Tag Archives: Alison Christie

Tammy 7 November 1981 – Guy Fawkes issue

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Jump, Jump, Julia (artist Giorgio Giorgetti)
Rosie at the Royalty (artist Diane Gabbot(t)) – final episode
Wee Sue (artist John Richardson)
Molly Mills and the Gunpowder Plot (artist Douglas Perry, writer Maureen Spurgeon) – complete story
Sheena So Shy (artist Tony Coleman)
Edie (artist Joe Collins)
Catherine’s Wheel (artist Ken Houghton) – Strange Story
Real Sparklers! – feature
Bessie Bunter (artist Arthur Martin)
Lara the Loner (artist Juliana Buch, writer Alison Christie)

Leading off for November is Tammy’s Guy Fawkes issue from 1981. Molly and Wee Sue have Bonfire Night stories. Pickering is furious to see a Guy Fawkes guy dressed up to look like him and throws it in the river, but it’s rescued and goes on the Stanton Hall bonfire. The fireworks party itself almost gets cancelled when a hooligan with fireworks causes Lord Stanton to have an accident, but of course Molly finds a way to save the day. In the Wee Sue story, Sue almost causes the school bonfire party to be cancelled when she accidentally ruins the fireworks, but luckily she made a valuable find that can raise money for replacement fireworks. John Richardson, who hasn’t drawn a Wee Sue story since 1977, is guest artist for Sue’s Guy Fawkes story. Edie brings us a reminder of the fireworks code at a bonfire party and a feature advertising jumpers uses a Guy Fawkes theme. Perhaps most striking of all is the fireworks-related Strange Story from medieval England (below), and the warning of approaching plague sets it in 1348. Even the Storyteller admits this version of the origin of the Catherine wheel is a bit fanciful. Still, it’s an engaging story, and it has the bonus of Keith Houghton artwork.

Bessie makes an appearance this week, but her story is not related to Guy Fawkes. Instead, we get a double Bunter helping with Bessie’s brother Billy as guest star. It’s always extra fun when he shows up in her strip.

Things just keep getting worse and worse for “Lara the Loner” because of her fear of crowds. This week, her hopes of adoption are raised, but her phobia is threatening to dash them. Plus, it could land her in trouble for shoplifting when she panics at a crowded department store and runs off – with an unpaid item in her hand! Incidentally, the next episode of this story features Guy Fawkes night.

“Sheena So Shy” finally has a friend, Terry, who is willing to help her prove herself. But Sheena’s spiteful cousin Sabrina is really out to sabotage anything she does to do that. She does it again this week, but at least Sheena’s getting suspicious of her.

“Rosie at the Royalty” ends this week. Despite Rosie’s brilliant dancing performance, there are no job offers from ballet companies for her, just because of her rag-and-bone background. Then something does come up later on, and Rosie tells us, “I’m gonna show the lot of them…just you wait…but that’s another story…” However, it’s not one that turns into a third Rosie serial. Perhaps it had something to do with the departure of Diane Gabbot(t) from Tammy (except for spot illustrations in the 1983 Trebizon story adaptation). “Rosie at the Royalty” was her swansong.

In “Jump, Jump, Julia”, Julia Smith is being temporarily cared for by the wealthy Turnleys while her dad is in hospital. Mrs Turnley has inspired Julia to train her pet pony, Dasher, as a show jumper – but not if her jealous daughter Clarice can help it. And so the stage is set for the rest of the story.

Tammy 31 October 1981 – Halloween issue

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Jump, Jump, Julia (artist Giorgio Giorgetti) – first episode
Edie (artist Joe Collins)
Digital Watch – special Tammy offer
Sheena So Shy (artist Tony Coleman)
Molly Mills and the Royal Visit (artist Douglas Perry, writer Maureen Spurgeon) – final episode
Pumpkin Specials for Halloween
Shadows of Fear (artist Ken Houghton) – Strange Story
Wee Sue (artist Robert MacGillivray)
Lara the Loner (artist Juliana Buch, writer Alison Christie)
Rosie at the Royalty (artist Diane Gabbot(t))

There’s nothing on the cover to show it except the date, but this is Tammy’s 1981 Halloween issue, brought out for the spooky season. The Cover Girls are no longer around to bring us Halloween covers, but inside we have Halloween costumes, festivities and parties with Edie, Molly Mills and Wee Sue, and there’s a Halloween pumpkin feature. This week’s Strange Story does not mention Halloween, but it’s creepy enough with demons, living monster shadows, an evil influence from the Underworld taking over the royal palace in Tsarist Russia, and most horrible of all – Ivan the Terrible. He’s now that way because although the evil influence was driven from the palace, the imprint it left behind drove him insane.

