Tag Archives: PSL

“Nobody Knows My Face!”

Mandy, ,
  • “Nobody Knows My Face!” – Mandy PSL: #143 (1990)
  • Artist:  J. Badesa.

Plot

Millie Mason is a budding actress with dreams of becoming a star. It seems she’s on her way to fame when she gets spotted by an agent, Eddie Tanner. Unfortunately every role she gets cast in she ends up in a costume, mask or in the shadows, so nobody sees what she looks like. Her agent  also thinks keeping the mystery of what she looks like will make her an even bigger star, with a big reveal.  Millie finally gets sick of being unknown and threatens to quit if  she can’t appear as herself., for her next interview. Eddie agrees and Millie is delighted. Only on the day of the big reveal she ends up getting mumps and is all bandaged up anyway!

Thoughts

Firstly, yes that is Dennis the Menace on the cover. Of course Mandy and Beano were both published by D.C. Thomson, it was quite common for the comics the reference another comic, sometimes characters would even be seen reading the comic they were part of! ! In this instance Millie’s first job is appearing as Dennis the Menace for a grand opening.

Millie then  gets her big TV break, doing a series of commercials. As Jane the Germ Killer, she gets interviews and fame and when her contract is finished in a year there will be a big reveal of who she is.  Apperently Jane the Germ Killer is a big hit.  I know some advertisements have been a staring path for big careers (like Brad Pitt or Leonardo DiCaprio) but I don’t remember them getting TV interviews for just staring in the ad! Then during a public appearance as Jane, Millie is kidnapped.  The kidnappers threaten to publicly unmask her if they don’t get paid. At first Millie is scared but she also thinks of the benefits i.e. that people will finally know who she is! She is disappointed to find out it is all a big publicity stunt by the agency.  Apparently they  didn’t tell her about the stunt because  they wanted her reactions to be realistic. Which is bad enough  but once they got her to the safe house, that may have been a good time to explain everything. But no, instead they tie her up and leave her wondering what is going to happen until some nice agency guy decides to turn up later. It just makes an unethical situation even worse

 

Even Millie sees how terribly wrong this is and wants out. She lets them know they can’t sue her for breaking her contract without her letting everyone know about the publicity stunt. The agency agrees but only on the condition that she never reveals she played the character. They are going to replace her with another actress and pretend she was always the one. Yep thats showbiz for you!

So Millie’s back to square one, and she can’t even use her television experience on her resume. She does gets another chance when she stars in a TV mini series. Unfortunetely her face is hidden in shadows. This trend of masks and shadows continues, until she decides she has had enough and quits. Eddie convinces her to come back to the business after he gets his writer friend to write a script based on the idea of “The Girl with a Thousand Faces”. Using a similar idea to the Jane the germ killer ad campaign, they are also going to build up the idea of the mystery girl but this time he promises she will get her big reveal at the end.

Really I couldn’t see this concept work today, people would track down Millie Mason no bother, on IMDB/Wikipedia or some social networking site.  Actually I find it difficult to believe even in pre-web/social networking  days, that not one reporter didn’t track her down! Eventually Millie gets her big moment to finally show her face….only to end up in hospital with the mumps.

This story has some unrealistic setups, particularly the kidnapping plot, but the story isn’t one to take it too seriously either. Millie could have come off as a very unlikeable character,  a girl that seems to be in the acting business not for the roles but to become famous. Yes she does come across a fame hungry at times but as its played mostly for laughs, she isn’t a terrible character. You don’t wish for her downfall. You sympathise with her frustration, but can also see the humour in the situation.  The big joke of all this build up only for her to be covered in bandages for her unveiling, is played with a kind of; roll of  the eyes “typical”  rather than as a devastating blow.

