The features - Star Guest

Star Guest was a promotional feature in IPC's humour comics, wherein a variety of strips ventured outside their own title to appear in other comics from the IPC stable. By exposing readers to strips from titles other than their usual funny paper of choice the publishers hoped, with the help of a gentle hint of the 'You can laugh at Lolly Pop and Archie every week in Whoopee!' variety at the bottom of each guest page, to entice their followers into adding an extra comic or two to their weekly fun intake. The Star Guest idea dated back to at least 1972 - see also here and here.

A round of Star Guest strips commenced in Cheeky Weekly at the end of March 1979 and ran until the end of July the same year - a much shorter run than that documented in the links above. During that same 1979 run, while characters from Whoopee! and Whizzer and Chips with Krazy Comic (WCK) were appearing in Cheeky Weekly, stars from the toothy funster's comic were undertaking reciprocal forays into WCK and Whoopee!. The other IPC humour/adventure titles of the period - Jackpot and Buster - did not participate in this Star Guest run as either host or guest. I note that Buster strips were absent from the 1972-74 Star Guest run examined by Irmantas and Knockout Fan, so it seems that the title habitually exempted itself from Star Guest. Jackpot may have been excluded from the 1979 round of Star Guest because, as a new title which commenced publication in May 1979, part-way through the promotion, it was the subject of its own ad campaign in IPC titles. However, based on the available evidence it seems to have been IPC's policy to present in participating titles Star Guests from no more than 2 comics at a time since, as well as being Buster-less, the Cheeky Weekly Star Guest run has another element in common with that of 1972-74 - the strips' comic of origin alternates between 2 titles from week to week (although the alternating-title nature of the 1972-74 round in Cor!! was disrupted somewhat by the demise of Knockout and Shiver and Shake during the term of the promotion).

Cheeky Weekly's first Star Guest
Art: Sid Burgon

Star Guest (which in all runs of which I'm aware featured the words 'Star Guest' in an appropriately-shaped caption overlaid on the page) must have been seen as an effective marketing tool by IPC, since not only was the idea used more than once, it was given an uninterrupted run in Cheeky Weekly between 31 March and 28 July 1979. The run commenced with Lolly Pop from Whoopee! followed the next week by Fuss Pot from WCK, and continued by alternating stars from the two comics in subsequent weeks, as mentioned above. All Star Guest features were single pages, and Super Store was the only one to appear in colour.

Art: Robert Nixon

I can't say whether any or all of Cheeky Weekly's Star Guest strips were reprints, although it would seem that a number were specially prepared for the promotion - see my notes below. It's interesting that in the 1972-73 Star Guest run from Knockout, the strips start out being introduced as new, but towards the end of the run the reference to them being new is dropped, while only one of the sample Star Guest strips from Cor!! is described as new. There were no above-strip introductions to the Cheeky Weekly Star Guest strips. Lolly Pop from Whoopee! was the only Star Guest to appear in Cheeky Weekly more than once, drawn the first time by then-regular artist Sid Burgon, and ghosted by Barry Glennard on the second occasion.

