Heather’s big brother Basil did a lot for her when she was a kid and now she’ll do anything for him. When he becomes head over heels in love with a fluttery eyed blonde called Gloria Brett and can’t think of anything else, Heather tries to help him get Gloria’s attention.
I haven’t dived into humour comics on this site, but now is a good opportunity, with the release of the recent Cor!!Buster Special. While for girls comics DC Thomson publications was what I grew up on, for humour comics I tended to read Fleetway/IPC books; Buster and Whizzer & Chips (and though it was before my time I have a memory of reading Monster Fun special, either I had got it from an older relative or I am mis-remembering details!). Of course I did have the occasional DCT stuff like Beano and Beezer and Topper too. For the most part as humour comics were filled with self contained strips (with maybe the one ongoing serial, like “The Leopard from Lime Street” in Buster), there was less of need to follow every issue and easier to dip in and out of other comics.
Still there were favourite characters to follow and focusing just on Fleetway/IPC, I have fond memories of many of the characters that appeared in the comics such as; Ivor Lott and Tony Broke with Milly O’Naire and Penny Less, X-Ray Specs, Bewitched Belinda, Gums, Faceache, Top of the Class, Good Guy, Rodney & Dez, Beastenders and Bobby’s Ghoul. Some of which appear in the recent special. Of course with so many characters to choose from not all could make it to the special, but they have fit a lot into the comic, with 15 strips, puzzles and star-signs. For the nostalgic, people should enjoy seeing these old characters again, while some may not be keen on their new looks, I enjoyed the fresh take, and most importantly for the young people that this comic is really aimed at, there is lots to appeal to them. Lots of fun characters, different art styles and interesting stories.
Personal highlights for me:
Gums which managed to capture the old strips and modernise it perfectly, with Gums and Bluey (the surfer) joined by new character Sophie Justice, marine biologist. The art by Abigail Bulmer is kept pretty simple, with some great character expressions and Simon Bowland’s letters compliment it perfectly. It is a humorous story which still manages to touch on environmental and privacy issues. It was scripted by Lizzie Boyle, who is editor for the Tammy & Jinty special due out in June (2019), so I feel that special is in good hands.
Talking of editors, Who’s in Charge? is a fun strip where the editors of the old comics (such as Buster, Shiner from Chips, Frankie Stein from Monster Fun, and others) try to decide who should be in charge of the special. This strip follows on from a short feature about the characters. With script by John Freeman and art by Lew Stringer, this is a fun mash of characters, with some surprise appearances!
Of course with so many characters to choose from, having several appear in one strip, not only gives the opportunity to fit more characters in, but also allows some interesting interactions with characters, ones I wouldn’t have thought would go together. Such as I certainly wouldn’t have thought Captain Crucial Vs Fuss Pott would be an obvious choice, but the story works great, thanks to Lee Langford’s writing and Edward Whatley’s art.
Sure to be a favorite will be Tom Paterson’s Sweeney Toddler, where every panel is crammed with gags. Although confession time, while it is a good strip, Sweeney Toddler is a character I can take or leave, shocking I know! So I was more captivated by his other strip in the book; Grimly Feendish (with script by Ned Hartley), which only one page long but fits everything it need into just ten panels.
That’s the way of these comics is everyone will have their favourites and not all strips will work for everyone. As I mentioned I was a fan of the original Ivor Lott and Tony Broke with Milly O’Naire and Penny Less (though the title is a bit wordy!) and it was great to see these characters again, although this story lacked something for me. I would have liked to see all four characters interact with each other more, but I really liked the redesign, so I’d still be interested to see more. Which is the big takeaway from this special, that it would be great to see more of this. I’ve barely touched on all the stories, art work and such that is in this book, and the great work people have put into this book, so there is bond to be something that appeals to readers. Also an advantage with this revival (compared to old days) is getting to know some of the creators behind it, I’d recommend checking out 2000AD Thrill-Cast episode on this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKmGNHBKeVs)or reading some of the interviews on the 2000ad site (https://2000ad.com/tag/corandbusterspecial).
You can pick up the special from the shelves or through the 2000AD online shop (I opted for the bundle which includes 6 Rebellion specials out this year, and delivery has been very quick). I think any boy or girl would get a lot of fun out of this, so I hope it does well and I’m looking forward to the other specials that will be out this year too.
In World War II Sally Dixon joins the Royal Navy as a Wren. The trouble is, she’s a jinx and things just seem to go wrong around her. Fortunately nothing goes wrong when Sally hauls a mine out to sea for a destroyer to deal with – except that she gets stuck on board the destroyer as they are on urgent business and don’t have time to put her ashore. Will the destroyer find Sally the Jinx even more destructive than Hitler’s war machine?
Penny Wise will give any odd job a try to earn extra money – which gets her into all kinds of scrapes.
