Mini
mesmeriser Hypno-Tessa made her debut in Cheeky Weekly dated 14 April
1979. A sceptical toothy funster doubted her hypnotic skills, but was
forced to concede when Teacher was observed in romantic pursuit of Ursula
(hope his wife didn’t find out).
Tessa's debut Art: Frank McDiarmid pencils |
Most regularly seen in a migraine-inducing, zig-zag patterned dress (always drawn as such by Frank McDiarmid except for the 04 August 1979 comic in which Tessa appeared in singlet and shorts while competing in a cross country race), Tessa’s subjects were initially limited to Cheeky’s pals
who, when entranced, exhibited actions contrary to their customary
behaviour, but as the weeks progressed she began to direct her 'fluence toward late 70s
celebrity (and in one case later notoriety). See table below for a list of all those who fell under Tessa's spell.
Cover Date | Tessa's Subject |
14-Apr-79 | Teacher |
28-Apr-79 | Uncle Hamish |
05-May-79 | Gloomy Glad |
05-May-79 | Teacher |
12-May-79 | Herman |
19-May-79 | Jogging Jeremy |
26-May-79 | Posh Claude and Burpo |
02-Jun-79 | Six-Gun Sam |
09-Jun-79 | Libby |
09-Jun-79 | During the Burpo Special - Burpo, cat, dog, Crunching Chris, Ursula |
07-Jul-79 | Magnus Pyke |
14-Jul-79 | Margaret Thatcher |
21-Jul-79 | A bull |
28-Jul-79 | Jimmy Savile |
04-Aug-79 | Cross-country running competitors |
11-Aug-79 | Cheeky’s mum |
18-Aug-79 | Björn Borg and Geoff Capes |
25-Aug-79 | The Incredible Hulk |
01-Sep-79 | Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta |
08-Sep-79 | A dog |
22-Sep-79 | John Travolta |
29-Sep-79 | Windsor Davies |
13-Oct-79 | Tom Baker |
20-Oct-79 | John Cleese |
03-Nov-79 | Tom Baker and Dalek |
10-Nov-79 | Little and Large |
17-Nov-79 | 2 football teams (persuaded to be polite) |
01-Dec-79 | Lester Piggott |
15-Dec-79 | Spook |
12-Jan-80 | Failed attempt to hypnotise some waxwork dummies |
The third issue to feature Tessa, dated 05 May 1979, included two
appearances by Cheeky’s new chum; one on Wednesday and another on
Friday when Teacher was hypnotised into handing over his copy of
Teachers’ Weekly to allow our grinning pal to read that week’s
instalment of Menace of The Alpha Man.
Art: Frank |
The 09 June 1979 issue was another highlight for fans of Tessa as she
again appeared twice – first on Monday, and then as the subject of
a full-colour Burpo Special.
Art: Mike Lacey |
In the comic dated 08 September 1979, Tessa says ‘Just to prove I can hypnotise animals as well as humans, take a look at this’, indicating a confused-looking dog which she had induced into emitting a curious ‘Miaow!, Cheep!, Oink!, Mooooo!, Baaaaah!’. However, Cheeky and his readers had already witnessed a bull coming under Tessa’s spell in the 21 July 1979 edition, and a cat and dog were similarly entranced during the aforementioned Burpo Special in the comic dated 09 June 1979, although our grinning pal was not privy to those proceedings.
Art: Jimmy Hansen |
It seems Tessa and Cheeky's mum both used the same hairdresser Art: Frank again | A |
The humorous hypnotist's final Cheeky Weekly appearance was a somewhat downbeat one, as she failed to exercise her powers of persuasion.
Tessa's final Cheeky Weekly outing (issue dated 12 January 1980) Art: Mike Lacey |
Tessa never appeared in Cheeky's strips in Krazy, but featured in 28 issues of Cheeky Weekly.
Character | Total Issues | First Appearance | Final Appearance |
Hypno-Tessa | 28 | 14-Apr-1979 | 12-Jan-1980 |
Count of elements by artist
Character | Artist | Total Elements |
Hypno-Tessa | Frank McDiarmid | 15 |
Hypno-Tessa | Mike Lacey | 5 |
Hypno-Tessa | Frank McDiarmid pencils | 4 |
Hypno-Tessa | Jimmy Hansen | 2 |
Hypno-Tessa | Dick Millington | 2 |
Hypno-Tessa | Not known | 1 |
Hypno-Tessa | Barrie Appleby | 1 |