Gang Pong Merrily on High - Part 2

Cheeky fans perusing 1979's festive edition of Whizzer and Chips would have been gratified to see their toothy chum on the cover (as we saw in the first part of my examination of that issue), and were no doubt anticipating more Cheeky chuckles inside in his role as a member of the Krazy Gang, but maybe they wouldn't have expected to see him make an appearance in Super Store.

Whizzer and Chips 29 December 1979
Art: Bob Hill
Santa's route takes him via IPC's offices
in King's Reach Tower.

A rather intoxicated-looking Cheeky attends the Super Store slap-up feed and, unlike the cover scene, the whole Krazy Gang are in attendance (Store artist Bob Hill is familiar with the Gang's mugs since he's also the artist for their strip).

 

Among the gathered diners enjoying the festive feast is Steve Ford who was absent from the cover, as well as the full cast of Happy Families who were somewhat depleted on the front page. As well the current stars of the comic, the ever-generous Uncle Rich has invited along a few comic celebs from days gone by. Can you name all the characters in the final panel? There are three whose names elude me - the character wearing a ruff and seated between Chip-ite and Willoughby, the face that can barely be seen above the table between Willoughby and Shiner, and the lad between Shiner and Bewitched Belinda. UPDATE - See Stephen Archer's comment below. There also seems to be a disembodied hand gripping a glass of pop (or maybe something stronger if Cheeky's apparent condition is anything to go by) that's floating above Nobby's party hat. I was a bit confused by Benny 'Lazy' Bones, from whose bonce a rather alarming punk-style hairdo seems to have erupted, but then I realised that it's another example of festive headgear. Pongo Snodgrass is absent. UPDATE - No he's not!

Our toothy pal gets to enjoy a further slap-up nosh at the Krazy Gang's hut in their story.

Art: Bob Hill

Pongo endures a second 'clean-up' this issue (see link above for his first wash), and the tale pleasingly resolves with seasonal goodwill all round. I can only echo Liz's sentiments - Merry Christmas, Readers!

Gang Pong Merrily on High - Part 1

In the same week of 1979 that Cheeky was enjoying festive frolics in his own title, he was also of course appearing in his side hustle as a member of the Krazy Gang over in the Chrimbo edition of Whizzer and Chips.

Art: Sid Burgon

Cheeky is among the comic celebrities gathered together on the front cover. I take it the front page reference to 'The Gang' is supposed to encompass all the assembled funny folk and not just the members of the Krazy crew, who are in fact under-represented as Sporty and Blue are absent. The incomplete Krazy Gang on the cover is probably to avoid the scene becoming cluttered with characters. As it is (if my counting is not at fault) there are 15 Chip-ites (I'm not counting the bat which I assume is accompanying Bewitched Belinda) and 14 Whizz-kids. Cast members of Whizzer's ensemble piece Happy Families are also missing (Mum, Dad and Grandad), as are The 12½p Buytonic Boy, Sweet-Tooth and Tiny Tycoon. We probably wouldn't expect to see characters from the adventure serials Island of Fear and Sheriff Starr. Sadly, seasonal goodwill does not extend to a mingling of comic stars, who resolutely stick to their own Whizz-kid and Chip-ite halves of the page.

Cover artist Sid Burgon seems to been inspired by Bob Hill's Krazy Gang title panel, which has this week been adorned with the traditional sprinkling of snow, when drawing his tongue-lolling depiction of Cheeky.

The Gang's erstwhile Krazy colleague, the existenchialist Pongo Snodgrass, is welcomed onto the cover, and other than Fuss-Pot's askance gaze, his Chip-ite chums are too polite to object to the niff. Pongo's adventure inside the comic concludes with a splat-up feed rather than the traditional slap-up meal. A similar scenario unfolded in the Why, Dad, Why? strip in that week's edition of Cheeky Weekly (see the link in the first paragraph above).

Art: Nigel Edwards

Join me again in a few days when I'll be examining some more festive frolics from this issue of Whizzer and Chips.

