Tag Archives: mystery

The Millpark Mystery! \ Help….

Bunty, Mandy, , , ,
  • M240_millpark_mysteryThe Millpark Mystery! – Mandy PSL: #240 (1996)
  • Artist: Carlos Freixas

Plot

Three friends Ruth, Anne and Teri are starting a new school after their old school closes down. They are a bit nervous about their first day and it does not start out well. They have a run in with a group of troublemakers, led by a girl named Mel.  They don’t make a good impression with the other students either or with one of the teachers, Mrs. Stead.  The only highlight of their first day is for Anne who is a computer fanatic, she is happy to see that Millpark has better computer facilities than their old school. The girls think they will get in more trouble when another teacher catches them in the computer room. They are pleasantly surprised when Miss. Brown is friendly with them, she is a French teacher and while she says she doesn’t know much about computers but she does encourage Anne’s interest.

The next day they run into the two girls Mel and Patti, but are surprised when some other girls come to their defence. Even Mrs Stead turns out to be more friendly, she was just stressed the first day. They still think Miss Brown is the nicest teacher and are surprised to hear that no other students or teachers seem to like her. They see a different side to Miss Brown when she sticks up for Mel’s gang over their new friends and later they see her giving money to Mel. They follow Miss Brown and see her going for French lessons. They decide they have to solve this mystery. Miss Brown seeing them nosing around, tells them she’s not really a teacher but a policewoman, undercover.

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Although she doesn’t tell them what she’s investigating the girl’s suspect it has something to do with Mel. Later Anne meets Mel at computer shop and gets talking to her, she tells her that Miss Brown buys her games, one is particularly difficult where you play a hacker. When they are at the school and see police talking about fraud, they see Miss Brown is ready to make a run for it and a phone call proves she is not actually a policewoman. The girls get Mel and her gang to delay Miss Brown while they get the police. Realising Miss Brown was going to let Mel take the fall for the money fraud, Mel is grateful to the girls. The girls are glad to settle into Millpark, although Anne has been put off computers knowing that she must have been  Miss Brown’s second choice to use her computer skills.

Help….

  • B347_helpHelp… – Bunty PSL: #347 (1992)
  • Artist: Eduardo Feito

Plot

Leon a computer whizz, has gone missing. While everyone believes he ran off due to school pressure, his brother Rick thinks that something has happened to him. He confides in Kim of his theory and later in computer studies she believes him. when she sees a message from Leon on her computer screen, it says “Help my name is Leon I am being held prisoner”.  Unfortunately instead of taking the time to read the rest of the message, she runs to show Rick the message but it has disappeared by the time they comes back. Neither her friend Zoe nor teacher Mr. King believe it was there. Kim and Rick have a lead as they know the message came from a striped disk.  Having met the delivery guy earlier, they track him down, and find out that there was 6 disks altogether, 3 were delivered to the school, another 2 to a scientist and the last one to a hospital.

Both Kim and Rick work together to try and find the disks. They find the second disk at the school but it is blank. They track down the scientist, but he wiped the disks as he thought the message was just some game. Kim is reluctant to go to the hospital as her mother works there. Also she worries that Rick’s interest in her is only because he wants her to help him. When she finds his notebook, she finds out a bit more about Rick’s relationship with his brother. He was jealous of Leon and he hopes he can find him and put things right between them. He also mentions how he feels about Kim and wishes they could go out under normal circumstances.  This is enough to convince Kim to sneak around the hospital.

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They find the message from Leon and discover Mr. King is involved with the kidnappers who want Leon to crack a bank code. Before they can read the message further they have to hide from a woman coming into the room. She accidentally spills coffee onto the disk ruining it. Rick and Kim are caught and Kim gets in trouble with her mother. They are taken to see the headmaster, coincidentally at the same time his secretary is about to use the last disk. Seeing the message, Leon is rescued, Mr King is arrested and of course Kim and Rick don’t get into any trouble now the full story is known.

Thoughts

These two short stories have some similarities as they are both set around school and have computer related mysteries. Both seem to have the theme that if a teacher takes an interest in your computer skills you should not trust them! Also both the antagonists are also using computers to try and hack banks.

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In The Millpark Mystery the jumping point for the mystery is Miss Brown’s behaviour and the computer references are more in the background. Early on there is a newspaper headline about money being wrongly transferred into someone’s account. Both Mel and Anne are computer geeks and of course Miss Brown takes quite an interest in the girls computers skills. Miss Brown seems to have a better plan in place than Mr. King. She has a good cover in pretending to be clueless about computers, and has already got Mel set up to be the fall girl. When the girls start investigating her, she is quick to come up with the story of being an undercover police woman.

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Meanwhile Help… jumps straight into the mystery with Leon missing and Kim and Rick having to try and track down the disks with his message. Unlike Miss Brown,  he has no pretence of being nice, Mr King’s nickname is Cannibal King and he looks very shady from the start.  I’m not sure what his plan with Leon was after he got the bank code, presumably he would have him killed as he could identify him, or maybe once he had the money he figured he could skip the country, still it’s not as neat as Miss Brown’s plan.

