Cheeky Weekly cover date 02 September 1978

This week's cover leads with the Crack-A-Joke game that occupies 3 precious pages inside. I'm not a fan of these cut-out promotions that afflicted IPC comics of the period, I'd much prefer that the pages were put to better use with comic strips. IPC management obviously felt these schemes were effective in securing readers, as they appeared with annoying regularity.

Cheeky's in the dentist's chair awaiting an extraction in the What a Cheek strip, although the toothy funster's gnashers seem intact in the subsequent strips. Snail has gone pale with the stress of it all.

The mirthful mollusc is on the chimney pot in the first frame of the Sunday page (how did he get up there?), surveying the pall of gloom hovering above Krazy Town.  Yes, as was heralded last issue, this is the week in which school resumes after the summer hols.

The plucky trio of the Skateboard Squad are having no truck with school blues, intent as they are on a desperate race across town.  A wily journalist is on their trail, eager to bag an exclusive on the Squad's latest mission.  The newshound struggles to keep up with our heroes, crashing a bike in the process, then chasing them into an office block.  The exhausted journo enters the lobby just as the squad head into the lift and press the button for the 18th floor.  Missing the closing lift doors by inches, the press man races up the stairs.  Emerging utterly drained on the 18th floor, and anticipating a scoop of international proportions, the hack is just in time to see the Squad deliver Skipper and Skatie's dad's lunchtime sandwiches, which he forgot when he left for work.

There's more dental desperation in the 6 Million Dollar Gran strip, as Pauline Potts is suffering from toothache.  Some rather horrific scenes ensue as Gran ends up in the dentist's chair, with Ian Knox's grotesque style employed to great effect.

On page 8 is an IPC ad informing us that cut-out games are also appearing this week in Whizzer and Chips with Krazy, Mickey Mouse and Whoopee!  Additionally, competitions with £300 of Louis Marx toys as prizes will be appearing once in each of the comics mentioned over the next 4 weeks.  The competition will hit Cheeky Weekly dated 23 September.

On Monday, Cheeky is delighted to find that Teacher has lost the key to the school.

The Silly Snaps feature makes its debut on pages 12 and 13.  Consisting of 'amusing' photos supposedly taken by Krazy Town's resident photographer, Flash Harry, (but no doubt really sourced from IPC's filing cabinet of dog-eared old photos) this is, as far as I'm concerned, a filler depriving us of another 2 pages of potential comic fun.

Further fillage is to be found on page 14, where a page of Teacher's Teasers (i.e. puzzles) lies in wait to disappoint those of us eagerly anticipating a resumption of comic fun.  No offence to artist Ed McHenry who provides some nice work, including Cheeky, Teacher and Louise .

Mercifully, the comic-strip capers resume in page 15's Wednesday strip, when the toothy funster encounters Spiv making his first foray into the used (very used in this case) car trade.  A note at the bottom of this page tells readers to "Keep pages 16, 17 and 32 in a safe place until we tell you what to do with them in a few weeks' time, pals!"  So, having wasted 3 valuable pages in this issue, readers can't even do anything with them yet!

Pages 16 and 17 contain the first part of the 'board' for the Crack-A-Joke game.

Page 18 is devoted to the advertising feature, What's New, Kids, but the comics resume on page 19 with the Thursday element of Cheeky's Week, followed by the usual 2-page Mustapha Million. 

A temporary halt to the cartoon fun occurs on page 22, as the Joke-Box Jury are sitting in judgement.  I always enjoy readers' jokes pages, so no complaints from me, there.

From there on it's comics all the way until the back cover, which contains the first batch of question cards for the Crack-A-Joke game.

So this is a rather disappointing issue for lovers of comic strips, as a total of 6 pages are given over to either cut-out features or fillers.  A further page is also lost to an IPC in-house ad, but I accept such ads are necessary so I won't quibble about that.

Two characters make their Cheeky's Week debuts in this issue.  Ding-Dong Debbie makes the first of her 5 appearances, and Paddywack makes his sole appearance in a Cheeky's Week strip, though he has of course been appearing in his own strip since 08 July 1978.

There's pure Frank McDiarmid art on only What A Cheek this week, the remaining 10 Cheeky's Week elements are by Frank McDiarmid pencils.

