Pearl Crystal and her friend Tessie O’Day are police cadets in the town of Chemsford. In the course of duty they are given a variety of jobs.
Lyn Logan plans to practise high-diving from the tall trees of the Black Loch beside which she has come to live. After finding a huge print by the Loch, her father shares the belief of the local folk that a monster inhabits the Loch and he forbids Lyn to dive in it. Without practice she won’t be able to compete in the Scottish Championships.
Young Milly Drew is the assistant in a mobile library and, with Charlie, the driver, she takes books to outlying villages. Milly loves her work, and she has become friendly with many of her customers.
The arrival of young Linda Prescott as a second instructor at Durfield ice rink is bitterly resented by the other coach, Miss Sloggers, many of whose pupils transfer their lessons. She is determined to get rid of Linda and, at every opportunity, secretly makes trouble for her. Meanwhile Linda makes friends with Jenny Ward, a little girl who shows great skating promise but who cannot afford lessons. Linda tries to help Jenny and her other students, unaware of Miss Sloggers scheming.
Sue Spiker ran for 3 series, two series in the Emma comic and it survived the merger with Judy to have one more series in that title.
In the first series Sue is a troubled girl who has been kicked out of several schools, she now lives in Farewood Home, a home for deprived girls and the only available school in her district is the posh Farewood school. No-one is pleased by the situation, the head-mistress is reluctant to take her in and the pupils look down on Sue, but Sue isn’t one to be quiet about snide comments she gets, which gets her into more trouble. At the home things aren’t much better as Mrs Crum, the Matron, is lazy and mean-spirited and leaves majority of chores to Sue as the oldest girl. She does gain one ally in Miss Graham the assistant games mistress. Sue has a talent for volleyball, in particularly spiking the ball, which gets Miss Graham’s attention and she puts her on the school’s senior team. While one of her teammates, Val, a prefect, is friendly the other girls still don’t accept her. One girl Elma accuses Sue of stealing her gym kit, just to stir up trouble, Sue not taking kindly to the accusation hits her. Elma’s parents call the police and the headmistress feels the school will be in disgrace when people see police there. At the police station Sue is calmer and even convinces them to let her play volleyball when she sees a game by the cadets. That along with Miss Graham coming to defend Sue,means she is released and the police set up match between the school and the cadets which relieves the headmistress as she can say that is why the police were at the school.
Sue shows she does have a softer side when she takes the kids to fair and wins coconuts for them, then sells the coconuts to buy treats. She also guards the younger kids from Mrs Crum. After seeing her home Val tries to get her father to help but it ends with Sue being kicked out of the home as Mrs Crum blames all the problems on her (poor kids that are left behind!). Sue ends up in a tougher home for girls, but not for too long as her dad shows up again. He has remarried and has 3 young step children, he takes her in so she will look after them and do housework, while he and his new wife go out all night. Looking after the kids means Sue is late for school and volleyball and she also falls asleep in school. She has to take them to practice with her when the parents don’t return home. When the kids fall sick a social worker arrives and they have to go to hospital. Sue is left on her own and then because of unpaid rent , the furniture is taken and then the flat. Because of all this she is kicked out of school for not attending. Her only bit of reprieve is playing with the youth club. She finds out about the Midlands Juniors team that she was part of when she as in school are going to big final in London. She gets down to London to join the team and they win the game. At this stage she is finally tracked down by her social worker who she had been avoiding. She is put with a new, kind, foster mum and is let back into school when social worker explains case (it resolves pretty quickly).
When we return to Sue in the sequel, she is happy but that actually takes the edge off her game. The happiness doesn’t last too long, as her foster mother takes ill, her old social worker has moved away and Miss Graham gets a new job. She is put back with her father, who has allegedly changed his ways. In her new home, Sue has a run in with some hoodlums vandalising the tower block and things are no better at school as the new games mistress, Miss Collins, takes a dislike to her, and drops her from team. Sue’s father has of course not improved, he beats on his wife and she takes it out on Sue. Sue in turn takes it out on the gang that are still causing trouble.To escape this bad home life, she plays a volleyball marathon with youth club friends, but then has trouble in school the next day for being sleepy and out of uniform, because her father has pawned it! Sue runs away from home to escape a beating. She gets her things back from pawn shop and a job as night watchman at an allotment, she finds this situation much better than living with her family, but she doesn’t want the social workers to know she is living rough, so has to pretend to still live with her father. Meanwhile the thing that has always comes easy to her, volleyball, she is surprised at a match to meet some equals and realises she will need to learn more defense moves and not just rely on her spiking .