In Millpark, I like Anne’s attempt to connect with Mel over their common interest, even after the girls think Miss Brown is investigating her. She thinks someone that likes computers can’t be all bad! The girl’s are all very active in trying to discover what is Miss Brown’s story.  Meanwhile Kim’s motives for trying to track down the disks are a bit more blurry. Understandably she’s a bit cautious about wanting to find the hospital disks as she doesn’t want to get into trouble. But a lot of her motive seems to be about Rick rather than helping Leon.  She is worried that Rick is only using her to help find his brother and that he doesn’t really like her as a girlfriend. Once she reads his notepad she is happy to go to the hospital.  It seems a bit self centred, shouldn’t she want to help someone who’s been kidnapped regardless of Rick’s feelings for her!

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I suppose it is a typical teenage reaction (although it is under unusual circumstances). Another teenage response from Kim is she doesn’t tell her parents about the disks so when she gets caught sneaking around the hospital of course she gets in trouble. It’s funny that once the truth comes out, the mother is like if she told her the story from the beginning then she would have gone and gotten the hospital disk for Kim herself! Maybe she should have given her parents more credit!

Both stories are nice little mystery/ adventure stories. The art is fine in both, but I do like Feito’s extra work put into the backgrounds. Of the two stories, I think, Miss Brown makes the better more craftier antagonist. As for the protagonists I think the Millpark girls also win due to Kim being more concerned about her potential romance than Leon. That said I do like Rick, he obviously feels guilty about being jealous and not supportive of his brother. It’s nice that they have a good talk (although it’s off-panel) after Leon is rescued. I also liked the plot of them trying to track down the disks. The story does play up the romance angle, which isn’t bad, it just sometimes makes Kim look like she should get some priorities straight.  I prefer the ending of Help… with her and Rick together rather than Millpark’s  oddly anti-computer message.

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The Locked Room

Judy, M&J, ,
  • The Locked Room – Judy: #1153 (13 February 1982) – #1162 (17 April 1982)
  • Reprinted – Judy: #1459 (26 December 1987) – #1466 (13 February 1988)
  • Reprinted (as Judy Classic ) – M&J:  #188 (17 December 1994) – #195 (04 February 1995)
  • Reprinted and translated into Dutch (as “De afgesloten kamer”) – Debbie #48 (1985).
  • Art: Paddy Brennan

Plot

Susan Brown lives with her parents, her older brother Phil and younger sister Linda. They are a close family, helping each other out and sharing everything. That is until one night something strange happens. First Susan hears and accident on the road, she runs out to investigate and finds a puppy on the road and a car driving away. She settles the puppy in the shed, as he seems to be terrified of the house. The next morning she gets up and can’t find any of her family. She finds one of the rooms locked and her family reappear acting peculiar.

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Her father tells her he has new scientific equipment in the room that can’t be meddled with and that is why it is locked. The family continue to act strangely, they don’t joke or talk naturally. Instead they seem cold and their speech is stilted.  Her mother finds it interesting that Susan thinks they talk strangely, and after this conversation Susan sees them watching a TV programme about learning English.  When she raises concerns with a family friend, already the speech patterns are loosening up. Susan feels very alone and tries to find the secret of the locked room herself.

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She gets an opportunity to search the house when the family leave looking for samples, for an experiment. She finds a furnace with a very high temperature gauge in her father’s office and she also finds a false eyelash in her parent’s room. Later when her father and Phil are using the furnace she burns her hand on the office doorknob and passes out.  She wakes up locked in her room (with bandaged hand) and gets another chance to investigate as the family are missing again.

Finally she gets into the locked room through a trapdoor in the attic. What she finds in there are her parents, Phil and Linda lying unconscious in the room.  Fearing they are dead Susan cries, and her tears un-paralyses her real family. The fake family were actually copies made by miniature aliens that crashed outside their house. They have collected all the metal they needed to repair their ship and fly away. The copies of themselves just melt away.

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Thoughts

This is one of my favourite stories, I mean who couldn’t love a story where the explanation for a family acting strangely is because they are copies being controlled by miniature aliens! It is a good sci-fi story, the mystery of what has happened to the family is interesting. Also what the secret of the locked room is, is quite intriguing, I would have guessed some alien technology or something similar at first. In my first reading I assumed the family were being mind controlled rather than copies (which has been the case in other stories like “The Face in the Crystal”). Also nice change to to see there aren’t sinister motivations, the aliens are just trying to get home and have no interest in taking over Earth.

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So it is a nice pay-off to see what is in the locked room and I do love the image of the little spaceship flying away afterwards. Though one flaw is the ending seems to be full of expository dialogue. First the explanation of why Susan’s tears free the family, then the father’s theory of what has been going on from the aliens crashing and why they locked them up.  Also conveniently the clones melt away clearing up any last bit of evidence. Still other than that it is a solid story.

