Page 30 in the debut issue of the toothy funster’s comic hosted the
first page of the inaugural episode of Space Family Robinson,
entitled (no sniggering) The Snatch. A week later the Robinsons’
exile on a faraway planet was once again the subject of the page in
question, but issue number 3 saw Cheeky’s emergence from the
Saturday morning picture show sharing the page with an assortment of
sub-half-page announcements and ads, beginning what was to be a
8-week run during which the concluding part of Saturday shared the
page with a similar mix of odds and ends.
The 31 December 1977 issue saw the Robinsons return to the subject
page, but the following week a 4 week run of ads for IPC product
commenced, featuring promotional pushes for Roy of the Rovers, Shoot
and, in a campaign encompassing several humour titles, Whoopee!, Cheeky
Weekly, Whizzer and Chips and Krazy, each of which was running a
competition with kites as prizes.
Space Family Robinson then resumed occupation for 2 weeks, but were
then ousted by the concluding part of Saturday again. The deep space
perils faced by the Robinson clan then occupied page 30 once more,
this time for an 18 week run, the conclusion of which coincided with
the final episode of their epic interstellar adventure. The indomitable abductees were the second most regular occupants of page 30, with a tally of 23 appearances there.
Yet more thrills were to be experienced on page 30 the following
week, as what was to be James Bold’s final Cheeky Weekly adventure, Island of Fear, commenced and was serialised in that location for the duration
of its 6-episode run. Taking over from Bold as the adventure serial
element of Cheeky’s Saturday morning picture show were the incredible airborne team Archie’s Angels who, like Bold before them, remained in the location under
review for the whole of their 6 week escapade.
Further excitement was to be had a week later when Sonny Storm made
his single Cheeky Weekly appearance.
In the comic dated 30 September 1978, the tedious duo Tweety and Sylvester brought
humour (if you can call it that) back to page 30, but were ousted by
more adventure a week later when the piratical perils of The Terrible Trail to Taggart's Treasure began to be documented, remaining in that location
until the strip's penultimate episode
The issues dated 02 and 09 December were reduced to 28 pages due to
industrial action, and Cheeky Weekly failed to be published for 3 weeks following that, but in the issue dated 06 January 1979 Saturday
returned to the subject location. However, unlike the Saturday elements that appeared
previously on page 30, which had been the conclusions to Cheeky’s
weekly cinema visit, this time it was the first page of Cheeky’s
2-page Saturday; the cinema show sequence had come to an end in the
edition dated 02 December 1978, after which the Saturday page
depicted the toothy funster’s Saturday afternoon pursuits.
Saturday’s first page continued to occupy page 30 for a further 12
editions, but in the comic dated 07 April 1979 the Chit-Chat letters
page made its single appearance in the location under review. In the 14
April 1979 issue the subject page was host to Easter Saturday,
following which the bog-standard Saturdays resumed for a marathon 42
issue run, lasting until the final Cheeky Weekly dated 02 February
1980. Saturday was the most regular occupant of page 30, with a total of 65 visits (if we include all variants, i.e. Saturday 1/2, Saturday 2/2 and Easter Saturday 1/2).
Page 30 exhibited 18 churn events during Cheeky Weekly's run, ranking it the third least churn-affected page.
Page 30 exhibited 18 churn events during Cheeky Weekly's run, ranking it the third least churn-affected page.
Elements | Total |
Saturday 1/2 | 55 |
Space Family Robinson 2/2 | 21 |
The Terrible Trail to Taggart's Treasure 1/2 | 8 |
Saturday 2/2 | 7 |
Archie's Angels 2/2 | 5 |
James Bold 2/2 | 4 |
Advertisement: IPC | 3 |
James Bold 1/2 | 2 |
Saturday 2/2\Advertisement: IPC | 2 |
Space Family Robinson 1/2 | 2 |
Page 30 absent | 2 |
Advertisement: IPC\Advertisement: IPC | 1 |
Archie's Angels 3/3 | 1 |
Chit-Chat | 1 |
Easter Saturday 1/2 | 1 |
Sonny Storm 2/2 | 1 |
Tweety and Sylvester 1/2 | 1 |
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