Over on his (sadly approaching its end) blog, Lew Stringer is examining the 1979 festive issue of Cheeky Weekly.
UPDATE - I should have mentioned that Lew's other blog will be continuing.
Welcome to the Cheeky Weekly blog!
Welcome to the Cheeky Weekly blog!
Cheeky Weekly ™ REBELLION PUBLISHING LTD, COPYRIGHT © REBELLION PUBLISHING LTD, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED was a British children's comic with cover dates spanning 22 October 1977 to 02 February 1980.
Quick links...
Basic Stats
Cheeky Weekly Index - Cheeky Annuals and Specials Index
Cheeky Weekly Artist Index
Features by Number of Appearances
Cheeky Weekly Timeline
Major Characters from the Cheeky pages
Features Ordered by Date of Commencement
*** ALL IMAGES COPYRIGHT © REBELLION PUBLISHING LTD, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Used with permission. ***
*** CHEEKY WEEKLY, KRAZY, WHOOPEE!, WHOOPEE, WOW!, WHIZZER AND CHIPS and BUSTER ARE ™ REBELLION PUBLISHING LTD, COPYRIGHT © REBELLION PUBLISHING LTD, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ***
Thanks for reading the blog.
Cheeky Weekly ™ REBELLION PUBLISHING LTD, COPYRIGHT © REBELLION PUBLISHING LTD, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED was a British children's comic with cover dates spanning 22 October 1977 to 02 February 1980.
Quick links...
Basic Stats
Cheeky Weekly Index - Cheeky Annuals and Specials Index
Cheeky Weekly Artist Index
Features by Number of Appearances
Cheeky Weekly Timeline
Major Characters from the Cheeky pages
Features Ordered by Date of Commencement
*** ALL IMAGES COPYRIGHT © REBELLION PUBLISHING LTD, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Used with permission. ***
*** CHEEKY WEEKLY, KRAZY, WHOOPEE!, WHOOPEE, WOW!, WHIZZER AND CHIPS and BUSTER ARE ™ REBELLION PUBLISHING LTD, COPYRIGHT © REBELLION PUBLISHING LTD, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ***
Thanks for reading the blog.
Saturday 21 December 2019
Friday 20 December 2019
Krazy Kristmas Kountdown part 2
In the first part of our quick flick through the pages of Krazy dated 18 December 1976 in search of Cheeky's contributions, we didn't encounter any festive material. However, delving deeper into the comic the impending celebrations become more apparent, as on page 19 the forthcoming Krazy Christmas Number is given a plug ('number' being a rather archaic, even for the 1970s, comics way of referring to what today we would call an 'issue').
There is no Krazy Gang strip in this number issue, the gang probably having been bumped due to the presence of part 3 of the Krazy 1977 Diary. However fans of Cheeky's comic colleagues needn't be too upset as they do appear in the toothy funster's story this week (one of the aspects of Krazy that made it such a great comic was the regular crossing of characters from one feature to another - Cheeky had already done so in this issue as we saw in the previous post). Things start to get really Christmassy as the toothy funster is ejected onto the snowy streets of Krazy Town, and there's further crossing-over of characters as Cheeky meets Stumbly Fumbly, son of Detective Fumbly, whose Casebook was the subject of a weekly text feature in Krazy. Accident-prone Stumbly was a variation on Bump-Bump Bernie, who by this time had appeared once, in Krazy dated 31 October 1976.
The Gang, including Cheeky who is wearing the same rather fetching red and white sweater he modelled on the cover, are also featured in the Krazy News Pound reader participation feature. Printing the gags in coloured ink is possibly not the best choice for legibility.
That concludes Cheeky's contributions to this issue. Hap-pee Christmas pals!
There is no Krazy Gang strip in this
Art: Frank McDiarmid The bottom left panel is the payoff to the gag set up on the page shown above. Note background pee gag |
Frank renders a rather muscular Sporty |
The Gang, including Cheeky who is wearing the same rather fetching red and white sweater he modelled on the cover, are also featured in the Krazy News Pound reader participation feature. Printing the gags in coloured ink is possibly not the best choice for legibility.
That concludes Cheeky's contributions to this issue. Hap-pee Christmas pals!
Wednesday 11 December 2019
Krazy Kristmas Kountdown part 1
This time last year I examined Cheeky's contributions to Krazy's first Christmas edition, appropriately dated 25 December 1976. This time I'm looking back a week earlier to see what our toothy pal was up to as the inhabitants of Krazy Town geared up for the impending festivities.