The school headmistress meanwhile is trying to get her transferred and Miss Collins has put her in the younger B Team, she instead chooses to play for the youth club. The district judges see her play and she is chosen for district team, but then her makeshift home in the watchman’s hut is destroyed by vandals and she is left homeless. Some good news for Sue is when the chairman of the school sticks up for her and she gets to stay at Farewood. Then another bit of good luck when she gets a job and room at factory coaching team. Of course things can never keep going right for Sue so after accidentally hitting a teacher during a factory training session, when the school is on excursion, she is pulled from district team for being a professional. Her social worker finds her and puts her in front of panel, luckily Mrs Blane (who got Sue on the district team) and the factory manager stick up for her and she gets back on the team. Then she loses her cool with an American businessman visiting the factory and loses her factory job. Again this bad news is followed by some good news as she gets picked for the special English volleyball team (along with her friend Val) and has news that her foster mother will be out of hospital soon. After a tough match against the Netherlands, Sue makes the winning point of the game and then returns home to her foster mother.
The third series, sees a change of setting, as Sue joins a holiday camp while her foster mother visits family in Canada. The Carson Sport Camp is a struggling holiday camp that takes Sue on after the snobbish Panton camp she was meant to work in, refuse her when they realise she’s a girl. After the cook quits the Carson’s Camp, Sue has to be cook, dishwasher, and waitress as well as volleyball coach. There are 2 guests Mike and Koolie that also keep causing problems, but the owner, Mr Carson, still tries to keep them happy as he can’t afford any bad reviews. Things start to look up as a volleyball enthusiast joins as cook. Sue encourages them to join a volleyball league, to earn some money to do up the camp. They get on well and start tidying up camp. They even attract some guests over from the Panton Camp. Sue continues to work hard and do favours around the town so she can improve camp. Then she gets surprise when her father, and family turn up. Seems Mr Carson thinks he was doing something nice to thank her for her work, little did he know! Sue’s upbeat enthusiasm takes a hit, and soon Mr Carson realises his mistake, especially as he sees her stepmother ordering Sue around. Mr Carson gets rid of them by saying the condition of the free holiday is to help with the piles of dishes, which gets them moving quickly. They also clear out Mike and Coolie with all the new facilities, they can’t put a complaint in against the camp. To round things off they win final volleyball match against Panton Camp, and now with all problems fixed Sue can relax and enjoy the rest of her holiday.
Sue Spiker is the character that appears the most in the Emma comic (just outdoing “Jodie and the Otter”), it had 39 episodes in total in Emma and a further 12 episodes in Judy & Emma. I can see the appeal, firstly the top art by “B” Jackson, then the story following a likeable character that seems to never be able to catch a break, she has to deal with abusive guardians, being unfairly treated at school, and homelessness. Of course her one talent, volleyball, may be the thing to get her a happy ending. It does follow a typical formula, but there is a reason readers like these stories, anticipating if the protagonist will overcome all the obstacles that keep getting flung at them. Emma was a more experimental title than some other DCT girl comics, it may have been trying to compete more with IPC titles of the time, as we see with the character of Sue Spiker, a working class girl that has a lot of hardships and with a more unusual sport that she is good at (tennis or hockey was more commonly seen in these titles), Sue would have fit right in with Tammy or Jinty.
The class divide is clearly against Sue from the start, not only are the girls snobbish and try and get Sue in trouble, the teachers are as equally (if not worse) at fault, being condescending, spiteful and looking down on Sue. Right away the headmistress declares her unhappiness to having Sue there, before she even meets her and is always looking for an opportunity to get rid of her just because she not the “right” class of student she wants in the school. There are few exceptions Sue finds a friend in Val, a senior, and Miss Graham. Although in the second series, Miss Graham takes a new job without even a goodbye or warning to Sue, which seems thoughtless. Miss Collins her replacement has similar attitude to the Headmistress, but also seems to be not a good teacher as Sue is able to teach girls more about volleyball than her. The teachers say she has a bad attitude, and while Sue might not always go about things right way, she won’t be bullied or talked down to which is what causes trouble. But she has had to learn to look out for herself since an early age and we are glad to see her take down some of the bullies at school.
