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FAQ:
- Where can I buy these comics?
- This is just a fansite I like to talk about these comics but I don’t sell comics on this site. There are a few places that you can find these comics, the big places are ebay and London shop 30th century comic. Check out their website here. There are a few other specialist shops, car boot sales and websites that you may get lucky with too.
- I’m looking for the name of a story?
- Happy to help if I can, but good to note the more detail you can give the better, even if its just when you would have read the story. For example “A talented girl that is mistreated by cruel relatives” could be the plot summary for many stories! The comics uk forum is also full of helpful people: http://comicsuk.co.uk/forum/index.php as well as facebook groups like “Girls Comics – UK”.
Thank you, Lorraine, for texting me your address as a PM to Comics UK. I will be taking the package containing the well-protected PSLFG item featuring the Four Marys to my local Post Office tomorrow morning. Please let me know on this platform when it arrives.
Hi Derek,
The Four Marys book arrived today, thank you very much. After a very busy day, it’s much appreciated!
Thank you, Lorraine, for confirming its safe delivery.
Hello – I’m looking for a specific story. I want to buy it for my sister – she and I both loved this story when we were young.
It’s a Four Marys story in a Bunty Annual, possibly 1966 or a little before or after that. The story is an adventure which ends in the wedding of a teacher who is wearing a big wedding dress possibly coloured pink. If I can nail down which Bunty Annual this story is in I can try to buy it on another site.
Many thanks, Fran.
There is a story which fills the bill in the 1985 Annual. A mystery young man goes to great lengths to steal a photo which Raddy accidentally took of him as part of a school competition. It turns out that he is the brother of one of the St Elmo teachers who is about to get married. He wants his appearance at the wedding to be a surprise for her, so he steals the photo which might have let her know that he was in the area. The wedding dress is yellow rather than pink.
Does this sound like the one? There is no suitable candidate in any earlier annual. You can see a scan of the beginning of the story here:
http://girlscomicsofyesterday.com/2013/10/bunty-annual-1985/
Happy to post a scan of the wedding scene here if that would help.
Hello – this is very kind of you. Unfortunately my sister and I are in our 60s so we had definitely grown out of Bunty by 1985! Thank you so much for looking though. Kind regards, Fran.
I’ve checked all the Bunty Annuals for the 1960’s again, and there is no story (Four Marys or otherwise) involving the wedding of a teacher. I’ve also checked the Bunty Summer Specials for 1965, 1967, 1968 and 1969 – again, no joy.
Was this definitely a Four Marys story? If so, could it have been in one of the weekly comics rather than an annual?
Hi – wow this is so very kind of you to go to so much trouble. My sister was convinced it was a Four Marys. However I also recall getting School Friend Annuals so maybe it was that one. I have the 1966 School Friend Annual and it’s not that one. This is a mystery. 🙂
Many thanks again.
No trouble at all, Fran, but I’m not having much luck I’m afraid. I’ve checked the School Friend Annuals for the 1960’s and again found nothing. It seems that stories about teachers getting married are rather less common around this time than I thought.
One other possibility occurred to me. Did you and your sister ever get picture library stories? There was a June & School Friend Picture Library called “School Romance”, published in May 1966. A teacher is due to get married to a man who has just started at the school as science master, but the marriage is postponed when it turns out that he is suspected of a robbery at his previous school. Two of the girls find the thief and clear his name, and we do get a final panel of the wedding with the bride in a posh dress, but as this is a picture library, the image is not in colour.
Could this perhaps be the one? If not, I’m happy to keep looking if you can provide any further clues.
Hi – it may well be this one, sounds familiar. When you say a posh dress was it very princess bride-ish? Is there any way of finding and buying this publication that you know of?
Many thanks – again. Fran
I don’t know that you could call the dress princess bride-ish – it’s not really elaborate enough. However, there is quite a bit in the story about the dress (buying material etc). Here are scans of the first and last two pages of the story. Hopefully you can tell from these whether or not this is the right one:
https://i.imgur.com/GXzwwbh.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/EonGx6c.jpg
The story was published twice, both times under the name “School Romance”:
Schoolgirls Picture Library #82
June and School Friend Picture Library #359
Copies turn up on eBay occasionally. The other place to check is 30th Century Comics, and I see that their catalogue has a couple of copies of Schoolgirls PL 82 at present, although you would have to check with them that they still have it:
http://30thcenturycomics.co.uk/catalogue-index/girls-picture-libraries/
Hope this helps.
Sorry for the delay in replying, Fran. I posted a reply last night, but its appearance seems to have been delayed by the website’s spam filter – probably because it contained links. Hopefully it’ll appear soon.
As my reply still hasn’t surfaced, I’ll try it again, sending the links separately.
I don’t know that you could call the dress princess bride-ish – it’s not really elaborate enough. However, there is quite a bit in the story about the dress (buying material etc). I try to send links to scans of the first and last two pages of the story in the next post. Hopefully you can tell from these whether or not this is the right one.