The Door to Yesterday

Mandy, ,
  • The Door to Yesterday – Mandy PSL: #40 (1981)
  • Reprinted –  Mandy PSL:  #207 (1994)
  • Artist: David Matysiak

Plot

Sally Dean is staying with her aunt for the holidays. Aunt Mabel is a housekeeper to a scientist Mr. Winslow. Sally follows Mr. Winslow through a door in his attic and finds herself lost and alone in London in 1851. For weeks she tries to track down Mr. Winslow, finally grabbing his attention at a local music hall. Mr. Winslow gets her back to the present where no time has passed.

Thoughts

Firstly the artwork is great, I’m pretty sure its by David Matysiak, but if I’m wrong feel free to correct me.  The Victorian era is really captured in the clothes, streets and overall look. The grimy streets, overcrowded halls and in contrast the grand houses and the wonder of the Great Exhibition of 1851. Everything is wonderfully visualised. The characters are all expressive, Sally is a character that is shown to adapt to her situation but  her dejection when she thinks her only way home is blown up also is clearly illustrated.  Matysiak can switch between an everyday scene to an atmosphere of fear and creepiness brilliantly.

He’s definitely a favourite artist of mine.

The story itself is interesting. Mr. Winslow doesn’t come off as some crackpot scientist but is instead portrayed as a gentleman. In the middle of the night Sally notices him dressed up  in Victorian clothing going into the attic she follows him and is surprised to find herself out onto a foggy street. When the door shuts behind her she decides she best catch up to him but finds herself lost in the fog. Getting tired she falls asleep in a doorway. She is taken in by the people of the house. She decides its best not to tell them the truth particulaly when they enquire about her “strange” clothes. Instead she says she is an orphan and she came to London to look for a friend.

Sally is a great resourceful character, she first decides its best not to draw too much attention to herself by wearing the clothes that were lent to her. In the meantime she also goes about trying to track Mr. Winslow down. She hands in  some  of her coins to the local newspaper hoping to attract Mr. Winslow’s attention, unfortunately Winslow assumes they are coins he dropped and explains it a way to the newspaper without coming in contact with Sally. She manages to track him down to the hotel he was staying at but he has already moved on. Undeterred though she offers her services as a receptionist at the hotel so she sorts out a place to stay and money.

She continues to show her good detective skills in trying  to track Mr. Winslow down, she gets close to him at an exhibition but loses him in the crowd. She does manage to find her way back to the door she came through but is distressed when she arrives just as it is scheduled to be destroyed.

Despite this blow she doesn’t give up hope that Mr. Winslow may still be able to help.. She finally meets him at a Music Hall but they are seperated when a fight breaks out. She tries other music halls, during a talent competition hour, she has the idea to offer her talents as a maths wiz with her handy calculator. She gets the approval of the the audience but most importantly Mr. Winslow sees her and is able to meet up with her after the show.

Just when things are looking to be resolved, another obstacle is placed in front of them when a policeman arrests Mr. Winslow for his part in the fight at the other music hall. Sally isn’t going to let another thing get in her way of getting home, when she is so close. So she takes matters  into her own hands.

Finally Mr. Winslow gets Sally back home through another door, it turns out he has many ways to get back home (that’s convenient!). Sally arrives back at the time she left.

Sally  is an admirable character she is adaptable, smart and not afraid to get into a confrontation when needed. She is also shown to be kind and helpful to people, particularly those who helped her. She is at the same time – brave and stands up to people when needed.  She reprimands a man for not listening to a singer and throwing rubbish at her.

Mr. Winslow is a gentleman and shows his enthusiasm for science without looking like a mad scientist. The supporting characters for the little they are shown still get show their traits clearly. Miss Peacock an earlier character is shown to be disapproving and uptight, Mrs Brown who gives Sally a job at the hotel is kindly and shows concern for Sally.

The story itself takes the advantage of time being fluid. It establishes Mr. Winslow and Sally interacting early on before quickly moving into the main time travelling plot. It takes its time setting Sally up in this Victorian era, she is trapped for weeks, so the time period is able to be explored. The time period itself is just the backdrop for the detective side of the story as Sally searches for Mr. Winslow and a way back home. So there is a lot going on to squeeze into 64 pages and I think the pacing is done well.