Despite all these problems at school, it is still better than her home life, filled with abusive and neglectful guardians. At least Sue finally gets a good home in the end, but I feel sorry for the kids she left behind, particularly her stepsisters. In the first series both with the foster home and her family, they neglect the kids, don’t give them enough food and let Sue do all the housework and looking after the kids. Her father and step mother are particularly bad, coming back late at night and having parties and leaving the kids on their own for long periods. So it is a surprise that the kids are given back to the parents with only a fine. In the second series we see the abuse escalate to physical abuse, while it doesn’t seem like the younger girls get hit, it is still wrong that they get left behind. In the third series, everything seems a bit more toned down, the parents show up and take advantage and talk down to Sue but don’t come across more lazy than abusive and are quickly gotten rid of.
The third series is the weakest story, while Sue has challenges to overcome, they are less personal, she is just trying to help Mr Carson out, the biggest conflict is when her family arrive but they don’t hang about too long. While we always want protagonist to win in the end, I’m sure part of Sues appeal was the hardships she faced, so there is less drama here and perhaps that is why she didn’t last another series after this one.
The Mandy annual was always very story focused, this is another annual with no features or articles just text and picture stories. This is also one of the books I had when I was younger and read many times, so these stories have a special place for me, although I think they all hold up well in their own right without the nostalgia attached.
Mandy took advantage of telling longer stories in parts over the annual and the Red Box of Destiny is certainly a memorable one. Most of the stories are one-offs for the annual but there are a few regular characters Valda, Picture-Book Polly, Attractive Angie and of course Mandy & Patch all show up. (For just a list of contents go to the next page)
The Red Box of Destiny (Pages: 4-12, 49-55, 73-80, 113-125)
A story in 4 parts, the first 3 parts each tell a different story of a girl in trouble who each end up using an old telephone box and in the final part the girls are all enlisted to help in a campaign to save the box and it saves them in the process.
First we have Carrie, an orphan, she lives with her abusive Uncle, Aunt and cousins. When her Aunt Edna allows her to keep a stray puppy, she should have known there was a catch. They only let her have Jasper the puppy as another means of controlling her. Aunt Edna wasn’t happy when Carrie stood up to her cousin about taking her locket but by using Jasper now Carrie is completely powerless. When a new girl joins at school, Carrie knows she can’t give her home number but then she remembers the Red Box’s number and gives her that. Carrie asks Jilly to call when she knows she will be out running errands, she is desperate to hear a friendly voice. The next girl, Kelly, is a promising dancer, her parents take on extra work so she has a chance at a prestigious dance school, but the car crashes on the way to the audition leaving Kelly’s legs permanently damaged. She becomes very bitter about it and blames her parents for it. She stops at the phone box to ring for a lift home and makes her mother feel guilty when she implies Kelly could manage to make it the rest of the small journey home. Finally we have Rama a talented musician but her father wants her to help with the family business, a restaurant, when she leaves school. He believes she shouldn’t spend so much time on music. Rama uses the phone box to ring her teacher and say she will play in a festival behind her father’s back, but then has a dilemma when her father wants Rama to work the same day to help impress a food critic.
In the last part the community start a campaign when red box is to be torn down. When she is approached, Aunt Edna volunteers Carrie to help. An overworked Carrie collapses on the way home with shopping one day. Once she is inside they start to abuse her, but luckily Jilly and her mother arrive just in time to stop them. They had noticed the number Carrie gave Jilly was the red box number, that along with some other instances made them suspicious to check up on her. They bring Carrie and Jasper to stay in their home. Kelly meanwhile only goes to the campaign talk so she can inconvenience her parents. There she meets David, a boy in wheelchair, he has a bone disease, but he doesn’t feel sorry for himself, he is very enthusiastic and volunteers him and Kelly’s services. He suddenly takes a turn for the worse and dies but Kelly changes her ways and decides to follow his example and not be bitter about how life changed for her. Rama’s father finds out about festival and forbids her from going. They go to meeting and he is fine for Rama to sing to draw attention to the red box. He says he doesn’t mind her singing as hobby he just doesn’t want her taking it seriously. She does well singing for the campaign and people make him realise her talent. He agrees she can go to music school but has to still learn about business if music career doesn’t work out. The last panel of the story has the girls each thanking the box for changing their lives for the better.
