Tag Archives: John McNamara

Loser Lou (1981) and “I’ll Make You a Winner” (1983)

Picture Story Library, , , , ,

Published: Loser Lou – Bunty PSL #214; “I’ll Make You a Winner” – Bunty #240 (sequel)

Artist: John McNamara

These two PSLs starring Lou Lambert are being looked at together in a joint entry.

Special thanks to Lorrsadmin for scans of the second PSL.

Plot – Loser Lou

Lou Lambert and her family are spending a holiday at the Summerton Sports Centre because they are sports fiends and champions: Dad (golf), Mum (swimming), Lynn (athletics), Larry (martial arts), and Lou…“the world’s worst at sports and games”, and the kids back home call her “Loser Lou”. But Lou’s a Lambert, her family says, and Lamberts are winners. They tell her she’ll find a sport she’s good at. In the Lambert family, says Dad, “there are no such words as ’I can’t.’ We add two letters of the alphabet to them, and say, ‘I can try!’” So, although it looks like Lou may have skipped the Lambert sports gene, she has to keep trying.

Lou tries basketball, but she can’t match the players’ speed, and then she trips over her shoelace, sending players and the hoop crashing. Lynn advises her to look at a sport that’s more suited for her build (hmmm…considering her build, that could be tricky). Lou tries orienteering, but she gets horribly lost, not to mention getting a horrible blister on her foot. Next, Lou looks at a power-assisted sport. Deciding the motorised water sports are a bit beyond her, she tries cycling although she was never much good at it when she was younger. She soon finds she has not improved much since then, and then she lands herself in a cycling race. To cap it all, a newspaper flies in her face, sending her through someone’s picnic and then into the river.

Lou’s brother Larry tells her “winning is all in the mind! If you think you’re going to lose, you will lose – but if you’re sure you’re going to win, you will win!” Impressed, Lou works on boosting her confidence. She tries tennis next, but she’s barely got started when she challenges an opponent – without realising she’s Wimbledon standard! Lou comes a cropper over the tennis net and has to report to first aid.

Following this, Lou becomes disheartened, but her father, disappointed at her attitude, encourages her to try again. Lou tries archery, and she’s really smitten by the instructor – what a hunk! But her crush on the instructor is proving a distraction. In her drive to impress she pulls the bow too hard, and her arrow goes wild. While dodging it, the instructor hurts his leg, and now archery’s off at Summerton.

The Lamberts are now over halfway through their stay at Summerton. There will be a Grand Gala Display on the final day, and so far, nothing for Lou to show there.

Then, while watching Lynn practise athletics, Lou meets Monica. After hearing Lou’s story, Monica tells her that she failed at those sports because she was on her own when she tried them. What she needs, says Monica, is a sport where she will have the support of a friend. So she pursuades Lynn to try riding: “A girl’s best friend is her pony!”

Lynn is apprehensive, but is surprised to find herself a natural in the saddle and not messing things up at all. Before long, Lou’s family are astonished to see the strides Lou is making at jumping. Monica is going to enter Lou in the jumping competition on Gala Day. It looks like Lou has found her sport at last. Surely nothing can go wrong now.

But of course something can…

Lou doesn’t realise Monica has a grudge against her sister Lynn because Lynn’s superiority at the high jump had her scratch from the Gala Day high jump event. Her revenge is to make Lou foul up at the jumping event by switching her mount, Good Boy, with his evil twin, Bad Lad. She takes further measures to put Bad Lad in a nasty mood for the event, one of which Lou unwittingly foils.

Bad Lad’s threatening to throw Lou when the event begins, but Monica is astonished when Lou not only stays in the saddle but completes clear rounds as well while other riders score faults. Afterwards, Lou says she was too scared to even move and kept her eyes shut – WTF you ask? Yes, it is a puzzle, but the fact remains that Lou did win. So she is among the other Lamberts to receive trophies at the prize-giving and can say she’s a winner at last.

