WHOOPEE! POSTERS AND PULL-OUTS IN 1981

In 1981, the New Year issue of WHOOPEE! (3rd January) came with this busy colour pull-out calendar contributed by Robert Nixon:

The next pull-out came after a month’s break in the issue cover-dated 14th February, 1981. It was the first time that WHOOPEE! offered a set of Valentine Cards to its readers:

WHOOPEE! issue of 28th February, 1981 came with a free gift – a pack of Hubba Bubba Soft Bubble Gum. Moreover, the free gift issue was the first in the sequence of four with Whoopee! "Doubles" pull-out card game. 

The two issues of 28th February and 7th March had two pages of the cut-out cards, while the next two (14th and 21st March) each had one page of those; the rules of the game came with the last part:

The issue of 20th June, 1981 had this page with the list of WHOOPEE!’s top ten strips (results of a popularity poll), and on that occasion the Editor decided to include colour posters of the top three. The one for the comic’s No. 3 star was advertised to appear next week, but the Editor added some suspense by withholding the names of the runner-up and the top character for now:

Toy Boy poster by Terry Bave was duly included in the issue of 27th June, 1981:

… along with this advert for the poster of the runners-up to look forward to next week: 

The Bumpkin Billionaires’ poster came with the issue of 4th July, 1981:

… which also revealed who the top character was:  

It appears that the influx of new stars from CHEEKY WEEKLY (Mustapha Million was one of the ‘immigrants’) undermined the popularity of some of WHOOPEE!’s old-timers, as demonstrated by the fact that Sweeny Toddler dropped to the fourth place in the chart. 

The achievement of Mustapha Million was celebrated with a poster in the issue of 11th July, 1981:

WHOOPEE! issues cover-dated 4th July and 11th July, 1981 (those with the Bumpkin Billionaires and Mustapha Million posters) and the issue of 18th July, 1981 came with The Young Road Traveller's Handbook. The front cover of the issue with Part 1 of the pull-out suggested that the booklet was in full colour, although actually it was all printed in black-and-white. Here is a selection of pages:

The next pull-out arrived a fortnight later. WHOOPEE! celebrated the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana by including the Royal Wedding Game on the centerspread in the issue of 1st August, 1981:

The next exciting pull-out – How to Draw Comic Strips by Terry Bave, Book Two – took exactly two months to appear. The first part of the 16-page mini-book was included with the second free gift issue of the year that had a pack of ANGLO Bubbly bubble gum sellotaped to the front cover (missing from my copy shown in the picture below). Terry Bave’s second ‘tutorial’ (the first one was included a year ago in 1980) was printed in WHOOPEE! issues of 3rd, 10th, 17th and 24th October, 1981:

Here it is in full for those of you who would like another set of handy tips from the Master:

A week later WHOOPEE! readers received yet another Guy Fawkes’ facemask in the issue of 31st October, 1981. Drawn - as usual - by Brian Walker, it was the last pull-out offered to the readers of the paper in 1981. 

Characters are © Rebellion Publishing Ltd

WHOOPEE! PULL-OUTS IN 1978

In my opinion, in 1978 WHOOPEE! was beginning to loose some of its appeal. Scream Inn had ended last year in the issue dated 1st October, 1977, replaced for the time being by Spooktacular 7 – still drawn by the excellent Brian Walker and featuring the same old happy gang of spooks – but readers’ story ideas were no longer used. As 1978 rolled on, Spooktacular 7 was put to rest after the issue dated 22nd July, 1978, as was Ken Reid’s World-Wide Weirdies after the issue of 21st October, 1978. Fans of ‘Orrible Hole, Creepy Car, Fun Fear and Evil Eye saw less of their favourite strips because the Editor began rotating them, and each was printed only once every four weeks. That said, it was still a good comic, with the well-established strips such as Sweeny, Frankie Stein, Scared-Stiff Sam, Bumpkin Billionaires, Toy Boy, etc. still going strong.

Let us not forget that the topic of this series is WHOOPEE! pull-outs, and 1978 was a very good year in that regard – as many as 26 issues came with something extra!

