Cheeky and Plug, both cover dated 19 August 1978
Feeling old and creaky? I am, because it’s my birthday – halfway to 108 years old!
I’m treating myself with a look at two comics from the same week, and the Ivory Rivaly between Cheeky and Plug. Cover artists: Frank McDiarmid (Cheeky), Vic Neill (Plug).
This was an odd pair of comics. IPC’s Cheeky was fronted by the buck-toothed member of Krazy Comic’s The Krazy Gang; DC Thomson’s Plug by the buck-toothed member of The Beano’s The Bash Street Kids. Cheeky lasted from October 1977 to February 1980, Plug from September 1977 to February 1979.
Other head-to-heads between DCT and IPC in the 70s included Warlord (launched ‘74) and Battle (‘75), and Bullet and Action (both Feb ‘77). Spellbound and Misty were aimed at very similar markets although the latter was published following the former’s demise. In retrospect it seems surprising that DCT didn’t try a comic to rival 2000AD, given the popularity of Star Wars and spacey sci-fi in general at the latter end of the decade.
Here’s how Cheeky and Plug were each announced in their respective parent comics back in the autumn of ’77. The Bash Street artist from the Beano pages was David Sutherland.
Cheeky Weekly was based around the mirthsome maverick’s paper round, and the regular cast of Krazy Town pals he met en route. This week’s glimpse of the future saw an ancient Cheekster meet geriatric versions of Gloomy Glad, Six-Gun Sam, Posh Claude, Ursula the Usherette, and all the usual suspects in gum-sucking guise.
Plug had a different kind of vibe. The comic played up membership of the Plug Sports and Social Club, similar to The Beano’s Dennis the Menace Club, while the strip exploits of Percival Proudfoot Plugsley saw him taking on a different sporting activity each week, perhaps as a result of his Super Stars exploits in that original Beano story.
It looked different from other humour comics of its day, printed on thin glossy paper, with a lot of colour, and using a weirdly heavy typeface for the strip lettering. It’s hard to guess what the editorial brief for the back-up strips’ creators was, other than ‘Whatever you like, lads!’.
It’s such an odd bunch of stories, including Digby the Human Mole (art Gordon Bell), Eebagoom (Albert Holroyd), Invasion of the Plug Bugs and the (admittedly brilliant) insect football team Antchester United (John Geering). It’s all a bit bizarre, but never dull and great fun in places.
Finally for today’s blog, it’s back to creaky Cheeky for a couple of frames I enjoyed. I feel as though it’s a prediction of, and nod towards, the small group of completists who would one day try to gather for posterity a copy of every single issue of our favourite comics. Here’s to us and our dusty, musty ways!
