Plot:
Kay and Marion Digby along with Jean Ritchie, a friend, had set sail to an uncharted area of the Caribbean Sea in search of their father Professor Digby, who was unaccountably missing. After being caught in a tornado, the girls found them-selves on a strange exotic floating island of weeds and flowers.
Peril on Paradise Island – Spellbound: #61 (19 Nov. 1977) – #69 (14 Jan. 1978)
Sheila Hawkins and Jean Marsh helped in an antique shop called The Shop at Shudder Corner, run by Jean’s uncle. When Sheila replaced a broken lens in her torch with a mysterious piece of glass, she found that when she shone it on certain antique curios, she and Jean were transported back in time . . .
Other Appearances:
Under the terms of Uncle Hubert’s will, the relative who pushes his bed all the way from John O’Groats to Land’s End will receive his inheritance. His niece, Katie Fraser, takes the job on, but it has to be done manually (fortunately the bed has castors) because no removal firms are permitted. Along the way the bed acquires the name “Fred”, from the boards that get attached to it when a mechanic motorises it.
When three live bears attached themselves to Goldie Lock, it began an adventure which landed Goldie and her friend, Pat Howard on the island of Sawaki. The Sawakians had a colony of these sacred bears. They believed that as long as the bears lived, valuable osmium mines would continue. But their enemies, the Katolians, made a surprise attack and killed all the bears except Goldie’s three, whom she and her friend managed to hide. Losing heart, the superstitious Sawakians surrendered. Goldie was convinced that if they knew that some of the sacred bears were saved, the Sawakians would rise up again. But first a safer hiding place had to be found for the bears.
Fay Fearless works as an agent for SOS, the code name for a secret Government organisation run by Arthur King, the millionaire owner of Paragon Stores.
Other Appearances:
Angie Martin, a district nurse sets out in the morning to visit patients. She intends to drop her younger sister, Sally, to school along the way. Unknown to her, not too far away, a bullion robbery is taking place as 3 armed men take on a security van. One of the security men goes to raise the alarm and a robber (Lonny) threatens him with a gun. Another robber (Jimmy) intervenes, but gets shot himself. The three men escape but Jimmy needs medical attention. They spot Angie and take her and Sally so she can fix Jimmy up. They hear on the radio that the police now know Lonny’s name due to Jimmy’s slip up, so they dump their van, and hide out in an empty cottage. Angie starts to think about how her and her sister can escape, she slips tablets into the men’s tea, but luck isn’t on her side as Lonny spills his drink and she has no more tablets to use. When Jimmy and Vic pass out, Lonny figures she is involved and ties her up.
Angie takes advantage of every opportunity she has to escape. Lonny is clearly the leader of the gang and is more wary of keeping an eye on Angie. He catches her trying to phone for help and locks her and Sally in the attic nursery. Angie finds a balloon and felt tip pens and uses them to get a message outside. The balloon is found by some kids who give it to the police. Unfortunately before they get to the cottage, the arrival of tourists at the cottage has made the gang go on the run again. When the police get to cottage they free the tourists and are soon in pursuit of the gang.
The cops surround them at a filling station but Lonny threatens Angie and Sally’s lives, so they are able to hijack the police helicopter. Sergeant Smith manages to slip a transmitter to Angie before they get on the helicopter. They plan to fly to France but a storm forces them to land on a ship. They smash all communication devices on the ship, but the captain has a plan – when it gets dark he will turn them around so they get dropped off at Dorset, rather than France. When they land one sailor tries to get gun off Jimmy, but is knocked out by Vic, Angie attends to him. The gang believe they are in France and don’t know that the captain of the ship has managed to contact the police on the helicopter radio.
While Lonny and Vic go to look for transport, Jimmy is told to keep Angie and Sally in a cave, out of sight. As they are so exhausted all three of them fall asleep and they wake up to find the tide has come in and they are trapped. Sally manages to slip out a hole to go for help, only to run into Vic and Lonny. Angie and Jimmy will have to swim for it but Jimmy can’t with his injured arm. Angie swims Jimmy to safety, and he makes note that she has saved his life again.
His gratitude to Angie is seen when after another escape attempt Vic strikes Angie, Jimmy is quick to defend her. The gang figure they are not in France when police catch up with them, but they have stolen a tank and smash up the police car. They hide out in a forest where Vic accidentally starts a fire, Jimmy helps Angie and Sally onto the tank but falls off himself. Angie is the only one concerned enough to go back and help him. The gang attempt to cross a foot bridge with the tank because they won’t leave the gold behind, the bridge collapses leaving them all in the water. Angie and Sally manage to escape and take a boat but the gang pursue them. Both Vic and Lonny take aim to shoot Angie but Jimmy stops them, jerking the steering wheel. Vic shoves Jimmy out of the boat. They catch up on Angie and grab her, leaving Sally on the boat headed for a weir. Lonny and Vic plan to use Angie as a hostage to get back their gold, that has been found by the police. Meanwhile Jimmy having gotten out of the water sees Sally in trouble and saves her. Knowing she needs to get to a hospital he brings her to the police station and hands himself in.