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There is a lot great imagery in the story and also the contrast of the family and alien family is handled well. It could have been interesting to see the aliens in their actual form, but I think it works well with just having them fly away, and not interact with the family after they are free. It was good to see them try to fit in, and adjust to human life while they are working on their repairs. The real Mrs. Brown was relaxed and a bit scatty, whereas alien Mrs. Brown tries to follow advice from housekeeping magazines, to try and be the best mother. As Susan was out of the house when they took it over, they were not expecting a fifth member of the family. Although they are cold and wooden to Susan and don’t want to her to interfere with their plans, they don’t actively set out to hurt her.  Fake Mr. Brown bandages up her hand when she is hurt and Mrs. Brown tries to follow housekeeping’s advice in being a mother to Susan. Good characters, intriguing mystery and some nice sci-fi explanations.

Double Take

M&J, ,
  • Double Take – M&J:  #178 (8 October 1994) – #187 (10 December 1994)
  • Artist: Juliana Buch

Plot

Toni Dayley’s family move to a bigger, newly built house, down the street from their old home.  Toni notices a new couple with a baby have moved into her old house. She soon becomes friends with the “Baileys” and offers to babysit the baby. Passing by one evening a small fire breaks out in the sitting room and Toni warns the Baileys. After all her help, they decide to name the baby after her. (They had previously been undecided between the names  Hannah and Natalie). Toni is thrilled about this, although she is reminded that her parents had said their was a fire in their house previously and it scorched the same wall.

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After this Toni,  notices similar things keep happening to baby Toni, that happened to her as a baby as well. Like baby Toni’s gran dies, her christening is cancelled when she gets German measles and she comes third in a beautiful baby competition. The one thing that convinces her that it just a bunch of coincidences is that their surnames are different. Then she hears a postman calling Mrs. Bailey; Mrs Dayley,  she realises that she had assumed the family were Baileys when she had answered the door to a delivery man on the first day and he had called them Baileys, mistakenly.

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She goes home and find old photos of her family and sees they are the same as the Baileys/Dayleys. She rushes over to tell them but a new family has moved into the house and the spell seems to have been broken. Toni is sad at first because she feels she has lost friends, but then realises that she still sees them every day as they are actually her  own parents and she is baby Toni!

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Thoughts

So this is a story that involves time travelling, but as the protagonist doesn’t know she’s travelling back in time, the character/story is more focused on the mystery of  the odd occurrences.  There are several hints that she is back in the past. For the most part she only meets the young family at their house, so she does not interact with the past much. Only once do they go to a fair, and Mrs Dayley says comments on the new music, which is old to Toni.  There is also a few incidents where, they comment that they can’t find Toni’s house and she’s like “its the new one” and they brush it off as just not being able to place it, oh well! She is also the only one to interact with the family,  although her present parents arrange to meet family on a few occasions,  something always comes up like the Christening being cancelled.

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While this story isn’t really grounded in reality, in order for the story premise to work, a major plot point is that is that Toni doesn’t see any physical resemblance between her parents and the “Baileys”. Yes they have got older, new haircuts and the such, but Toni doesn’t see any resemblance until she finds an old photo, that seems odd.  It’s only 14 years or so, it seems strange that that they would look so different, also a bit odd that she had never seen old photos of her family!

Another thing is, I wonder what the younger parents reaction to Toni disappearing was.  Considering they named their daughter after this girl and they were going to make her the Godmother, did they ever wonder where she went to? The mother comments on Toni having the same top as an old babysitter, but it doesn’t seem like it brought back terrible memories of a young girl vanishing. Maybe they rationalised it as she moved away quickly or something? But if she recognised the top that a babysitter wore years ago, wouldn’t that trigger memories like wait a minute she was called Toni as well and she looked a lot like you do now! Or maybe I shouldn’t over think this!

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Other than these issues with some plot points, the art is decent, the story is fun, and the characters are likeable. This was printed in the 90s, which was a time where a lot of stories involved romance (which I do like, some of the time too), so this made a nice change, a story with a focus on a mystery and mostly just a girl forming a good friendship with her parents as young adults. There are other stories where girls actually knowingly made friends with younger versions of relatives, but I think her not knowing is part of the charm (even if it does cause some story problems!).

The Four Marys

Bunty, , , , , , , , , , ,
  • The Four Marys – Bunty: #01 (18 January 1958) –  #2249 (17 February 2001)*
  • The Four Marys in the Footpath Fued (text story) -#25(5 July 1958) – #30 (9 August 1958)
  • Writers: Maureen Hartley (2 Stories: “Creefy’s Rival” and “The Mystery Virus”), Rhoda Miller, Judy Maslin [and other unknowns]
  • Artists:
    • Bill Holroyd (#01-#15),
    • Either James ‘Peem’ Walker or Jim Lorimer worked on the story after Holroyd. (1958-1981)
    • Manuel Cuyàs (#434 – #436)
    • Selby Donnison (1980s)
    • Jim Eldridge (Late 1980s – 2000s)
  • *Note: The Four Marys did appear in most issues including first and last issue, but there were times when it had a break or reprinted older stories, to see full list of stories check link below.
  • List of Appearances 

Plot

Four girls all named Mary attend a reputable boarding school, St. Elmos. They become firm friends and usually go by their nicknames Raddy, Simpy, Fieldy and Cotty. Throughout their time they have many adventures and solve some mysteries.

