School for Snobs (artist J. Badesa, writer Pat Mills)
The Duchess of Dead-End Drive (artist John Richardson) – first episode
Little Lady Jane – cartoon
Leader of the Pack (artist Douglas Perry) – first episode
Jeannie and Her Uncle Meanie (artist Robert MacGillivray)
No Tears for Molly (artist Tony Thewenetti, writer Maureen Spurgeon)
Two new stories start this week. John Richardson didn’t draw many serials for girls’ comics, but he draws one of them, “The Duchess of Dead-End Drive”. Not a real duchess – it’s a comedy serial starring a lady who styles herself as an aristocrat in a slum area, and it’s off to an impressive start with a four-page spread instead of the usual three. The other is a Douglas Perry story, “Leader of the Pack”, about a dog who seems to have strange abilities.
If there’s one thing “School for Snobs” has shown us, it’s just about anything can make a snob out of someone. We’ve seen antique snobs and military snobs among others. This week, it’s a music snob who only cares about classical music. After the Hermione Snoot treatment, she’s happily playing bagpipes.
Poor Sue saves Miss Bigger from trouble twice this week, but all she gets is a ticking-off from her in front of the class. At least Sue takes it philosophically: “Ah, well – life’s full of ups and downs – ‘specially with Miss Bigger around!”
“The Clothes Make Carol” gets a six-page spread this week. Carol has grown more confident in standing up to her abusive family when she gets a mysterious blazer that seems to have magic powers. The family have caught on about the blazer and apparently destroy it, at which Carol reverts to her old mousy self. But her confidence is on the rise again when the blazer turns up, perfectly intact.
Uncle Meanie gets into more of his dodgy penny-pinching schemes when an encyclopaedia salesman comes calling. And for once, he gets away with it.
One of the weirdest Molly stories concludes this week, and it leaves more questions than answers. Bully butler Pickering thinks he is being haunted by the ghost of a labourer who had an accident because of him. He becomes so terrified he almost throws himself to his death and then jumps out of a window in fright when he sees the man in hospital. However, it turns out the man is not dead and been in the hospital the whole time. So who – or what – was haunting Pickering? One thing’s for sure: the bully butler remains as bad as ever. For the moment, Molly is safe from him as the haunting saga has left him all banged up, but he warns her to watch out when he recovers. We suppose he’s taking it out on her, as usual.
Star Struck Sister (artist Giorgio Giorgetti, writer Jenny McDade)
A Tammy Outfit Idea (feature)
Alison All Alone – final episode
Talk It Over with Trudy – problem page
Skimpy Must Ski! (artist Tom Hurst)
The Secret Ballerina (artist Roy Newby)
Maisie’s Magic Eye (Robert MacGillivray)
Cinderella Spiteful (artist José Casanovas)
No Tears for Molly (artist Tony Thewenetti, writer Maureen Spurgeon)
A Special Tammy Portrait – Dave Cassidy
Tammy is three weeks into her first new year and approaching her first birthday. How has she developed so far? There have been some changes. Initially, she started off with too much emphasis on misery-laden stories with girls exploited by cruel employers/racketeers, attending harsh schools, or being treated like Cinderella by guardians. She was seriously lacking in lightweight stories for balance and another mainstay of girls comics – sport. Nearly a year on, she has struck more balance with her stories, thanks in part to the Sally merger, and there is more variety in her themes, although she remains strong and proud on abused heroines and cruel guardians/employers. One story, “Gina – Get Lost”, carries on the theme, and another, “Alison All Alone”, finishes this week.
Speaking of Cinderella, the title “Cinderella Spiteful” puts a twist in it, but the plot has no bearing on Cinderella. Emma is staying with relatives but feels overshadowed by her brilliant cousin Angela. This week, Emma sets out prove herself at hockey, and when Angela falls ill, she seizes her chance. Next week will tell if it works out.
Ballet was also a frequent presence in Tammy from the first. Her current ballet story, “The Secret Ballerina”, is now on its penultimate episode, but there is sure to be another ballet story starting soon.
Humour was non-existent in the early Tammy, but now she has a bit more of it, with “Maisie’s Magic Eye”, from the Sally merger, and a regular cartoon, “Lulu”.
Sport began to pick up in Tammy as her first year progressed. Among them was “Skimpy Must Ski!”, which started in Tammy’s first Christmas issue. Despite being a semi-invalid, Skimpy wants to learn to ski, but she hasn’t gotten off to a good start. Grandad almost stops her skiing after she nearly dies in a night ski, and now he himself has a bad accident while trying to help her. “Beattie Beats ‘Em All”, who started when Sally joined Tammy, makes sport a regular in Tammy, and she offsets the misery-enduring Tammy heroines with a feisty personality that won’t be beat.
