In 1982 the first four
issues of WHOOPEE! comic came with pull-out Cheeky Diary
1982, illustrated by Cheeky’s godfather Frank McDiarmid. The front covers
of the four issues (Jan. 2nd, 9th, 16th and 23rd, 1982) are shown below,
followed by a few sample pages of the fun calendar. The comics had eight pages
of the pull-out each, so it was quite a thick one, once assembled.
No pull-outs were offered
for the next three months, but then the first four issues of May, 1982 came with
Crazy Graffiti cut-out booklet.
Notably, the issue of May 1st was the first with a new WHOOPEE! logo (the
paper’s fifth since its launch back in 1974). The booklet itself was quite unusual because it was
a straight-forward promotion of a 96-page ‘proper’ book with illustrations by
David Mostyn, as advertised on the back cover of the WHOOPEE! pull out:
It was probably not a
coincidence that at the time when Crazy Graffiti booklet was printed, David Mostyn was already working for
WHOOPEE!, drawing the relatively short-lived weekly strip Little Ed, soon to be
followed by Snack-Man which lasted for quite a while. In 1983 David Mostyn drew
at least a few episodes of another short-lived WHOOPEE! strip – KBR Kid’s Band
Radio.
The issue of June
12th, 1982 had free Weetabix badge
sellotaped to the front cover. Different Weetabix badges were given away that
week with other IPC titles – BUSTER, WHIZZER AND CHIPS, TIGER and TAMMY. My
copy of that week’s BUSTER still has the badge, but my WHOOPEE! does not.
Here’s an image of it that I found online:
The issue of July 10th,
1982 had FRUIT GUMS free poster,
shown in the image below that I found online. It wasn’t a pull-out: folded and
inserted into the paper, it wasn’t exactly part of the comic. The same poster
was advertised on the front page and included in at least two more later issues
that year (August 7th and Sept. 11th).
Next week’s issue
(July 17th, 1982) carried this advert:
The game appeared over
the next three weeks (24th and 31st July, and 7th August, 1982).
The first two issues
had the target printed on the centrespread - check out the result of my attempt to paste the two parts together:
…while the third one
came with the rules and a lot of text crammed into four pages:
The four issues of 18th
September, 25th September, 2nd October and 9th October, 1982 had a 4-part pull
out book Toby's Animal Rescue Service
by Toni Goffe.
It was that year’s second promotion of a ‘proper’ book from an outside publisher. There
were four pages in each of the four WHOOPEE!s, and what made this one stand out
among all the previous WHOOPEE! pull-out booklets was that each page was given
the full size of the paper’s page.
Toni Goffe did some
work in COR!! comic, but to the best of my knowledge he wasn’t involved with
WHOOPEE!, or at least I don’t know of any strips that he illustrated for the
paper.
The issue of October
23rd, 1982 had a pack of Anglo Bubbly sellotaped
to the front cover (missing from my copy, but not missed :) ).
Brian Walker never
failed to come up with an impressive Guy
Fawkes’ mask, and 1982 was no exception. It arrived with the issue of 30th
October, 1982:
Brian Walker was also
responsible for the last WHOOPEE! pull-out of the year. The poster/dot-to-dot
puzzle occupied the centre pages of the 1982 X-mas edition (December 25th,
1982):
Characters
are © Rebellion Publishing Ltd
My era of Whoopee!! :)
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