Cheeky Weekly Star Guests in Whizzer and Chips (part 9)

Week 17 of IPC's 1979 Star Guest promotion (in participating comics cover-dated 21 July 1979) means attention turns once again to Whizzer and Chips. In fact this is the 9^th and final Cheeky Weekly Star Guest visit to the famous 'two comics in one', as we have reached the promotion's penultimate week and Whoopee will be hosting the concluding Cheeky Weekly Star Guest.

So which strip has been chosen to make the final promotional sortie into Whizz-kid and Chip-ite territory?

Whizzer and Chips 21 July 1979
Art: Robert MacGillivray

Any long-time Whizzer and Chips readers will immediately recognise this strip as a rehash of The Double Deckers, who graced W&C's pages from 1971 – 1972. Reprints, altered and retitled somewhat unimaginatively The Gang, commenced in Cheeky Weekly just 2 weeks ago, in the issue dated 07 July 1979.

All the Double Deckers stories I have seen from the original run were 2-pagers and this, together with the fact that the above strip commences with our heroes in the midst of an arboreal predicament, suggests that this may just be the second page of what was originally a double-page spread. UPDATE August 2022 - Stephen Archer's research on the original run of The Double Deckers has revealed that my speculation was correct and the artwork above was excised from the Deckers' 2-page adventure originally printed in Whizzer and Chips dated 22 January 1972. That first page can be seen here.

Given that the strip originated in Whizzer and Chips it's a bit of an odd Star Guest choice. Admittedly there are unlikely to be many readers still taking the comic who were reading it 7 years ago when the first Double Deckers series ended and would recognise this as a W&C cast-off. But surely Star Guest should showcase the best/most popular features that Cheeky Weekly has to offer, and clearly there has not been sufficient time to collect any reader feedback on the popularity of the strip in the 2 weeks since The Gang first appeared.

To select an old and hacked-about story from an untried (in its altered form) strip just adds to my impression that IPC management had little enthusiasm for Cheeky Weekly by this stage, and were beginning to run the comic down as the inevitable merge loomed. 

The message at the bottom of the page wasn't wrong as The Gang did indeed appear in Cheeky Weekly every week from their debut in the 07 July 1979 comic until the final edition, meaning any readers adopting the toothy funster's title as of the concurrent issue would have 'enjoyed' 29 episodes of erstwhile Double Decker doings, as well as a further 2 each in the Cheeky Holiday Special published in 1980 and the same year's Cheeky Annual 1981.

The features – The Gang

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Gang in the Cheeky Weekly Index

 

Details of the source material for all The Gang episodes

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

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

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).

The Pages - Page 20

As has been documented in earlier posts in this series, the distribution of features around the early issues of Cheeky Weekly was somewhat different to that which became established as the comic settled into a routine. Thus the concluding segment of Creepy Sleepy Tale - along with its inseparable companion piece Wednesday (conclusion) - was allocated a temporary resting place on page 20 in the first 2 issues of the toothy funster's comic. The cinematic slapstick of Home Movie then moved in to the page in question, but was itself deposed a week later by the Friday element of Cheeky's Week. This initial period of volatility was then calmed somewhat by a 6 week return run of Home Movie. However, Friday then returned for a week, followed seven days later by a What's New Kids advertising feature page in the 07 January 1978 edition. This page may have tempted any readers with some spare Christmas money in the immediate post-festive period to lay out some cash on a Marx Toys plastic fort, Action Man books or (maybe a little less skewed towards the male readership) Thomas Salter Practical Joker kits which Cheeky was promoting.

Tubby Thomson and his Home Movie pals then returned to page 20 for a 3-week run, before being interrupted by for one issue by Cheeky and his Thursday doings. Home Movie enjoyed another 3-weeks in residence on page 20 before being rudely interrupted by a double dose of animal shenanigans on page 20 in the 04 March 1978 comic – namely Bam Splat and Blooie together with fellow Buster reprintee, Cocky Doodle (who was in fact cocking, in that issue, his final Cheeky Weekly doodle).

No doubt having swept the area of of any lingering evidence of poultry, Tubby Thomson and his intrepid band of cineastes resumed possession of page 20 for a further 7 weeks, during which they tackled such cinematic greats as 2001 A Space Oddity and Mary Popkins.

This filmic feast was interrupted by a page depicting Cheeky's Friday in the 29 April 1978 comic, after which Home Movie resumed for a valedictory 6-week run which brought the series to a conclusion and made it, at 26 episodes, the most frequent occupant of page 20.

The following week saw a skateboard competition fill the vacancy left by the departing movie moguls, while 7 days later, in the 17 June 1978 edition, the reader participation gagfest that was Joke-Box Jury shared page 20 with an ad for Twirly, the 'fantastic flying hover toy'. Manufacturer Humbrol no doubt planned on shifting as many of these plastic and balsa units as possible during the summer months.