When Jenni the Genie’s bottle gets broken she goes in search of a new one, but is having difficulty finding anything suitable. She also encounters people who demand wishes or overhears people wishing for something, which she has to grant. Much humour and hijinks come from Jenni granting those wishes literally, such as giving a girl a lift right through the air when she wishes for a lift to school. Later, she makes pop star Gary Glimmer appear on top of the TV set when the same girl wishes to see him on the TV instead of a boring educational programme in geography class. Because Jenni is homeless, the effect of her wishes is not permanent. For example, Gary vanishes from the school once Jenni’s magic wears off – but not before a dragon teacher reveals herself to be a Gary Glimmer fan and asks for his autograph!
Published: Mandy Picture Story Library #65
Artist: Rodney Sutton
Writer: Unknown
Plot
Gemma Gable helps out at the Yellowbridge Youth Club. She is dismayed when vicar puts her in charge of four rough-looking girls from a rundown area that has been demolished: Crystal, Ruby, Pearl and Opal. Oh, please don’t judge them by their appearances, says the vicar. Underneath that rough exterior they’ve got hearts of gold and are positive jewels.
In other words, the Jewels are diamonds in the rough.
Well, life sure isn’t dull with the Jewels around. Straight off the bat they demand the club put on disco music so they can have some action. At least everyone seems to be enjoying the dancing.
Afterwards the Jewels ask Gemma that they are broke and need money. They earn Gemma’s respect when they say they don’t want to bother their parents, who are financially taxed already. At their old home it was easy for them to get market jobs, but there is little call for that in Yellowbridge. Moreover, Yellowbridge shopkeepers don’t employ under-fifteens, not even for Saturday jobs. This means job hunting will be harder for them in their new locality.
Dad suggests fixing Crystal up with a job at Aunt Daphne’s guesthouse. However, Crystal proves too loud and rambunctious and keeps imposing her own ideas on how the guesthouse should be run. Although Crystal’s style is popular with the guests, Aunt Daphne lets Crystal go before she’s even finished the washing up.
Next, Gemma notices Ruby has a flair for design and fixes her up with a job as publicity assistant with Councillor Coombes for his road safety campaign. Ruby’s creativity lends tremendous weight to the campaign and Coombes is impressed. Unfortunately Ruby is also a walking disaster area, so she ends up creating a real mess that Councillor Coombes’ house-proud wife is furious to see. Ruby and Gemma end up quietly slipping out while a row erupts over it, though Coombes is still impressed with Ruby’s creativity.
Gemma’s old headmistress, Miss Cromarty, enquires about somebody to help her with a move. Gemma decides to try out Opal for the job, because she is the quiet one (that’s a bit of a surprise!) in the Jewels gang. Miss Cromarty sets Opal to sorting out her books in alphabetical order, and if she works out, take her on as research assistant for writing her memoirs. However, Opal is such a bookworm that she gets lost in reading the books instead of sorting them – and Miss Cromarty is just the same. Gemma realises that nothing will ever get done between them because they both get sidetracked with reading.
Now it’s Pearl’s turn. Gemma tries her out on a landscaping job, figuring that Pearl will be compatible with the employer, Jamie, as neither is too fussy about their clothes. Unfortunately it turns out Pearl is not compatible with the plants – they give her horrible allergies of all descriptions.
All for Jewels have proved totally unsuitable for the jobs they tried and Gemma does not know of any other jobs. After a discussion the same jobs are given another go, but with different Jewels. Opal will try the guesthouse job, Crystal the publicity assistant job, Pearl the Miss Cromarty memoir job, and Ruby the landscaping job.
The results:
Aunt Daphne is very impressed with Opal and her impressive manners with the guests. This is because Opal is drawing inspiration from a book she is reading about a Victorian maid.
Crystal adopts the costume and persona of “Roadie the Robot” to teach road safety in her own words while being as loud as she likes.
Thanks to Pearl, Miss Cromarty is making strides in writing her memoirs, which will be called “I Learned More than I Taught”.
Ruby is not only marvellous at the landscaping job but is also applying her creativity to developing her own talent for landscaping.
Gemma tells her father that now she has learned about not judging by appearances. When the vicar first brought the Jewels to her, she expected nothing but trouble (which she got, but not in the way she thought!). But Gemma’s so relieved the Jewels have been sorted out successfully and she can concentrate on the youth club barbeque. All four Jewels help out and give Gemma the best sausage to say “thanks”.
The vicar is very impressed with how successful Gemma was with the Jewels. In fact, he is so impressed that he brings her another set of rough-looking kids from the same area for her to help in the same way. Say hello to Mike, Gabriel (Gabe for short) and Luke (Lucifer) – the “Fallen Angels”!
Thoughts
Straight off the bat we are told how this story will go. It’s going to be an exploration of the morals in not being quick to judge. But just how this will pan out with these wild-looking girls remains to be seen during the course of the story.
