Category Archives: M&J

The Double Life of Coppelia Brown / The Double Life of Dolly Brown [1969/1976]

M&J, Mandy, , , , , , ,
  • The Double Life of Coppelia Brown – Mandy: #128 (28 Jun 1969) – #138 (06 September 1969)
  • Reprinted as The Double Life of Dolly Brown – Mandy: #482 (10 April 1976) – #492 (19 August 1976)
  • Reprinted as The Double Life of Coppelia Brown – Mandy #818 (18 September 1982) – #828 (27 November 1982)
  • Reprinted as The Double Life of Dolly Brown – Mandy #1188 (21 October 1989) – #1198 (30 December 1989)
  • Reprinted as The Double Life of Dolly Brown (as Mandy Classic) – M&J:  #297 (18 January 1997) – #307 (29 March 1997)

Plot 

Note: The main character went by different names in different prints of the story, in this summary, I’ll just refer to her as  the most commonly used “Dolly Brown”

In Victorian times, traveling around fairs Gus Grimby shows off his amazing mechanical doll invention that can walk, talk and obey commands with no strings attached. Although if the audience could look closer, they would see it was actually a girl in makeup, straining to stay still and not blinking. While not on stage Dolly Brown is forced to slave for Gus and Ma Grimby. Dolly cannot remember her past, but has been told by the Grimbys that she committed a crime and she owes them as they protect her from being sent to prison. A torn wanted poster with her picture convinces her that  they are telling the truth, and she must stay being a puppet.

Despite her hard life and supposed criminal past, Dolly still shows kindness to others like pretending to freeze up on stage to point out a thief, being kind to an ill girl or rescuing a kitten, even though it risks punishment later . She is forced by the Grimbys to give a way the kitten to an audience member. The recipient comes back to thank the doll and seeing servant girl, Dolly, the family seem to think she looks familiar, whether they are recognising her as doll or from some place else is unclear, beginning the mystery of who really is Dolly Brown.

Dolly gets a clue to her past when she helps an injured girl during a storm, the girl seems to recognise her when she says “Dolly! Willow Wood..”. Dolly doesn’t get a chance to see the girl again to question her more, as the police move the Grimbys on. This also raises doubts about the Grimby’s honesty regarding Dolly’s past. Gus Grimby tells Dolly they had to move on because the police were sent after the girl recognising her, but Dolly had overheard the actual conversation, that the police is moving them on because the squire doesn’t want fairs on his land so she knows he is lying.

In the meantime she continues with her double life. She stills shows kindness to others, although she finds out not everyone is deserving of it. She is tricked by a girl into borrowing the dolls shoes, but the girl then tries to sell them, luckily they are returned but that doesn’t stop Dolly getting a beating and the Grimbys implying she was in on the scheme being a criminal herself. She never gets any sympathy from the Grimbys, even when she is sick they ignore her suffering and force her to continue to perform. When she does collapse, not wanting to lose their source of outcome they do temporarily get better lodgings and someone to look after her. After waking up from her fever in a comfortable bed, a confused Dolly first asks if she is at Willow Wood. The woman looking after her remembers a story about Willow Wood,  that a child disappeared from there, alongside valuables.

Not wanting to miss a good money opportunity, the Grimbys head towards Maybury, where Dolly supposedly committed her crime. Ma Grimby is nervous about being so close to there and tells Dolly to keep out of sight. Dolly  can’t stay hidden when a fire breaks out at a nearby tent and she rescues a baby, a comment from crowd says she has look of a gentry family named Harding. Deciding to investigate further thinking that Willow Wood must be close by Dolly takes an opportunity to sneak off to look for it. She locates the large house and immediately recognizes it, but before she can look around, the groundskeeper spots her and drives her away, assuming she’s there to pry into others’ misfortunes. Later that evening, the man goes to view the show, Dolly thinks he has recognised her, until realising it is Gus Grimby he is looking at. After the show the man confronts Gus Grimby, as Dolly is still dressed as a doll, Gus is forced to let her stay. The man, Gem Baker claims he remembers him from the night Grimby and his gang robbed Willow Wood. Grimby ever the charming con man, weasels out of it claiming it was his brother that he must have seen. Having heard it all Dolly believes they were all part of robbery.

When they are asked to do longer show, Dolly knows she must endure if she is to stay in Maybury and find out more about her past. Dolly investigates further and she meets a girl, Susie, who’s mother now works at Willow Wood. She feels the house is familiar and a feeling of happiness, when she hears the story of the robbery, that Mr Harding was struck down and crippled during the robbery and the housekeeper’s daughter disappeared at the same time, she concludes she must be that girl who betrayed her mother and Mr Harding by letting the thieves in.She doesn’t wait for Susie to tell her the rest of the story.

Having enough of her double life and wanting to atone for her crimes, she decides to turn herself in to the police. Suspicious, Ma Grimby catches her and stops her,  when Dolly tells them she knows she was daughter of the housekeeper who betrayed Mr Harding, the Grimbys suddenly act nicer to her. Later she hears them say that they are safe as she still doesn’t remember who she is, they plan to keep a closer eye on her and board up her room’s window. Dolly is surprised she still doesn’t know who she is, but she won’t keep up this life any more and with no other option, in the middle of the act on stage she shouts out for help and give up the ruse.

The Grimbys make a quick get away with her, but crash the caravan. Cutting their losses they leave the unconscious Dolly for dead and get away. Dolly wakes and makes her way to Willow Wood, knowing she will be safe there. Collapsing at the house when her makeup is removed, she is revealed to be Mr Harding’s granddaughter. She had seen the robbery and lost her memory with the shock of seeing him struck down. The Grimbys kidnapped her so she wouldn’t be able to give evidence against them. Finally home her memories come back,  the Grimbys are found and arrested and Dolly packs away her doll costume never having to live double life again, but she will not forget her time, and those less fortunate than her.

Thoughts

Clearly a well received story, as it was reprinted 4 times. In the original story the girl’s name was Connie Brown, and the doll was named Coppelia. The doll’s name and title clearly a reference to the Coppélia ballet, where a man becomes infatuated with a mechanical doll that an inventor has created and his previous love, dresses up as the doll to rescue him. In the reprint the name is switched to Dolly Brown, the next reprint has the title changed back to Coppelia Brown again, but oddly in this case the girl is no longer called Connie, instead both her and the doll are called Coppelia. The next two reprints they keep with the Dolly Brown name.

As with other stories, we see variants pop up, such as The Secret of Penny Farthing where a girl is blackmailed into pretending to be a ventriloquist dummy or Ballerina on a String where a girl performs as a dancing puppet. Due to being one of the first or perhaps because of its many reprints, this story is one that sticks in the mind more.  There is also added mystery in this story, as Dolly has amnesia and we don’t know who she is or what she supposedly did. Throughout the story and Dolly’s acts of kindness, despite her own circumstances, the reader must find it hard to believe that she could have committed such a terrible crime. Meanwhile the Grimbys are deceitful, cruel guardians, forcing her to perform and slave for them, beating on her when she doesn’t meet their standards. When the truth comes out, that not only are they blackmailing her with the crime they committed, but also that they kidnapped her from a loving home, they certainly rank top among the despicable villains to appear in these comics.