Our moneyed mate Mustapha Million was the next to occupy the subject location, but his tenure on this occasion was brief as a week later Thursday moved back in and stayed for a total of 3 weeks. Mustapha then returned for 2 further weeks, before being displaced by Charlie Counter aka Calculator Kid making his single page 20 appearance.

The Friday element of Cheeky's week then fetched up for a single issue before Mustapha gained control of page 20 for 2 weeks, relinquishing his temporary resting place to Thursday for a further 2 issues.

Mustapha then returned, but a big change was introduced a week later, which saw the comic undergo some dramatic reorganisation.

That change was of course the incorporation of the Mystery Comic into Cheeky Weekly as of the 30 September 1978 issue, which saw a number of new strips occupy the centre pages of our favourite title. Newcomer Disaster Des staked his claim to page 20 as from that date and held his position for a run amounting to 7 weeks before he was deposed for one issue by his fellow Mystery Comic stars, the father-and-son-funsters of Why, Dad, Why? Des returned for a week but clearly his grip on page 20 had been loosened, as he gave way to Paddywack in the following issue dated 02 December 1978. No doubt you're asking why Paddywack, not a member of the Mystery Comic crew, came to rest on a page which should have been allocated to a MC strip. The answer is that the issue in question was the first of 2 editions which were truncated due to an industrial dispute, and the reduced contents were displaced as a consequence. Thus non-MC feature Joke-Box Jury found itself the surprise occupant of page 20 a week later for the same reason.

There then followed 3 weeks during which Cheeky Weekly failed to be printed.

On resuming publication with a full 32-page issue dated 06 January 1979, Disaster Des was once again ensconced on the page in question, but in the following 2 issues Des was deposed by the Mystery Comic's adventure serial, Mystery Boy. Des then returned for a further run, this time amounting to 4 weeks, before being replaced for the second time by Why, Dad, Why? The disastrous one then reappeared on page 20 for just a week, and was supplanted again by Why, Dad, Why? who moved in this time for a 3-week sojourn.

Mystery Boy then set up camp as of the 31 March 1979 issue, but remained for only 2 weeks, after which Mustapha Million resumed occupation, himself for just 2 issues. Disaster Des made his return a week later, but ceded control of page 20 to the irascible Dad and inquisitive Son antics of Why, Dad, Why? who occupied the subject location for just one week.

Our plucky World War 2 amnesiac chum, Mystery Boy, then found himself on page 20 again, but was displaced the following week by Disaster Des who in turn gave way, in what seemed to be a developing cycle, to Why, Dad, Why?

However, the titanic Des/Mystery Boy/Why Dad Why? tussle over page 20 was not in evidence in the comic dated 02 June 1979 when a segment of the Cheeky Spotter Book of Town and Around came to rest in that location. Having been thusly interrupted, Des resumed occupation for three more weeks. This run ended Des' tenure on page 20, where our pariah pal became the second most tenacious strip to feature (hardly a disaster), clocking up a creditable 19 visits.

In the following issue, dated 30 June 1979, the Mystery Comic as a comic-within-a-comic made its final appearance in Cheeky Weekly and MC stars Why, Dad, Why? enjoyed their final outing on page 20. For the following 2 editions page 20 was home, as the erstwhile centre-page-hugging MC strips found themselves scattered about the comic, to our boneheaded buddy Paddywack, but there followed 3 weeks in which Mustapha Million moved in. The aspiring showbiz students of Stage School then made a 2-week bid for control, but were dislodged by a returning Mustapha. However, Mustapha's hold on the page lasted for only 2 editions after which an advert for Trebor's Double Agents broke the big-spender's grip on page 20.

Reader participation features then monopolised page 20 for over 2 months; the Chit-Chat letters page moved in for a 6-week run before being ousted by Joke-Box Jury in the 27 October 1979 comic. A further run of Chit-Chat, this time lasting for 2 editions, ensued.

As of the 10 November 1979 issue Thursday took occupancy of page 20, lodging there for the 12 weeks that remained until Cheeky Weekly ceased publication with the 02 February 1980 edition, and making Thursday the third most regular page 20 denizen (and just 1 behind Des) with a total of 18 visits.

A quick look at my post on page 'churn' reveals that page 20 exhibited 52 churn events during its run, making it the 19th most-afflicted-by-churn* Cheeky Weekly location.