Cheeky gets to appear on the cover, sporting a snazzy red and white jumper instead of his usual red and black ensemble, tasked with publicising the Custard Pie Corner reader participation feature. Swiftly turning the pages in order to avoid being splatted by the incoming sloppy confection, we find the grinning gagster making an uncharacteristically joke-free guest appearance in the 12½ p Buytonic Boy adventure. As the story starts, the titular Steve Ford is happily collecting Christmas trees for the members of the Krazy Gang, yet soon the energy-boosting effect of the tonic he purchased in the first episode of this series (as depicted in the title panel for the benefit of latecomers to the strip who may be puzzling over the 'buytonic' reference) seems to be wearing off...
Although he appears to have made a full recovery, the reason for Steve's sudden lassitude is not addressed.
In the aforementioned Custard Pie Corner, there are a couple of political pastings as Home Secretary Merlyn Rees and former Prime Minister Harold Wilson both cop a custardy facefull, along with kangaroo impersonator (apparently) and crooner Max Bygraves.
I'll be further delving into Cheeky's 1976 pre-Christmas capers soon.
Art: Mike Lacey |
Art: Robert Nixon |
Although he appears to have made a full recovery, the reason for Steve's sudden lassitude is not addressed.
In the aforementioned Custard Pie Corner, there are a couple of political pastings as Home Secretary Merlyn Rees and former Prime Minister Harold Wilson both cop a custardy facefull, along with kangaroo impersonator (apparently) and crooner Max Bygraves.
I'll be further delving into Cheeky's 1976 pre-Christmas capers soon.
Wednesday 4 December 2019
Whizzer and Chips - The Cheeky Raids part 50
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.
Art: Terry Bave, whose Tarman of the Jungle began inside. Terry also gives us his rendition of Watford Gapp, Joker and Sweeny Toddler with canine companion Hairy Henry |
The
Whizzer and Chips moratorium on new raids, imposed at the end of July
1988, was lifted in the issue dated 12 August 1989 (a week after our toothy pal had been the infiltrator in a reprinted raid). During the suspension of the raids Sid
and Shiner’s individual weekly strips had been abandoned in favour
of a centre-pages confrontation of the two faction leaders, entitled Sid vs Shiner, and the
Chip-ites and Whizz-kids letters had also been moved into adjacent
pages titled Sid’s Whizz-kids vs Shiner’s Chip-ites.
However the former arrangement was restored in the 12 August 1989 issue, with the Chip-ite and Whizz-kid letter pages dispersed back into their individual titles and Sid and Shiner once again allocated their own strips.
However the former arrangement was restored in the 12 August 1989 issue, with the Chip-ite and Whizz-kid letter pages dispersed back into their individual titles and Sid and Shiner once again allocated their own strips.
Mustapha Million continued to appear, almost 12 years after his Cheeky Weekly debut, drawn at this time by Frank McDiarmid, who
had also begun illustrating a new strip, Cosmic Cafe, as from the
edition dated 13 May 1989.
Maybe the raids were reinstated in response to reader requests. The announcement of the first raid of the new run differed from those documented earlier in this series of posts, in that there was only one raid perpetrated (in the raids I've covered previously a Whizz-kid character raided a Chip-ite, and vice versa, in each issue), and additionally the raid was announced in the comic in which the raid was undertaken (previously the raiders were revealed a week later), although the identity of the interloper and victim were not revealed. Readers were aware that a raid was in progress due to Sid's disgruntled announcement...
The raider was stetson-sporting JR, who had slyly slipped into the Bumpkin Billionaires story. Since neither are Cheeky-related I won't be featuring that here, but I thought I'd include Frank McDiarmid's Cosmic Cafe from the same issue. Set in a galactic greasy spoon caff, this strip was a lot of fun and allowed Frank's imagination to run wild with the various alien customer designs. I like the depiction of the black hole, and it's always good to see a 'Boilk!' (the traditional comics way of indicating digestive distress). Robotic chef MNX (oh yes), who gets referred to incorrectly as MINX in his first namecheck this issue, seems on this occasion to be a hi-tech version of Auntie Daisy.
More raiding fun soon!
Maybe the raids were reinstated in response to reader requests. The announcement of the first raid of the new run differed from those documented earlier in this series of posts, in that there was only one raid perpetrated (in the raids I've covered previously a Whizz-kid character raided a Chip-ite, and vice versa, in each issue), and additionally the raid was announced in the comic in which the raid was undertaken (previously the raiders were revealed a week later), although the identity of the interloper and victim were not revealed. Readers were aware that a raid was in progress due to Sid's disgruntled announcement...