Bella is on break, so leading off the cover is part one of Giorgio Giorgetti’s last serial before he died, “Jump, Jump Julia”. As the title suggests, it’s a show-jumping story.

This week, it’s part two of “Sheena So Shy”, where Sheena Willcox has terrible shyness problems. Her unhelpful mother, lack of confidence, blushing and stammering, lack of friends, constant bullying from classmates and teachers who expect her to live up to her mother’s famous reputation only serve to worsen the problem. Added to that, she now has to contend with a spiteful cousin who keeps sabotaging her every move to rise above it all.

In “Lara the Loner”, it’s a phobia that keeps sabotaging Lara Wolfe and everything she does, and it’s constantly landing her in trouble at school and the children’s home where she lives. This week, it even lands her in hospital.

“Rosie at the Royalty”, the sequel to “Rosie of Ragged Row” and the last serial Diane Gabbot(t) drew for Tammy, reaches its penultimate episode. Rosie’s had to contend with snobbery and classism at her new ballet school, along with nasty tricks, a spiteful rival (who she finally makes peace with in this episode) and now her rotten brothers. They drag her away on the rag-and-bone rounds when she has to dance at a vital performance, and they don’t care squat that she’ll be expelled if she doesn’t show. Then, she has a sudden ray of hope.

Tammy 19 April 1980

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Cover artist: John Richardson

Lucky by Name (artist Julian Vivas) 

The Stone Curse (part 3 of a 3-part Strange Story) – artist Bob Harvey

Peggy in the Middle (artist Tony Coleman) – first episode

The Sea Witches (artist Mario Capaldi) 

Edie (Joe Collins)

My Shining Sister (artist Douglas Perry, writer Alison Christie)

Living in the Past (Strange Story from the Mists) – artist P. Montero

Tasty Tuck-In (feature)

My “Brother” George (artist Mario Capaldi) – first episode

Donna Ducks Out (artist Diane Gabbot(t))

This is one of my favourite Tammy covers. Let’s hear it for ageism with this one!

Inside is another of my favourite Strange Stories from the Mist, “Living in the Past” (appearing below), with a clear message that you’d be wiser not to do so. The “good old days” are not all they’re cracked up to be, and some people, like the protagonist in the story, prefer to live in the present. The creepy flip side of “The Good Life” in the story is brought eerily and ominously to life with the atmospheric artwork of P. Montero. 

Tammy’s recipe feature, “Tuck-In with Tammy”, makes a reappearance this week as “Tasty Tuck-In”. Tuck-In had been appearing since 1978 until the Misty merger, but on occasion it made an appearance as a filler.

Edie and Miss T have combined forces as Tammy’s Joe Collins strip since Misty joined, but the title of the strip is uneven. Sometimes it’s “Edie”, sometimes it’s “Miss T”, but eventually it lists both names.

Two new stories start. The first is “Peggy in the Middle”, using a theme not seen much in Tammy – custody disputes. This one must have been popular as thousands of readers with estranged parents could relate to it all too well. The second is “My ‘Brother’ George”, with wacky hijinks from a gorilla that has been humanised and thinks he’s the kid brother of the family (not that it stops his taste for bananas or swinging around like he’s in the jungle). George was a really fun read, but it regrettably only lasted six episodes. Tammy invited readers to bring George back by popular demand, but the humanised primate never returned.

“The Stone Curse” concludes this week. Its replacement next week is Bella’s new story, where she makes her second bid for the Olympics. Her first bid only got her as far as participating in the opening ceremony, but will she have better luck this time?

