A humour strip about a girl guide, Glenda Gardner, as she tries to earn her badges, usually with some disastrous results.
Other Appearances:
Two cousins who dislike each other have to share a pony, Starlight, they inherited from their grandfather. The girls mothers have been in a family feud, which has carried on to the daughters, they each play tricks on each other in order to try and get more riding time with Starlight, and when things go wrong, like missing out on joining a team competition, or ruining practice jumps the girls don’t see they are making things harder for themselves!
The two title characters of M&J become best friends when Judy Jones moves next door to Mandy Taylor. This starts as a 2 page humour and soap like, picture story. When this was finished it was replaced by written diary told by Mandy or Judy (alternating weeks). The Diaries of M&J was initially 2 pages, then got reduced to 1 page and then to half a page. While the Diaries of M&J was running, the comic also had a cartoon section that featured different 3 panel humour strips, which included an M&J strip occasionally.
Other Appearances:
Humour strip about a pony named Pepper and his owner Lucinda. Usually a page long but sometimes just half a page. Later M&J had an even shorter strip that was usually just 3 panels and named Pepper
Other Appearances:
Karen finds an unusual boyfriend when Frankie a character from a movie comes alive. He can only stay around as long as the film is on though.
First Appearance: Mandy #56 (10 February 1968)Valda was a long running and popular character from Mandy. She is a mysterious girl, who gained long lasting life, youth and powers from the fire of life. She has to bathe in the flames regularly to replenish her youth and strength, whenever she exhausts her powers. The powers and skills that Valda primarily is shown to have are; a youthful appearance, strength, ability to leap great distances, mental influence, a knowledge of herbs and a rapport with animals. As a baby over 200 years ago, she was found by an old gypsy woman Dorcas. Dorcas raised her and taught her about herbs and potions and shared with the water of life. After Dorcas died, Valda continued her quest to find the fire of life. While the flames will restore Valda when she is weak, she also has temporary restoration methods, gained from a crystal pendant she wears.
Due to her long life, she appeared many times over the years. She had adventures with hidden tribes and lost worlds, she fought evil forces and sometimes she competed against athletes to prove her skills. In her first appearance she challenges the world champion ice skater, and other stories saw her compete in sports such as tennis and diving. When the Valda serial appeared in Mandy it would usually come under different names such as; “The Amazing Valda” “The Ten Tests of Valda” and “The Return of Valda”. In 1974 her origin was told in the “The Girlhood of Valda“.
She was an interesting character, and her original inspiration may have been from a boys comic strip from the 1940s “The Truth about Wilson” in The Wizard, which had some similarities. Obviously she was quite popular character, and is well remembered. She appeared in a lot of the annuals and in the 2002 annual she was updated with a more cartoony and superhero look.
Click the following link for: full list of stories
Plot
In Austria a mysterious stranger interrupts a skating competition, she jumps into the ice rink, skates beautifully accompanied by an eerie music. She asks the judges to mark her performance. A man objects that this stranger is not an entrant but she uses her mental influence to get the judges to mark her. She gets top marks, and she tells the objectors that she is Valda and she is not interested in being named winner, just in testing her skill. When she leaves the two men follow her back up the mountains. She stops them and tells them they won’t be able to follow her any more. She jumps a large ravine and disappears from sight as she enters her cave. She practices skating again, but finds herself feeling tired. She bathes in the blue flames of life and is restored.
Valda continues to enter in ice skating contests to prove her skill, and many people are intrigued by her. At one contest she says that she doesn’t want any prize but if it’s money to give it to a hospital, St. Griseide. A man realises that’s a hospital that shut down a hundred years ago and wonders how a young girl like her, would think it was still opened. Along her way to another competition she helps some men who were buried in an avalanche, when the rescue party arrive she refuses their help and continues on to the competition. She is just finishing her performance when she collapses. They take her onto a helicopter to bring her to a hospital. She wakes up in the helicopter when it is passing over the mountains and she tells them she can’t go to hospital but thanks them for their help and jumps from the helicopter. She reaches her cave in time to restore her strength.
