Judy   (Pages: 59/97/103)

Art: Guy Peeters

As the Judy comic had already merged with Mandy at this stage, the two characters now are portrayed as best friends, so Mandy shows up in these strips . The first strip has them preparing to go to a 60s dance after seeing a poster. They are surprised to turn up and find a party of old people. Turns out the poster they saw was torn and it is actually and Over 60s night. By this stage both the Mandy and Judy characters had  been revamped to a more 90s look,  so in dressing up for the 60s dance Mandy is back to her bobbed hair and Judy is in a dotted dress. Which is a nice little nod to the past and previous styles.

In the second strip Judy is looking after Mandy’s dog Patch. He has been ill so he needs tablets. Judy and her mum try various ways of tricking him to take it. Judy finally catches him out by throwing him chocolate drops along with the tablet and in his excitement he eats it all.

In the last strip Mandy is puzzled when Judy goes shopping for things for a mysterious Jack.  Judy tells her she can see him at the village hall on Saturday. Mandy discovers Judy isn’t dating a Jack, she is  playing Jack for the pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk.

Practice Makes Perfect   (Pages: 60-64)

Artist: Eduardo Feito

Joanna is a shy girl who is finding it hard to talk to the guy she likes Mark.  Watching  a TV programme gives out “helpful” advice to practice conversations with someone that isn’t important to you and then pretend you are still practising when it comes to the real thing. Joanna decides that a guy she knows Simon is perfect to practice on as he may have a crush on her, but she’s not bothered about him. Because that’s a reasonable way to treat people!

So after all her practice, she gets up the courage to talk to Mark and he asks her out. When she is out with him she realises he’s actually quite boring and big headed  and she begins to wish she was with Simon. So she goes to talk to Simon the next day but finds her throat drying up because now she realises its him that she likes!

Wee Slavey   (Pages: 65-71)

Art: “B Jackson”

Nellie has more work to do when relatives arrive for the Christmas. The family’s two young cousins Robert and Thomas are nice kids if a bit of a handful at times. Then things start going missing around the house, silverware, jewellery, scissors. The staff are under threat of being fired if the thief is not found soon. Luckily Nellie figures out the boys had taken the stuff to add more decorations to the Christmas tree as it looked bare.

New Year Resolution   (Pages: 75-80)

Art: Julio Bosch

Karen is constantly annoyed by her younger brother making up stories, tricking her so she makes a new year resolution to stop believing him. When he tells her the boy she likes, Paul, is outside waiting for her, she tells him to say she is not interested. She is horrified when she goes upstairs and sees Paul walking away from the house. She runs down to apologise and explain that she didn’t believe her brother but she does like him. She feels foolish to discover Paul is only out delivering leaflets but he is actually happy that she told him she fancied him. He also fancied her but was too shy to say. So they arrange a date and for once Karen is thankful for her brother for doing her a fsavour even though it was unintentional

Marta’s Market Stall   (Pages: 83-87)

Art: Claude Berridge

Marta runs a curios and oddments stall  in the afternoon. A customer comes looking for stuffed birds in a cage, for an amateur theatre group.  Marta doesn’t have any but she attempts to find some. The best she comes up with is a stuffed parrot. Miss Cuthbert thinks she is playing a cruel joke on her as she has just inherited a difficult parrot after her mother passed on.

Marta finds out about an old lady Mrs. Murchison who’s husband was a taxidermist. Since he died though she hasn’t let any of his stuff out of the house. Marta figures she could solve two problems, she brings Charlie the parrot to Mrs. Murchison for company. Luckily they hit it off and she gives her stuffed birds in a cage to Marta.

Cinderella Jones   (Pages: 90-96)

Artist: Oliver Passingham

Cindy Jones is a modernisation of the Cinderella story. In this annual the story actually does a retelling of the Cinderella/ ball story. I like updates of fairy tales, and Cinderella Jones was always a humorous character. (As a side note, if you like this kind of updated fairy tale story, I would highly recommend Bill Willingham’s comic series “Fables”).

The family are invited to a New Year’s Eve ball hosted by a local millionaire. The girls are excited in the planning, but stepmother puts stop to Cindy’s plan quickly.

So Cindy’s left at reception on the night of the ball. No fairy grandmother appears, but Mrs. Bamford, a widow staying at Happyholme appears. She is miserable because her daughter was meant to go to the ball with her but abandoned her to go to another party. She has the idea that Cindy can go with her instead. She is about the same size as her daughter Moira so Mrs. Bamford gives her the dress she had rented for Moira. One of the residents volunteers to take over reception.

Mrs Bramford tells Cindy she doesn’t like late nights so she will be leaving at 12 sharp. When they get to the party, Mrs. Bamford meets a Major and insists Cindy doesn’t hang around. Cindy meets and dances with a nice guy Gerry. Her Stepmother and stepsisters do not look happy. Cindy reassures her stepmother she left Happyholme in safe hands but is surprised to discover the reason they are upset is because Gerry is the millionaire’s son.