The story was published twice, both times under the name “School Romance”:
Schoolgirls Picture Library #82
June and School Friend Picture Library #359
Copies turn up on eBay occasionally. The other place to check is 30th Century Comics, and I see that their online catalogue has a couple of copies of Schoolgirls PL 82 at present, although you would have to check with them that they still have it.
Here’s the link to the last two pages of the story:
https://i.imgur.com/EonGx6c.jpg
And here’s the link to the first page:
https://i.imgur.com/GXzwwbh.jpg
Another puzzle. I have a 1978 Dutch translation from 1977’s Judy. The title is “Het spook van Mandalay”, which translates roughly as “The Ghost (or Spectre) of Mandalay”. It starts in 1814, when a horse rescues an officer fighting in the Napoleonic Wars. He, sir James, takes the horse home to his daughter Jenny. Even when the horse dies, it keeps watch over the Manderlay mansion, even when it is turned into a girls’ school, and centuries pass…
Any suggestions?
Regards,
Ramon
‘The Ghost Of Manderlay’ ran in JUDY 858 (June 19 1976) – 869 (September 4 1976). The only other serial to start in that issue, Ramon, was ‘The Midgees’. ‘Wee Slavey’ and ‘Climbing Rose’ had both ended in 857.
Excellent, Derek! Thank you very much!
Regards,
Ramon
Thank you for letting me know. I have looked at the list of Bunty stories on this site and Looking After Lois is listed. Upon looking at the page about the story, I’m not sure if Lois was a foreign exchange student or not, but a British family looked after her while her mum searched for a new home in the U.K.
My reply to the above comment, April, which clarifies the ‘foreign exchange student’ issue, can be found under ‘Looking After Lois’ in the STORIES section.
Hi all!
Hoping to use the hive mind once more to find a Dutch reprint of UK origin.
This time, a one-pager humor feature: a young girl (shades of Beryl the Peril and so on) has a large mutt of a dog. The dog and her father do not get along.
It originally ran in Judy and in Dutch is called “Beppie en Benno”. Beppie is short for Elisabeth, Benno is a typical dog’s name.
Any takers?
Regards,
Ramon
Sounds like Big ‘n’ Bertha which had a long run in Judy comic and annuals
http://girlscomicsofyesterday.com/2014/12/big-n-bertha/
Yes, that’s them alright! Thanks!!
Another one: translated as “Eenzame Shirley” (“Lonely Shirley”) from Judy #1179-1184 (1982), we have a story about a teen orphaned girl being adopted by her aunt and uncle. Her cousin, their daughter, starts to sabotage the adoption.
Any clue?
Regards,
Ramon
It just falls into one of those gaps in my collection I have Judy #1169 and next issue I have is #1185
The serial that you are seeking, Ramon, is “I Won’t Share With Shirley!”. The girl with the wealthy relatives is Joan Turner, Shirley’s cousin. In the first panel of the opening instalment the three of them turn up at what seems to be an orphanage and are welcomed by the housemother, Mrs Bewley. Mrs Turner tells Mrs Bewley that they are Shirley’s only relatives, and that everything is ready for her at their home. Although accepting that as a given, Mrs Bewley goes on to point out that Shirley has had a hard life, and while sure that the Turners will do everything possible for Shirley, considers it necessary that they sould meet her before committing themselves. Mr Turner says that if she’s nervous and shy, they would teach her to have confidence. As Mrs Bewley opens the door, they all see Shirley grabbing a taller girl by her shoulders and saying “I’ll shake your teeth out!” Mrs Turner introduces herself by saying “I’m your Auntie Marcia” and her husband says “And I’m Uncle Ben, your father’s brother”.
When the Turners get back with Shirley to what looks like a large detached property, they introduce her to their daughter, Joan, who asks Shirley what’s wrong as she doesn’t look happy. Neither of them know, or could even anticipate what comes next. Her bedroom is spacious, with large wardrobes, and even an armchair with a pouffe to rest her weary feet on. When Joan tells Shirley that she has a bath every evening, Shirley replies “So do I. I’m not exactly a savage!” Then something really unexpected happens. After Shirley has finished her bath, Joan goes back upstairs, puts the bath plug back in, turns the water on again, goes back down to the lounge, and sits down with her parents and Shirley. Shortly afterwards, water starts to come through the ceiling. Inevitably, Shirley is blamed, and told to check the bathroom before she leaves it. Shirley loses her rag, kicks a large basket, and says “I didn’t let the bath run over!”. In a thought bubble in the final panel, Joan’s thought is “I’ll get rid of her–I won’t share my life with Shirley”. Inevitably therefore, despite the kindness shown to Shirley by Joan’s parents, Joan maintains her campaign. Perhaps one further example will suffice. In the Rosedale garden centre, boxes of plants are being sold for £2 each, and a stack of leaflets are labelled ‘Free’. While Shirley is looking at some rakes and lawnmowers, Joan switches the labels, alerts Shirley, who then picks up one of the trays of plants, and walks out of the garden centre without paying for it. Later, when Shirley goes out into Joan’s garden to plant them, Joan’s mother asks her where she got the expensive plants from. Joan tells her that they were from the garden centre but that they were free. Joan’s mother promptly rings the Rosedale Garden Centre to ask if they are giving away boxes of plants today. When the answer is in the negative, she says to Shirley “I know you are lazy and disobedient! But I didn’t think you were also a liar and a thief! Admit it–you stole those plants!” Shirley vehemently denies it but to no avail. Her mother tells her to get into the car and with the tray of plants drives straight to the garden centre to return them and apologise for what seems to have been a misunderstanding. The salesman says that it couldn’t have been a misunderstanding because “The price is clearly marked. If this girl didn’t pay for the plants, then she’s stolen them”. A row then breaks out between Shirley and Joan because Joan won’t confirm her version of events, and instead claims that Shirley is too impulsive and should have asked someone before taking the plants.
