Cheeky Weekly cover date 21 April 1979

Art: Frank McDiarmid

We're straight into the comic fun again this week with another cover pleasingly free of promotional fluff, as Cheeky partakes of Easter Sunday badinage with Farmer Giles, then witnesses the fallout from Crunching Chris' cacophonous consumption of seasonal comestibles. An appealingly animated cover from Frank McDiarmid.

Cheeky cracks more egg jokes as his Sunday escapade continues on to page 2, and the Easter fun extends into 6 Million Dollar Gran's story (reduced to 2 pages this week due to the pressure on space resulting from inclusion of part 3 of the Top Ten poster, adverts and Star Guest).

Unlike the cover strip which retains its usual title despite the events depicted thereon transpiring on Easter Sunday (15 April), the Monday page is headed Easter Monday, and of course the toothy funster can't resist more egg-related larks. It appears some alteration to the artwork has been necessary, presumably due to the inclusion of the Star Guest page. I suspect that the different style of lettering in the page's final panel indicates that an episode of Calculator Kid (who is absent this week) was originally scheduled to follow Easter Monday, but Charlie and Calc were dropped to allow room for a visit by Sweet Tooth from Whizzer and Chips as part of the Star Guest promotion. Thus the original final panel featuring Cheeky's intro to Calculator Kid had to be changed. The drawing of Cheeky used in the final panel was also pasted into the final panel of Thursday in the 07 April 1979 comic. This is the third consecutive issue, each of which included a Star Guest, to feature changes of this kind, suggesting to me that the 1979 Star Guest run encompassing Cheeky Weekly, Whizzer and Chips and Whoopee! may have been a hastily-implemented affair that wouldn't have caused such disruption to the other participating comics, since their features don't include introductions to the following strips and thus could easily drop a regular humour strip at short notice with no need for alteration to the surrounding pages.

Art: Frank McDiarmid

On Wednesday Granny Gumdrop gives Cheeky a wooden Easter egg, but our toothy pal is delighted to discover that the Grand Easter Issue of the Mystery Comic is concealed inside. The comic-within-a-comic kicks off with an Easter egg based Tub episode. Elephant On The Run has a typically frantic escapade while at the Easter Fair, and there's seasonal fun in the Why, Dad, Why? strip (featuring an appropriate rendition of the protagonists in the title banner), which for once ends on a relatively amicable note.

Page surround art: Ed McHenry
Tub art: Nigel Edwards

Art: John Geering

There's no Easter content in the Mustapha Million story (other than a caption in the final panel wishing readers a happy Easter). An ad for WH Smith brings this week's Mystery Comic to a conclusion. Disaster Des is missing this time (explaining why his Easter story appeared in last week's issue), because 3 Mystery Comic pages have been devoted to adverts, and a further 2 are host to the the third instalment of the Top Ten poster (this week featuring black and white mugshots of Henry 'The Fonz' Winkler at number 3 and Olivia Newton-John at number 2). 

So much for my confident assertion in the previous issue summary that printing Easter stories in this week's Mystery Comic “would render [them] rather late for Easter celebrations”!

Back within the pages of Cheeky Weekly, the Skateboard Squad are enjoying their Easter holidays, but finding the play street packed with kids, decide to use the empty school playground for their recreational activity of choice. The ever-helpful trio then have fun employing their 'boarding skills to assist the school cleaner.

Art: Jimmy Hansen

It's not only the intrepid Squad members who are going to school despite it being the holidays – on Friday the toothy funster visits his educational establishment in order to sneak a read of the latest Alpha Man episode in Teacher's copy of Teachers Weekly.

On the Chit-Chat page there's disappointment for reader Suzanne Platt, who will be leaving Letchworth, bound for a new life in the USA. Our grinning pal has to break the bad news that Cheeky Weekly is not available across the pond, but helpfully suggests that she might be able to persuade a friend to send her a copy each week. Below that letter, Lynette Kannemeyer tells of an encounter on the celebrity-packed streets of Chiswick.

A thirst-inducing half-page ad on page 29 announces that a free sachet of Kellogg's milkshake mix will be affixed to the cover of a rotating selection of IPC's humour titles over the next 5 weeks. Cheeky Weekly readers will have to wait until the issue dated 19 May to get their hands on the raspberry-flavoured powder, although IPC are no doubt hoping their ploy of staggering the freebies will tempt kids into buying comics other than their regular title in order to enjoy an early milkshake or two. In what is intended to be a mutually beneficial promotion, Kelloggs hope to inculcate Two Shakes habits that will swell their coffers across the summer months. Knock-on sales, as households around the country find themselves unaccountably short of milk as a result of the consumption of free drink mix, could boost the British dairy industry as well.

After Cheeky spends Saturday in the garden, with the inevitable crop of herbaceous humour, the comic rounds off with the now-traditional back page feature, the Burpo Special. This time the subject of Burpo's interrogation is Ursula.

There's a recurring, curiously-posed Cheeky/Snail image in this week's issue; on Easter Monday, again on Thursday and once more on Saturday. Frank must have liked drawing it.

Art: Frank McDiarmid

This week sees a welcome all-pure-Frank McDiarmid-Cheeky's-Week, the first since 24 March 1979. Frank delivers 10 fun-filled elements (including the Burpo Special). As well as that, there's a nice spread of Easter stories among the non-Cheeky strips.

Cheeky Weekly	Cover Date: 21-Apr-1979, Issue 76 of 117
Page	Details
1	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	Joke-Box Jury\Ad: IPC 'Buster and Monster Fun Spring Special' 2 of 3
6	Easter Monday (final appearance) - Art Frank McDiarmid (final art on feature)
7	Star Guest 'Sweet Tooth' - Art Trevor Metcalfe (single art on feature)
8	Tuesday - Art Frank McDiarmid
9	Paddywack - Art Jack Clayton
10	Wednesday - Art Frank McDiarmid
11	Tub 'Mystery Comic' 25 of 34 - Art Nigel Edwards
12	Elephant On The Run 'Mystery Comic' 25 of 34 - Art Robert Nixon
13	Elephant On The Run 'Mystery Comic' 25 of 34 - Art Robert Nixon
14	Mystery Boy reprint from Whizzer and Chips 'Mystery Comic' 27 of 37 - Art John Richardson
15	Ad: IPC 'Tornado' 4 of 4 Ad: 'Cor Holiday Special' 2 of 2
16	Top Ten Poster
17	Top Ten Poster
18	Why, Dad, Why? 'Mystery Comic' 20 of 28 - Art John K. Geering
19	Ad: Palitoy 'Star Wars competition' - Art Brian Bolland (first art on feature)
20	Mustapha Million 'Mystery Comic' 26 of 34 - Art Joe McCaffrey
21	Mustapha Million 'Mystery Comic' 26 of 34 - Art Joe McCaffrey
22	Ad: WH Smith
23	Thursday - Art Frank McDiarmid
24	Skateboard Squad - Art Jimmy Hansen
25	Friday - Art Frank McDiarmid
26	Menace of the Alpha Man reprint from Shiver and Shake - Art Eric Bradbury
27	Menace of the Alpha Man reprint from Shiver and Shake - Art Eric Bradbury
28	Chit-Chat
29	Top Ten Poster instructions\Ad: IPC 'Free milkshake promo next week'
30	Saturday - Art Frank McDiarmid
31	Saturday - Art Frank McDiarmid
32	The Burpo Special 'Ursula' - Art Frank McDiarmid