A nice Mike Lacey main cover pic promoting Mystery Comic feature Disaster Des makes this a particularly appealing front page. Unlike most of the main cover features of late, which have been lifted from the interior of the comic, this one has been specially drawn. There's some nice detail - the baby being bounced out of the pram, the mouse being the first out of Doomsville. In a somewhat calmer atmosphere, the Cheeky's Week…Sunday strip sees the toothy funster sharing a joke with his subterranean stooge Manhole Man and a very tired wild west gag, that has probably been around since Wyatt Earp picked up his first spud gun, with Six-Gun Sam. The scriptwriter takes a liberty with the title of the folk song referenced in order to make the gag work.
That familiar Cheeky Weekly plot in which a crook makes off with the takings is used again this week - twice. 6 Million Dollar Gran foils a theft from a musical instrument shop's till (maybe this adventure would have better suited last week's issue in which jokes relating to music were in evidence across the comic), and in the Mystery Comic, our portly pal Tub foils a criminal who attempts to steal the fares from the bus company office.
In a particularly crime-ridden issue, Skateboard Squad are in hot pursuit of a shoplifter who has purloined some toys. By means of a cunning ruse, the miscreant continues his getaway using the Squad's boards but, employing the discarded toys as an alternative mode of transport, the intrepid trio bring the felon to justice.
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| Crossroads was a very popular, but much-maligned, TV Soap Opera. There was another Crossroads joke on the Friday page. http://www.crossroadsmotel.co.uk/index.html |
On the Mystery Comic's back page, in Cheeky Weekly cover star Disaster Des' strip, Mike Lacey reprises his baby-launched-from-pram gag as Des causes musical mayhem (another strip that would have been more appropriate last week).
On Thursday, Cheeky's tin-can footie shot is saved by a curiously stripeless Goalie Cat.
Page 23 carries news of a free competition running next week in Cheeky Weekly and companion titles Whoopee! Buster and Whizzer and Chips. 800 models of The Saint's car, as seen in the TV series based on the books by Leslie Charteris, will be on offer. "Order your copy of Cheeky now!"
The issue concludes with a Cheeky's Pal Puzzle in which readers are asked to devise a route home for Cheeky, exposing him to the ire of the least number of Ursulas. The usherette is stalking the toothy funster, believing him to be the source of the custard pie which splatted her in the cinema (the culprit was actually Burpo). This is the final time that Frank McDiarmid will draw a Cheeky's Pal Puzzle and indeed an Interval; both features come to an end next week and, as Frank is currently drawing all the Cheeky's Week strips every other issue, and he delivers all 10 Cheeky's Week elements this week, he won't be drawing the final strips.
| Cheeky Weekly | Cover Date: 25-Nov-1978, Issue 58 of 117 |
| Page | Details |
| 1 | Cover Feature 'Disaster Des' - Art Mike Lacey\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 | Ad: IPC 'Krazy Annual' 2 of 4 \Ad: Lego (final appearance) |
| 7 | Monday - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 8 | Joke-Box Jury |
| 9 | Ad: John Menzies (final appearance) |
| 10 | Tuesday - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 11 | Skateboard Squad - Art Jimmy Hansen |
| 12 | Wednesday - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 13 | Tub 'Mystery Comic' 9 of 34 - Art Nigel Edwards |
| 14 | Mystery Boy reprint from Whizzer and Chips 'Mystery Comic' 9 of 37 - Art John Richardson |
| 15 | Ad: Woodcraft Village (final appearance) |
| 16 | Elephant On The Run 'Mystery Comic' 9 of 34 - Art Robert Nixon |
| 17 | Elephant On The Run 'Mystery Comic' 9 of 34 - Art Robert Nixon |
| 18 | Mustapha Million 'Mystery Comic' 9 of 34 - Art Reg Parlett |
| 19 | Mustapha Million 'Mystery Comic' 9 of 34 - Art Reg Parlett |
| 20 | Disaster Des 'Mystery Comic' 8 of 30 - Art Mike Lacey |
| 21 | Thursday - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 22 | Calculator Kid - Art Terry Bave |
| 23 | Ad: IPC '4 Papers Competition next week'Ad: 'Mickey Mouse' 7 of 18 |
| 24 | Friday - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 25 | Paddywack - Art Jack Clayton\Ad: IPC 'Whoopee' 6 of 9 |
| 26 | Saturday - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 27 | Tweety and Sylvester 'Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf' |
| 28 | Tweety and Sylvester 'Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf' |
| 29 | Interval - Art Frank McDiarmid (final art on feature) |
| 30 | The Terrible Trail to Taggart's Treasure reprint from Shiver and Shake - Art Eric Bradbury |
| 31 | The Terrible Trail to Taggart's Treasure reprint from Shiver and Shake - Art Eric Bradbury |
| 32 | Saturday - Art Frank McDiarmid\Cheeky's Pal Puzzle 'Ursula' - Art Frank McDiarmid (final art on feature) |
| Artist | Elements |
| Frank McDiarmid | 10 |
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