As we get to know the Jewels, we can see the morals are going in a romp that’s full of hijinks, embarrassment, surprises and laughs. Crystal is loud and boisterous. She sweeps some fresh air into the stuffy guesthouse, but it’s too much for the stuffy aunt. Far from being rough, Ruby is a creative, helpful girl. The trouble is, she’s so clumsy and accident-prone, and everywhere she goes she causes disaster. In the case of Opal, we have to wonder why she looks so rough when she turns out to be a quiet girl who would spend hours with her nose in a book given half the chance. Maybe it’s the rundown locality the Jewels lived in before. Pearl just likes being scruffy and isn’t too bothered with her clothes.
The hijinks of the Jewels are brought off brilliantly with the artwork. It’s a sharp but fluid style that lends itself well to zaniness, humour and drama all at the same time.
The introduction of the Fallen Angels right at the end is a twist that has the reader laughing and ensures the story does not end on a trite “happily ever after” note. There’s just no peace for the wicked, is there, Gemma? One can only hope the vicar knows what he’s doing with the Fallen Angels too. As well as looking rough, they don’t look too friendly when they meet Gemma.
Cindy Sellers has a hard life slaving at Tower Hotel for her stepmother and lazy stepsisters, Cora and Rose. But Cindy always has the last laugh over the stepsisters every week.
Gertie Green is addicted to television and her favourite part is the adverts – which she takes completely at face value.
April Mason is a constant target for practical jokes and leg-pulls at school because she’ll believe anything! Anything! So when she sees some aliens land in an old quarry no-one believes her.
While at a fairground, Beth Robinson visits a cave, where she finds a bottle and releases a trapped sorceress. The Sorceress gives her 10 bottles as a reward. She tells her she might find happiness with all of them or she might not, but when she opens one bottle on that day she will be happy. Each bottle has it’s own note which hints at what it will do, but Beth soon finds out the results don’t work out as she assumes they will! She tries out the first potion which tells her nasty people will take a splash. She uses it on her mean sister and friend to each them a lesson for calling her names. After taking a rowing boat out, she is the one that ends up in the water, while the girls are rescued by some boys and take a different kind of splash on a water ride.
The next bottle she tries isn’t any better. Trying to get a boyfriend, she follows the instructions to get her crush, Dave, to ask her out but he instead asks her if she would like to go out with his friend, William, whom she can’t stand. Other attempts with trying to get a boyfriend don’t work out either such as when she makes Simon a slave for a day. Unfortunately it’s just before a family trip. While he is away he phones and makes all sorts of promises to her but when he comes back he has forgotten all he said. Another time she gets her new date to stick to her, but after finding out more about him, she is happy when the note actually means they get stuck to a bench.
She hopes to get to the top of the class with another potion instead it causes an explosion and she ends up top of the class cleaning the ingredients off the ceiling. Another bottle her sister gets to first and it makes her hair look great, so Beth thinks this one will work great and she even enters a beauty contest. But then when sun comes out it goes frizzy and orange and she has to runaway from her angry sister. Another bottle promises fame and fortune, assuming it means she will win the school raffle she spends all her money on tickets, only to win a board game “Fame and fortune”
The last bottle she opens promises people will crowd around her. They do, but it’s not about popularity, they think she has written nasty notes about people. Beth goes home annoyed but things start to look up as it turns out her father has got a promotion which means an increase in pocket money. Then she is asked about Simon, who realizes what a good sport she was about his brush off. Finally her friends come to apologize as they find out someone else stole Beth’s notepaper to write nasty notes. So it works out that Beth has found happiness but again the interpretation of the Sorceress words are not as she expected.
This is a fun story, it is drawn by Wilf Street whi has an easily recognizable style. He is most known for lighthearted stories and as is the case here, it suits to capture the humour of the situation. I like also that there is a consistent set up at the start of each episode, there is a panel dedicated to Beth picking a bottle and a panel of the bottle and its label. This nicely establishes what the episode is focusing on, and gives a reader a chance to wonder what the message actually means.
The bottles have a sort of curse about them, twisting the meaning of what they say they will do in ways Beth or the reader doesn’t expect . This kind of “monkeys paw” type story is often played for horror (like in Misty’s The Evil Djinn) but here none of the consequences are that that terrible, even if it does cause problems for the protagonist.
In some cases it seems Beth causes the outcomes by trying to make her own interpretations of the inscriptions come true. When she believes her sister will take a splash – she takes her out on the boat, when she thinks a raffle will lead to fame and fortune – she buys lots of tickets, and when she is trying to get Dave to drink a potion – she comes across as showing an interest in his friend.
To keep things interesting the way each of the bottles are used is different as well. It’s not just a case of Beth drinking the potion, there are cases where she is trying to get the object of her affection to drink the potion, or using it as a shampoo. It’s these little touches that makes the episodes less repetitive. Its a good ending where actually none of what is in the bottles gives her happiness. It again fits with the running theme that the Sorceress words are not what they seem Also you may not rely on wishes and magic solutions but you can still find happiness anyway.