Monthly Archives: January 2012

Letters of Hate

Bunty, , ,
  • Letters of Hate –  Bunty: #1678 (10 March 1990) – #1686 (5 May 1990)
  • Artist: Tom Hurst

Plot/Thoughts

This story is narrated by Gemma, her life isn’t going so well, these days, her boyfriend Mike dumped her and her father has lost a job.  So she isn’t having a great time, but she still seems surprisingly upbeat. She brushes off Mike having a new girlfriend as no big deal and encourages her father to keep going for interviews. Then people in her school start getting poison pen letters. Janice is called out for being spotty, Ben and Abigail break up after he gets a note that Abigail spent evening with another guy. Gemma and her friends Cathy and Laura decide to play detective and find out who is sending the letters.

Spoilers! In the end the shocking twist is  that Gemma is the  culprit herself! Having protagonists be the person behind nasty tricks was one of those plots that would pop up sometimes. The story tries to steer towards other suspects, even in the first issue two girls Babs and Josie are highlighted to be mean gossips, so later on they become suspects. In the second issue Gemma herself gets a nasty letter. Again this was common to have the supposed victim be behind everything.

The letters are written in different methods, so these clues to lead them to new suspects. In one instance a letter is typed right after girl bragging about new typewriter. Conveniently Gemma always is on her own when a letter arrives. When  Gemma and Laura decide to hide in the classroom waiting for the writer, Gemma goes to tuck shop and it turns out a letter appears in another class. Next a letter is sent with cut out comic bookletters (Bab and Josie are suspects). Later Gemma and Laura find spare letters in cloakroom they are surprised that they are beside best friends Cathy’s peg. When Cathy is off sick the next day the rule her out,

Throughout the story Gemma’s ex Mike and his new girlfriend Dawn pop up. Her thought bubbles reveal she still wants him back even though she says she she doesn’t mind outwardly.

Mike and Dawn both become suspects, when they find a typed list of names including most of the victims. It is actually a party list and typewriter doesn’t match.

Cathy meanwhile has figured out why the crooked M on typewritten note looked so familiar, it’s Gemma’s. So Laura and her confronts Gemma and yes she did it because she was having a miserable time. Some people who got notes was just to make them miserable too, others like a girl Tania got a note because she disliked her for beating her in a race. Of course Gemma loses all her friends after everyone knows what she has done. She seems quite surprised by this.

Again its not breaking any new ground, but at least some of the suspects like Cathy, Mike and Dawn seem possible and less obvious than earlier suspects. Gemma seems a bit oblivious to the consequences but her motivation is plausible.  She is not an overly vicious character, she did a terrible thoughtless things, more because misery likes company than any real spite. But in the end its good to see her get what she deserves. The art is solid. Some stories have settings that gives the artist lots to explore with like old style Victorian, or futuristic sci-fi, or even having crazy pets but with stories set in a modern era schools, there can seem to be less to play around with.  Still the expressions are subtle, characters are distinctive and while there isn’t lots of action it is still nice nice and consistent.

The Third Wish

Mandy, ,
  • The Third Wish – Mandy PSL: #178
  • Artist: Paddy Brennan

Plot/Thoughts


This is another time when the cover art is different from the inside. I like the simplicity and the painted look of the cover. Not something I note often but I also like the font style of the title, it just seems to fit well. The inside art is good too, Brennan’s art I primarily recognise  from the Judy strip “The Honourable S.J.” Though I do like the art I admit whenever  I see it I keep thinking S.J. will pop up.

The story involves a girl Becky, who is on a pony trekking holiday. On one of their treks her and her friend, Zoe,  accidently stumble across a pool. Playing around, Becky throws in silver leaves and makes three wishes. She doesn’t wish for fame or fortune, but makes simple requests. She would like trifle for tea, there is a particular horse she’d like a chance to ride before the end of the summer and she wishes that annoying know-it-all Nella gets what she deserves. That day she gets to ride her dream horse and they have trifle for tea. After a bit of research she discovers the legend of a magical wishing pool that will  only appear to those not intentionally seeking it out.

Becky starts to worry about her third wish so she begins looking out for Nella as it seems disaster could fall on her at any point. She nearly falls over twice, then nearly gets hit by a van. Becky feels responsible. As Nella is always telling people how to do things properly and being bossy, Zoe tells Becky no-one will hang around Becky if she starts hanging out with Nella.

