• Toots – First Appearance – Bunty: #01 (18 January 1958)
• Artist: Bill Ritchie

Plot/ Thoughts

It wasn’t all drama, orphans and ballet in Bunty. There were a variety of humour strips that ran in Bunty. Most were a page long though some extended to two pages, others like Haggis, and from later issues, Girl Talk, were just a few panels at the end of the page.

Toots was a long running strip in Bunty. There was no continuous plot to follow so it didn’t always appear in consecutive issues, it was just a light-hearted funny strip. It was about a young girl, Toots,that wore a polka-dot dress and got into various adventures every week.

It was drawn by Bill Ritchie who is probably best known for his strips in comics like Beano, Beezer and Topper such as Sweet Sue, Smiffy, Baby Crockett and Gnatasha.  Some stories had Toots not really winning at the end of the story.  Such as a story where she is told she is needed for a “leading” part of the dramatic society ballet only for the strip to end with her leading people to their seats.

Other times she would come up on top of the situation. Whether it was outsmarting her friends or making use of an umbrella on a dry day.

A lot of the time she would exasperate her parents, usually not intentionally. In one strip she is making noise by wearing her mother’s shoes and ends up getting a telling off from her parents for scaring them.  So she switches to slippers and ends up scaring them by “sneaking” up on them!

Whatever the situation, it was always a fun read.

Other Appearances:

Annual Appearances:

• Toots – Bunty Annual 1960
• Toots – Bunty Annual 1961
• Toots – Bunty Annual 1962
• Toots’ Holiday Postcards – Bunty Annual 1963
• Toots – Bunty Annual 1964
• Toots – Bunty Annual 1965
• Toots – Bunty Annual 1966
• Toots – Bunty Annual 1967
• An ABC of Toots – Bunty Annual 1968
• Toots – Bunty Annual 1969
• My Dad – A Poem by Toots – Bunty Annual 1970
• Toots in Dreamland/Toots As She Really Is – Bunty Annual 1971
• Toots – Bunty Annual 1972
• Toots – Bunty Annual 1976
• Toots – Bunty Annual 1977
• Toots – Bunty Annual 1978
• Toots – Bunty Annual 1979
• Toots – Bunty Annual 1980
• Toots – Bunty Annual 1981
• Toots in Space (feature) – Bunty Annual 1981
• Toots – Bunty Annual 1982
• Toots – Bunty Annual 1983
• Toots – Bunty Annual 1984
• Toots – Bunty Annual 1985
• Toots – Bunty Annual 1986
• Toots – Bunty Annual 1987
• A Merry Old-Fashioned Christmas from Toots – Bunty Annual 1988
• Toots – Bunty Annual 1989
• Toots – Bunty Annual 1990
• Toots – Bunty Annual 1991
• Toots – Bunty Annual 1992
• Toots – Bunty Annual 1993
• Toots – Bunty Annual 1994
• Toots – Bunty Annual 1996

Summer Specials:

• Toots’ Holiday Snaps  – Bunty Summer Special 1967 [Art: Bill Ritchie]
• Toots  – Bunty Summer Special 1968 [Art: Bill Ritchie]
• Toots  – Bunty Summer Special 1969 [Art: Bill Ritchie]
• Toots  – Bunty Summer Special 1970 [Art: Bill Ritchie]
• Toots  – Bunty Summer Special 1971 [Art: Bill Ritchie]
• Toots  – Bunty Summer Special 1972 [Art: Bill Ritchie]
• Toots at a Holiday Camp – Bunty Summer Special 1973 [Art: Bill Ritchie]
• Toots  – Bunty-Judy Summer Special 1978 [Art: Bill Ritchie]
• Toots  – Bunty-Judy Summer Special 1979 [Art: Bill Ritchie]
• Toots  – Bunty Summer Special 1981 [Art: Bill Ritchie]
• Toots  – Bunty Summer Special 1983 [Art: Bill Ritchie]
• Toots  – Bunty Summer Special 1984 [Art: Bill Ritchie]
• Toots  – Bunty Summer Special 1985 [Art: Bill Ritchie]
• Toots  – Bunty Summer Special 1986 [Art: Bill Ritchie]
• Toots  – Bunty Summer Special 1987 [Art: Bill Ritchie]
• Toots  – Bunty Summer Special 1988 [Art: Bill Ritchie]
• Toots  – Bunty Summer Special 1992 [Art: Bill Ritchie]