“My Shining Sister” keeps causing trouble and embarrassment for Marnie because of her obsession with the number 6, as six is the number of her missing sisters (which we suspect are the missing Pleaides, which vanished after a meteorite shower). Are you quite sure you want this girl as your sister forever, Marnie?

Lucky’s first bid to win money for her cash-strapped family with show-jumping is a success, but the second is not. Clearly, show-jumping is not a guaranteed way of bringing money in. Also, Lucky’s rising success as a show-jumper has introduced the story’s antagonist, Hughie Morris, a syndicate talent-spotter who wants to buy her beloved pony and won’t take no for an answer. 

Despite the difficulties, Donna is still managing to secretly borrow and return the bathroom duck that gives her the power to swim. As if that difficulty weren’t bad enough, there’s also the problem of being too dependent on the duck. Donna discovers this when she uses the duck’s power to go to the rescue of a drowning child – but then the duck is removed from the water. What test will this be for her? 

In “The Sea Witches” the air base colonel is unmoved by pleas and protests to stop disrupting the nesting grounds in the swamps with his jets. But Katie sees the Sea Witches on the air force base with plans of their own to stop the disruption. Hubble, bubble, toil and trouble…

Tammy 12 April 1980

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Cover artist: John Richardson

My Shining Sister (artist Douglas Perry, writer Alison Christie)

The Stone Curse (part 2 of a 3-part Strange Story) – artist Bob Harvey

Sour Grapes for Sophie (artist Tony Coleman) – final episode

Easter Gifts to Make – Feature

The Sea Witches (artist Mario Capaldi) 

Wee Sue (artist Hugh Thornton-Jones)

Lucky by Name (artist Julian Vivas) 

The Take-Over (Strange Story from the Mists) – artist Peter Wilkes

Miss T (Joe Collins)

Donna Ducks Out (artist Diane Gabbot(t))

One of my favourite things about Tammy was when her characters came together for a commemorative feature. These included Christmas, the 10th birthday issue and, in this case, the 1980 Easter issue cover. John Richardson used to be a Wee Sue artist, so he must have enjoyed drawing her again. Wee Sue shares the Easter cover with the Cover Girls, Bessie Bunter and Bella. 

Inside, we have a Wee Sue Easter story (which even pays homage to the 1979 Wee Sue Easter story), a feature on making Easter gifts, and Miss T selling chocolate Easter eggs. Sadly, there are none for Edie because the chocolate chicken is exhausted. Cluuckkk…

It’s the final episode of “Sour Grapes for Sophie”. Nobody ever thought to actually speak to Sophie’s father about how his nonstop moving around is making her miserable until Sophie’s friend Jackie asks her father (who used to be the same) to do so. And so the story is resolved. 

Next week we have two new stories. The first is another Tony Coleman story, “Peggy in the Middle”, where Peggy Morrow becomes the focus of a custody battle. The second is “My ‘Brother’ George”, a Mario Capaldi story, and Capaldi’s already doing “The Sea Witches”. Talk about double duty. In part 2 of the story, although the locals are clearly scared of the Sea Witches, who migrate from Siberia in goose form, we are introduced to the true menace of the story, and it’s an ecological one – those pesky American Air Force jets that keep disrupting the nesting grounds. A jet has already hurt one Sea Witch while she was in goose form. Now that’s really going to get the Sea Witches’ feathers ruffled, and that spells trouble.

“My Shining Sister” continues to develop the characters of Marnie and Stella, but not in an endearing way. Marnie is possessive in keeping Stella as her sister, and Stella is annoying. Hopefully the girls will sort things out in the end, but we know Stella will not be Marnie’s sister on a permanent basis. She’s clearly one of the Pleaides, which disappeared after a meteorite shower, and she has to go back where she belongs. 

Despite a close call, Donna manages to get away with breaking and entering to get the bathroom duck that gives her the power to swim and return it without anyone realising it was gone – this time. But can she keep it up?

This week’s Strange Story has two sports rivals (one brilliant at sport, one not) in a road accident. Weird things happen in the hospital room where they are kept together that leaves the story on an ominous hint they switched bodies. 

The climax of the three-part Strange Story “The Stone Menace” feels like it’s too soon. The story could easily have done with more episodes. 