After saving Nella from an old collapsing building Nella begins to show a nicer side. She explains how she was raised by her bossy gran who always sends her on courses during the holidays, so she knows a lot about stuff. She agrees with Becka to try and be a less of  a know it all.  During a treasure hunt Becky is trying to make sure Nella doesn’t get into trouble and ends up falling over quarry herself. Luckily Nella stays calm and withe her emergency supplies she saves Becka

Becky is happy to see Nella get what she deserves, a medal for bravery.

So a nice play on words. The story works fine, although Becky’s wishes could have been more elaborate I like how the vagueness leads to events following could be taken as coincidence. Nella actually becomes a more sympathetic character despite her bossiness. There’s a nice conflict for Becky where she wants to make sure Nella is okay but wants to stay popular with her friends at the same time. Overall the story isn’t breaking any new ground but for what it is, it is fine.

 

 

Framed!

Bunty,
  • Framed! – Bunty Picture Story Library: #353
  • Artist: Don Walker

Plot/Thoughts

This was one of those stories, that when I saw the preview for it, I imagined something very different.  I thought there was some mysterious story about the characters, that they were based on actual people. Instead this is the story of  fictional characters coming to life.

Carly Bell’s mother is an artist and writer of picture stories for basically Bunty type comics. The fake publication they name here is “Jenni”. She discusses her new idea with Carly; a family called the Swifts, begin to have falling outs after winning the pools. Carly thinks the characters aren’t realistic, they are too good to begin with, to suddenly have fights over money. The mum is really not one to take constructive critiscism  well and decides to bin the entire idea. She gives Carly the drawings she has already done as she has no use for them. While I know some ideas may not work and writers/artists may like to start new, but she gives up on the idea very quickly. I mean she scraps the idea without even trying to improve it and I think even if she didn’t use that story or exact characters a lot of artists and story writers use elements of disregarded ideas.

Also I don’t know if it was intentional dig at picture stories that were commonly seen in Bunty, or else it was a good-natured acknowledgement of the flaws. Criticising characters for being overly good and also reusing story-lines is mentioned. I would think its just a self awareness of the type of stories that were often published and I’d take more as a bit of poking fun then actual malice behind it.

Back with Carly, she is putting away the disregarded pictures when there is a nice subtle hint at troubles about to begin.

The happy drawings of the characters, look sinisterly at Carly. It’s a good panel setting up the creepy atmosphere. While Carly’s gone the Swifts express their anger at Carly for getting their series scrapped, they decide to teach her a lesson. First, the girl Swift ruins a night out at the disco when she causes Carly to spill a drink all over her friend’s new dress. Though really the friend overreacts a lot. Each of the Swifts take a turn at playing tricks on her,  including the dog. These tricks seem to be done with real malice at time, so there is reason to actually worry about what will happen to Carly. The grandad setting up Carly to look like a thief, seems quite tense.

Carly tries to tell her mother what’s happening, of course mother laughs it off as an overactive imagination. After every Swift has played a trick on Carly, she thinks they’ve gotten their revenge so they will leave her alone now. Instead they all get together to gang up on her.

They chase her into barn. As it is dark Grandpa lights some matches, Carly escapes out of a hole. Grandpa drops the matches and the barn goes on fire. Firemen arrive and are informed that there is people inside, but all they find are burnt up pieces of paper. Carly is delighted to hear this.

I know they were terrorising her but she maybe looking a bit too gleeful about their deaths. Even if they were just fictional characters that were chasing this innocent girl, being burnt to death seems quite a dark ending for them. Although the ending is still a bit vague did they just disappear or burn to death and turn to paper?

The Swifts motivation seems a little arbitrary as well. You would think if they were so powerful to live outside their frames, they’d want to just get on with a life rather than torturing some girl.

Other than the vague ending of the Swifts and the questionable motives I quite liked this story. The idea of picture characters coming to life is always fun to play around with. The art is solid, the Swifts could look mischievousness and then suddenly turn quite menacing. The threat to Carly seemed like it was genuinely dangerous at times, it made the atmosphere tense leading up to the climax.

 

Judy 1993

Judy, , , , , , , ,

This was the last Judy annual published. By this time the Judy comic had merged with Mandy to become M&J. The Mandy annuals continued until 2007 and I think the character of Judy did appear in some of the later Mandy annuals, but this was the last of  a solo Judy title.

