Monthly Archives: March 2024

Tammy 17 March 1984

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Cover artist: Maria Barrera 

  • Dear Diary – I Hate You! (artist Maria Barrera) – part one
  • Cassie’s Coach (artist Tony Coleman, writer Alison Christie)
  • Guiding Hand (artist Phil Townsend) – Complete Story
  • Pam of Pond Hill (artist Bob Harvey, writer Jay Over)
  • Put a Spring in Your Step! (artist John Johnston, writer Maureen Spurgeon) – Quiz
  • Angela Angel-Face (artist Rodrigo Comos) – first episode
  • The Button Box (artist Mario Capaldi, writer Alison Christie)
  • My Terrible Twin (artist Juliana Buch) – final episode
  • Dear Diary – I Hate You! (artist Maria Barrera) – part two
  • Out in the Open – Feature

We have been looking at how Princess built up towards her merger with Tammy in 1984. Now we take a glimpse at how Tammy was doing the same during the final weeks before the merger.

Giving serials double episodes to finish them off fast was a common thing in a buildup towards a merger (or a special issue). This falls to “Dear Diary – I Hate You!”, which has been given double episodes of late. It also had a lot of cover spots.

One of the curious differences between DCT and IPC was how often they used the blackmail serial. DCT cranked them out in such quantity it created a semi-regular blackmailer, “The Honourable S.J.” from Judy. By contrast, IPC didn’t seem to bother much with blackmail serials (though some IPC stories had blackmail elements; Bella, for example, had her share of blackmailers over the years), so “Dear Diary – I Hate You!” is an exception for being one. The cause of the blackmail is an incriminating diary, which our protagonist packed by mistake when she went to boarding school. As with many blackmail stories at DCT, the blackmail is making the unfortunate protagonist unpopular with her classmates because the blackmailer, who is disliked by everyone, is forcing her to be her toady. Perhaps the writer wrote blackmail stories for DCT or was inspired by the DCT example. Tammy had stopped running credits, so we don’t know who wrote this one. But I have wondered if it was Ian Mennell, as it has an extremely nosy girl as the antagonist of the story and a powerful plot device, as with an earlier Ian Mennell story also set in a boarding school, “Cuckoo in the Nest”. If so, the nosy antagonist is a big step up from the one in CITN; she is the outright villainess of the piece, whereas the other was not.

Stories reaching their conclusions were also another common feature in a merger buildup. This week it is “My Terrible Twin”, a 1979 Tammy story that was reprinted by popular demand. 

Pam also finishes her current story, where a big-headed, bragging ballroom champion classmate finally gets her well-deserved humbling, one that leaves her floored – literally – on the dance floor. Pam’s next story is a two-part filler before the merger with Princess. Sadly, it was one that was crying out for more development with more episodes. It is about a new pupil in Pam’s class who is kept under such tight apron strings that she is a virtual prisoner in her own home, her parents walk her to and from school, and they even want the headmaster to keep her separated from her classmates during breaks, but he refuses to do so. It turns out their conduct is an overreaction to big trouble when she fell in with a bad crowd, and not giving her even half a chance to earn back their trust.

Fillers, another feature in a merger buildup, appear as well. This week it is another reprint of “Angela Angel-Face”, a story from Sandie that was reprinted as a filler in Jinty in 1980. This one is not regarded as one of Jinty’s best moments, and it’s not one of Tammy’s either. As Angela is a five-parter, she will be the one to have double episodes over the next two issues of Tammy before the merger. Another filler is a complete story, “Guiding Hand”, about a tomboy who thinks she knows it all and everyone else is soft until she meets her match in a Girl Guides challenge.

What is set to go into the merger lineup? We are promised that a new Bella story is starting soon, so she has to be one. The Button Box is another, and so is Tammy’s other serial, “Cassie’s Coach”, a period story about Victorian children who find an unusual home in a coach on the scrap heap after their mother is falsely imprisoned and they are evicted from their home.

Princess #25, 10 March 1984

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  • The Haunted Station (artist Julio Bosch) – first episode
  • Horse from the Sea (artist Rodrigo Comos)
  • Rusty, Remember Me (artist Eduardo Feito) – first episode
  • Stefa’s Heart of Stone (artist Phil Townsend, writer Alison Christie)
  • The Secret Swimmer (artist Phil Gascoine) – first episode
  • How Honest Are You? – Quiz
  • The Dream House (artist Mike White)
  • Day and Knight (artist Juliana Buch) – first episode
  • The Runaway Clown (artist José Canovas? or Miguel Faster?) – final episode
  • Flight from the Romanys (artist Maria Dembilio) 
  • Sadie in Waiting (artist Joe Collins)

Princess is on the countdown to the merger with Tammy on 7 April 1984, the last of the six titles Tammy absorbed in her lifetime. How is Princess building up for it? She has the advantage in that she had always been one for short serials, around five to eight episodes, though some serials were longer. So finishing one serial fast and starting another as a filler isn’t difficult for her in getting ready for the merger.

