Cheeky Weekly
Cheeky Weekly was a British comic book magazine published every Monday by IPC Magazines Ltd.[1] It ran for 117 issues from (issues dates) 22 October 1977 to 2 February 1980,[2] failing to be published for 3 weeks in December 1978 due to an industrial dispute. It merged with stable-mate Whoopee!, initially as a 16-page pull-out section.[1] The title character originated in an earlier comic called Krazy as a character in the strip The Krazy Gang and also the star of the 'Ello, It's Cheeky feature, and proved popular enough to get his own comic, which managed to outlive Krazy itself.[1] The first issue came with a free "Red Jet Rattler" (a build-it-yourself model aeroplane).[1] Its characters and strips included:
- Cheeky's Week, a comic strip featuring the title character meeting various regular characters with much joke-telling. This strip was drawn by Frank McDiarmid.[3]
- Lily Pop
- Posh Claude
- Walter Wurx
- Jogging Jeremy
- Baby Burpo
- Baker's Boy
- Sid the Street Sweeper
- Ursula the Usherette
Other Cheeky comic strips
- Mustapha Million comic strip
- Six Million Dollar Gran comic strip - This was a parody of The Six Million Dollar Man.
- Skateboard Squad comic strip, later renamed "Speed Squad"
- Tub - Tub was one of the characters from Cheeky's "Mystery Comic".
- Disaster Des comic strip - Des's comic strip began in Cheeky issue dated 30 September 1978[4] and continued until the last issue.
- Elephant On The Run - another of the characters from Cheeky's "Mystery Comic"
- Calculator Kid
- Paddywack
- Stage School
- Snail of the Century
For many of the later issues of Cheeky his unnamed pet snail had the back page and met other garden creatures to exchange jokes.
The lead character Cheeky was portrayed in a red and black striped sweater with a large C on the chest. At one point the comic gave away a free knitting pattern so readers could knit their own (or get their mums to knit one for them).
One unusual aspect of Cheeky Weekly compared to its contemporaries was that the title character appeared in more than one strip. A typical issue would follow Cheeky through the week from Sunday through to the following Saturday in a series of one- or two-page strips. Often not so much a narrative as a series of random gags each episode was designed to lead into the ‘support’ strip which followed.
Some notable examples include:
- Cheeky racing home to watch his favourite TV Show, usually arriving with seconds to spare.
- Cheeky trying to read the latest James Bold book in the bookshop – this would lead into a two-page ‘drama’ strip which would then end abruptly as the bookshop owner chased Cheeky from the store.
On Wednesdays, Cheeky babysat for Baby Burpo, a mischievous child similar to Whoopee!’s Sweeny Toddler. Cheeky would read him a tongue-in-cheek ghost story in the hope of scaring the kid but this invariably backfired and Cheeky would end up running home in terror as if pursued by whatever menace had featured in that week's story.
Initially on Saturdays, Cheeky attended a Saturday morning picture show at his local cinema where he saw a cartoon (often represented by a strip featuring Warner Brothers cartoon characters) followed by a drama serial, while exchanging jokes with his friends in the interval. After just over a year the cinema feature was dropped and subsequent issues showed Cheeky pursuing a variety of weekend activities instead.
"Cheeky Chit-Chat" was the readers' letter pages. Any reader who had their letter printed received £2 and a "Friend of Cheeky" badge.
The "Joke-Box Jury" page gave the readers a chance to send in jokes, with a prize of £2 if their joke was published.
Whoopee! comic merger
For the first Whoopee! merged issue,[5] Cheeky had the middle 16 pages (half the comic). Cheeky himself had 4 pages.[6] Six Million Dollar Gran, renamed "Robot Granny" had 2 pages. Calculator Kid had 1 page. Stage School also had 2 pages. Paddywack had half a page. The letters page was renamed "Whoopee Chit-Chat" and usually occupied one and a half pages (the prize was £2 plus a Whoopee! logo'd T-shirt. Mustapha Million had 2 pages, though in 1981 many of these were reprints. On the 16 February 1980 issue[7] a brand new single page comic strip Chip began. The other pages had advertising.
The last issue of Whoopee! to feature the Cheeky logo on the cover was dated 25 July 1981.[8] The Whoopee! dated 5 September 1981[9] was the last to feature a 4-page Cheeky story and hereafter the Cheeky's comic strips were distributed throughout the comic (rather than the 16 central pages).
References
- ^ a b c d Kibble-White, Graham (2005). The Ultimate Book of British Comics. Allison & Busby Limited. ISBN 0-7490-8211-9.
- ^ "Cheeky, issue dated 2 February 1980." IPC
- ^ Crikey! (11). Sequential Media.
{{cite journal}}
: Missing or empty|title=
(help) - ^ "Cheeky issue dated 30 September 1978." IPC
- ^ "Whoopee and Cheeky, issue dated 9 February 1980." IPC
- ^ "Toonhound web site."
- ^ "Whoopee and Cheeky, issue dated 16 February 1980." IPC
- ^ "Whoopee and Cheeky" Issue dated 25 July 1981." IPC
- ^ "Whoopee and Cheeky" Issue dated 25 September 1981." IPC
- v
- t
- e
- Comic Cuts
- Film Fun
- Funny Wonder
- Illustrated Chips
- Knockout (stories)
- Radio Fun
- Buster
- Cheeky Weekly
- Cor!!
- Jackpot
- Knockout
- Krazy
- Monster Fun
- Nipper
- Oink!
- School Fun
- Shiver and Shake
- Whizzer and Chips
- Whoopee!
- Wow!
- Wham!
- Smash!
- Pow!
