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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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*** CHEEKY WEEKLY, KRAZY, WHOOPEE!, WHOOPEE, WOW!, WHIZZER AND CHIPS and BUSTER ARE ™ REBELLION PUBLISHING LTD, COPYRIGHT © REBELLION PUBLISHING LTD, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ***
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Wednesday, 12 December 2012
Roy Mitchell's Cheeky
The host of the first Quizmaster was Cheeky Weekly's Calculator Kid, and in the 19 March 1983 issue Cheeky got his chance at setting readers some brain teasers.
I found Mitch's real name on Peter Gray's blog.
Sunday, 9 December 2012
Profile - Doctor Braincell
Braincell actually appeared twice in the issue in which he made his debut - on Friday he produced a copy of The Mystery Comic from his little black bag, and he was outside the cinema as Cheeky and pals exited the Saturday morning pictures. In neither of these appearances was he named.
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| Braincell's debut Art: Barrie Appleby |
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| The Doctor's first namecheck Art: Barrie Appleby |
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| 2038: Geriatric GP meets toothless funster Cheeky Weekly 19 August 1978 Art: Frank McDiarmid |
(A) It's the name shown (with one exception) by his front door, and he should know how to spell it
and
(B) it's marginally funnier.
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| 08 September 1979 - I suspect the hyphenated spelling on the nameplate is the result of it being squeezed into the frame Art: Frank McDiarmid |
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| 19 May 1979 - both spellings of the Doctor's name in a single gag Art: Frank McDiarmid |
The playful pill peddler often sported a sticking plaster on his head, and something on his Adam's apple which was either a pimple or some sort of dressing, possibly on the site of a shaving accident. He was evidently afflicted by a chronic conk condition, as his proboscis was permanently bandaged.
| Character | Total Issues | First Appearance | Final Appearance |
| Doctor Braincell | 93 | 11-Mar-1978 | 02-Feb-1980 |
Count of elements by artist
| Character | Artist | Total Elements |
| Doctor Braincell | Frank McDiarmid | 50 |
| Doctor Braincell | Mike Lacey | 19 |
| Doctor Braincell | Barrie Appleby | 16 |
| Doctor Braincell | Frank McDiarmid pencils | 16 |
| Doctor Braincell | Jim Watson | 4 |
| Doctor Braincell | Dick Millington | 4 |
| Doctor Braincell | Unknown Cheeky Artist 1 | 1 |
Thursday, 29 November 2012
Cheeky Weekly cover date 20 January 1979
The second part of the cut-out snap game gets main billing on this week's cover. This promotion of the second part of the game is obviously intended as a reminder for those readers who bought last week's comic, since parts 2 to 4 will be useless to those who didn't buy the issue containing part 1.In the Cheeky's Week…Sunday cover strip, an icy incident befalls Jogging Jeremy as he attempts a daring 'on-the-move' method of taking delivery of his Sunday paper.
The wintry theme continues inside, as we discover Krazy Town is suffering a cold snap. Spiv, always keen to exploit a sales opportunity, is peddling ready-made snowballs. Ten pence for 50 sounds a pretty good deal to me, although our toothy pal is less than impressed. Spiv is certainly impressed by Cheeky's well-aimed icy projectile as it impacts his kisser.
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| Art: Frank McDiarmid |
This week's snowy 6 Million Dollar Gran episode is reduced from the usual 3 pages to 2, possibly due to the presence in the comic of Steve Bell's maze (see below). In Gran's story there's a great panel showing the results of the Potts kids inviting all their pals to join them on their sledge. From an early 21st century multi-cultural viewpoint it's noticeable that all the faces are white but, to be fair, it would probably have been difficult to depict darker faces at this small size.
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| Art: Ian Knox |
As is often the case, Gran foils a robbery during the course of the story, and earns a huge sack of cash as a reward. The generous synthetic senior citizen decides to buy sledges for all the kids, but by the final panel her magnanimity proves to have backfired, as not only does she still have to tow all the kids, but all their sledges as well.
This week's Calculator Kid story continues the snowy theme, and is a story that may possibly have been altered from a Christmas to a post-Christmas setting, if my theory here is correct. This would appear to be the first of two such altered strips in this issue - see below.
Page 8 is the location of a rather odd inclusion in this issue - it's a maze drawn by Steve Bell. Now there's no doubting that the artwork is very accomplished, but the way it's been used here has a distinct whiff of 'filler' about it (it's the first of 3 mazes by Steve that will feature in 3 consecutive issues). If this page had been produced specifically for Cheeky Weekly, surely it would have been based on characters from Cheeky's Week. It's not clear why this page was inserted at the cost of a page to Cheeky Weekly regular, Gran. The image of Cheeky looks like to me as though it's been pasted in.
