Tag Archives: Upper Crust

Tammy 13 January 1979

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Cover artist: John Richardson

Mouse (artist Maria Dembilio) – first episode

One Girl and Her Dog (artist Mario Capaldi) – return

My Terrible Twin (artist Juliana Buch) – first episode

The Moon Stallion (artist Mario Capaldi) – adaptation

The Upper Crust (artist Giorgio Giorgetti)

Bessie Bunter (artist Arthur Martin)

Molly Mills and the Haunted Hall (artist Douglas Perry, writer Maureen Spurgeon) – first episode

The Silent Swimmer – Strange Story

Wee Sue (artist Robert MacGillivray)

TEAM in Action (artist Carmona) – final episode

Tammy’s New Year’s issue, like her Christmas issue, came out a week later than scheduled because she lost an issue on 30 December 1978, presumably because of the 1978 strike. But it’s kudos to Tammy that she put out her Christmas and New Year issues all the same. Perhaps readers didn’t mind too much that things were a little late.

Molly, Wee Sue and Bessie Bunter honour the New Year, but as usual for Molly, the New Year isn’t all that promising. She’s lumbered with her kid brother Billy, who she has to mind for a bit, and there’s nowhere to hide him but Stanton Hall. She manages to smuggle him in during a New Year’s party, but she’ll get the sack if she’s found out. Billy’s high spirits and boyish mischief aren’t making it easy to hide him, and it’s already put bully butler Pickering on the alert that something’s fishy. “The Upper Crust” also has a New Year theme when Clarinda gatecrashes arch-enemy Mavis’ New Year’s party, but she made one mistake – she left her glove behind. When Mavis finds it, she’s all set to expose Clarinda’s gatecrashing, but her father has a better idea, for he knows Clarinda’s dad slipped into the party too and has a pretty good idea why. Is he right? Clearly, the approaching climax and resolution of the story will tell.

The Strange Story doesn’t have a New Year theme this time. It’s about a swimmer who gets overconfident and swims in a dangerous current. She nearly drowns and loses her nerve, just as she’s needed for a vital swimming event. But then help comes…from a mermaid?

As always with her New Year issues, Tammy was clearing out old serials and starting new ones for New Year. The serial being cleared out for New Year is “TEAM in Action”, and it’s a finale that delivers as much on the action as its title suggests. “One Girl and Her Dog” returns after being on hiatus, but the ending can’t be far away. Mario Capaldi is doing double duty on this serial and “The Moon Stallion” adaptation.

For the New Year lineup, we have “Mouse”, a serial ahead of its time for highlighting the issues of custody disputes and international parental kidnapping, and “My Terrible Twin”, about fraternal twin sisters as different as looks as they are in personality. Moira is hardly a beauty, but she is the responsible one, and Lindy is the red-hot looker but a delinquent who’s just been paroled from a remand home. But her time inside hasn’t changed her much. Moira gets Lindy a job at the department store where she works, and Lindy’s already into shoplifting. This serial was so popular that it spawned a sequel later in 1979 and a reprint by popular demand in 1984.

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 23 December 1978

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Bella (artist John Armstrong, writer Primrose Cumming)
The Upper Crust (artist Giorgio Giorgetti)
Dancer Entranced (artist Angeles Felices)
Molly Mills and the TV Pioneer (artist Douglas Perry, writer Maureen Spurgeon)
Giftorama – part 3
Bessie Bunter (Arthur Martin)
Power of the Stones (artist Tony Coleman) – Strange Story
Wee Sue (artist Robert MacGillivray)
TEAM in Action (Carmona)
Tuck-in with Tammy

Tammy’s countdown to Christmas is really kicking in now with the covers. The Tammy annual made for a frequent Christmas gag during the Cover Girls run, which must have added to its advertising. Don’t be too worried that the Cover Girls don’t have enough money left for the annual – previous covers have suggested they get more Tammy annuals than they can shake a stick at on Christmas morning.

