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