Profile - Hypno-Tessa

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

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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