Christmas themes are now appearing in the regular strips. Wee Sue is getting ready for a Christmas party at the youth club, but Miss Bigger causes problems. An unexpected turn of events has everything work out happily, and Miss Bigger even plays Santa at the party with presents for everybody. This week’s Bessie Bunter story adds to the Christmas ambience with a panto flavour where Bessie gets knocked out and dreams she’s Cinderella. The Bessie regulars have such hilarious alternate roles in this one that the episode is included below.

Another feature over the Christmas/New Year period was clearing out old stories to make way for new ones in the New Year. One is “Dancer Entranced”, which reaches its penultimate episode this week. Bella sounds like she is also on her penultimate episode, with the final one set to be a banger with medals or nothing at a gymnastics event to beat a dirty business rival. Next year we will find out if she’s still stuck in Australia or has made her way back to Britain, but we won’t know until she returns in the second quarter. Molly and the TV Pioneer must be ending pretty soon too. “The Upper Crust” and “TEAM in Action” don’t look like they’ll be ending just yet, so we will see them in the New Year.

Luck comes in all shapes and sizes, as three girls discover in this week’s Strange Story. They uncover three stones that seem to have powers that cause bad luck. They hastily get rid of them, only to discover the stones had the power to bring good luck and the strokes of bad luck were blessings in disguise.

Tammy 16 December 1978

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Cover artist: John Richardson
Bella (artist John Armstrong, writer Primrose Cumming)
The Upper Crust (artist Giorgio Giorgetti)
Dancer Entranced (artist Angeles Felices)
Molly Mills and the TV Pioneer (artist Douglas Perry, writer Maureen Spurgeon)
Giftorama – part 2
Bessie Bunter (artist Arthur Martin)
Terror in the Garden – Strange Story
Wee Sue (artist Robert MacGillivray)
TEAM in Action (artist Carmona)

Among the really fun Cover Girl Tammy covers are the ones where Tammy makes in-jokes about herself. This is one such cover. The list of Tammy-based ingredients, from left to right: Molly Mills, Bella, One Girl and Her Dog (currently on hiatus), Dancer Entranced, Bessie Bunter and The Upper Crust. To make things even more interesting, there’s an appearance from the Cover Girls’ mum. Sometimes their parents do appear on the cover, apparently enjoying Tammy as much as their daughters do. Perhaps it’s Tammy’s way of paying homage to her adult readers, who are often mentioned in the letters she prints. Mum baking something from Tammy might be a reference Tammy’s recipe feature, “Tuck-in with Tammy”. And what is Mum making? I always thought it was Christmas pudding, a bow to Tammy’s countdown to Christmas.

In Molly Mills, the Stanton Hall staff are auditioning for parts in the TV pioneer’s show. Lord Stanton isn’t impressed with what they’re doing when they’re supposed to be working. We have to say we aren’t impressed with their hammy performances either, though we get a lot of laughs out of them. But things get less funny for Molly when an unfortunate mishap gets her threatened with the sack.

Bella’s flying high in a hot air balloon to help advertise the outfit she works for. But things go a bit wrong when the balloon loses its moorings, causing them to drift away when they have a vital gymnastics event to enter.

In this week’s Strange Story, a governess freaks out after reading that her high-spirited charge is headed for a swing with a sinister history. Apparently, it was converted from a gallows used to execute condemned witches. But what’s really strange about this one is that it’s not brought to us by our regular Storyteller. It’s a completely different person (below), and he only appears this once. A guest artist, currently unidentified, was used for the story; perhaps they didn’t know what the Storyteller was supposed to look like. Or maybe someone forgot instructions on how to draw the Storyteller in the script.

