THE CHRISTMASES OF SWEENY TODDLER – PART FOUR

The X-mas of 1984 was WHOOPEE!’s last but Tom Paterson delivered a real gem this time. I couldn’t resist cropping it into separate panels:

THE CHRISTMASES OF SWEENY TODDLER – PART THREE

Below are the next four Christmassy episodes of Sweeny Toddler from WHOOPEE! period, years 1980 to 1983. The one from 1983 is a black and white reprint of the story that first appeared in 1977, in full colour. Scroll down two posts for the much nicer colour version and be sure to come back soon for the absolutely brilliant two-pager from WHOOPEE’s last X-mas issue. The panel at the top of this post is a taste :) ....

THE CHRISTMASES OF SWEENY TODDLER – PART ONE

Sweeny Toddler the infamous demonic baby first appeared in the first issue of SHIVER AND SHAKE in March 1973. The paper lasted for less than two years, so there was only enough time for one X-mas episode of Sweeny Toddler. Script and artwork by Leo Baxendale:

SHIVER AND SHAKE was merged into WHOOPEE! in October 1974. It sounds quite surprising, but Sweeny didn’t make a straightforward leap to the new combined comic. It had to prove its strength by participating in a poll: WHOOPEE! editor selected 8 strips and invited readers to vote in a Pick-A-Strip competition that ran in the Autumn of 1974. Sweeny was declared victor in WHOOPEE! AND SHIVER & SHAKE cover-dated 22nd March, 1975, and his regular appearances recommenced a week later. This means that Sweeny Toddler would have missed the X-mas of 1974 even if WHOOPEE! hadn’t been affected by industrial action in the end of that year and the X-mas issue of the paper  had been published (WHOOPEE! missed the last week of 1974 and the first two weeks of 1975).

Leo Baxendale stopped drawing Sweeny Toddler in June 1975, and was succeeded by the excellent Tom Paterson who imitated Mr. Baxendale’s style very well indeed. Here are the next three festive episodes from the 1975, 1976 and 1977 X-mas issues of WHOOPEE! :

Come back soon for more X-mas stories featuring the little pest!

GUEST APPEARANCES AT SCREAM INN – SMILER

The series of guest appearances of fellow-Whoopee! characters in Scream Inn concludes with an episode featuring Smiler – the boy with a permanent smile. Drawn by Nick Baker, the character first appeared in 1976 in Whoopee! issue No. 102 (March 6, 1976) and ended in 1983 in issue No. 475 (June 25, 1983 – the last one before WHOOPEE! absorbed WOW!). 

Here is the two-pager, followed by the episode of Smiler from the same issue of WHOOPEE! Note how Brian Walker credited Nick Baker in the opening panel of Scream Inn. Quite unusual, isn't it? 

 

Scream Inn is a great strip and one of my favorite ones in British comics so I will surely return to it in the future…

GUEST APPEARANCES AT SCREAM INN – TOY BOY

Whoopee’s own favorite Toy Boy visited Scream Inn in Whoopee! issue cover-dated August 28th, 1976. As always, two pages of Scream Inn by the ever-excellent Brian Walker are followed by the episode of Toy Boy from that same issue. The artist is of course Terry Bave.

Now there’s only one installment of this series left in the pipeline. Can you guess who the star-guest might be? :) 

Blogger is still treating me poorly because the list of my favourite blogs that used to show on the right-hand side of this page is still missing and I have no idea how to restore it. I tried doing it manually but it still didn’t work. I find it quite annoying as I can’t conveniently visit my friends’ sites whenever I check in here. Any ideas how to fix this??