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.

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Thursday 28 March 2024

Whizzer and Chips - The Cheeky Raids part 54

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.

When I embarked on this Whizzer and Chips - The Cheeky Raids series almost 10 years ago, the task of identifying the sneaky Whizz-kids and sly Chip-ites who were traversing the boundaries into each other’s territory was easy - if I failed to uncover the infiltrators myself I could always consult the following week’s comic because in the issues published during the major part of the period under investigation, the culprits would make themselves known 7 days after perpetrating their clandestine incursions. However, Whizzer and Chips dated 30 July 1988 was the final issue to adhere to this 'owning up' tradition, and in fact all raiding (barring some reprinted strips that had originally included raiders) was suspended until new raids (although only one per week) resumed in Whizzer and Chips dated 12 August 1989. Unfortunately for those such as myself who are trying to document the raids (or at least the Cheeky-related raids in my case), the practise of naming the interlopers did not resume. Just to make things doubly difficult, the 23 September 1989 issue saw weekly reciprocal raids return, again without any subsequent disclosure although readers were warned each week, by means of captions on the Sid's Whizz-kids and Shiner's Chip-ites pages, to be vigilant for interlopers.

I find the cessation of the admissions of culpability to be rather puzzling, as surely it was an incentive to readers, or at least those whose powers of observation were lacking, to buy the following week's issue.

So despite my promise (threat?) in April 2020, in the 53rd part of my Cheeky Raids series, that 'more raiding fun' would ensue 'soon', there have in fact been no further instalments. Until now. I have determined that I will bring the series to a conclusion, and be honest about the instances where I have been unable to identify a raider, for such there have been.

The raid I documented in the preceding, almost 4-year-old, post in this series gave details of the cross-border forays undertaken in Whizzer and Chips dated 28 October 1989. I have been able to identify raiders in the following week's edition, but they need not concern us here as neither is Cheeky-related.

However, I am having some difficulty with the edition dated 11 November 1989. The raider into Whizzer is undoubtedly Terry Bave's jungle bungler Tarman, who has apparently relocated from his steamy equatorial habitat to a Whizztown park and can be observed peering gormlessly over some shrubbery in the background of a panel of the Sid's Snake strip.

Art: Mike Lacey

Notable in this issue are the likenesses of Mustapha Million and Calculator Kid (both of whom are of course denizens of Chips) on Sid's page. They're among the characters drawn by creditably non-partisan reader David Dawson of Rochford, Essex, whose subjects are selected from both the Whizzer and Chips factions. However, these contributions from a reader clearly cannot be considered as raids.

 

The presence of Calculator Kid among the comic cavalcade delineated by young David puzzles me somewhat since Charlie Counter's final weekly Whizzer and Chips appearance was in the issue dated 26 July 1986, over 3 years before this submission was published. I initially thought that the contribution from the youthful Rochford artist may have been languishing somewhere in either the postal system or the Fleetway offices for some years, but the presence of Scouse Mouse, who was absorbed into Whizzer and Chips with effect from the issue dated 15 April 1989, disproves this theory. I then wondered whether David had seen Calculator Kid reprints in an issue of The Best of Whizzer and Chips Monthly, but as far as I know CK's 'Best Of' appearances were restricted to the Whoopee collections, so our enthusiastic artist pal wouldn't have made the connection between Charlie and Calc and Whizzer and Chips if his only knowledge of the characters resulted from reading Best of Whoopee Monthly. Unfortunately I know very little about the publication history and contents of Fleetway's non-title-specific reprint collections such as Funny Monthly or BVC, so although I suspect Calculator Kid could well have appeared in them, I have no knowledge of when those supposed appearances occured, nor am I aware whether there was any indication of their title of origin. Did Master Dawson have access to some old weekly issues of Whizzer and Chips?

Mustapha Million was still appearing in Whizzer and Chips at the time, so his presence among the laughter luminaries populating David's artwork is understandable. Mustapha seems to be unhappy, possibly due to his proximity to Kid Comic who I believe was by this time something of a pariah among his Whizz-kid and Chip-ite colleagues due to his treachery (read on to discover more).

I now have to admit that, despite several trawls through its pages, I have been unable to identify a Whizz-kid raider in the Chips segment of this comic (just to remind you Whizzer and Chips dated 11 November 1989 is the edition currently under scrutiny). Spotting Kid Comic on Shiner's page made me consider for a moment that he was the raider, but on checking I discovered that KC had changed his allegiance from Whizzer to Chips as of the 13 May 1989 edition (and anyway Kid Comic's humorous exchange with Terry from the Supermum/Super Mum strip which began a series of reprinted (I assume) episodes in Whizzer and Chips dated 05 November 1988 (on that first occasion as an emergency replacement for Town Tarzan, whose strip, according to an accompanying footnote, had been lost in the post), concluding in the 02 September 1989 edition, seems entirely convivial).