- Fantastic
- Terrific
- 2000 AD
- Action (stories)
- Battle Picture Weekly (stories)
- Boys' World
- The Champion
- The Comet (stories)
- Crisis (stories)
- Diceman
- Eagle
- Eagle (1982 version) (stories)
- Hurricane
- Jag
- Jet
- Judge Dredd Megazine
- Lion (stories)
- Look and Learn
- M.A.S.K.
- Ranger
- Revolver
- Roy of the Rovers
- Scorcher
- Scream!
- Sonic the Comic
- Speed
- Starlord
- Sun (stories)
- Supernaturals
- Thriller Comics
- Thunder
- Tiger (stories)
- Tornado
- Valiant (stories)
- Vulcan
- War Picture Library
- Wildcat
- Girl
- Girls' Crystal (stories)
- Jinty
- June (stories)
- Marilyn
- Misty
- Poppet
- Princess (stories)
- Princess Tina (stories)
- Roxy
- Sandie
- School Friend (stories)
- Serenade
- Tammy
- Tina
- Valentine
- Jack and Jill
- Playhour
- The 10,000 Disasters of Dort
- The 12½p Buytonic Boy
- Ace Trucking Co.
- Action Force
- Adam Eterno
- The Amazing Three
- Anderson, Psi-Division
- The Astounding Adventures of Charlie Peace
- The Astounding Jason Hyde
- Baker's Half-Dozen
- The Ballad of Halo Jones
- Battler Britton
- Bessie Bunter
- Bible John - A Forensic Meditation
- Big Dave
- Billy Bunter
- Billy's Boots
- Birdman and Chicken
- The Black Archer
- Black Beth
- Black Max
- Black Hawk
- Bloodfang
- Bobby's Ghoul
- Bookworm
- The Bootneck Boy
- The Bumpkin Billionaires
- Buster Capp
- Captain Condor
- Captain Hurricane
- The Cat Girl
- Chalky
- Charley's War
- Clash of the Guards
- Cliff Hanger
- Computer Warrior
- Cursitor Doom
- D-Day Dawson
- D.R. & Quinch
- Dan Dare
- Danny Doom
- Dare
- Darkie's Mob
- Death Game 1999
- Death Squad
- Death Wish
- Defoe
- Doomlord
- The Dracula File
- Dredger
- Durham Red
- The Dwarf
- End of the Line...
- Ernie
- Faceache
- Fiends of the Eastern Front
- Fight for the Falklands
- Finn
- Fishboy
- For a Few Troubles More
- Gadgetman and Gimmick-Kid
- Goldtiger
- Grimly Feendish
- Harlem Heroes
- Hellman of Hammer Force
- Hook Jaw
- Hot Shot Hamish and Mighty Mouse
- The House of Daemon
- The House of Dolmann
- The Indestructible Man
- Invasion!
- Invasion 1984!
- Ivor Lott and Tony Broke
- Jack o' Justice
- Jane Bond
- Jet-Ace Logan
- Joe Alien
- Johnny Red
- Joker
- Judge Dredd
- Junior Rotter
- Karl the Viking
- Kid Chameleon
- Kids Rule O.K.
- Kitten Magee
- Lazy Bones
- The Leopard from Lime Street
- Loner
- Look Out for Lefty!
- Luck of the Legion
- M.A.C.H. 1
- Major Eazy
- Manix
- Master Mind
- Mazeworld
- Memory Banks
- El Mestizo
- Mind Wars
- Monster
- Mustapha Million
- Mytek the Mighty
- Nemesis the Warlock
- The New Adventures of Hitler
- New Statesmen
- The Nightcomers
- Nikolai Dante
- Odd Ball
- One-Eyed Jack
- The Phantom Viking
- Rat Pack
- Really & Truly
- Richie Wraggs
- Ro-Busters
- Rob Riley
- The Robo Machines
- Robot Archie
- Rogan Gosh
- Rogue Trooper
- Roy of the Rovers
- School Belle
- Sexton Blake
- Sid's Snake
- The Silent Three
- Sinister Dexter
- Skid Kidd
- Skizz
- Sláine
- The Spider
- The Steel Claw
- Steel Commando
- Store Wars
- Strontium Dog
- The Suicide Six
- Sweeny Toddler
- Sweet Tooth
- Terror of the Cats
- Tharg the Mighty
- Tharg's Future Shocks
- Third World War
- The Thirteenth Floor
- Thunderbolt Jaxon
- Time Flies
- Tom Thug
- Tomboy
- The Tower King
- Tricky Dicky
- The Trigan Empire
- Troubled Souls
- True Faith
- Turbo Jones
- The Vigilant
- Watch Out Beagle's About
- Whacky
- Wonder Wellies
- X-Ray Specs
- Zenith
- Leo Baxendale
- Massimo Belardinelli
- Jesús Blasco
- Brian Bolland
- Eric Bradbury
- Kenneth Bulmer
- Sid Burgon
- Reg Bunn
- Mike Butterworth
- Geoff Campion
- Joe Colquhoun
- John Cooper
- Ted Cowan
- Carlos Ezquerra
- Gerry Finley-Day
- Dave Gibbons
- Ian Gibson
- Scott Goodall
- Alan Grant
- Yvonne Hutton
- Ian Kennedy
- Tom Kerr
- Don Lawrence
- Brian Lewis
- Steve MacManus
- Leonard Matthews
- Mike McMahon
- Trevor Metcalfe
- Pat Mills
- Grant Morrison
- Robert Nixon
- Kevin O'Neill
- José Ortiz
- Frank S. Pepper
- Ken Reid
- Jerry Siegel
- Francisco Solano López
- Lew Stringer
- Barrie Tomlinson
- Tom Tully
- John Wagner
- Keith Watson
- Mike Western