Monday, 20 July 2020
A Plug for Gran
Peter Gray has posted some photos of the fantastic models created by Spencer Jordan. Among the sculptures of comic superstars is an excellent rendition of 6 Million Dollar Gran. This is the only time you'll see Gran alongside Plug from the Bash Street Kids.
Wednesday, 15 July 2020
The Whoopee Years - Cheeky Weekly Characters in the Popularity Polls - part 5
The previous post in this series concluded with the Top Ten results printed in the issue dated 21 August 1982...
As promised on the page above, another Top Ten voting coupon was printed a week later, and also in the 25 September 1982 issue. The next results were published in the 02 October 1982 edition.
To understand what features were appearing in the comic between the previous results and those of 02 October 1982, let's first examine those that had ended between the two dates, which could be seen as the features being culled for failing to garner sufficient votes in the intervening period...
Jimmy evidently couldn't fix it to stay in the comic. The 4 Comics Ring-A-Round Challenge was a promotional feature that ran for four weeks...
...I wonder if there was a hidden agenda behind this promotion and the IPC staff undertaking the calls were instructed to also quiz the readers about their likes and dislikes within the comics.
There was only one feature that started between the poll results...
Not very many changes at all - so what were the ongoing features?...
Mustapha Million, Calculator Kid and Stage School, all of which had secured places in all 6 previous Top Ten polls, continued unchanged. Gran was still in her Robot Granny guise, Paddywack's former whole page strips had been cut back to a half page each week as of the comic dated 21 August 1982, and Cheeky was still enjoying the full page outings he was afforded during the initial phase of the second run of his eponymous feature.
So what was the readers' verdict on the comic's contents in the next set of results, published in the 02 October 1982 edition?...
Mustapha Million, who had topped the first three polls, was making a slow, elegant descent through the ranking, although maintaining 4th position for the 3rd time.
Stage School continued to bounce around the lower half of the popularity stakes, this time coming in at number 5, their highest position so far.
Calculator Kid was, apart from the heights he hit in the second poll, hovering around the mid-point - a creditably consistent performance.
Gran, who had registered at number 7 in the first post-Cheeky-merge poll results, had since been conspicuously absent from the top ten, despite her May 1981 relaunch as Robot Granny.
As promised on the page above, another Top Ten voting coupon was printed a week later, and also in the 25 September 1982 issue. The next results were published in the 02 October 1982 edition.
To understand what features were appearing in the comic between the previous results and those of 02 October 1982, let's first examine those that had ended between the two dates, which could be seen as the features being culled for failing to garner sufficient votes in the intervening period...
| START_DATE | END_DATE | CE_ELEMENT |
| 14-AUG-82 | 04-SEP-82 | 4 Comics Ring-A-Round Challenge |
| 01-MAY-82 | 25-SEP-82 | Frankie's Monster Awards |
| 01-MAY-82 | 25-SEP-82 | Jimmy Fixit |
Jimmy evidently couldn't fix it to stay in the comic. The 4 Comics Ring-A-Round Challenge was a promotional feature that ran for four weeks...
...I wonder if there was a hidden agenda behind this promotion and the IPC staff undertaking the calls were instructed to also quiz the readers about their likes and dislikes within the comics.
There was only one feature that started between the poll results...
| START_DATE | END_DATE | CE_ELEMENT |
| 18-SEP-82 | 09-OCT-82 | Toby's Animal Rescue Service booklet |
Not very many changes at all - so what were the ongoing features?...
