Tag Archives: Joe Collins

Tammy 6 January 1979 – Christmas issue

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Cover artist: John Richardson

Bella (artist John Armstrong, writer Primrose Cumming) – final episode

Bessie Bunter (artist Cecil Orr)

Dancer Entranced (artist Angeles Felices) – final episode

The Upper Crust (artist Giorgio Giorgetti)

Bella – Winning Letters

Edie (artist Joe Collins)

Giftorama – final part

Molly Mills and the TV Pioneer (artist Douglas Perry, writer Maureen Spurgeon) – final episode

The Christmas Fairy (artist Bob Harvey) – Strange Story

Wee Sue (artist Robert MacGillivray)

TEAM in Action (artist Carmona)

Greetings to All of Our Readers (artist Robert MacGillivray) – Christmas feature

Comparing Tammy to Jinty during the IPC strike in December 1978, it’s really weird to see how the titles were affected. This is Tammy’s full-on Christmas issue, but it’s dated 6 January 1979, and her previous issue was dated 23 December. What happened to the 30 December 1978 issue? We can only assume Tammy lost it because of the strike. Yet Jinty had her 30 December issue, with a cover caption celebrating the end of the strike. “Yippee! Your favourite paper is back!” But during the three previous weeks, there were no Jintys while the Tammys continued, although not in full size (not that you’d notice as the essentials were there). A note from the editor in this issue says Tammy is back to full size after three weeks of thinner Tammys. 

Christmas does not normally feature in Bella as her stories usually finish before the festive season starts. But this time, she goes right up to the Christmas issue and finishes her story with a Christmas feast in Australia. She sure is surprised to have Christmas in the heat of summer. Welcome to the Southern Hemisphere, Bella.  

Bella also gets a spread of letters on “We all love Bella because…” It’s reproduced here for insights on why Bella was so popular. No mention of what really sold Bella for me, though – how John Armstrong made those gymnastics moves so realistically anatomical it was mouthwatering. To this day, it remains unmatched. 

Molly Mills incorporates Christmas into the final episode of her story by having the TV pioneer help her make a special Christmas film for her family. In the days before home movies and Skype this must have been incredible for them.

Bessie and Mary Moldsworth go carol singing and fall foul of forgers, but they escape – thanks to Bessie’s hefty weight – and raise the alarm. The capture of the criminals is a relief for the police, as they were dreading having to sacrifice their Christmas hunting them. Bessie and Mary get a Christmas reward and Bessie gets the best present she could possibly have – food. 

Wee Sue also falls foul of criminals in her Christmas story. It’s a racket where crooks set themselves up as Store Santas to rob stores by hiding the loot in their Santa sacks. But the worst of it is how they give Santa a bad name by bullying the kids and giving them broken toys. 

In “The Upper Crust”, giving the kids at the orphanage broken toys thrown out of their homes is how the super-snobs of High Hills “do their best to brighten up the festive time for others”. Seeing this, Clarinda shows up with better presents for the kids. All of a sudden, the snobs are off to buy equally nice presents – they’re not going to be upstaged by her. 

The Storyteller brings us “The Christmas Fairy”, a fairy ornament of gypsy origin said to bring good luck and happiness each festive season. It must be said the family have had fantastic Christmases since they got the fairy, but this year the fairy is really put to the test when sister Kathy is in hospital in a coma just days before Christmas. Come Christmas Eve, her condition remains unchanged. Someone – or something – really needs to wave a magic wand, or the family will have an Unmerry Christmas.

Finally, on the back cover we have the Tammy gang all together for a Christmas feature (below), brought to us by the ever-popular Robert MacGillivray. 

It’s the final episode of “Dancer Entranced”, where Mesmeri’s metronome gives Trina Carr, a hopeless ballerina, the power to dance brilliantly via hypnotism, but being dependent on the metronome to dance has caused problems. She has to lose that dependency, something the final episode must resolve. Mesmeri himself provides the answer, and it’s one that takes Trina by surprise.

It looks like “TEAM in Action” is approaching its final episode as well. The girls finally have the school paper ready for binding and publication, but disaster strikes – cleaners sprucing up the school for inspection have chucked all their work in the trash!

Characters: Wee Sue, older Cover Girl (Tammy), Miss Bigger, younger Cover Girl (June), Edie, Bessie, Bella, Mary Moldsworth, Court House pupil.

