Page 32 was of course the back cover of IPC’s humour titles in the
late 70s (except in cases such as Cheeky Weekly’s two 28-page truncated
issues). Let’s see what this prime, colour-bearing site had to
offer readers over the course of the comic’s existence.
In the inaugural edition of the toothy funster’s title, the
concluding segment of the Saturday picture show sequence was to be
found in the subject location, together with a message from our
grinning pal advising readers that the following issue would include
a free ‘joke-filled’ Fun Wallet. The visual of Cheeky which
accompanied this announcement was somewhat disturbing, as whoever
assembled the image allocated a left hand to his right arm (the same unsettling image was used on the What's New, Kids features dated 12 November and 24 December 1977 and 07 January 1978).
 |
| Art: Frank McDiarmid, who I'm sure wasn't responsible for the hand/arm gaffe |
A
week later, with bonfire night approaching, firework manufacturers
Standard placed a full-page, colour ad on page 32. The ad took the
form of a snakes-and-ladders-style board game featuring a selection
of their incandescent products together with cautionary content such
as ‘You are under 16 and try to buy your own fireworks. It
is not allowed!
Go back to [square] No. 4’.
Hopefully all Friends of Cheeky were sensible enough to follow the
sage advice in Standard’s advert and thus fit and ready to read
issue number 3 which on its back cover included the first part of the skateboard booklet, as did page 32 in the following three editions.
Immediately following the conclusion of the skateboard booklet was another
cut-out-and-keep feature, this time a 1978 diary. Once again this ran
for 4 editions, which seems to have been the default duration for all
such promotional schemes.
In the comic dated 31 December 1977 the back page documented the
Cheeky family’s preparations for their new year party, and ended on
a cliff-hanger regarding the identity of the first person to cross
their threshold as the chimes of midnight struck. Cheeky’s mum told
him that he would have to kiss the first attendee if female. The
toothy funster feared that he might be required to plant a smacker on
Libby, Ursula or Louise, while his dad hoped that luscious Lily Pop
would head the queue of revellers. Readers had to wait seven days to
learn Cheeky’s fate, which was revealed on page 2, but in that
issue the back cover was host to the first instalment of yet more
cut-out content, this time the Cheeky Spotter Book of Fun. The Spotter book ran on the back page for, you won’t be
surprised to learn, the following three editions.
A cut-out feature again occupied the page under review in the 04
February 1978 special skateboard edition. This time it was that
week’s third section of the Skateboard Snap game. Contrary to my
earlier assertion that these snip-and-save features ran for 4 weeks
each time, all the elements of Skateboard Snap were contained within
that single issue, so it troubled readers no more after this
particular edition.
A week later Cheeky’s slimy sidekick Snail took control of the back
cover to demand of readers (rather rudely, in my opinion) ‘Oi!
What’s my name?’. The inimitable invertebrate went on to explain
that he was fed up with not having a proper name and senders of the
best suggestions for a mollusc monicker would receive £2.
Cheeky Weekly readers who had become a little tired of their
Six Million Dollar Man/Follyfoot/Noddy bedroom wallpaper were delighted when, in the 18 February 1978
edition, the Pin-Up Pal series resumed with a back-page poster of
cracking crossing lady Lily Pop. The colour printing on the back page
made it the ideal location for the series (although the three
previous posters were printed in the centre pages thus enjoying the
additional benefit of double-sized posters). Readers would have the
opportunity to complete the redecoration of their bedrooms as the series
continued (with odd gaps and a longer period of absence as we will
see later) until the 31 March 1979 issue. The second run of PUP ran,
with some absences as shown below (mostly due to paid
advertisements usurping the coveted back cover location), until 23
September 1978 and included the 16 September 1978 occasion when the comic contained 2 posters in one edition…
A week after the second run of PUP came to an end, a new series of back cover features, which I have christened Cheeky’s Pal Puzzle, commenced. This feature occupied page 32 for 9 weeks and quite possibly generated unfavourable feedback from readers who had not succeeded in covering their bedroom walls when Pin-Up Pal ceased earlier in the year, because a new run of PUP began in the 06 January 1979 edition. This final PUP run was to last for 13 weeks, bringing the total number of times that Pin-Up Pal featured on page 32 to 35 and making it the most regular occupier of the site under review.