Plot – “I’ll Make You a Winner”

Back home, everyone is surprised at this sports trophy Loser Lou has brought back from Summerton. Lou’s confidence is so high, she’s joined the civic sports club. Only Corinne Fox guesses the trophy was a fluke. Figuring Lou’s as much a duffer as ever at sport, Corinne and her father, who’s on the committee at the club, plot to take advantage of this to get the sports club closed down so he can build a bingo hall on the site.

Fox starts by getting Lou the assistant secretary job at the club, where she’ll be in charge of all the fixtures. The plan is to mislead her on a few details on the events she’s arranging, and for good measure, Corinne throws in some dirty tricks as well.

Their first trick has Lou select a darts team for an event that’s in fact a brain of sports competition. But they didn’t count on Lou knowing so many answers to the sports questions that get asked. Yep, Lou may not be sporty, but she knows heaps about sport thanks to her sporty family. She gives her team so much confidence that they answer brilliantly too, and they win the trophy hands down. To make Fox even more furious, they also impressed the mayoress, who was presenting the trophy, when he was trying to convince her and the council otherwise to get the club closed down.

Next, Corinne tricks Lou into challenging the top-class white water club, without realising they are top windsurfers and it’s a championship event, and nobody in the club is qualified in that sport. But when the Foxes read the paper of the event, they discover Lou has done it again. The weather turned in her favour by turning bad, cancelling the event. What’s more, the lifesaver Lou included on her team saved one of the windsurfers who got caught in the bad weather, which is even more good publicity for the club. Foiled again, Fox!

Lou makes bookings for club members at an activity weekend, but again the Foxes mess up her bookings. Instead of sports activities they find themselves on furniture crafts courses. However, this works out in their favour; the club’s furniture and sports equipment were badly in need of repairs, and now they have the know-how to do some DIY jobs on them.

Lou books a gym display club open day, but bad luck strikes when she puts a bad crick in her back while shifting equipment. The Foxes try to mess up the open day by inviting army gymnasts as guests, but when the guys break equipment because they’re too heavy for it, they offer replacements, so the club gets the new equipment it badly needs.

Deciding the club needs funds, Lou decides on a sponsored canoe race against Chatterton College. Again the Foxes mislead her on just what the Chatterton competition will be like, and they are another lot of Olympic-build powerdrivers all set to outmatch Lou’s team. Corinne throws in a few extra dirty tricks, including putting up a number of misleading signs, to make sure Lou’s team fail. Without realising it, Lou stops her team from falling for any of those signs (she didn’t want them to leave her in the middle of nowhere by following them, as her back was playing up). And within the finishing line, the Chatterton team hit something. Their canoes go down, and Lou’s team wins.

Fox arranges for a football medical expert to sort out Lou’s back, who then introduces her to stage one of a fitness programme the footballers have been using. Lou starts teaching it to the club members in the style that has become her signature since joining: typical Loser Lou bungling, yet things always work out somehow. But what Lou doesn’t realise is that stage two of the fitness programme is at an R.A.F. airfield – and its programme includes parachute jumping practice! If the members don’t participate, says Mr Fox, the mayor and council, who are watching, might close down their hall and turn it into a bingo hall. But neither they nor the footballers are willing to jump, and the spectators are getting impatient.

Lou has arrived late, so she doesn’t know any of this as she handed an automatic-opening parachute kit and told to join the others at the Jumping Tower. The bumbling Lou blunders right through the jumping hole, becoming the first jumper and satisfying the restless crowd. Encouraged by Lou’s (accidental) example, her team follows suit. And so Lou’s civic club wins again.

Impressed that Lou has done what the footballers wouldn’t, the Mayor refuses Fox permission to replace the sports hall with a bingo hall. Instead, he’s giving the members a grant to expand their activities.

All Corinne and her father can do now is give up. “All our plans have failed – because of that Lou Lambert! Somehow, she always lands on her feet!”