Thoughts

This is one of the most well remembered stories, and that has to be partially due to its longevity. A 40 year run is quite impressive. The strip appeared in the majority of the issues but wasn’t a continuous run from first to last issue. There was a couple of breaks particularly in the 80s, though they never went away for too long. There were some reprints over the years particularly towards the end of Bunty.

1950s/1960s

The first 15  issues were drawn by Bill Holroyd, and each girl had their own distinctive look.  The early years had an Enid Blyton tone to the stories, they had the usual boarding school routines,  as well as chase up some mysterious going-ons.

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While all the girls had their own personality and talents, Mary Simpson was probably one of the most inspirational to young girls. A smart working class girl, that had earned her place in a good school, yet had to contend with being looked down on by some snobs. Bunty in the late 50s was aimed at a more working class background and at the time it was quite a novelty to put a scholarship girl as a main character.  Overall it seems the big appeal of the story was the relationships and friendship of the girls. (Mel Gibson discusses such things in her essay: What Bunty did next….)

While it’s true that the friendships were very important, probably most people had their favourite Mary. Personally I always had a soft spot for Mary Cotter, the talented but often shy and clumsy Mary. Mary Radleigh was the daughter of an Earl but also hated anyone putting on airs and graces, she was loyal and down to earth and also could be lazy. Mary Field was the active sports mad girl, that could be a little too pushy at times. Of course 2 other regular characters were the snobs; Mabel and Veronica, who disliked Simpy for her lower class upbringing and the Marys in general for being popular and goody two shoes!

The boarding school itself was full of traditions. Dr. Gull was the head mistress, sometimes known as the Squawker (and the first years were called the Newts). While the girls were allowed to go to the local town, Elmbury, they were expected to behave appropriately, wear their full uniform and there were certain shops they weren’t allowed visit. Miss Creef was the third form mistress, who held up the various traditions but was also described as firm but fair.

Story arcs from this decade included; a mystery surrounding  a hermit teacher Miss Johnson who turns out to be a former student; Lady Josephine Bramily. She has amnesia after a boating accident. Luckily, Mary Simpson and head girl, Ann Fairlie, help her  recover her memories so she can go reclaim her inheritance. Another mysterious teacher Miss Mandy seems to have hidden past with a young cockney that involves thieving. The girls help a young girl Hilda secure a job as maid in the school, only to discover someone’s out to get her fired.  Mary Cotter damages her eye in a lab accident and  nearly does worse damage when she mixes up eye ointment with a bottle of bleach, luckily Simpy catches her in time, and eventually Cotty’s eyes recover (although by the end of the series, her eyesight declines and she ends up having to get glasses!).  Simpy is expelled for stealing, but the girls investigate and find the real culprit who had set up Simpy as vengeance against Simpy’s father. A group of girls dub themselves ‘the avengers’ and punish any girl that has done any wrong doing. Simpy discover that it is Raddy and Fieldy doing such things after they let her join them in dunking a cheating prefect Avril in a bath.

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Early on the stories usually consisted of 2 pages, though later this got expanded to 3 pages. The girls interestingly didn’t refer to each other by nicknames, for the first few years they continued to just call each other Mary. I’m not sure when exactly the change happened but it made sense to start giving them each a distinctive name to be referred as.

1970s

There was a lot of reprinted stories in the 70s.  It was quite common to reprint shorter serials in these comics and with a long running strip like the Four Marys it may have been hard to keep the weekly turnover of new stories. Presumably it was also thought that readers of the first printing would have outgrown the comic by then.

Some of the new stories included; the school being threatened by a flood. A cycle trip with the cycle club led by Miss Creef, Mabel and Veronica mess with Simpy’s old bike in the hopes of getting back to the school earlier. Simpy manages to borrow an old 3 wheeler bike and enter in a race. She doesn’t win but the winner gives her the prize of a new bike for being so entertaining. Cotty believes she is under a gypsy curse and those close to her are getting harmed, it turns out to be a combination of  Mabel and Veronica playing some tricks and a scheme to take over the school. Raddy has trouble looking out for her cousin Sonia.  A feud between Mr Crowe, a local farmer, and the school starts over the school using the right of way to walk through his land.

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1980s

Like I mentioned before the 80s saw the Four Marys on some breaks. On one of these breaks the regular ongoing story had some similar themes, involved 3 friends in a ballet boarding school called The Three Imps. Perhaps they were testing out permanent replacements or maybe they just needed a break, but the Marys did return again and with a new artist. At the end of the 80s a new format seemed to settle with the Marys. With them being the first story in the issue, and the more modern School’s Out (which was replaced with The Comp by 1989) as the last story of the issue. Dr Gull had been replaced by the more forward thinking Miss Mitchell, and the girls even got to interact with boys from St. Bartophs boarding school.  The end of 1989 was also when Bunty got a new colour update. While some stories were still in black and white, The Four Marys were now fully coloured.

