Profile - Hypno-Tessa

Mini mesmeriser Hypno-Tessa made her debut in Cheeky Weekly dated 14 April 1979. A sceptical toothy funster doubted her hypnotic skills, but was forced to concede when Teacher was observed in romantic pursuit of Ursula (hope his wife didn’t find out).

Tessa's debut
Art: Frank McDiarmid pencils

Most regularly seen in a migraine-inducing, zig-zag patterned dress (always drawn as such by Frank McDiarmid except for the 04 August 1979 comic in which Tessa appeared in singlet and shorts while competing in a cross country race), Tessa’s subjects were initially limited to Cheeky’s pals who, when entranced, exhibited actions contrary to their customary behaviour, but as the weeks progressed she began to direct her 'fluence toward late 70s celebrity (and in one case later notoriety). See table below for a list of all those who fell under Tessa's spell.

Cover Date	Tessa's Subject
14-Apr-79	Teacher
28-Apr-79	Uncle Hamish
05-May-79	Gloomy Glad
05-May-79	Teacher
12-May-79	Herman
19-May-79	Jogging Jeremy
26-May-79	Posh Claude and Burpo
02-Jun-79	Six-Gun Sam
09-Jun-79	Libby
09-Jun-79	During the Burpo Special - Burpo, cat, dog, Crunching Chris, Ursula
07-Jul-79	Magnus Pyke
14-Jul-79	Margaret Thatcher
21-Jul-79	A bull
28-Jul-79	Jimmy Savile
04-Aug-79	Cross-country running competitors
11-Aug-79	Cheeky’s mum
18-Aug-79	Björn Borg and Geoff Capes
25-Aug-79	The Incredible Hulk
01-Sep-79	Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta
08-Sep-79	A dog
22-Sep-79	John Travolta
29-Sep-79	Windsor Davies
13-Oct-79	Tom Baker
20-Oct-79	John Cleese
03-Nov-79	Tom Baker and Dalek
10-Nov-79	Little and Large
17-Nov-79	2 football teams (persuaded to be polite)
01-Dec-79	Lester Piggott
15-Dec-79	Spook
12-Jan-80	Failed attempt to hypnotise some waxwork dummies

The third issue to feature Tessa, dated 05 May 1979, included two appearances by Cheeky’s new chum; one on Wednesday and another on Friday when Teacher was hypnotised into handing over his copy of Teachers’ Weekly to allow our grinning pal to read that week’s instalment of Menace of The Alpha Man.

Art: Frank

 

The 09 June 1979 issue was another highlight for fans of Tessa as she again appeared twice – first on Monday, and then as the subject of a full-colour Burpo Special.

Art: Mike Lacey

In the comic dated 08 September 1979, Tessa says ‘Just to prove I can hypnotise animals as well as humans, take a look at this’, indicating a confused-looking dog which she had induced into emitting a curious ‘Miaow!, Cheep!, Oink!, Mooooo!, Baaaaah!’. However, Cheeky and his readers had already witnessed a bull coming under Tessa’s spell in the 21 July 1979 edition, and a cat and dog were similarly entranced during the aforementioned Burpo Special in the comic dated 09 June 1979, although our grinning pal was not privy to those proceedings.

Art: Jimmy Hansen

It seems Tessa and Cheeky's mum both used the same hairdresser
 Art: Frank again

A

The humorous hypnotist's final Cheeky Weekly appearance was a somewhat downbeat one, as she failed to exercise her powers of persuasion.

Tessa's final Cheeky Weekly outing (issue dated 12 January 1980)
Art: Mike Lacey

Tessa never appeared in Cheeky's strips in Krazy, but featured in 28 issues of Cheeky Weekly.

Character	Total Issues	First Appearance	Final Appearance
Hypno-Tessa	28	14-Apr-1979	12-Jan-1980

Count of elements by artist

Character	Artist	Total Elements
Hypno-Tessa	Frank McDiarmid	15
Hypno-Tessa	Mike Lacey	5
Hypno-Tessa	Frank McDiarmid pencils	4
Hypno-Tessa	Jimmy Hansen	2
Hypno-Tessa	Dick Millington	2
Hypno-Tessa	Not known	1
Hypno-Tessa	Barrie Appleby	1