Bella Barlow is still two years in the future, but Beattie shares some parallels with her: sports-crazy, outspoken, speaks with a Cockney accent, orphaned but free-spirited and determined to look after herself and stay out of “care”, and drawn by John Armstrong. The Bella team must have drawn some inspiration from Beattie.
Meanwhile, the gymnastics we see in Tammy right now is in “Amanda Must Not Be Expelled”, a gym-crazy girl who keeps getting herself expelled so she can go home to her gymnasium (like the school doesn’t have one too?). Her new friends keep trying to keep her from being expelled because they want her on the school gymnastics team. They manage it again this week, but how long can they keep it up? It’s not long before Amanda gets up to more tricks. After Amanda, there were no gymnastics stories in Tammy until Bella herself started in 1974, probably because Olympic gymnasts like Olga Korbut had put more spotlight on the sport. As Bella’s popularity grew, gymnastics really made its mark in Tammy. This was not just with the Bella stories and frequent comments on how popular she was, but also the Bella features and gymnastics-related competitions that she spawned in Tammy, plus getting her own book in 1981.
The mysterious Duchess, who always keeps herself veiled, is on a crusade to help mistreated dogs. Pity she doesn’t treat Doris, the servant who helps with her campaign, with the same kindness she does the dogs. She punished Doris so harshly for failure that she collapsed, and when Doris asks the Duchess why she wears the veil, the Duchess slaps her. Another abused Tammy heroine, but it’s interesting to have an abuser who isn’t the usual sadistic/exploitative type in Tammy. Instead, it seems to be a case of the abuser having a psychological problem, and it’s clearly linked with what’s hidden under that veil and why.
An intriguing history of “Star Struck Sister” has been disclosed on the internet. Jenny McDade, who went on to become the first Bella Barlow writer, says “Star Struck Sister” was the first story she ever wrote for girls’ comics. A previous writer had “choked on” the story after the first episode, so she was commissioned to write the rest. The story itself concerns two sisters, Stella and Lesley, who are offered film parts, but the director is only interested in Stella, leading to jealousy from Lesley. So far this hasn’t led to anything really spiteful, but we know something will happen. Meanwhile, Stella wants to help hungry street urchins. How will it work out?
When it came to Molly stories about new/temporary servants, you could be sure of two things: first, they would bring trouble with them, and second, they would be gone by the end of the story, never to be seen or mentioned again. Mr Jenks, the butler standing in for Pickering when he is hospitalised, is no exception. Unlike Pickering, he’s a good sort. Unfortunately, he’s hopeless at running the staff – again unlike Pickering, whose slave-driving style at least kept them working – so work’s gone to pot at Stanton Hall. Jenks takes his leave now, but on good terms.
No Tears for Molly (artist Tony Thewenetti, writer Maureen Spurgeon) – new story
What is a Starlet? – Competition
Is the tramp on the cover at a low point or a high? Being down-and-out might be a real low point, but with all those Tammys covering him, you’d think he’d be on a high. Meanwhile, inside the issue, there are a lot of low points for Tammy progatonists this week, though some of them indicate climaxes and approaching resolutions.
First, it’s the climax of “The Gypsy Gymnast” this week when Ann Rudge hits her lowest point and runs away from home. But now she finds herself leaping from the frying pan into the fire when she takes refuge with her mysterious gymnastics coach, only to discover she has a criminal past. Now she’s a prisoner, to be forced into crime. The police have heard Ann’s cries for help, but will they rescue her?
Next is “Nell Nobody”, who follows in the footsteps of the groundbreaking “Little Miss Nothing”. Nell Ewart is yanked out of school to slog at a hot dog stand to raise the money for her spoiled cousin Rosie’s acting school fees. The great irony of the story is that Nell is the one with the talent for showbiz, not Rosie. Nell’s skill with puppetry gives her a break at a TV studio, but this week she hits her lowest point when Rosie pulls a trick that gets her sacked from the studio. Poor Nell is back to the hot dog stand while Rosie worms her way into the TV studio for an audition.
“Rona’s Rainstones” hits another low in finding the Rainstones, which will not stop causing water-related disasters until they are restored to their rightful home. Antagonist Karen has pinched one and refuses to return it, and others have been mistakenly thrown into the trash and are on their way to the landfill.
And talking of water-related disasters, that’s the new trick Form 3E pulls on Muriel this week, whose TV shoot threatens to expose their classwork-dodging tactics. They tamper with the school sprinkling system, sending a downpour down on the shoot.
Next is Wee Sue, who takes the unusual step of being in a 2-part story. She hopes to represent the school as a hurdler and scores a win, but Miss Bigger says it doesn’t count because she didn’t run in the qualifying heats. Are Sue’s hurdling hopes dashed? Stay tuned for part 2 next week.