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Some stories in the 1980s include the girls rallying a strike to stop Miss Creef being dismissed after a fall out with Dr Gull. A group of unruly circus girls joining the school temporarily. A new American pupil Lana  gets elected captain of the Bee’s House and wants to hold up all St. Elmos traditions including challenging the village boys to a football match, running barefoot down to the town and raising the house flag on the clock tower. A mystery involving the school’s founder Margaret Carews actual death. A temporary Home Economics teacher who has been secretly keeping her toddler daughter at the school. A competition sees the Marys all split up into different teams, this causes problems but in the end they all come together. St Elmo’s comes under threat of closure when they start to lose students, of course the school is saved with the help of the Marys.

1990s/ 2000s

So the 90s started with the Four Marys in colour and now expanded to 4 pages. The Four Marys was trying to change with the times, with the more up to date Miss Mitchell, continuing to modernise the school, and even Cotty stopped wearing her hair in 2 plaits. The girls were now frequently seen out of uniform as they were able to wear their regular clothes down town and like I mentioned before they were even mixing with boys. Still even with this more modern tone, the girls still has familiar adventures; dealing with new teachers with hidden agendas, threats to the school and tests of their friendships. By the end of the 90s earlier stories were reprinted a lot.

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Stories in the 90s included; Mary Field having trouble when her cousin becomes her teacher, causing the other girls to think she’s a teacher’s pet. The girls go on a trip to America with Miss Creef and help foil a jewel thief. The girls try to help a girl they believe is being held captive. It turns out the wheelchair bound, Ailsa, who just has an overprotective aunt, but agrees to let her join St. Elmos. When a famous fashion designer comes to St. Elmos to unveil her new collection, it seems someone is out to sabotage her.  A story set in the past shows the Marys first term in St. Elmos. Raddy gets held captive by robbers who coerce Miss Mitchell into letting them hide out the school. The other Marys soon get suspicious of the new “gardener” and Miss Mitchell’s story that Raddy was sent home sick.

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In the final story for The Four Marys, it looks like they will be split up when Cotty fails her exams and will have to leave St. Elmos. Luckily she passes her resit test, Raddy gets elected as form captain and Simpy ends the strip on line “The Four Marys forever”

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Final Thoughts

The Four Marys certainly had lasting power, although by the 80s/90s I think they were considered somewhat old fashioned, and so there was changes made to modernise them. At the same time the Marys were permanently stuck in the 3rd form, similar story-lines were repeated and in some ways they felt quite worn out. Still they appealed to a lot of readers. Personally growing up I did enjoy the Four Marys but I  was definitely more interested with The Comp. Funnily reading back the older issues even though it was before my time I actually find the 60s stuff appealing to me more, the art was more simplistic and it had a nice charm with the setting and stories. I think sometimes the Marys could come off a little too good and helpful at times, but still they weren’t without their flaws and their solid friendship it seems is one of the things that interested people.

The art changed a lot over the years and while the artists all did well, my personal favourites are  James Walker (60s) and Selby Donnison (80s).  There was a lot of adventure, mystery, fun and characters that you could get invested in.

Quick Links:

The Four Marys – Characters                                List of Appearances 

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The Secrets of Charlie Chatterbox

Bunty, , ,
  • The Secrets of Charlie Chatterbox – Bunty: #1603 (1 Oct 1988) – #1615 (24 Dec 1988)
  • Artist:  Norman Lee

Plot

Fiona Parker is given an old ventriloquist dummy named Charlie. Only Charlie can really talk and he convinces Fiona to start performing with him. Money is tight for her and her mother, who is a widow. Mrs. Parker is working all hours to provide for them, so Fiona sees this as an opportunity to help out. Things don’t run smoothly for Fiona when Charlie  causes problems by insulting people. Also she is worried as he seems to have an agenda of his own.

They make an enemy of a wealthy influential woman, Mrs. Grant, when Charlie insults her. When Mrs. Grant tries to get her own back, Charlie  soon puts her in her place as he knows some of her family secrets. Charlie is eager to tour about the old theatres, and when Fiona catches the eye of agent Ted Alcorn, they get their opportunity to tour.  Fiona starts to suspect Charlie is up to something when she finds him rooting around Alcorn’s office.

He also scares Fiona at times, and he comes across as threatening. She is particularly cautious after an old stage hand, Bob,  appears to have been attacked and Charlie has blood on his sleeve. Fiona gains some advantage with Charlie as she realises he needs her to carry him around. Then they get an opportunity to appear on TV, while on TV he sings his special song and it appears to have affect on another doll Daisy-Belle, who is owned by two old ladies. Meanwhile Mike Harris, a reporter, is investigating Charlie, after a magician  Solesto who tried to steal Charlie, and who claimed Charlie could talk. Harris follows Charlie, but Charlie gets the better of him locks him in a shed. He goes for Daisy Belle who is delighted to see him. He wants Fiona to perform with both of them. Instead Fiona decides to retire and gives Charlie to the old ladies. Mrs. Parker has put away enough money to open up a shop, so money won’t be a problem any more. Mike not being able to report on the talking dummy, writes a “fictional” novel about Charlie, which gets turned into a film. He shares the profits with Fiona and also ends up marrying her mother.