In Tammy’s current ballet story, “Dancer Entranced”, things take a violent turn. Jealous Dora sets a gang of toughs on Trina to fix her once and for all. But it backfires on Dora, with her getting duffed up instead until Trina and her friends come to the rescue. Following this, Dora stops being Trina’s enemy, but the hypnotist’s metronome, without which Trina cannot dance, got broken in the fight. Has Dora fixed Trina after all?

Ballet is also the theme in this week’s Bessie Bunter story. Stackers has decided to add ballet to the school curriculum. We really have to question her judgement on this, especially with Bessie in the ballet class. Sure enough, there are soon more than enough scrapes for Stackers to cancel the ballet class.

Sue wants an autograph from a celebrity, but autograph hunters are banned from the theatre where he is performing, and the doorman enforcing the rule is a gorilla. Sue’s big brain has to come up with something to get that autograph. Breaking her arm is not exactly what she had in mind, but guess who signs her cast?

Talk about paint bombs. In “The Upper Crust”, Mavis, determined to bring down Clarinda Carrington-Crust, rigs a tin of paint over a door at school to fall down on her. However, Clarinda, with a little help from her father, turns the tables – and the paint – right on Mavis and her gang. But the paint ruins a girl’s watch. Who’s going to put things right? Certainly not Mavis, who is too snobby to take responsibility or have any sympathy for the girl.

Teachers skiving off? That’s a new one in “Team in Action”. Toni and Anthea sneak out of school to cover a fashion show when the head denies permission to attend. In town, they spot their teacher, Miss Gravel, who is supposed to be off sick. Either she’s made a miraculous recovery or … but they’re not thinking about that – they’re ducking for cover before they’re spotted.

Tammy 9 December 1978

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Cover artist: John Richardson

Bella (John Armstrong, writer Primrose Cumming)
The Upper Crust (artist Giorgio Giorgetti)
Dancer Entranced (artist Angeles Felices)
Molly Mills and the TV Pioneer (artist Douglas Perry, writer Maureen Spurgeon)
Giftorama – part one
The Trysting Tree (artist Bob Harvey) – Strange Story
Bessie Bunter (artist Arthur Martin)
Wee Sue
Team in Action (artist Carmona)
Tuck-In with Tammy – feature

One of the most interesting aspects of the strikes that bedevilled IPC was how they affected the titles. Apparently, the effects were not always the same. Take the December 1978 strike, for example. It caused Jinty to lose three issues that month, from 9 to 23 December. Tammy retained her issues, starting with this one, but she did not go entirely unaffected. The 30 December issue informs us that due to the strike, those issues were smaller than usual. Well, at least she had them and Tammy readers were not deprived over that period. This issue also begins Tammy’s countdown to Christmas 1978 with part one of Giftorama, a four-part feature on making Christmas gifts and decorations, plus a New Year calendar.

Bella’s new job in Australia is more friendly than the one that brought her to Australia, but it’s not without its difficulties. This week, she has to deal with an Indigenous tribe who have taken a superstitious view of the gym apparatus she’s required to demonstrate for a company. They’ve stolen it – and they’re going to sacrifice it!

A lesson on ancient Rome gives Bessie dreams of that place, but they turn into horrible nightmares of being thrown to the lions. A misunderstanding gets Sue into awesome trouble with Miss Bigger, but it is eventually sorted out, and everything ends happily for them both. Molly is into TV pioneering with Lord Stanton’s cousin Iggy, but his production keeps hitting problems. However, there’s a hilarious moment in this episode (below) when the staff catch bully butler Pickering on candid camera.

The trouble with miracle objects that seem to give protagonists the power to perform brilliantly when they were hopeless before is that they grow too dependent on them, and without them, they’re screwed. Such is the case of the hypnotist’s metronome that gives Trine Carr, “Dancer Entranced”, the power to dance brilliantly, but only when it’s ticking. She herself says as much by the end of the episode that she has realised the dependency problem. And she has the added problem of a jealous rival. What if she discovers Trine’s dependency on the metronome?