Feature	Date	Character	Artist/Notes
Star Guest	31-Mar-79	Lolly Pop	Sid Burgon - regular artist. May be a strip specially prepared for the Star Guest promotion as it was normally 2 pages per week in Whoopee!
Star Guest	07-Apr-79	Fuss Pot	Norman Mansbridge - regular artist
Star Guest	14-Apr-79	Sweeny Toddler	Tom Paterson - regular artist
Star Guest	21-Apr-79	Sweet Tooth	Trevor Metcalfe - regular artist
Star Guest	28-Apr-79	Scared-Stiff Sam	Mike Lacey - regular artist
Star Guest	05-May-79	Buytonic Boy	Robert Nixon - regular artist. May be a strip specially prepared for the Star Guest promotion, as it includes an introduction to the Steve Ford character and the strip was usually two pages per week in Whizzer and Chips with Krazy Comic
Star Guest	12-May-79	Super Store	Bob Hill - regular artist
Star Guest	19-May-79	Dads As Lads	I think this was ghosted, but I can't identify the artist, nor do I know the name of the regular artist on the strip. Update 19 October 2013 - I suspect the DAL regular artist was Bill Titcombe (?).
Star Guest	26-May-79	Happy Families	Dick Millington - regular artist. May be a strip specially prepared for the Star Guest promotion as it was normally more than one page in Whizzer and Chips with Krazy Comic
Star Guest	02-Jun-79	Smiler	Nick Baker - regular artist
Star Guest	09-Jun-79	Lazy Bones	Colin Whittock - regular artist. May be a strip specially prepared for the Star Guest promotion, as it includes an introduction to the Benny Bones character
Star Guest	16-Jun-79	Sheerluck and Son	Ghosted by Barry Glennard in place of regular artist Trevor Metcalfe. May be a strip specially prepared for the Star Guest promotion, as it was usually 2 pages per week in Whoopee!
Star Guest	23-Jun-79	Paws	Styx (Leslie Harding) - regular artist
Star Guest	30-Jun-79	Supermum	Dicky Howett - regular artist
Star Guest	07-Jul-79	Joker	Sid Burgon - regular artist
Star Guest	14-Jul-79	Lolly Pop	Ghosted by Barry Glennard in place of regular artist Sid Burgon. May be a strip specially prepared for the Star Guest promotion as it was normally 2 pages per week in Whoopee! at this time
Star Guest	21-Jul-79	Sammy Shrink	Terry Bave - regular artist
Star Guest	28-Jul-79	Bookworm	Ghosted by Barry Glennard  in place of regular artist Sid Burgon

Cheeky Weekly's final Star Guest
Art: Barry Glennard

To see the Cheeky Weekly characters making Star Guest appearances in other titles (an ongoing series as of my updating this post), follow this link.

Star Guest in the Cheeky Weekly Index

Feature	First Appearance	Final Appearance	Total Issues	Total Issues Missed In Run	Page History
Star Guest	31-Mar-79	28-Jul-79	18	0	7,8,11,14,15,17,18,19,21,23

Profile - Constable Chuckle

In keeping with his name, Krazy Town's risible rozzer Constable Chuckle could always be relied upon to provide arresting law enforcement laughs.

The funny flatfoot made his first Cheeky Weekly appearance in the 'Easter to April Fool's Day' issue dated 01 April 1978. In fact he appeared in two elements that week - on Sunday Evening and again on Easter Monday.

Chuckle's debut
Art: Frank McDiarmid

Chuckle's badge number was depicted for the first time in the 09 September 1978 issue, where it was shown as 99. The next occasion on which the badge was seen to contain a number was 20 January 1979, but this time it had changed to 321 (a reference to the popular TV game show of the same name which had started in July 1978), and it remained 321 in all subsequent issues in which a badge number was present. Frank McDiarmid was the only artist to show the badge number (although not every time he drew the character), with the exception of the 22 September 1979 comic in which Chuckle was drawn, with badge number 321, by an artist who I'm unable to identify.

Chuckle evidently felt it wasn't a crime to recycle jokes
Art: Frank McDiarmid

Our perky patrolman pal (who of course lived at 999 Letsby Avenue) provided Cheeky with a copy of the Mystery Comic (from within a police box of the type favoured by a certain TV time-traveller - although in reality these boxes had almost entirely disappeared from British streets by the late 1970s) in the 15 April 1978 comic.

15 July 1978 - Mike Lacey  includes Chuckle's address

Chuckle was honoured with a front page slot on only his fifth appearance (13 May 1978) and was further privileged to appear in the same issue's SkateboardSquad tale (in which he appeared non-chuckling in one panel due to near miss by Skipper's speeding board), as well as on Wednesday.