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 14 October 1978

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Cover artist: John Richardson

Bella (artist John Armstrong, Primrose Cumming)

Maggie’s Menagerie (artist Tony Coleman)

Dancer Entranced (Angeles Felices)

Crawl, Carrie, Crawl (artist Escandell Torres) – final episode

Bessie Bunter (artist Cecil Orr)

Molly Mills and the Tender Trap (artist Douglas Perry, writer Maureen Spurgeon)

Wreck on Stormy Point (artist Veronica Weir) – Strange Story

Edie the Ed’s Niece (artist Joe Collins)

Wee Sue (artist Jim Eldridge)

Team in Action (artist Carmona)

Thanks to two spiteful rivals, Bella loses a competition she so badly needed to win in order to keep the coaching job that brought her to Australia. That means it’s the end of that job, “so what next?” As it turns out, as one door closes, another opens, for she gets a new job offer from that competition.

“Crawl, Carrie, Crawl” reaches its final episode, where Carrie risks her life swimming in stormy seas to save lives, which resolves all the plot threads for us to get our happy ending. Replacing it next week is a more lightweight story, “One Girl and Her Dog…”. It stars a dog who’s “the size of a donkey” and, from the looks of things, has the brains of Dopey.

“Maggie’s Menagerie” is clearly on its penultimate episode, for the inevitable has finally happened: Gran discovers the secret animal hoard Maggie hid on her houseboat. She’s not pleased, and she’s not the sort to allow them to stay, so what will happen to the animals?

“Dancer Entranced” and “Team in Action”, which started in the previous issue, begin to take the shape they will follow for the rest of their runs. In the former, Trina Carr, who seems hopeless at ballet, suddenly becomes brilliant at the ticking of a mesmerist’s metronome when he selects her as the subject of his hypnotist act. So, is hypnotism the answer to Trina’s problem? Although the mesmerist is then arrested as a charlatan, Trina certainly thinks so, but she needs to find out fast, as she’s being selected for a ballet school, and the only way to do that is to get hold of the metronome. In the latter, four disparate girls put in charge of a school newspaper begin to find their feet as journalists, and they’ve stumbled across a mystery that could be their first scoop. 

The district nurse falls for bully butler Pickering, believe it or not. Pickering kicks Molly out in drenching rain to set the nurse straight, but the silly nurse ends up thinking Molly is acting out of jealousy because she’s in love with Pickering herself. Holy love entanglement!

This week’s Strange Story is set at the seaside, where an old salt lends birdwatcher Lynn Hughes his telescope to get good views from Stormy Point. But what Lynn sees through the telescope is not quite what she expects.

Bessie is banned from sweets as a punishment, but – surprise, surprise – her tale ends with her being totally off sweets. 

This week’s Wee Sue story is about the demanding amounts of homework Miss Bigger is always dishing out. Sue strikes problems in getting it done, including falling foul of two homework dodgers. She also has a new artist, one who may be Barrie Mitchell, Jim Eldridge or someone using a similar style. A sample is included below for anyone who may be able to help identify the artist. Update: we now believe the artist is Jim Eldridge.

Tammy 7 October 1978

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Cover artist: John Richardson

  • Bella (artist John Armstrong, writer Primrose Cumming)
  • Maggie’s Menagerie (artist Tony Coleman)
  • Dancer Entranced (artist Angeles Felices) – first episode
  • Crawl, Carrie, Crawl (artist Escandell Torres)
  • Edie the Ed’s Niece (artist Joe Collins)
  • Bessie Bunter (artist Cecil Orr)
  • Molly Mills and the Tender Trap (artist Douglas Perry, writer Maureen Spurgeon) – first episode
  • Family Tree (artist Diane Gabbot(t)) – Strange Story
  • Wee Sue (artist Robert MacGillivray)
  • Team in Action (artist Carmona) – first episode
  • Learn to Like Lacrosse! – Edie’s Hobbyhorse

At this stage in Tammy’s run she had the “reader’s cover idea”, where readers were invited to provide ideas for the Tammy Cover Girl covers, with money as prizes. This week’s “reader’s cover idea” was one of the most brilliant of them all. The cover rates as one of Tammy’s best, being so quirky, hilarious and a standout you can never forget. Pity they didn’t use the other cover idea on the cover, of the Cover Girls riding in a UFO, for an actual cover. It would have been really something.

Inside, three new stories start. The first is one of Tammy’s most popular and enduring ballet stories, “Dancer Entranced”. Some of its imminent plot elements (hypnotism, dancing to a ticking instrument) may have influenced Tammy’s “Slave of the Clock” some years later. Trina Carr is pushed by her father into ballet and follow in her famous mother’s footsteps. We see so much of this kind of thing in girls’ comics, but at least Dad’s doing it in a well-meaning, overenthusiastic way rather than the more usual single-minded, forceful way. Trine can’t bring herself to tell him she’s not even making progress in her class, and it looks like she has the proverbial two left feet. Now Dad’s entered her in his boss’s talent contest to show off her ballet talent. Is his bright idea going to have Trina make an utter fool of herself?