While Bunty and Mandy annuals declined in quality in their last years I think this Judy annual finished up on a good note. There are 21 picture stories, 3 prose stories and 6 features. There are favourite characters like Bobby Dazzler and Wee Slavey along with complete new stories. (For just a list of contents click here)

 

Picture Stories

Home for Christmas   (Pages: 4-11)

Art: “B Jackson”

The first story as you can guess from the title is Christmas themed. When I was younger I quite liked having some Christmas themed stories in these annuals.  As traditionally I used to get these annuals as a Christmas present, having these type of stories was nice to keep in the festive mood. Some annuals seemed to avoid being tied to Christmas, if you look at the Judy 1984 annual, none of the stories are set at Christmas and even the cover looks more Summer like than Winter like.

So this story is a nice family Christmas story. Wendy is the youngest sibling in the family, her older brother Kevin and her sister Gilly have both moved out into the working world. Wendy and her parents are looking forward to having the family all back together for Christmas, so they are disappointed when they get a letter from Kevin saying he won’t make it home as he is shipping off to Canada.

The mum reminisces about how she always knew the three of them would make something of themselves, they used to make their own way home from school letting themselves in with the key hidden under the garden gnome. Obviously this memory is significant to the story later on, with short stories like this subtlety wasn’t always an option.  There is more bad news, when Gilly phones to say she has to do a photo shoot and won’t make it for Christmas either.

Wendy tries to make the best of things by decorating the house, but when she goes to get the decorations out of the attic she is knocked of the ladder and ends up in hospital.  She is told she will have to stay in hospital over Christmas.  The Dad decides he’ll take the Mum out for dinner Christmas Eve to cheer her up. Wendy is delighted when she is released from hospital early. She gets a lift home forgetting her parents won’t be there. Luckily the hidden key is still under the gnome and she enters only to find that Kevin has made it home for Christmas after all.

The parents are on their way home when they hear on the radio that Gilly has been in a car accident and wandered off. They are delighted to find Wendy and Kevin at home but are worried about Gilly. She manages to find her way home as well. Turns out her shoot was cancelled. The father wonders how they all got in with the key because they usually bolt the door from the inside these days. Turns out the mother unbolted the door just in the hope that the children would come home.

I really like the art and the inking. The colouring is quite muted when things look bad and then changes to nice and bright without being too overwhelming when things turn out well. Its just a nice family Christmas story to read.

Junior Nanny (Pages: 14-16)

Art: Oliver Passingham

Junior Nanny never seemed like the most interesting concept, a young nanny solving the problems of children no older than 5, but somehow I always liked the strip. The kids were genuinely cute and often sympathetic and Chris Johnson was kind but also practical and resourceful.

Here she tries to help new arrival Jonathan who is shy and cries during snowball fights. When another kid Alan tease him for this Chris explains that he gets upset easily because his parents are in hospital. Alan being a good kid at heart takes it on himself to look after Jonathan. But this means he ends up missing out on stuff he likes to do because Jonathan doesn’t like it.  To solve this Chris enlists Jonathan to make a special present for Alan.  Its a fort for his toy soldiers. After helping make this Jonathan is keen for everyone to play together with Alan’s new fort.

Pepper the Pony  (Pages: 17/111)

Pepper the pony is a humour strip that ran in Judy. The first strip in this annual, involves Lucinda calling Pepper lazy, so he decides to run off. Remembering the tale of Dick Whittington and his cat making a fortune in London, he goes to look for puss. After spending all night looking for him he ends up needing a rest. Lucinda berates him in the morning again for being lazy while Puss is already up and washing himself.

The second strip has Pepper being scared by stories of witches and ghosts. He gets particularly scared when he sees the shadow of a witch in the stables. It turns out to be Lucinda dressed up for a costume party.

Wedding Belle   (Pages: 18-22)

Artist: Ana Rodriguez

Belle is a girl who hires out her services as a flower girl/bridesmaid at weddings. It is quite a successful endeavor, although I could never understand why people would want a stranger as part of their wedding!  I can imagine looking at the photos would be like; there’s the bride, groom, best man and some girl we hired!

Belle’s neighbour Liza isn’t having a lot of luck in the romance department. Belle observes this is because Liza is a bit over eager and ends up scaring guys off. Belle meanwhile is bridesmaid at a wedding of someone she knows. Valerie runs a dating agency, but her and her husband are moving away after the wedding so the agency will have to close down as she couldn’t find anyone to take it over. Belle thinks Liza would be perfect for the job. Apparently she is very good because just a few weeks into the job already one couple she introduced are engaged.

