Sweeny Toddler

"Sweeny Toddler" (a play on Sweeney Todd), also known as "Help! It's Sweeny Toddler", was a fictional character and comic strip in, originally, the UK comic "Shiver and Shake", first appearing in issue 1, dated 10 March 1973 in the "Shiver" section.

Originally drawn by Leo Baxendale, Sweeny was a two-year-old 'toddler from hell'. With his pet dog Henry, he caused sheer havoc around town, the outcome of which would usually involve being caught by his parents and punished with the slipper. Tom Paterson took over from Baxendale quite early on, Paterson becoming easily the most famous and longest running artist to draw the strip.

Always a popular character, Sweeny survived "Shiver and Shake"'s merger with "Whoopee!" in 1974. The early 1980s saw Graham Exton become the writer, and in 1984 (issue dated 7 April) Sweeny became the cover star of "Whoopee!" for a second time (after being replaced by Snack-Man for a short period). When Whoopee merged with "Whizzer and Chips" in 1985, the first merged issue featured Sweeny hijacking several of the pages asking when his strip was going to appear. When it finally appeared on the back page, he said that "Rotten ol' Ed will pay for this", managing to work his way back onto the cover from the next issue, and becoming a Whizz-Kid.

Before the demise of "Whizzer and Chips", Tom Paterson left Fleetway in favour of DC Thomson. Keith Reynolds took over both Sweeney Toddler & Tom Paterson's other well loved character School Belle.

Sweeny also managed to survive the merger with "Buster" in 1990. As with all strips by the end, around this time it became a reprint, and continued being so until the comic's last issue at the beginning of 2000. As with several other "Buster" strips, it was included on the last page of the final issue (How It All Ends), drawn by Jack Edward Oliver. Explaining what eventually happened to all these characters, Sweeny was seen saying that he now likes everyone, and that "me going to be nice to everyone from now on".