The second is a new Molly Mills story, and it’s one of the most unorthodox but popular ones in her run: The Tender Trap. District nurse Miss Key, not realising how horrible bully butler Pickering is, falls in love with him (yes!). A misunderstanding gives Miss Key the impression that Pickering is reciprocating her love, so there’ll be no stopping the lovelorn fool pestering him now.

The third is “Team in Action”. Four disparate girls, Toni, Ellie, Anthea and Maggie, start at boarding school together. Discovering their initials spell “T.E.A.M.”, it becomes their moniker when the headmistress puts them in charge of the school newspaper, “Action”, which they are to save from its current doldrums. Their form teacher, Miss Gravell, is understandably upset at them taking over the editorship of the school journal that was her brainchild, so she is not particularly friendly towards them. Two problems already before the girls have even started on the journal.

Just when it’s a contest Bella badly needs to win in order to retain her coaching job, everything causes her to lose. Normally, Bella’s determination can get her through a competition if the odds stack up against her, but this time there are just too many guns: spiteful rivals stirring up trouble for her in the press, everyone staring at her and whispering behind her back, newshounds dogging her at every turn and a well-meaning audience who cheer for her, but their applause keeps disrupting her concentration during her performances, which causes her marks to fall well short of medals. But she’s such a favourite with the audience that they go berserk at her poor marks, and a riot seems imminent. Elements of this were recycled in another gymnastics contest Bella enters some years later.

Miss Bigger’s got her eye on a job with a tutor’s job with a sheikh. Sue’s out to make sure she gets it – anything to get rid of the old tartar. Will she succeed, or will it be back to the old status quo again?

“Crawl, Carrie, Crawl” is nearing its end. Well, it’s the end of the crawling Carrie’s had to do at school to help keep her family afloat with her swim coaching job with a demanding employer while Dad’s out of work. Now Dad’s landed a job, but with none other than Carrie’s former employer – and she antagonised him by giving him a piece of her mind when she quit her own job with him. Now this could cost Dad his new job – unless something happens, and quick!

Doggone it! Bessie lodges a food contamination complaint in the hope of a free sample as compensation – only to find her free sample is dog food.

The old maxim “look after me and I’ll look after you” gets put to the test in this week’s Strange Story, “Family Tree”. Another lesson in this story might be to not to focus on looking after one thing all the time – other things need attention too. The protagonist is understandably angry at having to go without all the time because her cash-strapped mother puts all her financial priorities into maintaining a heritage tree.

“Maggie’s Menagerie” is a secret animal hoarding story. Maggie Crown is staying on her Gran’s barge while her parents are away, but Gran is not an animal person and would freak at the animals Maggie is secretly hiding. So far, she’s managed to keep the secret from Gran, but how long can it last? It looks like someone else has caught her now.







	

	
	


							


	

		
				

			Tammy 30 September 1978
		

		
		

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Cover artist: John Richardson 





Bella (artist John Armstrong, writer Primrose Cumming)





Maggie’s Menagerie (artist Tony Coleman)





Crawl, Carrie, Crawl (Escandell Torres)





Double – or Nothing! (artist Diane Gabbot(t)) – final episode





Bessie Bunter (artist Arthur Martin)





Molly Mills and the Maid of Mystery (artist Douglas Perry, writer Maureen Spurgeon) – final episode





Distant Drums (artist Peter Wilkes) – Strange Story





Edie the Ed’s Niece (artist Joe Collins)





Wee Sue (artist Robert MacGillivray)





A Bus in the Family (artist Giorgio Giorgetti) – final episode





Edie’s Hobbyhorse – No-Snow Skiing





It should be a moment of well-deserved heroism for Bella, saving a baby’s life. But things turn sour when someone feeds the press a toxic slant about her beginnings, and she can guess who: two British rivals she unwittingly antagonised are making good on their threats against her. Bella can’t perform properly with those stares and everyone whispering about her, including those two nasty girls. And now she’s got a rash. Can she even enter the contest, much less win through, with so many things going wrong for her?





Three stories end this week. We can guess why two crooks have been chasing “A Bus in the Family” all over Europe on a school trip: there’s something hidden on board. They finally catch up – only discover their hidden treasure was removed from the bus when it was cleaned up before it departed for Europe. There have been long-standing clashes of social class divides as well as temperaments and personalities in “Double – or Nothing!”, but Gran finally comes up with the solution to make the double tennis final a happy one. The third to end is Molly’s latest story. She begins a new story next week, along with two new stories.