Thoughts

This is a story that can go in the classic list. It is mysterious and creepy, with good characters and nice atmospheric art. The story was published around the same time as horror film Child’s Play came out. The film has Charles “Chucky” Lee Ray a serial killer possess a doll. So while there is no serial killer aspects to this story there does seem to be a few similarities. But The Secret of Charlie Chatterbox is actually the scarier of the two and definitely the better story.

There is a slow build up to what it is Charlie is after, you also don’t know what he is capable of doing to get what he wants and Fiona definitely doesn’t know whether to trust him. He is quite nasty to Fiona at times, calling her stupid and threatening/blackmailing her. The readers do see some sort of a redemptive side to him when the old stage hand sees Charlie walking around, he has a heart attack and Charlie tries to help him. Charlie calls an ambulance, but he does let Fiona believe it was him that attacked him to keep her doing what he wants.

He makes trouble for Fiona with other people on the theatre tour, being rude to them. Charlie also keeps Fiona going along with things by making her feel guilty about her mother working all the time. When Fiona gives out to him about his rudeness, he makes things difficult by not speaking on stage. In the end though he has a rough manner, his objective is to find his love Daisy Belle.  He would not really go through with any threats.

The story is developed well. There is a nice progression in the story. Even hints of what Charlie is after, such as when he gets upset when Fiona says she doesn’t care who he used to sing his song to. The character of  Mrs Grant and her daughter could have been the typical snobs and antagonists throughout the whole thing, instead she is quickly dealt with and the plot moves on focusing more on Charlie. Mrs. Grant after being insulted, fires Mrs. Parker so you are glad to see her get her comeuppance when Charlie reveals her family secrets on stage. But it also shows Charlie’s nasty streak and that he obviously has a lot of knowledge and history.

The dynamic between Charlie and Fiona is well done. Fiona is doing the gig to help her mother and sometimes Charlie scares her. But at the same time she isn’t afraid to argue with him and point out his rudeness. She also gets the better of him at times like when he won’t speak she starts singing his song to get a reaction out of him. Charlie can be scary particularly in the early issues. But he also is very set on achieving his goal. So rather than any real maliciousness on his part, he is just trying to reunite with his love, which sometimes makes him oblivious to others around him. Its interesting to see how Fiona and Charlie interact together.

While Fiona and Charlie have the main dynamic, side characters do get a bit of time too. Mike is an ambitious reporter, knowing he could have a great story on his hand, but he is also a nice guy he is actually concerned about ruining Fiona’s career if he tells Charlie’s story.  Eddie and Liz are acting as chaporones to Fiona, they seem to mostly be there to get the brunt of Charlie’s rudeness, but they do try to help Fiona out.

How Charlie and Daisy Belle could talk in the first place is never explained. They touch on it in the last issue but it is a  bit of a cop out as they say we’ll never know!

 

But on the other hand the focus of the story is more concerned with Charlie finding Daisy Belle and his relationship with Fiona. So I guess there really isn’t a need to know why he can talk and it can be fun to come up with theories.

So my verdict is this was a good strong story, nice build up to its conclusion, a good mystery and creepy in parts. It is also well drawn, the framing and use of shadows to make Charlie more imposing despite his size, is good and the character of Charlie should be remembered as one of the greats.

 

Letters of Hate

Bunty, , ,
  • Letters of Hate –  Bunty: #1678 (10 March 1990) – #1686 (5 May 1990)
  • Artist: Tom Hurst

Plot/Thoughts

This story is narrated by Gemma, her life isn’t going so well, these days, her boyfriend Mike dumped her and her father has lost a job.  So she isn’t having a great time, but she still seems surprisingly upbeat. She brushes off Mike having a new girlfriend as no big deal and encourages her father to keep going for interviews. Then people in her school start getting poison pen letters. Janice is called out for being spotty, Ben and Abigail break up after he gets a note that Abigail spent evening with another guy. Gemma and her friends Cathy and Laura decide to play detective and find out who is sending the letters.

Spoilers! In the end the shocking twist is  that Gemma is the  culprit herself! Having protagonists be the person behind nasty tricks was one of those plots that would pop up sometimes. The story tries to steer towards other suspects, even in the first issue two girls Babs and Josie are highlighted to be mean gossips, so later on they become suspects. In the second issue Gemma herself gets a nasty letter. Again this was common to have the supposed victim be behind everything.

The letters are written in different methods, so these clues to lead them to new suspects. In one instance a letter is typed right after girl bragging about new typewriter. Conveniently Gemma always is on her own when a letter arrives. When  Gemma and Laura decide to hide in the classroom waiting for the writer, Gemma goes to tuck shop and it turns out a letter appears in another class. Next a letter is sent with cut out comic bookletters (Bab and Josie are suspects). Later Gemma and Laura find spare letters in cloakroom they are surprised that they are beside best friends Cathy’s peg. When Cathy is off sick the next day the rule her out,

Throughout the story Gemma’s ex Mike and his new girlfriend Dawn pop up. Her thought bubbles reveal she still wants him back even though she says she she doesn’t mind outwardly.