| START_DATE | END_DATE | CE_ELEMENT |
| 09-FEB-80 | 25-JUN-83 | Smiler |
| 09-FEB-80 | 12-JAN-85 | Cover Feature |
| 09-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Bookworm |
| 09-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Bumpkin Billionaires |
| 09-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Calculator Kid |
| 09-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Frankie Stein |
| 09-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Lolly Pop |
| 09-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Mustapha Million |
| 09-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Paddywack |
| 09-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Stage School |
| 09-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Sweeny Toddler |
| 09-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Toy Boy |
| 16-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Chip |
| 01-MAR-80 | 19-JAN-85 | Top Ten voting coupon |
| 10-MAY-80 | 09-MAR-85 | Top Ten Results |
| 01-NOV-80 | 27-OCT-84 | Guy Fawkes Mask |
| 21-MAR-81 | 27-NOV-82 | Whoopee It's Quiz Time |
| 09-MAY-81 | 25-JUN-83 | Robot Granny |
| 12-SEP-81 | 25-JUN-83 | Tom Horror's World |
| 31-OCT-81 | 05-NOV-83 | Guy Fawkes Supermask |
| 02-JAN-82 | 25-JUN-83 | Teacher's Pets |
| 27-MAR-82 | 25-JUN-83 | Little Ed |
| 01-MAY-82 | 25-JUN-83 | Beaky |
| 01-MAY-82 | 25-JUN-83 | Kids of Class Five |
| 01-MAY-82 | 25-JUN-83 | Smile-In |
| 01-MAY-82 | 25-JUN-83 | Whoopee Winners |
| 22-MAY-82 | 25-JUN-83 | Cheeky (second run) |
Mustapha Million, Calculator Kid and Stage School, all of which had secured places in all 6 previous Top Ten polls, continued unchanged. Gran was still in her Robot Granny guise, Paddywack's former whole page strips had been cut back to a half page each week as of the comic dated 21 August 1982, and Cheeky was still enjoying the full page outings he was afforded during the initial phase of the second run of his eponymous feature.
So what was the readers' verdict on the comic's contents in the next set of results, published in the 02 October 1982 edition?...
Mustapha Million, who had topped the first three polls, was making a slow, elegant descent through the ranking, although maintaining 4th position for the 3rd time.
| Poll Date | Feature | Position |
| 10/05/80 | Mustapha Million | 1 |
| 15/11/80 | Mustapha Million | 1 |
| 20/06/81 | Mustapha Million | 1 |
| 20/02/82 | Mustapha Million | 3 |
| 07/08/82 | Mustapha Million | 4 |
| 21/08/82 | Mustapha Million | 4 |
| 02/10/82 | Mustapha Million | 4 |
Stage School continued to bounce around the lower half of the popularity stakes, this time coming in at number 5, their highest position so far.
| Poll Date | Feature | Position |
| 10/05/80 | Stage School | 8 |
| 15/11/80 | Stage School | 6 |
| 20/06/81 | Stage School | 10 |
| 20/02/82 | Stage School | 7 |
| 07/08/82 | Stage School | 8 |
| 21/08/82 | Stage School | 10 |
| 02/10/82 | Stage School | 5 |
Calculator Kid was, apart from the heights he hit in the second poll, hovering around the mid-point - a creditably consistent performance.
| Poll Date | Feature | Position |
| 10/05/80 | Calculator Kid | 4 |
| 15/11/80 | Calculator Kid | 2 |
| 20/06/81 | Calculator Kid | 5 |
| 20/02/82 | Calculator Kid | 4 |
| 07/08/82 | Calculator Kid | 6 |
| 21/08/82 | Calculator Kid | 5 |
| 02/10/82 | Calculator Kid | 6 |
Gran, who had registered at number 7 in the first post-Cheeky-merge poll results, had since been conspicuously absent from the top ten, despite her May 1981 relaunch as Robot Granny.
| Poll Date | Feature | Position |
| 10/05/80 | $6,000,000 Gran | 7 |
Neither Paddywack nor Cheeky had appeared among the top ten in any of the polls, despite the considerable efforts made to devise a format that would propel our toothy pal into the most popular features.
My examination of the fortunes of the ex-Cheeky Weekly funny folk in the Whoopee Top Ten polls continues in part 6.
Wednesday, 8 July 2020
The Whoopee Years - Cheeky Weekly Characters in the Popularity Polls - part 4
Some might be of the opinion that to print another set of Top Ten results in the 21 August 1982 edition of Whoopee!, just 2 weeks after the previous Top Ten, was a bit premature. The editor was clearly keen to stimulate responses to the voting coupons, which would be printed 7 times during 1982, so probably felt that the appearance of another list of lucky recipients of the £2 on offer to those fortunate enough to have their completed coupon drawn from whatever receptacle they were stored in would persuade more readers to send in their preferences.
In view of the short amount of time between these results and the previous ones, in this post I won't do my usual analysis of the enders/starters/ongoing strips.
Despite the brief interval between the two sets of results, there had been some movement by our ex-Cheeky Weekly chums...
In view of the short amount of time between these results and the previous ones, in this post I won't do my usual analysis of the enders/starters/ongoing strips.
