Monthly Archives: September 2011

Slave to Love!

Mandy
  • Slave to Love! – Mandy:  #1252 (12 January 1991) – #1261 (16 March 1991)
  • Translated into Dutch as “Zwaar verliefd” (Deeply Smitten) – Tina #9/1993-15/1993
  • Art: Leslie Branton

Plot/Thoughts

In the later years of girl comics, romance/boy drama stories became a more popular feature.  I suppose it was a sign of changing times, when fashion and pop stars were also becoming more common features. There is nothing wrong with some boy related plots, some were quite enjoyable but others didn’t exactly feature the most inspiring role models.

This story has an uninspiring, un-relatable, unsympathetic protagonist in my opinion.  Gail Somers gets a crush on a boy Justin. Justin has a horrible lazy sister Andrea who decides to take advantage of Gail’s crush. She makes a deal to get Gail and Justin together if Gail becomes her slave for a month and a day.

slave to love 1

 

Gail is somewhat under the delusion that the guy will take his younger sister’s advice on love. She blows off her friends gets in tons of trouble and doesn’t realise what an idiot she has been until the end.  At this stage Justin has met a girl he actually talks to and has started dating her. Her friends are totally understanding of the situation afterwards.

slave to love 2
Seriously they take that as a reasonable explanation for blowing them off. Oh it was all for guy well then of course everything’s okay, trying to get a boyfriend is way more important than our friendship!

None of the characters are that likeable. While there are a lot of stories where girls are being blackmailed or manipulated by nasty girls. Usually these girls are black mailed under the threat of their father getting fired or a family secret getting revealed or something, so it’s easy to sympathise with these characters.  This is why I really find it hard to sympathise with the protagonist in this story, because it’s her own stupid choice.

The antagonist Andrea isn’t likeable but she’s just taking advantage of the situation. She laughs about how gullible Gail is, but turns out she’s not too bright herself. When she meets Gail’s cousin and falls for him she agrees to become Gail’s slave for a month and a day.

slave to love

Seems Gail has a bit of a malicious streak in her as well and is enjoying taking her revenge on Andrea.  As for Andrea… really what does she expect the outcome to be she was just in this situation with her brother, does she really see this ending with Gail’s cousin as her boyfriend!

Penny’s Prize Pony

Nikki,

Plot

Penny Marsden entered a competition to win a pony, and a second entry in her sister, Cathy’s name, to double her chances of winning. When “Cathy’s” entry won, she claimed the pony as her own. Penny was shattered but had to make the best of things when her father insisted that the girls share the pony.

pennys-prize-pony

Notes

 

Appeared

  • Penny’s Prize Pony – Nikki: #138 (10 October 1987) – #147 (12 December 1987)

The Crazy Crankies

Judy, ,
  • The Crazy Crankies– Judy: #1520 (25 February 1989) – #1527 (15 April 1989)
  • Artist: Andrew Wilson

Plot/Thoughts

The Crankies are a family that are reminiscence of “The Munsters” or “The Addams Family”. They are a group of misfits surrounded by normal people and they don’t realise how different they are.

The_Crankies_

Apart from the youngest girl Medina, each family member has “talent”. The father can make things disappear, the mother can see into crystal balls, Zena the eldest  daughter can move things with the wink of her eye, Ivan the towering brother can change things with a snap of his fingers and finally uncle Petrov  is a mad scientist type.

They lived isolated in their castle until it was blown up and they were forced to move into an ordinary house in a town. They are very upbeat  family and they don’t realise how different their way of doing things is.

While adjusting to their new life they find themselves having a learning curve. Their neighbours aren’t too pleased when they do such things as change their dogs to rabbits, or set off fireworks in the dining room during lunch.

Medina  is the first to realize they are different .

The_Crazy_Crankies_01e

 

So she tries to help her family fit in. They still have a several mishaps, such as when they find themselves in situations where they are running low on food and discover a supermarket but don’t realise they have to pay for items.

The_Crazy_Crankies_03e

Medina discovers, from her new friend, about such strange things as money, jobs and school. Things finally settle down at a festival talent contest. While Medina is worried about her family entering, its actually the one place where their talents are appreciated and they get offered a theatre and TV contract.

The_Crazy_Crankies_07e

This is one of my favourite stories. It is a typical type of fish out of water set up but the characters are likeable and the situations they find themselves in are amusing.. The art by Andrew Wilson, is detailed, expressive and all the characters look great and distinct.  Overall it’s just lighthearted fun story that’s entertaining to read and is actually one of the few stories that ages well.

 

Electra of the Evil Eye

Bunty, ,
  • Electra of the Evil Eye –  Bunty: #1157 (15 March 1980) – #1169 (07 June 1980)
  • Translated into Dutch (as “Elektra”) – monthly Debbie Stripstory #6/1981.

Plot/Thoughts

Gina Soames lives with her mother; her father is nowhere to be found and is never mentioned. Mrs Soames is a foster mother and her newest charge is an unusual girl named Electra. Gina is suspicious of Electra from day one.  I’m more suspicious of their living
arrangements. Despite Mrs Soames having fostered many children before, at the moment Electra is the only foster child in the house but she and Gina have to share a room as they apparently don’t have a spare room. You’d think with foster children coming and going regularly they’d have more than 2 bedrooms!

Electra has a common character trait of many Bunty characters. She acts all sweet and innocent and everyone is taken in by her. Only Gina is suspicious of her and of course Electra gets her in trouble while everyone thinks Electra is the nice girl.

The “evil eye” part of the title is soon revealed when Electra has to release energy and sets fire to a pavilion.

Gina starts becoming suspicious about fires popping up everywhere since Electra’s arrival. Electra continues to get Gina in trouble, which is bad for Gina as this is a time when corporal punishment is still in practice.

electra of the evil eye 2

Electra decides Gina’s getting too nosy. So Electra locks her in a room with a fire, and then inexplicitly saves her.  She seems to think that being in a fire would have made Gina forget about what she has done.

electra of the evil eye 3
Although she keeps threatening to remove Gina permanently, she never follows through. Which will have bad consequences for her later.

Gina convinces her mom to search Electra’s room. Mrs Soames finds an unusual torch. But Electra appears in the torch she is not happy with Mrs Soames snooping. Mrs Soames ends up in a paralysed state. This seems like a random new power for Electra to display, it is not fire related but  apparently whatever powers are needed to advance the story, she has them.  These stories often had “a wizard did it” attitude to some events.

Gina sees Electra talking to a fire apparition her master. Electra sets another fire and this time people get hurt. She sets up Gina to take the blame. Gina runs away from the cops to her mum another fire is set at the hospital. Gina helps get patients out. She is then arrested and she figures she’ll be safer behind bars.

Electra contacts her master who tells her to proceed with the Plan X. So in Bond villain style Electra breaks Gina out of jail and reveals the whole plan to her.  She tells her of her home planet Mercunopus that is about to explode. To her people flames are life so they setting fires on earth to warm up the atmosphere. Hmm yeah I don’t think that’s how these things work!  So while Electra’s people wait for the signal to invade Gina figures out that water stops fire. What is it with aliens that are vulnerable to water trying to take over a planet that is two thirds water? They really should know better. Gina drenches Electra and she does her wicked witch of the west impression.

electra of the evil eye 4

The aliens get the message, that this isn’t the best planet to invade.