With Angie as their hostage, Lonny and Vic get the police to hand over the gold and their uniforms. Soon after when Angie escapes she doesn’t just run, after all they’ve done to her she is not going to let them get away. Using a crane she catches their boat and the police arrive to arrest them. She meets up with her parents and goes to see Sally in hospital. They discuss Jimmy’s fate, it turns out he will be let off light due to his good actions and turning himself in and Mr Martin will even give him a job when he gets out of jail.
This is a good action story, the pace doesn’t let up and Ian Kennedy does a great job at showing the action scenes. Like the above car chase shows, Kennedy uses a variety of angles to keep the action interesting and fast paced. Whatever the location, from water to forest, he does a superb job of capturing the place.
The fast pace of the story is set up effectively in the first issue when the time is tracked throughout; 8.35 Angie leaves her house, 8.47 the robbery takes place, 12.30 Mrs Martin is worried and 8.00pm Angie tied up and can’t believe only 12 hours have passed since she got up in the morning. After the first issue the tracking of time stops, but the story doesn’t slow down. Sometimes it seems a bit ridiculous when the gang manage to hijack 2 cars, a helicopter, a ship, a boat and a tank! But really you aren’t given much time to dwell on it.
Angie is clearly a resourceful and determined character. When ever she sees an opportunity to escape, she jumps on it. She smartly hides the tracker she gets from the police in Sally’s bandage. She is also quick thinking in stopping the gang from escaping at the end. Not only is she tough she shows her high morals and why she makes a good nurse when she not only helps the people the gang hurt, but also goes out of her way to save Jimmy several times.
The gang are easy to characterise, Vic is the tough and mean leader, Lonny is a bit dimmer but equally nasty, while right away Jimmy proves himself to be the most sympathetic of the gang, and shows he has a conscience. Even before Angie earned his gratitude he is shown to be against anyone getting hurt. The only reason he got shot was because he wanted to protect the security guard from Vic. In the end he could have just left Sally at the door of the police station but he does the right thing and hands himself in. Also very charitable of Mr Martin to give him a job, considering he was involved in a kidnap even if he did save his daughter’s life. We don’t get a lot of background on the gang, so we don’t know how Jimmy got involved with Vic and Lonny in the first place, whether he previously had a criminal record or just fell in with a bad crowd, or was really needing the money. Still it’s nice to hear that he will be given a second chance after he gets out and we hope he’ll use the opportunity wisely.
The Emma comic didn’t last too long, which is a pity because I think it had some strong stories (like this one) and had a fresh take on some of the usual formulas.
The adventures of a dog named Harvey. In the first story, A New Home for Harvey, after being abandoned, Harvey finds a new home with Pat and her family but then they have to move to an apartment complex that doesn’t allow pets. The family try and find a new home but Harvey is determined to stay with Pat.
In Here’s Harvey, Harvey is trying to help Pat find her sister, Sara, a boyfriend, though it is proving more difficult than they thought.
In A Holiday for Harvey, him and Pat go to work at Sandhill Holiday Camp and Lucy the owner’s grandchild gets quite attached to Harvey.
In Harvey’s Hotel – Harvey and his owner Pat are helping Pat’s sister, Sara, and her husband, Greg, at the hotel they run.
In Harvey – Go Home!, Harvey is dognapped, he escapes but needs to find his way home to Pat. He gets in many adventures on the way.
Other Appearances:
Plot:
Toni Townsend, a brilliant young gymnast, had been treated as a slave by her rich Aunt Libby until, on a summer cruise, they were kidnapped by natives who believed Toni to be a white goddess called Artanza. Unless Toni carried out 10 tasks successfully, she and the other cruise passengers would be killed. Then Toni found that the high priestess, Jana, was trying to kill her.
Ten Tasks for Toni – Judy: #893 (19 February 1977) – #903 (30 April 1977)
The Jay family were promoting the products of the Hannibal Hardware Company by following the famous general’s footsteps across Europe and over the Alps. Because Hannibal had originally made the journey with a troop of elephants, the Jays had brought their own elephant, Jumbo, on the journey.
And Jumbo Went, Too – Judy: #1116 (30 May 1981) – #1124 (25 July 1981)
Danger Girl, codenamed “Z” , is the prettiest and toughest agent in Britain’s Secret Service.
Other Appearances:
Annual Appearances