Cheeky Weekly	Cover Date: 02-Sep-1978, Issue 46 of 117
Page	Details
1	Cover Feature 'Crack-A-Joke Game part 1'\What a Cheek - Art Frank McDiarmid
2	Sunday - Art Frank McDiarmid pencils
3	Skateboard Squad - Art Jimmy Hansen
4	Sunday evening - Art Frank McDiarmid pencils
5	6 Million Dollar Gran - Art Ian Knox
6	6 Million Dollar Gran - Art Ian Knox
7	6 Million Dollar Gran - Art Ian Knox
8	Ad: IPC '4 Comics game and competition'
9	Monday - Art Frank McDiarmid pencils
10	Tuesday - Art Frank McDiarmid pencils
11	Paddywack - Art Jack Clayton
12	Silly Snaps (first appearance)
13	Silly Snaps (first appearance)
14	Teacher's Teasers - Art Ed McHenry
15	Wednesday - Art Frank McDiarmid pencils
16	Crack-A-Joke Game (first appearance)
17	Crack-A-Joke Game (first appearance)
18	What's New, Kids
19	Thursday - Art Frank McDiarmid pencils
20	Mustapha Million - Art Reg Parlett
21	Mustapha Million - Art Reg Parlett
22	Joke-Box Jury
23	Friday - Art Frank McDiarmid pencils
24	Calculator Kid - Art Terry Bave
25	Saturday - Art Frank McDiarmid pencils
26	Tweety and Sylvester 'Fat Cat'
27	Tweety and Sylvester 'Fat Cat'
28	Interval - Art Frank McDiarmid pencils
29	Archie's Angels reprint from Whizzer and Chips - Art Ron Turner
30	Archie's Angels reprint from Whizzer and Chips - Art Ron Turner
31	Saturday - Art Frank McDiarmid pencils
32	Crack-A-Joke Game (first appearance)

Cheeky's Week Artists Cover Date 02-Sep-1978

Artist	Elements
Frank McDiarmid pencils	10
Frank McDiarmid	1

Profile - Ding-Dong Debbie

Ding-Dong Debbie was introduced to Cheeky Weekly readers by way of a Knock-Knock Door joke in the 02 September 1978 issue.  Judging by Debbie's appearance in that first strip, she could well be related to Gloomy Glad.

Debbie 's demeanour had improved considerably by the time she returned in the 14 October 1978 comic, in fact she looked positively manic in the first panel.  Admittedly, not so good in the second.

Two weeks later Debbie was back, and her earlier experience had obviously been so traumatic that fruit was now firmly off the menu.

In 09 December 1978's issue, Debbie provided Cheeky with his copy of The Mystery Comic.

After an absence of 24 issues, the giddy gambler returned for one more time in the 26 May 1979 comic, bringing to an end a run during which she appeared in only 5 issues.

Character	Total Issues	First Appearance	Final Appearance
Ding-Dong Debbie	5	02-Sep-1978	26-May-1979

Count of elements by artist

Character	Artist	Total Elements
Ding-Dong Debbie	Frank McDiarmid	3
Ding-Dong Debbie	Frank McDiarmid pencils	2

A Wacky look at Cheeky

Over at the Wacky comics blog, George has been taking a look at the 1980 Cheeky annual, and he seems to have a somewhat unusual copy.

The features - Wednesday (conclusion)

Wednesday (conclusion) is the name I have given to this strip.  It was never given a name in Cheeky Weekly.

In 44 issues of Cheeky Weekly, the toothy funster had a regular Wednesday evening appointment to babysit Burpo.  Cheeky was highly reluctant to fulfil these duties because Burpo would lay in wait in his front garden with fiendish traps as Cheeky approached.  Reeling from the humiliation of being outsmarted by a toddler, Cheeky would attempt to restore his dignity by reading a terrifying bedtime story, in the form of a Creepy Sleepy Tale, to the belligerent baby.  The plan was to scare the terrible toddler so severely that Cheeky wouldn't be invited back.  The toothy funster's scheme backfired every time as Burpo thoroughly enjoyed the story, and it was Cheeky himself who was often scared witless, fleeing home in terror.

The function of the Wednesday (conclusion) feature was to show Burpo's and Cheeky's reaction at the end of each Creepy Sleepy Tale.  Creepy Sleepy Tale (and its Christmas 1977 variant, the Creepy Pantomime), always occupied two pages, although each week's tale finished at the end of the penultimate row of panels on the second CST page, thus allowing room for the Wednesday (conclusion) to follow on immediately at the bottom of the same page.  Wednesday (conclusion) always consisted of a single row of 3 panels.

The Wednesday (conclusion)s dated 26 November 1977 and 28 January 1978 were based on the same artwork.

Wednesday (conclusion) was missing from a single issue in its run - the comic dated 04 Februarly 1978 was the special skateboard issue and in place of the Creepy Sleepy Tale, Cheeky and Burpo played a game of Skateboard Snap, which was the cut-out feature occupying that issue's centre pages.

The last appearance of pure Frank McDiarmid art on Wednesday (conclusion) was in the 24 June 1978 issue.  Presumably Frank was freed up to concentrate on full page Cheeky's Week features.

