WHOOPEE! PULL-OUTS AND FREE GIFTS IN 1982

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

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