For the second consecutive week, Tub and Why, Dad, Why? are absent from The Mystery Comic due to the presence of the snap game in the centre pages. Also for the second week running, and for the final time, Disaster Des is promoted to The Mystery Comic's cover.
On page 21, Cheeky gives us an update on current state of polling for the Cheeky Weekly Top Ten Personality Chart. The toothy funster first solicited votes on this topic in the 18 November 1978 issue. The most popular personalities will be featured on an upcoming poster.
Cheeky's final comment above is a reference to a catchphrase used by the host of TV's Opportunity Knocks talent show, Hughie Green (see below at 1:47). The show had finished its ITV run the previous year, but would be revived by the BBC in the late 1980s.
While preparing this post I realised that this week's Disaster Des story could well be another strip that was originally intended for either the pre-Christmas or Christmas issues 1978 of Cheeky Weekly, both of which failed to be published due to industrial action. I have therefore updated my earlier post here to suggest that the Des strip was, like this week's Calculator Kid story, possibly altered to remove Christmas references.
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| The jobseeking Jolly Jack Tar is a reference to the 1979 decommissioning of Royal Navy Aircraft Carrier HMS Ark Royal. Art: Frank McDiarmid |
Cheeky's icy week comes to an end on Saturday with a climactic snowball fight in which Louise seems to be the main target.
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| Art: Frank McDiarmid |
The comic reaches its customary (since 06 January, anyway) Pin-Up Pal conclusion on the back page. This week's poster features Disaster Des and is drawn by Des' usual artist, Mike Lacey - the first time Mike's work has featured in the Pin-Up Pal series.
The editor's edict that 'only one artist (or combination thereof in the case of Frank McDiarmid pencils) shall provide the Cheeky's Week elements in any issue, and furthermore, every other issue shall contain a Cheeky's Week featuring pure Frank McDiarmid art only' that seems to have been in effect since 30 September 1978's revamp issue (see analysis here), got disrupted somewhat as the comic emerged from the industrial troubles of December '78. As a result, this is the second consecutive all-pure-Frank issue (but no complaints from me, there), as Mr McD provides us with 10 crisp and frosty Cheeky's Week elements.
The snowy theme carries through the entire Cheeky's Week, but not all strips participate in the frosty frolics - Paddywack, Disaster Des, Elephant On The Run, the Eagle Eye and Mystery Boy reprints and The Burpo Special are all conspicuously lacking any sign of parky precipitation.
So was there any real-life snow in Britain in January 1979? This site suggests that London experienced heavy snow on 2 dates.
| Cheeky Weekly | Cover Date: 20-Jan-1979, Issue 63 of 117 |
| Page | Details |
| 1 | Cover Feature 'Friends of Cheeky Snap Game' 2 of 2 - Art Frank McDiarmid\Cheeky's Week - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 2 | Sunday - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 3 | 6 Million Dollar Gran - Art Ian Knox |
| 4 | 6 Million Dollar Gran - Art Ian Knox |
| 5 | Ad: IPC 'Tiger' 7 of 10 Ad: 'Shoot' 8 of 13 |
| 6 | Monday - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 7 | Calculator Kid - Art Terry Bave |
| 8 | Goonburger Maze (single appearance) - Art Steve Bell (single art on feature) |
| 9 | Tuesday - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 10 | Paddywack - Art Jack Clayton |
| 11 | Ad: IPC 'Roy of the Rovers' 8 of 8 \Ad: Shreddies (final appearance) |
| 12 | Wednesday - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 13 | Disaster Des 'Mystery Comic' 13 of 30 - Art Mike Lacey |
| 14 | Mustapha Million 'Mystery Comic' 14 of 34 - Art Joe McCaffrey |
| 15 | Mustapha Million 'Mystery Comic' 14 of 34 - Art Joe McCaffrey |
| 16 | Friends of Cheeky Snap Game |
| 17 | Friends of Cheeky Snap Game |
| 18 | Elephant On The Run 'Mystery Comic' 14 of 34 - Art Robert Nixon |
| 19 | Elephant On The Run 'Mystery Comic' 14 of 34 - Art Robert Nixon |
| 20 | Mystery Boy reprint from Whizzer and Chips 'Mystery Comic' 14 of 37 - Art John Richardson |
| 21 | Silly Snaps |
| 22 | Thursday - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 23 | Skateboard Squad - Art Jimmy Hansen |
| 24 | Joke-Box Jury |
| 25 | Friday - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 26 | Eagle Eye reprint from Shiver and Shake |
| 27 | Eagle Eye reprint from Shiver and Shake |
| 28 | Chit-Chat |
| 29 | The Burpo Special 'Cheeky's Dad' - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 30 | Saturday - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 31 | Saturday - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 32 | Pin-up pal 'Disaster Des' - Art Mike Lacey (single art on feature) |
| Artist | Elements |
| Frank McDiarmid | 10 |
Thursday, 22 November 2012
A Wacky look at Cheeky Classics
Tuesday, 20 November 2012
The Cut-Out Features - More Joke Strips
In this new series of posts I'm going to focus on the cut-out features that appeared during Cheeky Weekly's run (but not including the Pin-Up Pal posters which I've already covered here, and anyway, although the posters were clearly designed to be removed from the comic, readers weren't instructed to do so, which is the main criterion for features that will be included in this series).
