Plot:
Some 200 years ago, the villagers of Meddington put to death an old woman, Magda, as a witch. She swore revenge through her crow, which had caused nasty accidents. Among the victims of the curse were Melanie Bryant and Peter Grimes, who were determined to prove the evil of the bird to the sceptical present -day villagers.
Curse of the Crow – Judy: #998 (24 February 1979) – #1006 (21 April 1979)
Wendy Taylor and her parents return to Britain after two years in South America. But her father had made an enemy who put an evil spell on Bobby, one of Wendy’s dolls. In attempt to counteract the spell, a friend of the family used ‘good’ magic to enable the other doll, Betty, to protect Wendy from harm.
Rena Reilly discovers that a curse had been laid upon her, that she would one day become a queen but would have a reign of tears. Rena believes she will never be a queen but then she wins a contest to be Teen Queen for a year.
Freda Wilson accidentally fell foul of an old gipsy woman, who told her from than on she would bring only harm to her friends. The curse seemed to be working and Freda feels she has to avoid her friends, for their own sake.
When Kathie’s mother has to go to hospital, she tells Kathie to go with her two younger brothers to her home village Brangwen,and that she will be looked after there. Unfortunately the village is cursed with ghostly apparitions of smugglers haunting the streets each night. After seeing these ghosts go by Kathie finds her brothers missing. She asks around the village for help looking for her brothers, but everyone denies their existence telling her she arrived alone. That night she sees her brothers with the ghosts.
When the villagers find out who her mother is they are more open with her as she is one of them. They bring her to her grandmother who lives in a big house up on the cliffs. Her grandmother, Manfraya, explains that centuries ago, villagers of Brangwen, lured ships onto the rocks and plundered the goods. One night Jamie Trevellyan (an ancestor of theirs) joined the smugglers and got shot by Excisemen, his companions left him to die. His grieving mother, Roberta Trevellyan, in turn cursed the whole village. The smugglers soon died and were condemned to walk the streets for eternity. Along with them some of the living villagers are chosen to walk with them at night, continuing the smuggling trade. Those who are not chosen to walk with them cannot see where the ghosts reside or they will be taken. This happened a boy by the name of Young Willie years ago and he was never seen again. Later Kathie meets Young Willie but he warns her away from the path she is taking. That night Some of the villagers decide to take Kathie to the dead as they believe that she is making the dead uneasy since she arrived. Although Kathie argues that even if they got rid of her they will still be cursed.
Kathie is saved by the appearance of the ghost of Roberta, who for some reason doesn’t want the Dead to get Kathie. Soon after that a stranger turns up in the village, he turns out to be Kathie’s uncle, Roger. Manfraya faked his death as a baby and sent him away as she was afraid the dead would have taken him. Helped by Young Willie’s mother Beth Hewitt, Kathie and Roger try to find the place of the dead. Roger hurts his leg, but Kathie carries on and she finds the cave but an evil apparition tells her she will never leave. Roberta comes to rescue her rescue again. Later some village men decide to defy the dead, and not walk with them. As long as they stay at the Trevellyan house, with Kathie they will be safe. But Kathie is tricked into seeing her brothers and runs to them leaving the men unprotected.
Beth tells her she is the only one able to break the curse, as she is under Roberta’s protection. She has to go to the Dead’s secret place while they are still roaming the streets. Kathie finds her brothers, who are no worse for wear after their adventures. Manfraya, Beth and Roger round up the villagers to get them to defy the dead. Kathie encouraged by the help of the villagers, manages to convince Roberta to let go of the past, the dead disappear and the curse is lifted.
Oliver Passingham is one of my favourite artists, he could portray a variety of stuff from comedy/slapstick to horror. He did seem to draw a lot of supernatural stories, such as Skeleton Corner stories and was very good at creating shadowy and creepy atmospheres. Throughout this story the ghosts are very eerie, as is the cave where they reside. There is some great detailed scene shots that make the environment look threatening and creepy. I like the panel where the villagers bring Kathie to her grandmother’s house. Even though its during the day, so a bit less creepy, there is a sense of isolation about the house, and potential danger of the cliffs.
The flashback to the original curse is also great, first the image of the wrecked ships and the people left to drown. Then when Roberta finds her son and curses the village, you never see her face, its always in shadow. Apparently a grieving mother’s curse is one of the most powerful things in the world. Although I would argue that Jamie, hardly deserves such wrath. The smugglers were despicable people, wrecking ships off the cliff and of course they left Jamie to die, but Jamie chose to go with them, so that doesn’t say much for his character.
The curse itself seems needlessly complicated and doesn’t make sense in a lot of ways.
Also it seems odd that Emily would send her children to Brangwen, sure their only living relative is there, but there had to be some better option then sending them to a cursed village. Also its unclear why Roberta decides to save and listen to Kathie, maybe its because she is the only ancestor that actually tried to do something about the curse.
