Cheeky Weekly cover date 01 December 1979

Art: Frank McDiarmid

The latest Cheeky Catalogue of Jokes gets plugged in this week’s above-title banner while below, Gunga Jim joins Cheeky for a cover gag for the fifth (sixth if we include Jim's appearance in the Cheeky's Week strip on the front of the 17 March 1979 edition) and final time.

On page 2 Mike Lacey gets Cheeky’s week of gags rolling with the toothy funster’s traditional Sunday paper round, including a delivery to Constable Chuckle.

Art: Mike Lacey, who uses a different spelling of Chuckle's address to that he used in the 15 July 1978 comic

Page 4 is devoted to Paddywack who continues to confound in another 3 gags submitted by readers.

Art: Jack Clayton

This week we get to see the full complement of Stage School teaching staff; with ‘real’ teacher, headmaster and ‘showbiz’ teacher all taking part in the story.

Art: Robert Nixon

 

With an eye on Christmas sales, Palitoy place on page 8 a deftly-timed full-page ad for Action Man Transport Command vehicles. Evidently concerned about cheap knockoffs denting their profits, the toy manufacturer is keen to stress that their Transport Command rage is the ‘only kind’ of vehicle the mini military man ‘ever drives’ and that purchasers should ‘look for the picture of Action Man on every box’.

Poor old Auntie Daisy, the school meals lady, has her culinary skills called into question on two occasions this week…

Art: Mike

More Mike

 

On page 27 is the second ad this week placed by Palitoy, this time giving details of their Mainline Railways train sets, Big Loader battery-powered construction set and the Gargon, deadly alien monster adversary of Action Man Space Ranger.

Colin Whittock stands in for Jimmy Hansen on Speed Squad for the second (and final) time. The rarely-seen mum of Skipper and Skatie makes an appearance the end of the strip. 

Art: Colin Whittock

On the Chit-Chat page Cheeky continues his series focusing on the creative team behind his comic. This week ‘Uncle’ Joe McCaffrey is the subject.

 

On Saturday the toothy funster realises he hasn’t met many of his female pals so far this week (Ursula, Crystal Belle and the aforementioned Auntie Daisy to be precise), so sets about trading gags with Lily Pop, Do-Good Dora, GrannyGumdrop, Snoozin’ Susan, Petula, Gloomy Glad, Hypno-Tessa and one more of the female supporting cast who he professes to dislike, but we all know different...

Mike again

 

As has become the custom, the comic finishes with the back-page, back yard banter of Snail of the Century.

Mike Lacey handles all the Cheeky’s Week artwork this issue, with Frank McDiarmid providing the cover and Snail of the Century.

Cheeky Weekly	Cover Date: 01-Dec-1979, Issue 108 of 117
Page	Details
1	Cover Feature 'Gunga Jim' 5 of 5 - Art Frank McDiarmid
2	Sunday - Art Mike Lacey
3	Calculator Kid - Art Terry Bave
4	Paddywack - Art Jack Clayton
5	Monday - Art Mike Lacey
6	Stage School - Art Robert Nixon
7	Stage School - Art Robert Nixon
8	Ad: Action Man (final appearance)
9	Tub - Art Nigel Edwards
10	Tuesday - Art Mike Lacey
11	Soggy the Sea Monster reprint from Shiver and Shake - Art Robert Nixon
12	Disaster Des - Art Mike Lacey
13	Cheeky's Cut-Out Comedy Catalogue 'Doctor Jokes'
14	Cheeky's Cut-Out Comedy Catalogue 'Doctor Jokes'
15	Wednesday - Art Mike Lacey
16	Mustapha Million - Art Joe McCaffrey
17	Mustapha Million - Art Joe McCaffrey
18	The Gang reprint from Whizzer and Chips - Art Robert MacGillivray
19	The Gang reprint from Whizzer and Chips - Art Robert MacGillivray
20	Thursday - Art Mike Lacey
21	Why, Dad, Why? - Art John K. Geering
22	Joke-Box Jury
23	Elephant On The Run - Art Vic Neill
24	6 Million Dollar Gran - Art Nigel Edwards
25	Ad: IPC 'Look and Learn' 15 of 16 Ad: 'Whizzer and Chips Annual'
26	Friday - Art Mike Lacey
27	Ad: Palitoy (final appearance)
28	Speed Squad - Art Colin Whittock (final art on feature)
29	Chit-Chat
30	Saturday - Art Mike Lacey
31	Saturday - Art Mike Lacey
32	Snail of the Century - Art Frank McDiarmid