The build up of clues to Dolly’s past and wondering if she will ever be free of her false life keeps readers engaged. When Dolly finally decides to break away, going to turn herself in to the police, there is one more obstacle as the Grimbys stop her, and it seems she is trapped again. Revealing herself on stage makes for a more exciting climax and the panicked escape with the Grimbys taking Dolly, it is relief to see her finally escape their clutches and get her happy ending. As with a lot of theses older stories, there is a panel of info dump explaining how Dolly ended up with the Grimbys, but overall an exciting and satisfying conclusion to the story.

 

Amy Beckett Says… [1993]

M&J, , , ,
  • Amy Beckett Says… –  M&J:  #104 (8 May 1993) – #112 (10 July 1993)
  • Artist: Guy Peeters

Plot

After a bulldozer accidentally knocks against the the old entrance archway of the school, friends Fay Davis and Karen Green, notice some strange things happening. Fay feels an eerie chill when passing the entrance way and then some younger school kids start singing a skipping rhyme “Amy Beckett, now she’s free says come on girls and dance with me!”. A prefect, Jane, clears the young girls for making too much noise, later that day their skipping song changes to “Amy Beckett sees it all. Watch out when the oak leaves fall!”.  Fay and Karen don’t think the words make much sense as all the Autumn leaves have already fallen. Then Jane has a lucky escape when Fay saves her from a falling stone. Jane is clearly shaken, but the girls reason that it most have come loose when the bulldozer knocked against it. Fay notices a pattern of oak leaves on the stone, they put it down to a strange coincidence, though they don’t hear the girls now singing “Amy Beckett see it all and she KNEW the leaves would fall!”

The next day after a workman tells the skipping girls to move out of the way, the rhyme changes again, referencing the classic ‘ring-a-ring o’ roses’ nursery song. Fay, who still thinks something strange is going on, is worried when the workmen are planting a rose garden, that the rhyme is referencing it but is temporarily placated when nothing bad happens. She later realises when a builder sneezes and causes some bricks from a pulley to fall down injuring a workman, that she was right something bad would happen just not right in what the song referenced. Karen has also come around to the idea that the girls singing is a threat. Fay and Karen decide to talk to one the young girls they know, Annie, but she claims she doesn’t know any skipping rhymes. Karen theorises the girls are in some kind of trance while singing and don’t remember anything. But their questions have made them targets, the skipping girls surround them singing them to sleep and  in their dreams the ghost of Amy Beckett appears warning them not to interfere.

The girls are not deterred and decide to find out who Amy Beckett was, but when they try to look things up in the library, the reference cards start flying everywhere. They do manage to get a lead on some local history books that may be of use and the librarian tells them they are out on loan to an ex-teacher of their school. The skipping girls are keeping a watch on Fay and Karen, and when they try to go to Mrs Wilkins the next day, they are surrounded by fog, eventually they get to her house. Mrs Wilkins says she is writing a book about the school and shows them her notes, but the notes just repeat the same rhyme “Amy Beckett, now she’s free says come on girls and dance with me!”.  Then her granddaughter arrives it is one of the skipping girls, they find themselves surrounded as they sing “Amy says What is the fuss? Mrs Wilkins is with us!”. As the girls get away from the house, they have some luck when they find the history books in the rubbish bin outside.

At a cafe, when reading though the books Fay comes across a story about a tragedy at the school, but then it appears the book goes on fire. She douses it in water, but Karen didn’t see any flames. The cafe owner accuses them of vandalism and says she will return the books to library herself. We start to get hints of what could of happened to Amy, through the illusions and new rhymes. The girls sing “Everybody in this town says Amy Beckett burns things down!” then at the school the girls see flames they can’t be sure if its another illusion and sound the fire alarm. Annie has set them up to be caught by a teacher as there isn’t a fire. They are given detention to write ten thousand lines saying “Amy Beckett never was bad. But no-one believes her isn’t that sad?”. The lines are magically done, and they are told to give the sheets around the town. Mrs Wilkins is upset by the sheets, claiming it is all lies.More illusions show a newspaper saying “Amy Beckett is innocent” and fire caused by other girl before changing back to normal headline. We are given more information when the skipping girls new rhyme is “Amy didn’t start the fire  – Enid Armstrong is the liar”

Determined to get to the truth, Karen asks her dad who works for local newspaper if they can look at their records. While driving to office, Amy Beckett beckons Mrs Wilkins to step out in front of car, luckily  Mr Green stops just in time, he takes Mrs Wilkins home while Fay and Karen go on to the office. While they aren’t having luck finding information on fire, Karen finds an interesting wedding notice for local teacher Enid Armstrong marrying Ken Willkins. The girls figure out through what they heard in the rhymes and what they  saw on the fake newspaper that Mrs Wilkins was responsible for the fire and now Amy is out for revenge. The girls track down Mrs Wilkins but Amy has got to her first, hypnotising her and leading her to top of the school roof. Amy is about to get Mrs Wilkins to walk off the roof, but at last second has a change of mind and stops her and lets her go free. Mrs Wilkins confesses to starting the fire and blaming Amy who had died saving her. With the truth out the new school extension is named after Amy, to honour her and her ghost can now be at peace.

Thoughts

This was an effective creepy ghost story, the young girls skipping chant makes for an unsettling atmosphere, that sticks in your mind. While the story starts off, with Amy Beckett seeming to have no purpose but to cause trouble, later we find out more about her tragedy. As a ghost she seems quite conflicted, she wants revenge on Mrs Wilkins and wants to stop the girls investigating, but she also wants the truth to be known. At first she is an angry spirit, causing potentially deadly accidents to the prefect and workman for trying to stop the skipping girls, but she just warns off Fay and Karen and later only tries to cause the true fire culprit, Mrs Wilkins, harm. She tries to stop Fay and Karen in their research but then also starts to show them what happened by the false newspaper headline and tries to spread the truth by getting them to pass out papers saying she wasn’t bad. She comes close to taking full revenge on Mrs Wilkins, but as we know in life  Amy was a heroic person, it seems as a ghost she still has some of those qualities in her and can’t bring herself to go through with it. Which is good as she finds the truth is what sets her free not revenge.

While the girls own investigations are often disrupted like in the library and cafe, their biggest clues come from the rhymes and illusions that Amy shows them. It’s interesting that the biggest revelation they find themselves is not about a fire but a wedding notice. I thought that was a nice twist, rather than finding an article detailing a fire that we could figure out from what had happened from what been shown in the story but instead tying the importance of Mrs Wilkins to Amy’s revenge plot. Up to this point Mrs Wilkins could have just been targeted just because she was writing a book about the school, but we learn it is much worse. She started the fire, although we are not given a reason or whether it was on purpose or an accident, Mrs Wilkins was worried about getting in trouble and then blamed the girl who had died saving her. We don’t know what the consequences for her will be, but if she felt guilt over the years maybe now her conscience can be put to rest as well.