Mirror Image

Bunty, ,
  • Mirror Image – Bunty PSL: #437
  • Artist: Veronica Weir

Plot/Thoughts

This is a story about Alternate Worlds. I personally love stories with alternate worlds, Fringe, Man in the High Castle, It’s a Wonderful Life are some of my favourite stories. While this story doesn’t reach the high levels of storytelling of the latter, it is still a fun read.

The main character, Donna, isn’t too happy with her life. She wishes that her family and life was different. She would like to live in a better modern house and have parents that are less eccentric and more attentive like her friend Denises. Denise on the other hand thinks Donna has a great life, a good family, a cool house and Donna is an A student.

When her Mum buys an old  three way mirror at an antiques fayre, Donna discovers it has special qualities.

 

So she is able to travel to alternate dimensions. She finds her first wish coming true, as in this world her parents are well off so she lives in a big modern house and has expensive clothes and all she ever wanted. Her mother is a famous professional artist and her father is a successful business man. Of course things aren’t as perfect as they first seem, her father is all smarmy calling her princess all the time and at her mum’s art exhibition she has a very boring evening with her parents ignoring her. Things don’t get any better when she goes to school next day and finds her friends are all stuck up. Having enough of this world she travels back to her own world. She discovers that hardly any time has passed in her world. Out of curiosity she decides to check out other dimensions.

She finds herself in a life where she isn’t smart and struggles at school. Her home life is dreary, her parents are strict. Her mother’s an art teacher and a dragon of a teacher. Which doesn’t make Donna popular with other students.

Donna is quick to leave this world and she decides she has enough of travelling to other worlds. But when she goes to talk to her parents they are both too busy to talk, feeling fed up Donna decides to give the mirror another go. She finds herself in a similar world to her own except that her and Denise are partners in competitive disco dancing. When Denise makes a mistake at a competition, Donna’s mum is quick to get rid of Denise and get Donna a better partner.  It turns out she’s a very pushy controlling stage mum, Donna begins to appreciate her own mother.

She is panicked when she discovers this mother has given away the mirror, she worries she will be stuck in this world forever, luckily she finds it at a jumble sale and is able to travel back. She is happy to be home and has realised she has a Wonderful Life after all.

It’s fun to explore alternate worlds. The art is good at representing the different people and worlds, Donna’s mother looks snobby in the first world , old fashioned in second world and sharp in the third world but they are all recognisable as the same person.  The moral is nothing new discovering that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side, but its a fun story anyway.

 

 

The Sailor Doll / Sam

Bunty, , ,
  • The Sailor Doll – Bunty PSL: #265
  • Reprinted as  Sam –  Bunty PSL: #396
  • Artist: Peter Wilkes

Plot/Thoughts

This month is the 100th anniversary of the Titanic sinking.  I’m sure  with all the books on the subject that have been released and James Cameron 1997 film Titanic is being re-released in 3D, that it has been pretty hard to miss. So with the month that is in it I thought it was a good time to look at the story “The Sailor Doll”.

The story is drawn by Peter Wilkes and is a mystery/ ghost story involving a girl Jackie and a sailor doll that was on the Titanic. Jackie is going on a school trip with her friends Donna and Fran, they are taking the cruise ship “Odin” to New York then onto Disneyland for a week.  It must be some fancy school school these girls went to, if they can afford a cruise ship to America and a week in Disneyland on top of it. I also wonder about the logistics of the trip so they get a ship to New York then do they fly to Disneyland, because presumably if it’s in California that’s a really long drive to take!

As a mascot Jackie’s father gets her a sailor doll named Sam from a junk shop. When they are sailing off Jackie nearly drops Sam into the water. It’s the first sign that there may be something strange going on.

In the standard procedure of these stories,  more strange things happen when the girls keep finding their porthole window open and Sam beside it. At first these things are dismissed and Jackie’s friends are particularly cynical that there is something unusual with Sam. Then Jackie has a nightmare in which she is drowning she also see a young girl in old-fashioned clothing, looking for Sam.  While she tries to forget these nightmares and just have fun, she starts to see visions during the daytime.

