However, all the survivors who had jumped ship as a holed-beneath-the-waterline Cheeky Weekly sank into comic history continued to appear in Whoopee and Wow! at this time, although their fortunes had varied considerably as the post-Cheeky Weekly months progressed;
- Stage School were still occupying two pages a week, undiminished from their days in the toothy funster's comic.
- 6 Million Dollar Gran had metamorphosed into a seemingly non-robotic role as the leader of Gran's Gang, a single page strip that was something of a come-down after her 3-pages-a-week Cheeky Weekly heyday.
- Mustapha Million continued to appear but had recently reverted to reprints of his Cheeky Weekly adventures.
- Charlie and Calc's Calculator Kid escapades continued (not reprints), and had in fact generated a spin-off strip, Calculator Corner.
- Paddywack persisted with his brand of bumbling buffoonery.
- Ironically, Cheeky himself had suffered the worst ignominy, and from being the star of his own comic was now reduced to a single row of panels near the rear of Whoopee and Wow!
The cover of Whoopee and Wow! dated 18 August 1984 featured a surprise appearance by Cheeky Weekly's synthetic senior citizen, Gran, making a cameo appearance in the Sweeny Toddler strip...
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| Sweeny Toddler: art Tom Paterson Family Trees: art Robert Nixon |
This looks a bit odd to me; Gran is the only character in the strip to display a shadow on her body, and casts no shade on the ground to her right. Also her unspecified 'Yak Yak', and indeed her very presence, seems to be entirely ignored by the other characters in the frame. As you can see below, Gran plays no further role in the strip. Strange. Maybe the aged automaton's presence was meant to suggest that Sweeny's Great Grandpa was a member of Gran's Gang.
For the benefit of anyone puzzling over the teaser in the Family Trees cover appearance...
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| Art: Robert Nixon |
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