This week Princess begins four serials, two of which will conclude in the merger with Tammy. The ones that will go into the merger are “Rusty, Remember Me” (Donna Martin finds an injured fox cub) and “Day and Knight” (Sharon Day is being picked on by Carrie Knight, the school bully who looks set to become her stepsister). The other two are “The Haunted Station” (time travel to the 1930s via a train station and meeting a girl in danger) and “The Secret Swimmer” (Liza is wrongly blamed for her friend’s accident and becomes an outcast at school). Also set to go into the merger because of its length is “Stefa’s Heart of Stone”, a reprint from Jinty. After the devastating loss of her friend Joy, Stefa Giles freezes up to avoid such hurt again, but she is taking it to extreme levels that not only hurt everyone around her but are the heights of stupidity as well. This week she pretends to be sick to avoid Ruth’s party because Ruth is a near look-alike for Joy. She manages to dodge the party, but it doesn’t look like she’s going to get away with it.

Other reprints, “Horse from the Sea” (Jinty) and “The Dream House” (Tammy) are still running but will finish in Princess. Finishing this week is “The Runaway Clown”, who is finally reunited with her father. Lydia has made her “Flight from the Romanys”, the gypsies who kidnapped her, but she still has a way to go before her story ends. As she is still wearing the rags her kidnappers forced her to wear, the authorities take her for a ragamuffin and don’t believe her story. She finds herself thrown into a workhouse. From one goddam situation to another.

In “Sadie in Waiting”, Grovel the grovelling butler tries his hand as a painter. Predictably, the results are not exactly Rembrandt. He is advised to “chuck that rubbish”.

Princess #24, 3 March 1984

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  • The Saddest Dog in Town (artist Eduardo Feito) – final episode
  • Stefa’s Heart of Stone (artist Phil Townsend, writer Alison Christie)
  • Laura in the Lyon’s Den! (artist Bob Harvey) – final episode
  • Horse from the Sea (artist Rodrigo Comos)
  • The Runaway Clown (artist José Canovas? or Miguel Faster?)
  • Sheena and the Treetoppers (artist Rodrigo Comos) – final episode
  • How Much Do You Know about Your Favourite Princess? – quiz 
  • Rowena of the Doves (artist Peter Wilkes) – final episode
  • The Dream House (artist Mike White)
  • Flight from the Romanys (artist Maria Dembilio) 
  • Sadie in Waiting (artist Joe Collins)

Princess has four issues to go before she merges with Tammy and is on the countdown towards it. Four stories finish this week. “The Dream House”, a reprint from Tammy, is being reprinted as a filler. New stories are set to start in the next issue, to be used as fillers for the remaining issues or carryovers into the merger. But Princess isn’t forgetting her biggest selling point from her earlier issues: Princess Diana. This week she runs a Princess Diana quiz.

The Runaway Clown is on its penultimate episode, with our runaway clown now finding a clue as to who her father is when she finds a locket matching her own after an accident at the circus. Is it Mr Brunelli the high wire artist? If so, what a terrible time to discover it. Brunelli has finally paid the price for refusing to use a safety net. He’s now in hospital, and it looks so bad his circus career seems finished. But she’s forgetting someone else was injured in that accident – a circus hand called Nobody. So it could be either of them, but which one is it?

In “Flight from the Romanys”, Lydia finally makes her flight from the gypsies who kidnapped her. Jacob, who helped her, says it’s not the first time they’ve done that kind of thing. But Lydia soon finds that escape is only the first part. Now there’s the matter of finding her way back and getting help, plus getting through a forest in the dead of night! And we know forests can be dangerous at that hour. 

“Stefa’s Heart of Stone” is a reprint from Jinty and was one of Jinty’s most popular stories. This week Stefa runs away to her aunt’s, just to get away from Ruth, who is a near double of Joy, the girl she grieves for – only to come crawling back because she missed her precious statue too much. Thought you had a heart of stone, Stefa, to avoid being hurt again after losing your friend? A head of stupidity more like! She doesn’t give a hoot about the trouble she caused back home or worrying her parents, and they are furious when they hear what happened.

Sadie in Waiting sees Grovel grumbling at Cook for not keeping the kitchen clean enough, but it ends up in an even worse state after his lousy fly-swatting. He is the one who has to clean up the kitchen now, with a bashed nose and a lump on his head from all his swatting hijinks. He didn’t even get the fly. Cook had to do it – right on top of Grovel’s head.