Mike and Dawn both become suspects, when they find a typed list of names including most of the victims. It is actually a party list and typewriter doesn’t match.

Cathy meanwhile has figured out why the crooked M on typewritten note looked so familiar, it’s Gemma’s. So Laura and her confronts Gemma and yes she did it because she was having a miserable time. Some people who got notes was just to make them miserable too, others like a girl Tania got a note because she disliked her for beating her in a race. Of course Gemma loses all her friends after everyone knows what she has done. She seems quite surprised by this.

Again its not breaking any new ground, but at least some of the suspects like Cathy, Mike and Dawn seem possible and less obvious than earlier suspects. Gemma seems a bit oblivious to the consequences but her motivation is plausible.  She is not an overly vicious character, she did a terrible thoughtless things, more because misery likes company than any real spite. But in the end its good to see her get what she deserves. The art is solid. Some stories have settings that gives the artist lots to explore with like old style Victorian, or futuristic sci-fi, or even having crazy pets but with stories set in a modern era schools, there can seem to be less to play around with.  Still the expressions are subtle, characters are distinctive and while there isn’t lots of action it is still nice nice and consistent.

Amber

Judy, , ,
  • Amber – Judy Picture Story Library: #348
  • Artist: ?

Plot/Thoughts


I really like the cover for this book.  The colours, the overall image just really catches my eye. This was also one of my favourite ‘psl’ when I was younger.  I liked the mystical, mythological elements and the treasure hunt had a sense of urgency about it.  The characters are likeable and the art is simple but effective. I particularly like the drawings of Amber the mystical princess.

The story involves a school trip to the Greek Islands. Susan Barlow is an eager scuba diver so she is looking forward to exploring. She is is not so excited when the class is allocated  rooms alphabetically and she is stuck with Helen Basnet, a history geek. As school trips go its not very well organised or else the teachers are just very irresponsible! I’m guessing the protagonists are meant to be 16ish as they seem old enough to do their own thing but still be in school. At the same time they have no supervision. The teacher allocates the rooms at the start and then we don’t see any teacher again. I guess they are old enough to wander around themselves in their free time, but there doesn’t seem to be any group trips, they just bring the class to the Islands and dump them there, for all they know half the class could be sneaking drinks instead of exploring. Even some of the stuff Susan gets up to isn’t exactly safe,  and yet no adult supervision!

So Susan goes off scuba diving on her own. She discovers a cave that has been revealed after an earth tremor. She comes across a bock of amber with a girl inside, and is naturally freaked out when the girl opens her eyes. She swims back to surface and rationalizes that she must be over tired. Still a bit unsure she goes back to check. The girl is still there and this time she speaks to Susan. She introduces herself as Princess Diocastelyros and tells Susan she was trapped in the Amber by enemies and the only way she can be freed is when the stars are rightly aligned and combined with certain ingredients and a spell. Susan decides to call her Amber for short which the Princess isn’t happy with and is about to be nasty about it until she realizes she needs Susan’s help.

Susan first needs to get the list of ingredients “in the place of wisdom where Apollo lies at dusk”. As she can’t figure out what it means she enlists Helen’s help by pretending it’s a treasure hunt. “Apollo lies at dusk” means sunset and “place of wisdom”  is a temple dedicated to Athena. So they go to the temple and at sunset and a stone is illuminated, so Susan goes to touch it and it turns out to be booby trapped.

So this is the first time Susan is nearly killed or seriously injured. Both girls take the near death experience well and rig up some planks so they can get the scroll. Susan tells Helen about Amber but she thinks she’s just playing a joke on her, but she agrees to help anyway. Some of the ingredients seem unusual such as a “unicorn’s mane” and a “piece of Sea King’s Throne” so Susan goes to ask Amber for help. Amber calls them idiots for not knowing what the stuff is. A great way to treat people that are helping you! She plays the sympathy card of being stuck in Amber, so Susan will keep on helping her. She helps her get to the Sea King’s Throne by telling Susan where to swim up from the water. Helen meanwhile gets help from a local girl and finds out the a unicorns mane is actually a nickname for a local jellyfish.  They track down the rest of the ingredients except for a black rose and a seafire ring.

Amber decides to remind Susan how important the ring is by suddenly speaking in her head. This leads to second time Susan is nearly killed because of Amber, when she is nearly hit by a car.

They find the black rose with help from the local girl, Kristina. Helen also finds the legend of Amber so she now believes Susan about her existence. Amber came from an underwater empire that was conquered by an evil sorcerer. Amber and her twin escaped and they would have both became ordinary mortals if  a person helped them onto land. At the time there was only a shepherd around and he chose to help Amber’s sister, so Amber ended up getting caught and imprisoned by the sorcerer.

I really liked the legend, although Amber doesn’t seem too distressed to be caught in that picture! Amber tells Susan that her sister had the Seafire Ring and that the stars  will be aligned that night. Helen and Susan go to the beach with all the other ingredients and hope inspiration will strike them about the ring. Luckily Kristina is nearby and the figure out that she is a descendant of Amber’s sister and the shepherd and that her ring is the seafire ring.  So Amber is freed and Kristina accepts Amber into the family, convenient for Susan and Helen too as then they don’t have to worry about the whole adjusting Amber to modern life.