Wednesday (conclusion) was usually printed in black and white (with occasional spot colour) despite CST most regularly being in full colour.  I suppose the change back to black and white/spot colour denoted that Wednesday (conclusion) was set in Cheeky's universe.  Sometimes when CST was itself in black and white, a row of asterisks was used underneath the final row of CST panels to delineate the junction between the two features. In the 11 February 1978 issue, the strip was printed in red and white beneath a blue and white CST.

Creepy Sleepy Tale came to an end in the 26 August 1978 comic.  As there was therefore no further requirement for Wednesday (conclusion), it also came to an end in the same issue.

Wednesday (conclusion) in the Cheeky Weekly Index

Feature	First Appearance	Final Appearance	Total Issues	Total Issues Missed In Run	Page History
Wednesday (conclusion)	22-Oct-77	26-Aug-78	44	1	14,15,17,18,19,20

Issues Missed In Run

04-Feb-78

Feature	Artist	Number of Issues	First Appearance	Final Appearance
Wednesday (conclusion)	Frank McDiarmid	15	22-Oct-1977	24-Jun-1978
Wednesday (conclusion)	Frank McDiarmid pencils	11	26-Nov-1977	29-Jul-1978
Wednesday (conclusion)	Dick Millington	1	24-Dec-1977	24-Dec-1977
Wednesday (conclusion)	Unknown Cheeky Artist 1	5	14-Jan-1978	06-May-1978
Wednesday (conclusion)	Barrie Appleby	11	20-May-1978	26-Aug-1978
Wednesday (conclusion)	Mike Lacey	1	05-Aug-1978	05-Aug-1978

Preceding Page	Count
Creepy Sleepy Tale	43
Creepy Pantomime	1

The Cheeky summer of 1981

As those of us in the northern hemisphere begin the long descent into winter, we can revive memories of summer '81 over at Bruce's blog, as he takes a look at the toothy funster's Summer Special from that year.

Cheeky Weekly cover date 26 August 1978

Risible rustic Farmer Giles dominates this week's cover, while Cheeky makes military mirth in the What a Cheek strip.

After last week's trip into the future we're firmly back in 1978 as Cheeky embarks on his usual Sunday paper round, meeting cover star Farmer Giles, a relative newcomer to the comic having made his debut on 08 July, along the way.  His presence on the cover may have led us to expect Farmer Giles to appear several times inside, but his Sunday appearance is his sole contribution to the internal pages.

The Skateboard Squad are summoned by Lord Loot to attend to his dining arrangements in their adventure this week.  Why the butler can't serve the food remains unexplained.

As the toothy funster settles down to watch this week's episode of 6 Million Dollar Gran, he reflects that this is the last week of the summer holidays, so he'll have to resort to his wily schemes to stay up to watch Gran on TV next week.  In fact, there's an air of impending gloom at times in the comic, as several characters make reference to the imminent resumption of school.

As usual, there's great value from artist Ian Knox in this week's aerobatic Gran story.  I like the panel showing the synthetic senior citizen about to make her parachute jump via a plane's cabin door complete with letterbox and welcome mat.

Ed McHenry draws the first Teacher's Teasers strip to appear in the comic.  I'd be tempted to describe this 2-page puzzle feature as a filler if it wasn't for the presence of Teacher and Cheeky.

Pages 16 and 17 are host to the final Creepy Sleepy Tale to appear in Cheeky Weekly.  Sadly, the strip bows out with a tale in black and white rather than the usual full colour.  The frightening fable contains a rather shocking image for a chidren's comic, as a crowd of reanimated skeletons emerge from a graveyard and terrorise the town.  Since there will be no more Creepy Sleepy Tales, there will be no more Wednesday conclusion strips, which always occupied the bottom row of panels on the second Creepy Sleepy Tale page.

The Old Comic feature also reaches the end of its run this issue, reprinting the most modern strip that has been featured, a Champ page from Whizzer and Chips, 1969.

Calculator Kid enjoys a full colour page, as did Cheeky and pals on the Monday feature on page 9.  These strips are in colour because for some reason this week's Creepy Sleepy Tale, although in its usual centre pages slot, is in black and white*.

Having said that Cheeky is firmly back in 1978 for this issue, on Saturday the toothy funster is whisked forward to the year 2001 (for a single panel) by the time-travelling phone box.

 

Petula taking her pet tiger to Krazy Town cat show is the subject of this week's Pin-Up Pal poster on the back cover.

There's a running joke in this issue's Cheeky's Week strips about a learner driver causing chaos in Krazy Town.