“Crawl, Carrie, Crawl” looks like it’s nearing its end too. Carrie’s dad finally gets a job so she thinks she can stop the crawling performance she’s had to do at school while she conducts her secret job to help her family, plus cope with a bad back. But it’s not the end of the story yet, and we’ve been advised to wait and see if things are going to turn out as Carrie thinks. 





So far, Maggie has managed to keep up her secret menagerie on Gran’s house boat. These pesky animals are causing problems, and now Maggie’s got to mind the house boat on her own as Gran is visiting their friend Yorkie in hospital. 





This week’s Strange Story is also about pesky pet problems, in this case trying to domesticate a lion cub. What makes it a Strange Story is how Dad finally realises lion cubs are wild animals, not pets.





Horoscopes feature in this week’s Bessie Bunter story. The trouble the horoscope page causes Bessie leaves her feeling horror-scoped. At the end of it, Mary Moldsworth tells Bessie she received the wrong horoscope because she got it wrong about being Pisces (born 19 February); she is in fact Aquarius. Neither of them realise it was Mary who had it wrong and Bessie who had it right: 19 February is the first day of Pisces. So why was the horoscope such a horror-scope? Guess it’s one up for the sceptics.





In Wee Sue, a community club starts a house-painting project for old people. When Sue is teamed up with two girls who don’t want her, they cause trouble for her. But it all blows up in their faces while Sue ends up on the right side of Miss Bigger for once. 






	

	
	


							


	

		
				

			Tammy 17 January 1981
		

		
		

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Bella (artist John Armstrong, writer Primrose Cumming)





Wee Sue (artist Hugh Thornton-Jones)





Push-along, Patti (artist Juliana Buch)





Two Leads for Luther (artist Mario Capaldi) – final episode





Tune-In – feature 





Belinda Bookworm (artist Giorgio Giorgetti) – first episode





Molly Mills and the Winter of Discontent (artist Douglas Perry, writer Maureen Spurgeon)





Behind the Locked Door! (artist Peter Wilkes) – Strange Story from the Mists





Edie and Miss T (artist Joe Collins)





Bessie Bunter (artist Arthur Martin)





Rita, My Robot Friend (artist Tony Coleman)





Four stories – Bessie, Wee Sue, Molly Mills and the Winter of Discontent, and Edie and Miss T – remind us that it’s still the freezing winter season. For Molly & Co, it’s an outright fight for survival when the snow cuts Stanton Hall off from the outside world. They’re on their own, but how long can they keep it up, and how can they get help? To add to Molly’s problems, the crisis doesn’t stop Pickering picking on her. Wee Sue & Co have a winter battle on their hands as well. They are up against meanie Miss Bigger’s economy drive, which entails cutting off the school heating in winter cold, leaving them to freeze in class while she keeps herself warm with secret thermals. While Bigger’s back is turned, the girls turn to disco dancing and loud music-making to keep warm, but the noise soon leads to discovery. Things are about to get hot for the girls, but it’s the winter snow to the rescue. It also puts the freeze on Miss Bigger’s economy drive and gives the girls the rest of the day off school. Hooray!





A disastrous talent contest for Bella has an unexpected result – a gymnastics coach named Mrs Carne spots her and offers to train her. But from the start, there is definitely something strange about this woman. It’s unsettling, and it has us worried about what Bella might be getting herself into. 





This week’s Strange Story is a “curiosity killed the cat” tale, featuring maidservant Poppy Higgs at a Victorian lodging house. Poppy won’t stop snooping into the lodgers’ belongings despite the warnings, clips around the ear and now threats of dismissal from her angry mistress. One guest in particular rouses her curiosity – but she is soon cured of her curiosity when it leads to a bad fright at “some horror from the grave!”, a fall downstairs and a dislocated arm (which is quickly treated). And what was that horror from the grave, you ask? Just a doctor’s skeleton.





They say a man can’t have two masters. Neither can a dog, as “Two Leads for Luther” shows. Two friends, Kim and Lisa, inherit a dog, Luther, but it’s led to constant arguments, heaps of trouble and a strain on their friendship because they have opposing views on how to take care of him. Luther’s had enough of the bickering and runs off, leaving them both in tears. The story ends with the girls making a deal that if they find him, only one of them will be his mistress. The clincher will be whoever he runs to first. They succeed in finding him, and now it’s the moment of decision. Will Luther choose Kim or Lisa, and what about the girl he doesn’t choose?





