Tag Archives: Alan Davidson

Nell Nobody (1974-75)

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Sample Images

Published: 19 October 1974 to 8 March 1975

Episodes: 18

Artist: Miguel Quesada

Writer: Unknown

Translations/reprints: None known

Plot

Nell Ewart is treaed badly by her sleazy step-parents, known as Uncle Vic and Aunt (not named), who indulge her cousin Rosie and her dreams of being an actress. They call Nell a nobody, make her the household drudge who does all the work they’re clearly too lazy to do themselves, and give her only shabby clothes to wear, which gets her teased at school as “Secondhand Nell”.

Nell’s drama teacher, Miss Anthony, says she has a talent for show business and a flair for puppetry, but is Uncle Vic going to help her along? Not likely. He scorns the very idea of a nobody like her being a star and doesn’t even come to her puppet show at school, which is a huge hit and finally wins Nell respect among her classmates. Miss Anthony offers Nell drama training at school, but her hopes are shattered when Uncle Vic yanks her out of school to work at a hot dog stand – without pay, of course. Every penny the hot dog stand raises is to enable Rosie and her acting dreams with lavish makeovers, paying for her acting school fees and anything else the spoiled girl wants. To help things even further along, the hot dog stand is situated in the showbiz district where interaction with stars will be daily.

One solace is that Nell still has her puppet Willoughby, from her school performance. She now puts the hot dog stand to secret use as a puppet stall with Willoughby, which attracts attention and hopefully extra money to use to pay her own way. She has her eyes set on acting lessons with a Mrs Kaye. She also starts making a female companion for Willoughby, Lola.

Then disaster strikes. Uncle Vic, sensing Nell is up to something, discovers Willoughby and breaks his legs. Nell has no money for repairs, but then discovers a way around the problem when she discovers Rosie’s old toy cart while being forced to weed the garden. Willoughby will be put in the cart for a comedy act with Lola. As we soon discover, the act is also intended to serve as a fund raiser to help Nell make her own money. 

Meanwhile, Rosie comes in swanking that Sara Sutherland, the Head of Children’s TV at Saxton, is coming to her stage school, and she’ll have an audition with her. She demands a whole new outfit for it, and it’s to be the works. That’ll cost a lot of money, and to raise it, Nell is forced to work even harder at the hot dog stand, now located at an even busier part of town, plus stay up late to get her new act ready. Ironically, the launch of the new act at the hot dog stand is the same night Rosie gets her big meeting with Sara Sutherland. A mysterious woman turns up among the spectators at the hot dog stand. Noticing her, Nell makes the act extra special. The woman turns out to be Mrs Kaye. She leaves her card and a request for Nell to perform at her niece’s birthday party. 

Meanwhile, Rosie gets a rejection letter from Miss Sutherland, and she and her parents are furious. It would come just as Nell is trying to get permission to go to the party, so Uncle Vic’s reply is a predictable bad-tempered refusal. But when he discovers the party’s in the rich part of town he’s suddenly nice and apologetic and insists on taking Nell to the party himself. At the party, Nell impresses Mrs Kaye with her talent and she’s offers to help Nell make her way. 

But on the way back, Nell suddenly discovers why her uncle agreed to take her – he was holding out for rich pickings. And he’s swiped a silver cigarette case. She grabs it and rushes off to return it, but her uncle catches up and puts the blame on her, saying she has an absent-minded tendency for this kind of thing. Looks like Uncle Vic has ruined her hopes with Mrs Kane, and at home he beats her for spoiling his plan. 

After this, Nell decides to run away with her puppets. Seeing an ad for a travelling fair, she heads down there, hoping her puppets will get her a job. They take her on, but to wear the sandwich board ad. Before long, it’s apparent she isn’t much better off at the fair, which is as sleazy as Uncle Vic and exploiting her as much as he does.

Uncle Vic discovers Nell’s run off and calls the police. Rosie is forced to take over the hot dog stand as he needs the money, and work in disguise so she won’t be recognised in the showbiz district. It’s while the disguised Rosie is working at the hot dog stand that Mrs Kane comes up. Mistaking her for Nell, she says she now believes it was the uncle who took the cigarette case. Rosie recognises Mrs Kane as Miss Sutherland, realises Mrs Kane must be her married name, and discovers she is Nell’s friend. Rosie realises how they could take advantage of this, but it seems Uncle Vic has blown it already with his thievery. Boy, is she mad with him when he turns up! They’ve got to “square things” with Miss Sutherland and get Nell back as she’s her only passport to the TV world with Miss Sutherland. 

The police trace Nell to the fair, but she escapes with the help of her companion. Desperate for food and her money stolen, she finds herself back at the hot dog stand, ready to sneak in for a snack. But when Uncle Vic and Rosie arrive, she panics and runs off into the road. Hunger makes her collapse in a faint and she nearly falls under the wheels of a bus. Rosie pulls her to safety.

All of a sudden, the family’s making a big fuss over Nell, feeding her up, loving her, treating her like one of the family, and no more drudgery. Please forgive the cigarette box theft, it was just a poor man being tempted. Nell soon discovers Miss Sutherland and Mrs Kane are one and the same. Her star is on the rise as she is put in charge of Britain’s famous puppet show, “Stringville”. Her family even let her off the hot dog stand to work with Miss Sutherland. Who’s in charge of it now and no money coming in? Perhaps it’s Rosie in disguise again. It looks like Uncle Vic has formed a suspicious habit of using Rosie to run the stand in Nell’s absence instead of doing it himself or bringing in income from another job.

Nell is completely fooled by her family’s sudden niceness as there seem to be logical explanations for it. Her disappearance must have shocked them into changing, and Rosie did save her life. But of course their niceness is all phoney, and it’s intended to get Rosie in with Miss Sutherland. Once they accomplish that, they’ll send Nell back to square one at the hot dog stand.

Nell’s sneaky relatives now start to work on that, beginning with Rosie spinning Nell a sob story on how she can’t afford her acting school fees without the hot dog stand. As hoped, this pricks Nell to have a word with Miss Sutherland. Rosie is taken on as a trainee and share the acting lessons Miss Sutherland has arranged for Nell.

Now that Nell has served her purpose in helping Rosie to get in with Miss Sutherland, Rosie and Uncle Vic scheme to get her dismissed from the studio and back to the hot dog stand. So they pull a series of tricks on Nell, which includes making her late, secretly crafting duplicate keys, stealing props and gaslighting, to make her look unreliable, untrustworthy and even thieving, and they eventually succeed in getting her sacked. In the process, Rosie has obtained a duplicate key to the cupboard where the props are kept. 

As Nell can’t figure out what happened she has no chance of setting things straight. But as Uncle Vic has dropped his phoney niceness and gone back to treating her like before, at least she suspects he was just using her. 