'More Joke Strips,' featured in the 12 November 1977 issue, were designed to supplement the strips printed as part of the Friend Of Cheeky Fun Wallets which were the free gift in Cheeky's Weekly's second issue, published a week earlier.
Whereas there were 4 different Fun Wallets, each with a separate set of jokes, the gags printed on the 'More Joke Strips' pages were of course the same in every copy of Cheeky Weekly. Approaching another Friend of Cheeky in the playground armed with this latest batch of jokes was therefore likely to be futile since both parties would know all the punchlines.
I would imagine that trying to slide the flimsy newsprint into the slightly more substantial card from which the Fun Wallet was constructed could prove problematic, and if successful, I doubt the additional joke strips would survive much more than a couple retractions and insertions before disintegrating.
The artwork at the top of the second page is a cut-and-paste assemblage culled from a panel on page 31 of the previous week's issue, in which the Fun Wallets were given away.
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| Art: Frank McDiarmid |
Sunday, 18 November 2012
The features - Mystery Boy
The aforementioned 30 September 1978 comic was the first of a run of 37 issues of Cheeky Weekly in which the whole of The Mystery Comic occupied its centre pages. Among the Mystery Comic strips in that issue was Mystery Boy.
Mystery Boy was the only serial story to be printed in The Mystery Comic during its run in Cheeky Weekly. It was therefore fortunate for readers of the toothy funster's title that the first full edition of The Mystery Comic to be printed in Cheeky Weekly contained Mystery Boy's initial episode.
Chronologically the seventh Cheeky Weekly feature to consist of material reprinted from IPC's vaults (not counting the various one-, two- and three-offs included in the Old Comic series), and the second to be sourced from the company's long-running title Whizzer and Chips (the earlier W&C reprint was Archie's Angels), Mystery Boy had originally appeared under the title 'Who Is Sandy?', commencing in W&C's 02 January 1971 issue.
This is how the saga of Mystery Boy began (or was re-run for readers who caught it the first time round)...
A jarring transition between the episodes dated 04 and 11 November 1978, wherein the latter instalment picks up from a point that is different to the former's cliff-hanger, suggests that at least one episode was edited out of the Cheeky Weekly reprint run.
Presumably the original title of the strip was changed to tie it in with The Mystery Comic.
| Title banner from first episode of the story's original run. Whizzer and Chips, 02 January 1971 |
| Feature | First Appearance | Final Appearance | Total Issues | Total Issues Missed In Run | Page History |
| Mystery Boy | 30-Sep-78 | 13-Oct-79 | 52 | 0 | 11,14,15,16,18,19,20,21,26 |
Thursday, 8 November 2012
Cheeky Weekly cover date 13 January 1979 - The Deferred New Year Issue
The comic is still suffering fall-out from the industrial dispute that halted publication for 3 weeks in December 1978 - had printing not been interrupted, the previous week's issue would have been the edition welcoming in 1979. However, for reasons explained here, the 09 January 1979 issue was a 'standby' issue and therefore was devoid of any reference to the turn of the year.This edition, with its new year references, had obviously been prepared some weeks prior to its eventual publication (it was probably completed before the industrial troubles at the printers escalated into an all-out strike). The Cheeky Weekly editor evidently felt that the new year festivities were fresh enough in reader's memories to get away with publishing Cheeky Weekly's New Year issue in the second week of 1979. The alternative option - to hold over this New Year issue until 1980 came around (in the same way that some of the material intended for the aborted Christmas 1978 issue was held over until the following festive season) - was evidently felt to be less attractive.
However, I would guess that, had this New Year issue been published a week earlier as originally scheduled, the cover would have made mention of the turn of the year, as did the covers of the comics dated 07 January 1978 and 05 January 1980. To run this issue with a mention of the New Year on the cover was possibly deemed unwise in case casual comic readers browsing the newsagents' shelves assumed it must be unsold stock from the previous week's edition.
