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.
The previous post in this series focused on Whizzer and Chips dated 10 March 1990, and I have been able to eliminate the two following editions from being relevant to documentation here as neither featured ex-Cheeky Weekly characters as raider or raided.
Thus we arrive at Whizzer and Chips' 31 March 1990 edition, and I'm able to report that not only have I identified raiders into both Whizzer and Chips (this has not always been the case in recent months), but Mustapha Million is one of those involved.
Fuss Pot is the Chip-ite intruder into Whizzer. Readers of my previous post will be aware that Fuss pot traversed the Whizzer/Chips boundary on occasion, but she had been firmly ensconced within Chips (except when mounting cross-border raids) since the 22 October 1998 issue. The fastidious female perpetrated a raid on Sweeny Toddler in the 31 March 1990 comic. Mustapha Million suffered an interloper in the same issue. Can you spot the trespasser? Scroll down the learn the identity of the iniquitous invader.
Yes, it's the dentally deficient Sweet-Tooth, a character mostly associated with Whizzer, but who on occasion crossed the divide into Chips, although in this particular issue the confectionery consuming cove's page was lodged inside Whizzer territory on page 25.
I have identified raiders and raided in the 4 issues published after that examined above (i.e. up to and including the edition cover-dated 28 April 1990), and none of those raids are Cheeky-related. This means that this is the final post in this series, since the 28 April 1990 edition of Whizzer and Chips was the last to include a raid, at least in the classic sense. The following week the comic was reduced from 32 to 24 pages and the concept of Whizzer and Chips being '2 comics in one' was dropped (although the title remained the same), so there was no longer a defined Whizzer or Chips section.
Instead of identifying Whizz-kids raiding Chip-ites and vice versa, commencing with the 05 May 1990 issue, readers were challenged to search the whole comic for a cameo appearance by Little Devil, whose feature had been appearing in Whizzer and Chips since the issue dated 06 January 1990 (although I suspect this was a run of reprints, so the satanic scamp could well have been featured earlier). As of the 05 May 1990 edition, the rather oddly worded message 'Can you find Little Devil on one of these pages?' appeared at the foot of each LD episode. The answer to this question would of course be 'Yes, in the strip above'. Readers should instead have been asked 'Can you find Little Devil on another page?'. For his inaugural infernal intrusion, Little Devil demonically possessed Memory Banks.
Whizzer and Chips 05 May 1990 Art: Murray Ball (I think) |
Whizzer and Chips 05 May 1990 Art: Mark Bennington |
The diminutive demon's strip made its final appearance in the issue dated 06 October 1990, just 3 short of the comic's 27 October 1990 ultimate edition. 23 issues were published between 05 May 1990 and 06 October 1990 (inclusive), but Little Devil's strip was absent from the comic dated 26 May 1990 and it would seem that the obtrusive ogre didn't impose himself on any of the other pages that week. I have been able to locate the inimitable imp in 20 of the issues in which he supposedly appeared on other pages (09 June and 22 September being the editions in which LD has evaded my searches), and I can report that on one occasion, in the 08 September 1990 comic, the hell-spawned character invaded Mustapha Million's page. In that episode, Mustapha travels to Australia with a sack of cash in order to persuade a number of TV soap stars who have departed Neighbours to return to their roles in the popular antipodean drama.
Whizzer and Chips 08 September 1990. Art: Frank McDiarmid |
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 |
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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 |
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05 October 1985 | Mustapha Million | Animalad | ||||||
19 October 1985 | Odd-Ball | Mustapha Million | ||||||
23 November 1985 |
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18 January 1986 | Mustapha Million | Super Steve | ||||||
25 January 1986 |
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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 (one per week) | No Cheeky-related raid this issue | No Cheeky-related raid this issue | ||||||
02 September 1989 | Joker | Mustapha Million | ||||||
16 September 1989 | Slippy | Mustapha Million | ||||||
23 September 1989 Weekly reciprocal raids resume | No Cheeky-related raid this issue | No Cheeky-related raid this issue | ||||||
28 October 1989 |
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11 November 1989 - Tarman is the Chip-ite raider into Whizzer, but I have been unable to identify any raider into Chips | ||||||||
18 November 1989 | Mustapha Million | Sid's Whizz-kids page | ||||||
02 December 1989 | Joker | Mustapha Million | ||||||
23 December 1989 - Junior Rotter is the Chip-ite raider into Whizzer, but I have been unable to identify any raider into Chips | ||||||||
30 December 1989 - Slippy is the Whizz-kid raider into Chips, but I have been unable to identify any raider into Whizzer | ||||||||
27 January 1990 - Slippy is the Whizz-kid raider into Chips, but I have been unable to identify any raider into Whizzer |
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24 February 1990 - Joker is the Whizz-kid raider into Chips, but I have been unable to identify any raider into Whizzer |
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10 March 1990 - Sweeny Toddler intrudes upon Lazy Bones in a reprinted 'raid' from Whizzer and Chips dated 06 April 1985. I have been unable to identify any raider into Whizzer. | Joker |
Mustapha Million | ||||||
31 March 1990 | Sweet-Tooth | Mustapha Million | ||||||
28 April 1990 The final 32-page edition. The concept of a Whizzer and a Chips section is dropped from the subsequent 24-page issues, and consequently there are no further raids (although the Little Devil character can often be found on another character's page). | No Cheeky-related raid this issue | No Cheeky-related raid this issue |