Things start to get more difficult for Shirley when, after she accidentally pulls a tablecloth off the breakfast table in front of her mother and father, all the dishes cascade onto the floor. The problem then for Shirley is that in the light of recent events, Joan’s parents simply won’t believe that it WAS an accident, and Ben tells her that he and Marcia will have to talk seriously about her future. Shirley interprets this as meaning that they no longer want her. The mealy-mouthed Joan goes into Shirley’s bedroom to say how sorry she feels that “things haven’t turned out” but inwardly rejoicing because she thinks she’s won. Shirley then wonders, as she’s sitting up in bed, how it all went wrong. She knows she is quick-tempered and that her manners could be improved but also that she is not deliberately bad, and seems to have been doomed from the start. At breakfast the following morning Shirley tells Joan’s parents that she knows what they have decided, and that she wants to say that she really tried to please everybody, is sorry that she brought nothing but trouble, and would like to go back to the home as soon as possible. When Shirley and Joan went out later, they met some of Joan’s friends. Joan told them that Shirley would be leaving, and said “Offering her a home with us didn’t work out. Isn’t it sad?” Shirley doesn’t feel any need to comment. However, in the penultimate instalment, during a picnic outing in Parfield Park, all the girls went into a building that had been deserted for about 50 years, completely ignoring a ‘DANGER : KEEP OUT : DANGEROUS BUILDING’ notice and soon hear a creaking noise, indicating that the roof is collapsing. Everyone except Joan manages to get out, but Shirley goes back in to rescue Joan, who had been trapped under the falling rubble. During this time Joan undergoes a fundamental change, so much so that it is as if she has become an alter ego, which translates from Latin as ‘a different person’. While recovering in her hospital bed, the very first thing question she asks her visiting parents is “What’s happened to Shirley? Why won’t you tell me? What’s happened to her? She isn’t…Oh no!” When Joan’s parents leave the hospital, having told Joan that Shirley is there in the same hospital, recovering from her ordeal, albeit badly injured, Joan, suffering pangs of conscience because she realises, rather late in the day it must be admitted, that her best friend has suffered terrible pain due to risking her life to save her, so , she gets out of bed, puts on her dressing gown, and makes her way slowly to Shirley’s ward. The nurse refuses to let her in because Shirley is in intensive care, and isn’t conscious anyway. On the way back to her ward, Joan looks through a window at the sleeping Shirley and, starting to cry, she reminds herself that she did want to get rid of her, but not that way. The following morning Joan is allowed a brief visit to see Shirley, who seems very feeble, and can hardly speak. She manages to tell her friend that she will never forget what she did for her, and admits that she ‘owes her so much’. However, the doctor tells Joan’s parents that not only is Shirley not recovering as quickly as he had hoped, but what concerns him more is that she seems to have lost the will to live. Even when Mrs Turner tells Shirley that she can stay with them if she would like to do so, Shirley’s reaction is negative and defeatist because she is certain that nothing would improve, and everybody would still be blaming her. She believes that she doesn’t belong anywhere. The turning point occurs when the worm turns. Joan finally admits to Shirley in front of her own parents by the side of Shirley’s hospital bed, that she had been the instigator of all the nastiness, and the merely unpleasant, because she had not wanted to share her own home and family with Shirley in the first place. By the end or the story, when all is serene, Joan would surely insist on a change of the story title to “I WILL Share with Shirley”.
Incidentally, Ramon, this serial ends in issue 1185 (September 25 1982), not in 1184 as you state above.
A rewritten version of this story was also published, under the same title, in Bunty Picture Story Library 279 (July 1986).
Thanks for detailed summary Derek, I do have the last installment of story, but hadn’t checked because I thought story Ramon was looking for, finished earlier. I do remember the picture story library more, which was also reprinted in Bunty PSL 420 with shortened title “I Won’t Share”
Sorry to be pedantic, Lorrsadmin, but in case Ramon wants to note these details, the PSL reprint was #422.
Thanks for correction!
And yet another: from 1983’s Judy. Teen Ruth Miller is afraid of nothing and nobody. Her friends even call he “Ruth Lionheart” because of her courage. Until one day, when running on a distant hill, she has a vision of a Roman soldier being executed and she loses her nerve. From then on, she is the titular “Ruth Mouseheart” (“Ruth Muizenhart” in Dutch).