Meanwhile, Rosie gets an audition with Miss Sutherland, who recognises her as the girl she auditioned before at the stage school. She turns her down for the same reason as before – “ghastly” – and this time, she decides to tell Rosie, straight out, that she has no talent for acting. She kindly offers her an office job at the studio instead, but Rosie’s furious at the rejection and wants revenge. Harry, a shady man from a rival agency wanting details about Miss Sutherland’s upcoming puppet series, overhears Rosie raging and they strike a deal: Rosie will help him steal the props for the show in exchange for a huge cash sum and an acting contract.

When Rosie discovers Nell has a key to the studio itself and Miss Sutherland is asking for it back, she sees her opportunity. She steals the key, leaving Nell to get into more trouble with Miss Sutherland over the missing key. With help from Uncle Vic, Rosie pulls more gaslighting on Nell, including tricks with a note from Miss Sutherland about the key, to make any confused explanation Nell can give sound like lies. 

But the schemers have made some mistakes. First, right in front of Nell, they lie to Miss Sutherland’s chauffeur about giving her the note. This lie sets Nell to thinking. Second, Uncle Vic told her people would pay a lot of money for that key, and Nell wonders how he knew that. Finally, while working at the stand, Nell has noticed Rosie hanging around with Harry. With all this, she suspects they are up to something.

Sensing Miss Sutherland’s secret props are in danger, Nell heads to the studio, but too late. The props are gone, and Nell instantly recognises the man making his getaway with them – the man Rosie’s been hanging about with. She tries to tell Miss Sutherland, but Miss Sutherland thinks she is the thief. Determined to prove her innocence, Nell leaps onto the back of Harry’s van as he makes his getaway. Seeing his unwelcome passenger, Harry keeps swerving the van to shake her off, which results in the van crashing into a road block. The police round Harry up, with the stolen studio property on him. Nell is injured and taken to hospital, where Miss Sutherland visits her and tells her that her life-risking act has made her realise the truth.

Everything comes out in court and Nell is cleared. Harry’s fate is not recorded, but presumably he got a jail sentence and his business shut down. Uncle Vic’s fate is unknown, but he is deemed an unfit guardian for Nell, so Miss Sutherland becomes her legal guardian. As for Rosie, she’s the one who’s now slogging at the hot dog stand, still in that disguise. The final panel shows Nell putting on a special show celebrating Willoughby being restored to working order. 

Thoughts

Tammy’s 1971 story “Little Miss Nothing” set the Cinderella-inspired template for other stories to follow in Tammy and other IPC titles, and they came thick and fast until the trend faded at IPC after the mid ‘70s (but carried on strong at DCT). But when comparing Nell Nobody to Little Miss Nothing, there’s just too many similarities to discuss here without the entry getting too long. Even the resolutions in the final episodes are similar. Okay, maybe it was the same writer, and enough years had lapsed between the two stories for most readers not to think they were reading an imitation of Little Miss Nothing.

The story itself is a solid read and has an exciting finish where Nell hangs on for dear life at the back of the van while Harry ruthlessly tries to shake her off. It has a long length at 18 episodes, but at no point does it drag or get boring, and the pacing is well thought out. Each turn serves the plot, and there is no unnecessary padding to spin the story out. The characters are strong, but perhaps it is the puppets themselves who really carry the story along. Every time the puppets appear we really engage in the story. 

Like so many of her counterparts, Nell has to rely on herself to keep up her dreams against being yanked out of school, denied the coaching she needs, being exploited and forced to make money to indulge Rosie’s acting career without getting a penny in payment. Determination, resourcefulness, creativity, courage, and commitment to the hard work that Rosie doesn’t even bother with all come into play, as does desperation to clear her name, which drives her to risk her life to save Miss Sutherland’s props. 

We cheer for Nell as she uses the hot dog stand to keep her dream going by turning it into a puppet theatre after hot dogs are done for the day. The puppets themselves not only provide light relief but also the companionship Nell needs but doesn’t have in people. When they talk we know it’s her ventriloquism, but it sounds as if they are really talking to her, encouraging her and at times, even giving advice. 

There’s an irony in Uncle Vic scorning Nell’s dreams to go into drama, calling her a nobody, while investing everything in Rosie’s acting career, when it’s Nell who has the talent and Rosie does not. If he had invested his money in Nell, he would have received the payoff he expected. We have to wonder why Rosie is even staying on at the acting school. 

Rosie is despicable, if fairly predictable, as a spoiled brat and a nasty schemer, with a dash of snootiness as well, and she’s also got a criminal streak. She may have no acting talent but could well cut it as a petty criminal as Uncle Vic appears to be. Her tricks on Nell and then her conspiracy with Harry could have launched her in that direction. Unlike some counterparts we’ve seen, such as Dora in Little Miss Nothing, there’s no redemption for her. Her hot dog downfall at the end of the story doesn’t turn her around. There can be no reconciliation or second chance with Nell, or Nell ever trusting her. 

It’s a bit confusing to have Nell’s aunt and uncle be her step-parents as well, and does it make Rosie her cousin or her stepsister? It would be easier to have one or the other. 

Unlike some Cinderella-based serials, there’s no mystery as to why they treat Nell badly while enabling Rosie. As far as they are concerned, Nell is the nobody, the waste of time and space in the household, but she has one use: they’re too lazy to do any work around the house, so she’s their handy unpaid slave to do it. Rosie’s the golden child and everything must revolve around her, to indulge and pay for everything she wants to achieve her dream of being an actress. And unlike Nell, it’s without her doing anything to achieve it herself with hard work and dedication or considering if she has what it takes. But it costs money that’s way beyond their means, hence using Nell to pay for it all, on top of her already having to do all the work around the house. 

It’s illuminating when Uncle Vic has Rosie take over the hot dog stand after Nell runs off because they are nearly broke. Presumably, the same thing happens again when he has to let Nell off the stand during the phoney niceness run. It may also be why Rosie is shown running the hot dog stand, on a more permanent basis, after he loses custody of Nell. Why his spoiled daughter who was never encouraged to lift a finger? Why can’t he or his wife run the stand? We suspect it’s just plain laziness. No surprises there when it comes to Nell, but when there’s nobody else to do the work it’s his spoiled daughter rather than himself, which is a surprise. 

The hot dog stand is the only source of family income shown in the episode. There’s no mention of Uncle Vic having a job or what he does for a living. Where did he even get the money to buy the hot dog business? It’s not explained, but there are plenty of hints that Uncle Vic is a petty criminal. Among them is how the duplicate key to the prop cupboard is made: Rosie uses a trick he taught her, using soap to make an impression of the key, and he knows just the guy to make a copy from it.

Moreover, they are far from the only shady people in the story. There’s the unsavoury fair that was as bad as Uncle Vic. We’re almost glad the police caught up with Nell at the fair, as it prompted Nell to escape from it. And there’s shifty Harry and his off-panel but suspicious-sounding agency. He doesn’t even check out Rosie’s acting abilities before offering her an acting contract as part of the deal. We rather suspect his offer to Rosie in exchange for her help in stealing the props was as phoney as the family’s niceness to Nell and he was just using her as they used Nell. That or Rosie would have found his outfit was as dodgy as the circus. Even if he had been genuine in his offer, even he would have soon found out how useless Rosie was as an actress and given her the shove.  

