Tag Archives: Eduardo Feito

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. 

Princess #25, 10 March 1984

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

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

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

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

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

Princess #24, 3 March 1984

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

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

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

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

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

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

Princess #22, 18 February 1984

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  • Sheena and the Treetoppers (artist Rodrigo Comos)
  • The Saddest Dog in Town (artist Eduardo Feito)
  • Rowena of the Doves (artist Peter Wilkes)
  • Flight from the Romanys (artist Maria Dembilio) – first episode
  • How Trendy are You? Quiz
  • Horse from the Sea (artist Rodrigo Comos)
  • The Runaway Clown (artist José Canovas? or Miguel Faster?)
  • Stefa’s Heart of Stone (artist Phil Townsend, writer Alison Christie)
  • Sadie in Waiting (artist Joe Collins)
  • Laura in the Lyon’s Den! (artist Bob Harvey)

Princess is now running on the same print as Tammy, and her stories are a mix of her own and reprints from Tammy and Jinty. Former Jinty readers would have been crying if they knew “Stefa’s Heart of Stone” was being reprinted here, as she was one of Jinty’s most popular stories and there was huge demand for a reprint in the 1980 Pam’s Poll. As Stefa, a long serial, is still in her early episodes in a title that will merge with Tammy in six issues, it is no wonder she carried over into the merger. Other reprints are Jinty’s Horse from the Sea (which enabled some of the original artwork to survive) and Tammy’s Rowena of the Doves. 

Sheena has a lead to save her treehouse from being demolished. It’s the old lost will scenario that could save the property if found, but where the %#$*!@ is it? Sheena decides to go and check the old mansion on the property, but what a spooky place it is. It’s a test of nerves.

Sammy, the saddest dog in town, can’t find his original owners. He has good friends to help, but their hopes of finding Sammy’s owners are dashed again this week. 

Spoiled, rebellious Laura is put to work in the kitchen of Mrs Lyon’s store. She is beginning to surprise herself in enjoying the work and even defending old battle-axe Lyon. 

The Runaway Clown is now training as a wire walker. But her trainer won’t let her use a safety net and she’s only a beginner. Yikes! 

An upcoming merger isn’t stopping Princess from starting new stories. This week it’s Flight from the Romanys, where a high-class girl, Lydia Parks, gets kidnapped by gypsies to be their slave. What a shock to the system for such a sheltered, pampered girl. At least Lydia is not a spoiled brat, so she’s an instant sympathetic character. 

In Sadie in Waiting, Grovel the grovelling butler tries his hand at cooking because Princess Bee is entertaining an Eastern princess. Desert rat stew, scorpion soup, sheep’s eyes and camel steak are on his menu and the gags for the story (including the gagging we readers are doing already).

Tammy 6 November 1982

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Cover artist: Juliana Buch

A Horse Called September (artist Eduardo Feito, writer Anne Digby)

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

Hand of Fortune – complete story (artist Juliana Buch, writer Ray Austen) 

Tomorrow Town (artist José Casanovas, writer Benita Brown)

Fathers’ Footsteps – first episode (artist John Johnston, writer Gerry Finley-Day)

Nanny Young (artist Phil Gascoine, writer Tom Newland)

Rae Rules O.K. (artist Tony Coleman, writer Gerry Finley-Day)

Bella (artist John Armstrong, writer Primrose Cumming)

For Guy Fawkes, we bring you the Tammy Guy Fawkes issue from 1982, with a nice cover from Juliana Buch. Inside, Buch illustrates a spooky complete, “Hand of Fortune”, about a promising pianist whose music career seems dashed when she damages her hand. Then something – or someone – takes a hand to lead her to an even better career path as a violinist. 

“A Horse Called September”, “Rae Rules O.K.”, “Tomorrow Town” and the current Pond Hill story are all on their penultimate episodes. So we should expect quite a big lineup of new stories starting soon, some of which are presumably part of the buildup to Christmas.

Meanwhile, a new story starts, “Fathers’ Footsteps”. It is one of those comical family feud serials. What are the two families fighting over? Scottish dancing vs. Morris dancing. Caught in the middle of the feud (as usual with these types of stories) are the daughters from the families, who never wear anything but school uniform, even on weekends. Ditto the two scheming girls whose tricks on both families make the feud even worse.

Nanny Young finally seems to be making headway with spoiled Elmer, but his father sticks his foot in it, sending things back to square one for poor Nanny.

