2 of 7 Ad: 'Krazy Holiday Special' 3 of 4
9	Tuesday - Art Frank McDiarmid
10	Paddywack - Art Jack Clayton
11	Ad: Fun-Maker (single appearance)
12	Wednesday - Art Frank McDiarmid
13	Why, Dad, Why? 'Mystery Comic' 23 of 28 - Art John K. Geering
14	Mustapha Million 'Mystery Comic' 28 of 34 - Art Joe McCaffrey
15	Mustapha Million 'Mystery Comic' 28 of 34 - Art Joe McCaffrey
16	Disaster Des 'Mystery Comic' 25 of 30 - Art Mike Lacey
17	Star Guest 'Super Store' - Art Bob Hill (single art on feature)
18	Elephant On The Run 'Mystery Comic' 28 of 34 - Art Robert Nixon
19	Elephant On The Run 'Mystery Comic' 28 of 34 - Art Robert Nixon
20	Mystery Boy reprint from Whizzer and Chips 'Mystery Comic' 30 of 37 - Art John Richardson
21	Ad: IPC 'Free milkshake promo' 3 of 3 Ad: 'Frankie Stein Holiday Special' 2 of 3
22	Joke-Box Jury
23	Thursday - Art Mike Lacey
24	Skateboard Squad (final appearance) - Art Jimmy Hansen (final art on feature)
25	Friday - Art Mike Lacey
26	Menace of the Alpha Man reprint from Shiver and Shake - Art Eric Bradbury
27	Menace of the Alpha Man reprint from Shiver and Shake - Art Eric Bradbury
28	Chit-Chat
29	Chit-Chat
30	Saturday - Art Mike Lacey
31	Saturday - Art Mike Lacey
32	The Burpo Special 'Mechanic' - Art Mike Lacey

Cheeky's Week Artists Cover Date 12-May-1979

Artist	Elements
Frank McDiarmid	5
Mike Lacey	5

Cheeky's Week title panel and What did YOU do today?

As of the 30 September 1978 revamp issue, a title panel began appearing on the introductory page for each day of Cheeky's adventures (apart from Sunday, which sported a title banner - see below). Whereas previously a caption naming the day of the week had appeared above the introductory page on each day of Cheeky's doings, this new title panel was located on the first row of panels and depicted an entry from Cheeky's diary for the day in question, underneath the title Cheeky's Week. The introduction of a more conventional title panel may have been initiated to make the strips more easily used as reprints (although readers of a more cynical nature may have suspected that the changes were made in order to reduce the amount of artwork needed to fill the Cheeky pages).

Thus, from the 30 September 1978 comic, all the Cheeky strips in each issue became titled Cheeky's Week…[name of day]. The front cover gag strip (previously called 'What a Cheek') had considerably more full stops between 'Cheeky's Week' and 'Sunday', but that's because this strip occupied the full width of the front page and the title of the strip was printed as a banner above the strip, spanning the panels.

With one exception, from the 30 September 1978 issue up to and including that dated 30 June 1979, the following pages would commence with the Cheeky's Week title panel;

• Monday (the continuation of Cheeky's Sunday shenanigans on page 2 would not feature a title panel, as the title banner for Sunday had appeared on the front cover).
• Tuesday
• Wednesday
• Thursday (in the 19 May 1979 comic, Thursday spanned one and a half pages. Thursday's Cheeky's Week title panel appeared on the first Thursday page in that issue. The half-page continuation contained a teaser strip for Skateboard Squad's return in the Speed Squad feature which would commence the following week. ).
• Friday
• Saturday (but only the first Saturday page. Interval, being a continuation of Saturday, wouldn't get its own title, nor would the continuations of Saturday)

The exception came in the 31 March 1979 issue, which carried a Cheeky's Week title panel on the Sunday strip on page 2, because the whole of the front cover was given over to promoting the knitting pattern for Cheeky's jersey which appeared inside.

The new title panel wasn't the only element introduced into Cheeky's pages in the 30 September 1978 issue. Also making its debut was the What did YOU do today? diary section, designed for readers to record their daily doings, at the foot of certain pages.

In a typical issue, WDYDT would appear on the following pages;

• Sunday's continuation from the cover on page 2 (unlike the Cheeky's Week……..Sunday title panel, Sunday's WDYDT didn't appear on the front page).
• Monday
• Tuesday
• Wednesday
• Thursday (in the 19 May 1979 comic, 'WDYDT appeared on the first Thursday page in that issue, rather than the half-page continuation mentioned above)
• Friday
• Saturday - from 30 September 1978 to 02 December 1978 inclusive, WDYDT appeared on the first Saturday page each issue (except in the 14 October 1978 issue when the 'Published every Monday by IPC Magazines Ltd...' small print section was unusually located at the bottom of the first Saturday page, thereby shunting WDYDT to Interval for that sole occasion). From 09 December 1978 to 30 June 1979 inclusive (the June 1979 date being the final appearance of the readers' diary section), WDYDT appeared on the second Saturday page each issue.

Wednesday and Thursday pages were absent from the issue dated 02 December 1978 (the first of 2 consecutive issues to be reduced from 32 to 28 pages), so no WDYDTs for those days were present in that issue. These reduced-page-count issues presaged a complete absence of Cheeky weekly in the final weeks of December 1978. When the comic returned (cover dated 06 January 1979), a banner appeared at the top of the internal Sunday page, reading "Sorry we've been away..." so there was no room for a Sunday WDYDT in that issue.

Both the Cheeky's Week title panel and WDYDT came to an end in the 30 June 1979 issue, as the comic underwent another revamp (styled the 'New Look') the following week.

A typical Cheeky's Week page showing the title panel and WDYDT can be seen here.

When I started this blog I adopted the term Cheeky's Week as a shorthand way of referring to the aforementioned strips depicting Cheeky's daily activities. Just to clarify, a list of the features which I consider to constitute Cheeky's Week can be seen here. Please note that only the strips based on days of the week carried the Cheeky's Week title panel and WDYDT diary.

Despite the introduction of the Cheeky's Week title to the element names in the comic, I continue to record each element as just the day of the week in my data (so Monday is still called Monday even when the intro panel says Cheeky's Week…Monday), to avoid unnecessary complication (for me!).