Ah, so that explains Lou’s victory over Monica’s sabotage at Summerton.

Thoughts

Lou Lambert comes from a long line of protagonists in girls’ comics who try to prove themselves, but they only seem good for failure and be a walking disaster area at everything they try. As with Lou, their failures can be played for laughs. Or it can be for a sadder purpose, with their being the constant target of bullying and ridicule, along with harsh treatment from their own families for failure, such as in Make Headlines, Hannah! (Tammy) and Tears of a Clown (Jinty). Of course they eventually strike gold and find something they excel at, but the road to success is very bumpy. Added to that, there’s often a schemer at work trying to sabotage them.

Lou is so blessed in having a family who are supportive and encourage her to keep trying. The more usual pattern is for the family to treat the protagonist harshly and write her off as hopeless and good for nothing. Worse, it’s often the family that produces the spiteful schemer out to sabotage them (sisters, cousins). Of course, much the Lamberts’ encouragement comes from belief in the family name (Lamberts are winners) and the family motto, so they won’t hear of her quitting.

Lou’s family could do more to help her, such as helping her with her choices and offering a bit of coaching, but they’re probably too absorbed in their own sports. Lou’s left on her own on what sports to try out at Summerton.

Monica is correct about Lou failing at the various sports because she tried them on her own. In fact, Lou’s pattern was to jump straight into them them without any help, training or coaching (apart from the archery). Moreover, they were all sports she had not tried before, and when she tried them on her own, she did so at the deep end, not the beginner level.

It’s jarring when Monica, the helper, suddenly switches to spiteful schemer out to undermine Lou. It also defeats the whole purpose of the PSL, which was, after all, Lou finding a sports talent of her own and proving it could make her a winner. Instead, you’re left feeling Lou won the trophy by fluke or luck rather than talent. Though she still earned the trophy, considering the stunt Monica pulled on her, we’re left with feeling she has still not really proven talent. It proves Corinna’s point that the win was a fluke. It would have been better for Lou to have won the cup through her own skill and growing confidence, and proven beyond doubt that she had a sports talent.

So, when readers who remember Lou start reading her sequel, they will be wondering if Lou really does prove talent this time. From the cover, one would say not, so why is Lou saying, “I’ll make you a winner”?

Lou certainly has gained confidence by winning the trophy, but is confidence enough? It is disappointing that she is not keeping up the horse riding, the one sport she finally hit her stride on. Instead, she’s pursuing the sports centre and the sports there (table tennis, darts, fitness programmes) in pretty much the same manner she did at the failed sports at Summerton.

The irony is, although Lou’s still bumbling, this time she’s achieving more success through it and it’s helping her to save the day – without even realising what happened in the first place. And Lou’s real talent has surfaced: the talent of always landing on her feet, like a cat with nine lives. This was hinted at with her victory at Summerton, but now it’s confirmed beyond doubt in her sequel.

Such things have been seen before, such as “Simple Simona” (Tammy) – a dopey girl who is perpetually targeted by spiteful schemers, but her blundering ways always foil them in great comic style, without her even realising what happened. But here, Lou’s blundering has the unexpected bonus of things nobody would have thought possible with her before. She has not only become more confident but has also become a confidence booster, inspiring confidence, inspiration and success in others.

Lou may not be winning sports trophies, but she is proving herself a winner in other ways and making whole new strides with success in sport that nobody ever expected – herself included. As Corinne says, “The civic sports club was only half alive before she turned up and my dad had almost persuaded the council to close it down.” Now Lou is not only saving the club (without realising it) but giving it a whole new lease of life as well. She is surprising everyone – even the Foxes – in being able to tackle things far better than expected, such as selecting the darts team. Lou is also handling the sports fixtures far better than expected, and if not for the sneaky Foxes messing things up, she’d be doing a brilliant job of it. And she is doing a most enthusiastic, passionate job of improving the club and its members, and helping them to grow even more than before.