Art: Frank McDiarmid/Frank McDiarmid pencils

The convivial copper made a return visit to Cheeky Weekly's cover on 22 July 1978, where he shared a What A Cheek gag with the toothy funster.

14 July 1979 - Mike Lacey gives a different spelling of the address gag  

A bewhiskered Cheeky encountered Chief Inspector Chuckle when the toothy funster was given a glimpse ahead to his life in 2038 in the 19 August 1978 comic. Assuming Chuckle was around 40 in 1978, he would have been 100 years old when Cheeky's older self met him!

Art: Frank McDiarmid

The laughing lawman (in full uniform) was the first guest to arrive at Cheeky's New Year party in 13 January 1979's slightly-late-new-year issue.

Cheeky's Dad was the subject of 20 January 1979's Burpo Special, wherein our punning plod pal made a cameo appearance, but in the 10 March 1979 comic Chuckle himself was the subject of Burpo's interview. The comical constable's third and final Burpo Special appearance was in the 07 April 1979 episode, in which Spiv (whom Chuckle had arrested for trading without a licence in the 20 May 1978 comic) was the infant interrogator's subject.

Art: Barrie Appleby

The Skateboard Squad strip in the 03 March 1979 comic was the second to feature a guest appearance by Chuckle, and 2 weeks later our chortling chum made his third and final Skateboard Squad appearance in the 17 March 1979 issue. 

The potty policeman was seen on the cover of the comic dated 25 August 1979, among the residents of Krazy Town caught unaware by one of Yikky-Boo's ultra-loud unintelligible utterances. The same issue included the most appearances by the perky patrolman, who featured in 5 Cheeky's Week elements, although there was no narrative connection between them. The convivial copper's fourth and final front page appearance occurred in the issue dated 22 December 1979.

Art: Frank McDiarmid

Constable Chuckle appeared on page 30 of the final Cheeky Weekly, where he was seen in the background of one of the panels as Cheeky met future Whoopee! colleague Super Mum.

Chuckle was featured on a Pin-Up Pal poster only 4 weeks after his debut. In the poster, printed in the 22 April 1978 comic, the humorous helmet-wearer is seen enjoying a good laugh, entirely unaware that a jewel robbery is taking place behind him. Since this poster was printed before Chuckle's badge number first appeared, artist Frank McDiarmid leaves his shoulder badge blank, but does include the letter K on each of Chuckle's lapels (presumably standing for Krazy Town Police).

The snappily-titled Cheeky's Cut-Out Catalogue of Constable Chuckle Jokes (try saying that five times fast) was included in the 22 December 1979 issue.

Chuckle never appeared in the 'Ello, It's Cheeky strip in Krazy.

Character	Total Issues	First Appearance	Final Appearance
Constable Chuckle	83	01-Apr-1978	02-Feb-1980

Constable Chuckle - Number of appearances by Element

Element	Number of Appearances
Sunday	26
Wednesday	18
Thursday	16
Tuesday	10
Friday	8
Monday	8
Saturday	4
Cover Feature	3
The Burpo Special	3
Easter Monday	1
Sunday evening	1
What a Cheek	1

Count of elements by artist

Character	Artist	Total Elements
Constable Chuckle	Frank McDiarmid	58
Constable Chuckle	Mike Lacey	16
Constable Chuckle	Frank McDiarmid pencils	15
Constable Chuckle	Barrie Appleby	5
Constable Chuckle	Dick Millington	2
Constable Chuckle	Unknown Cheeky Artist 1	1
Constable Chuckle	Jim Watson	1
Constable Chuckle	Not known	1

Frank's Dodgy Years

Even the mighty Frank McDiarmid couldn't be expected to deliver a whole Cheeky's Week every issue so, as we have seen, a number of other artists stood in from time to time. While Frank was drawing Cheeky's escapades in Cheeky Weekly, he also drew 44 Cheeky pages in Krazy comic during the 26 weeks that Cheeky Weekly and Krazy shared space on the newsagents' shelves.

