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.