It is a heart-wrenching story, Carrie and her dog are cruelly mistreated by her family. Kelly has her dreams shattered and then her new friend dies. Rama doesn’t have it as bad, but still family problems are not easy to cope with and like Kelly, she feels her dreams being taken away. Rama is a bit more sympathetic than Kelly too. Even before the accident she doesn’t seem to appreciate her parents working extra shifts to pay for her school and complains when her dad is running late for the audition. Because she is so worked up, she distracts her father while driving and while I don’t think she is deserving of her fate, her parents definitely don’t deserve her bitterness directed at her. It is nice that David showed her the error of her ways but again sad that he died so young.
Rama and her dad have different viewpoints and story could easily have painted him as the villain but we see that he cares about her. He wants her to work in restaurant but worries when she seems overworked, and he doesn’t ban music completely, he just is cautious of the fickleness of the music business. He comes to a good compromise in the end so Rama can follow her dream but still have something to fall back on.
Mum’s Secret (Pages: 13-16)
Writer: Alison (Christie) Fitt
When a new neighbour moves in that is known to be a ladies man, and Jane sees her mum going into his house, when she said she was going to the shop, she starts thinking they are having an affair. She thinks her mum will leave the family, but it turns out the man is a painter and mum has being going over to his to get her portrait painted in secret as a surprise for father’s birthday.
Valda and the Burning of Barthol (Pages: 17-24)
[Art: Dudley Wynne]
This classic Mandy character appeared in many annuals, here Valda comes across a town of Barthol and burning of effigy of Richard Bartholomew. It seems a professor of history has reinstated an old village costum of “The Burning of Barthol”. This upsets Richard’s ancestor greatly especially as other villagers have been mean to her saying Richard burnt out villagers because they couldn’t pay rent. Valda sets the history straight about the man, when she leads the villagers to a hidden document. In Richards’ time a plague broke out and with the help of a mysterious girl they crossed ravine to build new settlement. Richard then burnt the village and his castle to stop the plague spreading. With the truth now known Valda leave, though the professor and villagers have many questions about how she knew such things.
Down with Boys (Pages: 25-32)
Writer: Alison (Christie) Fitt, Art: Carmen Barbara
Best friends, Jane and Polly make a pact to not get distracted by boys for Valentines Day, but when Neil starts paying attention to both of them, they end up playing dirty tricks on each other to win his favour. Such as Polly throwing away Jane’s valentine’s card for Neil, and Jane sending lots of cards out in Polly’s name. They eventually find out Neil was using them, so they would help set up a disco for him and he already has a girlfriend. After that they revert back to their original sentiment of down with boys!
Who is Sylvie? (Pages: 35-45)
Art: Andrew Wilson
Rachel thinks there is something mysterious about the new girl, Sylvie. Although Rachel becomes friends with her she notices somethings she says doesn’t add up, like where she said she went to school previously. Also the teachers seem to let her get away with things other pupils wouldn’t be able to. Despite being a good singer and dancer, Sylvie claims to be stage shy and says she can’t help out in concert to raise money for school pool. Then it turns out her secret is she is a tv star trying to live normal life. Everyone is surprised and even more pleased when a change in her contract means she can now perform in public and help raise money for school.
Picture-Story Polly (Pages: 46-48)
Art: Tom Hurst
Polly tries to copy the picture-stories she reads in her magazine “Candy”. In this story she tries to be like “Olympic Olga” a girl who never gave up and won a gold medal. Polly tries out some sports but finds out she is better as just a spectator.