As she enters more competitions, people began to question, where she has come from and acknowledge that there is something strange about her. Irena Petrova a mid-European champion, is competing in one such contest that she thinks she is sure to succeed, but her coach warns her that Valda has entered. Irena has heard of rumours of Valda but she doesn’t think that a person who won’t reveal anything about herself should be allowed to enter. Valda arrives late to the competition due to a road blockage forcing her to skate to the town. After its clear that Valda has won, Irena demands that she be examined by a doctor as no normal person could skate for miles and not be worn out. She thinks she must be sustained by some drug but the doctor finds no evidence of drugs, although he is surprised that her heart beat is strong but beats at a very slow rate.
At one competition, 2 men rob the box office, Valda stops one man but another gets away. He escapes to mountains and later spotting a tired Valda bathing in her flames, sees her restored. He enters the flames himself thinking it will do the same for him, and Valda’s warning comes to late. The flames magic does not work for him instead it ages and kills him. Valda continues to move up in rankings. When a competition takes her away from her cave for a few days she reserves her energy by arriving in a refrigerated box full of ice. Later she meets an old woman, the one skater to beat her, Anna Brandt. She is near the end of her life and Valda offers her the chance to restore her youth and skate one last time. Valda brings a judge who crowns Valda the victor, and Anna dies happy to have been given a chance to skate again. As with all that she shows her cave to she makes the judge forget the incident.
When Valda is challenged by Irma Schweck, a proud Slavonian, Valda refuses and advises Irma to give up skating. Insulted Irma and two of her companions follow Valda up the mountains and take her to frozen lake, insisting she take on the challenge and they will film it. Valda is weakened from being away from flame so long, but skates her best as does Irma. It proves too much for Irma as she collapses and dies, as Valda feared when she warned her to give of ice skating, she had sensed a weakness in her and knew she would not be able to take the strain. Valda also weakened collapses and the men also think her dead, they take Irma’s body but leave Valda. Valda is helped by some goat friends to get to her cave and to the Fire of Life.
People are getting more curious about the mysterious Valda, when she mentions getting flowers for the memory of great teacher, they are confused to see her lay them on the grave of a scientist Wilhelm Koenig, who died in 1817! Meanwhile Valda starts to think about a successor, she chooses two girls Ilse and Heidi as potential candidates. She sees good qualities in both girls and brings them to the mountains to test them. Heidi in the end is chosen as her successor, and her training goes well, until Valda discovers a photo of a friend Rudi. She realises that Heidi has connections in the world and is not the right one for the isolated life she lives. She trusts her with the secrets she learned, but lets her go back to her life.
Valda finally gets her chance to skate against the world champion Ingrid Larson. Ingrid seems conceited, she doesn’t bother with anyone she thinks would waste her time. She brushes pass an old lady who wants to talk to her. Valda stops to helps the woman who is obviously unwell. Valda recognises the woman as an ice skater named Eva. Eva also recognises Valda but doesn’t know how its possible as she saw her beat the world ice skating champion fifty years ago. The woman is too ill and weak to question this any further and Valda pulls her on a sled to a hospital. On her return she challenges Ingrid to a contest but she has exhausted her strength pulling the sled and suddenly feels weak. Ingrid dismisses her, challenge due to her obvious weakness. Back at the cave Valda recovers and looks through her old chest containing photos past skaters that she has beaten.
Valda once again shows of her ice skating skills to prove to Ingrid she is a worthy challenger. When she comes down the mountains to meet up with Ingrid, she is arrested for crossing the border without papers. She breaks out of jail by bending the window bars, but is not able to face Ingrid until she regains her strength. Later she uses a television crew to get the attention of Ingrid. With it all over the news Ingrid must accept her challenge. She sends her friend Franz to research Valda. While trying to track her on the mountains he falls and Valda rescues him. She takes him to her cave to care for him and he pretends to be asleep but he later he sees her bathing in the fire of life. Valda returns him to the village and he still pretends to be unconscious but the moment he gets a chance, Franz tells Ingrid what he saw. But she believes he is still concussed and doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
Ingrid skates her best but she is no match for Valda. Franz tries to help her by distracting her with a camera but Ingrid tries to stops him as she wants to win fairly. The camera drops on the ice but Valda is quick to clear it with a handspring. Ingrid admits defeat gracefully, Valda hands back the title to her, now she is satisfied she has tested herself against the best. She returns home but Franz leads some reporters to the cave. Valda says goodbye to them, then she walks into the flames and she disappears and the fire goes out. The group just make it outside before an avalanche buries the cave. They muse that they will never learn the truth about Valda and wonder if she will turn up in a another time and place.
