On this day, 15 July 1978: Buster, Cheeky, Whizzer and Chips and Whoopee!

These four comics were four I probably would have bought and read in the summer of 1978. I did love it when IPC ran a cross-titles promotion – somehow I would have begged, borrowed or stolen enough pocket money to acquire the whole set during each week of the special arrangement – and I also loved those cut-out and fold-together mini comics. Perhaps it was the nascent publisher in me. There was something about the way those four pages were folded together into sixteen that fascinated and seemed intensely satisfying to seven-year-old me.

Also, promotions such as this offered a rare opportunity to catch up with who was who in the companion comics. I was a reader of Whizzer and Chips and Cheeky at this point, but characters such as Sweeny Toddler, The Bumpkin Billionaires, Buster and Ivor Lott and Tony Broke were familiar to me too because of weeks such as these. It appears to have been a great way for IPC to advertise its range (including the Disney-licensed Mickey Mouse comic, of which sadly I don’t have a copy to share), although I wonder how it worked out for the creators. I wouldn’t be surprised if they received only half their usual page rate for the creation of each mini-story here, although I suspect it was equally if not more challenging to tell a complete funny tale in half the number of panels.