Despite the brief interval between the two sets of results, there had been some movement by our ex-Cheeky Weekly chums...
 |
| Whoopee! 21 August 1982 |
Mustapha Million continued to be the most popular character from Cheeky Weekly (although having slipped from the premier position which he'd occupied on 2 previous occasions), retaining his 4th place, but Calculator Kid had moved up one notch, to secure 5th position. However, the kids of Stage School hadn't been as fortunate, slipping from number 8 to number 10. Yet again Gran, Paddywack and poor old Cheeky failed to make an impression on the top 10.
My examination of the fortunes of the ex-Cheeky Weekly funny folk in the Whoopee Top Ten polls continues in part 5.
Saturday, 4 July 2020
The Whoopee Years - Cheeky Weekly Characters in the Popularity Polls - part 3
The previous post in this series concluded with the Top Ten results printed in the issue dated 20 February 1982...
The next results appeared in the 07 August 1982 edition. Top Ten voting coupons had by then been printed in the 29 May, 26 June and 31 July comics (clearly the votes sent in response to the latter coupon would have been received too late to be included in the 07 August results). Small voting coupons also appeared on most Whoopee Chit-Chat letters pages - readers were asked to complete and return the coupon when responding to the participation features.
To understand what features were appearing in the comic between the previous results and those of 07 August 1982, let's first examine those that had ended between the two dates, which could be seen as the features being culled for failing to garner sufficient votes in the intervening period...
A significant loss for me in this period is the antedeluvian antics of The Cavers, but clearly my enjoyment of the strip wasn't shared by enough readers to prevent it from being curtailed. Willie had done a bunk, both in his Willie Bunk (new strips) and The Spectacular Adventures of Willie Bunk (occasional reprint) guises. Fun-Fear was also a reprint, returning in March 1982 as an occasional filler pending the comic's revamp in May. You'll notice that 6 features, including participation pages Whoopee Chit-Chat and Smiler's Smile-In, came to an end in the 24 April 1982 issue. This was because the following edition announced itself as having a 'new look', sported a new, two-coloured title design and included '3 fantastic new stories', which appear on the table of features starting between the poll results...But before we look at that, I'll mention that the toothy funster's turbulent post-Whoopee-merge career underwent yet another refashioning as It's Cheeky (a second run for him with that title), ended 2 weeks after the comic's new look was introduced.
This is the promised list of features starting between the poll results...
David Mostyn's Little Ed was actually introduced just over a month ahead of the May '82 revamp, and was a lively, fun strip, with the titular character (Ed being short for Editor) devising different genres of story each week and instructing the artist (whose hand and pen were seen in the strip) on how the narrative should progress. Maybe this strip was influenced by the real Whoopee editor's struggles with its contents. Of the features commencing on 01 May, Beaky was a rather tedious strip, possibly inspired by Rod Hull's aggressive avian associate, concerning a large bird, Jimmy Fixit was entirely forgettable (its association, by reason of its title, with a certain TV programme of the time is now extremely unfortunate), and Kids of Class Five was a quite diverting series, which veered more towards the dramatic than the humorous, and bore similarities to the long-running Grange Hill TV drama (the subject of an earlier IPC title and a later spin-off, prequel strip in the publisher's School Fun). The editor presumably felt that a non-humour strip was necessary to replace the similarly dramatic Willie Bunk, although the arrival of the Kids brought to a total of 3 the number of school-based stories (Stage School and Teacher's Pets were also running at this point) and possibly risked alienating readers who sought refuge from educational matters in their leisure reading. Cheeky's fortunes underwent another overhaul 3 weeks after the above-mentioned 'new look' issue, as his strip reverted to being titled Cheeky, but maintained, for the period in question, its one-page-a-week footprint.
What strips/features were ongoing?...
Calculator Kid was carrying on with the format established way back in Cheeky Weekly, helmed as ever by the always-reliable Terry Bave. Stage School was also unchanged from its early days in the toothy funster's comic. Paddywack, who had enjoyed a run of full-page stories following his stint on the front cover, was finding his strip reduced to just half a page with increasing regularity. Gran was continuing in her Robot Granny phase which had been introduced following her failure to return to the top ten after dropping out as $6,000,000 Gran in the 15 November 1980 poll results, and Mustapha Million carried on, as generous as ever.
So what was the readers' verdict as reflected in the 07 August 1982 results?...
The next results appeared in the 07 August 1982 edition. Top Ten voting coupons had by then been printed in the 29 May, 26 June and 31 July comics (clearly the votes sent in response to the latter coupon would have been received too late to be included in the 07 August results). Small voting coupons also appeared on most Whoopee Chit-Chat letters pages - readers were asked to complete and return the coupon when responding to the participation features.