Bella arrives in a Muslim country for her new job as a gymnastics coach. The job pays well, and it makes a change, coaching gymnastics in a palace. But the Islamic culture is already causing problems for Bella, especially when it clashes with her independent streak. And in a country where females are expected to know their lowly place, things look set for a lot of clashing. 

Tammy 30 October 1982

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Cover artist: Bob Harvey

A Horse Called September (artist Eduardo Feito, writer Anne Digby)

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

Bella – new story (artist John Armstrong, writer Primrose Cumming)

Nanny Young (artist Phil Gascoine, writer Tom Newland)

There’s Magic at Halloween… (artist Ted Andrews, writer Maureen Spurgeon) – quiz

Cross on Court – final episode (artist Mario Capaldi, writer Gerry Finley-Day)

Tomorrow Town (artist José Casanovas, John Johnston as filler artist on two pages, writer Benita Brown)

Rae Rules O.K. (artist Tony Coleman, writer Gerry Finley-Day)

Slave of the Clock – final episode (artist Maria Barrera, writer Jay Over)

For this year’s Halloween issue, we profile the Halloween issue from Tammy 1982. Pam and Co lead it off with a nice Halloween party cover, which is one of my favourites. Although Pam and Co aren’t in Halloween costume, they’re giving us laughs in tricking as well as treating. Inside, we have a Halloween quiz and on the back a Halloween feature on suggestions for your Halloween party. Sue, Molly, the Storyteller and Bessie are no longer around to help give things more Halloween flavour. There’s no complete story to help with the Halloween theme either, but there isn’t room for one anyway.

Two stories say goodbye this week. The first is “Cross on Court”, where Sarah Cross’s efforts to control her temper are tested beyond limits she didn’t expect, and she amazes herself at how she pulled through. Now she has full confidence she can handle her temper. The second is the Tammy classic “Slave of the Clock”, where Madame Margolia (who is more frightening than any Halloween costume) finally realises that hypnotising apathetic ballet students into dancing whenever they hear a clock ticking is not the way to make them more dedicated to ballet. She reverses that hypnotism on Alison Thorne after seeing it has only caused trouble (what else did you expect, lady?). Madame Margolia then redeems herself a bit with hypnotism on Alison’s friend Kathy to cure her of a psychosomatic limp.

“A Horse Called September” (one of Tammy’s adaptations of the Anne Digby books), “Rae Rules O.K.”, “Tomorrow Town” and the current Pond Hill story are clearly approaching their conclusions, so new stories can’t be far off. 

Nanny Young has her hands full with a spoiled rich boy, Elmer, and his difficult behaviour. And now the rotten brat’s run off! 

Bella starts a new story. A cleaning job in a hotel leads to another job in the Islamic country of Ramaski, where she is again coaching gymnastics. Her pupils are none other than the Shah’s daughters. As Bella is about to find out, the job is not only going to be a clash of wills with yet more spoiled rich kids but also with the Islamic culture, patriarchal traditions, and backlash from fundamentalists. 

Tammy 20 August 1983

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Cover artist: John Armstrong

Namby Pamby (artist Eduardo Feito, writer Ian Mennell)

Bella (artist John Armstrong, writer Primrose Cumming)

Welcome, Stranger! (artist Douglas Perry, writer Chris Harris) – Pony Tale

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

Holiday Miss Title! (writer Maureen Spurgeon) – Quiz 

Fate – or Fortune? (artist Carlos Freixas, writer Maureen Spurgeon) – complete story

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

Backhand Play (artist Phil Gascoine, writer Ian Mennell)

Make Your Mind Up, Maggie (artist Juliana Buch)

Pretty Tidy (Chris Lloyd) – feature 

We had this issue before, but the post disappeared for some reason. So here it is again for 1983 issue in our Tammy August month round. 

Inside is one of the most historic moments in the saga of Bella Barlow – the moment when her arch-antagonists, Jed and Gert Barlow, make their final bow and disappear from her strip for good. We never thought we’d see the day. This was an astonishing move for Tammy to take, and we have to wonder what was behind it. Did ye Editor get tired of them or something? Anyway, good riddance to them. Our only regret is that although they had their karmic low points (including prison), they were never really punished for their treatment of Bella. 

In our other stories, Pam’s ridiculously overprotective mother does it again in “Namby Pamby”. The moment she hears Pam’s in a swimming match, she races to the pool, barrelling through the crowd and screaming hysterics, just because she thinks her precious little baby’s catching a chill. Oh, for crying out loud! Pauline Wheeler thinks she’s found “Room for Rosie” pretty quickly, but the new home falls through, so back to square one. No doubt this will be the first in a long string of failed homes before Rosie finds the One. “Backhand Play” is now on its penultimate episode, and it sets the stage for the final one: showdown between the tennis club and their backhand-playing tennis officer, Terry Knightly’s uncle, who’s now making an utter mockery of tennis. And the complications over juggling between riding and ballet get even worse for Maggie in “Make Your Mind Up, Maggie”.

