Irmantas has posted an interesting article on the Maxwell Hawke strips from the Buster Annuals. As you may recall, the first James Bold serial that was printed in Cheeky Weekly, 'Fangs of Fear', was based on the original script of the first Maxwell Hawke story to appear in Buster, 'MH and The House of a Thousand Secrets' (29 October 1960 to 04 February 1961). The Cheeky Weekly version used new artwork. Apparently the final James Bold tale to appear in Cheeky Weekly, 'Island of Fear', was another re-drawn MH script, this time using the plot of 'MH and The Isle of Ghosts', which ran in Buster from 07 March 1964 to 09 May 1964 (thanks to alanultron5 from the Comics UK forum for the info re Isle of Ghosts). I've always assumed the other James Bold stories (there were 5 series in all) were also based on MH scripts.
Irmantas' latest post has given me the opportunity to check whether the plots apparent on the opening pages he has posted bear any similarities to the openings of the James Bold adventures in the Cheeky Annuals dated 1979 to 1981, namely...
1979 The Phantom
1980 Untitled
1981 James Bold and The Curse of Krah
1982 James Bold and the Ghostly Highwayman
...and I can report that they don't!
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. ***
Thanks for reading the 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. ***
Thanks for reading the blog.
Friday 26 February 2016
Thursday 25 February 2016
Cheeky Weekly cover date 25 August 1979
Cacophonous
kid Yikky-Boo has Krazy Town jumping on this week's main cover pic
(even Snail has been propelled skyward), underneath a banner alerting
readers to the presence of part 2 of the Giant Cheeky poster inside.
Sunday
gets off to an exciting start for Cheeky, as he encounters a
thrillingly dominant Lily Pop (cough...)
Art: Frank McDiarmid pencils |
For
the first time since the introduction of the 'new look' back in the
issue dated 07 July 1979, there is no evidence that the latest 6 Million Dollar Gran episode
originally included the now-defunct framing device that was the
'Cheeky-looking-at-end-caption-of-Gran's-TV-programme' closing panel.
There's a 'bumper panel of judges' standing by to deliberate on this week's Joke-Box Jury two-pager (featuring, as it so often did, some material which would be considered inappropriate today).
Despite
the fact that Disaster Des is under surveillance by government spies
the obligatory, satisfactorily destructive events ensue.
Art: Mike Lacey |
This
week's second instalment of the giant Cheeky poster, occupying the
centre pages, features our toothy pal's knee-to-midriff section. A few pages later, the Chit-Chat feature spans a page and a half (sharing its second
page with Tub). Some cynical readers may suspect that the expansion of reader participation features Joke-Box Jury and Chit-Chat is a ploy to reduce the number of comic strips.
Tub - Art: Nigel Edwards |
On
Friday Snail proves he's a keen observer of global events with his
pithy comment on a Cheeky/Mechanic gag.
Art: Frank McDiarmid |
There's
more reader participation (but this time featuring attendant cartoonery)
on the Paddywack page.
Art: Jack Clayton |
On
Saturday, Cheeky and pals frantically try to conceal
themselves from Do-Good Dora who, as always, is seeking to raise funds for her latest cause of choice. The back
cover is once again the location of the garden gagfest that is Snail of the Century, bringing the comic to a close for another week.
Frank McDiarmid delivers 6 Cheeky's Week elements in this week's issue, with 3 elements originating from the artistic collaboration I refer to as Frank McDiarmid pencils.
Frank McDiarmid delivers 6 Cheeky's Week elements in this week's issue, with 3 elements originating from the artistic collaboration I refer to as Frank McDiarmid pencils.