Mike Lacey delivers his final Sunday artwork this week.  Mike is in fact the provider of 10 Cheeky's Week elements this issue, with Barrie Appleby providing the art for the final Wednesday conclusion strip.  Frank McDiarmid gives us his What A Cheek on the cover, plus the main cover pic of Farmer Giles, and the Pin-Up Pal poster.

* In IPC comics of this period, colour pages were always printed side by side on a sheet which was then folded in 2 to make 4 pages for insertion into the comic.  Cheeky Weekly was limited to 4 colour feature pages per issue, presumably for reasons of cost, so colour would usually appear on the front and back covers, and across the centre pages.  However, if the decision was taken to print the centre pages in black and white, colour features would appear on pages 9 and 24, which were adjacent on the same 4-page sheet.

Cheeky Weekly	Cover Date: 26-Aug-1978, Issue 45 of 117
Page	Details
1	Cover Feature 'Farmer Giles' - Art Frank McDiarmid\What a Cheek - Art Frank McDiarmid
2	Sunday - Art Mike Lacey
3	Skateboard Squad - Art Jimmy Hansen
4	Sunday evening - Art Mike Lacey (final art on feature)
5	6 Million Dollar Gran - Art Ian Knox
6	6 Million Dollar Gran - Art Ian Knox
7	6 Million Dollar Gran - Art Ian Knox
8	Ad: IPC '4 Comics game and competition next week'
9	Monday - Art Mike Lacey
10	Teacher's Teasers (first appearance) - Art Ed McHenry (first art on feature)
11	Teacher's Teasers (first appearance) - Art Ed McHenry (first art on feature)
12	Tuesday - Art Mike Lacey
13	Paddywack - Art Jack Clayton
14	Joke-Box Jury
15	Wednesday - Art Mike Lacey
16	Creepy Sleepy Tale (final appearance) - Art Keith Reynolds (final art on feature)
17	Creepy Sleepy Tale (final appearance) - Art Keith Reynolds (final art on feature)\Wednesday (conclusion) (final appearance) - Art Barrie Appleby (final art on feature)
18	What's New, Kids
19	Thursday - Art Mike Lacey
20	Mustapha Million - Art Reg Parlett
21	Mustapha Million - Art Reg Parlett
22	Old Comic (final appearance) reprint from Whizzer and Chips 'Champ'
23	Friday - Art Mike Lacey
24	Calculator Kid - Art Terry Bave
25	Saturday - Art Mike Lacey
26	Tweety and Sylvester 'Flight School'
27	Tweety and Sylvester 'Flight School'
28	Interval - Art Mike Lacey
29	Archie's Angels reprint from Whizzer and Chips - Art Ron Turner
30	Archie's Angels reprint from Whizzer and Chips - Art Ron Turner
31	Saturday - Art Mike Lacey
32	Pin-up pal 'Petula' - Art Frank McDiarmid

Cheeky's Week Artists Cover Date 26-Aug-1978

Artist	Elements
Mike Lacey	10
Frank McDiarmid	1
Barrie Appleby	1

Cheeky's Week characters

Here's a list of all the major characters to appear in Cheeky's Week.

Just to clarify, 'Cheeky's Week' in this context means all the daily strips in Cheeky Weekly featuring Cheeky and his pals, not just the Cheeky's Week cover feature.

'Major characters' means all those characters who were given a name in the strips.

For each character, the total number of issues in which they appeared (in a Cheeky's Week strip) and their debut and farewell dates are shown.

Please note that the table below excludes named characters who appeared only once, as they have been/will be the subject of the ongoing One-Off posts, and I'm keeping them a secret until they get their moment in the One-Off spotlight.  So there.

MOST RECENT UPDATE: 14 March 2019  - I found an appearance of Ivor E Tugger that I hadn't previously recorded.

UPDATED 24 February 2019 - Removed Mustapha Million from the list as his 3 previously-listed appearances contained 2 front covers (21 January and 04 November 1978), neither of which can be considered to be within Cheeky's Week. This left Mustapha with 1 Cheeky's Week appearance (02 February 1980 - the final issue), which therefore falls into the 'one-offs' category, and those are not included in this list. Mystery Boy removed as his 2 listed appearances were also front covers (07 October 1978 and 10 February 1979) promoting his story inside.