The irony is, it started with Mr Fox giving her the assistant secretary job in the hope it would help him close the club. Instead, it does the opposite. Moreover, rather than falling flat on her face in her new job, it gives her another boost of confidence and whole new windows in achieving success, including new-found skills in management, leadership, and inspiring others. Even without becoming a sports champion and winning trophies like the rest of her family, she is making her mark on the club and the world of sport. The club would not be the same without her, and readers are left satisfied that Loser Lou will get along just fine now.

Sisters of the Secret Pool

Judy, , ,

Plot

After Jane and Jill Hardiman’s parents die, their grandfather takes them to live with him in his isolated house in a cave which also holds a secret pool that has healing powers and gives them extra strength. The girls and their grandfather are guardians of the pool and use it for people and creatures in need that they come across.

Notes

  • Art: John McNamara

Appeared

  • Sisters of the Secret Pool – Judy: #680 (20 January 1973) – #698 (26 May 1973)
  • Reprinted – Lucky Charm: #30 (1984)

The Gold Medal [1966] /Slave of the Watch [1978]

Debbie, , , ,
  • The Gold Medal – Judy: #329 (30 April 1966) – #336 (18 June 1966)
  • Art: Paddy Brennan
  • Reprinted as Slave of the Watch – Debbie Picture Story Library: #05 [1978]
  • Cover Art: Ian Kennedy, Inside Art: John McNamara

Plot

June Laing lived with her strict guardian, Miss Sharpe, who didn’t allow her to have any close friends, as that could interfere with her swimming training. She was determined June would be a British champion and she trained her in secret in a pool at their house. Miss Sharpe had some secrets, and spent time in the attic, where June was not allowed go. One day June is alone in house and finds Miss Sharpe has not locked the attic door properly. There June finds magazine scrapbook about another June Laing and Olympic gold medalist, but all the photos are scratched out! Some of the ceiling of the old house falls,she is knocked unconscious, and Miss Sharpe finds her. She is not pleased to find Jane was in attic, but thinks she doesn’t remember what she saw. A few days later June collapses going home from school (Miss Sharpe has not let her recover from her injury enough). A man Colonel Blount helps June, and insist on bringing her home. He recognizes Miss Sharpe but she cuts him off before he can say too much.

This mystery has spurred June to stand up to Miss Sharpe more, she thinks the other June Laing was her mother but she wonders how Miss Sharpe is involved.  June does well at her first swim competition and she finds out the older June, lost her gold medal because she took money for advertising swim wear and was no longer considered an amateur. She also finds out Colonel Blount’s daughter Jessica was June’s biggest rival, but Miss Sharpe hurries her away before she can talk to them. When June asks if someone could lose their medal for taking money for advertising, it brings on a headache for Miss Sharpe. Soon after a coach interested in June, sneaks in to the backyard to see June swim and offers to coach her. Normally Miss Sharpe wouldn’t consider it, but as her headaches are getting worse she relents. Mr Shefford is right that competition spurs on June and her timings improve. June becomes friendly with her rival Anne Clifton, while at her father’s store one day, June. After finds the advert that caused Laing to be disqualified. Mr Clifton tells her more of the story, that Laing claimed to have been tricked by her rival Jessica, but Mr Clifton suspects that it was actually the work of her sister, Janice Sinclair. Miss Sharpe finds them in the shop and after some harsh words, the girls fall out,  but they make up again, when they are both chosen for British team.

Between swimming training and competition, Jane does a bit more investigating into her namesake. She finds out more about Janice who apparently was jealous of June, despite being famous as a first class glider pilot herself. June begins to suspect Miss Sharpe is Janice (especially as Mr Clifton thought she resembled her), but then she sees she is afraid of flying. At the international competitions, Miss Sharpe continues to push June hard and doesn’t allow her to socialise with the other competitors. June barely qualifies for  next stage of the  competition,and Miss Sharpe blames Coach Shefford for being too soft on her. But he tells Miss Sharpe that she’s too hard on June and has never made her feel wanted or loved.  Miss Sharpe seems surprised at this. That night someone sneaks into June’s room to wish her luck and it spurs her on to win her next race. While Miss Sharpe dismisses the visitor as superstitious nonsense, June’s mystery friend is what keeps June going.

