New readers start here... After Cheeky Weekly folded and was
incorporated into Whoopee as of February 1980 six strips that had
originated in the toothy funster's title survived the merge and
continued to appear in the amalgamated comic. Whoopee itself foundered
in March 1985 and was merged into Whizzer and Chips. Three of the
surviving Cheeky Weekly strips successfully negotiated this second merge
and went on to appear in the newly combined publication, rather
inelegantly titled 'Whizzer and Chips now including Whoopee'. The
survivors were Mustapha Million, Calculator Kid and (appearing only
twice) Stage School. Cheeky continued to appear, but as a member of The
Krazy Gang, who had moved into W&C when Krazy, the comic in which
the Gang originated, expired in April 1978. However, the Krazy Gang's
Whizzer and Chips run ended in the issue dated 08 February 1986. Calculator Kid survived a little longer, his run of reprints coming to an end in the 26 July 1986 edition and leaving Mustapha Million as the sole Cheeky Weekly survivor.
Whizzer and Chips dated 12 March 1988 - Mustapha is once again the victim of a frequent interloper into his stories. Are you on the ball enough to spot the regular raider? Scroll down to see the identity of the unwanted guest.
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| Art: Frank McDiarmid |
Yes, it's that monocular menace Odd-Ball again. AND he's reverted to using that flippin' annoying phrase which we haven't seen since Lazy Bones hitched a ride in another of Mustapha's aircraft in the issue dated
25 July 1987.
Mustapha's story this week is rather shocking to our 21st century sensibilities. Our pecunious pal clearly wasn't familiar with the term 'carbon footprint'.
Frank includes an in-joke on the wrestling poster advertising a bout between Mad Dog Cumming and Panting Paynter. I don't know who the Cumming referred to might be (UPDATE - see Andy Boal's comment below), but his opponent's name is a reference to IPC group editor Bob Paynter.
More raiding fun soon!
Almost certainly Allen Cummings, the Buster editor from 1981 to the end.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Andy. I have updated the post to refer to your comment here.
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