If you’ve got interfering parents who keep pushing you into what they want and not listening to what you want, this week’s Strange Story (below) is for you. It’s one of my favourites, and it has an extra mystery: the Storyteller, who has no given name, leaves us with his initials and us wondering what they stand for (does Man of Mystery spring to mind?).

Anthea, the “A” in “TEAM in Action”, has a track record of sticking her foot in it with bright ideas. It’s already got her expelled from one school, and she’s in trouble again when she arranges for a band to play at the school festival without checking them out first. She just assumed they were an old-style band, ideal for the school staff and governors, but she discovers too late that they are a punk rock band! Never assume, Anthea.

Clarinda Carrington-Crust has ruffled a lot of feathers and left a lot of people scratching their heads ever since she and her parents moved into super-snobby High Hills. Nobody really knows what to make of her. She seems to be a snob like everyone else in school. But we’re progressively getting hints of Clarinda being the secret helper of ordinary people against the snobs. This week, she secretly helps elderly people avoid the grotty snobs who have been roped by the school into an old people’s help programme. But Clarinda’s arch-enemy, Mavis Blunt, is getting increasingly suspicious of her, and by the end of this week’s episode, she’s really out to bring her down.

Tammy 2 December 1978

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Cover artist: John Richardson

Bella (artist John Armstrong, writer Primrose Cumming)

The Upper Crust (artist Giorgio Giorgetti)

Dancer Entranced (artist Angeles Felices)

One Girl and Her Dog… (artist Mario Capaldi)

The Moon Stallion (artist Mario Capaldi) – adaptation

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

Face at the Window (artist Hugo D’Adderio) – Strange Story

Wee Sue (artist Mike White)

TEAM in Action (artist Carmona)

A Horse for Your Hobby – Feature 

It’s December, so we are having a countdown to Christmas with Tammy issues from December 1978. There is no hint of Christmas yet in Tammy, either on the cover or inside with Christmas how-to-make features. Everything is pretty much business as usual, except that there is no Bessie Bunter this week.

Mario Capaldi does double duty with “One Girl and Her Dog” and “The Moon Stallion”. But the former goes on hiatus with the next issue, which must have made things easier for Capaldi.

Bella battles a venomous snake in the Australian Outback, but it’s already bitten one of her friends, and they are miles from the nearest hospital. Luckily, they have an Aborigine friend on hand who soon proves Aborigine know-how can do the job just as well.

In “The Upper Crust”, Clarinda Carrington-Crust, a newcomer to snobby High Hills, is disliked by even the snobs at her school for her super-snobby ways. But there have been more and more and more hints that Clarinda is really a secret helper for people who get picked on by the snobs for not being posh. This week, she seems to be secretly helping a girl on the road to stage stardom.

An unusually excessive number of rejects from the clothes factory is pushing up fashion prices in Milltown. By the time Wee Sue discovers why, she’s become the fall guy for a clothes racket and has an angry mob and the police chasing after her. She needs to prove who the real racketeers are, and fast!

The TV Pioneer is almost sent packing from Stanton Hall, but Molly finds a way for him to stay. However, she soon finds that pioneering has its difficulties for even a relative of Lord Stanton – and the latest is him in danger of falling off the roof. 

In this week’s Strange Story, Mary finds the manor she inherited from her uncle is not exactly welcoming. It’s rotting and rundown, the staff warn her of a curse that could threaten her life and urge her to leave, and then it looks like the curse is coming true when she refuses to do so. In the end, it turns out the curse was just a ruse – but there is a final twist that indicates there was something spooky going on after all.

Jealous Dora tries to put Trina Carr, “Dancer Entranced”, out of an upcoming dance show by trying to get her hurt. Good thing she hasn’t discovered Trina’s dependency on the metronome to dance. But now, well-meaning meddling from Trina’s aunt could succeed where Dora’s trickery has failed.

