Cheeky Weekly Star Guests in Whoopee! (part 3)

The second strip sourced from the Mystery Comic to make a Star Guest appearance in another title (the first being Disaster Des) was Why, Dad, Why? The exasperated dad and inquisitive offspring team made their bid to garner some new Cheeky Weekly readers in Whoopee's 05 May 1979 issue, the sixth week of that year's Star Guest promotion.

Whoopee! 05 May 1979
Art: John Geering
Many thanks to Irmantas for this scan

Any Whoopee! Readers who were sufficiently engaged by the father-and-son fun portrayed above to place a regular order for Cheeky Weekly would have found that Why, Dad, Why? survived until Cheeky Weekly came to an end in February 1980 and was absent from just 9 issues in the remainder of the toothy funster's title's run. Sadly, however, Why, Dad, Why? wasn't one of the strips that was merged into Whoopee! when Cheeky Weekly folded.

The story featured in this particular Star Guest was new and never appeared in Cheeky Weekly. Thanks to research by Stephen Archer, I now know that this WDW episode was, like all the WDW stories featured in the Cheeky titles, based on a script originally written for the feature of the same name which ran in Whizzer and Chips in the early 1970s. However John Geering redrew the tales that featured in Cheeky Weekly, as well as this Star Guest outing, whereas the original Whizzer and Chips run was illustrated by Manny Curtis. This particular WDW episode is based on a script originally used in Whizzer and Chips dated 16 October 1971, and was not seen in any of the Cheeky titles.

 

Like all the WDW strips in Cheeky Weekly, the title banner above this Star Guest included a unique depiction of Son and Dad, related in this instance, as was sometimes the case in Cheeky's comic, to the events depicted in the strip itself..

It's a little surprising given the strip's title and the fact that this episode would be read by many unfamiliar with the concept behind it, that Son doesn't actually ask a question beginning with 'why?' in his Star Guest outing, although his final utterance does conclude with that word. It might have been better to have presented as this Star Guest the Why, Dad, Why? strip which appeared in the same week's issue of Cheeky Weekly, since Son's first word in that story was indeed the adverb mentioned twice in the feature's title...

Cheeky Weekly 05 May 1979
Art: John Geering