To understand what features were appearing in the comic between the previous results and those of 07 August 1982, let's first examine those that had ended between the two dates, which could be seen as the features being culled for failing to garner sufficient votes in the intervening period...
| START_DATE | END_DATE | CE_ELEMENT |
| 06-FEB-82 | 27-FEB-82 | Go to the Pictures - Free |
| 20-FEB-82 | 06-MAR-82 | Enter For Frankie's Monster Awards |
| 28-MAR-81 | 27-MAR-82 | Mother's Day Messages |
| 28-NOV-81 | 03-APR-82 | The Spectacular Adventures of Willie Bunk |
| 08-NOV-80 | 24-APR-82 | Blinketty Blink |
| 13-MAR-82 | 24-APR-82 | Fun-Fear |
| 09-FEB-80 | 24-APR-82 | Smiler's Smile-In |
| 10-JAN-81 | 24-APR-82 | The Cavers |
| 09-FEB-80 | 24-APR-82 | Whoopee Chit-Chat |
| 03-OCT-81 | 24-APR-82 | Willie Bunk |
| 30-JAN-82 | 15-MAY-82 | It's Cheeky (second run) |
| 01-MAY-82 | 22-MAY-82 | Crazy Graffiti book |
| 24-JUL-82 | 31-JUL-82 | Bullseye Game instructions |
| 24-JUL-82 | 07-AUG-82 | Bullseye Game |
A significant loss for me in this period is the antedeluvian antics of The Cavers, but clearly my enjoyment of the strip wasn't shared by enough readers to prevent it from being curtailed. Willie had done a bunk, both in his Willie Bunk (new strips) and The Spectacular Adventures of Willie Bunk (occasional reprint) guises. Fun-Fear was also a reprint, returning in March 1982 as an occasional filler pending the comic's revamp in May. You'll notice that 6 features, including participation pages Whoopee Chit-Chat and Smiler's Smile-In, came to an end in the 24 April 1982 issue. This was because the following edition announced itself as having a 'new look', sported a new, two-coloured title design and included '3 fantastic new stories', which appear on the table of features starting between the poll results...But before we look at that, I'll mention that the toothy funster's turbulent post-Whoopee-merge career underwent yet another refashioning as It's Cheeky (a second run for him with that title), ended 2 weeks after the comic's new look was introduced.
This is the promised list of features starting between the poll results...
| START_DATE | END_DATE | CE_ELEMENT |
| 27-MAR-82 | 25-JUN-83 | Little Ed |
| 01-MAY-82 | 25-JUN-83 | Beaky |
| 01-MAY-82 | 25-SEP-82 | Frankie's Monster Awards |
| 01-MAY-82 | 25-SEP-82 | Jimmy Fixit |
| 01-MAY-82 | 25-JUN-83 | Kids of Class Five |
| 01-MAY-82 | 25-JUN-83 | Smile-In |
| 01-MAY-82 | 25-JUN-83 | Whoopee Winners |
| 22-MAY-82 | 25-JUN-83 | Cheeky (second run) |
David Mostyn's Little Ed was actually introduced just over a month ahead of the May '82 revamp, and was a lively, fun strip, with the titular character (Ed being short for Editor) devising different genres of story each week and instructing the artist (whose hand and pen were seen in the strip) on how the narrative should progress. Maybe this strip was influenced by the real Whoopee editor's struggles with its contents. Of the features commencing on 01 May, Beaky was a rather tedious strip, possibly inspired by Rod Hull's aggressive avian associate, concerning a large bird, Jimmy Fixit was entirely forgettable (its association, by reason of its title, with a certain TV programme of the time is now extremely unfortunate), and Kids of Class Five was a quite diverting series, which veered more towards the dramatic than the humorous, and bore similarities to the long-running Grange Hill TV drama (the subject of an earlier IPC title and a later spin-off, prequel strip in the publisher's School Fun). The editor presumably felt that a non-humour strip was necessary to replace the similarly dramatic Willie Bunk, although the arrival of the Kids brought to a total of 3 the number of school-based stories (Stage School and Teacher's Pets were also running at this point) and possibly risked alienating readers who sought refuge from educational matters in their leisure reading. Cheeky's fortunes underwent another overhaul 3 weeks after the above-mentioned 'new look' issue, as his strip reverted to being titled Cheeky, but maintained, for the period in question, its one-page-a-week footprint.