Valda was a favourite character of mine, she was always engaging and just a very cool character. She had lots of different adventures, an interesting background, impressive powers and her stories weren’t repetitive. I think she is a character that would still do well today and could appeal to a lot of people. She is otherworldly and powerful, but she also has weaknesses. In some stories she shows the burden of a long life being a lonely one and of course there is times where she is physically drained and there is the possibility of death if she can’t bathe in the flames of life. In later stories this is shown more as she begins to age drastically as she weakens. In this first story while she does look tired and weaker when she uses too much of her powers, she doesn’t look old like she will in other stories.
Her first appearance isn’t the best of her stories, in my opinion (“The Girlhood..” and “The Return of…” would be two of favourites) but it is still good. She got more development as time went on and I prefer the more adventure/lost world stories, than stories of her competing in sports. Interesting that in this story Irena thinks she may be using drugs to sustain her, this is not true but Valda does have an unfair advantage. The fire of life is like a drug making her stronger and giving her quick reflexes and an ability to leap great lengths. Not to mention that Valda has the advantage of having 200 years of practice.! This is meant to be okay only because she doesn’t take the title of winner and only does this to test her skills. So I think her other adventures are more noble and heroic! Not that she doesn’t show compassion and risks her life to help people in this story, its just that her main motivation is skating against a world champion.
Still if this had been her only appearance it would still be a satisfying story. A mysterious young girl, who lives in the mountain, challenging some arrogant skating champions to contests. We find out early that she gains strength from a fire in the mountain, and there are hints of how old she really is. As time goes by we find out more about her yet still know nothing of where she comes from. She arrives and wins contests only to reject all prizes and disappear into the mountain again. Valda seems to stand apart being mysterious, even eerie at times. Yet she still engages with people by being compassionate and helping them when needed. Ingrid, as the world champion actually gets some character development, (for the few issues she’s in) after starting out quite conceited she is a gracious loser when the time comes.
The art is by the talented Dudley Wynne, and he really does a good job at capturing Valda as the mysterious and beautiful girl. He displays her weakened state convincingly, though like I said later stories would show her more aged. I have little knowledge of ice skating, but these girls do look skilled and talented. I also like her skating outfit, she more commonly wore a lighter sleeveless dress, The mountains, the village and the cold atmosphere, the shadowy cave are all well drawn too.
Later stories have the fire of life in different places, allowing Valda to have adventures in different places. I haven’t read every Valda story, but I think there may be some continuity issues, such as what powers Valda can use, or the location of the fire, but that still doesn’t take away from the enjoyment of the stories. Valda is a very enduring character and one that really stands out in the history of girls comics.
Plot
The Honourable Sarah Jane Cheetwell, is a nasty cheater and blackmailer but she fools most people into thinking she is really nice person. Ann Smith meets S.J. while waiting for a train to her new school. She is one of the few girls to have ever received a scholarship to the Millford boarding school and a reporter is interested in doing a news paper piece on her because of this. On mentioning that Ann’s father works for Lord Cheetwell, S.J. butts in and gets her picture taken with Ann. She offers to help Ann settle in at school, but as soon as they are in the train away from the reporter and Mrs. Smith, S.J. is quick to abandon Ann. She is left standing in the corridor while S.J. and her friends take over the compartment. Ann sees S.J. cheating at a game of cards and S.J. soon threatens Ann to keep her mouth shut as she could get her family thrown out of their cottage and her father sacked. So it doesn’t take Ann long to see S.J.’s true colours
Ann’s a junior and thinks maybe she won’t have to see S.J much but unluckily for her she is assigned as S.J.’s helper (nicknamed Sprogs at the school). S.J. is everyone’s favourite prefect, one of Ann’s clasmates Bessie thinks Ann is lucky to be S.J.’s Sprog. Of course S.J. makes Ann do extra work and also uses her to take the blame for things she does. When a dodgy friend of S.J. blackmails her for money, she takes it from a charity collection and blames Ann for stealing it. Luckily for Ann the boy is caught by the gardener and he gets the money back. S.J. makes sure there’s no further questioning, she creates a distraction by fainting, giving him time to escape.