A Cavalcade of Christmas Capers

I thought I'd create this entry to gather together all the links to the Christmas-related posts I have made. So here you go...

18/12/76    Krazy  Part 1, Part 2
25/12/76    Krazy  Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
31/12/77    Cheeky Weekly  Link
23/12/78    Cheeky Weekly’s lost pre-Christmas issue  Follow the links at the bottom of each post to progress through the series.
30/12/78    Cheeky Weekly’s lost Christmas issue  Follow the links at the bottom of each post to progress through the series.
29/12/79    Cheeky Weekly  Link
27/12/80    Whoopee with Cheeky  Link
26/12/81    Whoopee  Part1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5
25/12/82    Whizzer and Chips Part 1, Part 2
27/12/86    Whizzer and Chips  Part 1, Part 2

I'll be posting an examination of another issue containing festive fun with Cheeky very soon.

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.

Art: Frank McDiarmid
The bottom left panel is the payoff to the
gag set up on the page shown above.
Note background pee gag

Snail wasn't appearing every week yet - this is
his third appearance.
Note possible background pee gag in
panel 7 (in what manner was Willie
Cook's name inscribed in the snow?)
Note foreground 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!

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.

Art: Mike Lacey

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...

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.

Cheeky's First Christmas - part 3

This concluding part of my short series examining Cheeky's festive doings in the Christmas 1976 edition of Krazy brings us to Cheeky's third strip appearance in that issue. The Krazy Gang, who numbered Cheeky among their assorted human, avian and alien members, had appeared in Krazy from the first issue. When Krazy folded in April 1978, the Gang were among the survivors to be absorbed into Whizzer and Chips, where their adventures (still including our toothy hero) continued until February 1986.

However, all this upheaval lay in the future as readers of that first festive Krazy anticipated a seasonal escapade with Cheeky and his Gang colleagues...

Krazy 25 December 1976
Art: Ian Knox

It's always good to see Cheeky without his usual amused grin and I like the expressions of sheepishness on display in this strip. This is Pongo Snodgrass' second encounter with the Gang in this issue, and both feature similar final panels. Not quite the seasonal rapprochement one might have expected.

Don't eat too many chocolates, and have a merry Christmas, Pals!

Cheeky's First Christmas - part 2

In the second part of this short series examining Cheeky's contributions to the Christmas 1976 edition of Krazy, we skip ahead to page 19, the site of 2 reader participation features. Our grinning pal joins his Krazy Gang chums to deliver a selection of readers' gags in the Krazy News-Pound.

Krazy Agony Column Art: Nick Baker
Krazy News-Pound Art: Ian Knox

Over the page Cheeky is in the spotlight as his own 4-page  'Ello, It's Cheeky strip commences. We know from Cheeky Weekly dated 19 January 1980 that Frank McDiarmid enjoys drawing snow, and the toothy funster's festive stroll around Krazy Town allows Frank to indulge himself in plenty of wintry scenes.

Art: Frank McDiarmid
The bottom left panel contains the
payoff to the gag set up at the bottom
right of the News-Pound page shown above.

This page features the un-named
occasional character I refer to as Brother Girl

We'll leave Cheeky heading home to enjoy some more Christmas pressies, but join me again in a few days as I examine more Cheekiness from Christmas '76.

Cheeky's First Christmas - part 1

Art: Mike Lacey

Cheeky made his debut in the first edition of Krazy dated 16 October 1976, and just a few weeks later the Christmas issue of that title saw our toothy pal participate in festive fun for the first time. I've always assumed that Cheeky was supposed to be about 9 or 10 years old (and like most comic characters he remained the same age for the entirety of his nine and a half year comic career), so it wasn't strictly speaking our grinning pal's first Christmas, rather the first time that readers were able to observe his seasonal escapades.