Anyone?
Regards,
Ramon
The title you are seeking, Ramon, is ‘Runaway Ruth’. It runs in JUDY 1201 (15 January 1983) – 1206 (19 February 1983).
In what Dutch title did the Dutch translation of Runaway Ruth appear please?
Just an update on BUNTY AND HER SISTERS. For many months I have had an arrangement with Deanprint Ltd of Stockport, Cheshire, to print the book, which I estimated would be ready by the end of March 2021. They contacted me yesterday to enquire if I would still be submitting the book by the end of this month. I had to tell them that I didn’t think I would have finished writing it until September at the earliest, and told them that under the circumstances I would understand if they were to feel obliged to requote for the job, and if they did, I would not object to any increase. In his reply, the Sales & Marketing Director, Jon Sherlock, said that they would have no problem pushing the job back, but when I am ready to submit, they would have to requote because from this month paper prices have risen by between 8 and 12%. However, although I will need to pay the extra, I will simply swallow it, and by so doing, I will definitely not be increasing the cover price that I have already quoted on GCOY, thus ensuring that you do not have hire a babysitter to put in any overtime at work!! STAY SAFE : PROTECT THE NHS : SAVE LIVES.
This is the first I hear of such a book, Derek, but now I can’t wait to get a copy! Can you let us know a bit more about what the contents will be?
Regards,
Ramon
For today, Ramon, could you please scroll back to the point when I first mentioned the book on this platform, which was on 26 November 2020 at 6.05 p.m. Tomorrow I will post the more detailed information that you are requesting.
Re: “I Won’t Share With Shirley!” Thanks all, this, as is the “Runaway Ruth” story, appears in Debbie super stripstory #18 (1987).
Once again, thank you for all the invaluable help with finding these!
Regards,
Ramon
Regarding your request yesterday, Ramon, about the content of BUNTY AND HER SISTERS, my intention is to provide a comprehensive INTRODUCTION covering the general content of all eleven DCT’s story titles for girls. The main body of the book is being devoted to summaries of all the serial stories that in my opinion are worth including. As I will be presenting them in alphabetical order, rather than in their actual sequence, which will, of course, save me a lot of time [I have already listed just under 3000 story titles in alphabetical order], there will be no need for a glossary at the end of the book. I will naturally need to reread all these serials, and after completing each one, I will immediately write the summary on an already-prepared discrete page in one of my Lever Arch Files. When I am completely happy that it covers all I need to say about the story, I will rewrite it on my computer. Obviously this is all going to take time, which is one reason why I am guessing that it will probably not be published before September. The other reason is that I have a couple more irons in the fire. The first iron is a futuristic football-themed novel to be called ‘Destined For Glory’, which will be set somewhere around 2180. As now here in England, there will be 20 teams in a ‘Premier League’, and 24 in a ‘Championship’. All the teams will be imaginary, as will all the players, managers, backroom staff, referees etc. I already have complete squad lists for all 44. The principal focus will be Ransfield City, a northern club fallen on hard times, very loosely based on Bolton Wanderers, the team I have supported since Adam was a lad. The fundamental inspiration for all this was my reading football serials in Thomsons’ text story papers for boys, Adventure, The Wizard, The Rover, and The Hotspur, which I first encountered at the age of 9. They were an absolute eye-opener. At that time clubs travelled to away games either by coach or train. In ‘Destined For Glory’ hypersonic transport, which will have led to a series of world leagues, will get the Australian team Burramere (imaginary) over to England to play Finchington (also imaginary) in less than half an hour.
The second iron is a book of short stories about a guy who has some kind of fall or accident and as a result suffers damage of some sort to his brain. When he comes to in hospital after surgery, he realises that he can access what people are thinking about. The basic title will be ‘THE THOUGHT READER’. I haven’t thought this concept through much further than this but broadly speaking I see it presenting its stories in a similar way to that adopted by Thomsons in their successful multi-volume DIXON HAWKE’S CASE BOOK series. Dixon Hawke was a fictional detective who, if I remember correctly, started life in one of DC Thomsons’ newspapers, but was later deemed appropriate for inclusion in ADVENTURE, the company’s earliest story paper, which started to inspire youngsters from 1921. A couple of examples of postwar serials must suffice, these being ‘Dixon Hawke And The Yellow Ghost’ and ‘Dixon Hawke And The Black Slink’. It will be but a short step from there to e.g. ‘The Thought Reader And The….’Bank Robbers’.
Sounds like you will be kept busy for a while Derek!
On another topic the server that I host my site has recently been changed, since then I’ve found a few times where site has been slow loading, don’t know if anyone else has had similar issues, but I’m keeping an eye on it.