*I must admit that I now tend to think of churn as an affliction of comic pages purely because a high incidence of churn in a particular location requires more effort when writing these 'pages' posts. However, as a reader of comics I think a certain amount of churn makes a title more interesting and keeps it fresh. The Beano of the 1970s & 80s very seldom varied the pages on which the features appeared (I think the only time things moved was when one strip came to an end and was replaced by another) which contributed to making the comic, in my opinion, extremely tedious (sorry for the heresy, Beano fans!).

Count of Elements (or distinct combinations thereof) appearing on Page 20

Elements	Total
Home Movie	26
Disaster Des	19
Thursday	18
Mustapha Million 1/2	12
Why, Dad, Why?	8
Chit-Chat 1/2	7
Mystery Boy	5
Friday	3
Paddywack	3
Creepy Sleepy Tale 2/2\Wednesday (conclusion)	2
Advertisement: Trebor	1
Bam Splat and Blooie\Cocky Doodle	1
Calculator Kid	1
Cheeky Spotter Book of Town and Around 2/2	1
Chit-Chat	1
Friday 1/2	1
Joke-Box Jury	1
Joke-Box Jury 2/3	1
Joke-Box Jury\Advertisement: Twirly	1
Mustapha Million 2/2	1
Skateboard Competition	1
Stage School	1
Stage School 1/2	1
What's New, Kids	1

Cheeky Weekly cover date 21 July 1979

Art: Gran - Ian Knox (artwork originally appeared
in Gran's strip in Cheeky Weekly dated
18 November 1978), Cheeky - Mike Lacey.
Yet again Gran is described as Bionic,
when it was clearly stated in her opening episode
 that she is a robot.

Which is the most striking feature on this week's cover? The above-title banner which makes reference to the daily nature of Cheeky's strips? The dynamic depiction of synthetic senior citizen 6 Million Dollar Gran? The canine capers in which Cheeky and Petula are engaged? Well, if your pocket money is being stretched to its last penny chew, the most significant item is the cover price which has increased by 1p to 10p as of this issue. This inflationary attack on juvenile spending power is presided over by a beaming toothy funster, who seems delighted to see the new price.

However, readers should have arrived at the newsagent equipped with the requisite cash, since our grinning pal announced the impending rise in the cost of our favourite title on the final Saturday page of last week's issue.

This is the second price rise for Cheeky Weekly, the first saw the cost rise from 8 to 9p just 10 months ago, as of the 16 September 1978 edition (although on that occasion the unwelcome increase was offset by the presence of a prize competition).

On page 2 Frank McDiarmid depicts a typically side-splitting Sunday for the toothy funster, as Cheeky indulges in banter with a selection of Krazy Town folk while negotiating his weekly paper round.

Public-spirited Calc devises a plan, making use of a fortuitous fluctuation in atmospheric conditions, to clean up the streets in this weeks' Calculator Kid.

Art: Terry Bave

Further litter larks are in evidence during this week's adventure of The Gang...

Art: Robert MacGillivray.
Reprinted from Whizzer and Chips where it
appeared as The Double Deckers

Paying a Star Guest visit to Cheeky Weekly this issue is Whizzer and Chips' wee whippersnapper, Sammy Shrink.

Cheeky has an eerie encounter with a new pal on Thursday; it's that funny phantasm, the ghastly gagster himself, Spook.

Art: Frank McDiarmid pencils

There's farmyard fun on Saturday, culminating in a rustic repast courtesy of Farmer Giles...

Art: Frank McDiarmid pencils

...following which the comic rounds off with Snail of the Century.

Some characters from Cheeky's Week make their final appearance in this issue - Baby Burpo's mum and dad, and Scruffbag the school cat.

The Cheeky's Week features in this issue consist of 5 which are pure Frank McDiarmid, and 4 that are inked by another artist (or Frank McDiarmid pencils as I usually refer to such art).