Cheeky's Week Artists Cover Date 25-Aug-1979
Artist | Elements |
Frank McDiarmid | 6 |
Frank McDiarmid pencils | 3 |
Cheeky Weekly | Cover Date: 25-Aug-1979, Issue 94 of 117 |
Page | Details |
1 | Cover Feature 'Yikky-Boo' 2 of 2 - Art Frank McDiarmid |
2 | Sunday - Art Frank McDiarmid pencils |
3 | Calculator Kid - Art Terry Bave |
4 | 6 Million Dollar Gran - Art Ian Knox |
5 | 6 Million Dollar Gran - Art Ian Knox |
6 | 6 Million Dollar Gran - Art Ian Knox |
7 | Monday - Art Frank McDiarmid pencils |
8 | The Gang reprint from Whizzer and Chips - Art Robert MacGillivray |
9 | The Gang reprint from Whizzer and Chips - Art Robert MacGillivray |
10 | Joke-Box Jury |
11 | Joke-Box Jury |
12 | Tuesday - Art Frank McDiarmid pencils |
13 | Disaster Des - Art Mike Lacey |
14 | Elephant On The Run - Art Robert Nixon |
15 | Ad: IPC '2000AD and Tornado' 2 of 2 Ad: 'Puzzle Time' 3 of 6 |
16 | Giant Cheeky Poster |
17 | Giant Cheeky Poster |
18 | Wednesday - Art Frank McDiarmid |
19 | Mystery Boy reprint from Whizzer and Chips - Art John Richardson |
20 | Mustapha Million - Art Joe McCaffrey |
21 | Mustapha Million - Art Joe McCaffrey |
22 | Thursday - Art Frank McDiarmid |
23 | Speed Squad - Art Jimmy Hansen |
24 | Chit-Chat |
25 | Chit-Chat\Tub - Art Nigel Edwards |
26 | Friday - Art Frank McDiarmid |
27 | Why, Dad, Why? - Art John K. Geering |
28 | Paddywack - Art Jack Clayton |
29 | Ad: Trebor 'Double Agents Night Spy Kit Promotion' 1 of 2 |
30 | Saturday - Art Frank McDiarmid |
31 | Saturday - Art Frank McDiarmid |
32 | Snail of the Century - Art Frank McDiarmid |
Friday 19 February 2016
Whizzer and Chips - The Cheeky Raids part 14
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'.
Normally I ask you to spot the raider, then reveal the interloper's identity further down the page, but in the face of this massive onslaught by the teeny terror I felt I should prepare readers for the traumatic events that occurred in the pages of Chips dated 23 November 1985...
This tale of questionable morality (since Calc knew in advance that the bull would escape, why didn't he get Charlie to alert the farmer, instead of waiting for the beast to rampage and then instructing young master Counter to steal the fish?) first appeared in colour in Cheeky Weekly dated 22 July 1978.
There's more pilfering afoot in the Krazy Gang, but our toothy mate foils the nefarious nocturnal nicking...
The final ex-Cheeky Weekly star to be raided in this W&C issue is Mustapha...
This MM story originally appeared in Cheeky Weekly dated 02 June 1979. On its original appearance, teacher's word balloon in the final panel on the first page made reference to a 'Cheeky Annual'.
Despite Cheeky Weekly having come to an end in February 1980, Cheeky Annuals continued to be published for some years (each edition cover dated, as was the tradition with all Fleetway annuals, a year in advance). The final Cheeky Annual was dated 1985, so sadly the toothy funster's yearly treat was not among the annuals filling the newsagents' shelves when Whizzer and Chips dated 23 November 1985 went on sale.
The tally of raids now stands at Whizz-kids 12, with 6 raids carried out by ex-Cheeky Weekly characters.
In case anyone's wondering, in addition to his raids on the three surviving characters from Cheeky Weekly, Sweeny's fourth raid in the issue in question was on Lolly Pop.
I have a confession to make - I prepared the scans for this post some months ago. When I came to write the post I realised I had forgotten to scan the second page of Mustapha's story above. I didn't feel like embarking on a major excavation to retrieve the Whizzer and Chips in question, so the second page shown above is actually from the story's original appearance in Cheeky Weekly - the eagle-eyed among you may have spotted the 'CHEEKY 2.6.79' in the bottom right corner.
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'.
Whizzer and Chips 30 November 1985 |
Normally I ask you to spot the raider, then reveal the interloper's identity further down the page, but in the face of this massive onslaught by the teeny terror I felt I should prepare readers for the traumatic events that occurred in the pages of Chips dated 23 November 1985...
Whizzer and Chips 23 November 1985 Art: Terry Bave |
This tale of questionable morality (since Calc knew in advance that the bull would escape, why didn't he get Charlie to alert the farmer, instead of waiting for the beast to rampage and then instructing young master Counter to steal the fish?) first appeared in colour in Cheeky Weekly dated 22 July 1978.
There's more pilfering afoot in the Krazy Gang, but our toothy mate foils the nefarious nocturnal nicking...
Whizzer and Chips 23 November 1985 Art: Bob Hill |
The final ex-Cheeky Weekly star to be raided in this W&C issue is Mustapha...
Whizzer and Chips 23 November 1985 Art:Joe McCaffrey |
This MM story originally appeared in Cheeky Weekly dated 02 June 1979. On its original appearance, teacher's word balloon in the final panel on the first page made reference to a 'Cheeky Annual'.