The first four issues of the year had the Whoopee Spotter Book of TV. 

This time the cut-outs weren’t on the centrespread – they were printed on two inside pages of each issue, containing four pages of the booklet. Once collected together, the booklet was 16 pages thick:

Readers’ response to the WHOOPEE! cut-out masks offered towards the end of 1977 must have been good because the Editor decided to do more of those and included one of Sweeny in the issue of 18th February, 1978: 

… followed later in the year by one of Smiler in WHOOPEE! issue of 6th May, 1978:

The four issues of 1st – 22nd July, 1978 had four mini comic samplers promoting companion comics. 

Mickey Mouse Mini Sampler was first in line, and featured Mickey, Goofy and Donald:

It was followed by Cheeky Weekly Mini Sampler, featuring What a Cheek, 6 Million Dollar Gran, The Skateboard Squad, Mustapha Million and of course the toothy funster himself:

Next came the mini sampler of Whizzer and Chips with Krazy Comic, featuring Shiner, Sid’s Snake, Sweet Tooth, Paws, Fuss Pot, Horace and Doris and Buytonic Boy:

The last one was Buster and Monster Fun Mini Sampler, featuring Buster’s Diary, Stan Still’s Stopwatch, Kid Kong, X-Ray Specs, Kid Gloves, Tin Teacher and Clever Dick:

Once cut out and folded, each sampler booklet was 8 pages thick, with front and back covers printed in full colour. Rather than appearing on the centerspread, all the booklets were printed on four pages at the back of the paper.

The next issue dated 29th July, 1978 had this mysterious advert:

The answer came in the next four issues (5th – 26th August, 1978) in the form of Whoopee Pocket Puzzler pull-out booklet: 

The b/w booklet, drawn by Cliff Brown, was given two pages in each of the four issues (i.e. four pages of the mini-book per issue). Once collected together, it was 16 pages thick.

The issue with the last part of the Pocket Puzzler also had this advert trumpeting the arrival of different colour cut-out games in four of IPC’s weekly comics, starting from next week:

In the case of WHOPPEE!, it was Lolly Pop Money Game, presented in the four issues dated 2nd – 23rd September, 1978:

Each of the first three issues had one part of the board, plus one page of game cards:

... while the fourth contained the last batch of the cards, along with assembly instructions and the rules how to play the game:

This was followed by an 8-page black and white Whoopee Pull-Out Minibook –Time Travellers, featuring The Bumpkin Billionaires, printed on the centre pages of WHOOPEE! dated 7th October, 1978:

… and another one – Look Out London, featuring Sweeny – in WHOOPEE! dated 14th October, 1978, illustrated and signed by Paul Aley:

… and then yet another one – Frankie Stein in Transylvania – in WHOOPEE! dated 21st October, 1978. Drawn by Robert Nixon, it was a doctored version of the original booklet printed in SHIVER AND SHAKE No. 56 back in 1974 as part 4 of Frankie Stein’s Mini Monster Comic Book:

The next issue (28th October, 1978) came with a double treat: Brian Walker’s Guy Fawkes’ mask printed on the centerspread:

… and Three’s A Crowd Whoopee Cut-out Minibook featuring Lolly Pop (an 8-page b/w booklet illustrated by Sid Burgon):

But that was not all because after a week’s break, the issue of 11th November 1978 included yet another 8 page b/w pull-out booklet – Secret Agent 009, featuring Scared-Stiff Sam:

The next issue (18th November, 1978) saw the change of the logo and came with a free gift of Top Pop Hummer which I don’t have. Besides, the issue had four beautiful cut-out colour X-mas cards featuring WHOOPEE! stars:

The next two issues had more of the colour Xmas cards: there were four in the issue of 25th November, 1978:

… with a further two in the next issue (2nd December, 1978), which was also the last one with a pull-out in 1978:

More pull-outs may have been planned for the rest of December, but WHOOPEE! once again fell victim to industrial action and missed the next three weeks. Luckily, things came back on track just in time for the release of that year’s Xmas issue. 

Characters are © Rebellion Publishing Ltd 

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