At midnight Cindy runs to catch her lift dropping one of her shoes. She is on her way back to find it when Gerry arrives with it. He sees a vision of beauty. Cindy is delighted she is going to be swept away from life of housework and live happily ever after. That is until, she realises he’s not looking at her…

So no fairytale ending for Cindy but  she takes it well.

My Secret Boyfriend  (Pages: 98-102)

Art: Giorgio Letteri

Hattie is a shy girl that has problem talking to boys (yes this a familiar theme here!). She does have a hobby of collecting postcards. At a car boot sale she hits it off with a boy when she warn him of a collection of postcards isn’t complete.  She surprises her friends by letting them know she landed a date. On the date she is having a good time, though she is surprised when a group of girls staring at them come over and ask for Gary’s autograph. Turns out he has just starting to appear on a tv soap. He likes that Hattie didn’t know he was famous he asks if they can keep it secret so hoards of people won’t show up. She agrees and tells her friends she made the date up.

Surprise Party   (Pages: 105-110)

Artist: Eduardo Feito

In this fourth wall breaking, fun story, Judy characters acknowledge that they are fictional beings. A girl, Susan, is left by her stepsister to do all the cleaning and preparation for the party. She takes a break flipping through one of her Judy annuals and she falls asleep. She wakes up to the doorbell and two guests for the party. She explains they are early but they tell her they will help prepare. They look very familiar and saying such things as Lawks and mentioning Happyholme, Susan figures out who they are.

So the party is set up. Susan is annoyed to find that her sister has invited a boy they both liked. Thinking whoever invited him would have the better chance with him, they agreed not to. Cindy and Nellie help get rid of the stepsister and gives Susan alone time with the guy. They hit it off. The next day Susan is delighted by how the party went, though she assumes that the fictional characters from Judy couldn’t have been true. That is until they show up at the door to help tidy up.

Big ‘n’ Bertha (Page: 112)

Dad tired of Big’s manners rushing for his dinner, then also getting scraps from table. So he decides he will eat at same time and puts Bigs dinner on table where he can’t get it. Later at dinner time Dad forgets this and starts scoffing down Big’s dinner. So mum gives Big Dad’s dinner.

Crosswords   (Pages: 113-117)

Artist: Edmond Ripol

This is another romance story. There is a lot of romance stories in this annual, more so than usual compared to older Judy annuals. This is also drawn by the same artist as the earlier story “You’re Just Jealous!”. They both involve new boyfriends and misunderstandings over another girl in the picture. So it feels a bit of a rehash to have it in the same annual, but I still like this artist and taken separately both stories have their own merits.

I like that there is an actual build up of the relationship, they meet on a bus. The girl Lauren is a crossword fan and when see she sees Damian’s crossword she can’t help exclaiming what the answer to a clue is. So the start to bond by their common interest and they start dating. They don’t just do crosswords but go to the disco, take walks, seems like a healthy strong relationship.

Then Lauren is upset to see him eating dinner with another girl and they seem to be staring intently at each other. When she confronts him about it, he explains they were joint winners in a competition he entered ages ago. They were looking so happy together because the local paper had been invited for publicity. Lauren doesn’t believe him and they break up, She tells her mother they had “Cross Words” ohh the subtlety of the title had escaped me.

Later Lauren sees the publicity picture of Damian and the girl in the paper, she wants to apologise but figures he shouldn’t have flown off the handle. Meanwhile Damian’s also missing Lauren but doesn’t want to apologise first. If only there was some way for them to apologise in some manner that was related to what brought them together in the first place…

Ah that solves that, also I know the set up is to apologise at the same but I think that if the man struggles on that clue he will have a hard time with the rest of the puzzle.

She’s No Angel!   (Pages: 118-125)

Artist: Paddy Brennan

St. Angela’s is a fee paying school that had first been  founded by Lady Angela as a free education school for the poor. Lady Angela known as Angel did lots of good deeds for the poor. Why is it that all good rich women that help the poor have names like Angela so they can be easily turned into Angel!

Two students decide to research The Angel’s early life as a history project. They find out that when she was 21 her and her cousin Betty were caught in avalanche. Betty died and Angela was so badly scarred that she still hides her face with a scarf. Angela is now in her late 70s so the girls decide to interview her for their project. While Angela pretends to live on low means, with the rest of the manor closed off the girls find the rest of the house is fine as well. They track down an old servant, Granny Green, who says Angela was as good as the stories except her weakness was her cousin Betty. After the trip to Switzerland she says the Angel came back a devil. Angela having come upon them and hearing this dismisses it as the ramblings of an old woman that was never in her service.

Granny Green says she figured out that it was Angela that died and Betty took her place. “Angela” still denies it. The girls decide not to tell anyone because it is only a theory and there’s no proof. But Months later a discovery is made in the alps of a perfectly preserved young girl. The girls run to the Manor but Betty has already run off.