Welcome to the Cheeky Weekly blog!


Welcome to the Cheeky Weekly blog!
Cheeky Weekly ™ REBELLION PUBLISHING LTD, COPYRIGHT ©  REBELLION PUBLISHING LTD, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED was a British children's comic with cover dates spanning 22 October 1977 to 02 February 1980.

Quick links...
Basic Stats
Cheeky Weekly Index - Cheeky Annuals and Specials Index
Cheeky Weekly Artist Index
Features by Number of Appearances
Cheeky Weekly Timeline
Major Characters from the Cheeky pages
Features Ordered by Date of Commencement

*** ALL IMAGES COPYRIGHT ©  REBELLION PUBLISHING LTD, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Used with permission. ***
*** CHEEKY WEEKLY, KRAZY, WHOOPEE!, WHOOPEE, WOW!, WHIZZER AND CHIPS and BUSTER ARE ™ REBELLION PUBLISHING LTD, COPYRIGHT ©  REBELLION PUBLISHING LTD, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ***
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Wednesday 25 November 2015

Profile – Bubblegum Boy: Part One - The Krazy Years

Bubblegum Boy was a familiar sight as he floated above the streets of Krazy Town throughout Cheeky Weekly's run. At least he was a familiar sight to readers of the toothy funster's comic – most citizens of Cheeky's home town seemed entirely unaware of his aerial predicament. However, the accidental aeronaut was first seen in Krazy, the title which spawned spin-off Cheeky Weekly.

Krazy issue 13, dated 08 January 1977, was certainly an unlucky one for Bubblegum Boy, as this was the comic in which, unnoticed by Cheeky and pals, over-enthusiastic bubble-inflation caused the hapless gum-chewer to take to the skies.

Krazy 08 January 1977
Art: Frank McDiarmid, as is all the artwork in this post



BB became a regular fixture in Cheeky's strips in Krazy, observing events from high above Krazy Town, initially unable to call for assistance since to loosen the seal between his lips and his gummy mode of aerial transport would result in a painful plummet onto the street below.

Krazy dated 19 March 1977 was the first issue in which BB uttered a cry for help. Due to the aforementioned restriction on his vocalisations, this appeal for assistance was unintelligible, although readers were able to ascertain his meaning thanks to a helpful thought bubble.
 
Krazy 19 March 1977
If that was BB's mum on the pavement, 

she evidently took no action to get him down
 as he continued to float above the street
 
At the request of Krazy reader Neil Bastian, a close-up of Bubblegum Boy was featured in the issue dated 09 April 1977.


By Krazy's 24 September 1977 edition, BB had developed ventriloquial skills that allowed him to be understood while maintaining the vital oral grip on his sticky aircraft, and on the same page readers enjoyed a Bubblegum-Boy-viewpoint of a Knock-Knock joke in progress.



BB was absent from Krazy dated 22 October 1977, the same week that the first issue of Cheeky Weekly went on sale, but he did get to feature on the front cover of that debut edition of the toothy funster's comic.

An eventful Cheeky's Pal strip appeared in Krazy dated 10 December 1977, in which Bubblegum Boy's name was revealed to be Fred.


...Louise got her Krazy issue number wrong – it was the 13th edition in which Fred first took to the air.
 
Bubblegum Boy's final Krazy appearance came in the 25 March 1978 Easter edition, three weeks before that comic's final issue.

A profile of Fred's career in the pages of Cheeky Weekly can be seen here.

Tuesday 24 November 2015

You can't whack The Slipper

During my journeyings around the internet in pursuit of Cheeky-related nuggets I found this nice post on the Slipper blog. Have added the blog to my blog list.

Wednesday 18 November 2015

Whizzer and Chips - The Cheeky Raids part 12

New readers start here... After Cheeky Weekly folded and was incorporated into Whoopee as of February 1980 six strips that had originated in the toothy funster's title survived the merge and continued to appear in the amalgamated comic. Whoopee itself foundered in March 1985 and was merged into Whizzer and Chips. Three of the surviving Cheeky Weekly strips successfully negotiated this second merge and went on to appear in the newly combined publication, rather inelegantly titled 'Whizzer and Chips now including Whoopee'. The survivors were Mustapha Million, Calculator Kid and (appearing only twice) Stage School. Cheeky continued to appear, but as a member of The Krazy Gang, who had moved into W&C when Krazy, the comic in which the Gang originated, expired in April 1978.