In “Lucky by Name”, Lucky, blaming herself for the accident that put her dad out of work, faces another problem – she may lose her pony Fortune because the family are now on sickness benefit and can’t afford him. She turns to show-jumping to raise the money to keep him, but the course is one heck of a toughie, and it’s her first event. Will it pay off?

Tammy 5 April 1980

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Cover artist: John Richardson

My Shining Sister (artist Douglas Perry, writer Alison Christie)

The Stone Curse (part 1 of a 3-part Strange Story) – artist Bob Harvey

Sour Grapes for Sophie (artist Tony Coleman)

The Sea Witches (artist Mario Capaldi) – first episode

Wee Sue (artist Joe MacGillivray)

Lucky by Name (artist Julian Vivas) – first episode

Edie (Joe Collins)

Flight (Strange Story from the Mists) – artist John Armstrong

Bessie Bunter – Arthur Martin

Donna Ducks Out (artist Diane Gabbot(t))

It’s the April Fool’s issue. The Cover Girls and Wee Sue commemorate the event, but in the case of Wee Sue, April fooling rebounds on her in the end.

Inside, three new stories start: The Sea Witches (migrating geese who are actually witches from Siberia); Lucky by Name (Lucky Starr blames herself for the accident that put her father out of work and turns to her show-jumping to raise money to cover the family’s financial shortfall from his redundancy, but finds herself dogged by fickle fortune); and a three-part Strange Story, The Stone Curse (about a Medusa statue with the power to turn people into stone).

This week’s complete Strange Story concerns Joanna May, who is so obsessed with flying like a bird she doesn’t think of anything else. Her schoolwork is full of drawings of birds flying. Will the story end with Joanna learning not be so obsessed or having her wish to fly?

My Shining Sister is on its second episode. Marnie thinks Stella, the mysterious amnesic girl she found, who has the power to glow in the dark and knock people flying with mysterious flashes when she’s annoyed, is the one to become her longed-for sister. But by the end of the episode she’s becoming possessive about keeping Stella that way, which is not making her very sisterly to Stella. 

Donna Ducks Out strikes further complications in which Donna now has to resort to breaking and entering to get the bathroom duck that gives her the power to swim. And she could be caught if she doesn’t think of something fast. 

Bessie makes one of the filler appearances she has been delegated to since Misty merged with Tammy. Edie appears solo this week, with no mention of Miss T.

Sour Grapes for Sophie has reached its climax. Sophie is tired of being constantly uprooted and dragged around because her father changes locations so much, and now he’s set for another. Here we go again, groan, groan…unless something happens. 

Tammy 4 February 1984

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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)

First Term at Trebizon (artist Phil Gascoine, writer Anne Digby) – final episode

The Crayzees (artist Joe Collins)

The Button Box (artist Mario Capaldi, (sub)writer Linda Stephenson)

The Last Rider (artist Jesus Redondo, writer Chris Harris) – Pony Tale

Fun Time

Queen Rider (artist Eduardo Feito, writer A. D. Langholm)

My Terrible Twin (artist Juliana Buch)

Work Out! (Mari L’Anson) – feature 

Over at the forum at comics.co.uk there has been discussion about recipe features in girls’ comics and annuals. So in this entry we take a look at a recipe feature Tammy ran during this period called “Tammy’s Tasties”, a sample of which appears below. Readers could make their own contributions to this feature, with presumably some money in return. Recipe features were nothing new in Tammy. Around 1978-1980 she ran “Tuck-in with Tammy”, a full page recipe feature. The feature did not always appear, but as it was page length it could serve as a filler or handy reprint.

In the stories, we have a whodunnit story, “Foul Play”, where Katie Johnson has a treble mystery to solve. The first is trying to unravel who is conducting a vendetta against her team for a foul she received at a hockey match, the second is trying to discover who fouled her, and the third is whether it really was a foul or just an accident. Now that shows just how much investigation anyone ever put into the incident in the first place.