In Bessie Bunter, Stackers is low this week because of illness, but it’s Bessie who’s on the low end in the final panel.
If you find yourself feeling low while waiting for your washing to finish its round at the laundrette, it’s better than slaving in an old-fashioned laundry, as our heroine in this week’s Strange Story (below) discovers. Her name, Pat Mills, is noteworthy, as Pat Mills was one of the biggest names in Tammy history. Tammy never could resist those in-references.
Linda, who is out to sabotage Hetty’s bid to regain her riding nerve in “Hetty Horse Hater” because her boyfriend’s family will gain from it, really stoops low to do so. She tries to frame Robby Adams, who is helping Hetty to ride again, for arson, and he is arrested. Fortunately, the forensic report on the fire clears him and he is released.
Highs and lows for “Tess on Tap”, who becomes a drudge in her own home when her dad goes abroad and Mrs Willis, the housekeeper who’s supposed to be looking after her, makes her slave for her spoiled daughters. Worse, Mrs Willis is interfering with Tess’s passion for tap dancing, including getting money out of her, to feed her daughter Vanessa’s passion for the same thing.
Finally, there’s Molly. She starts a new story that has attracted comment among her internet fans. They’ve given it the title “Molly’s Demotion” (Molly stories did not have collective titles at this stage). It begins with Pickering suddenly being all nice to Molly. What’s come over the bully butler who has always made her life a misery? “Beware the Greeks, even when they offer gifts” might spring to mind, but it doesn’t until Molly discovers too late it was all part of Pickering’s scheme to steal her job for his niece Ruby, leaving her in a lower-paid job. And that job will entail doing all the work that Ruby is supposed to be doing in Molly’s old job. Talk about adding insult to injury.
Sara’s Kingdom (artist Bill Mainwaring) – from Sally
Glen a Dog on a Lonely Quest (artist Jim Baikie)
Castaways on Voodoo Island (artist Ken Houghton)
No Tears for Molly (artist Tony Thewenetti, writer Maureen Spurgeon) – new story
Tammy was barely out of the starting gate herself when she absorbed her first title, Sally, on 3 April 1971. It was unusual for a longer-running title (which was itself less than two years old) to be swallowed by a much newer one that hadn’t even finished its first lineup of stories. Usually it was the other way around, so there has been speculation as to what brought this on.
Sally had gotten off to a promising start, with a high flavour of autonomous heroines and adventure. Some of them were even costumed super-heroines, most notably “The Cat Girl”. Cat Girl is still fondly remembered today and has now spawned her own reprint volume. So, what happened?
Anything is possible, but it has been speculated that the answer may lie in one of IPC’s notorious strikes. It was a long one for Sally, and when she came back her cover actually celebrated her return. However, it is thought that Sally took a hit from the strike and failed to recover, and she was soon approaching cancellation. But if so, why didn’t she merge into June, the longest-running girls IPC title at that stage? Did something prevent another June merger? Or did the editors think that Sally would bring some new elements and readership into the new Tammy? Most certainly, the biggest flaw with the early Tammy was that she was disproportionately high on stories laden with dark and cruel elements, ill-used heroines, and misery guts such as abusive guardians, employers and racketeers. It made Tammy a hot-selling pioneer at the time, but there was very little lightweight material and absolutely no humour to add relief. When Sally was incorporated into Tammy, that changed somewhat. We got some adventure elements, humour and laughs with “Maisie’s Magic Eye” (Tammy’s first humour strip, with the ever-popular Robert MacGillivray artwork to add further delight), a royal adventure with “Sara’s Kingdom”, and Tammy’s first superheroine, Cat Girl, who brought in an enthralling blend of adventure, mystery, excitement, and humour with Giorgio Giorgetti’s eccentric style. So Tammy’s first merger was one that she benefitted highly from.
Molly has started a new story for the merger. Her mum is taken ill, and that’s just the start of her problems. Bully butler Pickering refuses her permission to go home, but she goes off anyway, leading to her losing her job when he finds out. When she arrives back home, her family’s on the verge of being evicted because they weren’t able to pay the rent. The landlord grants them a brief stay of execution, but Molly’s at a loss as to how to come up with the money. Elsewhere in the issue, the remaining serials from Tammy’s first lineup continue unabated, but Voodoo Island, Secret of Trebaran and Glen give the impression they are approaching their climaxes.