It’s poetic justice to see Rosie stuck at the hot dog stand (below), and looking utterly fed up while saying, “I’ll have to watch my step, now, or I’ll be doing this for the rest of my life!” Hmm, that sounds a bit strange. What does she mean by this? Perhaps it’s something to do with probation or her still wearing that disguise while working. Perhaps, considering her personality and her father, she is looking for a sneaky opportunity to help her out. Or perhaps she realises that if she’s going to get out of this, she’ll have to work at it like Nell did. Nothing’s going to be handed to her on a plate anymore, and there’s no unpaid servant doing all the work and paying everything for her. Unlike her counterpart in Little Miss Nothing, there’s no second chance with her former abused sibling taking pity on her. It doesn’t even look like anyone would pity her as she looks more hacked off at dishing out hot dogs than miserable. It all makes her ultimate fate all the more satisfying.

Jinty and Lindy 17 April 1976

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Miss No-Name (artist Jim Baikie)

The Jinx from St. Jonah’s (artist Mario Capaldi)

Win a Pony 1 – competition

Dora Dogsbody (artist José Casanovas)

Easter Competition

Fran of the Floods (artist Phil Gascoine, writer Alan Davidson)

For Peter’s Sake! (artist Ana Rodriguez, writer Alison Christie)

The Slave of Form 3B (artist Trini Tinturé)

Then There Were 3… (artist Phil Townsend) – first episode

Bound for Botany Bay (artist Roy Newby)

Save Old Smokey! (artist Phil Townsend, writer Alison Christie) – final episode

Make It Easy – a Bird-Bath Filler – feature

It’s Easter time. Jinty has an Easter competition and the Jinx from St. Jonah’s has an Easter story. Can collecting catkins leave you with egg on your face? It is when you’re the Jinx from St. Jonah’s trying to do something for Easter. But the ending couldn’t be better – the class sharing a giant Easter egg around. 

Phil Townsend is doing double duty this week, drawing the final episode of “Save Old Smokey!” (replaced by “House of the Past” next week) and the new mystery story, “Then There Were 3…”. 

Dora Dogsbody has a go at hypnotism in the hope it will improve her dog’s life. The results are mixed, and when they get a bit out of hand, Dora quits hypnotism. Meanwhile, Stacey is still having great success with her own hypnotism on “The Slave of Form 3B”, and this week she cuts off another potential avenue of help for her poor victim.

Becoming enslaved and finding ways to escape abound this week in the other serials. In “Bound for Botany Bay”, Betsy and Mary, who have only just escaped from the cruel Miss Wortley, fall foul of another cruel slaver, a Mrs Mallaquin, who runs a great racket in capturing escaped convicts to slave in her opal mine. At least their new captivity gives them their long-sought lead on Betsy’s father. Fran & Co become slaves of the Black Circle slave racket in “Fran of the Floods”, but now they get what could be an unlikely escape – a swarm of rats maddened by fire, and the rats are chasing the slaves and slavers alike. In “For Peter’s Sake!”, Corrie falls into the clutches of tinkers who make her slave for them. At the end of the episode, she uses her pram to put an escape plan into action. But we have to wait for the next issue to see how successful our protagonists have been with their escapes.

Jinty and Lindy 3 April 1976

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Miss No-Name (artist Jim Baikie)

The Jinx from St. Jonah’s (artist Mario Capaldi)

For Peter’s Sake! (artist Ana Rodriguez, writer Alison Christie)

Fran of the Floods (artist Phil Gascoine, writer Alan Davidson)

Alley Cat (artist Rob Lee) – first episode

The Slave of Form 3B (artist Trini Tinturé)

Friends of the Forest (artist “B. Jackson”)

Bound for Botany Bay (artist Roy Newby)

Save Old Smokey! (artist Phil Townsend, writer Alison Christie)

Make a Scarf Wardrobe – feature 

It’s April Fools Day this issue, and who better to do the honours than our resident jinx? Katie the Jinx is determined not to be April fooled, but her attempts at foiling April Fool traps only get herself jinxed and in big trouble. Then she finds out she had the date wrong and it’s not April Fool’s Day yet. She’s made an utter fool of herself before the real fooling’s even begun!

Stacey, the evil manipulator in “The Slave of Form 3B”, also makes a fool of herself this week. Her scheme to hypnotise Tania into obtaining the answers for a maths test was only partially successful because a loud noise broke Tania’s trance before she could complete the job. So Stacey’s paper ends up half right (copied answers), half wrong (answers Tania failed to copy, and lazy Stacey hadn’t revised a thing) – giggle! It’s not as foolproof as you thought, eh, Stacey?

The issue also marks the debut of Alley Cat, the street-wise moggy, and the hijinks he has with his rich snooty neighbours, the Muchloots. His first episode appears below. The Alley Cat cartoon strip kept Jinty readers entertained for an impressive 163 episodes. He certainly was a greater success than Penny Crayon, the cartoon strip from the Lindy merger.

It looks like some other new strips are on the horizon as well. This week is the penultimate episode of “Friends of the Forest”, and there’s a hint “Save Old Smokey!” is approaching its resolution. 

Sadly, in “Fran of the Floods”, still nothing on the horizon but that infernal rain and one threat after another because of it. This time it’s a vigilante/cult outfit called Black Circle. 

In both “Miss No-Name” and “Bound for Botany Bay”, our protagonists have run away from their cruel abusers and fallen in with some helpers, but the heat is really on with the pursuit behind them. 

There’s a sad plot turn in “For Peter’s Sake!”. Gran dies, and her last words to Corrie are that there’s something important in the parlour. Now, what’s the important thing Gran has left for Corrie, who’s now all alone in Scotland?

Little Miss Nothing (1971)

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Published: 5 June 1971 to 4 September 1971 

Episodes: 14

Artist: Updated: Miguel Rosello, Miguel Quesada and Luis Bermejo credited by David Roach

Writer: Alan Davidson

Translations/reprints: None known

Plot

Annabel Hayes is the drudge of her family. Her parents say she’s nothing and have eyes only for her younger sister Dora. Everything goes on Dora, including Annabel being forced to slave on her father’s market stall, and he doesn’t care that it makes Annabel late for school. At school, Annabel is brilliant at sewing. Her sewing teacher, Miss Turner, says she could make a real career out of fashion and design, and gifts her a book on dressmaking.

Then the family moves to be closer to Dora’s modelling school. Dad yanks Annabel illegally out of school to work full time to help pay Dora’s fees and tells her to lie about her age if anyone asks questions. Dad even rips up Annabel’s dressmaking book when she tries to rebel against his latest ill-treatment, but she manages to salvage the pieces. 

