Definition and meaning of cheeky

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cheeky was a British comic book that ran from (issues dates) 22 October 1977 to 2 February 1980, when it merged with Whoopee!. The title character originated in another comic called Krazy, as one character in the strip The Krazy Gang and proved popular enough to get his own comic, which managed to outlive Krazy itself. Its strips included:

• Cheeky itself
• Lily Pop
• Mustapha Million
• Paddywack
• Walter Wurx
• Disaster Des
• Jogging Jeremy
• Sid the Street Sweeper
• Ursula the Usherette
• Elephant On The Run
• Adam Ellison

Cheeky ran for 120 issues.

One unusual aspect of Cheeky compared to its contemporaries was that the title character appeared in more than one strip. A typical issue would follow Cheeky through the week from Sunday through to the following Saturday in a series of one or two page strips. Often not so much a narrative as a series of random gags each episode was designed to lead into the ‘support’ strip which followed.

Some notable examples include:

Cheeky racing home to watch his favourite TV Show, usually arriving with seconds to spare

Cheeky trying to read the latest James Blond book in the bookshop – this would lead into a two page ‘drama’ strip which would then end abruptly as the bookshop owner chased Cheeky from the store

On Wednesdays Cheeky babysat for Baby Burpo a mischievous child similar to Whoopee’s Sweeny Toddler. Cheeky would read him a tongue-in-cheek ghost story in the hope of scaring the kid but this invariably backfired and Cheeky would end up running home in terror as if pursued by whatever menace had featured in that week’s story.

On Saturdays Cheeky attended a Saturday morning picture show at his local cinema where he saw a cartoon (often ‘Who’s afraid of the Big Bad Wolf’) followed by a drama serial, while exchanging jokes with his friends in the interval (after a couple of years the cinema was dropped and Cheeky was shown spending an afternoon at the beach seemingly regardless of the time of year)

Cheeky was famous for his red and white striped sweater, with a large C on the chest and at one point the comic gave away a free knitting pattern so readers could knit their own (or get their mums to knit one for them.)