Whizzer and Chips had a long tradition of sending characters from the Chips section into Whizzer and vice versa. These cross-comic forays were known as 'raids'. In this series of posts I'm chronicling the raids involving the ex-Cheeky Weekly characters who made the transition into Whizzer and Chips, all of whom were allocated to the Chips section. For the purposes of this series, although this particular manifestation of the toothy funster didn't directly descend from Cheeky Weekly, I'm including Cheeky's Krazy Gang appearances as those of an 'ex-Cheeky Weekly character'.

Three weeks after the momentous events depicted in the raid-and-retaliatory-strike issue, Whizzer and Chips dated 05 October 1985 witnessed another daring sortie into Whizz-kid territory by an ex-Cheeky Weekly star. Can you spot the intrepid infiltrator? Scroll down to see the answer.


Whizzer and Chips 05 October 1985
Art: Roy Mitchell

























Not quite sure why Mustapha wasn't able to make his own
announcement, but I suppose it's an honour to have
the proclamation made by chief Chip-ite Shiner

The image of Mustapha dangling perilously from a hot air balloon, as used in the above raid, originally appeared in Cheeky Weekly dated 10 March 1979.


Art: Joe McCaffrey




 This latest event brings the tally of raids perpetrated by ex-Cheeky Weekly stars to 6, while those wily Whizz-kids have struck 8 times. More raiding fun soon!

Whizzer and Chips Cover Date Raider Raided
06 April 1985Mustapha MillionSuper Steve
04 May 1985Bloggs (Store Wars)Mustapha Million
11 May 1985JokerThe Krazy Gang (Cheeky)
18 May 1985Calculator Kid & CalcOdd-Ball
01 June 1985
Animalad
Mustapha Million
The Krazy Gang (Cheeky)
Boy Boss
08 June 1985Odd-BallCalculator Kid
06 July 1985Toy BoyCalculator Kid
13 July 1985Pa BumpkinThe Krazy Gang (Cheeky)
27 July 1985JokerMustapha Million
24 August 1985CheekySid's Snake
14 September 1985
Odd-Ball
Calculator Kid
Calculator Kid
Store Wars
05 October 1985Mustapha MillionAnimalad

Wednesday 11 November 2015

Cheeky Weekly cover date 11 August 1979

Art: Frank McDiarmid

Bubblegum Boy, still dangling from his chewy dirigible, makes a return to the cover (his previous front page appearance was on the 02 June 1979 issue) while below, Cheeky shares a joke with Gunga Jim, who last graced the cover as of the 17 March 1979 edition. Cheeky is holding a copy of The Sunday Snigger, but Jim's paper seems to be called simply Sunday. The space below the title suggests that Frank McDiarmid was intending to insert a title but maybe forgot, or inspiration wasn't forthcoming before deadline time.











Aged automaton 6 Million Dollar Gran is on the golf course this week. The scriptwriter's apparent confusion over Gran's robotic origin continues, as the caption in the final panel on page 2 refers to the synthetic senior citizen's 'computer-like brain'  It IS a computer! Gah!

 
Art: Ian Knox



I suspect the artwork on the third Gran page above has been altered. The hatching at the bottom of the tweed jacket in the second panel of row 2 seems to have been added later, suggesting that the final panel has been moved to the right, probably to compensate for the removal of a 'Cheeky watching the 6 Million Dollar Gran closing credits' final panel which was the traditional conclusion during the period that Gran's adventures appeared as a TV show watched by the toothy funster. However, as examined here, the Cheeky's week framing devices were gradually dropped, with the final 'official' 6MDG link appearing in the 30 June 1979 issue (one later closing Gran link appeared, as a result of an error I suspect, in the comic dated14 July 1979).