However, his work during this period wasn't limited to Cheeky Weekly and Krazy, in fact it wasn't even limited to publisher IPC - Frank was also illustrating Roger the Dodger for rival DC Thomson's iconic title, The Beano. Frank's gig on Roger lasted almost ten and a half years - an impressive run.

The McDiarmid style on Roger was restrained in comparison to his Cheeky work, no doubt to comply with Thomson's requirements, and Frank was clearly ghosting Ken Reid's style when drawing The Dodger's face. Again, this may have been at the request of Thomsons since Reid had been the original artist on the strip, or else it was Frank's homage to Roger's creator.

Here is the first of Frank's Roger strips, from The Beano dated 13 December 1975. Previous Roger artist Tom Lavery's title panel has been retained.

Here's Frank's Roger from The Beano dated 22 October 1977 - the same cover date as the first Cheeky Weekly.

This one's from The Beano with the same cover date as the final Cheeky Weekly - 02 February 1980.

Below is Frank's final Roger strip from The Beano dated 24 May 1986.

Frank also drew at least one Bash Street Kids story in The Beano in 1975.

Roger the Dodger is copyright DC Thomson & Co. Ltd.

Cheeky Weekly cover date 10 March 1979

Art: Frank McDiarmid

Cheeky Weekly's 70th issue is the first with a cover entirely devoted to a comic strip – all cover strips to date (initially What A Cheek, then Cheeky's Week....Sunday as from the 30 September 1978 revamp issue) have consisted of a single row of panels, sharing the front page with artwork promoting the contents of the current issue. The usual 3-panel format is in evidence on this week's front page despite the strip covering a larger area. Manhole Man and Doctor Braincell are the toothy funster's cover stooges this week.

Cheeky's diary entry for Monday refers to the fact that Uncle Hamish has been staying chez Cheeky for 'about three months now'. This is a reference to the curmudgeonly Caledonian's reappearance in the 13 January 1979 issue after a year's absence.

Art: Frank McDiarmid

The Calculator Kid story takes place in a snowy Krazy Town, although there is no snow evident in the rest of this issue's Cheeky's Week strips. It's my suspicion that this week's Calculator Kid was originally intended for Cheeky Weekly's snow-themed 20 January 1979 issue. However, the CK strip in that issue was, if my theory here is correct, itself originally prepared for the lost 23 December 1978 issue. Thus the wintry CK story slated for 20 January 1979 got shunted forward to this issue.

Art: Terry Bave

Baker's Boy provides Cheeky with this week's Mystery Comic.

Art: Frank McDiarmid
Do snails eat cake?

Tub, the Mystery Comic's corpulent cover star, finds himself wedged in a cement mixer at the conclusion of his current adventure.

Four pages after Tub's mixer mishap, Elephant On The Run suffers a similar predicament.

Barrie Appleby's work graces The Burpo Special (in which the infant interviewer interrogates Constable Chuckle) for the first and only time in the comic's run.

As has become customary, a Pin-Up Pal poster on the back cover brings the comic to a conclusion. The father and son stars of Why, Dad, Why? are the subject this week, with Dad contemplating silencing his ever-inquisitive offspring by means of a swift knock on the noggin. Wouldn't be allowed today.

Frank McDiarmid delivers 9 Cheeky's Week elements in this issue, with Barrie Appleby contributing The Burpo Special. Last week's comic was an all-Frank-McDiarmid Cheeky's Week issue, so this issue breaks the pattern of 'Frank on Cheeky's Week every other issue' which (barring a few hiccups) was established as of the 30 September 1978 revamp. For more details see here.

