Cheeky Weekly

For the undergarment, see Cheeky (undergarment). For the adjective, see Cheek (disambiguation).

Cheeky Weekly was a British comic published every Monday by IPC Magazines Ltd.^[1] It ran for 117 issues from (issues dates) 22 October 1977 to 2 February 1980, 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, featuring the title character meeting various regular characters with much joke-telling. This strip was drawn by Frank McDiarmid.^[2]
• Lily Pop
• Mustapha Million
• Paddywack
• Walter Wurx
• Disaster Des
• Jogging Jeremy
• Sid the Street Sweeper
• Ursula the Usherette
• Elephant On The Run
• Calculator Kid

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 Blond 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.

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Kibble-White, Graham (2005). The Ultimate Book of British Comics. Allison & Busby Limited. ISBN 0749082119. 
2. ^ Crikey! (Sequential Media) (11).