The raider was stetson-sporting JR, who had slyly slipped into the Bumpkin Billionaires story. Since neither are Cheeky-related I won't be featuring that here, but I thought I'd include Frank McDiarmid's Cosmic Cafe from the same issue. Set in a galactic greasy spoon caff, this strip was a lot of fun and allowed Frank's imagination to run wild with the various alien customer designs. I like the depiction of the black hole, and it's always good to see a 'Boilk!' (the traditional comics way of indicating digestive distress). Robotic chef MNX (oh yes), who gets referred to incorrectly as MINX in his first namecheck this issue, seems on this occasion to be a hi-tech version of Auntie Daisy.
More raiding fun soon!
Whizzer and Chips Cover Date | Raider | Raided | ||||||
06 April 1985 | Mustapha Million | Super Steve | ||||||
04 May 1985 | Bloggs (Store Wars) | Mustapha Million | ||||||
11 May 1985 | Joker | The Krazy Gang (Cheeky) | ||||||
18 May 1985 | Calculator Kid & Calc | Odd-Ball | ||||||
01 June 1985 |
|
|
||||||
08 June 1985 | Odd-Ball | Calculator Kid | ||||||
06 July 1985 | Toy Boy | Calculator Kid | ||||||
13 July 1985 | Pa Bumpkin | The Krazy Gang (Cheeky) | ||||||
27 July 1985 | Joker | Mustapha Million | ||||||
24 August 1985 | Cheeky | Sid's Snake | ||||||
14 September 1985 |
|
|
||||||
05 October 1985 | Mustapha Million | Animalad | ||||||
19 October 1985 | Odd-Ball | Mustapha Million | ||||||
23 November 1985 |
|
|
||||||
18 January 1986 | Mustapha Million | Super Steve | ||||||
25 January 1986 |
|
|
||||||
08 February 1986 The Krazy Gang ends this issue | Animalad | Mustapha Million | ||||||
15 February 1986 | Lazy Bones | Calculator Kid | ||||||
15 March 1986 | Odd-Ball | Calculator Kid | ||||||
29 March 1986 | Calculator Kid | Master P Brain | ||||||
05 April 1986 | Bumpkin Billionaires | Mustapha Million | ||||||
12 April 1986 | Animalad | Calculator Kid | ||||||
31 May 1986 | Lazy Bones | Calculator Kid | ||||||
07 June 1986 | Mustapha Million | Joker | ||||||
28 June 1986 | Sweet Tooth | Mustapha Million | ||||||
26 July 1986 Calculator Kid ends this issue | No Cheeky-related raid this issue | No Cheeky-related raid this issue | ||||||
16 August 1986 | Mustapha Million | Joker | ||||||
23 August 1986 | Sweet Tooth | Mustapha Million | ||||||
18 October 1986 | Winnie the Royal Nag | Mustapha Million | ||||||
06 December 1986 | Toy Boy | Mustapha Million | ||||||
13 December 1986 | Mustapha Million | Odd-Ball | ||||||
17 January 1987 | Sid | Mustapha Million | ||||||
14 February 1987 | Odd-Ball | Mustapha Million | ||||||
11 April 1987 | Pa Bumpkin | Mustapha Million | ||||||
25 April 1987 | Mustapha Million | Odd-Ball | ||||||
20 June 1987 | Toy Boy | Mustapha Million | ||||||
27 June 1987 | Mustapha Million | Memory Banks | ||||||
25 July 1987 | Lazy Bones | Mustapha Million | ||||||
22 August 1987 | Winnie the Royal Nag | Mustapha Million | ||||||
12 September 1987 | Mustapha Million | Sweet Tooth | ||||||
19 September 1987 | Odd-Ball | Mustapha Million | ||||||
24 October 1987 | Odd-Ball | Mustapha Million | ||||||
12 December 1987 | Joker | Mustapha Million | ||||||
13 February 1988 | Bloggs (Store Wars) | Mustapha Million | ||||||
20 February 1988 | Mustapha Million | Joker | ||||||
12 March 1988 | Odd-Ball | Mustapha Million | ||||||
23 April 1988 | Joker | Mustapha Million | ||||||
28 May 1988 Readers asked not to let their Whizz-kid or Chip-ite sympathies colour their favourite strip votes | No Cheeky-related raid this issue | No Cheeky-related raid this issue | ||||||
11 June 1988 | Slippy | Mustapha Million | ||||||
16 July 1988 | Toy Boy | Mustapha Million | ||||||
30 July 1988 New raids halted | ||||||||
05 August 1989 (raid reprinted from 25 Aug 1984) | Cheeky | Store Wars | ||||||
12 August 1989 Resumption of new raids | No Cheeky-related raid this issue | No Cheeky-related raid this issue |
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