Comics UK

'Snail of the Century' was the name of Cheeky's Snail's all-colour back page. He met his friends in the garden: Mole; Rabbit; his snail nephew and many others - to share jokes and rhymes with them (even if in real life they would have eaten him!). I don't think the snail ever had a name, and usually by the last panel of the strip he had returned to Cheeky's side indoors.

I think he may have been IPC's only hermaphrodite main character, unusual in children's comics!!

I forgot that! I love weird stuff like this. FWIW, I only ever subscribed to four comics in my life (call me picky, plus a tight budget), and one of them was Cheeky Weekly. Come to think of it, that has to be one of the strangest comic titles ever. My friend and I even had hand-knitted Cheeky jerseys, courtesy of my friend's granny. Those were the days!

Muffy wrote:'Snail of the Century' was the name of Cheeky's Snail's all-colour back page. He met his friends in the garden: Mole; Rabbit; his snail nephew and many others - to share jokes and rhymes with them (even if in real life they would have eaten him!). I don't think the snail ever had a name, and usually by the last panel of the strip he had returned to Cheeky's side indoors.

I think he may have been IPC's only hermaphrodite main character, unusual in children's comics!!

'Wonder Worm' in Buster predated him by a few years!

Despite running this competition (results shown from the 22 April 78 issue of Cheeky), I don't think the comic adopted any of these names for the snail, as the snail him/her/itself couldn't decide which to choose.

Snails are like that, very indecisive.

Kashgar wrote:

Muffy wrote:'Snail of the Century' was the name of Cheeky's Snail's all-colour back page. He met his friends in the garden: Mole; Rabbit; his snail nephew and many others - to share jokes and rhymes with them (even if in real life they would have eaten him!). I don't think the snail ever had a name, and usually by the last panel of the strip he had returned to Cheeky's side indoors.

I think he may have been IPC's only hermaphrodite main character, unusual in children's comics!!

'Wonder Worm' in Buster predated him by a few years!

And Skippy the Slug sometimes appears in Team Toxic today. (Not IPC I know, but close.)

Lew

Part of the same legacy anyway, since Fleetway was once part of IPC and Egmont, Toxic's publisher, is Fleetway's owner (well, most of it, they own the name and the archive from 1970 onwards, they just choose to use their own name now instead of Fleetway's, even on the Classic Comics series).

Sheldon was the best name for the snail.

Was Snail of the Century the snail's name, or just the name of his strip?

Raven wrote:Sheldon was the best name for the snail.

What? I quite like 'Ivor Shell', but, come on, Flash or Speedy has to be the best name for the snail!

Jonny Whizz wrote:

Raven wrote:Sheldon was the best name for the snail.

What? I quite like 'Ivor Shell', but, come on, Flash or Speedy has to be the best name for the snail!

Not necessarily, because if I remember rightly, didn't Cheeky's snail sometimes actually speed along - if so, you'd lose the irony. Or am I remembering a different comic comedy snail?

Digifiend wrote:Was Snail of the Century the snail's name, or just the name of his strip?

The clue is in the first sentence of this thread!

" 'Snail of the Century' was the name of Cheeky's Snail's all-colour back page. "

I do recall a Billy Whizz story from 2004 where he raced in the London marathon and reached the finishing line, but stopped just before it, then took a snail off his trainer and let it cross the finishing line to win the marathon!

Talking of Snails I always enjoyed the snail that appeared in the Brian Walker version of "Smasher" from the Dandy. I think he was called Sammy Supersnail and even got his own strip occasionally (not sure if this was maybe just in specials/annuals though). I could go and check my Dandys as this was in the 90s sometime and I have a lot of them, but I'm lazy.

Anyone else remember this snail?

Ross

Raven wrote:

Digifiend wrote:Was Snail of the Century the snail's name, or just the name of his strip?

The clue is in the first sentence of this thread!

" 'Snail of the Century' was the name of Cheeky's Snail's all-colour back page. "

So Cheeky's Snail didn't have any other name, just Snail?

Ross, yes, I've seen Sammy Supersnail, I have all of the 90s Dandy books. I don't know if he ever appeared solo in the comic though.

Digifiend wrote:
So Cheeky's Snail didn't have any other name, just Snail?

Hence the competition to give him a name.

Did you get the 'Snail of the Century' pun, by the way - from 70s Nicholas Parsons-hosted quiz show Sale of the Century.