June’s is becoming quite famous and offers start pouring in, but she won’t make the same mistake as the older June and she burns them all. While doing this she notices one letter is a personal one, she rescues it and although it is half burnt,  she gathers that it is from her aunt Janice and she wants to meet at the international championships.  When June turns up, it turns out Janice wanted to meet original June to ask her for forgiveness, as it was indeed her that was the cause of the medal loss. June tells Janice, her mother is dead, but then later that night Miss Sharpe arrives and tells her she is her mother!  She confesses that she wanted to make Jane into a champion, to make up for her own disappointment.  She was also her secret visitor, showing that she did care about June, and she forgives her. With the truth out in the open, Miss Sharpe’s headaches go away as they were caused by tension. Her mother now openly affectionate and encouraging June is motivated to do her best and she wins the International gold medal.

Thoughts

While the reader may hope that June will win her swimming competitions and go on to win gold, the real drive of the plot is the mystery. The mystery of Miss Sharpe and June’s mother is quite intriguing, with some good red herrings throughout. Good pacing, means we get more snippets of information inter-weaved with June trying to become a swimming champion. With the case of many of these shorter stories, the end with the explanations and quickly forgiving protagonist, doesn’t work as well. Miss Sharpe/June Laing told her daughter she was dead and didn’t want to show her affection for fear she would lose control of her and she wouldn’t become a swimming champion, and June is very quick to accept that! I think it might have worked better if Miss Sharpe turned out to be the aunt trying to make up for her mistake through misguided means! I do appreciate the story did show us some of Miss Sharpe’s thoughts throughout, showing that all the lies are causing her headaches and her genuine surprise  when Shefford tells her June feels unloved. It makes her a bit more sympathetic and that she started visiting June unseen, showing more affection. Though I still think June is a bit too happy with the revelations of all the lies!

It’s funny that Laing chose the name Miss Sharpe, as she does embody the name with her sharp and harsh demeanor.  The artist (in Slave of the Watch) does a good job  showing the change from her usual stern face to her softer affectionate face when she reveals the truth. June is a sympathetic character throughout, her isolation makes her all the more vulnerable. It is good to see when she gains a friend, she begins gaining confidence and is able to push back against Miss Sharpe’s methods more. Of course while Miss Sharpe has taught her a lot, in the end she wouldn’t have become a champion without encouragement, some affection and a life outside of swimming!

Updated: Reading through some old Judys I realised this is actually a reprint of The Gold Medal, reformatted into a picture story library size with new art. Surprisingly the story is pretty much word for word despite restrictions in the smaller size, a few small things may have been changed but otherwise a pretty straight forward reprint. It wasn’t a long serial but would have been nice to see a few things expanded on, like I mentioned above, perhaps the original story could have down with an extra episode to wrap it up.

The Traitor’s Daughter (1978)

Bunty, , , ,

Published: Bunty Picture Story Library #185

Artist: John McNamara

Writer: Unknown

The recent “Force of Evil” entry raised the theme of a girl battling to clear her father when he is accused of treason. However, it did so in a manner that was totally atypical from the way the theme was usually used in girls’ comics. This story is an example of one way in which the theme was more commonly followed.

Plot

Fifteen-year-old Trixie Collins is the most popular girl at St Anne’s School (we have a horrible feeling this is about to change). Trixie’s best friends are Hazel Begby and Molly Teal. Of course Trixie does have enemies, and they take the form of the jealous, stuck-up Monica Dalby and Freda Morgan. They wish they could take Trixie down a peg. (And is it our imaginations, or do Freda and Monica bear a striking resemblance to Mabel and Veronica from “The Four Marys”?)