What strips/features were ongoing?...
| START_DATE | END_DATE | CE_ELEMENT |
| 09-FEB-80 | 25-JUN-83 | Smiler |
| 09-FEB-80 | 12-JAN-85 | Cover Feature |
| 09-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Bookworm |
| 09-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Bumpkin Billionaires |
| 09-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Calculator Kid |
| 09-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Frankie Stein |
| 09-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Lolly Pop |
| 09-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Mustapha Million |
| 09-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Paddywack |
| 09-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Stage School |
| 09-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Sweeny Toddler |
| 09-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Toy Boy |
| 16-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Chip |
| 01-MAR-80 | 19-JAN-85 | Top Ten voting coupon |
| 10-MAY-80 | 09-MAR-85 | Top Ten Results |
| 01-NOV-80 | 27-OCT-84 | Guy Fawkes Mask |
| 21-MAR-81 | 27-NOV-82 | Whoopee It's Quiz Time |
| 09-MAY-81 | 25-JUN-83 | Robot Granny |
| 12-SEP-81 | 25-JUN-83 | Tom Horror's World |
| 31-OCT-81 | 05-NOV-83 | Guy Fawkes Supermask |
| 02-JAN-82 | 25-JUN-83 | Teacher's Pets |
Calculator Kid was carrying on with the format established way back in Cheeky Weekly, helmed as ever by the always-reliable Terry Bave. Stage School was also unchanged from its early days in the toothy funster's comic. Paddywack, who had enjoyed a run of full-page stories following his stint on the front cover, was finding his strip reduced to just half a page with increasing regularity. Gran was continuing in her Robot Granny phase which had been introduced following her failure to return to the top ten after dropping out as $6,000,000 Gran in the 15 November 1980 poll results, and Mustapha Million carried on, as generous as ever.
So what was the readers' verdict as reflected in the 07 August 1982 results?...
Mustapha had slipped from 3rd to 4th position. Calculator Kid had dropped 2 places from number 4 to number 6. The kids of Stage School were down from 7th to 8th place. Gran, Paddywack and Cheeky again failed to register anywhere among the top ten.
My examination of the fortunes of the ex-Cheeky Weekly funny folk in the Whoopee Top Ten polls continues in part 4.
Tuesday, 30 June 2020
The Whoopee Years - Cheeky Weekly Characters in the Popularity Polls - part 2
Before commencing this second part of my examination of the fortunes of our ex-Cheeky Weekly chums in the popularity polls following their absorption into Whoopee, I have to apologise because the version of the first part that I originally posted was in fact incomplete. I have therefore updated it, taking the opportunity to also correct an erroneous reference to the date of the demise of Ivor Swap.
The previous post in this series concluded with the Top Ten results printed in the issue dated 20 June 1981...
...it was later revealed that the Bumpkin Billionaires secured 2nd place, and at number 1 was Mustapha Million.
The next results appeared in the 20 February 1982 edition. No Top Ten voting coupon was printed in the intervening period, so the results were compiled from the small voting coupons that appeared on most Whoopee Chit-Chat letters pages - readers were asked to complete and return the coupon when responding to the participation features.
To understand what features were appearing in the comic between the previous results and those of 20 February 1982, let's first examine those that had ended between the two dates...
In this period all the strips that had appeared in rotation under the Merry-Go-Round banner (Dads as Lads, Ivor Swap, Claws V Caws, Sheerluck and Son, Supermum and Blabbermouth) had come to an end. Willie Bunk, owner of a pair of magical spectacles, who had first appeared in Whizzer and Chips, had been revived under the title The Spectacular New Adventures of Willie Bunk, drawn by Frank McDiarmid, in the 12 September 1981 edition. However, as of the 03 October 1981 issue the title of his adventures became Willie Bunk (although they were still new and not reprint), so his New Adventures run is listed in the above table. The cowboy comedy of reprinted Pest Of The West strips had also moseyed out of town. Cheeky's eponymous 4-pages-a-week strip had finished as of 05 September 1981, allowing Frank McD to begin work on the aforementioned Willie Bunk revival which made its debut the following week. Following the cancellation of the Cheeky strip, the toothy funster's allocation of weekly space was reduced to 2 pages, in an arrangement whereby his new strip, Cheeky's Week, shared the centre pages with strips entitled Cheeky's Pal, Cheeky's Snail and Tee-Hee TV News. Sadly, this attempt to revive our grinning pal's fortunes was evidently unsuccessful as all these strips were dropped by the end of January 1982.