Cheeky Weekly	Cover Date: 10-Mar-1979, Issue 70 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	Tease Break
9	Tuesday - Art Frank McDiarmid
10	Paddywack - Art Jack Clayton
11	Ad: Trebor 'Double Agents Identikit Promotion' 1 of 2
12	Wednesday - Art Frank McDiarmid
13	Tub 'Mystery Comic' 19 of 34 - Art Nigel Edwards
14	Disaster Des 'Mystery Comic' 20 of 30 - Art Mike Lacey
15	Mystery Boy reprint from Whizzer and Chips 'Mystery Comic' 21 of 37 - Art John Richardson
16	Elephant On The Run 'Mystery Comic' 20 of 34 - Art Robert Nixon
17	Elephant On The Run 'Mystery Comic' 20 of 34 - Art Robert Nixon
18	Mustapha Million 'Mystery Comic' 20 of 34 - Art Joe McCaffrey
19	Mustapha Million 'Mystery Comic' 20 of 34 - Art Joe McCaffrey
20	Why, Dad, Why? 'Mystery Comic' 16 of 28 - Art John K. Geering
21	Ad: IPC 'Smurfs Poster Magazine'Ad: 'Mickey Mouse' 11 of 18
22	Thursday - Art Frank McDiarmid
23	Skateboard Squad - Art Jimmy Hansen
24	Joke-Box Jury
25	Friday - Art Frank McDiarmid
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	The Burpo Special 'Constable Chuckle' - Art Barrie Appleby (single art on feature)
30	Saturday - Art Frank McDiarmid
31	Saturday - Art Frank McDiarmid
32	Pin-up pal 'Why Dad Why' - Art John K. Geering (single art on feature)

Cheeky's Week Artists Cover Date 10-Mar-1979

Artist	Elements
Frank McDiarmid	9
Barrie Appleby	1

Frankly it's Frank on Frankie

Peter has posted a Frankie Stein strip drawn by Frank McDiarmid from the 1988 Whoopee! Summer Special.

The features – Tease Break

The Tease Break feature was the third puzzle series to appear in Cheeky Weekly, following on from the brief  run of Teacher's Teasers (3 issues from 26 August to 23 September 1978) and the slightly longer-lived Cheeky's Pal Puzzle (10 issues, 30 September to 02 December 1978). Whereas the aforementioned series prominently featured Cheeky and pals and were clearly prepared specifically for Cheeky Weekly, Tease Break had a somewhat generic feel about it, and was probably sourced from publisher IPC's filing cabinet of old puzzles originally created for other titles. Cheeky and some of his Krazy Town neighbours did appear sporadically during Tease Break's run, but I suspect that this was as a result of some deft cut-and-paste work on the part of the art assistant tasked with compiling the quiz. I'm fairly certain that the punning Tease Break title itself was recycled from another comic. (UPDATE 23 October 2017 - A search for the word 'tease' on the Kazoop blog yields several occurrences of Tease Break, including this one). All this gives Tease Break a strong feeling of 'filler', which is compounded by its intermittent nature, appearing in only 9 issues spanning cover dates 17 February 1979 to 03 November 1979.

The first Tease Break was the only one printed in red and white -
all the others were black and white.

6 Tease Breaks occupied a full page, with the remainder being half pages.

Question 4's 'here is the answer, what is the question' format was cunningly designed to be used in any comic
after a minor alteration to the text. Here, Cheeky's ugly mug has also been pasted in.

During Tease Break's Cheeky Weekly run, a page entitled Cheeky's Summer Tease Break appeared in the 1979 Cheeky Summer Special. This was the only Special/Annual Tease Break appearance.

Tease Break in the Cheeky Weekly Index

Feature	First Appearance	Final Appearance	Total Issues	Total Issues Missed In Run	Page History
Tease Break	17-Feb-79	03-Nov-79	9	29	5,8,11,15,21,22,24

The One-Offs – Slurping Sophie

Slurping Sophie (sister of deafening diner Crunching Chris) was seen once during Cheeky Weekly's run, appearing during 18 February 1978's Interval. Her failure to return was probably due to the limited scope for liquid laughs (at least at the point of ingestion – Walter Wurx had of course monopolised micturatory mirth).

Art: Unknown Cheeky Artist 1