Yes, Lorraine, I will, but it will be a whole lot better than sitting on my rear end doing nothing. I’ve never been comfortable doing nothing anyway, and here I’ve set myself quite a challenge, because I have never attempted to write a novel in my life. I have read thousands though, so I’m well aware of how to structure them. In the next few days I will be ringing The St Ives Printing & Publishing Company, whose advert in The Cornishman starts “Want to see your book in print? Let us guide you through the process.”
“Ever dreamt of writing your memoirs, a short story or even a novel and seeing it in print?”
“We can offer you…
Book Design & Printing
Short Runs starting from just a few copies”
For further details and to arrange an appointment call 01736 795813
So, nothing ventured, nothing gained!! Watch this space.
Toni Carver, the chief executive of The St Ives Printing and Publishing Company, came over to my house on Saturday to discuss my request, thus allowing me to flesh out my plan for him. We got on very well, especially when we were talking about our various interests, because it turns out that in our youth we were both members of groups that had careers singing folk and country music in folk clubs and cabaret (night) clubs, mine on Merseyside, his down here in Cornwall. When he left mine he had a free gift from me of a double CD of The Crabtrees folk group, formed when I moved to Wallasey in Cheshire to take up a post as a teacher of Spanish and French at Wallasey Technical Grammar School. The other two members of the group were brother and sister Harold (Hal) and Joy Crabtree, who, after getting married to Martin Sarney, went on to have two minor hits as Joy Sarney. Hal and I met when we were studying at Birmingham University (me:- Spanish, Portuguese and French : Hal:- Russian (ab initio) and French. When I told him that I had got the Wallasey job, he gave me his address and phone number, suggesting that I get in touch with him when I had foung digs and settled in, and he would introduce me to the folk and pop scene on Merseyside, starting with the Spinners’ club then moving on to the Cavern and the Iron Door. Hal, Joy and I first sang together in their house one Saturday morning, the harmonies sounded promising so we just carried on week by week. Our group lasted for five years. I have a scrapbook of photographs and cuttings from newspapers that reported on our club performances. We were on BBC radio a few times, and television at least twice. The only time that my mother saw me singing live was when she and her old Chorley Grammar School friend Margaret, who I knew as Auntie Margaret, went together to watch the entire show at the Tower Ballroom in Blackpool. My father only saw us once, in the front room of his house in Lancaster, where I lived before going to Birmingham.
Now to the details about the recordings.
Disc One is called ‘The Fabulous Crabtrees’, which contains 18 songs, one of which, ‘It Ain’t Me Babe’, is sung by me as a solo. The other seventeen tracks are, ‘If I had A Hammer’, ‘Two Brothers’, ‘Stewball’, ‘Sorry In My Mind’, ‘A Working Man’, ‘Allentown Jail’, ‘The Piney Wood Hills’, ‘Fourteen Days’, ‘Island Of Dreams’, ‘Other Side To This Life’, ‘New Awakening’, ‘Birmingham’, ‘Sparrow’, ‘There’ll Be Blue Skies Waiting’, ‘Flora, The Lily Of The West’, ‘I Love You Babe’, and ‘Golden Sunsets’. Disc Two is called ‘The Crabtrees LIVE In Germany’, and is a recording of a concert we performed in Frankfurt. The songs on this are ‘Dear Folks’, ‘The Banks Of The Ohio’, ‘Johnny Be Fair’, ‘They’re Moving Father’s Grave (to build a sewer), ‘A Few More Seasons’ an American country song, [my solo : but H&J joined in on the repeated chorus], ‘John Riley'[Hal’s solo], ‘Steinfurth Celebrations’ [an instrumental], ‘Two Brothers’, ‘The Banks Of The Royal Canal’, ‘Darling Corey’, ‘The Good Times We Had'[Joy’s solo], and ‘Sweeney Todd (The Barber). Included in the CD case is a 28-page history of the group with 22 different photographs of the group or of other people or things that are in one way or another linked to The Crabtrees.
Yesterday I received an email from him, which included detailed costs for publishing various quantities of the novel. The specification priced is for a thread sewn, case bound hardback of 240 pages, printed in mono but with a coloured dustwrapper, which I’ll draw myself. 100 of these units will cost me £1764, which obviously works out at £17.64 each. For every purchase I would need to add the p&p, which will clearly vary depending on where the purchaser lives. Naturally, if the finished novel only runs to say 175/200 pages, I would need to go back to him to ask for a revised costing, but I can see no obvious reason why I would not be able to complete both DESTINED FOR GLORY and BUNTY AND HER SISTERS by the end of September. In the email Toni also said, “It was a great pleasure to talk to you and hear about your career in folk music. Thank you for the ‘The Fabulous Crabtrees’ with a great many songs there that were, I guess, fairly universal to the folk-club scene back then, but marvellously done in your own style, which for me is the essence and joy of folk. The magic of hearing a new (to me) interpretation or new arrangement of an old familiar song, and with great harmonies to boot, fabulous indeed. Thank you.”
For those of you who are interested in hearing some of the songs, a few years ago I uploaded ten of them to YouTube. To access them, type in ‘crabtreestrio’ in lower case letters. There are plenty of photos but no videos.