Despite these logical flaws and unnecessary complications, I do like the story. This is in most part because of the amazing art, but there is a lot to like in the story as well. I like that the villagers are nearly as antagonistic as the ghosts themselves. They get rid of all evidence of the boys so Kathie has no way to prove to the police that her brothers are missing. The villagers are motivated by fear, but there is a sense of community with them and they look after their own. They do try to comfort Kathie when she discovers her brothers with the Dead.
I like Beth Hewitt’s character, she is a wise woman, but also quite broken hearted about her son. She is the one who really riles the villagers up to make a stand, telling them Willie was better off with the Dead then been raised with a bunch of cowards. Manfraya has some parallels to Beth, she lost her son as well, but through choice she sent him away in attempt to save him, but similarly she has been quite heartbroken about it. Kathie is our typical hero, strong, right-minded and determined, but she can be rash at times. After promising to stay with the village men she nearly dooms them by running after what she thinks are her brothers. Overall it is a nice creepy story with some good characters.
Sally and her friend Jean are on a camping holiday. Also with them is Sally’s older cousin Kate who spends her whole time complaining and getting the girls to run around for her. While out for a walk they stop at an old woman’s cottage which is surrounded by animals. Kate makes fun of the old woman, who informs them that the animals used to be people who annoyed her. Kate continues to make fun, so the woman seems to put a spell on her.
When the girls get back to camp it starts raining hard. Kate complains and wants to go home, but that would mean the end of the holiday for Sally and Jean too, so they go for a takeaway, to keep Kate happy. When they come back Kate is gone and instead there is a duck on her bed with a half eaten note that just says Kate. The girls conclude that Kate has been turned into the duck and that they will have to go back to the old woman to change her back. Miss Knight won’t admit to anything but tells them to come back the next day. When they return they find she has gone to visit her sister. The girls name the duck the more inconspicuous sounding Quacker and and go to track down Miss Knight.
Of course mishaps and adventures happen along the way including Quacker getting sold to a restaurant. Luckily it’s actually a vegetarian restaurant and Quacker is there just to enhance the scenery The owner Miss Boxer tells the girls if they want the duck back they will have to pay for it, so the end up being waitresses at the restaurant. Later they also end up disrupting a carnival procession, where Quacker is quite the hit.
They finally catch up with Miss Knight, who agrees to change Kate back at a price. There is no immediate affect but Miss Knight tells them it takes a while. So they head home, but soon realise they have been swindled and wonder how to break the news to Kate’s parents. Suddenly Kate arrives it turns out she had met some friends at camp and gone off with them in their camper van. Of course Quacker had eaten most of the note she had left. The girls are disheartened to learn they’ve been chasing after a real duck and now Sally is stuck with it as a pet. But as Quacker chases Kate, Sally can see advantages of having her new pet.
I don’t know who the artist is but they seemed to do a lot of humorous, light hearted stories including “Haunted Hotel” and “Polly and the Prince”. Which does suits the artist style as the characters do have a cartoon look too them and actually act quite cartoony as well. Even though Quacker is not actually Kate, she would be quite extraordinary for a normal duck. Including one instance where she ends up riding a horse.
While the girls thinking Kate has been turned into a duck would be ridiculous in most circumstances, in these comics it was not uncommon for girls to be cursed by witches. For example “Dogsbody Debbie” is a story where a magician places a spell on a girl, so every time she complains about being a dogsbody she turns into a dog! Though the girls become more convinced that Quacker is Kate, such as Kate being a good horse rider, there are clues from the first issue that she is not a duck. There is a camper van next to there tent before they go for takeaway, which is gone when they get back. Also when they confront Miss Knight the first time, she seems surprised commenting that she must be more powerful than she thought! Whether you know that the girls have spent their time chasing after a real duck or not it’s still works as a fun story.
An old gipsy woman put a curse on Julia Cardoon, re-naming her “Roma the Roamer” and condemning her to wander throughout her life, with no memory of the past. Roma was captured by a gang of thieves. She tried to escape, but was seized by their leader, the Major.
Sandy Wilson had always been a winner, until one morning on a training run, she scared a horse pulling an old woman’s caravan, causing the breakage of an old crystal ball. In her fury the woman, Old Meg, put a jinx on Sandy so that when a white streak appeared in Sandy’s hair, she would lose whatever she was trying to win
Tennis star Wendy Moore was honoured by having the new tennis courts in her home town of Tarnford named after her. But, as she performed the opening ceremony, Wendy had a curse put on her by an old gipsy woman. The land used for the courts had been a gipsy camping ground for many years. Gipsy Zara blamed Wendy for taking it from them. She told Wendy that, from that time on, she would not win at tennis. Another Tarnford tennis star, wealthy Irma Parfitt, was jealous of the honour which the town had given Wendy. The rich girl took every chance to remind Wendy of the gipsy’s words.
As Keeper of Pomeroy the Peacock, schoolgirl Pam Lowe was under the Ancient Spell of Peacocks, which subjected her to awful bursts of pride, when Pomeroy opened his tail! The spell could only be broken by a rich person of high birth buying the peacock!