 

So the only reasonable theories Jackie can have is that she is hallucinating or that Sam is trying to tell her something. Later from a tear in his jacket she finds a note.  She can’t read all the note but she can make out the date of  April 1912 and words “exciting, cold and  big ship” also the name of the ship ends in ‘anic’.  So Jackie researches the information and finds out about the sinking of the Titanic. I would have thought this is something she would of heard of before in school at some point but apparently not. She notices that there are similarities between the Titanic and the trip they are on now, they are travelling the same course, between the same dates and their captain is also name Smith.

Jackie tries to convince her friends that there is a connection with their trip and the Titanic. When more strange things happen Fran and Donna agree to help investigate. Jackie sees the young girl again and falls down steps chasing after her, ending up with a concussion. Fran decides to throw Sam overboard thinking if he’s gone all the trouble may stop. Jackie is upset when she finds out this, she is also convinced their ship is going to sink as well and only Sam could have helped them. Not sure how Sam could have helped him but instead of finding Sam sinister and creepy, Jackie thinks he is a good spirit.

Luckily it turns out Sam fell onto a lower deck when Fran dropped him so Jackie finds him again. She figures that the girl would have been saved if she hadn’t gone back looking for the doll, while Sam was rescued from the water and now he wants to be reunited with the girl. The girls decide they need to toss Sam overboard on  April 14  at 11.46pm.

After this the ship arrives safely at its destination. Fran and Donna believe they let their imaginations run wild but Jackie believes Sam and the girl are happily reunited.

The story is quite a common one; strange occurrences, ghosts and cynical friends. It has the more accurate historical setting which is a bit more educational than the usual made up ghost history. A lot of these tortured ghosts were looking to be reunited with a beloved item, if there is a lesson to be learned I think its if your ship is sinking/house is on fire/school collapsing etc… do not go back for your favourite toy/ locket because you will be killed and end up haunting some girl 60 years later.

 

Margie’s Magic Book / That Girl’s Me!

Judy, Mandy, ,
  • Margie’s Magic Book – Judy PSL: #246 [1983]
  • Reprinted as That Girl’s Me!–Mandy PSL: #267 [1997]
  • Art: John McNamara

Plot/ Thoughts

This is one of these stories where the protagonist has to deal with her magical double. This was originally printed in 1983, then in 1997 it was reprinted with a name change. I think the second title suits the story better. Margie’s Magic Book implies Margie doing spells when in reality she uses it once, then her other self hides it so she spends most of the story looking for it to reverse the spell.  So I wouldn’t really call it her book. “That Girl’s Me!” seems to sum up what the story’s about more accurately.

The protagonist, Margie is a nice girl, though not the most outspoken or highest of school achievers. For a school project about local superstitions and legends, she researches a legend of Old Mother Wily a witch and goes to the ruins of her cottage. There she finds the magic book which releases her other self.

Her  double describes herself as the Hyde to her Jekyll, the part of her that dares to do what Margie won’t. Of course the whole Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde story didn’t end too well for the Jekyll. These Jekyll and Hyde type stories that were common in these comics, and often did not end well for the good protagonist. In one Judy story “The Image of Iris” Iris’s double Siri ends up trapping Iris and taking her place permanently.

But Back to Margie and her double. Her double starts taking Margie’s place and making trouble. Usually Margie showing up just in time to receive the trouble.  The Double excels at table tennis and annoys the previous champion and insults her as well.  The Double also excels in schoolwork but she also insults teachers. When Margie turns up at school it’s her that has to face the gang of girls that the Double has  annoyed but her double helps out with a bit of magic, and sets a dog on them.

Margie knowing that her double is using the magic book to learn spells, follows her double to find where she has hidden it. Later while her double takes her place in a race, Margie takes the book and hides it in a new place.

Later she goes back for it but her double appears, she asks Margie to trust her and she’ll fix everything.