Cheeky appeared on the cover of Krazy's Christmas '76 edition, in his role as a member of the Krazy Gang, all of whom were depicted cowering behind the snow-bedecked comic title and narrowly avoiding being hit by a ginormous snowball. Cover artist Mike Lacey would later draw the toothy funster in Cheeky Weekly. On page 2 the Gang were involved in a story featuring their niffy nemesis Pongo Snodgrass (who I suspect launched the icy projectile at them on the front cover), drawn by Ian Knox who would go on to depict the adventures of Cheeky Weekly's second-longest surviving character, 6 Million Dollar Gran, who, in her post-Cheeky Weekly career, evolved into $6,000,000 Gran then later Robot Granny and finally Gran (leader of Gran's Gang). As of Krazy's Christmas 1976 issue, Cheeky's jumper still showed his Gang (and therefore comic) affiliation - his more familar 'C'-bearing top would appear in August of the following year in preparation for the October launch of his own title.

Krazy 25 December 1976
Art: Ian Knox

Join me again in a few days for the second part of this examination of Cheeky's 1976 Christmas capers.

Cheeky Weekly cover date 29 December 1979

Merry Christmas Pals! I’m not entirely sure who drew Lily Pop, busting with Christmas cheer, on this week’s festive cover, which maintains the tradition of the snow-bedecked masthead. Louise looks to me like the work of Frank McDiarmid, but Lily and Cheeky don't seem quite 'Frank' to my eyes.

Cheeky Weekly reaches its third Christmas, although this is only the second festive issue because last year’s failed to appear due to industrial troubles. As with the previous issue, several of the elements included this week were in fact prepared over a year ago. A while back I examined the edits which were necessary in order to incorporate the artwork a year later than intended, so I’ll be linking to those posts as we progress through the yuletide fun, beginning with Sunday, which was actually originally drawn as a Thursday page.

As mentioned in the above link. It’s not Speed Squad who follow ‘Sunday’, it’s young Charlie Counter and his battery-powered buddy. Charlie helps Dad clear the front path by rolling a snowball, but said frozen agglomeration goes rogue and fetches up in the local park. A bully gets covered in the white stuff just as the judging of the snowman contest (prize; a big box of chocs) commences. You’ve read enough comic strips to guess how the chilly tale concludes.

Art: Terry Bave

I suspect that the Calculator Kid strip that Terry Bave drew for the 1978 Christmas Cheeky weekly was eventually used in the 1980 Cheeky Annual - see the Wednesday link below. If I'm right then this week's strip is new and not held over.

There’s a distinct lack of festive fun on Paddywack’s page (maybe no readers sent in Chrimbo gags), after which it’s Monday (originally Sunday).

Instead of being followed by 6 Million Dollar Gran, it’s Mustapha who’s up next, having a Christmas Eve encounter with Santa, who is evidently on the little-known maritime leg of his annual deliveries. Our ever-generous middle eastern pal gives away all his toys to the giftless island-dwellers, and there’s a heartwarming conclusion to the story as the dilemma facing Mustapha’s pals is resolved.

Art: Joe McCaffrey

 

Joe again

There follows a reprinted adventure for Soggy the Sea Monster, which touches on the festive season only tangentially. More in a Christmas mood is Elephant on the Run, wherein The Man in the Plastic Mac, out shopping with his wife for a turkey, notices elephant tracks in the snow. Hunting down the errant pachyderm, TMITPM is dismayed to see his leathern-skinned quarry hopping on a waiting bus. Elephant's implacable pursuer launches his shopping bag, containing the turkey, at his fleeing foe...

Art: Robert Nixon

...the large-eared fugitive, having set the bus in motion by inadvertent trunkular engagement with the bell-ringing mechanism, avails himself of the frozen bird and a Slap Up Festive Feed (SUFF) ensues.

Christmas really kicks in with a bumper 3 Cheeky’s Week pages devoted to our toothy pal’s December 25^th, culminating in a full-page SUFF for Cheeky and pals.

Cheeky’s Cut-Out Comedy Catalogue of Christmas Jokes provides a whole-box-of-crackers-worth of festive funnies, after which it’s Boxing Day.

Tub has a rather tedious adventure at the Chistmas circus during which his jumper changes from white to pink for no apparent reason. Surprisingly, there’s no SUFF conclusion.