Tammy has three horse stories this week. The “Julie’s Jinx”, where Julie Lee is faced with a mystery of her own: is a Romany doll she gave her friend Gloria a jinx as spiteful Cindy claims, or is there some other explanation as to why Gloria’s pony has been acting strangely ever since he started wearing it? The second is one of my favourite Pony Tales and Jesus Redondo stories. It features the famous Pony Express, and it appears below. Its title is “The Last Rider”, but its title might as well be “The Pony Wrecker” because of the way Pony Express rider Reuben Stone treats his mounts. Cindy Hubble, at the last staging post of the Pony Express, constantly rages at this and not being able to do much about it. Crunch time comes when Cindy faces her worst dread – Reuben riding her own pony. The third is the penultimate episode of Tammy’s adaptation of “Queen Rider”.

Tammy’s other book adaptation, “First Term at Trebizon”, ends this week. Its replacement next issue is the last Tammy story crediting Alison Christie, “Cassie’s Coach”. The artist bringing this Victorian period story to life is a surprising one: Tony Coleman. Perhaps his style is being used because the story has lighter moments as well as dark ones as Cassie Lord and her siblings face surviving on their own when their mother is falsely imprisoned and they are evicted from their home. 

By popular demand, Tammy is reprinting a 1979 story, “My Terrible Twin”. Parole doesn’t often feature in redemption narratives, but that is the case here. Lindy is on parole after serving time in a remand home for shoplifting, which hasn’t done much to change her. It’s an uphill battle for Lindy’s sister Moira to improve her character. Worse, Lindy’s irresponsibility constantly gets poor Moira into trouble while Lindy emerges smelling like roses.

In Pam of Pond Hill, bossyboots Cherry Laurence has been pure aggravation since she was made prefect, but when she takes the lead in having the class help out in a flu epidemic she becomes more endearing. Has this solved the prefect problem, or do we still have to wait and see? 

This week’s Button Box story is a feminist one, with women golfers demanding the right to use the same golfing course as men, in a period where mixed golfing is not accepted. It is agreed that a golfing match will decide the matter, between the owner of the golfing course and his granddaughter. The match ends in a draw (talk about equality between the sexes) and the first mixed golfing course. Mixed golfing still takes a while to be accepted, but the granddaughter becomes a golfing champion!

Tammy 7 January 1984

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Queen Rider (artist Eduardo Feito, writer A. D. Langholm)

Pam of Pond Hill (artist Bob Harvey, writer Jay Over) – new story

Foul Play (artist John Armstrong, writer Ian Mennell) – first episode

Happy New Year Fun Time

Your Button Box Calendar (Chris Lloyd)

The Button Box (artist Mario Capaldi, writer Ian Mennell)

Good as New (artist Maria Dembilio but credited as “Mary”, writer Maureen Spurgeon)

Room for Rosie (artist Santiago Hernandez, writer Alison Christie) – final episode

First Term at Trebizon (artist Phil Gascoine, writer Anne Digby)

The Crayzees (artist Joe Collins)

For New Year we present the last New Year issue from Tammy, in which Tammy starts a new story, provides a Button Box New Year calendar, makes the less-than-happy Happy New Year announcement that her price has gone up to 20p, and presents a coupon that could win 25 readers a signed copy of “Queen Rider”, one of the adaptations Tammy is currently running. “Room for Rosie” finishes her run with her own New Year story, in which she has a last-minute save from the scrap heap on New Year’s Day and starts off her new year with a new life in a fun fair. The Crayzees (below) present a surprisingly sobering story for New Year, and it’s one of their best. Both “Queen Rider” and “First Term at Trebizon” hit their climaxes this week, which means their resolutions aren’t far off and more new stories are on the way.

What is the new story for the New Year issue? John Armstrong has a change from Bella and is illustrating “Foul Play”, a new hockey story that’s got a mystery attached. Katie Johnson has suffered a badly injured hand from an ill-fated hockey match. Was it an accident as she believes or a foul from her own team (who viewed and resented her as an usurper) as everyone else believes – including the person who looks like they’re about to conduct a vendetta against the team? Like Carol-Anne Brabazon of Bunty’s “Down with St Desmond’s!”, they’ve even got a photograph of the team they’re going strike against, crossing out the faces of each member as they go. 

New Year was a popular time for new stories, and next week we are promised another new story, “Julie’s Jinx”, drawn by Julian Vivas. 