Whizzer and Chips - The Cheeky Raids part 30

New readers start here... After Cheeky Weekly folded and was incorporated into Whoopee as of February 1980 six strips that had originated in the toothy funster's title survived the merge and continued to appear in the amalgamated comic. Whoopee itself foundered in March 1985 and was merged into Whizzer and Chips. Three of the surviving Cheeky Weekly strips successfully negotiated this second merge and went on to appear in the newly combined publication, rather inelegantly titled 'Whizzer and Chips now including Whoopee'. The survivors were Mustapha Million, Calculator Kid and (appearing only twice) Stage School. Cheeky continued to appear, but as a member of The Krazy Gang, who had moved into W&C when Krazy, the comic in which the Gang originated, expired in April 1978. However, the Krazy Gang's Whizzer and Chips run ended in the issue dated 08 February 1986. Calculator Kid survived a little longer, his run of reprints coming to an end in the 26 July 1986 edition and leaving Mustapha Million as the sole Cheeky Weekly survivor.

Just a week after suffering a raid by Toy Boy, Mustapha had his revenge. However, rather than a direct retaliation at the toy-loving tyke, our moneyed mate played a more subtle game and picked another strip from the fertile mind of Terry Bave, the stars of which didn’t smell a rat. This raid is not to be sneezed at - can you spot our ex-Cheeky Weekly chum?

Whizzer and Chips 13 December 1986
Art: Terry Bave

This is an unusual raid as Mustapha's probing digit seems to influence development of the plot - normally the interloper is seen but has no effect on the events unfolding in the strip.

More raiding fun soon!

Whizzer and Chips Cover Date	Raider	Raided
06 April 1985	Mustapha Million	Super Steve
04 May 1985	Bloggs (Store Wars)	Mustapha Million
11 May 1985	Joker	The Krazy Gang (Cheeky)
18 May 1985	Calculator Kid & Calc	Odd-Ball
01 June 1985	Animalad Mustapha Million	The Krazy Gang (Cheeky) Boy Boss
08 June 1985	Odd-Ball	Calculator Kid
06 July 1985	Toy Boy	Calculator Kid
13 July 1985	Pa Bumpkin	The Krazy Gang (Cheeky)
27 July 1985	Joker	Mustapha Million
24 August 1985	Cheeky	Sid's Snake
14 September 1985	Odd-Ball Calculator Kid	Calculator Kid Store Wars
05 October 1985	Mustapha Million	Animalad
19 October 1985	Odd-Ball	Mustapha Million
23 November 1985	Sweeny Toddler Sweeny Toddler Sweeny Toddler	Calculator Kid The Krazy Gang (Cheeky) Mustapha Million
18 January 1986	Mustapha Million	Super Steve
25 January 1986	Odd-Ball Cheeky	Mustapha Million Odd-Ball
08 February 1986 The Krazy Gang ends this issue	Animalad	Mustapha Million
15 February 1986	Lazy Bones	Calculator Kid
15 March 1986	Odd-Ball	Calculator Kid
29 March 1986	Calculator Kid	Master P Brain
05 April 1986	Bumpkin Billionaires	Mustapha Million
12 April 1986	Animalad	Calculator Kid
31 May 1986	Lazy Bones	Calculator Kid
07 June 1986	Mustapha Million	Joker
28 June 1986	Sweet Tooth	Mustapha Million
26 July 1986 Calculator Kid ends this issue	No Cheeky-related raid this issue	No Cheeky-related raid this issue
16 August 1986	Mustapha Million	Joker
23 August 1986	Sweet Tooth	Mustapha Million
18 October 1986	Winnie the Royal Nag	Mustapha Million
06 December 1986	Toy Boy	Mustapha Million
13 December 1986	Mustapha Million	Odd-Ball

Cheeky Weekly cover date 08 December 1979

Art: Mike Lacey

This week’s Cut-Out Comedy Catalogue gets a mention in the above-title banner – a bit of a cheek (pardon the pun) when the catalogue is just a cheap way of filling a couple of pages but IPC DO love a cut-out feature don’t they?

Front cover fave Manhole Man is on hand to set up a Saturday Night Fever gag as our toothy pal embarks on his regular paper round. Disco Kid enjoys a boogie with fowl friend, while Snail gets a close-up.

Over the page Frank McDiarmid gives us his Sunday, where Cheeky’s paper round continues and includes a delivery to Posh Claude’s mansion.

Art: Frank McDiarmid

On page 3 Calculator Kid is lacking the wherewithal to visit the flicks as “it’s the end of the week and my pocket money’s almost gone”, yet the previous page was Sunday so Charlie’s cash crisis must occur on either Sunday or Monday. Now I always believed that the first day of the week was Sunday, so was going to say that this story actually occurs early in the week, but it seems that Monday has officially been the first day of the week for some time, so clearly this Calculator Kid adventure occurs on Sunday and thus I withdraw my complaint. I was also considering raising an objection to the cinema being open on a Sunday, as in the late 1970s virtually all businesses in the UK would be closed on that day of the week, but it seems cinemas were given a dispensation to allow them to open their doors on what was known by some as 'The Lord's Day' as from the late 1950s.

