The Other Cheeky Artists - Dick Millington

In his interview in Crikey! issue 12, Frank McDiarmid says that Bob Paynter, Fleetway's Group Editor, wanted to use as much of Frank's artwork on Cheeky Weekly as possible.

However, given the Herculean task of generating the high number of Cheeky features in each issue, not to mention the material that Frank drew for the summer specials and annuals, it's not surprising that other artists were drafted in from time to time.  In this series of The Other Cheeky Artists posts, I'm going to focus on those intrepid pencil-wielders who manfully filled Frank's shoes.

I have to say that I'm certainly not an expert on comics and have no insight into what was happening behind the scenes of Cheeky Weekly.  However I reckon I have a reasonable knowledge of the IPC humour artists of the 70s and 80s.  My attempts to identify artists are just my opinions and you're welcome to disagree.

Let's look first at the Cheeky pages supplied by Dick Millington.

Dick's first Cheeky artwork was a single page in the issue dated 17 December 1977.

He provided all the Cheeky features in the following week's 24 December issue, with the exception of the Friday page, which coincidentally was the feature that he drew in the 17 December issue, so maybe there was some juggling going on.  The fact that the 17 December Friday page includes a trip to see Father Christmas rather suggests it was originally destined for the 24 December issue, which has a Christmas theme running through it, although the Christmas issue was dated 31 December.



In Cheeky Weekly dated 27 May 1978, Dick drew all the Cheeky features except the front page 'What a Cheek' strip which was by Frank.

The next Cheeky-related work of Dick's that I'm aware of is the two-page Cheeky strip in the centre of the Cheeky mini comic which appeared in Buster dated 15 July 1978 (my thanks to Zeg for the scans which I'll be using in a future post).  A different Cheeky strip drawn by Dick appeared in the Cheeky mini comic in Whizzer and Chips dated 22 July 1978.  I can only assume that Dick drew the Cheeky pages in the Cheeky mini comic which appeared in Mickey Mouse comic dated 01 July 1978, as unfortunately I have never seen a copy of that issue.  If anyone has it please contact me as I'm planning a post on the mini Cheekys, so it would be great to be able to feature all of them.

In Cheeky Weekly dated 26 May 1979, Dick supplied the artwork for a 'Star Guest' appearance of Happy Families, the strip he regularly drew in Whizzer and Chips, but since this post is about his work on the Cheeky pages, I won't mention it.

After a break of over a year, Dick was back on full-size Cheeky Weekly duty in the 30 June 1979 issue, for which he supplied all the Cheeky's Week pages apart from the cover. The comic dated 28 July 1979 is the only issue of Cheeky Weekly in which Dick drew all the Cheeky's Week features (I don't count Snail of the Century as a Cheeky's Week feature).

Dick's final stint on Cheeky Weekly was to provide four pages in the issue dated 03 November 1979.

Dick Millington's Cheeky pages in Cheeky Weekly

Cover Date	Page	Element
17-Dec-1977	21	Friday
24-Dec-1977	1	What a Cheek
24-Dec-1977	2	Sunday
24-Dec-1977	4	Sunday evening
24-Dec-1977	7	Monday
24-Dec-1977	12	Tuesday
24-Dec-1977	14	Tuesday
24-Dec-1977	15	Wednesday
24-Dec-1977	17	Wednesday
24-Dec-1977	19	Thursday
24-Dec-1977	24	Saturday
24-Dec-1977	27	Interval
27-May-1978	2	Sunday
27-May-1978	4	Sunday evening
27-May-1978	8	Monday
27-May-1978	11	Suddenly
27-May-1978	12	Tuesday
27-May-1978	15	Wednesday
27-May-1978	19	Thursday
27-May-1978	21	Friday
27-May-1978	25	Saturday
27-May-1978	28	Interval
27-May-1978	31	Saturday
23-Jun-1979	1	Cheeky's Week
30-Jun-1979	2	Sunday
30-Jun-1979	6	Monday
30-Jun-1979	9	Tuesday
30-Jun-1979	12	Wednesday
30-Jun-1979	23	Thursday
30-Jun-1979	25	Friday
30-Jun-1979	30	Saturday
30-Jun-1979	31	Saturday
28-Jul-1979	1	Dr Braincell
28-Jul-1979	2	Sunday
28-Jul-1979	7	Monday
28-Jul-1979	12	Tuesday
28-Jul-1979	18	Wednesday
28-Jul-1979	22	Thursday
28-Jul-1979	26	Friday
28-Jul-1979	30	Saturday
28-Jul-1979	31	Saturday
03-Nov-1979	2	Sunday
03-Nov-1979	7	Monday
03-Nov-1979	10	Tuesday
03-Nov-1979	15	Wednesday

More on the other Cheeky artists in future posts.