After sports day, Trixie is surprised to find a note in her shoe from Dad, Professor James Collins, a British scientist. He says to meet him at the tennis courts that night, and it’s urgent. This has Trixie very worried and she wonders if something is wrong, seeing as how Dad phoned to say he could not make it to her sports day.

At the tennis courts, Dad says that things are going to happen that are going to make Trixie very unhappy. But she must be brave, trust him, and not be ashamed, whatever happens. Then he departs, without really explaining what is going on.

Next day, the newspapers give Trixie her answer: Dad has been arrested for selling government secrets to a foreign power. Now Trixie is branded “a traitor’s daughter”, and becomes shunned and bullied. Girls are saying she should be expelled. The headmistress Miss Henderson says she will let Anne stay, though she says she will be surprised if Trixie has any friends left. And of course the jealous Monica and Freda finally have their chance to take Trixie down a peg, and set out to milk Trixie’s downfall for all its worth.

Even Molly and Hazel have gone against Trixie – or so it seems. They are just pretending they are in order to protect her from any nasty schemes Monica cooks up. Trixie begins to suspect they are secretly friendly when Molly deliberately hurts herself so Trixie, reduced to reserve on the swimming team, can swim for the school. The school does not cheer for Trixie when she wins, and the rival school can’t understand why.

The bullying gets worse when Dad is found guilty of treason; Trixie finds her room vandalised (as shown on the cover). Then, when there is a television report that Dad has escaped from prison, Trixie can’t take anymore and tries to run away. Molly and Hazel stop her, revealing that they are indeed secretly friendly and feeling guilty about not being more courageous earlier. Trixie pledges to keep their secret and has more strength to endure her ordeal now she knows she has friends.

The police speak to Trixie about her father. She declares that she will do what he says if he contacts her, even if he was guilty, and will not report him. After she goes, the police tell Miss Henderson they can now make their plans accordingly. Soon after, Trixie receives a sealed envelope from Dad saying it is top secret and not to open it. She is to keep it in a safe place, but someone steals it, and Monica was around at the time. Meanwhile, a new porter named Jobling starts work at the school.

That night the thief (kept in shadows) hands over the envelope to her father. When he opens it he finds it is just blank paper: “You silly, little fool, you’ve been tricked.” He tells the thief to try again for the real papers, so the thief searches Trixie’s study again. But the thief gets surprised by Miss Henderson, and has to knock her out with a hockey stick in order to escape. When the police investigate, they find the incriminating hockey stick on Trixie.

In private, Miss Henderson tells Trixie that she does believe Trixie’s protests of innocence. For the moment, though, they have to let the school think otherwise. Miss Henderson tells Trixie that next time she wants something looked after, she is to hand it over for safekeeping in the school safe, and make sure the whole school sees her do it. Trixie ponders as to how Miss Henderson knew about the envelope when she didn’t tell anyone. (Hmm, could Miss Henderson be another secret friend?)

At a hockey match with a rival school (and no cheers for Trixie, not even when they win the match), Monica tries to whack the hockey ball at Trixie’s head. However, a quick catch from Jobling saves Trixie from injury. The sports mistress is suspicious of Monica but has no proof, so she can only give Monica a warning. Afterwards, Trixie finds another sealed envelope from Dad, with instructions to hand it over to Miss Henderson and let people know what she has done. To make sure of this, Trixie hands it to Miss Henderson during assembly.

A few days later it is school prize-giving time. Monica and Freda are furious to see that Trixie is being awarded the prize for best scholar. When Monica’s father visits, he asks her about the envelope Trixie was sent, and is infuriated to learn that it was handed over to Miss Henderson for safekeeping, which means it is in her safe. Mr Dalby works in the same department as Trixie’s father and thinks the letter may be a clue as to his whereabouts. They do not realise Jobling is in earshot.