Art: Terry Bave

Following the cinema fun is reprint Soggy the Sea Monster, located surprisingly (to me, anyway) near the front of the comic. I have always assumed (possibly wrongly) that comic publishers place their most popular strips in the early part of the comic (aside from those that required a specific location such as the centre pages). Maybe the Soggy reprints are proving popular - the banner above his introductory Cheeky Weekly episode indicates his Cheeky Annual outings had been well received. Soggy’s three previous Cheeky Weekly appearances were all on page 11. Actually, this issue was the closest the silly sea serpent got to the front of the comic – he subsequently returned to page 11, flirted briefly with pages 8 and 12 and finished up on page 17.

ISSUE_DATE	Soggy the Sea Monster page
17-NOV-79	11
24-NOV-79	11
01-DEC-79	11
08-DEC-79	4
15-DEC-79	11
22-DEC-79	11
29-DEC-79	8
05-JAN-80	11
12-JAN-80	12
19-JAN-80	11
26-JAN-80	12
02-FEB-80	17

 

I don’t often show Tub strips, mainly because it’s not one of my favourites, but here is our clinically obese pal having a camping crisis…

Art: Nigel Edwards

 

There’s mayoral merriment in Doomsville as Disaster Des leaves town. But all too soon there's very little to crow about.

Art: Mike Lacey

Following Des, on pages 13 and 14, is the front-cover-mentioned Comedy Catalogue, this week featuring the wild west witticisms of Six-Gun Sam.

On Friday Goalie Cat returns to once again test Cheeky’s skill with a tin can. The feline footballer was last seen in the 25 August 1979 edition. On this page we also witness Yikky-Boo ‘razzing’ rather than uttering his customary exclamation.

Art: Frank McDiarmid

On the Chit-Chat page our toothy pal is indeed very cheeky about Terry Bave’s age.

Cheeky's Saturday is devoted to supervising a toddlers' outing to the park playground. It doesn't end well as Baby Burpo is among the youngsters in the care of the toothy funster and pals.

More Frank

Snail of the Century again rounds off this issue, which features an all-Frank-McDiarmid Cheeky's Week.

Cheeky Weekly	Cover Date: 08-Dec-1979, Issue 109 of 117
Page	Details
1	Cover Feature 'Manhole Man and Disco Kid' - Art Mike Lacey
2	Sunday - Art Frank McDiarmid
3	Calculator Kid - Art Terry Bave
4	Soggy the Sea Monster reprint from Shiver and Shake - Art Robert Nixon
5	Monday - Art Frank McDiarmid
6	Stage School - Art Robert Nixon
7	Stage School - Art Robert Nixon
8	Ad: Tente (single appearance)
9	Tub - Art Nigel Edwards
10	Tuesday - Art Frank McDiarmid
11	Joke-Box Jury\Ad: IPC 'Whoopee' 8 of 9
12	Disaster Des - Art Mike Lacey
13	Cheeky's Cut-Out Comedy Catalogue 'Six-Gun Sam Jokes'
14	Cheeky's Cut-Out Comedy Catalogue 'Six-Gun Sam Jokes'
15	Wednesday - Art Frank McDiarmid
16	Mustapha Million - Art Joe McCaffrey
17	Mustapha Million - Art Joe McCaffrey
18	The Gang reprint from Whizzer and Chips - Art Robert MacGillivray
19	The Gang reprint from Whizzer and Chips - Art Robert MacGillivray
20	Thursday - Art Frank McDiarmid
21	Why, Dad, Why? - Art John K. Geering
22	Ad: Peter Pan Playthings (final appearance)
23	Elephant On The Run - Art Robert Nixon
24	6 Million Dollar Gran - Art Ian Knox
25	6 Million Dollar Gran - Art Ian Knox
26	Friday - Art Frank McDiarmid
27	Ad: IPC 'Cor Annual' 5 of 5 Ad: 'Look and Learn' 16 of 16
28	Speed Squad - Art Jimmy Hansen
29	Chit-Chat
30	Saturday - Art Frank McDiarmid
31	Saturday - Art Frank McDiarmid
32	Snail of the Century - Art Frank McDiarmid