Honestly she doesn’t look trustworthy, she looks more creepy and evil but Margie figures she can’t defeat her so she gives in. The Double does a spell from the book and she disappears. Margie feels happier and more confident. Turns out they have merged. She finds herself excelling in running and table tennis, though her academics slip a bit which she figures is her old self slipping out. Overall she’s happy herself and her double make a good team.

So things work out for Margie, but throughout the story there is a bit of suspense on how things will work out. At times the double does try to help Margie, but at the same time the artwork can depict the Double in much more creepy and evil light, that we can’t be sure of her motivations.

 

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.

 

Amber

Judy, , ,
  • Amber – Judy Picture Story Library: #348
  • Artist: ?

Plot/Thoughts


I really like the cover for this book.  The colours, the overall image just really catches my eye. This was also one of my favourite ‘psl’ when I was younger.  I liked the mystical, mythological elements and the treasure hunt had a sense of urgency about it.  The characters are likeable and the art is simple but effective. I particularly like the drawings of Amber the mystical princess.

The story involves a school trip to the Greek Islands. Susan Barlow is an eager scuba diver so she is looking forward to exploring. She is is not so excited when the class is allocated  rooms alphabetically and she is stuck with Helen Basnet, a history geek. As school trips go its not very well organised or else the teachers are just very irresponsible! I’m guessing the protagonists are meant to be 16ish as they seem old enough to do their own thing but still be in school. At the same time they have no supervision. The teacher allocates the rooms at the start and then we don’t see any teacher again. I guess they are old enough to wander around themselves in their free time, but there doesn’t seem to be any group trips, they just bring the class to the Islands and dump them there, for all they know half the class could be sneaking drinks instead of exploring. Even some of the stuff Susan gets up to isn’t exactly safe,  and yet no adult supervision!

So Susan goes off scuba diving on her own. She discovers a cave that has been revealed after an earth tremor. She comes across a bock of amber with a girl inside, and is naturally freaked out when the girl opens her eyes. She swims back to surface and rationalizes that she must be over tired. Still a bit unsure she goes back to check. The girl is still there and this time she speaks to Susan. She introduces herself as Princess Diocastelyros and tells Susan she was trapped in the Amber by enemies and the only way she can be freed is when the stars are rightly aligned and combined with certain ingredients and a spell. Susan decides to call her Amber for short which the Princess isn’t happy with and is about to be nasty about it until she realizes she needs Susan’s help.

Susan first needs to get the list of ingredients “in the place of wisdom where Apollo lies at dusk”. As she can’t figure out what it means she enlists Helen’s help by pretending it’s a treasure hunt. “Apollo lies at dusk” means sunset and “place of wisdom”  is a temple dedicated to Athena. So they go to the temple and at sunset and a stone is illuminated, so Susan goes to touch it and it turns out to be booby trapped.

So this is the first time Susan is nearly killed or seriously injured. Both girls take the near death experience well and rig up some planks so they can get the scroll. Susan tells Helen about Amber but she thinks she’s just playing a joke on her, but she agrees to help anyway. Some of the ingredients seem unusual such as a “unicorn’s mane” and a “piece of Sea King’s Throne” so Susan goes to ask Amber for help. Amber calls them idiots for not knowing what the stuff is. A great way to treat people that are helping you! She plays the sympathy card of being stuck in Amber, so Susan will keep on helping her. She helps her get to the Sea King’s Throne by telling Susan where to swim up from the water. Helen meanwhile gets help from a local girl and finds out the a unicorns mane is actually a nickname for a local jellyfish.  They track down the rest of the ingredients except for a black rose and a seafire ring.

Amber decides to remind Susan how important the ring is by suddenly speaking in her head. This leads to second time Susan is nearly killed because of Amber, when she is nearly hit by a car.

They find the black rose with help from the local girl, Kristina. Helen also finds the legend of Amber so she now believes Susan about her existence. Amber came from an underwater empire that was conquered by an evil sorcerer. Amber and her twin escaped and they would have both became ordinary mortals if  a person helped them onto land. At the time there was only a shepherd around and he chose to help Amber’s sister, so Amber ended up getting caught and imprisoned by the sorcerer.