At her new home, Annabel is forced to sleep in an attic, but this works in her favour when she finds an old sewing machine there. Later, she discovers an evening dress and design class she could go for. After finding some materials and thread, she is in business.

As Annabel works at her sewing, she bemoans how she must do everything for herself, from the nothing her parents say she is, while the spoiled Dora gets everything handed to her on a plate for her modelling and doesn’t lift a finger for herself. Well, at least Annabel has the talent. Does Dora have the talent too? We haven’t been shown that part yet. 

Annabel’s first day on the market stall goes badly, as she is forced to work on it alone with no experience in sales pitch, and she’s up against Tom, who really knows how to sell stuff on his own stall. Dad’s furious at Annabel not making any money and clouts her. And now Dora’s been recommended to the De Vere fashion house, so the pressure on Annabel to make money at the stall is worse than ever. 

Next day, Tom, who saw the way Dad treated Annabel for making no money, gives her a hand, and she makes more money on the stall. She has used some material left behind on the stall to make some items, which she hopes to sell on the stall and raise her own money for the evening sewing classes. None of them sell until towards closing time, when a Mrs Crawford, seeing the flair and design that went into making them, scoops up the lot and places an order for six bags in dark red.

Unfortunately, Dad grabs the money Annabel had just raised, leaving her with nothing to buy the red material for the bags. All the money has gone for expensive material to make Dora’s new dress – which happens to be dark red. When Dora takes the material in to be made up, Annabel makes a grab for the scraps (getting herself into a few scrapes along the way) and makes up the bags, but just as she brings them to the stall, Dad finds them. He throws the bags away – but happens to pick the moment when Mrs Crawford arrives and sees everything. She puts Dad very firmly in his place, “you dreadful man”, and forces him to apologise to Annabel. 

Mrs Crawford says she wants to have tea with Annabel to discuss things. Sensing what a rich friend Annabel’s suddenly got, Dad realises he could take advantage, especially for Dora. 

All of a sudden, Dad goes all nice to Annabel at home, and tags along with her to the tea. Mrs Crawford says she wants Annabel to work for her in the fashion business and needs a guardian’s consent. Dad gives it, and then he puts on a great “poor man act” to cadge some junk for the stall. While doing so, he helps himself to some more valuable items Mrs Crawford bought at auction. Annabel discovers this and runs off to return them, with Dad giving chase. She manages to get them to Mrs Crawford, but Dad tries to put the blame on her. It looks like the end of Annabel’s job with Mrs Crawford, and Dad’s furious at how Annabel has wrecked his chance of a fortune. Unknown to them both, Mrs Crawford is not convinced Annabel took the paintings. 

Annabel is now so heartbroken and fed up that she just runs away, leaving the market stall unattended. Dad’s livid when he discovers this. When Mrs Crawford returns to the market stall to make further enquiries about the paintings, Dad tells her about Annabel’s disappearance and yells at her for interfering.

Meanwhile, it’s time for Dora’s modelling audition at the De Vere school. We’re finally shown just how good Dora is at modelling, and no, she definitely does not have what it takes. Dora overhears Miss De Vere say she was the only one she was not impressed with. 

But Dora gets an even bigger shock when she sees the row between Mrs Crawford and Dad at the market stall – Miss De Vere and Mrs Crawford happen to be the same person! (Later, they find out De Vere is Mrs Crawford’s professional name.) So Dad and Dora really need Annabel now, to pull strings with her “rich friend”, if Dora is to get the modelling job. 

The hunt for Annabel begins, with the family all anxious, and all nice and making a big fuss when they find Annabel injured and save her from drowning at the embankment. Saying things are sorted out with Mrs Crawford, they have Annabel bring her over to tea, and Dora tearfully asks Annabel to say the reason she didn’t do so well at the audition was because she was worried about her disappearance. Annabel falls for it despite the show of phony niceness they had shown before. The end result is Mrs Crawford taking on Annabel as a trainee designer and Dora as a model, and both are to report to her fashion house. Unknown to them, Mrs Crawford is not entirely fooled, but is not sure just who to believe. 

But of course Dora doesn’t want Annabel coming with her to their appointment at the fashion house. So, as they set off to report, Dora “loses” Annabel, and makes sure she is the one with the address. Annabel had no idea what the address was to begin with and can’t find it herself (no doubt, something else they made sure of). At the fashion house, Dora tells Mrs Crawford Annabel has changed her mind and not coming. The family make sure Mrs Crawford and Annabel don’t meet up when Mrs Crawford comes around asking questions and spin them both lies about the other. Annabel is left thinking Mrs Crawford now thinks she’s unreliable and wants nothing more to do with her; Mrs Crawford still has her suspicions but not sure what to think. As Dad planned, Annabel’s back on the market stall, thinking she’s Little Miss Nothing again. 

Meanwhile, Dad’s received a crooked offer from a friend of his, Harry Marks, and there’s an ominous hint it has something to do with Mrs Crawford. Dora doesn’t want it, saying she now has everything she needs to advance in modelling without “any crookery”. But then there’s a further development that could change her mind.

By now, Mrs Crawford has seen enough of Dora to confirm her earlier impressions that she is not modelling material. Her suspicions have also deepened as to why Dora is at her school and Annabel is not. Mrs Crawford confronts Dora over it all, shows her the bags Annabel had a natural talent for making, and says it’s Annabel she wants at the school, not her. At this, Dora’s jealousy overboils. She says she made the bags, not Annabel. Her proof? Her dress, which is made from the same material, and she claims she made the bags from the scraps. Sceptical, Mrs Crawford decides to test her by telling her to bring in something else she designed. 

Of course, Dora cons Annabel into doing the design for her, saying it’s home-based design work Mrs Crawford is offering as preliminary for a second chance at the fashion house. This time, Mrs Crawford really does fall for Dora’s trick and now thinks Annabel is a liar and a cheat. She is also so impressed with the design that it’s going into her autumn collection, Dora will model it, and the design is soon made up. 

Meanwhile, Annabel finally finds the address for Mrs Crawford’s fashion house and nips along to see how things are going with her design. The results are the whole truth blowing up right there and then right in front of everyone. Mrs Crawford sacks Dora, throws her out, and Dora angrily rips up the dress to spite her. 

Annabel finally gets her job at the fashion house, but then loses the roof over her head. Her family throw her out because of what happened. Not knowing where else to go, she heads for Mrs Crawford’s fashion house, now locked up, and slips in for the night. Unfortunately for her, she has left a window open, which unwittingly sets the stage for the Hayes’ next move. 

Burning with rage and thirsty for revenge, Dora is now all too eager to listen to that earlier proposition from Harry Marks. This entails stealing Mrs Crawford’s fashion designs for his buyer, a rival fashion designer. They find it easy to break in through that open window, and then Dora discovers Annabel fast asleep there. Dora seizes her chance for revenge on Annabel by planting one of her shoes at the scene of the crime and then tipping off the police about the break-in. The frame-up works, and now Mrs Crawford is back to believing Annabel is the cheat. Dora’s crowing over this, convinced she can now worm her way back into Mrs Crawford’s favour. Annabel tearfully makes a run for it.