The merger has also brought in a new character, “Beattie Beats ‘Em All!”, which may have been written for Sally. The premise feels like an early forerunner to Bella Barlow. Like Bella, Beattie is a feisty Cockney orphan, a misfit and a free spirit who likes her independence. Unlike Bella (or most Tammy heroines of the period) she isn’t abused. She can’t stay at the orphanage she grew up in any longer, but adoption doesn’t work out. Deciding she’s better off on her own, she runs off and ends up squatting while indulging in her only passions in life: cats and running events. Beattie is Tammy’s first sports story and the first appearance of John Armstrong’s artwork in Tammy.
Sharon’s Shadow (artist Hugo D’Adderio) – Strange Story serial – first episode
Melanie’s Mob (artist Edmond Ripoll)
Molly Mills – the final episode (artist Tony Thewenetti)
Bessie Bunter (artist Arthur Martin)
Maisie of Mo Town (artist Giorgio Giorgetti)
Shadow of the Fire God (artist Manuel Benet) – Strange Story
Edie the Ed’s Niece (artist Joe Collins)
Wee Sue (artist Mike White)
Daughter of the Regiment (artist Mario Capaldi)
Now we come to 1977 in our August Tammy month round. And there’s another reason to bring out this August issue – it is the issue with the final episode (below) of Molly Mills. Yes, the great Molly Mills debate has finally come to a head. On the letters page (below), ye Editor makes an open call for letters – with monetary incentives of course – on whether or not to bring her back. But really, this would have been a whole lot more fair and representative of readers’ wants if the final episode had ended with a definitive conclusion (Molly sailing off to India with the others). Indeed, if this really was to be Molly’s final bow, they should have done that. Instead, it’s a tantalising cliffhanger (Pickering’s infamous frame-up of Molly at the docks, which makes her a fugitive, on the run from the law). This would surely have skewed the response from readers in favour of Molly’s return, to see how she sorts out her predicament. Indeed, ye Editor later informs us that the response was overwhelmingly in favour of Molly’s return, and return she did, on 31 December 1977. Would the response have been the same if Molly had been given a proper send-off? Incidentally, seeing as Molly returned with a different artist (Douglas Perry), I suspect the clincher for this sudden end of Molly was not the Molly Mills debate – it was Tony Thewenetti no longer able to continue with Molly for some reason.
Meanwhile, Bella is at a Russian gymnastics school on a scholarship, and it’s good to see she’s getting a lot out of it this time (last time she was at a Russian gymnastics school, she was wrongly expelled before she’d hardly begun). Of course the school not without problems, and boy, does her strict Russian coach have a face to remember! John Armstrong must have had a great time drawing inspiration from gargoyles or something. This week, Bella loses her memory after an accident in the gym and strays from the school.
Tammy takes us into the world of politics with the new Strange Story serial, “Sharon’s Shadow”. Joe Brown, outraged by the rundown housing conditions in Leechester, which led to the death of his grandfather, is running for MP so he can turn things around. But his chances of election could come under threat when his sister Sharon challenges a witch’s curse at her grave and then has a strange accident there. Never, ever, challenge the supernatural, Sharon. Meanwhile, in the regular Strange Story, the horrors of human sacrifice in pre-Christian days threaten to resurface with an erupting volcano, and superstition and hysteria get the better of people.
In “Maisie in Mo Town”, it’s been a barrel of laughs (though maybe a bit un-PC today) with Maisie pretending to increasingly exasperated kidnappers that she’s a dumb wild girl from Africa who doesn’t know the first thing about civilisation and can only speak pidgin English. But now things take a very serious turn as the kidnappers make plans to smuggle her out of the country. To this end, they lock her in the attic, ready for someone to collect at midnight!
“Daughter of the Regiment” Tessa Mason has recruited a gang of mudlarks to help clear her father, who was shot for cowardice at the Charge of the Light Brigade. But one, Dick, has been bribed to help lead her into a trap! And Melanie has recruited her own gang, “Melanie’s Mob”, to train as athletes. Dad would have a fit if he knew they were the Canal Mob, and now someone has reported something to the police about it.
At a regatta, Stackers is finding a mermaid costume problematic, and it leads to hijinks. In the final panel, Bessie doesn’t think much of mermaid costumes either, as she can’t raid the grub in the one she’s forced to wear.
Nobody in class believes Miss Bigger when she shoots a big line about how her big WAAF days in World War II helped to win the Battle of Britain. So nobody’s surprised when she comes unstuck at a Battle of Britain exhibition at a flying club: “Bigger? We had a waitress of that name in the mess. Butter-fingers Bigger we used to call her…she was always dropping the crockery.” Miss Bigger’s looking very red, and then she’s green, as she can’t take a flight in a WWII plane without feeling airsick. The real heroics belong to Sue, who scares off robbers at the club with a phoney WWII bomb.