The entertainment abilities of “TEAM in Action” get them out of trouble when they unwittingly crash Sir Reginald’s party. But fresh trouble is never far away for TEAM, and this time it starts with one of Anthea’s bright ideas – ideas that have gotten her expelled in the past.

Tammy 20 January 1979

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Tammy cover 20 January 1979

Cover artist: John Richardson

  • Mouse (artist Maria Dembilio)
  • One Girl and Her Dog… (artist Mario Capaldi)
  • My Terrible Twin (artist Juliana Buch)
  • Edie the Ed’s Niece (artist Joe Collins)
  • Thursday’s Child (artist Juan Solé, writer Pat Mills) – first episode
  • Bessie Bunter
  • Molly Mills and the Haunted Hall (artist Douglas Perry)
  • Menace from the Moor – Strange Story (artist Peter Wilkes)
  • The Moon Stallion – television adaptation (artist Mario Capaldi)
  • Wee Sue (artist Robert MacGillivray)
  • The Upper Crust (artist Giorgio Giorgetti)

Time for the 1979 issue in our Tammy round robin, and the issue chosen is 20 January 1979. It is three weeks into (at the time) the New Year, so naturally Tammy’s January issues are focused on new stories and clearing out old ones to make way for more new ones. The New Year also continues Tammy’s adaptation of the TV serial “The Moon Stallion”.

Bella is not part of the new lineup for the New Year. By this stage she usually starts in the second quarter of the year. When her story does start we learn that she’s been sailing home to Britain all the while.

We sense “The Upper Crust” is heading for its conclusion. Snobbish Mavis Blunt, of a snobbish neighbourhood, has had her nose put out of joint ever since the Carrington-Crusts moved in. She also suspects they are not all they appear to be. Now Mavis and her father suspect the Carrington-Crusts are criminals and set a trap for them, which appears to prove their suspicions. Or does it? We find out next week, in what we suspect is the final episode.

“One Girl and Her Dog” looks like it is on its penultimate episode too. Kim Robinson and her dog Rumpus have finally caught up with Harry Whelkes, the man who has been hired to stop them claiming their inheritance in London. As a matter of fact, it’s brought the force of an entire circus down on Harry!

The circus also features in Wee Sue. Sue wants to go to the circus, but having no money, tries odd jobs there. The trouble is, two scheming girls from school have the same idea and are making sure she doesn’t get anything. They almost succeed, but the clowns decide Sue’s size will make her ideal for their act, and Sue gets the last laugh on those schemers.

“Thursday’s Child”, written by Pat Mills, starts today. It went on to become one of Tammy’s most popular stories and best-remembered classics. Life has always been good to Thursday Brown – but the splash panel on the first page tells us that will only be until she meets “the stranger” and her tears begin. And who might this stranger be? It’s the girl who mysteriously shows up in Thursday’s bed the night she starts using the family Union Jack as her bedspread. Looks like Thursday should have paid more attention to her mother’s misgivings about using the flag that way. Not to mention the strange red stuff that comes out when the flag is washed – it feels like blood. Is this a clue as to the reason why Mum was so unnerved?

“Mouse” and “My Terrible Twin”, the first Tammy stories to start in the New Year, take dramatic plot developments. Mary “Mouse” Malloway learns the reason for her stranger-wary upbringing is her mother’s fears she will become the victim of an international child abduction at the hands of her estranged Sicilian father (the marriage soured because of the tyrannical mother-in-law). In the same episode, Mum’s fears come true. The father succeeds in catching up to Mary, and he abducts her and drags her off to Sicily.

“My Terrible Twin” (Lindy) is on parole from a remand home after a shoplifting conviction and getting into a bad crowd. Her fraternal twin Moira is desperate to help her reform, which the remand home didn’t have much success in doing. However, Lindy gets off to a bad start in stealing lipsticks from the store Moira sets her up in. In this episode Lindy quietly returns them, settles into her job, and things seem to be going better. But there are clear bumps: Lindy has little sense of responsibility, and she is vain and conceited, which makes an enemy out of another employee, Helen. But that’s nothing compared to the real problem Lindy is now facing – her old crowd turns up and makes trouble! Incidentally, My Terrible Twin was so popular she spawned a sequel, and her first story was reprinted by popular demand in 1984.