What had started in the same time period?...
The first impression is that the 'enders' far outnumber the 'starters', but that's of course because 6 of the features ending were being rotated on the Merry-Go-Round so weren't appearing every week. Willie Bunk appears twice in the above table - as mentioned earlier, following 3 weeks under the title The Spectacular New Adventures of Willie Bunk, the young optically-enhanced hero went on to appear under the more succinct, non-eyewear-referencing heading of Willie Bunk. However, on 2 occasions during the period under review, reprints appeared entitled The Spectacular Adventures of Willie Bunk. Reg Parlett's Teacher's Pets had begun, the editor clearly not troubled by doubts that readers would find another school-based strip (Stage School was of course a fixture of the comic at this time) a surfeit of classroom capers. Another lurch in Cheeky's career occurred with the launch of a second run of strips titled It's Cheeky, this time contracting to just to a single page per week.
What strips/features were ongoing?...
Calculator Kid, Mustapha Million and Stage School continued with their formats unchanged since being transferred into Whoopee. Paddywack had been thrust to stardom on the front cover and his strip expanded, but he was then demoted to the interior although securing a whole page. Gran had been transformed from her former $6,000,000 incarnation into Robot Granny.
So what was the readers' verdict on the comic's contents as revealed in the 20 February 1982 poll results?...
The previous post in this series concluded with the Top Ten results printed in the issue dated 20 June 1981...
...it was later revealed that the Bumpkin Billionaires secured 2nd place, and at number 1 was Mustapha Million.
The next results appeared in the 20 February 1982 edition. No Top Ten voting coupon was printed in the intervening period, so the results were compiled from the small voting coupons that appeared on most Whoopee Chit-Chat letters pages - readers were asked to complete and return the coupon when responding to the participation features.
To understand what features were appearing in the comic between the previous results and those of 20 February 1982, let's first examine those that had ended between the two dates...
| START_DATE | END_DATE | CE_ELEMENT |
| 01-MAR-80 | 20-JUN-81 | Dads As Lads |
| 04-JUL-81 | 18-JUL-81 | The Young Road Traveller's Handbook |
| 11-OCT-80 | 05-SEP-81 | Cheeky |
| 12-SEP-81 | 26-SEP-81 | The Spectacular New Adventures of Willie Bunk |
| 03-OCT-81 | 24-OCT-81 | How To Draw Comic Strips book two |
| 31-OCT-81 | 07-NOV-81 | The Firework Code |
| 16-FEB-80 | 28-NOV-81 | Ivor Swap |
| 01-MAR-80 | 05-DEC-81 | Claws V Caws |
| 23-FEB-80 | 12-DEC-81 | Sheerluck and Son |
| 09-FEB-80 | 19-DEC-81 | Supermum |
| 12-SEP-81 | 26-DEC-81 | Cheeky's Pal |
| 12-SEP-81 | 02-JAN-82 | Cheeky's Snail |
| 12-SEP-81 | 02-JAN-82 | Tee-Hee TV News |
| 16-FEB-80 | 16-JAN-82 | Blabbermouth |
| 02-JAN-82 | 23-JAN-82 | Cheeky Diary 1982 |
| 09-JAN-82 | 23-JAN-82 | Cheeky Diary 1982 Instructions |
| 12-SEP-81 | 23-JAN-82 | Cheeky's Week |
| 06-DEC-80 | 13-FEB-82 | Pest Of The West |
In this period all the strips that had appeared in rotation under the Merry-Go-Round banner (Dads as Lads, Ivor Swap, Claws V Caws, Sheerluck and Son, Supermum and Blabbermouth) had come to an end. Willie Bunk, owner of a pair of magical spectacles, who had first appeared in Whizzer and Chips, had been revived under the title The Spectacular New Adventures of Willie Bunk, drawn by Frank McDiarmid, in the 12 September 1981 edition. However, as of the 03 October 1981 issue the title of his adventures became Willie Bunk (although they were still new and not reprint), so his New Adventures run is listed in the above table. The cowboy comedy of reprinted Pest Of The West strips had also moseyed out of town. Cheeky's eponymous 4-pages-a-week strip had finished as of 05 September 1981, allowing Frank McD to begin work on the aforementioned Willie Bunk revival which made its debut the following week. Following the cancellation of the Cheeky strip, the toothy funster's allocation of weekly space was reduced to 2 pages, in an arrangement whereby his new strip, Cheeky's Week, shared the centre pages with strips entitled Cheeky's Pal, Cheeky's Snail and Tee-Hee TV News. Sadly, this attempt to revive our grinning pal's fortunes was evidently unsuccessful as all these strips were dropped by the end of January 1982.