The Good Old Days (artist Bill Baker) – Strange Story
Tag Along Tania (artist Giorgio Giorgetti)
Bessie Bunter (artist Arthur Martin)
Molly Mills and the General Strike (artist Tony Thewenetti, writer Maureen Spurgeon)
Wee Sue (artist John Richardson)
Drawn to Destiny (artist Tony Higham) – Strange Story serial
Odds on Patsy (artist Eduardo Feito)
We come to 1976 in our Tammy August month round, and the cover confirms what we always suspected – teachers took sneak reads of the comics (Tammy, Jinty, whatever) they confiscated, and they enjoyed them as much as the girls themselves. We have to wonder how many closet Molly, Bella or Jinx from St. Jonah’s fans were created that way. The sight of the teacher reading her Tammy must be worse than the lines for the poor Cover Girl.
Parents also enjoyed reading their daughters’ copies of Tammy, as one letter to Tammy this week shows: “I have been reading Tammy for nearly five years now…I think it’s the best comic around and so does my mother who always insists on reading it…”
The Olympics were huge in Tammy in 1976 because of Montreal, and the Bella story for that year used the theme. Bella is determined to reach Montreal although she can’t compete and has no passport. It got left behind when she fled from her cruel aunt and uncle, and her flight is leading to all sorts of misadventures in Continental Europe, with Montreal seeming to get further and further away each time. Right now, she’s stranded in France with a stage troupe who are taking advantage of her. Added to that, there are jealous girls in the troupe playing nasty tricks on her. Yes, it never rains but pours with our Bella. Later on in 1976, Tammy continued the theme of the Olympics with the classic “Olympia Jones”.
By popular demand, 1976 had a stab at publishing some Strange Story serials. The current one is “Drawn to Destiny”, where jealousy between twin sisters over artwork is leading to ever-frightening results. And this week’s Strange Story (below) may have you think twice about comparing the present to “the good old days”.
In “Towne in the Country”, Val discovers what necessity can drive you to do. She is scared at the thought of administering an injection or touching animals, and then she has to do both when her father’s life is endangered and it’s up to her to save his life. Yep, Tammy’s clearly out to toughen up this one all right.
Tania “Tag Along” Foster is trying to stand up to the girls she hangs out with and stop being their dogsbody, but they aren’t giving up their power over her that easily. They’re pulling dirty tricks to keep her as their doormat. It always backfires on them in the end, leaving Tania with the last laugh, but she still has a fight on her hands to win respect.
Tennis trouble for Stackers when she pushes Bessie onto the tennis court this week – she soon finds having Bessie try tennis is courting trouble of the Bessie blundering kind. At least everything ends happily when it’s refreshment time.
Sue is trying to help a pupil lose weight, which turns into a very weighty problem when Miss Bigger makes a bet with the Head over whether or not the girl can lose weight. So the hijinks ensue when Miss Bigger turns to dirty tricks to keep the weight on and Sue steps into foil them.
Eduardo Feito is the artist who really brought horse stories to life in Tammy. He has a number of strong Tammy horse stories under his belt already, such as “Halves in a Horse”, “The Uxdale Urchins” and “Rona Rides Again”. His current horse story is “Odds on Patsy”, about a racehorse and a girl who wants to be a top jockey. Now that’s a nice change from stories about show jumping and gymkhanas.
Politics is an unusual topic in a girls’ comic, but here it is in Molly’s story, “The General Strike”. Lord Stanton dispatches Molly and Pickering to keep the buses running during a workers’ strike (something IPC knew a lot about), which is being conducted in sympathy for a miners’ strike against a wage cut. Readers must have enjoyed Molly and Pickering’s change of uniforms and jobs: Molly as the bus conductor and Pickering as the (hee, hee!) bus driver. Unfortunately, Lord Stanton’s move to keep the buses running during the strike is understandably pissing off the strikers and they’ve turned on him. Now Lord Stanton’s gone missing, and his car’s come a cropper in the quarry! Could it be connected with the strike?
Bella at the Bar (second Bella story) (artist John Armstrong, writer Jenny McDade) – final episode
Waifs of the Wigmaker (artist Mario Capaldi, writer Bill Harrington)
Ella’s Ballet Boat (artist Jim Eldridge)
Aunt Aggie (artist J. Badesa, writer Pat Mills, creator Gerry Finley-Day)
Carol in Camelot St. (artist Douglas Perry)
Typewriters for Writer Types! – competition
The Truth about the Treasure (artist John Armstrong) – Strange Story
Bessie Bunter (artist Arthur Martin)
Wee Sue (artist John Richardson)
No Tears for Molly (artist Tony Thewenetti, writer Maureen Spurgeon)
Now we come to 1975 in our Tammy August month round.