Despite Cheeky Weekly having come to an end in February 1980, Cheeky Annuals continued to be published for some years (each edition cover dated, as was the tradition with all Fleetway annuals, a year in advance). The final Cheeky Annual was dated 1985, so sadly the toothy funster's yearly treat was not among the annuals filling the newsagents' shelves when Whizzer and Chips dated 23 November 1985 went on sale.
The tally of raids now stands at Whizz-kids 12, with 6 raids carried out by ex-Cheeky Weekly characters.
In case anyone's wondering, in addition to his raids on the three surviving characters from Cheeky Weekly, Sweeny's fourth raid in the issue in question was on Lolly Pop.
I have a confession to make - I prepared the scans for this post some months ago. When I came to write the post I realised I had forgotten to scan the second page of Mustapha's story above. I didn't feel like embarking on a major excavation to retrieve the Whizzer and Chips in question, so the second page shown above is actually from the story's original appearance in Cheeky Weekly - the eagle-eyed among you may have spotted the 'CHEEKY 2.6.79' in the bottom right corner.
Whizzer and Chips Cover Date | Raider | Raided | ||||||
06 April 1985 | Mustapha Million | Super Steve | ||||||
04 May 1985 | Bloggs (Store Wars) | Mustapha Million | ||||||
11 May 1985 | Joker | The Krazy Gang (Cheeky) | ||||||
18 May 1985 | Calculator Kid & Calc | Odd-Ball | ||||||
01 June 1985 |
|
|
||||||
08 June 1985 | Odd-Ball | Calculator Kid | ||||||
06 July 1985 | Toy Boy | Calculator Kid | ||||||
13 July 1985 | Pa Bumpkin | The Krazy Gang (Cheeky) | ||||||
27 July 1985 | Joker | Mustapha Million | ||||||
24 August 1985 | Cheeky | Sid's Snake | ||||||
14 September 1985 |
|
|
||||||
05 October 1985 | Mustapha Million | Animalad | ||||||
19 October 1985 | Odd-Ball | Mustapha Million | ||||||
23 November 1985 |
|
|
Monday 15 February 2016
Snail of the Century artwork reassigned
Prior to writing my post on Snail of the Century I had believed that all the SotC strips were drawn by Frank McDiarmid. However while re-reading the series for research purposes it became apparent that artwork on one of the episodes was by Barrie Appleby, while a second was probably by Barrie rather than Frank.
This is the one that's unmistakably (except that I did mistake it) the work of Barrie...
This one (from the following week's issue) is less obviously Barrie's work but I reckon the book pages in panel 2, the building in panel 3 and Dan-Dan in the final row are sufficiently Appleby-esque for me to make an attribution - it's a bit hard to use the manner of Cheeky's rendition to determine the artist, as the toothy funster is depicted as being uncharacteristically groomed, gleaming and not a little shocked by the whole cleaning experience.
I don't need to change my SotC post as I had already reassigned the artwork credits for these episodes before embarking upon it, but I have had to update the following posts...
Cheeky Weekly Index
Cheeky Weekly Artist Index
Cheeky's Week - Artists by issue and %
The Other Cheeky Artists - Barrie Appleby
Cheeky's Week artist roundup
This is the one that's unmistakably (except that I did mistake it) the work of Barrie...
Cheeky Weekly 13 October 1979 |
This one (from the following week's issue) is less obviously Barrie's work but I reckon the book pages in panel 2, the building in panel 3 and Dan-Dan in the final row are sufficiently Appleby-esque for me to make an attribution - it's a bit hard to use the manner of Cheeky's rendition to determine the artist, as the toothy funster is depicted as being uncharacteristically groomed, gleaming and not a little shocked by the whole cleaning experience.
Cheeky Weekly 20 October 1979 |
I don't need to change my SotC post as I had already reassigned the artwork credits for these episodes before embarking upon it, but I have had to update the following posts...
Cheeky Weekly Index
Cheeky Weekly Artist Index
Cheeky's Week - Artists by issue and %
The Other Cheeky Artists - Barrie Appleby
Cheeky's Week artist roundup
Thursday 4 February 2016
The features – Snail of the Century
Snail had been Cheeky's faithful (but silent) slimy sidekick since issue 6 of Krazy in November 1976, but over two and a half years later our mollusc mate was elevated to become the star of his very own feature. Snail
of the Century was the last original strip to commence in Cheeky Weekly, making its debut in the edition dated 14 July 1979 and completing
the comic's 'new look' which had been initiated a week earlier.