People seem to move fast in this town! The job also helps Liza out because she has been so busy she hasn’t had time to chase guys around. Dan from the downstairs office, finds this busy Liza, that hasn’t time to talk to him attractive, so he asks her out..in a somewhat abrupt manner.

But Liza seems charmed enough so happy ending for her.

The Honourable S.J.   (Pages: 26-32)

Artist: Paddy Brennan

Nasty blackmailer Sarah Jane is up to her usual tricks. When Ann tries to stop her stealing from caravans they are both sent to  an under-privileged children’s home for a bit of community service. Soon S.J. has all the children and staff charmed. Ann keeps her eye on S.J. and discovers her plot to steal a silver rose bowl heirloom. She manages to stop her and also records the encounter.  At a disco for the children Ann plays the recording, exposing S.J. Ann volunteers to stay on for the rest of the Summer even though her name is cleared and S.J. gets sent away.

“You’re Just Jealous!”   (Pages: 33-38)

Artist: Edmond Ripol

This is a story of friendship versus boyfriend.  When Lucy falls sick her best friend Amy is pretty bored until she meets Chris.  So when Lucy gets better, she isn’t too happy to find out that Amy has a boyfriend now. She is especially upset to find out Amy and Chris went to a film that they were planning to see together.

She is feeling pretty blue about it… I don’t know where that colouring in that panel came out of but I still think the art looks good throughout the story. So Lucy see Chris hanging around with another girl and tells Amy straight away. Amy presumes she is just being jealous, so they fall out. Amy does try to make things up but Lucy won’t hear of it.  Lucy later gets to prove her point when she sees the girl Chris was hanging around with.  Only to discover that the girl, Laura, is his sister. Amy realises Lucy made a genuine mistake and they end up going on a double date with one of Chris’s friends.

I like the friendship angle of this story, Lucy feeling threatened by her friend’s new boyfriend is a reasonable reaction and she does try to be happy for her at first too. I also like that Amy doesn’t hold a grudge against Lucy, she puts their friendship as a high priority even with new relationship. It seems like a pretty solid message.

The Boys From Beyond   (Pages 39-46)

Artist: Guy Peeters

This is a Skeleton Corner story, a regular feature in Judy.  They  were basically  spooky stories introduced by a skeleton. Here two sisters, Tanya and Fay, are getting ready to attend a Halloween party at their father’s hotel. Before the party, Tanya is disappointed when her favourite metal band Darkest Night, skip their appearance on a TV show. They attend the party but it is a further disappointment, as it all old people attending. They then meet a boy, Luke,  their own age who is dressed up in old fashioned clothes. They go for a walk together and come across a farmhouse, that is supposed to be empty, has lights on. Tanya is delighted to find inside is Darkest Night rehearsing. Luke apparently is not a metal fan and runs away from the noise. Fay follows him and Tanya is left to talk with the band.

They explain that they picked this place to play because their next album Boy from Beyond is about a young  ghost from the area.  Tanya figures Luke is a ghost and that now he’s alone with her sister. The lead singer reassures her that even if Luke is a ghost he won’t hurt her ghosts just appear and vanish again. Tanya finds Luke and Fay and discovers he is pale and sensitive to noise because he recently had an accident but he is not a ghost. She re-enters the farmhouse only to find the band doing a montage of their cover art.

I really liked this story. I am a fan of skeleton corner and spooky, twist stories in general. I also really liked that Tanya’s favourite band was a heavy metal band. It was really refreshing to see a girl not into the usual boybands, or pop charts stuff for a change.  It was closer to my taste in music, so I found her a more relatable character.

Bobby Dazzler   (Pages: 50-58)

Art: Giorgio Letteri

Bobby Dazzler, the only girl at a boys boarding school, has trouble getting on the football team. The boys think they will be laughed at if they have a girl in the team for their next match.  She appeals to the coach who decides letting her be their sub will please her, but he has no plans of playing her. On the day of the match the other team’s star player, Barry, is just a sub for a day, so Bobby ends up flirting with him. Mike and Don are a bit distracted by Barry chatting up Bobby. When it comes to half time they blame each other for how badly the match is going. Don pushes Mike injuring him so the coach benches Don and has to replace Mike in goal with Bobby.

Bobby is less impressed with Barry when he comes onto play and takes advantage of their earlier talk aiming for her weak spot. Luckily Bobby manages to save it. Then Mike feeling better comes back to play goalie, and Bobby goes back on the field. She manages to score the equaliser and win man of the match. I liked that Bobby can show her feminine side by flirting but still be as good as the boys in whatever situation she is in.

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