The other thing I noticed on this read is perhaps a sneaky reference to another ghost story The Shining where  in the film Jack’s draft of his book repeats the old proverb “All Work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” in this Mrs Wilkins notes repeat the Amy Beckett rhyme. While there have been other evil influence ghost stories, I do find the repeating rhymes, the mystery and that Amy Beckett wasn’t all evil makes it stand out from some others. It is a good read for Halloween and the resolution of the story, with the truth finally coming to light and Amy finding peace, was satisfying.

 

Skeleton Corner

Judy, M&J, , , , ,
  • Hallowe’en Story – Judy: #1555 (28 October 1989)
  • The Girl From Further Down – Judy: #1607 (27 October 1990)
  • Tales from Skeleton Corner – Judy: #1632 (20 April 1991) – #1635 (11 May 1991)
  • Tales from Skeleton Corner –  M&J: #11 (27 July 1991) – #41 (22 February 1992)
  • Skeleton Corner  – M&J:  #48 (11 April 1992) – #98 (27 March 1993) [not in every issue]
  • Skeleton Corner  – M&J:  #101 (17 April 1993) – #115 (25 July 1993) [no episode issue #102, #111, #112]
  • Skeleton Corner  – M&J: #129 (30 Oct. 1993)- #194 (28 Jan. 1995) [not in every issue]
  • Artist: Guy Peeters (Judy #1607, JudyAnn93)
  • Artist: Oliver Passingham (Judy: 1632-1635, M&J: 11-41, 48, 50, 52, 58-59,61-63, 65-66, 69, 72, 77, 85-86, 91-92, 98, 101, 103-110,113-115, 122, MandyAnn94)
  • Artist 2: Mike Dorey (M&J: 129-141, 143, 150, 153, 158, 163, 171, 173, 191-194, MandyAnn95)

This is an updated repost of a previous entry (10 years ago!), as I’ve re-read more stories and learned new information.

Plot

There wasn’t an ongoing plot, instead a skeleton, named Bones, introduces short scary stories, sometimes with a moral attached. It was usually 2 to 3 pages long. The stories varied from greedy girls getting what they deserved to innocent people being hassled by gremlins! A few stories focused on Bones and also had him interact with characters and influence outcomes.

Origins

The spooky storyteller was a common appearance in these comics, most famously the Man in Black in Diana and Damian Darke in Spellbound, this story would take the spookiness one step further with a skeleton narrating the tales. The story that would become known as Skeleton Corner, had a quieter beginning then others though, first appearing in a one-off story aptly called Hallowe’en Story in Judy issue 1555 (28 October 1989), a skeleton tells the tale of a poor girl in Victorian London, who gets a much needed job as a sculptor’s model. The sculptor emphasises the importance of being punctual and she is even when it is later discovered that before the last sitting, she was killed! This is a story that I believe was originally a Damian Darke story, though I can’t find the exact issue right now. The Skeleton returned again the following Halloween in issue 1607 with another story The Girl From Further Down. At this point the skeleton has not been named as Bones or there is not mention of Skeleton Corner. Then in issue 1631 (13 April 1991) there is an advertisement for the upcoming issue with the Skeleton saying “Hi girls – it’s me again” and talking about the story Flower Power that will appear in the next issue. From issue 1632 to Judy’s last issue  in 1635, the stories appeared with their own title with the caption “Tales from Skeleton Corner” beneath it. When the stories continued in the Mandy & Judy magazines it followed this format, until issue 59 when the individual titles were dropped and it just became known as Skeleton Corner.

Stories

Comics like Misty and Jinty were better known for their spooky stories, but there was still room for these kind of stories in other comics too.  Skeleton Corner was a bit of a softer approach, to the IPC comics but there were still some gems of stories featured. The storytelling skeleton, Bones, while he may appear scary he didn’t have a creepy personality, he was presented as a more as a friendly person who just happened to be a skeleton. He did set the tone well for the stories, as being a supernatural character that was possibly creepy but not overly disturbing!

There were two main artists for its run Oliver Passingham and Mike Dorey. Guy Peeters also did an early story and some of the annual stories. Whoever was on drawing duties always did a good job, I am a fan of both artists though I think Dorey had an edge on creating a darker tone.

The stories themselves varied and of course being short stories they were sometimes they were limited with the space to work with. Often the stories had a girl who was greedy, selfish or ignored the rules getting a fitting punishment. Other times the main character could be a nice person, who just had the bad luck to move into the wrong house or meet the wrong person. Some of the more effective scary stories were when the ending was left ambiguous with Bones only hinting at what may have happened. There are stories that could leave you quite unnerved, so it had a good mix, of the truly spooky and the stories that were lighter or had more happier endings.

Here’s a selection of some of my favourite stories in publication order rather than a ranking:

 

  1. Watching You! – Judy: #1635 (Art: Oliver Passingham)

Becky Brown keeps seeing a sad figure of a girl in her neighbour’s house which is currently being built. She finally goes to investigate and finds a paint splattered dungarees, which she figures flapping in the breeze was creating an illusion of a figure… but then she turns to see the figure in her own bedroom window. A nice build up as we see Becky get the courage to explore the other house and just when there seems to be a rational explanation, the twist of the figure now appearing in her own bedroom is well done.

  1. What’s in a Name?– M&J: #14 (Art: Oliver Passingham)

Sonia is writing a story for a competition, she decides to make it a romantic story and names the protagonist Pippa Gale. She is surprised when her brother starts dating a girl named Pippa Gale, even more surprising is Pippa has also entered the competition and named her protagonist Sonia Steel. While Sonia and her brother laugh at the coincidence, Sonia doesn’t tell them she is worried as her story is called “The Tragedy of Sonia Steel”

  1. The Longest Night – M&J: #38 (Art: Oliver Passingham)

Rachel’s brother Jon keeps having nightmares about it being dark forever, their gran says it reminds her of a legend of battle between light and dark. When the electricity goes out Jon lights a candle to keep away the dark but nearly starts a fire. They put the candle out, but in the morning it seems there was truth in the story as now darkness has won because there is no light!

  1. Wake Me Up! – M&J: #50

Lucy Kemp is determined to stay awake so she can greet her dad when he returns late from a long business trip away. She thinks keeping herself scared will help. She tries to read Skeleton Corner from her M&J mag to help, but then says Bones is not that scary. Bones shows up to try and prove her wrong but she only laughs at him! While Bones interacting with the characters, or having his own stories were not always the most compelling, this is a fun little meta story!

  1. Skeleton Corner – M&J: #108 (Art: Oliver Passingham)

Jo Johnson and her friend Emma are stuck waiting at a bus stop, so the begin playing a prize giving arcade game called Aladdin’s Cave. They win a brooch at first and are surprised when their money is also returned. They continue doing this for a while, but Emma begins to get nervous she worries that something is wrong that the goods might be stolen and that something’s not right with the game and leaves. Jo continues but then the machine starts to shake and all the prizes help form a large frightening genie. A case of greediness being punished!

   

  1. Bargain Basement! – Mandy Annual 1994 (Art: Oliver Passingham)

Carrie works part time at a department store Dinnegans. She is excited about the Christmas party, but it turns out to be quite boring with an old fashioned band. She is about to leave when she hears music coming from the basement. She finds a party much more to her liking and a good looking guy asks her to dance.  For some reason she isn’t put off by his enigmatic way of talking, even when she is the one that gives him his name Mark.