While I’ve been downing a very welcome cup of coffee, it has occurred to me that some of you might want a copy of the double CD, others might want a copy of the as yet unwritten novel. In either case, please email me at derek.g.marsden@sky.com for information and updates, and I will get back to you.
There is an article in the SUNDAY MIRROR today about a comic artist called Paul Grist of Burnham-on-Sea in Somerset, originally from Sheffield, who has finally landed his dream job with MARVEL 20 years after writing a letter to them asking for work. He is now 60 and spent two decades publishing his own stories after his initial application to them, suggesting comics based on British superheroes, was rejected. His application must at least have been interesting because it was clearly kept on file. Someone at MARVEL remembered him and he has now been hired to write a series of tales. His stories will be for a new MARVEL production called ‘The Union’, which will feature heroes from England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. Paul began his career on ‘magazines’ such as BUNTY and NIKKI.
That’s interesting, I wonder if he did the Lucy and Liz Girl Talk covers for Nikki, he does seem to have cartoony style.
Hi! What a brilliant site! I can’t believe I was reading Tracy when I was 7 in 1979 and it was so dark!!! I’ve been thinking for years about hand curse story and it’s great to find it. Thank you!
You’re welcome, glad to help, reason I set up the site was to find all those stories I remembered from when I was younger too.
A wonderful website! It’s helped me put a name to a lot of the stories I loved but couldn’t remember the name of – The Taming of the Tearaway, Prisoner of Time, The Westfield Wager, The Image of Iris (that twist ending!). And I loved looking at the scans of my all-time favourite, Down With St Desmond’s!
I grew up reading these comics in the 1980s and I think it’s such a shame that they aren’t held in as high regard as the boys’ comics from the same era. I can think of two of my favourite series that I don’t think are listed on the site.
1. PENNY AND PYEWACKET Mandy c.1987 A witch in medieval times escapes being burnt at the stake by transferring into the body of her black cat. She can be released only if someone says the cat’s name, but unfortunately it’s Pyewacket! In modern times she’s still trapped in the cat and is adopted by Penny, a girl with a blonde bob and glasses. Penny is honestly pretty dim, and fails to spot the cat’s weekly attempts to spell out Pyewacket until finally she manages it and the witch appears. I think Penny receives a black kitten at the end.
2. THE DREAM MACHINE Judy? Early 1990s Had the sub-title ‘Unlock your heart’s desire…’ A girl with long dark hair gets trapped on a sinister magical game show. Similar to Malice in Wonderland. It was probably in Judy or M&J, or Nikki at an outside shot. I think it was from the early 1990s when most of my friends had moved on to Smash Hits but I was still secretly reading the comics!
My old comics are stashed away in boxes at my parents’ house so I can’t check these myself. Does anyone else remember them?
‘Penny And Pyewacket’ ran in MANDY 1106 – 1116.
‘The Dream Machine’ ran in JUDY 1607 – 1622.
If you need the dates of the above issue numbers, please let me know tomorrow. It’s rather too late to be disturbing their slumbers tonight.
Dates for those issues are Mandy #1106 (26/03/1988) – #1116 (04/06/1988)
and Judy #1607 (27/10/90) – #1622 (09/02/21)
I do have vague memory of The Dream Machine, although I don’t have any of those issues anymore, my parents would do big clear out of old weekly comics every few years when I was younger!
Thank you! I knew I had the names of the stories right but I couldn’t find any reference to them anywhere on the web. And I was almost there on the years too.
Last night I finally made up my mind as to exactly which serial stories in the ‘Big Eleven’ have made the cut for inclusion in BUNTY AND HER SISTERS. There will be 2237 of them. In all cases they will be their first appearance. Clearly this implies that neither repeats nor sequels will feature. ‘A Best Friend For Belinda’ (MANDY 1198-1209) and ‘The Zoo That Zoe Built’ (DIANA 165-175) will bookend the other 2235. I’m taking today off to chill out but will start writing the book tomorrow. I still expect that its publication will be by the end of September. You will know exactly when because, as reported some time ago, lorrsadmin has agreed to review a pre-publication copy on this platform.
Very exciting Derek, 2237 stories is lot, yet I’m guessing it was still difficult to cut it down to that number!
Not really, Lorraine. Don’t forget that I’ve either been reading or rereading these serials on a regular basis over the last few years. Every one of the 2237 ‘talked’ to me, making their claim for inclusion so to speak. I have filled ten Lever Arch Files, some almost to overflowing, with single A4 pages, every one allotted to just one of the chosen serials, with their starting and ending issue numbers and dates. My summaries will be written on those pages. As I write each synopsis I will give it a number, obviously from 0001 to 2237, and then type it onto my computer. Doing it this way will make it easier for Jon Sherlock, the chief executive of Deanprint & Company of Stockport (Cheshire) to position the synopses accurately after he, or his team, have removed them all from my computer, to which I will allow him access, just as I did for my second book ‘THIS WAS THE WIZARD’. My first book ‘FREE GIFTS IN THE BIG FIVE’ was, you may recall, printed for me by D C Thomsons themselves, and delivered to my house in Maghull on Merseyside where I was living at the time.