Annabel soon guesses who was behind it all. But she can’t prove anything. Her only chance is to confront her family. First stop is back home, and after she confronts her mother, she realises she must check out the market. She arrives in time to see Dad and Dora hand over the designs to Marks. Dora is promptly interested in working for Marks’ buyer as a model, and all three head for his fashion house. They don’t realise Annabel is desperately hanging on at the end of their car. The designs are handed over to the fashion designer, a man looking as shady as Marks, and he agrees to take Dora on as a model. He’s doing so on the spot, by looks alone and no audition, which shows how professional he is in comparison to Mrs Crawford. 

Unwilling to report even her horrible family to the police, Annabel decides to just burst in and grab the designs to return to Mrs Crawford. When they try to block her, she escapes by window, but takes a fall and damages her knee. Despite it, she manages to run to Mrs Crawford’s before her knee gives way. She desperately rings the doorbell for help, only to find nobody in; Mrs Crawford, still thinking Annabel took the designs, had decided to go away for a bit. Dad and Dora catch up, but rather than hand the designs over, Annabel rips them up. At this, Dad starts thrashing Annabel, as the buyer said the deal is off without the designs. He is caught red-handed by Mrs Crawford, who had suddenly decided to return. She has seen enough to realise who really had stolen the designs and who to believe now. 

Dad is jailed for his role in the theft. Dora is let off because of her age, but it’s the end of her modelling hopes. Now she is the one miserably and bitterly slogging on the market stall (how this fits in with her being even more underage to work on it than Annabel is not explained), and she is humbled. 

A month later, Annabel’s design receives the loudest applause at Mrs Crawford’s fashion show, and she’s on her way to a brilliant career in fashion and design. Mrs Crawford finds out Annabel is not the Hayes’ natural child. They adopted her in infancy but went off her when Dora arrived. Mrs Crawford, who had always wanted children, now adopts Annabel as her own. Annabel takes pity on Dora after seeing her plight at the market stall. She arranges for Mrs Crawford to take her in at the fashion house, and they are reconciled. 

Thoughts

“Little Miss Nothing” is one of Tammy’s most pivotal stories and definitely in her Top 10 of the best. In fact, Pat Mills is one to regard it as one of the most ground-breaking serials ever in girls’ comics: “it was the first of its kind” in establishing the template of the Cinderella stories for other Cinderella stories to follow. And they followed big style! Among them in Tammy were “Jumble Sale Jilly”, “Nell Nobody”, “Sally in a Shell”, and “Sadie in the Sticks”. Cinderella-based Jinty stories, such as “Make-Believe Mandy” and “Cinderella Smith”, also owe their roots to “Little Miss Nothing”, as does the 1983 “Cinders on Ice” in Princess II. Most significant of all, the Cinderella template set by “Little Miss Nothing” led to the creation of Bella Barlow. 

Mind you, “Little Miss Nothing” was not quite the first of its kind. The text story version of “The Sad Star”, an even grimmer Cinderella story from Mandy, predated it by a few months, and went on to become Mandy’s most popular text story ever and enjoy several reprints, in both text and picture story form. There may be other Cinderella stories at DCT to predate Tammy’s ground breaker here, but there is currently no confirmation. Was it a case of “Little Miss Nothing” being the first of its kind to matter? Or it being the first of its kind at IPC? Or was it the template it set for others to follow?

In his Millsverse blog, Pat Mills said on “Little Miss Nothing”:

“Little Miss Nothing by Alan Davidson in Tammy (1971) was hugely popular – equivalent in success at the time to Judge Dredd in 2000AD. It was the first of its kind and it was such a massive hit that it was meticulously studied and analysed by the editorial staff. They identified its vote winning ‘formula’ and then endlessly duplicated it with subsequent remarkably similar serials. I recall there were at least ten ‘begats’ of this ground-breaking story.”

Wow, a pioneering girls’ serial with success the equivalent of Judge Dredd is serious stuff! 

The template of the Cinderella serial “Little Miss Nothing” can be seen as follows: 

  1. The protagonist is treated as a drudge by cruel guardians.
  • The protagonist is also exploited to feed the indulgences of a wicked stepsister type. This element is not always used in a Cinderella serial, as in the case of Bella Barlow.
  • The protagonist has a talent/secret to keep her spirits up. It is her only joy in life, and she fights to keep it up against all odds. 
  • Her talent is spotted, enabling her to find a fairy godmother figure and friends to help her, achieve her dream, and ultimately help her to break free of the ill-treatment. But in between there are still obstacles and ill-treatment from the cruel guardians, which often include their causing a fallout between the protagonist and her fairy godmother. 

Cinderella has always been a popular fairy tale, told in many versions and cultures throughout the eons. So Tammy was guaranteed a hit if she used the Cinderella theme as a ground-breaker. Modelling, fashion and design have always been popular in girls’ comics, so throwing those into the mix were guaranteed to make it even more popular. Plus there is the growing undercurrent of criminal conduct in addition to the abuse to make it even more exciting. Readers would be on the edge of the seats to see how that unfolds.

The writing is mature, well-paced, and well-constructed, particularly in how it keeps the ill-treatment of Annabel within the bounds of realism. We can easily imagine a real-life child being treated that way. It does not go over the top or taken to excess, which has happened in some Cinderella serials. For example, Annabel is not kept frequently underfed, as in the case of Bella Barlow, or put in chains, as in the case of Cinderella Smith. The reasons behind the Hayes’ increasing exploitation of Annabel are also well-grounded in realism: she was not their own flesh and blood as Dora was; they were unfit guardians and unprincipled people by nature; and they would never be able to afford Dora’s modelling on their own income, so they need Annabel to generate the income required.

Also realistic is how so many key people, from Miss Turner to Tom, do sense the Hayes are unfit guardians, but although they are helpful and sympathetic, none of them take any action against the abuse itself. This has been an all-too-common phenomenon for many years.

It is also credible in how the contrasting upbringings Dora and Annabel have had have shaped the ways in which one will get to where she wants and the other not. Dora, even if she did have the talent for modelling, has been too spoiled to learn the lesson that to achieve your dream, you must work hard and have guts, determination and persistence against obstacles and challenges, and be grateful for all the help and encouragement you can get. In fact, Dora never learned to work at all, as everything was just handed to her on a plate by her parents. The only thing she works hard at is being nasty. When she ends up on the market stall, she is working for the first time. But she is not making any effort to work her way out of it as Annabel did. Instead, she’s wallowing in bitterness, jealousy and misery as she works on the stall. It takes yet another thing handed to her on a plate – Annabel’s kind offer – to help her out of it. 