Mark is disappointed when Carrie leaves, but says they can meet at next years party. The next day Carrie mentions to another employee, that she joined the other Christmas party. She tells her there was no other party. Carrie investigates the basement and gets nervous when it is filled with dusty mannequins, she trips dropping her pen. She is jumpy the rest of the day, and is shocked to find Mark a mannequin set up for a new office display. She thinks she may have imagined it all, when she spots her pen beside Mark and a note “See you at the party next year”. Bones finishes the story by telling us readers that Carrie has decided to leave her job, so there’s a vacancy if anyone is interested, they have great Christmas parties! This is one of the stories that I always remembered, there can be something very creepy about mannequins and though they don’t threaten Carrie, it still has the right amount of scariness, to think of objects watching you and coming to life.

 

  1. Skeleton Corner – M&J #129 (Art: Mike Dorey)

Deanne and Emma are on school trip to a wood which has unusual branch sculptures. Emma is rude to the creator of the sculptures and when Emma and Deanne sneak away from the group they are horrified when Emma is turned into sculpture herself. This is one of the more horrific stories told in Skeleton Corner, with some body horror included, while Emma has not acted nicely the punishment hardly seems fitting to the crime and the art really captures it well.

 

  1. Skeleton Corner – M&J:  #140 (Art: Mike Dorey)

Sally Townsand is a late comer to her new boarding school, so she is given a single room that isn’t normally used. Sally doesn’t like an old faded picture of gates hanging up and is going to take it down, but the housekeeper insists it must always stay there.

Sally takes it down later anyway, she notices a crack in the wall but figures her poster can hide it just as well. That night she is woken up by knocking and tearing noises coming from the wall. Bits of plaster start to fall off. She runs to get the housekeeper who place the picture back up and tells her as long as its there nothing can get through. Bones ends the story by explaining that gates are used to keep things in as well as out. A disturbing tale as the reader is let to wonder what is the gate keeping in, though luckily for Sally she doesn’t find out!

 

 

  1. Skeleton Corner – M&J:  #141 (Art: Mike Dorey)

Rachel Gunn and her family move into a new house, they are quite happy and she settles in quickly at her new school. Her younger brother tells her how the previous family disappeared. Soon after Gary starts disappearing and reappearing.

Rachel thinks its Gary playing tricks on her, until it happens with her parents as well. She wakes up one morning and there is no trace of her family, though the car is still in the driveway. Feeling scared she rings the police. The police arrive but there is no sign of Rachel and they discuss how its strange that the same thing happened to the previous family, but its not like people vanish into thin air! This has a nice bit of a build up for a short story and it’s made even creepier when these things are left unexplained.

 

  1. Skeleton Corner – #191

On a school trip Amy is not pleased to be roomed with wimpy Debra. She is kept awake all night by Debra claiming she hears noises and turning on a torch. The next night Amy hears the noise as well and asks Debra to pass the torch. She is handed the torch but as she turns on torch, Debra walks into room with teacher she had gone to fetch, so who handed Amy the torch! Again the right amount of creepiness while the presence in the room doesn’t seem malicious it is little disturbing to think there is some unknown entity in the dark!

Final Thoughts

It was not a new concept to have a spooky storyteller telling stories, The Man in Black (Diana), Damian Darke (Spellbound) and Gipsy Rose (Jinty) all scared readers and taught them lessons weekly. Skeleton Corner was the last of these type of stories that continued this tradition and was successful in having a long enjoyable run of stories.

The next page has a full list of stories that appeared.

Pages: 1 2

Heartache for Hannah [1993]

M&J, , ,
  • Heartache for Hannah –  M&J:  #116 (10 August 1993) – #127 (16 October 1993)
  • Art: Maria Dembilio

Plot

Hannah Littleton gets on great with her young stepmother Jill, and is delighted when she hears she is going to have a baby sibling. But after a difficult labour and the arrival of baby Thomas, things change for Hannah. While she is happy to have her brother, Jill suddenly becomes more distant, telling her to no longer call her mum. At first Jill thinks it because she has her own baby now, but soon she notices Jill doesn’t make any effort with him either. The house is getting messy and Jill doesn’t take care of herself like she used to. Worried that her family may break up, especially after fights between Jill and Dad and comments he makes, Hannah starts trying to cover for Jill.

One such times is before a health visitor arrives for check-up, Hannah comes home on her lunch break to clean the house, and because she is spending her time covering for Jill, this starts to affect other things in Hannah’s life. While her dad is working late a lot, Hannah does the cooking and housework which means she is getting bad marks for her rushed homework and on occasion is late for school. Hannah continues to be dismayed as well at Jill’s attitude towards Thomas like when they are out for a walk and Jill says she doesn’t understand people complimenting Thomas as he’s just another baby. When Hannah attempts to get Jill interested in cooking again by hoping she will join her when she does a big batch cook, her plan seems to work at first and Jill actually perks up and helps, but her mood changes completely when Thomas cries. Every-time Jill seems to get back on track, something happens with Thomas, like when she gets a new dress and he spits up on it, or when she tries to get back to exercise and Tomas keeps her awake all night. Jill says whats point of having nice things or pretending she has time for exercise with a baby around.

While dealing with Jill’s mood swings, and trying to keep things secret Hannah falls out with her best friend because of her unexplained behaviour. At home there are even more arguments when her Dad tells his mother that Jill won’t be going back to work, something Jill never agreed to.  He has old-fashioned ideas that Jill should stay home to look after the baby. Hannah continues to try and make things better and help, but everyone is miserable. Then Jill accidentally leaves Thomas in his pram in the shop while she is carrying the shopping. Once she realises she is panicked and so grateful to get her son back, as she would be devastated if anything bad happened to him. Hannah is relieved to see she does actually love Thomas and after Jill talks to her husband about how she is struggling, they call the health visitor to come talk. While not mentioned by name it’s implied that Jill has been suffering from post-natal depression, and now she can start getting the support she needs. Hannah realises that by covering for Jill, she wasn’t helping as the actual problem wasn’t being addressed. Hannah’s father also apologizes realising how insensitive he was and they actually agree about Jill going back to work when Thomas is a little older, as her career is still important to her. Hannah is happy to see her family back joking together and while it will take time to recover she knows they will be okay.

Thoughts

There’s a lot going on in this story, and while family drama was common in these comics, I haven’t seen this specific topic addressed before. It talks about how difficult Jill’s labour was and while not named it is recognizable that Jill has post natal depression, along with that is the generational gap between her and her husband, and the issues that causes with his ideas of a traditional family. All this of course from the viewpoint of a daughter, who doesn’t understand the best way to help her step-mother is to ask for support else where. The story is well written handles the topics deftly.

Being a mother now my sympathy is with Jill, while I was lucky not to have post-natal depression, it is not always easy to manage being a new mom. Luckily I have a supportive partner, while Hannah’s dad, Michael,was not very understanding  for a lot of the story, like early on commenting that she’s not making an effort with her appearance and such is a bit much, especially when she had such a difficult 12 hour labour. At least Gran seems to be on Jill’s side , pointing out she just had a baby, pity she’s not around more to help out. While he does help out with Thomas which is good (though again it seems doing a nappy change and feed constitutes helping, which Hannah also does), it seems he expects Jill to keep up her appearance and do housework and look after Thomas, with no acknowledgement of what a big lifestyle change has happened. His comments and their fights is also what leads Hannah to try and cover by doing housework, which obviously causes lots of other problems with Hannah’s school and friends.