All characters ™ REBELLION PUBLISHING LTD, COPYRIGHT ©  REBELLION PUBLISHING LTD, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Character	Total Issues	First Appearance	Final Appearance
Cheeky	117	22-Oct-77	02-Feb-80
Snail	117	22-Oct-77	02-Feb-80
Ursula	114	22-Oct-77	26-Jan-80
Bump-Bump Bernie	113	22-Oct-77	02-Feb-80
Lily Pop	113	22-Oct-77	02-Feb-80
Jogging Jeremy	111	22-Oct-77	02-Feb-80
Knock-Knock Door	110	29-Oct-77	02-Feb-80
Teacher	109	19-Nov-77	02-Feb-80
Manhole Man	107	22-Oct-77	02-Feb-80
Gloomy Glad	106	12-Nov-77	02-Feb-80
Posh Claude	106	05-Nov-77	02-Feb-80
Auntie Daisy	102	19-Nov-77	02-Feb-80
Mechanic	100	22-Oct-77	26-Jan-80
Baker's Boy	99	24-Dec-77	02-Feb-80
Yikky-Boo	99	21-Jan-78	02-Feb-80
Six-Gun Sam	99	21-Jan-78	02-Feb-80
Baby Burpo	94	22-Oct-77	02-Feb-80
Doctor Braincell	93	11-Mar-78	02-Feb-80
Granny Gumdrop	91	22-Oct-77	02-Feb-80
Doodle Doug	86	22-Oct-77	02-Feb-80
Louise	85	12-Nov-77	02-Feb-80
Constable Chuckle	83	01-Apr-78	02-Feb-80
Petula	82	21-Jan-78	19-Jan-80
Farmer Giles	78	08-Jul-78	02-Feb-80
Do-Good Dora	74	05-Nov-77	02-Feb-80
Cheeky's Dad	73	22-Oct-77	02-Feb-80
Bubblegum Boy	73	22-Oct-77	02-Feb-80
Goalie Cat	71	22-Oct-77	05-Jan-80
Vicar	68	22-Oct-77	02-Feb-80
Disco Kid	67	08-Jul-78	02-Feb-80
Hid Kid	66	18-Feb-78	26-Jan-80
Spiv	66	22-Oct-77	29-Dec-79
Gunga Jim	63	21-Jan-78	05-Jan-80
Cheeky's Mum	59	29-Oct-77	12-Jan-80
Crystal Belle	59	15-Jul-78	02-Feb-80
Crunching Chris	58	22-Oct-77	29-Dec-79
Walter Wurx	57	22-Oct-77	19-Jan-80
Sid the Street-Sweeper	56	22-Oct-77	05-Jan-80
Commissionaire	51	22-Oct-77	02-Dec-78
Burpo's Mum	50	22-Oct-77	21-Jul-79
Uncle Hamish	50	07-Jan-78	02-Feb-80
Dan-Dan the Lavender Man	48	10-Dec-77	26-Jan-80
Sherlock	47	03-Dec-77	19-Jan-80
Burpo's Dad	45	22-Oct-77	21-Jul-79
Mr Haddock	43	29-Oct-77	26-Jan-80
Flash Harry	41	31-Dec-77	29-Dec-79
Milkie	41	22-Oct-77	12-Jan-80
Herman	39	22-Oct-77	05-Jan-80
Skatie	39	05-Nov-77	29-Dec-79
Calculator Kid	39	08-Jul-78	02-Feb-80
Wipe-Out	37	05-Nov-77	29-Dec-79
Skipper	36	05-Nov-77	29-Dec-79
Oscar	35	22-Oct-77	17-Jun-78
Square-Eyes	34	09-Sep-78	19-Jan-80
Buster the Busker	32	22-Oct-77	09-Dec-78
Snoozin' Susan	32	06-May-78	29-Dec-79
Nosy Nora	29	22-Oct-77	14-Jul-79
Hypno-Tessa	28	14-Apr-79	12-Jan-80
Postie	28	22-Oct-77	19-Jan-80
Libby	27	05-Nov-77	29-Dec-79
Willie Brushiton	26	23-Sep-78	05-Jan-80
Taff the Laff	26	14-Jul-79	02-Feb-80
Newsagent	25	07-Jan-78	24-Jun-78
Newsvendor	23	05-Nov-77	17-Mar-79
Spook	23	21-Jul-79	02-Feb-80
Mr Chips	21	28-Jul-79	26-Jan-80
Telephone Pole Man	16	22-Oct-77	24-Jun-78
Mr Mutton	15	15-Sep-79	26-Jan-80
Phone Box	15	29-Jul-78	06-Jan-79
Rex Press	15	29-Sep-79	26-Jan-80
Zoot Soot	14	12-May-79	19-Jan-80
Parachutist	10	29-Oct-77	13-May-78
Scruffbag	10	05-Nov-77	21-Jul-79
Ah Sew	9	27-Oct-79	26-Jan-80
Burpo's Cousins	6	26-Nov-77	23-Sep-78
Ding-Dong Debbie	5	02-Sep-78	26-May-79
Ivor E Tugger	5	02-Sep-78	02-Feb-80
6 Million Dollar Gran	5	12-Nov-77	02-Feb-80
Short-Sighted Dustman	4	19-Nov-77	14-Jan-78
Hot Air Balloon	4	11-Feb-78	25-Mar-78
Gloomy Glad's Dad	3	27-May-78	12-Aug-78
Posh Claude's Dad	3	03-Feb-79	03-Nov-79
Posh Claude's Mum	3	24-Dec-77	01-Sep-79
Paddywack	2	02-Sep-78	09-Sep-78
Tired Tom	2	05-Nov-77	17-Dec-77