Pages 17 and 18 are the location of Cheeky’s Christmas card to readers, signed by the toothy funster, some of his pals and the Cheeky Weekly production team including Frank McDiarmid, writer Willie (Gordon) Cook and editor Bob Paynter. I realise Snail can’t hold a pen, but he could have ‘slithered’ a message, and he had over a year in which to add his greeting.

Cheeky and Louise are wearing the same hats as on the cover
Art: Frank McDiarmid

 

Six Million Dollar Gran is enduring a Christmas heatwave, but the local mountains (where is this supposed to be set?) provide the synthetic senior citizen with plenty of frozen flakes with which to cool down the town.

Art: Ian Knox

Cheeky is still consuming turkey on Thursday.

Why, Dad, Why’s SUFF begins with son considering it a dull affair due to the rather stuffy guests, then degenerates into a food fight but all ends happily.

Art: John Geering

 

There’s a yuletide filler on page 23 in the form of Cheeky’s Christmas Quiz, following which is a reprint episode of The Gang (originally appearing under The Double Deckers title). Last week’s Gang story was a Christmas one, which I suspect was the only genuine festive Double Deckers tale in the strip’s original run. Thus this week’s adventure has had some of the dialogue altered to refer to a Christmas party – the original probably concerned just a generic party (a reference to Disco Kid has also been added). Tiger’s references to her soft toy, also called Tiger in the TV series on which the strip is based, have been changed to ‘my toy’.

Turkey is still on the menu on Friday.

Then mean-spirited Mr Scroonge plots to spoil the kids’ Christmas party by luring Disaster Des past the venue. A pity the old miser didn't appear again – a nice character design by Mike Lacey.

Mr Scroonge is so mean he won't even give away a 'humbug'

Art: Mike Lacey

Art: Robert Nixon

 

...using their showbiz wiles, the kids relocate the food to their hut and a SUFF is enjoyed by all (except teacher).

We don't have to wait until 3pm for Cheeky's Christmas message on the Chit-Chat page...

Following which we reach the end of Cheeky’s Week.

Snail heads out into the snowy garden to see what his wildlife pals got for Christmas, bringing this super celebration issue to a conclusion.

We say goodbye to a number of Cheeky's pals in this issue, namely Crunching Chris, Flash Harry, Libby, Snoozin' Susan and Spiv. The members of Speed Squad also make their final appearance in Cheeky's Week. They actually ceased to appear in Cheeky's Week back in the 23 June 1979 issue, but this week's artwork was of course prepared some months before that date.

Frank McDiarmid does his usual excellent work this week, providing 13 festive fun-packed Cheeky's Week elements, plus the Christmas card. Here's looking forward to Cheeky Weekly's Christmas 1980 edition (irony).

Cheeky Weekly	Cover Date: 29-Dec-1979, Issue 112 of 117
Page	Details
1	Cover Feature 'Christmas Issue' 2 of 2 - Art Frank McDiarmid
2	Sunday - Art Frank McDiarmid
3	Calculator Kid - Art Terry Bave
4	Paddywack - Art Jack Clayton
5	Monday - Art Frank McDiarmid
6	Mustapha Million - Art Joe McCaffrey
7	Mustapha Million - Art Joe McCaffrey
8	Soggy the Sea Monster reprint from Shiver and Shake - Art Robert Nixon
9	Elephant On The Run - Art Robert Nixon
10	Tuesday - Art Frank McDiarmid
11	Tuesday - Art Frank McDiarmid
12	Tuesday - Art Frank McDiarmid
13	Cheeky's Cut-Out Comedy Catalogue 'Christmas Jokes'
14	Cheeky's Cut-Out Comedy Catalogue 'Christmas Jokes'
15	Wednesday - Art Frank McDiarmid
16	Tub - Art Nigel Edwards
17	Christmas Card (single appearance) - Art Frank McDiarmid (single art on feature)
18	Christmas Card (single appearance) - Art Frank McDiarmid (single art on feature)
19	6 Million Dollar Gran - Art Ian Knox
20	Thursday - Art Frank McDiarmid
21	Why, Dad, Why? - Art John K. Geering
22	Ad: IPC 'Shoot' 9 of 13 Ad: 'Penny' 1 of 3
23	Christmas Quiz (single appearance)
24	The Gang reprint from Whizzer and Chips - Art Robert MacGillivray
25	The Gang reprint from Whizzer and Chips - Art Robert MacGillivray
26	Friday - Art Frank McDiarmid
27	Disaster Des - Art Mike Lacey
28	Stage School - Art Robert Nixon
29	Chit-Chat
30	Saturday - Art Frank McDiarmid
31	Saturday - Art Frank McDiarmid
32	Snail of the Century - Art Frank McDiarmid