I really liked the legend, although Amber doesn’t seem too distressed to be caught in that picture! Amber tells Susan that her sister had the Seafire Ring and that the stars  will be aligned that night. Helen and Susan go to the beach with all the other ingredients and hope inspiration will strike them about the ring. Luckily Kristina is nearby and the figure out that she is a descendant of Amber’s sister and the shepherd and that her ring is the seafire ring.  So Amber is freed and Kristina accepts Amber into the family, convenient for Susan and Helen too as then they don’t have to worry about the whole adjusting Amber to modern life.

There is a lot I really liked the story; the legend of Amber,  figuring out what the ingredients were, Susan and Helen becoming good friends and that Amber, because of her situation, was a sympathetic  character but she could also be a haughty princess at times, so she wasn’t  always nice and sweet, so a realistic character.

 

Toys!

Mandy, , ,
  • Toys! – Mandy PSL: #242
  • Artist: Norman Lee

Plot/Thoughts

With a tagline of “they’re cute ‘n’ cuddly- with minds of their owns!” it seems like this could be a Pixar Toy Story predecessor.  Instead this is a possessed toy story (so more “Chucky” than “Toy Story”).  We start off with our protagonist Jan buying material for the purpose of making soft toys. She finds a suspicious, creepy looking, old lady to buy material from. The old woman says the material is perfect for using with toys. So what could possibly go wrong?

Jan first uses the material to finish off  trousers for a toy clown. The clown is for her cousin Timmy that is in hospital. When she visits Tim the next day and is surprised when he tells her the clown was juggling for him. But as a rational person, she assumes this is because of the anesthetic and Tim’s over active imagination.

Next she finishes off a dog toy for her neighbour to have when she is teaching kids on the piano. She is surprised when the next day the neighbour comes back angry about the practical joke that Jan has played and saying she probably charged for the battery too. As Jan has no idea what she is talking about she checks the dog and can’t find anything.

Anyone that loves Toy Story may find the image of dog getting his stuffing ripped out traumatizing, but don’t worry she puts him back together again! After which she discovers the problem – when music plays the dog howls along with it. After this discovery she checks on Timmy’s clown and finds that Timmy wasn’t making stories up.

Her friend Liz is also having a problem with the teddy bear Jan gave her, he is eating all the honey in the house. Together they decide to investigate. All the toys have come from a new pattern book so they decide that this is the problem.

Yes I think those “funny” pages are actually called glossy pages. So their solution is not to use that book again and they just ignore the problem that there are toys doing cartwheels and eating honey etc.

When a friend wants something scary for Halloween Jan wants to avoid making something new. So she uses an old witch that she had given Liz. She ends up fixing the witch’s torn shawl with the cursed material. Liz also makes a hat for an old troll teddy Jan never finished.  They soon find that it was not the pattern book that was the problem, when the troll starts messing around in the garden and the witch displays some impressive powers.

Jan finally figures out it is the material that’s cursed.  She goes back to the market but of course in the tradition of mysterious people, the old woman’s disappeared.

Things are resolved quickly after this as Liz’s mum washes the teddy bear and it turns back to an ordinary toy. Ah water, the ultimate weapon against witches, aliens and possessed toys apparently!  So they manage to dunk all the rest of the toys as well.

So everything is resolved almost coincidentally, but I wonder if the material was the problem then surely removing it would have done made the toys inert as well. Also I’m not entirely sure what the old woman’s motivation was or what she hoped to achieve. She is happy to hear the material is being used for toys, so what would have happened if Jan just wanted it for clothes or making curtains or something.  What effect would that have had, it seems like it would need to be used for the specific reason of the personification of toys.

It doesn’t seem like it was a particularly evil scheme either. Other than the witch none of the toys seemed  evil or scary more of a nuisance and irritation. So I’m guessing her motivation is boredom and she only does this for entertainment and to annoy people.