Profile - Ursula

Hulking cinema employee Ursula (alliteratively known as Ursula the Usherette until December 1978) was the antithesis of Cheeky Weekly's glamour-puss, Lily Pop.  Absent from only 3 issues of Cheeky Weekly, Ursula was the character to feature most regularly in the comic after Cheeky and Snail, who both appeared in all 117 issues.  She was also the only Cheeky's Week character to undergo a change in circumstances during the comic's run.

Our initial encounter with Ursula came on the cinema interval page in the first issue of Cheeky Weekly.  As Cheeky approached Ursula the usherette to select some items from her tray of ices and snacks, he made some disparaging remarks about her.  The aggrieved ice cream seller smouldered with rage but remained silent throughout the transaction.  This was to be the way that Cheeky's interactions with Ursula played out until the 04 March 1978 issue, in which Ursula found her voice and verbally laid into the toothy funster.

Art - Frank McDiarmid

In the early strips, additional fun was to be had with the incongruous ingredients in the items on her tray, such as kipper-and-custard flavour lollies.

Like Herman the traffic warden, Ursula regularly sported the iron cross.  She also displayed swastika tattoos in the issues dated 29 October 1977 and 20 January 1979, and a swastika badge on her cap in the 09 September 1978 comic.

Ursula appeared twice in the issue dated 31 December 1977 - once in her usual Interval location, and again on page 32 as Cheeky, awaiting the first guest to cross the threshold for his new year party, fearfully conjured up a thought-balloon depicting Ursula turning up bearing mistletoe.

The striking cinema snack-seller made her first front page appearance on the cover of Cheeky Weekly dated 14 January 1978.  This was the first occasion on which Ursula was heard to make an utterance, even if it was only "Snarl!"

Art - Frank McDiarmid

On a number of occasions Libby, defender of poor, weak girls, leapt to Ursula's aid in the face of the toothy funster's verbal assaults, only to slink off after realising that Ursula was hardly defenceless.  In fact on one occasion, Libby was propelled from the cinema by an enraged Ursula's boot.  Yikky-Boo suffered a similar ejection a few weeks later.

Ursula was back on the cover again on 11 February 1978, this time as a member of the Joke-Box Jury panel.

The lumbering lolly lady made it onto the cover for the last time on 04 March 1978.  This was the issue mentioned above in which Ursula finally snapped as a result of Cheeky's verbal onslaught, and she spoke for the first time.  We always knew Cheeky could dish it out, but could he take it?  Rather satisfyingly, we witnessed the toothy funster reeling from an ear-bashing.  In the following week's comic, Cheeky apologised to Ursula (sort of), saying "Well, Ursula, I'm sorry for all the nasty things I've said about you in the past, even if half of them were true!"  Ursula gave Cheeky a conciliatory, if bone-crushing, handshake in response.  However, the toothy funster resumed his disparaging remarks in the next issue, but Ursula retained the power of speech so was able to reply.

Art - Mike Lacey

Ursula's first appearance outside of the front cover or her usual interval location was on Friday in the 28 October 1978 issue, when the usherette's face loomed alarmingly from Crystal Belle's mystic orb, presaging her cinema encounter with the toothy funster later in the issue.

In the 25 November 1978 comic, Burpo launched a custard pie at Ursula and blamed Cheeky.  On the back cover was a maze through which the toothy funster had to negotiate a route home without meeting any of the Ursulas lurking at junctions.

Art - Frank McDiarmid

The final interval feature to appear in Cheeky Weekly was in the comic dated 02 December 1978.  After this issue, no more Saturday morning picture shows were depicted in the comic, instead we got to see what Cheeky did on Saturday afternoons.  However, the Cheeky's Week writer obviously felt that Ursula had potential outside of the cinema, and she continued to appear.  Her first post-interval appearance came in the issue dated 09 December 1978, when she told Cheeky that she had got a new job as a security guard.  Did that mean that the cinema had closed?  Well, Cheeky visited the cinema in 19 August 1978's 60-years-into-the-future issue, and the Commissionaire's grandson says "My grandad used to get trampled on every week when he let this lot in", so it seems that if the cinema did close, it must have reopened at a later date.