Annabel, by contrast, won’t give up her dream, but she has to do everything for herself against all obstacles set down by her family. This includes the constant knocks to her self-esteem as her parents call her a nobody while they hit her. The saving grace is the good people who raise Annabel’s confidence by telling her she has talent and could go far and offer various means of help. But everything, whether good or bad, all helps to give Annabel far more tools to get where she wants than Dora. 

The reconciliation between Dora and Annabel at the end of the story is typically fairy tale, very sweet, and in line with Cinderella. But it is a bit hard to understand how Dora could ever go back to the fashion house all. Surely Mrs Crawford would not want her anywhere near it after what happened. And what could Dora do at the fashion house anyway, as she has no talent for modelling or fashion? 

Would just leaving Dora on the market stall have made more sense as well as give us more satisfaction? Dora’s counterpart in “Nell Nobody” meets a similar comeuppance, and it gives readers great satisfaction to see her just left there to slog and hate every minute of it. On the other hand, the final panel between Dora and Annabel is very moving, as Dora sheds tears for the first time in the story. It leaves us wanting to think things will work out between Dora and Annabel somehow. 

Tammy and Sally 14 August 1971

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Palomo (artist Douglas Perry)

Little Miss Nothing (artists Miguel Rosello, Luis Bermejo, Miguel Quesada, writer Alan Davidson)

Betina and the Haunted Ballet (artist Dudley Wynne) – first episode

The Cat Girl (artist Giorgio Giorgetti)

Roberta’s Rebels (artist Rodrigo Comos, writer Maureen Spurgeon) – first episode

Our Janie – Little Mum (artist Colin Merrett)

Maisie’s Magic Eye (artist Robert MacGillivray)

A Million Pounds to Give Away! (artist Agustin Navarro, writer Maureen Spurgeon)

Beattie Beats ‘Em All (artist John Armstrong, writer Maureen Spurgeon)

The School on Neville’s Island (artist Douglas Perry)

Glen – A Lonely Dog on a Quest (artist Jim Baikie)

No Tears for Molly (artist Tony Thewenetti, writer Maureen Spurgeon)

It is now August, and to commemorate, we will have an August month Tammy round, with an August issue taken from each Tammy year. Also, selecting covers from this month guarantees a lot of nice, cheery summer covers to brighten us up. We begin at 1971, and with an August issue that starts two new stories.

It has now been seven months since Tammy started and five since Sally merged with her. Three strips from Tammy’s first issue are still going strong: Molly, Glenn, and Janie. Betina, another heroine from the original lineup, now starts her second story in Tammy’s first-ever sequel, “Betina and the Haunted Ballet”. The other story to start this week is “Roberta’s Rebels”. Though set in a boarding school, its premise sounds oddly prescient of “Land of No Tears”. Roberta Russell’s boarding school system is divided into the Supremos, the girls who get all the privileges and best treatment because they are the school sports stars, and the Serfs, who are forced to wait on the Supremos hand and foot and receive lesser treatment from school staff. Outraged, Roberta immediately sets out to stop this unfair school system by training up the Serfs to beat the Supremos. But once she sees the girls she has to train, she finds that’s going to be easier said than done. They look more like Bessie Bunter than Beattie Beats ‘Em All (q.v.).

The Cat Girl and Maisie’s Magic Eye are still going strong from the Sally merger. Both became so well remembered they have recently been given remakes in the rebooted Tammy and Jinty specials, and Cat Girl has just received her own reprint volume. Their presence also adds humour and lightweight fare to Tammy, who initially had no humour to balance the grim, misery-laden fare she was renowned for when she started. 

“A Million Pounds to Give Away!” is another story to show Tammy is finding her feet with her own lightweight fare. Biddy Lenton has to give away her late great uncle’s entire fortune (a million pounds) under the terms of his will, but it’s proving harder than expected and it’s getting Biddy into all sorts of scrapes. Shades of the future Bumpkin Billionaires! 

This week’s episode of Beattie must have given the readers some laughs, what with the antics Beattie gets up to on the racetrack to raise signatures for a petiton to stop some buildings – including her home – being bulldozed for development. She gets the satisfaction of annoying her worst enemies on the track with it as well. The petition ends up full of signatures. Strangely, nobody comments on or corrects Beattie’s spelling mistake – “support” has been spelled with one “p”.

“Little Miss Nothing” was a pivotal story in Tammy, as it set the template for the Cinderella serial in girls’ comics for hundreds of Cinderella serials at IPC and DCT to follow. “Make-Believe Mandy” and “Cinderella Smith” from Jinty were but two who owed their roots to “Little Miss Nothing”. This week, Annabel’s cruel parents kick her out, and they’re not through with her yet. Annabel’s spiteful stepsister Dora is cooking up a really nasty revenge on Annabel for getting her the well-deserved sack. 

Douglas Perry is on double duty with drawing two stories, “The School on Neville’s Island” and “Palomo”. But that’s nothing on Maureen Spurgeon, who’s writing four strips, probably more, in one issue! Incidentally, Palomo was Tammy’s first horse story, and it was so popular it scored an appearance in a Tammy annual. 

Tammy & Sally 5 June 1971

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Neville’s Island/The School on Neville’s Island (artist Douglas Perry) – first episode

Glen – A Dog on a Lonely Quest (artist Jim Baikie)

Slaves of “War Orphan Farm” (artist Desmond Walduck, writer Gerry Finley-Day?)

The Cat Girl (artist Giorgio Giorgetti)

The Secret of Trebaran – (artist Giorgio Cambiotti) – final episode

Maisie’s Magic Eye – artist Robert MacGillivray

Little Miss Nothing (artists Miguel Rosello, Luis Bermejo, Miguel Quesada, writer Alan Davidson) – first episode

Betina at Ballet School

Beattie Beats ‘Em All! (artist John Armstrong)

Sara’s Kingdom (artist Bill Mainwaring)

The Girls of Liberty Lodge (artist Dudley Pout)

“Our Janie” – Little Mum (artist Colin Merrett)

No Tears for Molly (artist Tony Thewenetti, writer Maureen Spurgeon)

For the month of June we are having another Tammy round, which will profile a Tammy issue from the month of June for each Tammy year. We begin with the first June issue of Tammy in 1971.

In this issue, it’s the final episode of “The Secret of Trebaran”, one of the first stories from the first Tammy lineup. Its replacement next week is “Gandora the Golden”. Others from the first Tammy lineup, “Slaves of ‘War Orphan Farm’”, “Betina at Ballet School”, “The Girls of Liberty Lodge”, “Glen – A Lonely Dog on a Quest”, “No Tears for Molly”, and “’Our Janie’ – Little Mum” are still going strong, and it’s been four months since they started. Molly went on to become one of the longest-running regulars in Tammy, which showed she was the most powerful of the first lineup. Beattie, who joined later, is still going strong, and is the first Tammy strip drawn by John Armstrong. Cat Girl, “Maisie’s Magic Eye” and “Sara’s Kingdom”, which came over from Sally, are still going happily as well. 