S.J.’s goal for the year is to become school captain and she is not going to let anyone upset her plans. When out for a hike S.J. slips pulling another girl, Laura (a captain nominee), down with her. She saves herself and lets Laura fall, and as everyone is blind to S.J.’s lies, they believe that she tried to save Laura after she slipped. She isn’t happy when Laura’s boyfriend, Tony, not only gives her the cold shoulder but tries to find out what really happened on the hike. She frames him with stealing her necklace in front of the other girls but doesn’t report him. Tony still won’t back down, and S.J. continues to cause trouble for him by pretending he made her horse rear up. Of course Ann believes Tony but can’t say anything for fear of her family.
Ann is happy to see S.J. has outsmarted herself by pretending to be hurt, she won’t be able to take part in a gymkhana. Of course S.J. doesn’t give up that easy and makes a hoax phone call for Mary, her replacement, to be called away. Ann tries to fix it but in a rush Mary trips on the stairs. S.J. blames Ann for hoax in a “kindly” way, saying Ann was disappointed for S.J. and had made the hoax call but then felt guilty. One of the teachers, Miss Norton, is suspicious of this story. S.J. isn’t too happy that Miss Norton is keeping a close eye on her, so she has to get rid of her. S.J. gets her father’s influence at another school to hire her as a Headteacher. Miss Webb comes as Miss Norton’s replacement and she is perfect for S.J. as she is impressed by money and people’s titles. When S.J. gets Webb an invitation to her home she follows it by emphasising how much she wants to win a swimming competition. Miss Webb takes the hint and overlooks her turning short at one point. Ann notices it though and she implies that Bessie may have caught it with her video camera, even though she knows she only videoed the other end of the pool. This makes Miss Webb nervous and S.J. “accidently” knocks Bessie and her camera into the pool. and lets Webb knows she knows.
S.J. continues to use Miss Webb to her advantage whenever she can. She continues to scheme although she doesn’t always come up on top, she tries scamming an old woman out of a valuable paperweight paying £5 for it but then it turns out it’s worthless. Bessie also continues to be S.J.’s biggest fan and helps her campaign for school captain. Meanwhile Lord Cheetwell fires Ann’s father so S.J. loses her power over Ann and isn’t too happy that a newspaper report about the incident may jeopardise her election chance. Of course S.J. has still charmed everyone so they believe her when she says it is all a misunderstanding. She is a bit anxious about her rival Sue so in order to hurt Sue’s campaign, S.J. spray paints Sue for captain defacing property. She also intends to get Ann into trouble be blaming her. Leading everyone to Ann’s locker they see the spray-paint in Ann’s locker. But Bessie speaks up saying she saw S.J. put the can there. S.J. leaves Millford and more good news for Ann as her father has a new job with housing. It ends with Ann being glad of a fresh start and being rid of Cheetwell family forever. Little did she know!
Unfortunately for Ann she keeps running into S.J. after this, at different schools and the cycle repeats. When the Millford School is destroyed in a fire Ann is transferred to Castlefield School, only to find S.J. on top form there. S.J. manages to get rid of another old Millford student, Mary, before she sees her and blames it on Ann. As Ann has only accepted as a trial student, S.J. uses this to keep Ann’s mouth shut about Millford. . But knowing that she needs a stronger hold over her, S.J. tricks Ann into going out of bounds and takes a photo of her at a disco. Again everyone thinks she is great and only Ann knows the real S.J. There are similar plots to the first story like the matron becoming suspicious of her then suddenly getting better job else where. There is also another instance of a girl falling and hurting herself because of S.J. She is also looking to win something this time its a Popularity cup rather than captain.
