Profile - Do-Good Dora

Do-Good Dora first rattled her collecting tin in Cheeky Weekly's third issue, dated 05 November 1977, and went on to pester the good folk of Krazy town in a further 73 editions of the toothy funster's comic. In his encounters with the indefatigable fundraiser, Cheeky usually managed to contribute a joke rather than any cash, although he did reluctantly donate money on a few occasions.

Dora's first appearance
Art: Frank McDiarmid

In only the 6th issue of Cheeky Weekly to include her (issue dated 07 January 1978), Dora appeared in 6 Cheeky's Week element as it took her all week to recite her list of 1000 new year resolutions.

The 15 April 1978 comic featured the highest number of appearances by the cheerful chugger in a single issue – an anxious Cheeky adopted a variety of tactics to evade her collecting tin as she pursued him across 8 Cheeky's Week elements, only to discover on Saturday that Dora wanted to hand him a record token he'd won in her raffle.

Dora appeared in 10 February 1979's Burpo Special, in which the terrible toddler's subject was Auntie Daisy.

There was one Krazy Town resident for whom Dora's ever-ready collecting tin was far more than a mere annoyance – the sight of it induced a 'Mac-Panic' in Uncle Hamish in the 17 February 1979 issue, and the Pin-up Pal poster in Cheeky Weekly dated 24 March 1979 depicted the Caledonian curmudgeon fleeing in terror from Dora's latest fund-raising venture. Dora was the subject of the Pin-Up Pal poster in the comic dated 10 June 1978, whereon a number of Krazy Town residents (the toothy funster among them) are seen departing at speed from the relentless fundraiser. All the Pin-Up Pal posters can be seen at Bruce's Comic Archive.

Art: Frank McDiarmid

In the 15 September 1979 issue we learned that mirthful mailman Postie is Do-Good Dora's uncle.

Art: Frank McDiarmid pencils

Dora was among the guests at Cheeky's Christmas party in the issue dated 29 December 1979, and the following week she made her only front cover appearance, joining Cheeky and an assortment of his pals who were jumping in the air to celebrate the new leap year. Inside that issue, Dora was once again at our grinning pal's house, this time attending the Cheeky family new year party.

In the final issue of the toothy funster's comic Dora, never one to miss a fund-raising opportunity, homed in on the wealthy members of the cast of companion title Whoopee! into which the survivors from Cheeky Weekly would merge the following week. Dora first met up with Pa from Whoopee's Bumpkin Billionaires, a meeting that – judging from the wad of banknotes protruding from her tray - was highly satisfactory for both parties. In the final panel of the same issue, Dora was seen hopefully rattling her tin beside Whoopee's Lolly Pop, an endeavour which was unlikely to be as successful.

Dora meets Pa Bumpkin
Art: Frank McDiarmid

Dora's appearance wasn't always consistent among the Cheeky's Week artists. The first depiction of the tin-rattling tyke was by Frank McDiarmid, who showed her wearing glasses. The next two occasions on which Dora appeared, both drawn by Frank McDiarmid pencils, followed Frank's example and included the specs. However, on her fourth Cheeky Weekly outing, drawn again by Frank McDiarmid, Dora was without her eyewear. On every subsequent occasion on which he drew her in 'present day' Krazy Town, Frank drew Dora without glasses. The only time Frank returned to drawing a bespectacled Dora was when Cheeky met her older self in 19 August 1978's '60 years into the future' issue.

The Dora (and Cheeky) of 2038
Art: Frank McDiarmid

The other Cheeky artists continued to depict Dora wearing specs until the 08 April 1978 issue, in which Jim Watson seemed to draw Dora with and without glasses on the same page. Thereafter, with the exception 20 May 1978 (Jim Watson) and 24 June 1978 (Barrie Appleby), the youthful Dora always appeared without specs.

Dora loses her glasses during the interval,
or did Jim Watson just forget to draw the
arm of her specs in the penultimate panel?

Art: Mike Lacey

A similar issue arose in relation to Dora's hair, which Frank McDiarmid changed in November 1978 from the rather nondescript style which was in evidence on her first outing, to a rather striking, frizzy, three-triangle construction. The only other artist to adopt the triangular hairstyle was Jimmy Hansen who drew Dora's new coiffure in the 15 September and 06 October 1979 comics, but on returning to the character in the 20 October issue the same year showed her with the original hair.

06 October 1979 - Jimmy Hansen draws Dora
with her revised hairstyle

Dora never appeared in the Cheeky strip in Krazy comic.

Character	Total Issues	First Appearance	Final Appearance
Do-Good Dora	74	05-Nov-1977	02-Feb-1980

Count of elements by artist

Character	Artist	Total Elements
Do-Good Dora	Frank McDiarmid	47
Do-Good Dora	Frank McDiarmid pencils	26
Do-Good Dora	Mike Lacey	12
Do-Good Dora	Dick Millington	3
Do-Good Dora	Barrie Appleby	3
Do-Good Dora	Unknown Cheeky Artist 1	3
Do-Good Dora	Jimmy Hansen	3
Do-Good Dora	Jim Watson	2
Do-Good Dora	Not known	1

Profile - Postie

Postie had the honour of being the first of Cheeky's pals to feature in the What a Cheek cover strip, on the front of the debut issue of Cheeky weekly.  The perky post person was a regular in Krazy's 'Ello It's Cheeky pages, so he was possibly allocated the front cover slot in Cheeky's first issue to reassure prospective purchasers who had previously read Krazy that the 'Ello It's Cheeky-style humour they had enjoyed would continue into the new comic.  Postie returned to the cover of Cheeky Weekly one further time, in a single-panel joke crammed into the corner of page 1 of the 18 August 1979 issue.

In total, the merry mailman appeared in 27 issues of Cheeky Weekly, not quite making it to the end of the comic's run, his final appearance being in the 19 January 1980 issue which was just 2 weeks short of the last issue before the merge into Whoopee!

Postie's function on the majority of occasions he appeared in Krazy had been to ask Cheeky to write a limerick about a different subject (often a town or county or, in later issues, a reader's name) each time.  In Cheeky Weekly his role altered somewhat and he became a source of mail-related jokes and puns.

In the Christmas 1977 issue we got a rare glimpse of an off-duty Postie, yet as a guest at Cheeky's new year party in the 06 January 1979 issue, the daft delivery man was in full uniform.  However, he was in civvies again for the new year party in the 05 January 1980 comic.

off duty

Postie featured every day during Cheeky's Week (well, every day except Sunday, which was presumably his day off) in the 18 March 1978 issue.

In the 15 September 1979 issue we learned that Postie is Do-Good Dora's uncle.

Postie wasn't averse to delivering the same joke twice.

Is that really Frank's address on the shoe?

Despite the honour of being the first character to swap a gag with our toothy hero in Cheeky Weekly, postie didn't appear on a Pin-Up Pal poster, nor did the larking letter-deliverer get to feature in a Burpo Special (although he was the subject of the Krazy equivalent, Cheeky's Pal, in the 20 August 1977 issue of that comic).

The longest Krazy Town went without a postal delivery was the 17 weeks that elapsed between Postie's appearance in the 15 July 1978 issue and his return in the comic dated 11 November 1978.

Character	Total Issues	First Appearance	Final Appearance
Postie	27	22-Oct-1977	19-Jan-1980

Count of elements by artist

Character	Artist	Total Elements
Postie	Frank McDiarmid	23
Postie	Frank McDiarmid pencils	6
Postie	Mike Lacey	5
Postie	Jim Watson	1