My writing of the synopses will not start and end with the two titles that I mentioned in my previous post. The first one I will write tomorrow will be for ‘The Mystery Of The Dancing Nurse’ from issues 1-11 of MANDY, but only because I can access my collection of MANDY more easily than that of any of the other story papers. When I have finished writing it, I will replace that sheet in the appropriate Lever Arch File. The second will be for ‘Jenny Trevelyn’, the third will be for ‘Who Is Judy Parker?, and so on through the many other stories that I have selected from MANDY. Once all my chosen MANDY serials are safely repositioned in their allotted places in the appropriate Lever Arch File, I will perhaps move on to a couple of the shorter-run titles such as EMMA or SPELLBOUND, if only to make me feel that I am actually making progress!!!
In the ‘other lives’ part of the ‘Obituaries’ section of today’s issue of The Guardian (for those who are interested in such matters, the newspaper had its 200th birthday last Wednesday, in which it included a reprint of the first edition, which appeared on 5 May 1821) there is one for Bill Titcombe, who has died aged 82. He was an artist, illustrator and cartoonist who worked on more than 65 franchised cartoon characters, many of them for TV-related magazines such as Look-In and TV Comic during the 1960s and 70s. He created ‘Tom and Jerry’ and ‘Scooby-Doo’ among others.
His first job, at the age of 16 was with Amalgamated Press drawing the comic strip ‘Our Ernie’, and over the next five years worked on several other characters for the same comic such as ‘Sinbad’, ‘Space Age Kit’ and ‘Billy Bunter’. In his early twenties he joined TV Comic where he created ‘The TV Terrors’ and drew strips based on TV shows such as ‘The Telegoons’ and ‘Dad’s Army’.
I loved these annuals and I remember reading them back in the ’80s as a child. I vaguely remember a few stories and was wondering if someone could help me find the names. I hope these weren’t just figments of my imagination.
One story was about a girl who finds another girl near a river or stream and the girl was crying and saying that she was wet. The girl comforts and befriends the crying girl, only to find out at the end of the story, that it was her sister (or twin) that had drowned years ago in that river.
The other story was about a young woman and her aunt (or grandmother?) who were at odds. The young woman was waiting for her aunt or grandmother to die to inherit her fortune. The aunt had a beautiful garden of flowers. At the end of the story, the aunt had died but the young woman couldn’t find where she had left or hidden the money. It turns out the flowers spelled “Dig Here” or something to that effect to show where the money had been hidden.
Thanks for any help!
Hi Carmel,
Both of these stories are from Judy 1983 annual http://girlscomicsofyesterday.com/2013/10/judy-annual-1983-2/
The first story is “The Bond” from Judy Annual 1983. I know someone else was looking for that story before, obviously one that stuck in peoples’ memory!
http://girlscomicsofyesterday.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/J83_Bond.jpg
The second story is called “Tulips”
http://girlscomicsofyesterday.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/J83_Tulips.jpg
Wow, thank you so much for your quick response!!!
When I moved to the States, my parents either sold or threw away my annuals, and I have been trying to remember where I had read these stories. I’ll have to find these on eBay. Again, thank you!
I am now able to inform members that this lunchtime I completed to my satisfaction the definitive synopses of the first 600 serials which will eventually appear in alphabetical order in BUNTY AND HER SISTERS. The first is ‘A Best Friend For Belinda’ (MANDY 1198 – 1209), the 600th being Dorinda – Doll Of Doom (MANDY 703 -714). There is obviously a long way to go but I’m enjoying the task, and from time to time will keep members up to date with my progress. The aim is to have the book published by the end of the year if at all possible.
That’s exciting news. I’m glad you are enjoying the writing.
Mandy comic The Girl In The Mask story about Dorinda Lacey who had to wear a mask because she was told by her aunt that she was ugly. Orphaned and brought up by her Aunt. I missed the ending because the comic didn’t come to the shop that week that it ended so I don’t know how the story ended. Can anybody help with this please? I would love to know how she found out that she wasn’t ugly (I just knew it). Please help. Thank you!
Hi, Yes she did find out in the end after coming across a painting of her mother that was beautiful, she found out her aunt lied to her out of jealousy.
I’ve added the last page to the story here:
http://girlscomicsofyesterday.com/2017/02/the-girl-in-the-mask-1983-84/
I also knew straight off that the aunt was hiding Dorinda’s beauty out of jealousy and feeding her a load of lies about being ugly. Thank you for uploading the scan of the last page. But what happened to the aunt? Did she die before Dorinda discovered the truth?
I remember that the aunt don’t know her name was ugly. Her hair was dark and severely pulled back from her face and her face was drawn sharply. She was horrible. Thanks for the comic page. What happened to the aunt?
Why did they stop publishing these comics? Mandy Judy Bunty Tracy Tammy?