Pam of Pond Hill also starts a new story for New Year, but it’s anything but happy. She is less than thrilled to come back to school after the revelries of Christmas and New Year, and it seems things only get worse from there: grotty weather, grumpy winter blues staff, a flu bug that seems to be everywhere, and a classmate’s big-headed sister is unwisely appointed prefect, which provides her with the opportunity to throw her weight around, especially with Pam’s class. And so the plot threads are established for the rest of the story to follow. 

The New Year itself is 1984, so two things are expected: George Orwell’s “1984” and leap year. We read on in anticipation to see how Tammy honours both of these.

But no reader would have guessed that new year 1984 ultimately proved to be Tammy’s annus horribilis. This was the year of Tammy’s cancellation and go into what surely would have been the most incompatible merger in comic book history with the photo comic Girl. But even worse, Tammy was cut off by a strike before any of that even happened and never given a chance to finish her stories or say a proper goodbye.

Tammy 31 December 1983

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Cover artist: Trini Tinturé

Queen Rider (artist Eduardo Feito, writer A. D. Langholm)

Christmas Chuckles

Bethlehem’s Come to Us (artist Maria Dembilio but credited as “Julian”, writer Alison Christie)

The Button Box (artist Mario Capaldi, writer Alison Christie)

Christmas Chuckles

A Christmas Mystery (artist John Johnston, writer Maureen Spurgeon) – Quiz

First Term at Trebizon (artist Phil Gascoine, writer Anne Digby)

Ralph Roisterham’s “Tiger” – a Pony Tale (artist Veronica Weir, writer Chris Harris)

Pam of Pond Hill (artist Bob Harvey, writer Jay Over)

Room for Rosie (artist Santiago Hernandez, writer Alison Christie)

The Crayzees (artist Joe Collins)

For the Christmas season we present the last Christmas issue of Tammy ever published. Inside, we have “Christmas Chuckles”; a Christmas story from the Crayzees where Miss T saves Christmas by helping to cure Santa of a cold; a special Christmas story from “Room for Rosie” (scans here), which ye Editor put on hiatus but informed us would return at Christmas; a Christmas story from Pam of Pond Hill in which we have morals about being organised for Christmas, but don’t be a power-driver over it; a Christmas quiz; and one of my favourite Tammy stories, “Bethlehem’s Come to Us…”, which is reproduced below. What can the Christmas spirit do for a family who are constantly quarrelling and back-biting because of the stress over Dad’s redundancy? So far, not much, and now it’s Christmas Eve. Is there hope yet? As Tammy would say – read on and see.

The Button Box does not have a Christmas story as it did in Tammy’s 1982 Christmas issue, but it has a story about the value of kindness, which is related to Christmas. It is the only Button story to have a foreshadowing, in which the button itself was shown in an earlier story but its story was not told at the time. Instead, its story is revealed at Christmas. 

An interesting note about Tammy artist John Johnston is that whenever he does spot illustrations for Tammy’s quizzes he uses a style based on Mad artist Paul Coker Jr., even using Coker panels from Mad as templates for some of the spot illustrations. One appears in the aforementioned Christmas quiz.

Tammy was big on adaptations, and it is currently running two: “Queen Rider” by A. D. Langholm and “First Term at Trebizon” by Anne Digby. There is evidence that “Queen Rider” was another book to start life as a girls’ serial, as “Bad Bella” from Tammy annual 1976 has a very similar plot (no, not Bella Barlow, whose title in the same annual has been changed to the once-only “That Barlow Kid” to avoid confusion). “Bad Bella” is no doubt a reprint from somewhere. Update: we have received information that “Bad Bella” is reprinted from Sally.

This week’s Pony Tale has a decidedly feminist slant to it, where Jane Dunnet disguises herself a boy to take over her brother’s “Tiger” job to an aristocrat, as the family badly need the wages. Of course she is discovered in the end, but she has conducted herself so incredibly well that everyone is all the more impressed at her being a girl. 

