In 1980 the first 4
issues of WHOOPEE! (January 5th, 12th, 19th and 26th) included the Giant All-Year X-Word and 1980 Calendar
consisting of 4 pull-outs printed on the centre pages.
Assembly instructions
and X-word solutions came with the last part:
… and, once assembled,
the X-word/calendar looked something like this:
One of the issues mentioned
above also had this page that gives us an idea of the most popular WHOOPEE! strips
at the time:
I find it a bit
surprising that Frankie Stein and Scared-Stiff Sam were in the ‘supporting cast’
category. I would have hoped that at least Frankie was still a big star at that
point...
Many fans hated the GOOD NEWS INSIDE issues because they marked the end of their favourite comic, but let us not forget that defunct papers were usually merged into other comics that had nice adverts heralding the expansion of their character lineup. WHOOPEE! issue, cover
dated 2nd Feb., 1980 came with a Special Announcement of WHOOPEE! and CHEEKY
merger next week:
Starting from the
issue of 9th Feb., 1980, WHOOPEE! became another two-comics-in-one package - IPC’s third after WHIZZER AND CHIPS and SHIVER
AND SHAKE. The intention of this blog-series is to cover WHOOPEE! pull-outs, so
it is worth-while pointing out that, technically speaking, starting from that
week, every single issue of the paper published in 1980 came with a
pull-out – a 16-page CHEEKY comic inside WHOOPEE! Here are the first 4 covers
of the CHEEKY section, drawn beautifully by Frank McDiarmid. I have to say I
find them more appealing that those of the WHOOPEE!s where they were included:
Of course, very few
readers actually detached the CHEEKY section, and when you buy WHOOPEE! comics
for your collection today, it is unlikely the “pull outs” will be missing.
The first 4 combined
WHOOPEE! and CHEEKY comics, cover-dated February 9th, 16th, 23rd and March 1st,
1980, also had ‘proper’ pull-outs – a 4-part 'FIB' Card Game:
Instructions how to
play the game came with the last part:
Next up was the Ticklish Allsports Pocket Book in the
issues cover-dated March 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th, 1980:
Here is a selection of
pages, many drawn by Jack Clayton, with a few by other artists:
The Editor took a
break with WHOOPEE! pull outs till Autumn and came up with quite a unique and
educational one in the 4 issues of October 11th,18th, 25th and Nov. 1st, 1980.
It was How to Draw Comic Strips, with 14 cartooning
lessons by Terry Bave. I thought it would be a good idea to show the booklet in
full – maybe you’ll find it a useful tool to share with someone taking
their first steps at drawing:
The issue with the
last part of Terry Bave’s booklet was the Firework number, so it came with yet
another Guy Fawkes’ mask drawn by Brian Walker (I think…), from an idea devised
by a lucky reader who won the contest and pocketed a grand prize of 50 pound – enough
to buy 416 issues of WHOOPEE!, priced 12 p. at that time!
The last pull-out for
1980 was in the Christmas issue – the only one without a front cover of the CHEEKY section inside since the WHOOPEE!/CHEEKY merger. The front cover below was by Robert Nixon:
The pull-out was The Whoopee! Flip the Kipper Game drawn
by Mike Lacey and printed in full colour on the centerspread:
Characters are © Rebellion Publishing Ltd