Dalby and Freda’s parents make their way into Miss Henderson’s study, saying they are very displeased that Trixie has been allowed to remain at the school and even threaten to withdraw Freda because of it. Miss Henderson stands her ground on letting Trixie stay. After the prize giving (where nobody applauds except Hazel, Molly and their parents) Dalby tells Monica to get Trixie expelled, for he just has to get his hands on that letter. So Monica sets about planting her medal on Trixie to get her expelled for stealing. She does not realise Jobling is watching her do it while cleaning the windows. But when Jobling reports to Miss Henderson, he says it was Trixie that did it!

Trixie is expelled and Jobling escorts her to the train. As she leaves the school, Miss Henderson hands her the envelope. Monica sees this and reports to her father. Trixie does not realise Jobling has also boarded the train.

On the train, two thugs confront Trixie, claiming to be police officers. That doesn’t work of course, so they try to make a grab for the envelope. But real police officers burst in and arrest them. Dalby, who is also on the train, discovers his men have been captured. He tries a getaway by jumping off the train, but Jobling stops him and soon Dalby is under arrest as well.

Jobling is now revealed to be…yes, Dad in disguise! Dad explains it was all a plan to trap Dalby. Dalby was the real traitor selling government secrets to the enemy. Dad managed to recover some of the documents but couldn’t prove anything. So he ended up taking the rap. Those envelopes were bait to catch Dalby, and Miss Henderson was part of the plan to catch him (though just how or why she came to be in on it is not explained).

Now Dad has been cleared, Trixie is no longer under a cloud at St Anne’s. A humbled Monica is “banished the school” (they could have phrased that better).

Thoughts

All right, for this story to make sense, either one of two things had to be going on: 1) the whole thing had been a sting operation from start to finish to flush out Dalby. Dad agreed to be falsely convicted and then sprung from prison so he could go undercover to help flush out Dalby, and he had been working with the police and Miss Henderson the whole time. Or 2) Dad’s conviction was genuine. But by the time he escaped (assuming that was not done with connivance), the police had realised they had the wrong man and begun to suspect Dalby. They caught up with Dad and then concocted the sting operation, with help from Miss Henderson.

Either way, Dad was more fortunate to have so many people to help him when he was falsely accused of treason. Usually, such Dads have little more than their family to stand by them. If they are forced to go into hiding they pretty much have to rely on themselves and secret contact with their families, as in “That’s My Girl!” from Mandy. We really applaud Miss Henderson, the headmistress who is more helpful than most in girls’ serials, particularly in stories that deal with bullying. There are not many headmistresses in girls’ comics who are willing to take a crack on the head for their pains, so Miss Henderson is definitely one of the best ever in girls’ comics. We also praise Hazel and Molly, who showed that they really were Trixie’s best friends. Though they don’t get the chance to help unmask Dalby or Monica, they help give Trixie the strength to get through her ordeal and not give in, which helps the undercover operation to continue its course.

From the moment we see the cover, we know what the poor girl on the cover will go through in the course of this story. We bleed inside for her already because it looks so horribly ugly and disturbing. The bullying and ostracism that Trixie undergoes is a very sad but realistic reaction to the charges against her father. In real life, when someone is accused of a crime, their whole family can become ostracised and harassed, just because they are related to him/her and have committed no crime themselves. We all cry for Trixie and we agree with her that it is so unfair to be treated so badly as the ‘sins’ of the father fall upon his child, who had nothing to do with the treason. The demands that Trixie be expelled for what her father is accused of are totally unfair as well, as they are not crimes she committed.

It is no surprise that Monica, the girl who hates Trixie the most, turns out to be linked to the man who did the dirty on Trixie and her father. This is a common thing in girls’ serials that deal with false accusations. We can certainly see where Monica got her nasty nature from. She does not seem to be aware that her father is the real traitor; he has led her to believe that the envelopes contain clues to Collins’ whereabouts, not that they contain secret documents. However, the lengths she goes to in order to get the envelopes (kayoing Miss Henderson, framing Trixie for theft) show just what she is capable of. If she had known her father’s true motives, she might have helped him anyway. Hopefully her humbling and the shame of her father going down for treason will deter her from going down any dark paths in future.