The Lucky Locket (Pages: 56-64)
Art: Guy Peeters
In Victorian times, Charlotte receives a locket on her last day in orphanage, from one of the workers, Harriet. She tells Charlotte it was wrapped in her baby shawl, when she found her on the doorstep.Charlotte then goes to work in a grand house as a scullery maid but the rest of the staff are not kind to her. When one of the other maids spies her pretending to be a lady, they are even more cruel and mocking. She does make one friend, Hugh, the stable-boy, so when his sister falls ill, she decides to sell her precious locket to help. But one of the other maids follow her and accuses her of theft. Harriet has died so noone can collaborate her story, that the locket belongs to her and she goes to jail. After a few weeks an old French lady arrives and seeing a birthmark confirms that Charlotte is her grandaughter. It seems her mother had run off and got married to man whom they didn’t approve of. They fell on hard times when he died and soon after giving Charlotte up, her mother died too. Her Grandmother helps Hugh’s sister and is to bring her back to France, she no longer has to pretend to be a lady.
Under Her Spell? (Pages: 65-72)
Art: Wilf Street
Jenny’s mother is researching the family tree and believe they descendants of a witch, Lizzie Blount. Then some things happen that makes Lizzie’s friends think she has witchy qualities. Lizzie embraces it and tries to make a spell to win a writing contest. She does win the contest, then her mum says she has made a mistake they are not related to witch but a writer,, Eliza Blunt. Lizzie isn’t disappointed though, she is happy it is her own talent and not a spell that let her win.
Come to My Party! (Pages: 83-93)
Writer: Alison (Christie) Fitt, Art: Terry Aspin
Best friends Kim and Laura share the same birthday. They both want to have a special 13th birthday party on the actual day. Neither will back down and they play tricks on each other so friends will come to one of the partys. On the day of her birthday Kim is upset it seems everyone has chosen Laura’s party. Her parents take her out and she finds out that instead their friends come together with their parents to throw joint surprise party.
Attractive Angie (Pages: 94-96)
Art: Giorgio Letteri
A strange lotion had made Angie Agams magnetic which caused her lots of problems. It is particularly bad when she is feeling bothered, which is the case at the fair, where she attracts coins from the wishing well and accidentally launches a pie at someone. Her powers come in useful when she stops some thieves and she is able to relax and enjoy rest of her day.
Storm Horse (Pages: 99-110)
Art: Veronica Weir
Kylie is out riding with her horse, Heather, when they get caught in a storm and slip down an embankment. A mysterious grey horse appears and leads them to safety, then disappears. Kylie tries and track him down, she finds him and after freeing him from some wire he does grow to trust her but always disappears when someone else is nearby. Then he warns her of the nearby dam breaking and she raises the alarm for the village. She doesn’t see him again but Heather gives birth to foal which Kylie names Storm, proof that the magical horse was real.
Mandy and Patch (Pages: 126-127)
Art: Claude Berridge
Mandy looks through a book to figure out Patch’s breed. He doesn’t seem to match with any but she doesn’t care as he’s still the best friend a girl can have.
Each of the text stories have a subtitle with the name of person who is telling the story.
Losing Lucy – Carol’s story (Pages: 33-34)
Writer: Alison (Christie) Fitt, Spot Art: Leslie Branton
Carol meets a fortune teller who tells her she will lose her best friend to the water. Carol is horrified by the thought, so she tries to teach her friend Lucy to swim. At first she takes persuading but then she succeeds so well that Lucy becomes a competitive champion and she doesn’t have as much time for friends. Watching her at one of her competitions she realises she did lose Lucy to the water, just not in the terrible way she thought. It’s a nice play on words, the twist of the fortune teller fortune coming true and Carol leads it to come true y trying to prevent it.
In The Bag – Chester’s story (Pages: 81-82)
Writer: Alison (Christie) Fitt
Chester is a monkey who is curious what women carry around in bags. He sees an opportunity to steal one, and is confused by contents and why they are so important. The daughter of the woman he stole the bag from is pleased her mom still carries a picture of her dad as he had left after a falling out. She writes Chester a thank you letter, explaining after seeing that she called her dad, he came around and her family is back together. She also sends Chester a cake as thanks. Chester doesn’t nderstand what that is all about but is very happy with his cake.