| Date | Details |
| 18-Feb-78 | Pin-up pal 'Lily Pop' - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 25-Feb-78 | Pin-up pal 'Jogging Jeremy' - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 04-Mar-78 | Ad: Hovis (single appearance) |
| 11-Mar-78 | Pin-up pal 'The Vicar' - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 18-Mar-78 | Pin-up pal 'Baby Burpo' - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 25-Mar-78 | Pin-up pal 'Buster the Busker' - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 01-Apr-78 | Pin-up pal 'Auntie Daisy' - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 08-Apr-78 | Pin-up pal 'Sid the Street Sweeper' - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 15-Apr-78 | Pin-up pal 'Louise' - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 22-Apr-78 | Pin-up pal 'Constable Chuckle' - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 29-Apr-78 | Pin-up pal 'Ursula' - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 06-May-78 | Ad: Trebor 'Corgi Batman promotion' 2 of 3 |
| 13-May-78 | Pin-up pal 'Six-Gun Sam' - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 20-May-78 | Pin-up pal 'Granny Gumdrop' - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 27-May-78 | Pin-up pal 'Posh Claude' - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 03-Jun-78 | Ad: Rotaplane (first appearance) |
| 10-Jun-78 | Pin-up pal 'Do-Good Dora' - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 17-Jun-78 | Pin-up pal 'Yikky-Boo' - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 24-Jun-78 | Ad: Kellogg's |
| 01-Jul-78 | Saturday 2/2 - Art Frank McDiarmid\Ad: IPC 'Mini Comics promotion' 2 of 3 |
| 08-Jul-78 | Saturday 2/2 - Art Frank McDiarmid pencils\Ad: IPC 'Whizzer and Chips Holiday Special' 3 of 3 |
| 15-Jul-78 | Ad: Wall's (final appearance) 'lollies' |
| 22-Jul-78 | Ad: Bubbly (first appearance) |
| 29-Jul-78 | Pin-up pal 'Bump-Bump Bernie' - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 05-Aug-78 | Pin-up pal 'Libby' - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 12-Aug-78 | Pin-up pal 'Teacher' - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 19-Aug-78 | Pin-up pal 'Herman' - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 26-Aug-78 | Pin-up pal 'Petula' - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 02-Sep-78 | Crack-A-Joke Game (first appearance) 3/3 |
| 09-Sep-78 | Crack-A-Joke Game 3/3 |
| 16-Sep-78 | Pin-up pal 2/2 'Disco Kid' - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 23-Sep-78 | Pin-up pal 'Snoozin' Susan' - Art Frank McDiarmid |
A week after the second run of PUP came to an end, a new series of back cover features, which I have christened Cheeky’s Pal Puzzle, commenced. This feature occupied page 32 for 9 weeks and quite possibly generated unfavourable feedback from readers who had not succeeded in covering their bedroom walls when Pin-Up Pal ceased earlier in the year, because a new run of PUP began in the 06 January 1979 edition. This final PUP run was to last for 13 weeks, bringing the total number of times that Pin-Up Pal featured on page 32 to 35 and making it the most regular occupier of the site under review.
The Burpo Special was then relocated from the inside pages to the
back cover, and occupied the same for 8 weeks until it was displaced
by an advert for Trebor Chews featuring a colouring competition based
on a Superman comic strip. The Burpo Special then resumed its page 32
run for a further 4 weeks which brought this feature to a conclusion
and made it, with 12 appearances on page 32, the third most regular
visitor to the subject location.
The back cover of the comic dated 07 July 1979 featured an advert for
the less-than-enticing (in my view, never having been a fan of the
sticky, black, tooth-discolouring and slightly bitter confectionary)
liquorice novelties purveyed by Mr Bellamy.
Snail of the Century, which had the distinction of being the final original
strip to commence in Cheeky Weekly, then began on the back page of
the issue dated 14 July 1979. This initial run was broken after 3
issues when page 32 was host to an ad placed by British Rail who
wanted readers to know about their Great Rail Club, which entitled
train travellers between the ages of 5 and 15 to rail discount
vouchers to the value of £5. ‘You can travel with your parents, or
on your own with their permission’.
Snail
and his back garden buddies then resumed occupation of the subject
location for a further 6 issues, after which Why, Dad, Why? made a
surprise bid to take control of the back cover, but was repelled just
7 days later when Snail of the Century began another 6 week
residency. This time the snaily japes were interrupted by Mr Bellamy
who was still trying to offload his liquorice bootlaces, pipes (yes,
kids were encouraged to ape adult smokers but this was a time when
the idea of kids aged 5 travelling alone on trains was apparently
deemed acceptable)
and sundry other unappealing ‘sweets’.
What
was to be a 5 week run of SotC then commenced in the comic dated 17
November 1979, following which the hectic hilarity of Elephant on the Run made its single visit to the back page.
Snail-based humour then returned to the back page, and this run
continued in that location until the penultimate edition of the
toothy funster’s comic, dated 26 January 1980. This brought to 25
the number of times Snail of the Century had occupied page 32, making
it the second most regular feature to appear there. A week later the
back cover of the final edition of Cheeky Weekly announced that the first combined issue of Whoopee and Cheeky would
include a competition to win Corgi Friscodisco record players. The
back page ad also carried a coupon which was required in order to
enter the competition together with another coupon for placing a
regular order for Whoopee and Cheeky at the local newsagent. The TV
ad for Friscodisco featured Tony Blackburn reading a comic, but not an IPC title - instead the disc jockey was seen with a copy of The
Beano.
Count of Elements (or distinct combinations thereof) appearing on Page 32
| Elements | Total |
| Pin-up pal | 34 |
| Snail of the Century | 25 |
| The Burpo Special | 12 |
| Saturday 2/2\Cheeky's Pal Puzzle | 9 |
| Diary 2/2 | 4 |
| Skateboard booklet 2/2 | 4 |
| The Cheeky Spotter Book of Fun 2/2 | 4 |
| Saturday 2/2\Advertisement: IPC | 3 |
| Advertisement: Mr Bellamy's | 2 |
| Advertisement: Trebor | 2 |
| Crack-A-Joke Game 3/3 | 2 |
| Page 32 not present | 2 |
| Advertisement: Bubbly | 1 |
| Advertisement: Hovis | 1 |
| Advertisement: IPC | 1 |
| Advertisement: Kellogg's | 1 |
| Advertisement: Rotaplane | 1 |
| Advertisement: Standard Fireworks | 1 |
| Advertisement: The Great Rail Club | 1 |
| Advertisement: Wall's | 1 |
| Elephant On The Run | 1 |
| New Year's Eve | 1 |
| Oi! What is My Name? | 1 |
| Pin-up pal 2/2 | 1 |
| Skateboard Snap 3/3 | 1 |
| Why, Dad, Why? | 1 |