Everybody Wants Nancy / Everybody Wants Wendy

Judy, ,

Plot

When Nancy Brown arrives in Westport to stay with her uncle and aunt, she finds to her surprise that she is the only child of school age  in the whole town. It means lots of people want her to do jobs for them.

The story appeared again with some changes in Everybody Wants Wendy, the episodes are didifferent but same basic storyline.  This time Wendy Brown is the only young person in Westport because all the local children have gone on a school trip. Again everyone is looking for her to do jobs for them, it is humorous but not as cartoonish as the previous version.

everybody wants nancy(Everybody Wants Nancy –  1960s : George Ramsbottom)

 

everybody wants wendy(Everybody Wants Wendy – 1970s)

Notes

  • Art: George Ramsbottom (Everybody Wants Nancy – 1960s)
  • Art: John McNamara (Everybody Wants Wendy – 1970s)

Appeared

  • Everybody Wants Nancy – Judy:  #21 (04 June 1960) – #30 (06 August 1960)
  • Everybody Wants Wendy – Judy:  #802 (24 May 1975) – #813 (09 August 1975)

 

Margie’s Magic Book / That Girl’s Me!

Judy, Mandy, ,
  • Margie’s Magic Book – Judy PSL: #246 [1983]
  • Reprinted as That Girl’s Me!–Mandy PSL: #267 [1997]
  • Art: John McNamara

Plot/ Thoughts

This is one of these stories where the protagonist has to deal with her magical double. This was originally printed in 1983, then in 1997 it was reprinted with a name change. I think the second title suits the story better. Margie’s Magic Book implies Margie doing spells when in reality she uses it once, then her other self hides it so she spends most of the story looking for it to reverse the spell.  So I wouldn’t really call it her book. “That Girl’s Me!” seems to sum up what the story’s about more accurately.

The protagonist, Margie is a nice girl, though not the most outspoken or highest of school achievers. For a school project about local superstitions and legends, she researches a legend of Old Mother Wily a witch and goes to the ruins of her cottage. There she finds the magic book which releases her other self.

Her  double describes herself as the Hyde to her Jekyll, the part of her that dares to do what Margie won’t. Of course the whole Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde story didn’t end too well for the Jekyll. These Jekyll and Hyde type stories that were common in these comics, and often did not end well for the good protagonist. In one Judy story “The Image of Iris” Iris’s double Siri ends up trapping Iris and taking her place permanently.

But Back to Margie and her double. Her double starts taking Margie’s place and making trouble. Usually Margie showing up just in time to receive the trouble.  The Double excels at table tennis and annoys the previous champion and insults her as well.  The Double also excels in schoolwork but she also insults teachers. When Margie turns up at school it’s her that has to face the gang of girls that the Double has  annoyed but her double helps out with a bit of magic, and sets a dog on them.

Margie knowing that her double is using the magic book to learn spells, follows her double to find where she has hidden it. Later while her double takes her place in a race, Margie takes the book and hides it in a new place.

Later she goes back for it but her double appears, she asks Margie to trust her and she’ll fix everything.

Honestly she doesn’t look trustworthy, she looks more creepy and evil but Margie figures she can’t defeat her so she gives in. The Double does a spell from the book and she disappears. Margie feels happier and more confident. Turns out they have merged. She finds herself excelling in running and table tennis, though her academics slip a bit which she figures is her old self slipping out. Overall she’s happy herself and her double make a good team.

So things work out for Margie, but throughout the story there is a bit of suspense on how things will work out. At times the double does try to help Margie, but at the same time the artwork can depict the Double in much more creepy and evil light, that we can’t be sure of her motivations.