On parents day S.J. makes sure Ann doesn’t invite her parents so she won’t get recognised. Although Mary has returned for the day and spots S.J and begins to think maybe she’s being blaming the wrong person. S.J still thinks Ann might make things difficult for her, so she starts getting her in trouble. When the Head tells her the trial hasn’t worked out the Smiths come to pick Ann up, They see S.J. there and at the same time Mary’s parents have rung to tell the head about S.J. So once her actions are revealed and she has to leave the school.
Later Ann takes a domestic job at an exclusive Switzerland school. She finds S.J. is the head girl there and responsible for domestic staff. Again most people think she is great but she has been blackmailing one girl. Gretchen took some old pies home that were going to be thrown out and now S.J. keeps her scared. S.J. has threatened to get Ann sacked and her parents would have to repay the costly airway price. But Ann isn’t so easily pushed around any more and sets out to find away to expose S.J. She also convinces Gretchen to team up with her. S.J is up to her usual tricks; sneaking out to parties, her and her cousin Rodney try to steal a necklace and she tries to steal a watch during a school trip. Ann and Gretchen manage to get the upper hand at times. Again a staff member gets suspicious of her but S.J. manages to get the matron dismissed. Eventually she is exposed yet again.
Thoughts
These were not the only S.J. stories, there was another sequel titled “Is It?” and prequels “Young S.J.” which I’ll get to another time. So as a character, she had a long run. From the structure and ending of the first story it seems that “The Honourable S.J.” should have been a one time serial but obviously it proved so popular that she became a regular character.
There have been plenty of serials with nasty characters like S.J. so I do wonder why she was chosen to become a regular. She was tag lined in later stories as “the girl you love to hate” so there must be interest in following such a character and presumably cheer at her inevitable downfall. S.J. covers every negative characteristic you can think of she’s a snob, selfish, greedy, lazy, two-faced, sly, mean and vindictive. Still she doesn’t come across as one dimensional, her motivations given her character makes sense and clearly a lot of her behaviour seems to be genetic or influenced by her father and cousin Rodney!
As for Ann I think she made for an interesting protagonist. There is an actual development of the character as she gets older. In the first story she feels quite trapped by S.J. but there was times she tried to foil her plans, as time goes on by the third story she is far more active in keeping an eye on S.J. and trying to expose her. Her character gets stronger in time, she isn’t a pushover in later stories and she is quite smart at spoiling S.J.’s plans. I always thought that Ann also had a bit of a wry sense of humour. When the other girls would go on about how great S.J. was her expression isn’t one of misery its more of pitying their naivety. Also even though S.J. made things tough for Ann and I wouldn’t call her time at school overly pleasant, she was still never completely miserable. Ann had friends, enjoyed school activities and especially got satisfaction out of seeing S.J.’s plans not going right. So it wasn’t all doom in gloom.
The second story in particular seemed to thread familiar ground, but I do think there was enough in future stories to keep it fresh. S.J. was impressive at turning situations to her advantage and like I said as time went on Ann became a more active opponent for S.J. I liked that in the third story that Ann had an ally in Gretchen. She starts off quite meek but with Ann as a friend she becomes more confident, it was nice to see Ann being able to have someone to confide in. It can be amusing watching S.J. at times, she wants all this popularity but sometimes this backfires on her like when she wants to sneak away at the ice rink but all the younger students won’t leave her alone. Also what makes S.J. interesting is she never had just one scheme going. She usually had an ultimate goal like wanting to be school captain, but all her time isn’t devoted that, she also sneaks off to parties, tries to steal things and tries to get out of any boring jobs or hard work. This keeps the story more appealing. The art is also good throughout, there’s some great detail put in and the characters do actually start to look older in later serials.