Gran's golf gags put me in mind of similar links larks perpetrated by the mighty Norman Wisdom in his 1965 saga of feuding milkmen, The Early Bird. Norman, arriving at the golf course in the guise of a man of the cloth, disrupts the recreational tour of the greens planned by rival dairy owner, Mr Hunter (played by splendid comic foil Jerry Desmonde).


 

The What's New, Kids advertorial feature is this week devoted to books. I bought a copy of the 'Superman from the 30s to the 70s' collection which is among the publications being promoted, and parts of it proved to be an interesting reading experience due to the pages being assembled in the wrong order.





Barry Glennard stands in for regular Elephant On The Run artist Robert Nixon this week. Yahglubb (uttered by The Man In The Plastic Mac as he's smothered in cement) is another word you only ever see in comics.

Art: Barry Glennard

Disaster Des causes a crash in the housing market...


Art: Mike Lacey

Also enjoying a colour adventure is Calculator Kid. This is one of those rare occasions when Calculator's electronic scheming turns out less than optimally for Charlie.

Art: Terry Bave
 
There are two pages of Chit-Chat letters this week. Reader Amanda Bullock asks for a Pin-Up Pal poster of Cheeky. The toothy funster omits to mention in his reply that he was the subject of a double-page centre spread poster way back in Cheeky Weekly number 1, but he does allude to an upcoming event of the cut-out-and-keep variety.


...and all is revealed on page 27...


Cheeky Weekly readers had been invited to send in their guesses as to the Alpha Man's true identity in the 16 June 1979 Disco issue.

On Saturday our toothy chum is laid low by a severe case of the sniffles. Doctor Braincell is evidently not available, but after being visited by a selection of his chums, our pyjama-d pal perks up as Dad prescribes this week's Cheeky Weekly (and the cover of the comic in the clutches of our sniffly mate is indeed that of this very issue). I'm sure the fact that Cheeky will already know all the jokes he told this week won't stop him from enjoying a chucklesome read.

Art: Frank McDiarmid
Hypno-Tessa and Cheeky's mum must go to the same hairdresser



Back cover strip Snail Of The Century was never linked to a specific day of the week. If we assume the events depicted below to have occurred after those seen on Saturday above, it appears Cheeky was cheered up enough to emerge from his bed, although clearly still not firing on all cylinders.

Art: Frank again

This brings to a conclusion a pleasingly all-Frank-McDiarmid Cheeky's Week, the second such issue in a row.


Cheeky's Week Artists Cover Date 11-Aug-1979
Artist Elements
Frank McDiarmid9

Cheeky Weekly Cover Date: 11-Aug-1979, Issue 92 of 117
PageDetails
1Cover Feature 'Gunga Jim' 1 of 5 - Art Frank McDiarmid
2Sunday - Art Frank McDiarmid
36 Million Dollar Gran - Art Ian Knox
46 Million Dollar Gran - Art Ian Knox
56 Million Dollar Gran - Art Ian Knox
6What's New, Kids
7Monday - Art Frank McDiarmid
8The Gang reprint from Whizzer and Chips - Art Robert MacGillivray
9The Gang reprint from Whizzer and Chips - Art Robert MacGillivray
10Joke-Box Jury
11Joke-Box Jury
12Tuesday - Art Frank McDiarmid
13Elephant On The Run - Art Barry Glennard (single art on feature)
14Mustapha Million - Art Joe McCaffrey
15Mustapha Million - Art Joe McCaffrey
16Disaster Des - Art Mike Lacey
17Calculator Kid - Art Terry Bave
18Wednesday - Art Frank McDiarmid
19Mystery Boy reprint from Whizzer and Chips - Art John Richardson
20Stage School - Art Robert Nixon
21Stage School - Art Robert Nixon
22Thursday - Art Frank McDiarmid
23Speed Squad - Art Jimmy Hansen
24Chit-Chat
25Chit-Chat
26Friday - Art Frank McDiarmid
27Ad: IPC 'Poster next week'
28Paddywack - Art Jack Clayton
29Ad: WH Smith
30Saturday - Art Frank McDiarmid
31Saturday - Art Frank McDiarmid
32Snail of the Century - Art Frank McDiarmid