Welcome to the Cheeky Weekly blog!


Welcome to the Cheeky Weekly blog!
Cheeky Weekly ™ REBELLION PUBLISHING LTD, COPYRIGHT ©  REBELLION PUBLISHING LTD, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED was a British children's comic with cover dates spanning 22 October 1977 to 02 February 1980.

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Thursday 24 May 2012

The pages - Page 13

For the first 2 issues, Cheeky Weekly's thirteenth page was the home of the Old Comic feature. In the third issue, the Wednesday feature was to be found in that location, the only time it appeared on page 13. Old Comic returned the next week and for the 2 issues which followed.

The Tuesday feature then moved in for 2 issues, before Old Comic returned for another 2 week run on page 13.

In 31 December 1977's Christmas issue, page 13 was the home of that issue's second Boxing Day page, but the following week Tuesday was back. However, Old Comic then resumed its page 13 run for a marathon 12 weeks during which it carried strips plucked from the yellowing pages of comics from years gone by such as Chips, Swift and TV Fun, until Tuesday laid claim to the page again on 08 April 1978.

Further archive fun was to be had on page 13 as Old Comic resumed occupancy for another 4 weeks until Tuesday again interrupted for the following 2 issues.

Old Comic was back on page 13 in Cheeky Weekly dated 27 May 1978 with a Reg Wootton Sporty strip from Knockout, but Tuesday regained control of the page for a further 3 weeks until ousted again by Old Comic in the 24 June 1978 issue. The following week saw Old Comic's final appearance on page 13, although the feature continued to appear in Cheeky Weekly until the issue dated 16 August 1978.

In the 08 July 1978 issue, tenacious Tuesday returned to page 13, where it remained for the following 2 issues, the 22 July 1978 issue being the last in which Tuesday would appear on the thirteenth page for just over a year. Although the Tuesday feature continued throughout the comic's run, summer 1978's Mini Comics promotion and Cheeky Weekly's September 1978 revamp, which resulted in The Mystery Comic moving into the centre pages, meant that Tuesday had to shift towards the front of the comic to make room.

The 29 July 1978 issue saw the first of 2 page 13 appearances of ads for that staple of many a breakfast table, Weetabix. The following week the same location featured that issue's second page of sketches sent in by the lucky winners of the Draw Hid Kid competition, which had run in the comic dated 27 May.

In the issues dated 12 and 19 August 1979, page 13 was home to the first page of each issue's Creepy Sleepy Tale, the only times that this feature appeared in that location.

Paddywack bumbled his way onto page 13 in the 26 August 1978 issue, and the following week page 13 was the home of the second page of the debut Silly Snaps filler. The comic dated 09 September 1978 had a high Smurf content and saw the first of that year's Smurfs competitions appearing on page 13 (the second competition based around the warbling blue elves appeared on page 16 in the 09 December issue). The competition shared page 13 with an ad for Bassett's, who were running a promotion that allowed eager consumers of their confectionary to receive a free Paddington Bear book in return for 12 empty sweet bags.

Silly Snaps then enjoyed its second and final page 13 outing, before Paddywack also made his second and final chaotic visit to page 13 in the 23 September 1978 comic.

Cheeky Weekly underwent a major overhaul in the 30 September 1978 issue, with the first appearance of a full copy of  The Mystery Comic within the centre of the toothy funster's paper. From this point, for a total of 37 issues until the Mystery Comic idea was dropped, page 13 became host to characters featuring in that perplexing publication, with our chubby chum Tub being the first to lay claim to the thirteenth page, commencing an initial run (or waddle) of his adventures lasting 9 weeks.

For the next 2 issues the second page of Mustapha Million's 2-page adventures occupied page 13, after which there was a 3 week hiatus when no issues of Cheeky Weekly were published due to industrial (in)action.

When the title resumed publication with the comic dated 06 January 1979, Tub was once again on page13, but for the following 2 issues the thirteenth page was an appropriate home for the young lad who brought bad luck to anyone in the vicinity, Disaster Des.

Tub then heaved his bulky frame back onto page 13 for another run, this time spanning 10 issues, until the frantic chase that was Elephant On The Run careered across that page for 4 breathless weeks, each time featuring the second page of a 2-page set.