Look Out All!

Cheeky Weekly once again comes under (affectionate) scrutiny on the Great News blog in the 'comics with today's date on the cover' series.

Barry Glennard and Robert Nixon's Cheekys

The management at comic publishers IPC were clearly convinced of the effectiveness of cut-out-and-collect promotions, which appeared incessantly in their comics during the seventies and eighties. This cover of Whizzer and Chips dated 30 August 1980 sees the comic in week 3 of its Book Snap promotion...

Citrussy Sid's Snake art - Mike Lacey
Parfum de Pongo Snodgrass art - Ian Knox

Book Snap added another level of marketing into the usual cut-and-keep scenario, as the images on each of the snap cards were re-drawn versions by Barry Glennard of the covers of that autumn's IPC annuals, including the 1981 Cheeky Annual (publication of the Cheeky annuals continued until 1984's 1985-cover-dated annual, despite Cheeky Weekly having folded in February 1980). The rather primitive printing process used at the time could not handle colour photographs, hence the need for these re-drawn, slightly simplified versions.

Art: Barry Glennard

Below is the actual cover, drawn by Robert Nixon. Unfortunately, the front and back of the annual both feature the same image. It would have been nice if the back cover showed a 'what happened next' pic of Cheeky, whose rather un-Christmassy intention would no doubt have backfired, leaving him liberally coated in custard, but the IPC budget clearly didn't stretch to such extravagances (they couldn't afford to waste the custard). I'll leave you to work out what (and more importantly who) is missing from Barry Glennard's version of the cover.

Art: Robert Nixon

A later example of Robert's renderings of Cheeky and pals can be seen here, while the entirety of this The Other Artist's Cheekys series can be tracked down here.

Whizzer and Chips - The Cheeky Raids part 28

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.

Can you spot the interloper in Mustapha's story from Whizzer and Chips dated 18 October 1986? Scroll down to discover the identity of the raider...

Whizzer and Chips 18 October 1986
Art: Barry Glennard

Yes, it's Winnie the Royal Nag, who made her debut in Whizzer and Chips dated 02 August 1986, to coincide (more or less) with that year's royal wedding. Here's her first appearance...

Whizzer and Chips 02 August 1986
Art: Ian Knox

It's good to see in Mustapha's story above that he remained pals with Jimmy, a friendship that developed way back in the early days of Cheeky Weekly, where Jimmy was first named in the 04 March 1978 edition.

By this point Mustapha was the sole survivor from the toothy funster's comic, so I won't be continuing to report an the tally of raids suffered and perpetrated by our ex-Cheeky Weekly chums since, with just the one representative remaining, there's no way our Cheeky pals can emerge triumphant.

But watch for more raiding fun soon!

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	Animalad Mustapha Million	The Krazy Gang (Cheeky) Boy Boss
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	Odd-Ball Calculator Kid	Calculator Kid Store Wars
05 October 1985	Mustapha Million	Animalad
19 October 1985	Odd-Ball	Mustapha Million
23 November 1985	Sweeny Toddler Sweeny Toddler Sweeny Toddler	Calculator Kid The Krazy Gang (Cheeky) Mustapha Million
18 January 1986	Mustapha Million	Super Steve
25 January 1986	Odd-Ball Cheeky	Mustapha Million Odd-Ball
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