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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Wednesday 2 December 2015

Profile – Bubblegum Boy: Part Two - The Cheeky Weekly Era

For a profile of Bubblegum Boy's career in the pages of Krazy, see here.

Bubblegum Boy had the honour of appearing on the cover of Cheeky Weekly's debut issue, where he narrowly avoided a collision with the flying free gift. Inside that same edition, BB's appearance on the Sunday page saw him musing philosophically on Krazy Town's signage before drifting away on the breeze. From thereon BB continued to float, silent and unnoticed for the most part, across the cartoon skies as depicted in Cheeky Weekly, in exactly the same way as he had in Cheeky's strip in Krazy prior to the launch of Cheeky's own title. Indeed, our aerial chum continued to appear in Krazy while concurrently floating across the pages of Cheeky Weekly.

Cheeky Weekly No 1
Art: Frank McDiarmid, as is all the art in this post,
unless noted otherwise


Soon after the debut of the toothy funster's comic, BB was honoured with his own episode of the Cheeky's Pal feature in Krazy's 10 December 1977 edition, wherein it was revealed that the reluctant aviator's name was Fred, although this fact was never referred to again in Krazy, and only once more in Cheeky Weekly.

A month after his cover appearance on the first Cheeky Weekly, Fred was again on the front page of the 19 November 1977 issue.

Fred's third cover appearance occurred on Cheeky Weekly dated 03 December1977, and his fourth on 28 January 1978.
 
Thanks to a note from Frank McDiarmid which appeared in Cheeky Weekly dated 18 February 1978, readers learned that Fred's surname was Holroyd.


Young Master Holroyd was back on the front cover of the 22 April 1978 comic, where his likeness was in fact the same image that had appeared on the cover of the first issue.

Our airborne chum made yet another front page appearance on the edition dated 13 May 1978.
  
A catastrophic mid-air clash between BB and B-BB occurred on Monday in the 05 August 1978 comic.



In Cheeky Weekly's '60 years into the future' edition, it was prophesied that an aged Fred will still be airborne in the year 2038.


The hapless chewer was again on the cover of the 14 October and 28 October 1978 issues, on these occasions observing events within the front page gag strips.
  
The cinema Commissionaire employed a gum-bubble to evade his customary Saturday trampling in the issue dated 04 November 1978.

Art: Mike Lacey
BB first took to the skies in Krazy dated 08 January 1977,
so by November 1978 he hadn't been aloft 'over two years'
but no doubt the aerial banishment seemed longer to him.


The reluctant aviator was once again on the cover of the comic dated 25 November 1978, and he narrowly avoided a rapidly-descending Tub on the 27 January 1979 cover.
 
High-flying Fred was yet again witness to front page frolics as of the 02June 1979 edition.

A plaintive cry from the sky on Sunday in the 09 June 1979 edition revealed that our airborne chum's birthday was the 2nd of June.

Art: Frank McDiarmid pencils
 
Bubblegum Boy's aerial wanderings took him to the coast in Cheeky Weekly dated 07 July 1979, just in time for a wee joke with Walter Wurx.

 
Our drifting pal had a speaking role on the cover of the 11 August 1979 issue.
 
Six-Gun Sam caused BB some concern

Bubblegum Boy appeared on the Pin-Up Pal poster featuring Disco Kid that appeared in the 16 September 1978 comic.

Fred joined Cheeky Weekly's front cover fun for the final time as of the 03 November 1979 issue, and his final appearance within the pages of the toothy funster's title was on the Friday page of the last issue dated 02 February 1980.

BB's final Cheeky Weekly outing.
The mystery was revealed later in the comic to
be the imminent merge with Whoopee!




This last appearance brought to 73 the number of Cheeky Weekly issues through which our soaring pal drifted, 13 of which featured BB on the front cover.

Character Total Issues First Appearance Final Appearance
Bubblegum Boy7322-Oct-197702-Feb-1980


Count of elements by artist







Character Artist Total Elements
Bubblegum BoyFrank McDiarmid96
Bubblegum BoyFrank McDiarmid pencils25
Bubblegum BoyBarrie Appleby6
Bubblegum BoyMike Lacey3
Bubblegum BoyJim Watson2
Bubblegum BoyDick Millington1
Bubblegum BoyUnknown Cheeky Artist 11
Bubblegum BoyNigel Edwards1

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