On 05 May 1979 Tub wobbled back, only to be deposed by the father and son stars of Why, Dad, Why? in the following issue, the only time said perplexed parent and his inquisitive offspring appeared on page 13. Tub proved rather too weighty to be ejected entirely, and was back again in the 19 May 1979 comic, albeit for his final stretch on page 13, which ended on 30 June 1979 after 7 weeks. Our portly pal's strip was the one which featured most regularly on page 13, clocking up 28 belt-straining appearances in that position.

On 07 July 1979, juvenile jinx Disaster Des moved back in for what was to be a 4 week run, after which Tuesday, which hadn't been seen on page 13 since 22 July 1978, made a surprise bid to regain control. However, this was to be the final time that Tuesday would make a page 13 appearance, and the following week Elephant, who was still On The Run, made his last visit to that location in a single page adventure drawn by Barry Glennard.

The 18 and 25 August 1979 issues saw the final page 13 outings for Disaster Des, and in a totally unexpected move, synthetic senior citizen 6 Million Dollar Gran moved the first page of her 3-page story into that location in the 01 September 1979 comic, the only issue in which Gran graced the 13th page.

Feisty Gran was no match for the members of The Gang (a retitled reprint of Whizzer and Chips' strip based on TV series Here Come The Double Deckers), whose mysteriously bus-lacking adventures were to be found on page 13 for the next 10 weeks.

The Gang wasn't the only reprint in the comic at the time, in fact by late 1979 Cheeky Weekly was displaying the classic symptom of an ailing comic - increasing reliance on reprints. Some were straight reprints (such as Soggy the Sea Monster from Shiver and Shake), others (The Gang and Mystery Boy) were reprints under different names and one (Why Dad, Why?) was a rehashed script with new artwork. To compound this sorry situation, the comic began recycling material it had used mere months earlier, gathering together jokes made by or about characters from Cheeky's Week in the form of cut-out booklets. The first page of these 2-page gag collections appeared on page 13 for 11 weeks from 17 November to Cheeky Weekly's penultimate issue dated 26 January 1980.

PAGE COVER_DATE FEATURE
13 17-Nov-1979 Knock-Knock booklet 1/2
13 24-Nov-1979 Manhole Man booklet 1/2
13 01-Dec-1979 Doctor Joke booklet 1/2
13 08-Dec-1979 Six-Gun Sam booklet 1/2
13 15-Dec-1979 Mechanic Jokes booklet 1/2
13 22-Dec-1979 Constable Chuckle booklet 1/2
13 29-Dec-1979 Christmas Jokes booklet 1/2
13 05-Jan-1980 Jogging Jeremy booklet 1/2
13 12-Jan-1980 Farmer Giles booklet 1/2
13 19-Jan-1980 Petula Jokes booklet 1/2
13 26-Jan-1980 Mr Chips booklet 1/2

Page 13 in the final Cheeky Weekly was home to an advertisement for only the third time in the entire run and, as in the 29 July 1978 issue, the product being promoted was early morning stalwart Weetabix. Maybe marketing people are a superstitious breed and most were reluctant to associate their campaigns with page 13. This particular promotion saw cut-out masks featuring the likenesses of a selection of DC comics' superheroes and villains being carried on the cereal boxes.


Count of Elements (or distinct combinations thereof) appearing on Page 13
Elements Total
Tub28
Old Comic26
Tuesday11
The Gang 2/210
Disaster Des8
Elephant On The Run 2/24
Advertisement: Weetabix2
Creepy Sleepy Tale 1/22
Mustapha Million 2/22
Paddywack2
Silly Snaps 2/22
Tuesday 2/2\Doug's Doodle2
6 Million Dollar Gran 1/31
Advertisement: Bassett's\Smurfs competition1
Boxing Day 2/21
Christmas Jokes booklet 1/21
Constable Chuckle booklet 1/21
Doctor Joke booklet 1/21
Draw Hid Kid winners 2/21
Elephant On The Run1
Farmer Giles booklet 1/21
Jogging Jeremy booklet 1/21
Knock-Knock booklet 1/21
Manhole Man booklet 1/21
Mechanic Jokes booklet 1/21
Mr Chips booklet 1/21
Petula Jokes booklet 1/21
Six-Gun Sam booklet 1/21
Wednesday1
Why, Dad, Why?1

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