What had started in the same time period?...
| START_DATE | END_DATE | CE_ELEMENT |
| 12-SEP-81 | 25-JUN-83 | Tom Horror's World |
| 03-OCT-81 | 24-APR-82 | Willie Bunk |
| 31-OCT-81 | 05-NOV-83 | Guy Fawkes Supermask |
| 28-NOV-81 | 03-APR-82 | The Spectacular Adventures of Willie Bunk |
| 02-JAN-82 | 25-JUN-83 | Teacher's Pets |
| 30-JAN-82 | 15-MAY-82 | It's Cheeky (second run) |
| 06-FEB-82 | 27-FEB-82 | Go to the Pictures - Free |
| 20-FEB-82 | 06-MAR-82 | Enter For Frankie's Monster Awards |
The first impression is that the 'enders' far outnumber the 'starters', but that's of course because 6 of the features ending were being rotated on the Merry-Go-Round so weren't appearing every week. Willie Bunk appears twice in the above table - as mentioned earlier, following 3 weeks under the title The Spectacular New Adventures of Willie Bunk, the young optically-enhanced hero went on to appear under the more succinct, non-eyewear-referencing heading of Willie Bunk. However, on 2 occasions during the period under review, reprints appeared entitled The Spectacular Adventures of Willie Bunk. Reg Parlett's Teacher's Pets had begun, the editor clearly not troubled by doubts that readers would find another school-based strip (Stage School was of course a fixture of the comic at this time) a surfeit of classroom capers. Another lurch in Cheeky's career occurred with the launch of a second run of strips titled It's Cheeky, this time contracting to just to a single page per week.
What strips/features were ongoing?...
| START_DATE | END_DATE | CE_ELEMENT |
| 09-FEB-80 | 24-APR-82 | Smiler's Smile-In |
| 09-FEB-80 | 24-APR-82 | Whoopee Chit-Chat |
| 09-FEB-80 | 25-JUN-83 | Smiler |
| 09-FEB-80 | 12-JAN-85 | Cover Feature |
| 09-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Bookworm |
| 09-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Bumpkin Billionaires |
| 09-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Calculator Kid |
| 09-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Frankie Stein |
| 09-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Lolly Pop |
| 09-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Mustapha Million |
| 09-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Paddywack |
| 09-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Stage School |
| 09-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Sweeny Toddler |
| 09-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Toy Boy |
| 16-FEB-80 | 30-MAR-85 | Chip |
| 01-MAR-80 | 19-JAN-85 | Top Ten voting coupon |
| 10-MAY-80 | 09-MAR-85 | Top Ten Results |
| 01-NOV-80 | 27-OCT-84 | Guy Fawkes Mask |
| 08-NOV-80 | 24-APR-82 | Blinketty Blink |
| 10-JAN-81 | 24-APR-82 | The Cavers |
| 21-MAR-81 | 27-NOV-82 | Whoopee It's Quiz Time |
| 28-MAR-81 | 27-MAR-82 | Mother's Day Messages |
| 09-MAY-81 | 25-JUN-83 | Robot Granny |
Calculator Kid, Mustapha Million and Stage School continued with their formats unchanged since being transferred into Whoopee. Paddywack had been thrust to stardom on the front cover and his strip expanded, but he was then demoted to the interior although securing a whole page. Gran had been transformed from her former $6,000,000 incarnation into Robot Granny.
So what was the readers' verdict on the comic's contents as revealed in the 20 February 1982 poll results?...
The Billionaires had bumped Mustapha from his former top spot to number 3. Calculator Kid was up one place to number 4. The aspiring showbiz stars of Stage School had moved up the bill from 10th to 7th place. Gran and Paddywack were unplaced despite the changes wrought to their strips, as was Cheeky, notwithstanding the considerable efforts made to find a format for him that would prove popular.
My examination of the fortunes of the ex-Cheeky Weekly funny folk in the Whoopee Top Ten polls continues in part 3.
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