Douglas Perry artwork appears in Tammy for the first time – and on the first page – with the start of Perry’s first Tammy story, “Neville’s Island”. Thirty girls from St Edburgha’s are lured to a mysterious island. And we all know what happens when girls are lured to an island in girls’ comics – it’s a trap! To make things even more mysterious, the plot is being engineered by a ominous-sounding elderly woman in a wheelchair who won’t show her face. Once the unsuspecting girls are in the trap, she says, “Now they shall begin to suffer. All of them.” But why? From the sound of it, it’s revenge for being bullied at the school, but there’s probably more to it than that. It all adds to the mystery that has to be solved if the girls are to escape. 

Also starting this issue is the first episode of “Little Miss Nothing” (written by Alan Davidson, not Pat Davidson aka Anne Digby, as has been sometimes stated). This story is noted for setting the “Cinderella” template that so many Tammy stories were to follow, the most famous of which was Bella Barlow. Update: an entry on this story has now been posted here.

“Little Miss Nothing” Annabel Hayes is regarded by her family as a nobody and they treat her as a drudge. It’s her younger sister Dora who gets the lion’s share in everything. Annabel shines at dressmaking, but her hopes of making a career out of it are dashed when the family move to be closer to Dora’s modelling school. Dad illegally yanks Annabel out of school to slog all day at the family market stall to pay for Dora’s school fees, makes her sleep in an attic, and not a word about her treatment or she’ll suffer. Wow, things are really piled on our Cinderella in the first episode alone. But then Annabel spots something in the attic that could turn things around. 

Jinty and Lindy 21 February 1976

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Miss No-Name (artist Jim Baikie)

The Jinx from St. Jonah’s (artist Mario Capaldi)

Friends of the Forest (artist “B. Jackson”)

Fran of the Floods (artist Phil Gascoine, writer Alan Davidson)

Dora Dogsbody (artist José Casanovas)

Too Old to Cry! (artist Trini Tinturé)

Wanda Whiter Than White (artist Ana Rodriguez)

Bound for Botany Bay (artist Roy Newby)

Save Old Smokey! (artist Phil Townsend, writer Alison Christie)

Do-It-Yourself Dot (artist Alf Saporito)

Lori, “Miss No-Name”, makes her first attempt to run from the horrible Crabbs. But instead of dragging Lori back, Ma Crabb resorts to more crafty means. She sends a shadow, Fingers, on Lori’s tail. His job is to pull some sneakiness on Lori to make her come crawling back. Will he succeed? She’s found a good refuge, but he’s watching outside. 

Katie wants to see a big football match, but she’s been jinxed by bad chilblains. Poor Katie. Will she miss out on the match or find a way around things? 

Sally and Maya are hiding a deer, Star, from the circus. But nasty types are after Maya and are on their tail. 

Talk about a farewell concert! Fran is tearfully singing “We’ll Meet Again” at the school concert, to say goodbye to her parents the only way she can. The floods are now claiming her hometown as the reservoir bursts. The concert hall is quietly evacuating while the headmistress orders the concert to bravely carry on to avoid panic. 

Ma Siddons turns her hand at painting this week when she agrees to look after a famous artist’s dog in exchange for free art lessons. The results are a dog’s dinner, and Mrs Siddons is even more annoyed when Dora ends up reaping the benefits.  

A disastrous trail of mess-ups and misunderstandings have made Sara distrustful of Nell. But this week, when Sara sees the horrible orphanage Nell was raised in after her horse was sold to its cruel matron, they come together again. Trouble is, how to get the horse back?

Susie suspects there’s more to Wanda than being the biggest tattle-tale and most self-righteous prig you ever saw, but her conduct is just impossible. Then, Susie discovers the truth when she stumbles across an old newspaper, and from the sound of it, she’s astounded. 

Betsy Tanner begins her transportation to Botany Bay. She’s been warned, “You’ll be lucky if you get to Botany Bay alive!” And for her, it’s not just the usual convict ship conditions. Everyone, from her arch-enemy Lady De Mortimer to a fellow convict named Judy, is out to make her life a living hell. At least Judy turns around when Betsy shows her a kindness, and Betsy still has her farewell present, some art supplies, to help her survive.  

Grandpa and Billie Stephenson are fighting to hold onto their railway home against the greedy Councillor Gresby. Grandpa isn’t impressed with the new flat they’ll be moved to, for all its conveniences. Then, he turns up trumps by buying a railway coach for them to live in, so they can stay where they are. But will Gresby give up that easily?

Dot’s invited her friends around for ping pong, but practice gets her into trouble with her Dad. In the end, the ping pong balls are used for bingo games. Even Dad is impressed after being annoyed with Dot.

Jinty and Lindy 27 March 1976

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Miss No-Name (artist Jim Baikie)

Penny Crayon (cartoon)

For Peter’s Sake! (artist Ana Rodriguez, writer Alison Christie)

Fran of the Floods (artist Phil Gascoine, writer Alan Davidson)

Dora Dogsbody (artist José Casanovas)

The Slave of Form 3B (artist Trini Tinturé)

Friends of the Forest (artist “B. Jackson”)

Bound for Botany Bay (artist Roy Newby)

Save Old Smokey! (artist Phil Townsend, writer Alison Christie)

Dora’s doggy problem this week is a dog who’s named Custard because he’s such a coward that he has to wear earmuffs as loud noises make him leap thirty feet in the air and has no clue how to stand up for himself. Then Custard finds the courage he never knew he had when he sees the nasty Ma Siddons bully Dora. She gets such a fright at his barking and growling that she takes refuge in a cupboard and comes out crawling to Dora for the rest of the evening.

Meanwhile, another cupboard is used as torture in “Bound for Botany Bay”. Poor Mary has been locked in a dark cupboard as punishment for blowing the whistle on Miss Wortley’s cruel treatment of Betsy, and it’s driving her mad with terror. This is the last straw for Betsy, so she decides it’s time to run off, with Mary too, and seek out her father. However, it’s not going to be easy to avoid recapture. Miss Wortley’s screaming for them to be brought back in chains and is going to turn Australia upside-down until she finds them. 

Nasty Ma Crabb has been forcing the amnesic Lori to practise dangerous climbing on an old tower. Now Lori finds out why – Ma Crabb’s training her up to commit forced robberies that involve high wall climbing!

The latest threat to survival in “Fran of the Floods” is a tinpot dictator group called the Black Circle. They operate a boot camp, which they operate as slave drivers. Now Fran and her friends are prisoners of the Black Circle and forced to do hand ploughing in the still-falling rain at the crack of a whip. Then a swarm of crazed birds attacks. Could it be their chance of escape?

Carrie’s in Scotland with her kindly gran and Old Peg, the pram that seems to cure any sick baby that’s rocked in it. Carrie is yearning for Old Peg to cure her sick baby brother Peter. 