In the early 90s it was still more common for women to give up their jobs for being stay-at home moms, but in Jill’s case this is not something she wants to do. Even worse Michael doesn’t discuss this properly with Jill and tells his own mother first that Jill won’t return to work. Jill is understandably furious at this, and Michael still won’t negotiate he won’t even consider a creche or a nanny (having him give up his career instead is never even mentioned as an option). He also seems to be expecting her to do as his first wife did, not considering they are different people and that Jill is only 23. Even these days mothers trying to keep their careers and sharing parenting more evenly with partners is a struggle, so it’s interesting that it was being discussed in this story from nearly 30 years ago.

The 20 year age gap between them obviously doesn’t help things either, Jill is only 22 at start of story just after they marry, presumably by the end she must be 23, while people can be in relationships with large age gaps, it’s still a bit concerning that they must have started dating when she was only a few years out of school and there is only 10 years between her and Hannah, and obviously there were some things they didn’t communicate properly (like Jill’s career plans).  Clearly these issues don’t really appear until the baby arrives, at least by the end they seem to be on the road to recovery again, and joking and happy together.

While these days I am quite identify with the character of Jill, of course the main protagonist of the story is Hannah. Having to shoulder so much responsibility at a young age is difficult, and fearing that her family will break up and hearing her parents fight all the time is not a healthy environment to be in. It is quite hurtful for Hannah when Jill tells her not to call her “mom” anymore, as they had previously had such a good relationship. The instinct to cover things up both at home and at school, is a lot of young people’s experience, and we see how this impacts on the other aspects of her life. In this case it is nice things have a happy ending, and it is good that Jill reassures Hannah it wasn’t her fault for trying to hide things she knows she meant well. Going forward they should hopefully all be able to communicate and support each other better. It is one of the stories that really holds up well on a  reread, it is well written and Dembilio’s art is a good choice to capture the family drama.

 

 

Little Stranger [1976]

M&J, Mandy, ,
  • Little Stranger – Mandy: #504 (11 September 1976) – #516 (4 December 1976)
  • Reprinted – Mandy: #805 (19 June 1982) – #817 (11 September 11 1982)
  • Reprinted – Mandy #1000 (15 March 1986) – Mandy #1012 (7 June 1986)
  • Reprinted (as Mandy classic) –  M&J: #16 (31 August 1991) – #28 (23 November 1991)
  • Artist: Andrew Wilson

Plot

Betty Demster (named Clare in the reprints) awakes one night and sees a strange light out of her window, she goes to investigate but trips over and is knocked unconscious. When she comes around the light is gone and she goes back to bed. She is shocked in the morning to find a stranger in her house,  a young girl that her parents claim to be her little sister, Darla. Meeting with friends and neighbours it seems Betty is the only one that knows something is wrong, everyone else is convinced that Darla has always been there. Betty sees Darla talking to the sky at night,and mentioning one subject needs to be kept under close surveillance. Betty senses something evil about Darla, but decides to play along as “big sister” until she can find proof. Darla proves to be more powerful than she thought though, when Betty tries to find allies that may not be under Darla’s influences, Darla gets in the way. When Betty asks her aunt to visit from out of town, Darla causes her to have an accident so the aunt ends up in a coma, and the new neighbours have a tree fall on their house so they have to go stay elsewhere.

Betty has to be even more careful while trying to find out what Darla is plotting. Her father brigs home sensitive documents from work under Darla’s influence and Betty as to sneak them back. Darla forces the whole town to clear a  hill of stones. Later she returns and Betty sees her go into spaceship, she overhears that Darla wants to increase take-over power and the mysterious light appears again, but Betty sneaks out so she is not effected. She sees Darla sneak to her father’s office and take pictures, later she hands them off to the local doctor who Betty finds out is an imposter/replica of the real doctor. She manages to hide the film, from them both. Betty decides to try and find help from an author, Erica Vanton, that wrote about aliens. She tells her story and Miss Vanton appears to be an ally. But when she comes to town Betty finds her with Darla and the fake doctor. She manages to escape them, she knows their influence is waning, she finds her mom with a headache, and a fuzzy memory. All traces of Darla has disappeared from house.

The three aliens go to the hill hoping for contact from their home planet Kaza as their powers are fading. As no-one appears they ave to get nourishment from somewhere else. Betty who has been watching them follows them to a nuclear power station. Darla knocks out the entrance guard with her powers,  Betty tries to warn people at the station and the Doctor and Miss Vanton aliens are captured.But they don’t believe Betty’s  story. The two aliens have lost all power and they disappear as they can no longer hold the human form, only Darla is left, but the guards can’t believe a little girl is dangerous. Betty manages to delay Darla long enough so she can’t renew her powers. She fights her off until she also disappears. Everyone’s memories of the event start to fade. Only Betty remembers Darla and everything returns to normal.

Thoughts

When it appeared in M&J as a Mandy classic, it says that it was a big success when it was first printed in 1982. Which is partially true, I’m sure it was popular story, but 1982 wasn’t it’s first appearance, as it was first published in 1976.

This is another entry for the secret alien invasion category, the actual alien plan is left a bit vague and we don’t know why Darla’s home planet no longer helps her in the end (did they think the plan was no longer going to work and abandon her?) but it is a fun read. Again we’ve got someone in form of child leading the invasion,though unlike Simon or The Frightening Fours, aliens create a new child rather than taking over a child already there. This way because Betty escaped the initial mind control she knows immediately something is wrong because this sister has appeared from nowhere! To have to pretend to be nice to this mysterious creature while investigating her and having no one to to confide in is tough, but she does well, after initial shock, playing along in order to keep off Darla’s radar.

Andrew Wilson’s art is so expressive, sometimes to story’s detriment as Darla undoubtedly has evil expression on her face, it’s a wonder anyone thinks she is so sweet, it’s also clear from Miss Vanton’s expression she wasn’t going to help Betty! But it is still great art all the same. The story is good, and creepy, but some of the plot points were left very vague, like what was so important about Mr Demster’s documents, and if the aliens could take on the form of actual people (such as the Doctor), why create Darla at all, could they not have just created a duplicate Mr Demster instead to get documents. It feels like a story that they had a good premise for but weren’t too sure where to go after that. Which can often be the case. Still despite some plot-holes, I think the characters, premise and and art has made this a memorable story, which is why it was chosen for multiple reprints.

