Makin' Whoopee!

     From the out-set, star strips like The Bumpkin Billionaires,
     Toy Boy, Evil Eye, The Ghost Train and Scared Stiff Sam
     made "Whoopee!" a comic to savour. It was originally
     launched in a small-scale 12.5 x 29cm format, and back
     then, each 40-page weekly cost just 5p. There was no
     cover star either, at first. Instead we had generic splash
     pages advertising the contents, and a smattering of joke
     panels presented as a "Jest Joking" selection.

     But things changed quickly. After a dozen-or-so issues,
     Toy Boy was inaugurated as the comic's first cover star,
     and by issue twenty the comic's size had increased to the
     more familiar 23.5 x 29cm format. And from there, well,
     the comic never looked back...

     Merging on...

     "Whoopee!"s success stemmed, for a large part, on its
     luck in the mergers department. Merging was the scourge
     of the comics world. Unsuspecting readers could at any
     time find their favourite weekly suddenly announcing
     "Great News Inside!". Seven days later, their comic would
     fold, and just a few hardy strips would pop-up within another
     weekly. In its lifetime, "Whoopee!" was on the receiving end
     of three such mergers, all of which actually aided and
     abetted the comic. And two of them - "Shiver & Shake"
     and "Cheeky Weekly" - were given the old comic-within-
     a-comic treatment, in the same vein as "Whizzer & Chips",
     as the new additions were bedded in. These mergers
     helped the title to shed some dead wood, and brought
     some of Fleetway's biggest stars into the fold.

     Frankie Stein, Lolly Pop, Cheeky, Paddywack and Six
     Million Dollar Gran all entered the comic via the mergers
     door. And others popped up in the line-up from out of the
     blue, from other stablemates. Willy Worry had originated
     in "Cor!!", and Me And My Shadow was pulled across from
     "Whizzer & Chips".

     And then there was Sweeny Toddler. Sweeny is now
     remembered as a star-turn from "Whoopee!", but it's often
     forgotten that he originated in "Shiver & Shake", and unlike
     his pals whose strips simply merged, Sweeny had to
     battle his way into the comic via a Pick-a-Strip vote...

     Pick-a-Toddler...

     On 12th October 1974, Fleetway stablemate "Shiver &
     Shake" was folded into "Whoopee!". It's arrival led to a
     a surplus of pretty decent strips, left over from both titles.
     So rather than consigning them to Comic Strip Heaven,
     Fleetway HQ put on a "Pick-a-Strip" vote. It was a format
     they'd used to great effect beforehand, in the pages of
     "Cor!!". Eight strips were presented to the readership; one
     a week for eight weeks. And at the end of the run, those
     readers could send in a voting coupon to identify the
     most popular creation. The competing strips were a
     mixture of seven familars, and one newbie:

       1.Grimly Feendish
       2. Sweeny Toddler
       3. The Lazy Loafers...
       4. Desert Fox
       5. Snap Happy
       6. Tony's Toolbox
       7. Pop Snorer
       8. Little Miss Muffit

     And the winner was... erm... Sweeny Toddler, obviously.
     He was thus introduced on a weekly basis early in 1975...

     Original spin...

     Let's not forget, "Whoopee!" also had its fair share of original
     introductions. Bookworm, Thumpty Dumpty, Mum's The
     Word, Smiler and Supermum all originated within the title
     over the years... And then there was the unique talents of
     "Dick Doobie". He was the Back-to-Front Man who popped
     up in 1978. Dick's head and body was all upside-down and
     back-to-front... and... hmm... needless to say, he didn't
     around very long!

     And let's not forget that Fleetway HQ also gave us a canny
     number of spin-offs, stemming from previous successes
     elsewhere. "Shiver & Shake" had those amazing Creepy
     Creations from Ken Reid. So "Whoopee!" got a series of
     "Wanted!" posters that later transformed into weekly
     "Worldwide Weirdies"... Where "Krazy" had Paws,
     "Whoopee!" got Claws... The Ghost Train and Scream
     Inn were combined into The Spooktacular 7... And
     "Cheeky"s Six Million Dollar Gran evolved into Robot
     Gran, before the old biddy ran off to start up Gran's
     Gang...
     
     As for "Whoopee!" itself, well, the comic was with us for
     eleven whooping years - the third longest fun comic run,
     as it happens. It eventually became a victim of merger
     of its own, when its top strips were incorporated into
     "Whizzer & Chips" in April 1985...

     

     Whoopee! imports

     What we have here are just a few examples of strips and
     characters that arrived in "Whoopee!" via comic mergers,
     or reintroduction...
       
     from                                          from WOW!
       Shiver & Shake                       Bleep                                         
       Blunder Puss                               Boy Boss
       Creepy Car                                  Creepy Comix
       Ghoul Getters Ltd                        Family Trees
       Kids' Court                                   KBR-Kid's Band Radio
       Frankie Stein                               Kid Comic
       Lolly Pop                                    Ossie
       Scream Inn                                 Shipwreck School
       Shake                                         Spare-Part Kit
       Shiver                                         Team Mates
       Sweeny Toddler                           
       Webster
                                            from Cor!!
                                            Willy Worry  
       from Cheeky                                                      
       Cheeky
       Mustapha Million                         from
       Paddywack                                   Whizzer & Chips
       Six Million Dollar Gran                 Me And My Shadow
                                                         
     

     Whoopee! adventure strips

     "Whoopee!" had its fair share of adventure strips in the 70s,
     and several of them enticed us with cash prizes. Each week,
     as the serials unfolded, we'd be presented with new clues to
     solve a crime, or a riddle, or to help us pinpoint the culprit...
     
       1974
       The Lone Ranger
       Flight to Fear
       What Makes Alfie Run?

       1975
        Island of Suspicion

       1978
       The Spectacular Adventures of Willie Bunk
       Fortune of Fear

       1982
       Kids of Class Five