First appearance of Snail of the Century Cheeky Weekly 14 July 1979 Art: Frank McDiarmid |
The strip (the title, which had first appeared on the cover of Cheeky Weekly dated 02 June 1979, being a play on Parsonstastic TV quiz show of the
time, Sale of the Century) was a spin-off from the Cheeky's Week pages and Snail thus joined Baby Burpo to become the
only characters from Cheeky's supporting cast to make it into their
own regular strips (The Burpo Special in the case of the notorious
nappy-wearer). Additionally, both Snail's and Burpo's own features bore titles referencing TV shows of the era.
I mentioned above that Snail of the Century was a spin-off from Cheeky's Week, but really it was more like a knock-off. It attempted to relocate Cheeky's pun-fests to the back garden, but sadly Snail, while a great sidekick, didn't really have the personality to front a strip on his own. Having no arms or legs and only a rudimentary face meant the star of the strip was visually a little dull. Nor were the mirthful mollusc's mates as engaging a bunch as Cheeky's pals. Not being a fan of anything with more than 4 legs or lacking a backbone, the strip never really appealed to me.
Snail of the Century in the Cheeky Weekly Index
Despite
the much earlier competition in which readers were invited to send in suggestions for Snail's name, none of the winning entries published in the 22 April 1978 edition were ever used in either Cheeky's Week
or Snail of the Century (seemingly not the first time IPC had neglected to use a name supplied by a reader).
Frank again |
Although
the strip was clearly set in Cheeky's universe, there was no
introduction within the CW strips, since Cheeky Weekly's framing devices had been dropped as of the aforementioned 'new look' issue
dated 14 July 1979. However, there was framing within each SotC
episode, as at the beginning of every story the inimitable invertebrate would
observe Cheeky's current preoccupation before slithering out into the
garden to meet his back yard buddies. The end of each episode saw Snail return indoors to view the latest state of affairs in the Cheeky
household. Snail, Cheeky, his parents, Baby Burpo and school gardener
Dan-Dan the Lavender Man were the only characters from the Cheeky's
Week pages to feature in SotC, and none of the SotC supporting cast
appeared in Cheeky's Week.
Most
memorable among the SotC characters was Weevil Knievel (whose
surname underwent a number of different spellings in the early
weeks of the feature), the motorcycle stunt rider. The mini motorcyclist (a spoof of course on Evel Knievel) either appeared or was mentioned in every SotC episode.
Snail
of the Century was missing from just 3 issues after its commencement,
appearing in 27 editions in total. The feature was most often to be
found on Cheeky Weekly's back cover, benefiting from the colour
printing available in that location on 25 occasions. Frank McDiarmid
drew 25 episodes, with Barrie Appleby supplying 2.
Missed opportunity for a gag - surely Snail's fave disc is Me Shell by The Beatles |
I mentioned above that Snail of the Century was a spin-off from Cheeky's Week, but really it was more like a knock-off. It attempted to relocate Cheeky's pun-fests to the back garden, but sadly Snail, while a great sidekick, didn't really have the personality to front a strip on his own. Having no arms or legs and only a rudimentary face meant the star of the strip was visually a little dull. Nor were the mirthful mollusc's mates as engaging a bunch as Cheeky's pals. Not being a fan of anything with more than 4 legs or lacking a backbone, the strip never really appealed to me.
Feature | First Appearance | Final Appearance | Total Issues | Total Issues Missed In Run | Page History |
Snail of the Century | 14-Jul-79 | 02-Feb-80 | 27 | 3 | 12,23,32 |
Issues Missed In Run |
04-Aug-79 |
22-Sep-79 |
10-Nov-79 |
Feature | Artist | Number of Issues | First Appearance | Final Appearance |
Snail of the Century | Frank McDiarmid | 25 | 14-Jul-1979 | 02-Feb-1980 |
Snail of the Century | Barrie Appleby | 2 | 13-Oct-1979 | 20-Oct-1979 |
Preceding Page | Count |
Saturday 2/2 | 25 |
Ringer Dinger | 1 |
Joke-Box Jury | 1 |
Pages per Issue | Number of Issues |
1 | 27 |
Tuesday 2 February 2016
The End Of An Ear'ole
The Great News For All Readers! blog is taking a close-up look at the final issue of Cheeky Weekly.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)