1981 - A Cheeky Christmas part 5 (conclusion)

Next up in my examination of the 1981 festive escapades of those characters from Cheeky Weekly who continued to appear in Whoopee! is Paddywack.

Paddywack Art: Jack Clayton

I like Jack Clayton's depiction of the laughing party guests in the final panel.

The remaining survivors from Cheeky Weekly at this point were Charlie Counter and his battery-powered buddy, Calc. UK television viewers in 1981 had a choice of three channels (Channel 4 would launch in November 1982), most homes had only one TV and less than one in ten households had a video recorder. Thus the Christmas day televisual dilemma looming chez Counter was a familiar one to comic readers of the time.

Art: Terry Bave

I found this to be a rather sad ending as the Counter family withdrew to separate rooms on Christmas evening, but no doubt they all gathered again once their respective programmes had finished. Terry Bave furnishes his customary Christmas embellishments. Always good to see Charlie's dad's extraordinary moustache.

If I may, I'll close this look back at the Christmas 1981 edition of Whoopee! with a couple of non-Cheeky related strips. Actually, the first does in fact have a link to the toothy funster, since it's drawn by the mighty Frank McDiarmid. The Spectacular Adventures of Willie Bunk first appeared (as far as I know but see my observation later) in the debut issue of Whizzer and Chips in 1969, drawn by Frank. You can see that strip on Peter Gray's blog. To me, it seems that there's evidence of re-sizing of artwork on those Whizzer and Chips pages, so I'm wondering if that strip was in fact a reprint. Anyway, Wikipedia tells us that Willie's Whizzer and Chips adventures ended in that comic's 26 December 1970 issue. However, Frank brought Willie out of retirement to begin a new run of adventures in Whoopee! dated 12 September 1981, and Peter posted the first of that new series here.

Here's the lad with the magic glasses as he appeared in Whoopee! dated 26 December 1981...

Art: Frank McDiarmid

Frank's less cartoony style in evidence here works very well with this kind of story. As Peter mentions on his blog, the Bunk strips made use of spot colour to denote the fantasy sequences where readers shared the world that young Willie was experiencing through his glasses.

Coincidentally, Lew Stringer recently posted a similar 'owner of enchanted eyewear' character's Christmas episode, namely Billy Binns and his Wonderful Specs, from Boys World in 1963. 'Bins' is of course slang for spectacles; I've seen speculation that it's short for binoculars, or that it's Cockney rhyming slang based on the phrase 'bins and receptacles' which I can only imagine was a term used in relation to refuse collections in days gone by.

My final selection from this festive Whoopee! is the back cover's Smiler story. If you remember from the first part of my look at the issue in question, Shiner featured on the cover, so this page nicely rounds off the issue. I always enjoy Nick Baker's artwork, and on his strips featuring the ever-smiling little lad there's the bonus of the descriptions of the various 'beams' issuing from the hero's gob as the story progresses. We join the family just as they've polished off their festive slap-up feed...

Art: Nick Baker

 I hope your Christmas and New Year are suffused with 'beams'.