We now have three stories where girls are made miserable and friendless at school by mean classmates. For “Push-along Patti”, it’s just because she has no bike. When all she can get is a push bike, the school bikers turn up their noses at it and her. What a bunch of snobs. You’re too nice for them, Patti. Angelina keeps Jenny James ostracised at school, just because she doesn’t like her grandfather, so Jenny has turned to “Rita, My Robot Friend” for companionship. This week, there’s a new problem for Jenny in keeping the secret of Rita from Angelina: the science teacher turns on a huge magnet and unwittingly starts magnetising Rita’s metal parts. And in new story “Belinda Bookworm”, Belinda Binder is scorned by everyone at school, and also picked on by the school sports stars, because she is a bookworm and apparently hopeless at sport. But when she discovers she might have a sports talent after all and just needs confidence, training and a chance to prove it, she sets out to secretly train as an athlete – in the school library of all places – when she is dropped from games at school.






	

	
	


							


	

		
				

			Tammy 14 March 1981
		

		
		

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Bella (artist John Armstrong, writer Primrose Cumming)





The Ancient Ones (artist Veronica Weir) – Strange Story from the Mists





Belinda Bookworm (artist Giorgio Giorgetti)





Push-Along Patti (artist Juliana Buch) – final episode





New for Nights – Feature 





Pop Poster Part 3





Molly Mills at Castle Craygarry (artist Douglas Perry, writer Maureen Spurgeon) – first episode





Bessie Bunter (artist Arthur Martin)





Spirit Rappers (artist Ken Houghton) – Strange Story from the Mists





Edie and Miss T (artist Joe Collins)





The Black and White World of Shirley Grey (artist Diane Gabbot(t), writer Jake Adams?)





Mrs Carne is one of Bella’s more disturbing coaches. She pushes Bella too hard, her mental state is questionable, and she even seems to have a power over her. Bella’s friends have grown so concerned they try to pull her out. When Bella resists, the sheer force causes the balcony they are on to collapse, and they’re all threatening to fall. Oh dear, are we going to see some hospital cases next week?





It’s the final episode of “Push-Along Patti”. After being picked on at school because she only has a push bike while her classmates have flash models, Patti Collins finally settles things with the bullies and decides her push bike is all she wants. Next week we see two new stories: “No Haven for Hayley” and “High-Rise Hazel”. The blurb for Hayley is unusual in that it has a spot panel drawn especially for it, instead of the usual practice of using a panel or a bodged composite panel from the story. The spot panel does such an impressive job of summing up the premise of the story that the blurb is included here.










Bessie makes one of the filler appearances she has been reduced to since the Misty merger. She enters a carving competition, but she soon discovers she is better at eating food than carving it and lands in hot water. Her punishment leaves her feeling all carved up. 





“Belinda Bookworm” finds her secret training to become sporty like the girls who pick on her is beginning to pay off. But now it’s about to face a big test when she falls from the skylight into the school swimming pool. She has been training for diving and swimming, but not in real water. Will her secret training pay off again, or will she find herself in deep water this time?





This week we have a double helping of Strange Stories, both of which feature pranks that take a sinister turn. One of them, “Spirit Rappers”, appears below. If you’ve ever been plagued by pesky kids who keep ringing your doorbell and running off, then this one’s for you. Plus, it is drawn by the ever-popular Ken Houghton.





Molly starts a new story. Stanton Hall is off to Scotland to participate in a film shoot. Sounds exciting? It should be, but they’re off to a bad start when they arrive. They’re spending the night in a power blackout because the power generator has broken down. Next week we find out if things brighten up. 





In the space of only one day, “The Black and White World of Shirley Grey” has grown blacker and blacker for Shirley because she keeps going to extremes about not telling lies after blaming herself for her best friend’s accident. After a long, horrible day of it, she comes home dreading her parents’ reaction when they hear she’s blown it again with the boss’s wife for being too truthful about her attire (“hideous”) and now Dad’s got no promotion. Their reaction is even worse than she expects: Mum goes into hysterics and bawling that she’s going to have a nervous breakdown. What a drama queen. Well, you can’t have seen the worst yet, Mum and Dad. The trouble that’s already started will surely escalate, and Shirley’s extreme truth-telling is bound to cause even more trouble as, despite all your yelling and screaming about it (“Oh, not that again!”), you’re not getting through to her at all. What’s more, you’re too focused on yourselves to even consider where it’s going to all end up for Shirley – which is bound to be something dire before the story gets to its resolution.





















	

	
	


							


	

		
				

			Tammy 19 April 1980
		

		
		

			1980, Issues, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 					

	


		

		






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
		

		
		

			1980, Issues, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 					

	


		

		






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?