Inside, Bella’s second story comes to an end, and readers finally see how she clears her name after being framed and publicly disgraced by the jealous Natalia Orlov. This Bella story drew lots of letters from readers, including ones trying to guess how Bella would win out against Natalia. As it turned out, they were not bad guesses. But none of them anticipated Bella damaging her back (while saving Natalia, and Natalia confessing in return) and becoming wheelchair-bound as the cost of clearing her name. And so the scene – Bella’s road to recovery – is set for her third story, which readers are informed will be starting soon. So now Bella is on her way to becoming a recurring regular in Tammy instead of a serial. Meanwhile, readers will get a new tennis story, “Backhand Billie”.
Aunt Aggie (the TV star with the sweet persona on screen, the scheming one in real life) is also doing another sequel. In this week’s episode, how much does it take to get Aunt Aggie jealous? It’s Helen getting a bit of fan mail of her own. Just a few letters for Helen, and Aunt Aggie brings out her big guns. But, as usual, Helen finds a way to make it all rebound on awful Aunt Aggie.
In “Waifs of the Wigmaker”, there’s no more slaving in the wig factory for Moira, says Ma Parting. She’s training Moira up for something bigger, and Moira is to take on another identity for it. Sounds ominous. On the plus side, while dodging the authorities, Ma Parting was forced take Moira through a secret tunnel to the factory. Moira’s got the escape route from the wig factory at last, and Ma Parting showed it to her herself!
This week’s Strange Story is a treasure hunt story, which leaves the hunters with a moral: there is more than one kind of treasure. In “Ella’s Ballet Boat”, the floating ballet company is dogged by more sinister treasure hunters, in search of a treasure chart hidden on their boat.
Carol Clancy finds King Arthur is being taken a bit far at her new school in Camelot Street. Her school carries on the Round Table and the Camelot tradition, complete with quests and defending the weak and poor against fairytale threats of dragons, ogres, robber barons and such. You couldn’t possibly find things like that in the modern world? Well, they are up against “dragons” this week – a motorcycle gang by that name. But there’s a more pressing threat from Mordred. No, not the witch – the deputy head who wants the head’s position, which would bring down the Round Table.
In the Tammy regulars: Bessie takes advantage of bob-a-job week, but it all blows up in her face. She also meets a boy scout who’s just like her. Miss Bigger’s cousin is giving a lecture about his game hunting in Africa. Sue badly wants to see it, but Miss Bigger won’t let her. When Sue wins in the end, “even that hyena [on photo slide] don’t look so wild as Miss B.” Molly is the only one standing by a new tenant farmer, Mark Travers; everyone else has turned against him because of claims he’s a fraud. Even his wife has doubts. And now Pickering swings by with an invitation that sounds like a plan to catch him out altogether.
Wheels of Fate (artist John Armstrong) – Strange Story
Bessie Bunter (artist Arthur Martin)
Jeannie and her Uncle Meanie (artist Robert MacGillivray)
Wee Sue (artist Mario Capaldi)
Cat Stevens – feature
No Tears for Molly (artist Tony Thewenetti, writer Maureen Spurgeon)
Eva’s Evil Eye (artist John Richardson, writer John Wagner)
In the 1974 issue in our Tammy August month round, three of the four serials (Bella, Sadie and Eva) that began in the Tammy and June merger issue are now on their penultimate episodes, and the fourth (“Swimmer Slave of Mrs. Squall”) finishes. That means readers will soon have a huge lineup of new stories to look forward to. It’s always great to see a big lineup of stories begin in one issue.
On the cover, one of the Cover Girls is outbouncing kangaroos with her pogo stick. But the cover’s let down a bit by how cardboard the kangaroos look, as if a kid drew them. Surely John Richardson can draw far better kangas than that?
Ghost stories in the Strange Stories are by no means unusual, but the ghost certainly is – a ghost lorry. It starts haunting Gail Hawkins when she holidays in a village where heavy traffic has been diverted after a fatal lorry accident. But why is it haunting Gail, and why is a voice telling her to get the hell out?
You would think teachers would have no problem with pupils stopping at a cafe for a coffee on the way home from school, would you? Not when the teacher’s Miss Bigger, who makes a big fuss over such a trivial thing – Sue and Co stopping for some coffee before starting homework, and turns it into yet another weekly round of Miss Bigger trouble for Sue to sort out.
Molly’s caught up in one of the complex mysteries she’s ever tackled, and the more she probes it, the more questions it raises than answers: a wounded war pilot whose face is bandaged, and he won’t speak or give his name; a community that clams up about him; a strange couple have taken over his old home, Poppy Farm, and try to hold him prisoner, as they have done with his wife Emily for years; a boy says Poppy Farm is cursed; and now nothing’s left of the pilot but his uniform and bandages. Gets weirder by the minute, doesn’t it?