Tammy 14 June 1980

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Cover artist: John Richardson

Bella (artist John Armstrong, writer Primrose Cumming)

Lucky By Name (artist Julian Vivas)

My “Brother” George (artist Mario Capaldi) – final episode

This is Your Life (artist John Richardson) – Strange Story from the Mists

My Shining Sister (artist Douglas Perry, writer Alison Christie) – final episode

Edie and Miss T (artist Joe Collins)

Donna Ducks Out (artist Diane Gabbot(t))

Bessie Bunter (artist Arthur Martin)

Peggy in the Middle (artist Tony Coleman)

The Sea Witches (artist Mario Capaldi)

One of the most impressive things about Bella is how unwavering her dedication to gymnastics is. However, there are times when something misdirects her from her mission in life. This week it’s a bit of luxury, which Bella is lapping up. But she is sharply reminded of where her path lies when she sees her favourite gymnast, Nelli Kim, on television. 

Two stories finish in this issue: “My ‘Brother’ George” and “My Shining Sister”. There is an open invitation from Tammy herself for readers to bring George back by popular demand, but George never returned to Tammy. Perhaps the demand just wasn’t high enough or ye Editor decided against a George sequel. Wee Sue, who has been absent from the merger since it started, will replace George next week, and a Georgio Giorgetti story, “Tina’s Telly Mum”, will replace the Douglas Perry story, “My Shining Sister”. So no return of Molly Mills just yet. However, Bessie, who was reduced to filler status with the merger, makes an appearance this week. 

“Lucky By Name” is now heading for its conclusion, for this week it hits its climax. Lucky, in tears at the thought that her father is about to sell her pony Fortune to make ends meet, desperately runs off with him. She and Fortune can’t possibly stay on the run for long of course, but this act is clearly going to lead to the resolution of the story.

“Donna Ducks Out” is also nearing its climax. Donna has to travel up north to retrieve the bathroom duck that somehow gives her the power to swim. She’s got a feeling it’s going to be her longest day ever, so now we really know the climax is about to start. 

“The Sea Witches” has not yet reached its climax, but this week it takes a step further towards it. The Sea Witches, who have the power to transform into geese and winter in the nesting grounds, are hitting back at thoughtless jet manoeuvres from an Airforce base, which are disturbing the nesting grounds. They’ve been using witchcraft to strike down the pilots, and this week they up the ante – witchcraft against the Base Commander’s daughter Amy. As Amy is an obnoxious spoiled brat, this might actually set her on a redemption path. 

Peggy, caught between her divorced parents who are fighting for custody of her, overhears something that she mustn’t be told. What bearing does this have on the upcoming custody battle?

This week’s Strange Story from the Mists looks like it was written for Misty (although it’s brought to us by the Storyteller). It’s one of the best, and it’s drawn by the ever-popular John Richardson. It appears below.

Tammy 7 June 1980

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Cover artist: John Richardson
 
Bella (artist John Armstrong, writer Primrose Cumming)
Lucky By Name (artist Julian Vivas)
My “Brother” George (artist Mario Capaldi)
The Puppet Master (artist Peter Wilkes) – Strange Story from the Mists
My Shining Sister (artist Douglas Perry, writer Alison Christie)
Donna Ducks Out (artist Diane Gabbot(t))
Edie and Miss T (artist Joe Collins)
Peggy in the Middle (artist Tony Coleman)
The Sea Witches (artist Mario Capaldi)
 
On the cover, it’s nice to see big sis getting one up over little sis. More often it was the other way around with the Cover Girl covers.

It’s been around six months since Misty merged with Tammy. Stories clearly scripted for Misty (The Sea Witches, The Puppet Master), as evidenced by their four-page spreads, are seeing publication, but Tammy stories (currently My Shining Sister, My “Brother” George, Lucky By Name, Donna Ducks Out and Peggy in the Middle) still outnumber the Misty ones. Misty was never given a fair presence in the merger, which was disappointing. Still, at least she had a long-lasting effect on Tammy, which lasted well into 1982. 
 
Bessie now appears intermittently, and Molly and Sue are on holiday. This allows room for more serials, so their presence is high. Bella is on her second bid for the Olympics, but as with the first, it is questionable as to whether she will even get there. She is stranded in Texas, desperately trying to raise money for fares, and she can’t find any apparatus to train on.