Jardine’s in a Tin – Sally’s story (Pages: 97-98)
Writer: Alison (Christie) Fitt, Spot Art: Leslie Branton
Sally and her family live in crowded council house. She is jealous of her friend Tina, an only child, who has a bedroom to herself with all the latest things. Then Tina gets a holiday home and that seems even more unfair. For the holidays the Jardines rent a caravan near where TIna will be. Sally thinks they really are Jardines in a tin, in the caravan, she is eager to visit Tina, but doesn’t know why she is so reluctant. Then Sally discovers it is not a holiday home and that Tina’s parents have separated. Tina didn’t want to admit that she is just spending weekends and holidays at her Dads. Sally realises Tina’s not so lucky after all and appreciates having her family together. Soon after holidays things improve even more for Sally as they get to top of the housing waiting list and get a 4 bed house.
Joining St. John’s – Katy’s story (Pages: 111-112)
While attending a Gilbert and Sullivan show with her mom, Katy gets the idea to join St Johns Ambulance so she can go to theatre for free. She actually finds herself really enjoying the experience and she helps an old woman feel better bu sneaking her cat in for a visit in the hospital. A friend of the woman, appreciates what Katy has done and gives her a free theatre entry card, but Katy is so busy with St John’s that by the end of the story she still hasn’t had the chance to use it!
Last year I covered the Judy 1982 annual and noted there was a lot of spooky stories in that book. This book meanwhile concentrates on the more realistic dramas of life and majority of stories are set in contemporary times. Under her Spell? hints at possible supernatural elements, although in the end those are only coincidence and seems to be no magic at work, which leaves only two stories with characters that are not the average girl, Attractive Angie a character with magnetic powers and Valda the long-living character with powers and knowledge. Valda and the Burning of Barthol is a good story, as I’ve mentioned before I like Valda stories that aren’t about her competing in a sport the best. Here we get to see her in past helping a village and in the present restoring the good name of Lord Barthol. There is only one other story that is set in the past, The Lucky Locket, nicely drawn by Guy Peeters and is a classic story of poor girl not realising her rich heritage.
All the other stories are set in contemporary times and majority have themes of friendship or family. A favourite story has to be The Red Box of Destiny, as the big 4 part story it is a strong component of the annual, it brings a lot of drama and heartbreak for the characters and as a reader I certainly hoped that they would each get their happy endings. In the last part where everything comes together, one may expect the characters to interact but instead the stories are resolved separately, although you can see the other protagonists in the backgrounds of some scenes. This actually is more effective as it highlights people that we just pass by, each have their own problems that we may never know about, and also not know that one thing could touch a life in different ways.
Other favourites was Losing Lucy, I like a good twist on a fortune tellers words, and of course it was well written by Alison (Christie) Fitt who wrote many great stories including a number for Mandy Annuals in the early 1990s. Two of her other stories here Come to My Party! and Down With Boys, have similar ideas of friends playing tricks on each other to win the favour of someone but are executed quite differently, so they each have their merits. Carmen Barbara and Terry Aspin respectively each complement the story well, I don’t think if the artists were switched they would have been as effective stories, which shows how important pairings can be. Honourable mentions goes to Picture-Story Polly, just because I enjoy a meta-commentry story and a girl trying to imitate the characters from her “Candy” comic is a lot of fun, and Who is Sylvie? a small sized mystery with lovely art as always by Andrew Wilson.
First off I want to praise the Rebellion customer service. I recently moved house and when these comics didn’t appear even though I had updated my address, I contacted them. They got back to me quickly and very generously sent me new copies. I have bought many books through there website and the service they provide is equal to quality of the books they produce.
To the books themselves, first we have Thriller Picture Library – The John Steel Files which reprints two John Steel Case-books that appeared in the 1960s, both stories drawn by Luis Bermejo, the writer is unknown. This is the first special to not feature new stories, with such a back catalogue, I think as long as we are also getting specials with new content, having some of these reprint specials is probably more cost efficient than having all reprints collected in hardbacks/tpbs. This is bigger than what the normal picture library format would be and seems a thick book, but with mostly 2 panels per page it isn’t dense. The stories have also been coloured by Pippa Bowland, while I don’t have the original B&W to compare to, the colouring compliments the story, using more muted colours that doesn’t distract from the art. The cover is very stylish by VV Glass and quite different from the story they draw in Misty Special (discussed further on).