1981 - A Cheeky Christmas part 4

My trawl through the pages of Whoopee!'s 1981 Christmas issue in search of the Cheeky Weekly survivors now arrives at pages 18 and 19, occupied by a character called Robot Granny. This is of course the aged automaton who Friends of Cheeky first knew as 6 Million Dollar Gran. On her transfer to Whoopee!, Gran's strips were for some reason given a numerically-focused change of title and she appeared as $6000,000 Gran, occasionally reverting to her former title, as was the case in her final outing before being given a more radical re-titling as of Whoopee! dated 09 May 1981, in which the synthetic senior citizen's strips were re-branded Robot Granny (not the last time her strip would undergo a title change). This new stage in Gran's career saw her become a nanny employed by Lord and Lady Swankly to look after their kids at Rottenrich Hall, which is where we find her on Christmas Eve, 1981...

Whoopee! 26 December 1981
Art: Ian Knox

As it's Christmas I'm not going to complain at the two references to Gran being bionic. Her debut in Cheeky Weekly made it clear that she was a robot but despite this she was often described as bionic during her run in the toothy funster's comic. It's surprising that the mistake was still being made when such descriptions of her attributes contradicted the strip's new title

Gran's abilities suit her to the oft-used 'Helping Santa out of Trouble' plot.

1981 - A Cheeky Christmas part 3

This third installment of my look through the Christmas 1981 issue of Whoopee! in order to observe the seasonal adventures of our Cheeky Weekly pals who had survived the cancellation of their comic brings us to page 13's Christmas Quiz Time, a workout for Xmas-pud-addled brains that featured the toothy funster and his chums (including Paddywack who was for some reason absent from the cover of that festive edition). I have already posted about this page, so I'll direct you here for the full info.

Next up is Cheeky himself, now in somewhat reduced circumstances. Once he was the star of his own comic, and had begun his Whoopee! run with 5 pages a week, but Christmas '81 finds our grinning pal confined to a 2-page centre spread, and even then he has to share it with strips featuring his slimy sidekick and a bearded, jolly fellow who gets very busy at the end of December. Nevertheless Frank McDiarmid packs the space with a welter of Yuletide gags, as Cheeky meets a good number of his Krazy Town pals. Sadly there's no slap-up feed but the feature concludes with a nice sentiment courtesy of the man with the sleigh and reindeer.

Whoopee! 26 December 1981
Art: Frank McDiarmid

More from Whoopee! at Christmas '81 soon,

1981 - A Cheeky Christmas part 2

In the second part of this look back at the festive frolics of the survivors from Cheeky Weekly who continued to appear in Whoopee! at the end of 1981, our attention turns to Stage School, where the eternal battle between the juvenile showbiz wannabes and their resolutely anti-theatrical tutor shows no sign of letting up as the season of goodwill approaches...

Whoopee! 26 December 1981
Art: Robert Nixon

I always feel a bit cheated if a Christmas story doesn't end with a slap-up feed, and Robert Nixon (who does some great seasonal border work) furnishes a sizeable festive nosh-up, complete with steaming turkey. The Christmas truce ending is suitably heartwarming.

Another look back to Christmas '81 coming soon.

1981 - A Cheeky Christmas part 1

Art: Nick Baker

This issue of Whoopee!, the Christmas 1981 edition despite its Boxing Day cover date, features a Yuletastic cover by the great Nick Baker. Nick, who's probably most well known for drawing the ever-grinning little lad Smiler, endows the entire Whoopee! line-up of fun pals with Smiler-like 'beams' (well, apart from Frankie Stein). Mercifully, we are spared the full horror of Cheeky, whose gob could hardly accommodate a more fearsome set of gnashers than his own, with a mouthful of Smiler-alike dinner manglers, since the toothy funster is only seen in profile. However, Calculator Kid, Mustapha Million, Teacher and kids from Stage School and 6 Million Dollar Gran (survivors all from Cheeky Weekly which merged into Whoopee! when the toothy funster's comic ceased publication in February 1980) all get a dental upgrade.

Not seen on this cover is Paddywack, the other Cheeky Weekly survivor who continued to appear in Whoopee! at this stage.

Let's see what our mate Mustapha was up to as Christmas 1981 approached...

Art: Joe McCaffrey

Pity we don't get to see a slap-up feed at the end.

I'll be examining the 1981 festive doings of our other Cheeky Weekly pals soon.