In the Strange Story, “Menace from the Moor”, Dad is trying to start a market garden business, but a horse from the moor keeps turning up and trampling all over his plants. It does not take long to realise there is something strange about the horse. It is getting in despite fencing, seems to just vanish, only appears on moonlit nights, and has a missing shoe. Could there be a link to the horseshoe in the house? Which, by the way, is hanging upside down – the bad luck position.

Molly’s new story is “the Haunted Hall”, but it’s not really haunted. Molly is trying to hide her kid brother Billy in the hall while the family see to a sick relative. But Molly will lose her job if she is found out. Naturally, Billy’s high spirits make it hard to conceal him. His antics, plus ghost stories, are getting Pickering wound up about the hall being haunted. Pickering always did have a track history for being haunted, whether the ghost is real or fake.

Don’t talk to Bessie Bunter about birds this week! Mary Moldsworth tries to encourage Bessie to share her food with birds. But all poor Bessie gets out of it is bird bother and an unfair punishment.

Tammy 4 November 1978

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Tammy 4 November 1978

Cover artist: John Richardson

  • Bella (artist John Armstrong)
  • The Upper Crust – first episode (Giorgio Giorgetti)
  • Dancer Entranced (artist Angeles Felices)
  • Tuck in with Tammy – food ideas for Bonfire Night
  • One Girl and Her Dog… (artist Mario Capaldi)
  • Bessie Bunter
  • Molly Mills and the Tender Trap (artist Douglas Perry, writer Maureen Spurgeon)
  • Strange Story – The Pied Piper
  • Edie the Ed’s Niece – cartoon (artist Joe Collins)
  • Wee Sue (artist Robert MacGillivray)
  • TEAM in Action (artist Carmona)

Guy Fawkes is coming, so I am taking time out from Scream to discuss fireworks issues, courtesy of Tammy.

This one, from 1978, had the regulars Edie the Ed’s Niece, Wee Sue and Bessie Bunter available to provide Guy Fawkes-themed stories, and they all do so. Tammy’s recipe page, “Tuck in with Tammy”, also has some recipes for Bonfire Night.

In Bessie Bunter Miss Stackpole won’t allow the girls to have Guy Fawkes because it clashes with a concert she booked for the girls for the same night. “Mean rotter!” says Bessie, and we totally agree. Naturally, the girls don’t look very happy at the concert, and Bessie is taking a more proactive stance – sneaking out of the concert with her friend Mary to let off fireworks secretly. As it turns out, this leads to a chain of events that have the girls enjoying a Guy Fawkes celebration after all.

Wee Sue and her friends are on the Penny-for-the-Guy routine, but some boys steal their Guy and leave them with an inferior model. Surprisingly, it’s Miss Bigger who gives the boys their comeuppance when they mistake her for an even better Guy.

Now here’s a twist on The Pied Piper legend in this week’s Strange Story. The Pied Piper turns up at the scene of an accident near Hamelin where a hit-and-run driver forces a coachload of kids off the road. And would you believe it, the Pied Piper helps the injured driver and drives the kids to safety at a carnival in Hanover. But was it really the Pied Piper or just someone dressed up? There was a carnival going on, after all.

Toni, Ellie, Anthea and Maggie (TEAM) have formed the school newspaper editorial team for their boarding school, with the scrapes they get into becoming fodder for the paper. This week it’s Ellie’s turn, with some water gypsies stealing her sacred talisman for good luck. Ellie believes the loss is causing her to suffer terrible misfortune as she tries to recover the talisman, to the extent where the police have nabbed her for her failed bike lights.