The two stories are Bullets in the Sun (reprinted from Thriller Picture Library #371) and Play it Cool (reprinted from Thriller Picture Library #379). This is another book that I can appreciate on objective level but didn’t engage me as much as other specials. In the first story John Steel, private detective, comes to aid of an old WWII comrade, Paul Wallace, when his son is kidnapped. Wallace is about to testify about an international conspiracy and it is up to Steel to find out who is behind the kidnapping and blackmail. In Play it Cool Steel again is looking for someones son, this time a university student who has gone missing in France. But how does the missing son, tie in with some random murders and blackmail? I liked this story better, perhaps because there was a bit more mystery to it.
The next special also features a private detective in The Return of Sexton Blake and this classic character intrigued me much more than John Steel did. This special is interesting as it focuses on the history of character as well as stories themselves. We get such articles as the publishing history of Sexton Blake, the people who drew the character, the redesign for the book collections and how Sexton Blake and Victor Drago are the same character. In 1979, Victor Drago appeared in Tornado and was written as a Sexton Blake story, but a last minute rights issue, meant a change in the character’s name. In this special, the first 7-part Drago story is reprinted now with the Blake name restored. The story Terror of Troll Island! (by Bill Henry and Mike Dorey) is a classic detective story akin to Sherlock Holmes or Agatha Christie, where Blake and his assistant Tinker investigate a series of murders at an eccentric writer’s isolated home.
A new story The Death & Life of Sexton Blake, (by George Mann and Jimmy Broxton) sees Blake pitted against one of his foes The Chessman, who seemingly defeats Blake. The final complete story we get is another reprint this time a text story Lady Molly’s First Case, (by E. Sempill) which sees Blake team up with Lady Molly to catch a jewel thief. In this story Lady Molly very much takes the lead, a very impressive story and despite it first been printed in 1908, it reads as if it could have been written today. There is one more text story The Case of the Seventh Key, (by W.W. Sayer) but this is more of a teaser as we only get the first two chapters and get the conclusion of the story, readers will have to get the Sexton Blake Library Book 3: Allies. It is an effective bit of marketing. I must say this is the special I was most pleasantly surprised with as I had little knowledge going in and no big expectations. With interesting stories and it’s historical context explained this special was engaging and for a character that has bee around since 1893 he still stands the test of time.
Finally we have the Misty Winter Special, in it two stories Infection and Home for Christmas. Like the Tammy & Jinty special limiting the stories has the benefit of really developing these spooky tales. Home for Christmas (Writer: Lizzie Boyle, Artist: David Roach) is the shorter story at 12 pages. Martha is babysitting 2 kids on Christmas Eve, when their parents can’t make it back due to fallen tree, she has to stay the night and then strange things began to happen. I felt the pacing could have been better in places of this story, and that some of the characters actions seemed odd. Like going outside in the rain at night with the kids you are babysitting, if this was meant to be ghosts already having influence its not clear, but seems to be more contrivance to get the plot to the next point. During their excursion outside to try and get a phone signal, the phone drops down a well, then later Martha gets photos sent to her from inside the well. Here’s where the story gets better as what follows is some very creepy stuff and Roach’s art is perfect throughout, particularly the faceless ghost children are haunting.
Infection (by V.V. Glass and Anna Savory) is the stronger of the 2 stories but also has the advantage of more pages and a slow build up. Charlotte is a new scholarship girl at a prestigious boarding school, she feels she doesn’t fit in and narrates her thoughts through her journal, that all students have to keep as a class assignment. At first the other girls make fun of her because she doesn’t know the rules of the school, but then the girls rules get more bizarre and Char thinks they are just trying to mess with her. But the girls are getting more agitated and Char realizes there’s more going on and she tries to figure out what is causing it. She puts forward many theories and all the time the fearful threat hangs over the school. There are many graphic descriptions of things we don’t see, leaving a lot to our own imagination but this is effectively done. It is very atmospheric and in true Misty style ends on an ominous note.
And here we are at the end of 2020, while a few in this year’s special bundles weren’t to my taste, it was money worth spent, as well as a solid return of favourites (Misty, Tammy &Jinty, Cor!Buster) I also found comics that I may not have bought individually but would have been missing out on (Smash! The Return of Sexton Blake). As always I continue to look forward to what Rebellion will bring next year.
*Thanks to Goof for the information and cover picture
*Thanks to Goof for the information and cover picture
*Thanks to Goof for the information and cover picture