Jeannie and Aunt Martha do something that is long overdue – walk out on Uncle Meanie because of his skinflint ways. Unwisely, they say Uncle Meanie will foot their hotel bills, so he’s on their tail like a shot with more scheming to get them back. He does get them back, but in the end is forced to give in the demands that sent them packing in the first place: fork out the money to replace the dilapidated furnishings he been too mean to replace.
Bessie Bunter and her class offer to help out the youth orchestra when their van breaks down by bringing the instruments to the hall. But things get horny when Miss “Stackers” Stackpole has them take a shortcut through a field, which for some reason has no “Beware of the Bull” sign on the gate. Someone should have a word with the farmer about that! Bessie, after a bit of trouble with Stackers earlier in the story, gets a happy ending by saving the day.
Aunt Aggie (artist J. Badesa, writer Pat Mills, creator Gerry Finley-Day)
The Cat’s Eye on Katy (artist Douglas Perry) – final episode
The Making of Mary (“Wild Horse Summer” artist from Jinty)
The Sea Spirit (artist Juan Escandell Torres)
A Special Tammy Portrait – Rod Stewart
Simple Simona (artist Julio Bosch?)
Tammy Competition
The Secret of the Stables (artist Reginald B. Davis)
No Love for Liza (artist Jaume Rumeu)
No Tears for Molly (artist Tony Thewenetti, writer Maureen Spurgeon) – new story
We now turn to 1973 in our Tammy August month round, and the letters from readers in the issue are insightful reading. Two letters indicate Tammy could have been overusing the misery-laden formulas she had been renowned for since her first issue and she still had to strike a better balance with complementary material:
“Nearly all your stories are sad, they’re about orphans and blackmail, cripples and cruel parents, beatings and imprisonments…I get enough horror at school. Can’t you help make the world a happier place by printing more stories like Aunt Aggie…”
“It seems you think all you require to hold us readers spellbound are heroines with not-so-well-off and exceedingly nasty parents and grandparents or guardians…I think you should take all these horrible people out of your comic, or send them to Stanton Hall and Mr. Pickering – for some of their own medicine!”
Eventually the horrible people and sad stories did fade from Tammy, but for now, they continue. Among them is Juliana Buch’s first story for Tammy, “Jumble Sale Jilly”. Jilly Burridge is struggling to be an artist in the face of a family who scorn such things and don’t treat her so well either. This week, it looks like the fairy godmother figure to help Jilly has arrived in her life. In “No Love for Liza”, Liza Bruce also battles to be an artist against the odds piled on by a nasty stepfamily. And we have yet another nasty family in “The Making of Mary”. Mary Regan is forced to live with her horrible Uncle Ernie, who wants to take over her grandfather’s business. To add insult to injury, Uncle Ernie has also framed her grandfather and now he’s in prison. Imagine having to live with the very man who set up your grandfather!
On the same page, there is more on the long-standing Molly Mills debate that made her the most polarising character in Tammy. Some readers liked her:
“I disagree…that Molly Mills is rubbish. She’s great. My Mum and I both read it every week and if you take her out we won’t buy Tammy anymore!”
And others didn’t:
“Is [Molly Mills] going to be in the paper forever? She drives me mad. Please do something about her!”
Meanwhile, the nasty Kitty and Betty have already done something about Molly in her new story this week – they’ve pulled a spiteful trick on her, and now poor Molly faces the sack! But such things are hardly new in Molly. She’s bound to bounce back in the end, and then there’ll be the next time.
Tammy started off lacking humour to help balance her dark material. Two years on, she is building up a stronger presence of humour with strips like “Aunt Aggie”, a rotten schemer acting as a sweet figure on TV who gets her comeuppance every week, and “Simple Simona”, a clueless girl who is always the victim of her scheming cousins without even realising it, but she always triumphs over them in the end – again without even realising it.
Elsewhere, it’s the final episode of “The Cat’s Eye on Katy”, and the letters page indicates it was a popular, gripping story. The witch doctor’s curse is broken by the good ol’ amor vincit omnia (love conquers all), when Katy saves the life of the cat he bewitched into doing evil against her in revenge for his imprisonment. Though he’s thousands of miles away, he knows what’s happened, and he’s still stuck in prison, doing cursing of a different sort: “Cursed white magic has won! My power over cat beast is gone!”. “The Sea Spirit”, which started in the same issue as “The Cat’s Eye on Katy”, is now on its penultimate episode.
Girls love a good mystery story, and there’s a mystery about Silver Star, the horse at Penny Lane’s stable, which she is salvaging from neglect. The mystery deepens when Silver Star responds to a strange whistle, and in the middle of the night, Penny spots him galloping off. Is it that whistle again?