I remember in Tammy I think it was there was a Strange story about a mother and daughter who lived in an old house and bit by bit the other got rid of modern gadgets including electricity. One morning the daughter woke up and couldn’t see the bus stop from her window, nor her uniform and asked her mother about it and was told that she wouldn’t be going to school any more. She gave her old fashioned clothes from 17th century? and I think that they time travelled somehow.
Yes, I remember that Strange Story from Tammy. I don’t have the title or publication date right now. I am sure it appeared in 1980, after Misty merged with Tammy.
Her aunt died quite early in the series, (around 2nd or 3rd episode) she had heart attack after thinking Dorinda has been seen. On her death bed she tells Dorinda to always remember she is ugly and should stay hidden.
Bunty was the longest lasting of comics and lasted until 2001.
Tammy stopped publishing in the 1980s but the old comics were acquired by Rebellion Publishers, who have released reprints of old stories (like Bella at the Bar) and also have had 2 new Tammy & Jinty Specials https://shop.treasuryofbritishcomics.com/catalogue/new-originals/RCS2054
Also remember a story about a girl who was adopted or something. She was frightened of crowds and the woman who adopted her was frightened of crowds also. Turned out they were real mother and daughter who had been separated and reunited.
Also a story about a Victorian maid who was encased in ice and had a hard time adjusting to modern life.
Another story I remember was about a Victorian woman who was widowed and neglected her children a boy and girl. She engaged a nanny for them and she ended up snapping the woman out of her grief so she could be a mother to them. Then she had to look for another job.
Hard Hearted Harriet! That was a very sad story I thought.
Another story about a girl who was orphaned when her parent’s carriage overturned. There was no money for her so she was sent to work in a coal mine with children and they were horrible. Later on she was adopted by a rich couple. Could her name have been Dianah Warren?
Thanks again for the Girl In The Mask pictures and ending.
Don’t remember what specific comics these are from but someone might remember.
I was just going to post about 2 of those stories but Mistyfan got there before me.
The Victorian widow who neglected her children, I think may have been a story from Annie in Tracy
http://girlscomicsofyesterday.com/2019/05/annie/
The icebound Victorian maid may be Jackie Frost from Bunty.
http://girlscomicsofyesterday.com/2014/02/jackie-frost/
The story about the girl who is scared of crowds is Lara the Loner from Tammy. For more information see https://jintycomic.wordpress.com/2021/02/13/lara-the-loner-1981/
BTW, the girl and her adoptive mother were not long-lost mother and daughter. It turned out they were both scarred by the same tragedy that made them both afraid of crowds.
The coal mine girl is Detestable Dinah (the nickname the horrible coal mine kids give poor Dinah) from Tracy. See http://girlscomicsofyesterday.com/2014/09/detestable-dinah/
Hi, there were more stories from Tammy spooky stories I remember.
1.) A girl who went to a funfair and she laughed at a gypsy because she said her face was ugly. The gypsy woman told her “From this day on mine is the only face you will see”. Next morning every face she saw looked like the gypsy’s. Don’t know if it was permanent or not.
2.) Girl’s sister was getting married. Their aunt told them that she hoped the same thing wouldn’t happen to her. The aunt at her wedding said “No No I never will” and of course never married. Didn’t know why she said it either.
The woman getting married borrowed her aunt’s veil and her sister noticed a black cloud hanging over her. At the alter she said the same as her aunt and the sister removed the veil from her and she fainted. Later on they went through the ceremony without the veil couldn’t find it because the bridesmaid had hidden it. The ceremony went on well and the girl burnt her sister’s veil. Must have been cursed.
Another story don’t know the comic don’t think it’s a story you mentioned. Victorian or Edwardian maid works for a spoiled daughter of a woman. However the girl isn’t really her daughter but works with crooks to get her money. I remember the girl getting a choice of two dresses red and pink wanted the red dress and the maid said the pink would suit her complexion better. The maid turned out to be the woman’s daughter in the end I think I remember it like that.
Ok, the first one might be “The Look of Things” (Tammy 1 August 1981), a Strange Story from the Mists narrated by Misty. It’s set in Malaysia, not a funfair, but a girl named Geraldine gets cursed in the manner described for being rude and even abusive at the sight of something or someone she doesn’t find attractive. The woman who sets the curse uses the words cited above. And no, it’s not permanent. It lifts by the time Geraldine returns home, vowing never to behave that way again. Luckily for Geraldine her story didn’t appear in the original Misty. If it had, I’m sure the curse would have been permanent!
The second one is “The Veiled Threat” (Tammy 3 April 1976, reprinted as a Gypsy Rose story in Jinty, 25 July 1981).
I can provide scans of both stories.
I’m looking for a story of a girl that got trapped in a paperweight can’t remember if it was in Jackie or Bunty or jinty wondered if you could help
This is “Garden of Glass” from Debbie Annual 1984. There is more about the story here:
http://girlscomicsofyesterday.com/2013/12/debbie-1984/
I did some research on Last Dodo and I think I’ve got it. The Strange Story about regression to the 16th century (not the 17th) is “Living in the Past”, Tammy 19 April 1980.