There is a lot I really liked the story; the legend of Amber,  figuring out what the ingredients were, Susan and Helen becoming good friends and that Amber, because of her situation, was a sympathetic  character but she could also be a haughty princess at times, so she wasn’t  always nice and sweet, so a realistic character.

 

“I Want to Dance!”

Bunty, , , , ,
  • I Want to Dance!”–  Bunty:  #1275 (19 June 1982) – #1291 (09 October 1982)
  • Artist: Cándido Ruiz Pueyo  (also used the pseudonym Emilia Prieto)

Plot/ Thoughts

These comics were known for their ballet stories, so I thought it was about time I talked about one. The title may suggest this is the type of story where a young girl is forbidden to dance by her bitter aunt/guardian/whoever, but actually this is set in the future where everyone is forbidden to dance or listen to music.

Yes, music damages your life by encouraging slothful behaviour…so in the year 2082  I guess there’s no TV shows, films, humorous websites, social networking or any other thing that people use these days to procrastinate instead of study/work.

Our  protagonist Denny Dacre, feels different to to her friends and family.  She wants to rebel against study and work and this worries her. Her closest friend is a robot named Miki.

It’s amusing to see in the 80s what the world was imagined to be like in the future. Films like Back to the Future II and even Blade Runner, while being over optimistic in some aspects, in other ways could not guess what technological achievements would be made. Even though we’re still 70 years away from the  setting of this story, there are no Kindles or iPad type devices instead it is imagined that we will have robots to carry our heavy paper books.

So Denny discovers why she feels so different when she finds an old cassette player at some market. When she takes it home and plays it she discovers the music of Swan Lake and she is enthralled by its beauty and wants to learn how to dance to it.

She gets into trouble at school when she can’t concentrate on her work. Later she hears a group of teens talking about wanting to dance. She sneaks out to meet them but is disappointed when they play some illegal disco music and “stamp” around the place.

After listening to one piece of music, already she’s a critic!

Luckily when she’s sent to a boarding school, she finds people who like to dance ballet and is admitted into a secret ballet class that takes place in the basement at night time. The class is run by the mysterious Alana and everyone wears hoods to protect their identities. Hence this kind of creepy image:

Denny figures out who one of the other girls is when she sees a burn on her hand. She thinks that Joanna is a spy as her mother is the Minister for Juvenile Education. She confronts Joanna, but discovers that she is genuinely passionate about ballet too.

There is a lot of sneaking around to try and keep things secret, but Miki learns of the Ballet class. As he is programmed to protect Denny, his logical conclusion is that he must know more about the class. As he is also programmed to obey Denny, she commands him to block out what he knows. This causes him to overload.

 

 Later at the ballet class, the basement floods during a storm, Denny is nearly swept away but luckily Miki revives himself and comes to rescue her. The whole class are brought to the creepy caretaker, Alice’s room. Everyone’s identities are revealed and Denny figures out that Alana and Alice are the same person.

When Joanna goes home she develops pneumonia and ends up blurting out everything about the dance class and who is involved in it. Her mother proceeds to arrest everyone involved and says that her daughter will be punished along with them.

On the day of the trial Joanne takes a turn for the worse and is asking for Denny. So the trial is suspended while Denny goes to see her.  So we never find out what the punishment was going to be, were they going to  be imprisoned, exiled, shunned from society? Joanna is going to die as there is nothing to live for in this world, but Denny gets the idea to save her with the power of dance!

This actually works and the mother is so impressed that the power of dance has brought her daughter back from near death, that she reconsiders the value of music and dance. Just hope she’s not considering it for medical purposes! So the girls are set free and they now have a minister behind them to help overturn anti-music laws.

Ballet, robots, mysterious teacher, oppressive governments, what’s not to like in this story!

Where is Melanie Forbes?

Judy, ,

Plot

After an accident on board a train, orphan Sandie Walsh came to and found she was being used to take the place of another girl called Melanie Forbes in the house of Melanie’s wealthy and adoring grandfather, who was convinced she was his granddaughter.

Notes

  • Writer: Marion Turner (under pen-name: Fiona Turner)
  • Artist: Paddy Brennan

Appeared

  • Where is Melanie Forbes? – Judy: #1167 (22 May 1982) – #1177 (31 July 1982)
  • Reprinted – Judy: #1536 (17 June 1989) – #1546 (26 August 1989)

The Voyage of Runaway Rose

Mandy, ,

Plot

Wrongly accused of stealing a valuable jewel, Rose Hardy fled from her employer’s house in Sydney, Australia, when her story of a mysterious intruder was not believed. By accident, Rose found herself on board the Evening Star, a wool clipper bound for England. When discovered; Rose offered to work her passage—but a sinister-looking man, who called himself Dr Mallory, seemed to resent Rose’s presence on board, and Rose began to suspect that he was not a real doctor at all!

Notes

Appeared

  • The Voyage of Runaway Rose – Mandy: #314 (20 January 1973) – #322 (17 March 1973)