Art - Barrie Appleby

The frightening-faced female's next appearance was on Saturday in the 06 January 1979 issue, when she told Cheeky that she nearly got a new job

Ursula was a guest at Cheeky's new year party in the 13 January 1979 issue.  This was the first time that we saw her in civvies, but she didn't look much better out of uniform, to be honest.

In the 20 January 1979 issue, Ursula told Cheeky that she'd been sacked from her latest job.  This set the trend for her subsequent appearances, as she would either tell Cheeky the outlandish reason why she lost her latest job, or the unlikely tasks (usually feats of strength) she was expected to perform in her new job.

Art - Bob Hill

Ursula was a guest at Cheeky's new year party in the 05 January 1980 issue.

For such a long-serving member of the Cheeky's Week cast, it seems an injustice that Ursula didn't make it into the final issue of Cheeky Weekly - her last appearance was in the penultimate issue dated 26 January 1980.  Nor did the gigantic job-seeker ever appear throughout Cheeky's Week, although she did appear on 2 pages in 17 issues.

Ursula appeared in 3 Burpo Specials.  She was the subject of Burpo's interview in the 21 April 1979 comic, but guested in the Burpo Specials dated 17 March 1979 and 09 June 1979.  She was featured on the Pin-Up Pal poster in the 29 April 1978 comic.

Art - Frank McDiarmid

Ursula was created for Cheeky Weekly, but she did appear in Krazy dated 14 January 1978, in the Cheeky's Pal strip (which was introduced by Burpo as a Burpo Special), and also in the 'Ello, It's Cheeky strip in the final issue of Krazy dated 15 April 1978.

Character	Total Issues	First Appearance	Final Appearance
Ursula	114	22-Oct-1977	26-Jan-1980

Missing From Issues

25-Aug-1979

03-Nov-1979

02-Feb-1980

Ursula - Number of appearances by Element

Element	Number of Appearances
Interval	59
Saturday	16
Monday	11
Tuesday	10
Thursday	9
Sunday	8
Friday	5
Wednesday	5
Cover Feature	3
The Burpo Special	3
Easter Saturday	1
New Year's Eve	1

Ursula - Number of appearances by Page

Page	Number of Appearances
28	31
27	14
29	13
30	8
31	8
2	7
22	6
6	5
5	4
9	4
12	4
23	4
26	4
32	4
1	3
10	3
7	2
18	2
3	1
8	1
11	1
15	1
25	1

Count of elements by artist

Character	Artist	Total Elements
Ursula	Frank McDiarmid	63
Ursula	Frank McDiarmid pencils	25
Ursula	Mike Lacey	22
Ursula	Jim Watson	6
Ursula	Barrie Appleby	6
Ursula	Unknown Cheeky Artist 1	5
Ursula	Dick Millington	4
Ursula	Bob Hill	1

Cheeky Weekly cover date 19 August 1978

Following on from the teaser at the end of last week's issue, this week's cover has been cleared of clutter to give prospective readers a look at a familiarly-attired old gent, his geriatric manhole-dwelling companion and a septuagenarian snail.

It becomes clear on page 2 that this is to be a high-concept issue, as Cheeky gets a glimpse into his life in 2038, courtesy of crazy clairvoyant, Crystal Belle.  One of the surprises on this page is the sight of Bubblegum Boy (now Bubblegum OAP?), still floating above the streets of Krazy Town.

After a glimpse of 2038's Jetboard Squad in the final panel of Sunday's page, it's a bit disappointing to find that on the following page is a story of their grandparents, the Skateboard Squad, set in 1978.

On Sunday evening, the elderly toothy funster is delighted to find that a 1978 repeat of 6 Million Dollar Gran is on TV.  Fortunately for us readers, the repeat must feature the episode that we would have witnessed anyway had this issue not leapt 60 years into the future, as it's one we haven't read before, in which Gran tackles a volcanic eruption.  Unfortunately, there's a continuity error at the end of the Gran strip - in the final panel a youthful toothy funster is seen in front of the TV set as a 'The End' caption appears, not the aged version who started viewing the episode in the final panel of the Sunday evening page.

Doodle Doug, now grey-haired, delivers the Paddywack strip as usual, and the intellectually-challenged subject of his strip doesn't look a day older than when Doug drew him 60 years earlier, but of course comic characters seldom age, the Cheeky's Week strips in this issue being a notable exception..

Cheeky meets the adult Burpo on Wednesday, and has to read a Creepy Sleepy Tale to a new generation of Burpos.  There's another continuity error in the conclusion to Wednesday, which features a youthful Cheeky again.