This week's cover leads with news of the commencement of yet another cut-out game (the most recent being the Crack-a-Joke game which concluded in the 23 September 1978 issue). This time readers are invited to snip out and retain the first instalment of the Friends of Cheeky Snap Game, which will be running for the following three issues as well. The decision to print the announcement in light green ink on a pale blue background is a questionable one.
Meanwhile at the foot of the cover, the toothy funster is unconcerned by such matters, as in the Cheeky's Week…Sunday strip, he and his parents are preparing for their imminent New Year bash .
The party gets into full swing on page 2, where Cheeky's dad is blackmailed by luscious Lily Pop into allowing our grinning pal stay up to enjoy the festivities.
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| Art: Frank McDiarmid |
The party continues onto page 3, where we witness the extremely rare sight of Uncle Hamish after being relieved of some cash. We might have guessed that Spiv would be the one to achieve this awesome feat.
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| The slogan on Hamish's badge is a reference to the independence campaign by The Scottish National Party. Art: Frank McDiarmid |
Cheeky's dad is rewarded with a smackeroo from lovely Lily (much to Cheeky's mum's annoyance) as the clock strikes twelve.
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| Art: Frank McDiarmid |
A caption above the first page of this week's new-year themed 6 Million Dollar Gran story explains "There was a special edition of Cheeky's favourite programme on Monday…". This is fortunate for readers, since on the front page we joined Cheeky on Sunday evening, and as from the 30 September 1978 revamp issue, Gran's TV programme had been moved to a Sunday afternoon slot (because the Sunday evening element of Cheeky's week had ceased the previous week). There is a curious moment in this week's Gran episode where she says "A happy new year, readers". Surely she meant "viewers"?
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| Art: Nigel Edwards |
After a new-year's-resolution-based Calculator Kid story, Tuesday sees Cheeky encountering several of his pals whose resolutions are causing much hilarity.
This week's Mystery Comic is the first to be without Tub on the cover (or anywhere else, as he's absent this week, seemingly a casualty, along with Why,Dad, Why? of the intrusion of the snap game into the Mystery Comic's centre pages). Instead Disaster Des gets promoted to the perplexing publication's front page for the first of only two occasions. This week Des exports his particular brand of mayhem to South America, inadvertently foiling a revolution in the process.
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| Art: Jimmy Hansen |
| Cheeky Weekly | Cover Date: 13-Jan-1979, Issue 62 of 117 |
| Page | Details |
| 1 | Cover Feature 'Friends of Cheeky Snap Game' 1 of 2 - Art Frank McDiarmid\Cheeky's Week - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 2 | Sunday - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 3 | Sunday - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 4 | 6 Million Dollar Gran - Art Nigel Edwards |
| 5 | 6 Million Dollar Gran - Art Nigel Edwards |
| 6 | 6 Million Dollar Gran - Art Nigel Edwards |
| 7 | Monday - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 8 | Calculator Kid - Art Terry Bave |
| 9 | Tuesday - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 10 | Paddywack - Art Jack Clayton |
| 11 | Ad: Shreddies (first appearance)\Ad: IPC 'Collecting promo' 2 of 2 |
| 12 | Wednesday - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 13 | Disaster Des 'Mystery Comic' 12 of 30 - Art Mike Lacey |
| 14 | Mustapha Million 'Mystery Comic' 13 of 34 - Art Joe McCaffrey |
| 15 | Mustapha Million 'Mystery Comic' 13 of 34 - Art Joe McCaffrey |
| 16 | Friends of Cheeky Snap Game (first appearance) |
| 17 | Friends of Cheeky Snap Game (first appearance) |
| 18 | Elephant On The Run 'Mystery Comic' 13 of 34 - Art Robert Nixon |
| 19 | Elephant On The Run 'Mystery Comic' 13 of 34 - Art Robert Nixon |
| 20 | Mystery Boy reprint from Whizzer and Chips 'Mystery Comic' 13 of 37 - Art John Richardson |
| 21 | Ad: IPC 'Roy of the Rovers' 7 of 8 Ad: 'Tiger' 6 of 10 |
| 22 | Thursday - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 23 | Skateboard Squad - Art Jimmy Hansen |
| 24 | Joke-Box Jury |
| 25 | Friday - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 26 | Eagle Eye reprint from Shiver and Shake |
| 27 | Eagle Eye reprint from Shiver and Shake |
| 28 | Chit-Chat |
| 29 | The Burpo Special 'Dr Braincell' - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 30 | Saturday - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 31 | Saturday - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| 32 | Pin-up pal 'Crunching Chris' - Art Frank McDiarmid |
| Artist | Elements |
| Frank McDiarmid | 11 |

