There’s no Jinx from St Jonah’s at the moment. We presume she’ll be back when another story finishes, which could be “Friends of the Forest”. It looks like it’s nearing its end, and there’s a surprising revelation about our gypsy girl Maya – she’s an heiress!

Councillor Gresby is demonstrating he will resort to any means necessary to get rid of the Stephensons – including setting fire to their railway coach home and destroying the petition to “Save Old Smokey!”. Now he’s cleared out the village dump – and guess where he’s dumped the rubbish.

This week, “The Slave of Form 3B” is hypnotised into sabotaging one of Stacey’s rivals, Edna. Edna guesses the mean trick and who was responsible, but nobody will believe her. Stacey’s free to strike again, but the blurb for next week hints it won’t go so smoothly.

Jinty & Lindy 17 January 1976

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Slaves of the Candle (filler artist)

The Jinx from St. Jonah’s (artist Mario Capaldi)

Friends of the Forest (artist “B. Jackson”)

Win Your Very Own Hairdryer! (competition)

Fran of the Floods – first episode (artist Phil Gascoine, writer Alan Davidson)

Ping-Pong Paula – final episode (artist Jim Baikie, writer Alison Christie)

Too Old to Cry! (artist Trini Tinturé)

Wanda Whiter Than White (artist Ana Rodriguez)

The Haunting of Hazel (artist Santiago Hernandez)

Song of the Fir Tree (artist Phil Townsend)

Do-It-Yourself Dot (artist Alf Saporito)

Make it Easy…A Nightdress Case – feature 

This issue marks the start of the Jinty classic, “Fran of the Floods”, a tale that has more relevance in today’s climate change environment and rising sea levels than when it was first published in 1976. Rising temperatures and melting ice caps are causing non-stop rain worldwide, and flooding problems are everywhere. Fran Scott is treating it as a joke, but Dad senses it’s something more like the Apocalypse. 

Ping-Pong Paula ends this week. Paula is in hospital in a coma after a road accident, but not even this brings her quarrelling parents together. It takes a telling-to from a nurse that they have to put everything aside and go in together if they want Paula to recover for things to come right at last. 

Poor Nell can’t do anything right. This week she tries to protect Sara’s horse Mister Flicker because she mistakenly thinks he will be destroyed. But her ignorance in horse care has resulted in him becoming seriously ill. More tears for the girl who’s “Too Old to Cry!”.

Lyndy Lagtree, who has finally escaped from the “Slaves of the Candle” racket, realises the villainous Mrs Tallow is out to steal the Crown Jewels and is hot on her trail. Unfortunately, she fails to stop Mrs Tallow from putting her plan in motion at the Tower of London.

In “Friends of the Forest”, Sally and Maya are trying to keep a tame deer, Star, from the circus. Sally is discovering how Maya lives in the forest – in a tree house. But it looks like the welfare busybodies don’t approve of this. They grab Sally, thinking she’s Maya.

In “Song of the Fir Tree”, our fugitives catch up with their old friend Rachel from the concentration camp, who’s now a bit of a fugitive herself. But their enemy Grendelsen catches up too, and now he’s got all three at gunpoint.

Hazel finds out why Black Crag Mountain is angry – greedy developers are out to disturb the dead as they dynamite the old mine workings for silver, and they’ve been scaring the villagers off their land to do it. No wonder the mountain’s a bit pissed! Wouldn’t we be?

That self-righteous prig Wanda White is too much this time. She’s kept Susie awake all night by reading “Pilgrim’s Progress” aloud – her nightly habit of reading a self-improvement book – through those thin walls between them. It’s the last straw in Susie working herself into exhaustion, and the exhaustion gets Susie into trouble in gym class next day.

Dot’s putting on a bit of weight and is making do-it-yourself gadgets to lose it. She eventually turns to a do-it-yourself Turkish bath, which solves the weight problem. Trouble is, Dot forgot to undress first!

Katie is getting a cup of tea for her friend Sue, who is in hospital. Should be straightforward? Not when you’re the Jinx from St. Jonah’s. And that’s just the start of the jinxing that gets Katie banned from the hospital. The ban isn’t stopping Katie from getting some sweets to Sue – but with a fishing pole? Oh dear, watch out for jinxing hijinks at the hospital next week!

Tammy 21 January 1984

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Tammy cover 21 January 1984

Cover artist: John Armstrong

  • Foul Play (artist John Armstrong, writer Ian Mennell)
  • Julie’s Jinx (artist Julian Vivas, writer Nick Allen)
  • Pam of Pond Hill (artist Bob Harvey, writer Jay Over)
  • The Crayzees (artist Joe Collins)
  • First Term at Trebizon (artist Phil Gascoine, writer Anne Digby)
  • The Button Box (artist Mario Capaldi, writer Alison Christie, sub-writer Linda Stephenson)
  • Fashion Flashback – feature (Ray Mutimer)
  • My Terrible Twin (artist Juliana Buch)
  • Fun Time – feature
  • Swansea Jack (artist Douglas Perry, writer Linda Stephenson)
  • Queen Rider (artist Eduardo Feito, writer A. D. Langholm aka Alan Davidson)
  • Warm as Toast! Feature (Mari L’Anson)

The issue for 21 January 1984 has been chosen for 1984 in the conclusion to Tammy round robin.

Foul Play is unusual for being a non-Bella story drawn by John Armstrong. Katie Johnson received a serious hand injury during a hockey match. Her friends and family are convinced one of her own team mates deliberately caused it because they had always resented her. Katie doesn’t believe a word of it, but now someone is doing nasty things against the team. This week one gets her room vandalised and another gets her heart broken over a hoax call that her father was going to visit. Katie takes on the job of unravelling the mystery, and it must begin with the heartbreaking task of investigating her own friends and family as suspects.

My Terrible Twin is being reprinted by popular demand. The episode this week has already been discussed here, so we will move on.

In Pam of Pond Hill, a flu strain is causing chaos in town. It only seems to target the adults, which is giving the kids a bit of a free rein at home and school. But it’s not all fun for Pam. Cherry Laurence, the big-headed bully bossyboots who was unwisely appointed as a prefect, has now been put in charge of her form!

Tammy had always been running TV and book adaptations but now she is running two at once: The First Term at Trebizon and Queen Rider. Both the authors are former writers for IPC girls’ titles.

This week’s Button Box tale is a rags-to-riches story that centres on the Mexican art of dressing fleas. Swansea Jack, probably the last story Douglas Perry drew for Tammy, gives us the story of Swansea Jack, the dog who gave his name to a tavern by saving the lives of children at the docks of Swansea.

Julie Lee (who keeps her Romany background secret) gives her friend Gloria a Romany charm, but her horse has been acting strangely ever since. A nasty girl is spreading a rumour it is a bad luck charm. Julie is trying to find a way to deal with the problem quietly while not knowing what to make of it herself. Is the gift really “Julie’s Jinx”?