Tammy’s complete stories are now the Button Box series, a Pony Tale series, and a self-contained complete story, a number of which had a supernatural theme. Some of them were reprints of Strange Stories, others were totally new and credited, giving us insight as to who might have written the spooky completes of the past.

Tammy and Misty 1 August 1981

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Cover artist: John Armstrong

Bella (artist John Armstrong)

The Breaking of Faith (artist Giorgio Giorgetti)

Wee Sue (artist Mike White)

Linda’s Fox (artist and writer Ron Tiner) – final episode

Are You Set for Summer? (artist John Johnston, writer Maureen Spurgeon) – quiz

The Look of Things (artist Jaume Rumeu) – Strange Story from the Mists

Tune-in (pop and TV gossip feature)

Bessie Bunter (artist Arthur Martin)

No Love for Lindy (artist Eduardo Feito) – first episode

Stella Stirrer (artist Tony Coleman)

For the first Tammy issue for August 1981, Bella takes over the cover spot after Sandy finished last week. Oh dear, no sooner is Bella back on the cover when she’s really put her foot in it by thinking circus tricks (learned from the circus she is staying at) would impress the judges at a gymnastics competition. Now she realises it was one of her worst mistakes, never, ever to be repeated. It not only makes her lose badly but also causes terrible trouble when the audience reacts angrily to the marking. Still, anyone who’s read Bella for long enough will know that when a competition goes badly for her, it means she’s about to undergo a new course in plot direction. Sure enough, somebody comes to the circus wanting to speak to her. Whether for good or bad, it’s definitely the upcoming plot change. 

Bessie’s appearances have grown more intermittent since the Misty merger, but she appears this week. Stackers has the pupils making calendars for a sale of work, but soon finds out Bessie is about as good at making calendars as she is at classwork. 

Tammy’s August issues always had a focus on getting us primed for summer and holidays. Sure enough, her first August issue for 1981 has a summer quiz. The Strange Story from the Mists has a holiday theme, with the Carstairs family on holiday in Malaysia. Unfortunately, daughter Geraldine is spoiling things with her rudeness towards anything or anyone she does not consider attractive. She even throws a stone at a tortoise, calling it “such an ugly-looking brute”. Geraldine’s parents don’t look like they are doing much to crack down on her conduct, but punishment comes, of course. Geraldine is cursed to see nothing but the face of a mysterious old lady she didn’t find attractive. The curse lifts by the time Geraldine returns home, but it would surely have been otherwise if the story had appeared in the original Misty. August is also time for shopping. Wee Sue goes Christmas shopping in August while she has the money, but eventually she uses her Christmas shopping to help some hard-up kids who want to celebrate a birthday, and they hold an August Christmas birthday party. Now, that’s the Christmas spirit! And Tammy is offering holiday coupons.

The new story, “No Love for Lindy”, looks like it could be following similar lines to Sandy Rawlings; perhaps it is the same writer. As with Sandy, the protagonist (Lindy Allen) tells her own story and there’s a boyfriend figure. He’s the only thing making staying at the Westons (who turned out to be no better than the countless failed foster families Lindy’s had already) worthwhile. 

“Linda’s Fox”, written and drawn by Ron Tiner, finishes this week. It sounds like writing a girls’ story was a new experience for Tiner, but he did very well on it, and it must have been a popular story. It was one of my favourites, anyway. The ending is well crafted and thought out in how it handles the clearing of Linda’s father, what happens once he’s out, and keeping Linda’s friendship with Ross the fox intertwined. Tiner ought to be proud of it. Its replacement next week is a repeat of a popular 1976 Giorgio Giorgetti story, “Tag Along Tania”.

Speaking of Giorgetti, his current story, “The Breaking of Faith”, is now on its penultimate episode. Faith discovers the truth about her friend Claire after (finally) checking things out at the home Claire was staying at. Now she has to decide what to do. Her decision will certainly involve what to do about Claire running away, terrified of her finding out the truth.

“Stella Stirrer” saves her friend Katie from drowning in the school swimming pool although she can’t swim. Later, she’s back to stirring things up for snobby Harriet when she discovers Harriet has stolen the credit for the rescue!