When Judy ended and became part of the new comic Mandy & Judy the first classic story they printed was The Honourable S.J. In preperation for this the last Judy issue had a prequel story. It takes place in the holidays before Ann starts the school. S.J.’ s aunt has given her a horse Brandy and she also hires a girl Rosie to help. S.J. enjoys riding but has no intention of mucking out. A film crew are using the Cheetwell’s property at the time as well and are looking for an extra to take part. The director sets up a competition to choose the best rider. S.J. threatens Rosie to help her cheat as she is a better rider. Rosie then finds out that she is no longer reliant on the Cheetwell’s job, so tells the director the truth. S.J.’s father comes home from his trip in America complaining about his employee’s daughter has won a scholarship. He doesn’t think lower classes should be allowed mix. Alhough S.J sees there could be some advantage. Presumably part of the reason for this story was to encourage readers to buy the new comic.
The next page has a list of published Hounouable S.J. stories.
Chris Johnson is a residential nurse at an under-fives nursery. She is a dedicated nanny and a good problem solver. In her job she encounters a variety problems, such as a girl that’s missing her mum and won’t play with the other kids, or the girl who decides to go on a mission to save all snails or the boy who likes to play with fire. Usually after a few failed attempts at trying to solve the problem, someone will say something to inspire Chris to come up with a final solution.
While the kids change week to week, there are other regular characters. The Matron that runs the home, is fair and very willing to listen to her staff’s ideas. Chris is good friends with the other residential nurse, Anne Martin, they talk over problems with the children as well as general life issues too. She also has a boyfriend, Andrew Hamilton, who is a student that lives next door. Andrew is always very helpful with the nursery and also provides Chris with a life outside of work.
In the first few episodes of Junior Nanny her name is said to be Chris Thomson not Johnson, she also is 16 and is taking a 2 year training course, for nursery nurse certificate. She begins her work at a day nursery rather than a residential one. The first serial covers her first year of training and she proves herself to be resourceful and well liked from the start.
Thoughts
There are many stories focused on career girls and nursing was a popular choice; Bunty had Katy O’Connor, Judy had Fay Farrell and Val of the Valley. While nurses like Fay Farrell changed specialty every few weeks (she was an army nurse, school nurse and fisherman’s nurse to name a few!), Chris Johnson stuck to one specialty, as a nursery nurse. One disadvantage of staying in the one place, is that things could get repetitive, story-wise. At any one time there seemed to be usually around 10-12 kids in residence, but there must of been a high turnover because there is always enough new kids coming with new problems.
This like I said this could get repetitive; kid has a problem (or causes a problem), Chris, Anne or Andrew try out some ideas to solve it, fail, then Chris comes up with the solution. Very few story-lines strayed away from this formula. One that did was a story where Andrew is being snappy with Chris as he’s worried about up-coming exams. Chris tries to be patient with him and also not take her annoyance out on the kids. But Matron, points out she is being too over compensating, the kids are confused that Chris is letting them get away with being naughty. Chris takes the advice of Matron and gets back to normal and also has it out with Andrew, clearing the air.
The kids situations were usually varied enough to prevent it from getting too dull, there was often a mix of humour and sadness. There’s the energetic kid Dennis waking up everyone at 4 in the morning. They convince Dennis, to be their alarm bell, when he wakes up he has to watch the clock until it turns 6 and then wake Chris and Anne up. This early waking is just a phase though and Chris and Anne end up sleeping in after becoming too reliant on Dennis waking them up! In one story, a boy develops a fear of traffic after seeing someone get knocked down by a car. In another a boy David turns 5 so he has to move to the “Big Home” down the street, he’s quite upset about this and understandably so. We don’t get any background on David, how he came to live at the nursery, whether he has any family etc. but from the information we do get it is clear that he considers Larch House his home. Chris tries inviting some ‘big’ boys to play but David’s scared of them. The problem is solved when Chris makes David long pants, so he feels like a big boy and more confident in joining the Big House. When a girl Florrie, tries to play at nurse she causes more trouble be “helping”. Chris gets the idea when Florrie doesn’t want to get her nails cut, to take her to children’s hospital to talk to the nurses there. Florrie is not happy to hear how clean nurses are expected to be with nails clipped, washing hair twice a week and baths every day. Chris is happy that puts Florrie off the idea of being a nurse but backfires when Florrie decides her next profession is to be a coalman!
