Ernie Learner
   
                             
    L-plated Ernie didn't seem to know much about the world,
    but he was always eager to learn. Each strip he'd tackle
    a new sport, hobby career, or project for the first time and
    end up causing chaos...

    Ernie was an annoying character. He didn't seem capable
    of doing anything apart from driving the helpful folk around
    him to distraction. There were invariably just two different
    outcomes each week: Either Ernie would get himself in a
    pickle and walk from the project, or he'd get in a pickle
    and be told to leave. Neither option was particularly
    satisfactory. The lad desperately needed to apply
    himself to his work, and the folk around him should
    have shown more encouragement...
    
    But then, what hope did he have, strutting around in those
    shorts, with those freckles and that ridiculous L-plate?

    Poor Ernie lasted less than six months in Whoopee! He was
    gone before the merger with Shiver & Shake in October 1974.
    On top of that, he only made it into the first two Whoopee!
    Annuals  - 1975, 1976 - before disappearing from the Fleetway
    roster altogether...