Sisters in Secret [1991]

M&J, , ,
    • Sisters in Secret–  M&J: #01 (18 May 1991) – #10 (20 July 1991)
    • Art: Maria Dembilio
    • Reprinted and translated into Dutch as “Geheime zusjes” (“Secret Sisters”) –  Tina #52/1992-8/1993

Plot

Jackie Munroe and Alison Brown meet on the first day of school and immediately hit it off. They are shocked to discover at the end of the day, when talking to their mothers, that the girls are actually half sisters. Both mothers have reasons to dislike the other, Ms Munroe because her husband left her for Mrs Brown, when she was still pregnant with Jackie and Mrs Brown because when her husband got sick Ms Munroe wouldn’t let him reconcile with Jackie before he died. Their mothers don’t know the girls have become friendly and on hearing their mothers’ stories, at first Jackie and Alison decided the other wouldn’t be a good friend after all, but after being paired up in class they realise they still like each other. They decide to continue their friendship but have to hide it from their mothers.

This leads to episodic story where each week the girls miss out in something or get in trouble trying to keep their friendship secret, and at the end of the episode conclude it’s still worth it to be friends. Such events include Jackie sneaking Alison to her birthday party but when her mum comes back early, Alison has to sneak out and accidentally breaks an ornament. Jackie has to pay for it and Alison also gives her money towards replacing so they can’t afford tickets to go to concert they wanted to see. They both miss out on being form rep when a teacher sees them getting in trouble with police for leaving café without paying, they can’t explain to teacher that it was all cleared up and they did leave money but rushed out to avoid being seen by Mrs Brown. When a picture is taken of the girls together at opening of new school library, they expose the film, but that means Jackie doesn’t get her memento photo of presenting flowers to Duchess either. Alison is caught out in one of her lies when she sneaks out to meet Jackie, meaning she is grounded for a month. Jackie has to spend all her money on a top she doesn’t like, to avoid trouble with a shopkeeper, who thinks the girls are messing when they try to avoid her mum. Another time Jackie hurts her leg when she thinks Alison’s mom is going to catch them together, but it turns out to be someone else.

Meanwhile their mom’s begin to ask about friends, Mrs Brown insists she invites her best friend around for tea. They get new girl Sylvia to agree to pretend to be her best friend, but then she wants to hang around as a threesome all the time, and the girls find she is selfish and not so nice. Luckily Sylvia finds a more suitable friend by the end of the episode. With the school holidays approaching Alison and Jackie are not looking forward to it, because it will be harder to meet each other. Ten the Brown’s get into an accident, hearing about it on radio, Alison goes to see Jackie, who is luckily not badly injured but her mum is and will need to stay in hospital. Later at home Alison is surprised when her mum arrives with Jackie. She explains to Alison when she heard about the accident, she felt bad for Jackie who already lost her father and may have lost her mother, as Alison and Jackie share a father, they are the closest thing to family Jackie has so she has taken her in. She asks Alison to try and make an effort with her. Jackie and Alison discuss the situation and decide it is best to not let her know they were already friends. When Mrs Brown recovers she is grateful for the Munroes taking Jackie in. They decide to put past behind them and form a relationship for their daughters.

Thoughts

Like I mentioned above, it is quite an episodic story, with the set up each issue being how their secret friendship causes them trouble, but although they lose out on something they still think it is worth it. There might have been a bit more opportunity to dive into family issues particularly with their dad. How does Jackie feel about being raised without her dad  and never meeting him? After finding out he wanted a relationship with her before he dies seems odd she doesn’t does she ever ask Alison more about him (at least from what we see). Does she feel resentment to her mother for not allowing her to get to know him before he died? For Alison, there is less than a year between the girls, so it does seem likely her dad had an affair does this make her feel and differently about her parents now? While it is briefly addressed in the first episode, with the girls taking their respective mother’s side of stories at first, they quickly move past it and decide what happened back then shouldn’t effect them, but it could have been interesting to see them have more conflicted feelings about their parents even if Jackie and Alison weren’t holding resentment  against each other.

While they continue to have trouble with hiding the friendship and this means some conflict with their mothers, such as Jackie being grounded because she lied about where she was, the mothers never actually find out what the girls are doing. Perhaps if they talked to them, they could have resolved the feud earlier, but at least the mothers do come around in the end on their own terms. There have been other stories with this theme of two families falling out and the children have to hide their friendship, such as Let’s Pretend or The Secret Friends . For this category of story, it is is quite a strong entry, the actual reason for the mothers disliking each other in this story are quite reasonable motives (even if it would have been nice to dive into it more) and Alison and Jackie are likeable, each episode you hope for once something will work out for them. Each situation they find themselves in is interesting, and Maria Dembilio, who would become a staple artist for M&J, is a perfect choice for depicting the the girls problems. It is a relief to see at the end the girls get their wish of becoming  family and no more secrets.

Four in the Saddle [1997]

M&J, , ,
  • Four in the Saddle – M&J: #313 (10 May 1997) – #314 (17 May 1997)
  • Four in the Saddle – Mandy Annual 1998
  • Artist: Julian Vivas

Plot

Cassie and Cindy Bridges live in Parkerville, a small town in Arizona, along with their friend Lori. They all like to ride their horses and also have an understanding with Mystery, leader of a wild herd of horses. Cassie and Cindy’s father is the town sheriff, so would like his daughters to set a good example and stay out of trouble. When new neighbours move into ranch nearby, Cassie is quite taken by the son, Jed. Cindy is of the opinion they don’t need boys in the group, Lori, the more quieter and sensible member of the group, think they should get to know him better first. The next day when the girls are out riding, Jed comes across them as he is riding to get help for a calf stuck down a ravine. Lori always prepared has a rope on hand and together they free the calf. When they question Jed about how he found the calf he says a wild black horse led him there. Knowing this must be Mystery, Cindy and Lori agree that the horse is usually right about people and that it would be okay for Jed to come riding with them.

In the Annual story, the girls are riding with Jed, they are watching out for Mystery and the other wild horses and they see something is wrong. They go closer to investigate. One of the horses collapses and Cassie convinces Mystery to let her have a closer look. Cindy and Jed go to fetch the vet, Mr Ewart, when he arrives he diagnoses the mare with equine flu, not usually fatal but dangerous for wild horses. He take the mare back to town for treatment. Cassie and the others keep an eye on the other wild horses and notice more sick. When they ask if Mr Ewart could vaccinate them, he says it would be impossible to inoculate all of them, even if he could catch them. The best action would be to isolate them but there is nowhere suitable, so likely the flu will spread and it will be survival of the fittest.

The group is horrified to hear this and try to come up with a plan to help Mystery and the other horses. Jed suggests a place in the foothills, known as The Lost Valley, the others say its too far for the horses in their condition. But they agree it might work if they leave the worst affected who can be treated by the vet. It is not an easy journey for the gang as they round up the wild horses, one mare dies along the way and they have a run in with a mountain lion (luckily it’s a young one that doesn’t attack), but eventually they make it. The group set up camp to keep an eye on the horses, a foul dies, but Cassie has idea to pair up that mare, with the motherless foal. Over a week later the herd are doing better, Mystery rears up as if thanking them. Everyone is happy that the herd was saved.