Bella is in Australia and has joined Limber, a promotional team for gymnastics equipment. The trouble is, her latest coach, Sergeant Marks, has too much of a military and masculine view of gymnastics, which not only causes clashes between him and Bella but is also detrimental to the way he coaches the team for a competition. When the day comes, Bella is not confident that Sarge’s style of coaching will lead them to victory. His latest is setting the floor routines to military marches, despite Bella’s protests they won’t fit. Fortunately she has managed to set her floor routine to different music secretly. Will it make a difference?

It’s part one of “The Upper Crust”, where the Carrington-Crusts arrive in High Hills, the super-snob area of Cherryton. The daughter, Clara Carrington-Crust, immediately clashes with snobby Mavis Blunt, but in a very odd way. One minute she seems to be taking Mavis down a peg or two, the next she’s as snobby as the rest of them at High Hills. Nobody knows what to make of Clara and she’s baffling everyone at school, even the caretaker. Meanwhile, the Blunts decide there is something about these Carrington-Crusts that they’re determined to get to the bottom of.

A ballerina is under the influence of hypnotism in “Dancer Entranced”. It’s not in the same way as “Slave of the Clock”, but when you think about it, there are some hallmarks. Trina Carr is obliging her father’s dream for her to become a top ballerina like her late mother but she has no talent and doesn’t want Dad to know. Then a hypnotist seems to give her the ability to dance, but only while his metronome is ticking. The metronome has now gotten Trina into a top ballet school, where she is striking problems with a jealous rival and keeping that damn metronome ticking because she believes she can’t dance without it.

In “One Girl and Her Dog…” Kim Robinson is hoofing it all the way to London to claim an inheritance because her daft dog Rumpus ate her train ticket. They’re getting into all sorts of scrapes along the way. Among them is Harry Whelkes, a flunky a relative hired to stop them claiming the inheritance. They have just met Harry in this episode but don’t realise what he is up to. Rumpus almost scared him off for good when he tried out growling for the first time, but the promise of double the money has lured Harry back into the game.

You wouldn’t think anyone could seriously fall in love with that bully butler Pickering in Molly Mills, would you? Well, the district nurse Miss Key has after a misunderstanding has her thinking he is in love with her, and she doesn’t realise his true nature. All Pickering’s attempts to get rid of her have failed. Now the daft woman thinks he has proposed to her, and she has accepted!

Katy

Translations and Reprints, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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Katy. This is a title that is so obscure that I cannot find any piece on it or jpegs on the Internet (save at a recent eBay auction, which are reproduced here). The only source on Katy so far is this thread from Comics UK forum http://comicsuk.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=140&t=6484

Katy lasted ten issues. She appeared fortnightly, from #1, 31 October 1986 to #10, 6 March 1987. She then merged with Barbie.

What gives Katy her place on this blog is that she reprinted some stories from Jinty. Other reprints came from Tammy, Misty, Whizzer & Chips, Sandie, and other sources that have not yet been identified. The beauty is that Katy reprinted the stories in full colour!

If anyone can supply further information on Katy it would be most appreciated.

Stories in Katy

Creepy Crawley – Jinty

Combing Her Golden Hair – Jinty. Retitled “Comb of Mystery”

Alone in London – originally appeared in its own title

The Upper Crust – Tammy

Witch Hazel – Tammy

Guitar Girl – Tammy

Claws (cat cartoon) – Whoopee!

The Cats of Carey St – Misty

Sister to a Star – Sandie

Minnie’s Mixer (cartoon) – Whizzer & Chips

The Petticoat Pirate – original comic unknown

Dora Dogsbody – Jinty

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Update: Further scans are now available. They have established that most of the Katy covers were reproduced from Princess Tina, such as this one. All the covers were also used for the Dutch Tina.23ubw2a

And the following scans of the contents have been added. “Comb of Mystery” is “Combing her Golden Hair” under a new title.

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