Cheeky's Week Artists Cover Date 21-Jul-1979

Artist	Elements
Frank McDiarmid	5
Frank McDiarmid pencils	4

Cheeky Weekly	Cover Date: 21-Jul-1979, Issue 89 of 117
Page	Details
1	Cover Feature '6 Million Dollar Gran' 3 of 3 - Art Ian Knox (final art on feature) 'Petula' 2 of 3 - Art Mike Lacey
2	Sunday - Art Frank McDiarmid
3	Calculator Kid - Art Terry Bave
4	6 Million Dollar Gran - Art Nigel Edwards
5	6 Million Dollar Gran - Art Nigel Edwards
6	6 Million Dollar Gran - Art Nigel Edwards
7	Monday - Art Frank McDiarmid
8	The Gang reprint from Whizzer and Chips - Art Robert MacGillivray
9	The Gang reprint from Whizzer and Chips - Art Robert MacGillivray
10	Joke-Box Jury\Ad: IPC 'Whoopee Summer Special' 2 of 2
11	Star Guest 'Sammy Shrink' - Art Terry Bave (single art on feature)
12	Tuesday - Art Frank McDiarmid
13	Disaster Des - Art Mike Lacey
14	Stage School - Art Robert Nixon
15	Stage School - Art Robert Nixon
16	Elephant On The Run - Art Robert Nixon
17	Elephant On The Run - Art Robert Nixon
18	Wednesday - Art Frank McDiarmid
19	Mystery Boy reprint from Whizzer and Chips - Art John Richardson
20	Mustapha Million - Art Joe McCaffrey
21	Mustapha Million - Art Joe McCaffrey
22	Thursday - Art Frank McDiarmid pencils
23	Speed Squad - Art Jimmy Hansen
24	Chit-Chat
25	Chit-Chat\Tub - Art Nigel Edwards
26	Friday - Art Frank McDiarmid pencils
27	Why, Dad, Why? - Art John K. Geering
28	Paddywack - Art Jack Clayton
29	Ad: IPC 'Jackpot Summer Special' 2 of 2 Ad: 'Puzzle Time' 1 of 6
30	Saturday - Art Frank McDiarmid pencils
31	Saturday - Art Frank McDiarmid pencils
32	Snail of the Century - Art Frank McDiarmid

The Mike Lacey and Jimmy Hansen Crisis! Part 3

I spent a while searching online for any info about Jimmy Hansen, to try to get some idea of when his first IPC work appeared. There hardly seem to be any online references to Jimmy, certainly no detailed ones. He's absent from Lambiek, but there are a few mentions of him on the Buster website, although none of them give any idea of his earliest work. There is no topic about him on Wikipedia.

A mention on Dez Skinn's site says Jimmy Hansen was working for IPC in (what I take to be) the early 70s, although in what capacity Jim was employed at that time is not made clear.

A search on the Comics UK forum returns 6 pages of posts referring to Mr H, but a lot of them pertain to his later work for DC Thomson and none that I could see mentioned the dates of his early stuff.

If it's true that Jimmy's first IPC work appeared in the mid-80s, then he can't have drawn anything in Cheeky Weekly. However, the reference to Jimmy in Dez Skinn's article means there is a possibility that Hansen art began appearing in IPC titles any time from the early 70s.

I've decided I'm going to leave unchanged all the artwork credits on this blog that I have assigned to Mike Lacey.

Crisis over...or is it?

Further posts in The Mike Lacey and Jimmy Hansen Crisis series...

• Part 4 (including some interesting [?] off-topic observations)
• Part 5
• Part 6 - Resolution!

Or

• Back to Part 1 

The Mike Lacey and Jimmy Hansen Crisis! Part 2

I retrieved the issue of Whizzer and Chips with the same cover date as the first Cheeky Weekly. My plan is to identify (to the best of my ability) any work by Mike Lacey in that issue of W&C, then compare it with the first Skateboard Squad strip in Cheeky Weekly. I'm working on the assumption that Jimmy Hansen didn't begin providing artwork for IPC product until some years later.

First up in the potential-Mike-Lacey stakes is Sid's Snake. To me this seems to be classic Mike Lacey (even though the printing quality is rather rough).

The next contender is Shiner. The style is a bit different to the work on Sid (which has a kind of 'gentler', less extreme look about it, but of course there's not a lot of action in Sid's story), but assuming this was before the Jimmy Hansen era, I reckon it is Mike Lacey. The 'two parallel line legs' with little evidence of knees is a key indicator of Mike's work for me.

The final strip from this issue which has the hallmarks of Mr Lacey (to my eyes, anyway) is this Pete's Pockets. The style is closer to that evident on Shiner than the Sid artwork. However, I suspect this may be a reprint from some years earlier which could account for the slight difference in rendition. The legs, although somewhat obscured by Wellingtons, certainly seem to be typical of Mike. Thus my decision is that this is by Mike.

Now let's compare the work above with the first Skateboard Squad strip...

I don't know about you, but I can see a few Lacey legs in there. The style seems pretty close to that evident in Shiner above, so I'm relatively certain now that this Skateboard Squad is by Mike. Maybe I won't need to reassign the artwork credits after all. More investigations coming soon.

UPDATE - I was just glancing at some covers as I put the W&Cs away when I noticed this Sid story from the previous issue to that shown above. I believe this is by Mike, but the legs are more contoured than his Shiner and Pete legs. Did Mike, like Tom Paterson, concurrently use different styles of drawing for certain strips?

Further posts in The Mike Lacey and Jimmy Hansen Crisis series...

• Part 3
• Part 4 (including some interesting [?] off-topic observations)
• Part 5
• Part 6 - Resolution!

Or

• Back to Part 1