Thoughts

This story only lasted 2 episodes and although it promised “more next week” it did not appear in  the next issue, which was actually the last issue of M&J, nor did it continue in Bunty after the merger. It seems the finish of M&J led to its sudden discontinuation. It’s  an interesting case as it seemed to be set-up as replacement for the long running Pine Tree Grove another soap story involving horses, so potentially could have continued for quite a while. It had an a more unusual setting in Arizona, the art by Julian Vivas was good and similar to other M&J soaps it had some potentially interesting characters. The appearance of the story in the annual shows they had some story-lines set up. As annuals are made in advance,  it’s hard to tell if this story was just made for the annual or potentially it was unused episodes for M&J that they decided to fit in the annual. I can see the story in the annual fitting fine split into the weekly issues. Either way as I had not got the  annual until recently, I only thought there were just the 2 episodes, so it was nice to see some sort of conclusion for the story.

Fiona’s Friend / Caught in the Net

M&J, , ,
  • Fiona’s Friend – Judy and Tracy: #1362 (15 February 1986) – #1367?
  • Reprinted as Caught in the Net – M&J: #311 (26 April 1997) – #315 (24 May 1997)
  • Artist: John Armstrong

Plot

Fiona Lewis was delighted when her uncle Peter gives her a computer for her birthday. When setting up the computer, it asks Fiona to be it’s friend and Fiona agrees, but then things keep going wrong and the computer keeps causing trouble with her other friends. First while playing a game with her friend Shelley, it says Fiona wins although Shelley did better, then the message on screen says “Fiona is clever, Shelley is stupid”. Shelley thinks Fiona programmed the computer to say it, even when she denies it. Shelley still acts off-hand with Fiona, and later the computer asks if she is still her friend, Fiona is glad computers can’t sulk like people do.

When Fiona’s friend Kathy falls ill and has to spend time in the hospital, she rallies everyone in the class to send a card for her birthday. She checks the computer for Kathy’s birthday where she noted it and it says the 9th, but later she discovers Kathy was disappointed not to receive a card from her as her birthday was actually the 8th. As she is let out of hospital before the 9th she never receives the card. Fiona checks the computer and now it says the 8th, and she thinks she misread it. When her young cousin Kevin comes to visit, he is self conscious about his new glasses, Fiona lets him play on computer but it still asks for her, the next day when he is showing some drawings one comes up with “Kevin four eyes” upsetting him greatly.

At school Kathy and Shelley are still not talking to Fiona but when one of her classmates Megan moves close by, Fiona starts to hang out with her. While she is busy with Megan, the computer asks Fiona if they are still friends. Then the computer reveals Megan’s crush on a boy, Mark, in front of group of people, upsetting her, so Fiona loses yet another friend. At least she still has computer but  she is beginning to wonder why everytime something has gone wrong the computer is involved. She rationalizes  that she can’t blame the computer, it’s just an object, so it must be herself making the mistakes. Another opportunity for a new friend arises, when her and classmate, Diane need to take extra french lessons. She tries to help with a new French Learning CD she got and it keeps saying Diane is wrong, then Fiona tries to get wrong answer and it says she is right. Diane calls her a cheater and liar. This is too many coincidences for Fiona  and she now thinks the computer is making her lose her friends on purpose.

Fiona decides to get rid of the computer and she gives it to the boys next door, but it won’t work for them and her mother isn’t happy she gave away her present. She tries to tell the computer she’s not its friend, but it won’t listen. Then she sees a shop that buys and exchanges second hand computers, she manages to exchange it for a similar model so her family won’t notice the difference. She is relieved when she asks her new computer to be her friend it doesn’t recognise the instruction. At school a new girl, Lindy, joins and Fiona and her become friends,  safe in knowledge her computer won’t get in the way again. Later she sees her old computer at shop, she tests it out  to make sure she is really  free of it and is relieved to find the computer has forgotten about her and it has new friend the computer next it.

Thoughts

Computers didn’t show up often as a main plot-point in stories, when they did turn up they tended to be cause of conflict rather than a help! This isn’t the only time an M&J story revolved around computer, there was also Gameplay and it’s sequel and while Fiona’s computer isn’t as evil as Irma it does still cause a lot of problems for her!  It’s interesting we aren’t shown any reconciliation with her old friends. It seems the damage the computer has done is lasting, but at least Fiona finds a new friend and is happy to move on from the computer. This is a late John Armstrong work, he did a number of stories for M&J and as always his work is excellent, particularity for character expressions and it has some atmospheric panels.

As  #315 is the last issue in M&J, there is a double episode to conclude the story, I wonder if there were any more episodes planned originally, it does seem a little sudden that Fiona wants to get rid of computer but still works fine. I was more of a fan of M&J than Bunty and it was pity it swallowed up by the latter, as even in the last few issues there were some fun stories like this. Update: I have discovered this was actually a reprint of 1986 story from Judy, I’m not sure how many episodes the original had, so there may be some extra episodes to expand on Fiona’s suspicions.

The Blind Ballerina [1963]

Judy, M&J, , , ,
  • The Blind Ballerina – Judy:  #187 (10 August 1963) – #202 (23 November 1963)
  • Reprinted – Judy:  #786 (01 February 1975) – #801 (17 May 1975)
  • Reprinted – Judy:  #1064 (31 May 1981) – #1079 (13 September 1981)
  • Reprinted (as Judy classic) – M&J: #103 (1 May 1993) – #118 (14 August 1993)
  • Artist: Paddy Brennan

Plot:

Carol Scott, a promising young dancer, gets a prominent role in a ballet “The Enchanted King” produced by the Del Solta Ballet Company. Her friend Alison Taylor, has a smaller part in the production. On opening night, tragedy strikes when a chandelier breaks loose and injures Carol. She is heartbroken when the accident leaves her blind but Alison, is determined to help Carol dance again — even if it means giving up her own chance in ballet.  When the Del Solta Ballet Company are to go on tour, Alison chooses to leave the company, so she can stay with Carol.  She gets a job in a coffee shop and finds herself and Carol lodgings. Carol is still despondent after the accident, so Alison knows she must soon put her plan in action, to get Carol dancing again.  By volunteering to give ballet lessons at  a youth club she is given permission to use the hall when it is free. After a first failed attempt of blocking out the stage in boxes and trying to get Carol to memorize the steps, Alison get the better idea to make the markings in tape and have Carol dance barefoot so she can feel the stage, this is more successful.

Carol soon gains confidence and can can dance without the tape aids. When a chance arises with a small ballet company, the Beaumont Ballet Company, the girls plan for Carol to audition before revealing her sight loss.  As the stage will be a different size to what they have practiced on,  they have to sneak in to practice before the audition.Unknown to them, a reporter, Peter Gough, sees them practicing and wants to investigate further and find out what their secret is. At the audition Carol succeeds in getting the soloist part, with no one suspecting her disability. Another ballerina, Freda Winters, is not happy as she wanted her friend, Gladys Payne, to get the part. There is more trouble brewing, as Peter is reporting on the audition and he notices Carol doesn’t blink at bright flash of a camera and he figures out she is blind. This is a big story for him and Carol’s secret makes  the front page of the newspaper the next day. Simon Sands, the company manager, calls Carol in and tells her he will have to let her go as the company can’t afford a flop. But his mind is quickly changed when a large queue forms to see the show with the blind ballerina. Everyone helps out with Carol and the show is a great success, but not everything is rosy as now Carol  has a secret enemy in Freda.