On Thursday, Cheeky visits Krazy Town library to peruse their bound editions of the Mystery Comic, from which he selects the Mustapha Million story which appeared in the issue dated 19 August 1978.  As Creepy Sleepy Tale had been shifted forward in the comic, and consequently was in black and white, Mustapha Million benefits from being in the full-colour centre-page slot.

The What's New, Kids feature on page 19 is firmly set in 1978, as a youthful Cheeky and not-so-youthful Granny Gumdrop tell us about various items of merchandise hoping to attract the attention of kids from the late 70s.

On Friday, the elderly Cheeky meets an equally aged Charlie Counter, who has of course brought Calculator with him.  Calculator, looking not a day older than he did in 1978, calculates what he and Charlie were doing 60 years earlier to present the Calculator Kid strip on page 21.

There's a double-page Joke-Box Jury on pages 22 and 23, and sitting in judgement of the readers' jokes are youthful versions of Cheeky's pals, so it's not set in 2038.

Cheeky attends the pensioners' film show on Saturday.  60 years into the future, they're still showing those rotten Tweety and Sylvester cartoons, but luckily for us regular readers, the main feature is the second episode of the Archie's Angels series we started reading in last week's issue.  What are the chances of that happening?

Crystal Belle brings Cheeky back to 1978 in the 3-panel conclusion to Saturday, and this issue rounds off with a back-cover Pin-Up Pal poster of Herman the traffic warden.

This is a great issue with lots of fun to be had as we encounter senior-citizen versions of many of Cheeky's pals (but sadly no Walter Wurx - I suppose poking fun at an elderly gent with bladder problems would have been a bit cruel).  Just to be exceptionally picky - it's a shame about the couple of continuity errors.  I suppose the strips in question were prepared some time before the idea for this special issue was mooted.  Nevertheless, I always appreciate it when comic creators go to the trouble of doing something special like this, and this is one of the most memorable issues of Cheeky Weekly.

Thankfully, most of the Cheeky's Week art on this special issue is pure Frank McDiarmid.  Frank delivers 10 Cheeky's Week elements plus the cover and Pin-Up Pal poster, with Barrie Appleby delivering the Wednesday conclusion.

Having enjoyed this issue, we're left reflecting on one question - what did Cheeky do this week in 1978?  We'll never know.

Cheeky Weekly	Cover Date: 12-Aug-1978, Issue 43 of 117
Page	Details
1	Cover Feature 'Crystal Belle' - Art Frank McDiarmid\What a Cheek - Art Frank McDiarmid
2	Sunday - Art Frank McDiarmid pencils
3	Skateboard Squad - Art Jimmy Hansen
4	Sunday evening - Art Frank McDiarmid pencils
5	6 Million Dollar Gran - Art Ian Knox
6	6 Million Dollar Gran - Art Ian Knox
7	6 Million Dollar Gran - Art Ian Knox
8	Monday - Art Frank McDiarmid pencils
9	Ad: Bubbly
10	Tuesday - Art Frank McDiarmid pencils
11	Paddywack - Art Jack Clayton
12	Wednesday - Art Frank McDiarmid pencils
13	Creepy Sleepy Tale - Art Keith Reynolds
14	Creepy Sleepy Tale - Art Keith Reynolds\Wednesday (conclusion) - Art Barrie Appleby
15	Thursday - Art Frank McDiarmid pencils
16	Mustapha Million - Art Joe McCaffrey
17	Mustapha Million - Art Joe McCaffrey
18	Ad: Trebor 'Double Agents Fingerprint Kit Promotion' 2 of 2
19	Friday - Art Frank McDiarmid pencils
20	Calculator Kid - Art Terry Bave
21	What's New, Kids\Joke-Box Jury
22	Ad: Rowntree Mackintosh
23	Saturday - Art Frank McDiarmid pencils
24	Ad: Burton's (single appearance)
25	Tweety and Sylvester 'Brain Drain'
26	Tweety and Sylvester 'Brain Drain'
27	Interval - Art Frank McDiarmid pencils
28	Archie's Angels (first appearance) reprint from Whizzer and Chips - Art Ron Turner (first art on feature)
29	Archie's Angels (first appearance) reprint from Whizzer and Chips - Art Ron Turner (first art on feature)
30	Archie's Angels (first appearance) reprint from Whizzer and Chips - Art Ron Turner (first art on feature)
31	Saturday - Art Frank McDiarmid pencils\Ad: IPC 'Jinty' 6 of 7
32	Pin-up pal 'Teacher' - Art Frank McDiarmid

Cheeky's Week Artists Cover Date 19-Aug-1978

Artist	Elements
Frank McDiarmid	10
Barrie Appleby	1