Junior Nanny had a long run in Judy and reprints in M&J, but overall there isn’t too much to say about the stories as like I said it stuck to a formula. This formula was used in plenty of other story settings too, career girls that every week solved a problem with their bright innovative ideas (Big Sister, Community Nurse, Anna-Junior Miss). Yet despite this Junior Nanny is still one of my favourite characters. This could be because it is drawn by one of my favourite artists. Like I mentioned before, Passingham, was good at spooky/horror stories but he was quite versatile and could portray comedy and drama just as well. Probably a big clincher for me, is how cute the kids are. They often are portrayed with big innocent eyes, and when they get upset when they can’t do something, its not usually because they are spoilt but because they genuinely don’t know why they are not allowed to do it. Again while things didn’t change much, there was enough variety in the kids stories to keep it entertaining.
I also liked the supporting cast, Anne and Matron were good as confidantes, though at times you’d think Chris could let them have the successful idea! Chris’s passion and empathy for the kids was a big part of the character. Though she is not perfect, sometimes her dedication to her job was actually more of a flaw. If she was worried about kid she wouldn’t sleep well and barely let Anne take a problem case on instead. She could sometimes take her frustrations out on Andrew as well. Andrew as her boyfriend was fun, helpful and generous. Though sometimes he did cause some problems such as reading a story that upsets a kid! Also I may be just reading too much into this as I’m older, but there seems to be some very suggestive comments going on, when he talks to Chris at times. It was good to see Chris having a life outside of work and it rounded out her character more.
Other Appearances:
Annual Appearances
Summer Specials
Picture Story Library
*Note
In Victorian times Charity Barton and her young brother Billy are taken in by one of their neighbours, Mrs. Drabble, after they are orphaned. Although she works them hard Charity believes she must be kind as she has given them a home. Charity intends to sell her mother’s wedding ring so she can carry out Billy’s wish of visiting the seaside. Mrs. Drabble offers to sell the ring for her and send Billy to a seaside home for the Summer. Charity is grateful for Mrs Drabble’s help until she later overhears her plans to send Billy to a workhouse and keep Charity on as a cheap servant. Mrs. Drabble is already enjoying the money she got from the pawned ring at this stage as well.
Charity is upset by her heartlessness, and she and Billy runaway. She is determined to get Billy to the seaside but to never trust in people’s kindness again. On their journey they meet people who seem to want to help but through misunderstandings, Charity believes they are only using them and are deceitful. In one instance a couple take her and Billy in, but then Charity overhears the couple talking about a plan and that her and Billy should make a good impression on Aunt Lucy. She believes they are being used to get a rich older relative’s money. In actuality the Langtons were hoping Aunt Lucy would like the two children and take them to her home by the sea and that they would be good company for the lonely woman.
Usually Charity leaves before these misunderstandings are cleared up. This not only ruins her chances but also at times lets the people who tried to help her in bad situations. Such as a blind man losing his cherished dog. Charity has to accept help from a young school mistress when she hurts her ankle. She believes that Miss Ellen is only concerned with herself and is ready to move on again when she comes across a student, Sam, beaten up. She confronts Miss Ellen about this, thinking she made Sam go against his father’s wishes just so she had her best student at an inspection. But she is soon put right by Hannah (Miss Ellen’s older helper). Sam was going to be put to work as a chimney sweep and Miss Ellen has arranged an education grant for him through the inspector. Charity realises her mistake and is upset as she begins to think there have been other people she misjudged and acted coldly towards.
Miss Ellen’s kindness continues as she rents a cottage for them at the seaside for a month. The first day is wonderful for Billy and Charity thinks the sea air has done him well as there is colour in his cheeks. Only Hannah recognises it as a flush of fever. That night Billy dies he is later buried by the seaside. Charity has learned a lot from Miss Ellen and she goes on to become a nurse in a children’s hospital.