At a very important show, Freda sets out to make a fool of Carol by standing out of place. Luckily Carol hears her new position, due to a creak on the floor and is able to adjust accordingly. Freda gets a talking to by Madame Richter, but nobody suspects it was anything other than an accident. Next, Mr Sands has big news about their next production “The Peasant Prince”, an American film maker will be coming to watch and may include the ballet in his film about British life, which would be great publicity for the small company. He tells only Carol and Alison about this and he wants to keep it quiet, so he is not happy with the news is leaked. He blames, Carol and Alison, when in fact Freda is at fault as she had overheard their conversation and made an anonymous call to reporter. Alison find out when the call was made and luckily her and Carol are cleared as they have an alibi for that time. The leak turns out to be in their favour when Olga Merrova, a prima ballerina that had danced Carol’s part in “The Peasant Prince”, is touched by the story of the blind ballerina and comes to help.

After this, Jack Weston, the American film maker wants to film the company and takes them to big house in the country where he is staying. In one room all his film is left hanging, where nobody is allowed enter.. Freda tricks Carol taking down the sign, so she can’t feel it but once inside Carol notices her mistake and knows she’ll have to move very carefully to avoid damaging the film. Then she notices a leak and ends up saving the film from more damage. Freda knows that Gladys caused the leak by leaving the taps on and while Gladys has not stopped Freda’s tricks before this, now Freda uses this to blackmail her into being more active in getting rid of Carol. Freda tries to change tactics and become friendly with Carol, so she can spot opportunities to get rid of her. On a warm day she suggests they have lunch on the roof and then has Gladys call Alison away. She then leaves the fire escape gate open and pretends to tie her shoe lace, with the intention that Carol will fall down the steps, which she would have done if not for Alison returning just in time. Her next trick can’t be passed off as an accident, as pretending to be Alison she does Carol’s makeup for a serious production, making her a clown. Again luckily Alison finds her and fixes her makeup in time, but now they both know, Carol has a secret enemy and they have a clue as Freda was wearing a strong perfume. After tracking down the perfume brand, they cleverly figure out it is Freda. Carol thinks back on the other incidents and realises what she thought were accidents, were actually planned.

They need evidence to bring to Mr Sands, in the meantime Carol’s confidence is shaken as she can’t trust Freda and still has to work with her. Soon after Freda ends up outing herself, after another trick she plays.  After locking Carol in her dressing room, Carol accidentally brushes against electric fire, setting her costume on fire. Everyone rushes to help, after hearing her shouts for help and Mr Sands finds a flower from Freda’s costume in the room. Confronted Freda admits locking but denies having anything to do with the fire. She is of course dismissed from the production but that is not the end, as now she’s even more determined to get back at Carol. Gladys is still friendly with Freda and let’s her know what is going on in the production, including Carol taking over Freda’s part. Freda wants Gladys to give her access to backstage but she is reluctant to be involved in the vendetta she only agrees after Freda blackmails her. Freda loosens a platform that Carol has to leap from, causing her to fall on opening night, but it has an unexpected side affect of bringing back her sight. While this is wonderful news for Carol, it does leave Alison wondering what her place is, she was never as good a dancer as Carol and without practice all her work is lost. Meanwhile Mr Sands has been investigating what happened to the platform and Gladys confesses and apologies to Carol for her part in it. After this Carol finally gets Alison to confess her unhappiness, but it turns out Mr Sands does still have a part for her in company. All her work with Carol has led her to become a good choreographer and arranger, so they both can stay with the company and embark on their new ballet careers.

Thoughts

The Blind Ballerina‘s popularity probably led to the many stories with girls facing similar obstacles. It is a set -up that is ripe for drama, as an underdog story, a girl pursuing what she loves and not letting her disability stop her from succeeding, not to mention other obstacles such as jealous rivals or prejudiced people.  Jinty had it’s own “Blind Ballerina” story, but there were also blind girls wanting to compete in ice-skating, running and tennis such as in “The Courage of  Wendy Evans” (Diana), “Running Blind” (Tracy), and “Becky Never Saw the Ball” (Tammy) and there were many other similar stories with other disabilities. While the premise might seem unbelievable, The Blind Ballerina is well plotted and the inventive ways Carol learns to dance in this new situation is inspiring, as are those who support her. We want to see Carol succeed and are happy when she does, so it’s pity the positivity of that message is a bit undermined when Carol gets her sight back (after a convenient bump to the head, cure of all illnesses in  these comics!). It seems the only way she could be truly successful, is for her to get her sight back and yes, realistically her dancing would be limited if she stayed blind but as the story  had already showed, she could still have success and happiness, with the support of those around her. Still the reader would be glad that Carol (and Alison) got a happy ending.

While Carol is the” blind ballerina” of the title, there are really two protagonists in this story and Alison is actually the more active character at times, particularly at the start of the story. She is the one to take the initiative to get Carol dancing again and coming up with solutions to make it work. There is sort of parallel between there stories, as Carol believes after the accident she will never dance again until Alison helps her, then when Carol gets her sight back it seems Alison won’t be able to have a dancing career. It is quite devastating blow for Alison as she has sacrificed so much for Carol, and she is realistically upset that it has left her with no future. Luckily she finds another satisfying career path in ballet, thanks to her work with Carol (and arguably a more suited career for her).

Both Carol and Alison are smart characters, but even they take some time to figure out someone is against Carol, but that is more due to being Freda being very crafty, at least in the start. By deliberately messing up Carol’s make up, Freda slips up as now it is obvious that Carol has an enemy, which leads to her downfall, whereas the first tricks could have been dismissed as accidents. It’s funny that initially Freda’s vendetta against Carol is on behalf of her friend Gladys. It is later that her own jealousy grows and she starts feeling threatened by Carol and of course after Freda is dismissed, Carol does get her part.  Gladys doesn’t seem as upset about Carol getting her part in the first audition, though she has no interest in being friendly with her, she is not plotting revenge. She  does nothing to stop Freda’s tricks, but she does have to be blackmailed into participating in them. It’s a wonder how she stays friends with Freda, though she seems to be a more easily led and doesn’t have a lot of sense. While she has to be coerced into confessing at the end she is genuinely remorseful for her part, unlike Freda.

This is an enjoyable read, the story is well plotted and paced, it doesn’t rush the ending and the main characters are all pretty well developed. The art is also gorgeous (I think it’s Paddy Brennan? if anyone can confirm) and I particularly like the title boxes that depict the main characters and hints at events in the story. It’s unsurprising that it had several reprints, one of which was as a Judy classic in M&J, the only ballet story to appear in that comic.

Tug of Love Toni / Toni’s Troubles

Judy, M&J, ,

Plot

Toni Cole’s mother walked out on the family two years before because she was mixed up. She returns for a second chance, but Toni has not forgiven her and tries to drive her away with nastiness. However, when Toni finally succeeds in getting rid of her mother, she suddenly realises how wrong she was.

Notes

  • Artist: Julio Bosch (Martin Puigagut?)

Appeared

  • Tug of Love Toni – Judy: #1548 (9 September 1989) – #1559 (25 November 1989)
  • Reprinted as Toni’s Troubles – M&J:  #240 (16 December 1995) – #251 (2 March 1996)