As if one terrifying toddler wasn’t enough for the toothy funster
to contend with, the introduction to 26 November 1977’s Creepy Sleepy Tale revealed that there were in fact a further 5 (possibly
more) belligerent babies in the same mould.
 |
| Art: Frank McDiarmid pencils |
Despite
the presence of the cousins, only Burpo was seen in the
post-creepy-sleepy-tale scene as Cheeky left for home, and this was
the case on all the subsequent occasions on which the myriad of mini
marauders appeared prior to the Wednesday bedtime story.
The
kiddie cousins’ next appearance was in the 'Ello It's Cheeky strip in Krazy dated 14 January 1978,
the only time they featured in that title, in which we saw there were
at least 6 mini mischief makers in addition to Burpo, although the
line of Burpo-alikes was emerging from around a corner so there could
have been many more.
 |
| Krazy 14 January 1978 Art: Frank McDiarmid |
The toddler troupe’s next Cheeky Weekly appearance was in the 11
February 1978 edition, in which on Monday Cheeky hid himself among
the nappy-wearing throng in order to enter the newsagent’s unseen for a
free read of James Bold novel The Ghost Highwayman. The toothy funster’s usual perusal of
2-comic-pages-worth of the supernatural thriller was interrupted on
the Suddenly page when the cousins gave him away, and he was
propelled from the shop by the proprietor’s boot. The cousins were
back on Wednesday in the same issue when, in the pre-Creepy Sleepy
Tale sequence we witnessed 12 cousins in addition to the ‘orrible
original, although once again only Burpo was in evidence in the
post-Tale conclusion. This three-pages-of-cousins issue was the only
one in which the toddling terrors appeared on more than one page, and also the only time they featured on any day other than Wednesday.
Cheeky
was again waylaid by Burpo and rowdy relatives as he arrived for his
Wednesday babysitting ordeal in the 06 May and 29 July 1978 issues.
Our
toothy pal expected to be free of Burpo, let alone the attendant
horde of diabolical dummy-suckers, when he embarked on a canal barge holiday in
the comic dated 12 August 1978, but found himself being forced to
walk the plank by a plethora of piratical potty-perchers.
The cousins’ final Cheeky Weekly appearance was in the 23 September 1978 comic, wherein the menacing multitude was so great that counting
them was impossible. It seems that the intolerable infants were surplus to requirements once the depiction of
Cheeky’s babysitting misfortunes was dropped from the comic.
 |
| The cousins' final appearance. Art: Frank McDiarmid pencils By this time Creepy Sleepy Tale had come to an end, and in this issue the Wednesday page above was followed by the final instalment of the Crack-A-Joke Game |
The cousins, none of whom were identified by name, terrorised our toothy pal in 6 issues of his comic.
| Character | Total Issues | First Appearance | Final Appearance |
| Burpo's Cousins | 6 | 26-Nov-1977 | 23-Sep-1978 |
Count of elements by artist
| Character | Artist | Total Elements |
| Burpo's Cousins | Frank McDiarmid pencils | 5 |
| Burpo's Cousins | Frank McDiarmid | 2 |
| Burpo's Cousins | Jim Watson | 1 |
Gaps between appearances
| Prev Date | Next Date | Gap (weeks) |
| 11-Feb-1978 | 06-May-1978 | 12 |
| 06-May-1978 | 29-Jul-1978 | 12 |
| 26-Nov-1977 | 11-Feb-1978 | 11 |
| 12-Aug-1978 | 23-Sep-1978 | 6 |
| 29-Jul-1978 | 12-Aug-1978 | 2 |
Eeeeeeek!
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