Belinda Black-Sheep (artist Mario Capaldi) – first episode
Miss High-an’-Mighty (artist Julio Bosch?)
The Lame Ballerina (artist P. Montero, writer Gerry Finley-Day?)
Lulu (cartoon)
The Uxdale Urchins (artist Eduardo Feito)
Swim for Your Life, Sari (artist Juan Garcia Quiros, writer Gerry Finley-Day?)
Skivers’ School (artist J. Badesa)
Dog Paddle Doris (artist Carlos Prunes, writer Maureen Spurgeon)
The Greek Girl (artist John Armstrong, writer Bill Harrington?) – first episode
Here Comes Trouble (artist Luis Bermejo)
Lonely Romy (artists Luis Bermejo and Miguel Quesada (inks))
No Tears for Molly (artist Tony Thewenetti, writer Maureen Spurgeon)
A Special Tammy Portrait – Don McLean
We come to 1972 in our Tammy August month round, and in this issue, two new stories start: “Belinda Black-Sheep” and “The Greek Girl”. Mario Capaldi, who went on to become one of the longest-standing stalwarts on the Tammy team, starts his first story for Tammy, “Belinda Black-Sheep”. Belinda McRea and her father become outcasts in their fishing village after Dad commits a seeming act of cowardice that led the deaths of his fellow fishermen in a storm. But did he really? Or did he lose his mind in some way and was not responsible for his actions? Or did something else happen? He seems to recall saving them, but he’s become so addled we don’t even know what to think, much know where to start working out what happened.
In the second new story, “The Greek Girl”, Rose Banks has no confidence in herself, and it shows in her appearance (scruffy) and schoolwork (“appalling”). She wishes upon the statue of Penelope, the Greek goddess of confidence, to become more confident. (Incidentally, there really is a Greek goddess of confidence, but her name is Flaunta, and she is the second cousin of Aphrodite.) Soon after, a girl and a cat who are dead ringers for the goddess and her cat come into Rose’s life. Oops, is it the old “be careful what you wish for” again? Incidentally, this was one of the John Armstrong Tammy stories chosen for reprint in the Misty annuals, and a number of them were written by Bill Harrington.
Miss High-an’-Mighty, a spoiled, arrogant Victorian girl named Ursula Thorndike, has to be the hardest nut of all to crack in redemption stories. Bill Fletcher, a convict made good, is taking her on a tour to see how the other half live in the hopes it will change her. Ursula’s had to agree, as it is the only way to save her family from bankruptcy, but so far none of it is making any impression or improvement on her.
Molly’s in a really complicated fix. She’s taken in an amnesic girl named Lorna, and then a Lady Lancton claims Lorna stole jewellery from her. Lorna is indeed scared shitless of Lady Lancton, but is it for that reason? Molly’s attempt to get Lorna’s side of things is soon putting her in danger.
In “Lonely Romy”, another Cinderella story, Romy hits the road after her spiteful stepsister frames her for stealing a watch. The truth is discovered later, but by this time Romy’s found a new venue for her paintings.
In “Here Comes Trouble”, the trouble for Mitzi Trouble comes from spiteful Katy Dennison. First Katy dopes her horse, and now she’s started a grass fire that’s raged out of control, just to get Mitzi into trouble, but it’s put lives in danger.
Girls’ comics often had some bizarre premises, and “Dog Paddle Doris” is one. Doris Farrell is making her name as…the best dog paddle swimmer around. Although it’s the only stroke she can do, she’s joined a swimming club and is competing in races, against girls who are doing freestyle. She even wins a freestyle event, but she was doing dog paddle, not freestyle. Aren’t there any grounds for disqualification here?
“Swim for Your Life, Sari” is another swimming story, about a long-distance relay swimming race for Sari Marsh and her team. But Sari soon finds there is more danger than just the risks of the race – something sinister is afoot, and it looks suspiciously like the relay race is a setup for it.
Jill Hudson discovers Louisa “The Lame Ballerina” isn’t that lame, but thinks there’s a medical problem and wants to be friends. The truth is, Louisa is faking lameness to avoid the ballet she’s being pushed into, and now she sees a glorious opportunity to take advantage of Jill.
“Skivers’ School” looks like it’s riding on the success of “School for Snobs”. But instead of teaching snobs a lesson, the special school teaches ill-mannered girls to behave. Flo and Ethel Binns have been sent to it to learn how to be ladies. The hijinks have their skivvying backfiring on them and being foiled by the headmistress Miss Meake. We’re always left wondering as to whether Miss Meake does this without realising it or not, which is probably a running gag.
The Uxdale Urchins win the semi-finals despite problems along the way, but now there’s a real hurdle – the finals are in London, and they can’t afford a horse box.
A Resource on Jinty: Artists, Writers, Stories