 

The depiction of Whizz-kids on the cover of the Whizzer and Chips Annual on the above page is within an advertisement, thus putting those appearances beyond the scope of raids.

Since my goal in this series of posts is to identify raids involving ex-Cheeky Weekly characters, of whom only Mustapha Million was still appearing at this juncture, and having established that our young Arab Chip-ite chum was not the raider into Whizzer this particular week, I would only need to record a raid against this issue if it was Mustapha himself who had been intruded upon. Having subjected Mustapha's strip in this issue to particular scrutiny, I am fairly confident that he has not been raided, but having been unable to find a raider anywhere within Chips, I am not entirely sure that a sneaky Whizz-kid has not infiltrated Mustapha's story and evaded my raider radar, so I am placing the episode below as blog readers may have more visual acuity than my decrepit minces can muster. You'll notice that Mustapha's Cheeky-resemblant pal is among the characters, and the two autograph-collecting girls have similarities to Libby and Louise. The members of Dross are obviously based on popster trio Bros, and artist Frank McDiarmid does nice renditions of the band members. The script is a bit harsh on 'the other one'.



More raiding fun soon!


Whizzer and Chips Cover Date Raider Raided
06 April 1985Mustapha MillionSuper Steve
04 May 1985Bloggs (Store Wars)Mustapha Million
11 May 1985JokerThe Krazy Gang (Cheeky)
18 May 1985Calculator Kid & CalcOdd-Ball
01 June 1985
Animalad
Mustapha Million
The Krazy Gang (Cheeky)
Boy Boss
08 June 1985Odd-BallCalculator Kid
06 July 1985Toy BoyCalculator Kid
13 July 1985Pa BumpkinThe Krazy Gang (Cheeky)
27 July 1985JokerMustapha Million
24 August 1985CheekySid's Snake
14 September 1985
Odd-Ball
Calculator Kid
Calculator Kid
Store Wars
05 October 1985Mustapha MillionAnimalad
19 October 1985Odd-BallMustapha Million
23 November 1985
Sweeny Toddler
Sweeny Toddler
Sweeny Toddler
Calculator Kid
The Krazy Gang (Cheeky)
Mustapha Million
18 January 1986Mustapha MillionSuper Steve
25 January 1986
Odd-Ball
Cheeky
Mustapha Million
Odd-Ball
08 February 1986
The Krazy Gang ends this issue
AnimaladMustapha Million
15 February 1986Lazy BonesCalculator Kid
15 March 1986Odd-BallCalculator Kid
29 March 1986Calculator KidMaster P Brain
05 April 1986Bumpkin BillionairesMustapha Million
12 April 1986AnimaladCalculator Kid
31 May 1986Lazy BonesCalculator Kid
07 June 1986Mustapha MillionJoker
28 June 1986Sweet ToothMustapha Million
26 July 1986
Calculator Kid ends this issue
No Cheeky-related raid this issueNo Cheeky-related raid this issue
16 August 1986Mustapha MillionJoker
23 August 1986Sweet ToothMustapha Million
18 October 1986Winnie the Royal NagMustapha Million
06 December 1986Toy BoyMustapha Million
13 December 1986Mustapha MillionOdd-Ball
17 January 1987SidMustapha Million
14 February 1987Odd-BallMustapha Million
11 April 1987Pa BumpkinMustapha Million
25 April 1987Mustapha MillionOdd-Ball
20 June 1987Toy BoyMustapha Million
27 June 1987Mustapha MillionMemory Banks
25 July 1987Lazy BonesMustapha Million
22 August 1987Winnie the Royal NagMustapha Million
12 September 1987Mustapha MillionSweet Tooth
19 September 1987Odd-BallMustapha Million
24 October 1987Odd-BallMustapha Million
12 December 1987JokerMustapha Million
13 February 1988Bloggs (Store Wars)Mustapha Million
20 February 1988Mustapha MillionJoker
12 March 1988Odd-BallMustapha Million
23 April 1988JokerMustapha 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 issueNo Cheeky-related raid this issue
11 June 1988SlippyMustapha Million
16 July 1988Toy BoyMustapha Million
30 July 1988 New raids halted

05 August 1989 (raid reprinted from 25 Aug 1984)CheekyStore Wars
12 August 1989 Resumption of new raids (one per week)No Cheeky-related raid this issueNo Cheeky-related raid this issue
02 September 1989JokerMustapha Million
16 September 1989SlippyMustapha Million
23 September 1989 Weekly reciprocal raids resumeNo Cheeky-related raid this issueNo Cheeky-related raid this issue
28 October 1989
Mustapha Million

Sweeny Toddler
Bobby's Ghoul

Mustapha Million
11 November 1989 - Tarman is the Chip-ite raider into Whizzer, but I have been unable to identify any raider into Chips


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