The phrase as cold as charity isn’t something I come across regularly nowadays, but it is fitting with the Victorian setting. I don’t know the exact origin of the saying but I would guess its around the time, Cringe Or Starve was a nickname for Charity Organisation Society. The title/saying is referenced a lot throughout the story, mostly by people referencing Charity Barton in a bad light. But even in the end when she’s changed it is referenced with Charity being the opposite of cold. These stories liked emphasising the titles a lot (especially if the character’s name was fitting with a clever pun/phrase).
Tragic stories another popular plot for these comics. Of course the best setting for these tragedies was often the Victorian era, with children having to stay out of workhouses, poverty or deal with poor working conditions and cruel employers. Charity comes across many situations that in other stories she would have been right to assume the worse; underhand people using children to get money out of a rich older relative or using a sick child to get sympathy when selling things etc. Other than Mrs. Drabble, they do come across some troublesome people. In one instance, Charity upsets some boys, who get their revenge by messing up their chance of a boat passage. Of course Charity wrongly assumes that the fault is of the woman who promised to put in a word with the captain, and this again reinforces her idea not to rely anyone’s supposed kindness. Why people keep helping her even with her coldness is because they can see goodness in her as well, particularly as she is so protective and caring for her brother.
It is tragic that Charity and Billy suffer many needless hardships because Charity has lost her trust in people. But it also hard on the people who helped her and she betrayed. For example a bunch of runaways get carried off to a workhouse, as she believes the leader is running a scam and gives them up to the police to save herself. The gang sell matchboxes on the street and the leader Tom gets majority of the money. He is actually keeping money aside so he can buy everyone shoes, though one kid tries to run a scam selling half full boxes. Charity believes Tom is responsible for the half boxes and is keeping money for himself.
The “happy” ending is Charity becomes a compassionate nurse and Billy got his one day at the seaside. It is still harsh that they have a cottage booked for a month and Billy only gets one day there, even if it is the best day ever. There’s some great art throughout, Charity and Billy meet a lot of people on their journey and they each have a distinctive look, the crowded busy town streets are vibrant and the seaside is peaceful in comparison. There’s great detail put in to capture the era. It’s a good story, it can be frustrating that Charity keeps making the same mistakes, but she has a reason to be cautious and distrustful after being betrayed. While the situations could have become repetitive, each character and situation are distinct enough to keep interest.
Plot
Danni Johnson, enjoys bullying and having people scared of her. One thing she doesn’t like is that the teachers’ know she is a troublemaker, so she misses out on trips because she can’t be trusted. When her family move to a new town, she decides to try out a new tactic. She pretends to be sweet and nice, then starts choosing people to bully in secret. Danni is good at sizing up who to target, and soon she has 3 girls, Sharon, Marion and Lorna, under her control.
There is another bully at the school, Carla, but she is considered small time by Dani. Her other new “friends” have had enough of Carla bullying first years and report her. One of the girls brings a tape recorder to school as well so they can catch Carla out if she tries any more bulling. They are surprised to hear Dani is the one threatening Carla, she has decided that she will be her new victim. It is then that the 3 girls admit that they are terrified of Danni. The girls all go to report the bullying to the head. Danni finds things worse than her old school now. The teachers know she is trouble and she has lost power over all the girls
Thoughts
So continuing on with the theme of bullies, this is a more unusual approach, to have the narrator the bully herself. Danni is devious and shows no regret for the things she did. 
Even at the end she isn’t upset that she is left on her own but that she hasn’t power over people. There doesn’t seem to be any particular reason behind her bullying. What little we see of her home life it seems fine, her mother seems pleasant, though we never see her father. Her motive just seems to be down to her own preference of liking to frighten people and being in control.
It is interesting in seeing her thought process of how she picks out her victims. She picks girl’s she perceives as weak, and reinforces the idea that if the tell anyone things will be worse for them . Also by keeping it secret this singles the girls out so they don’t know that anyone else is having a similar experience, and have no support. Of course to Danni’s mind keeping it secret also has the advantage of not being under suspicion from teachers or others.
The ending is quite effective, instead of having her expelled and just move onto a new school, she is left there alone and powerless. The girls that were bullied also wish they’d said something sooner, which reinforces the message of telling someone if you are being bullied.