Tag Archives: mystery

Skeleton Corner

Judy, M&J, , , , ,
  • Hallowe’en Story – Judy: #1555 (28 October 1989)
  • The Girl From Further Down – Judy: #1607 (27 October 1990)
  • Tales from Skeleton Corner – Judy: #1632 (20 April 1991) – #1635 (11 May 1991)
  • Tales from Skeleton Corner –  M&J: #11 (27 July 1991) – #41 (22 February 1992)
  • Skeleton Corner  – M&J:  #48 (11 April 1992) – #98 (27 March 1993) [not in every issue]
  • Skeleton Corner  – M&J:  #101 (17 April 1993) – #115 (25 July 1993) [no episode issue #102, #111, #112]
  • Skeleton Corner  – M&J: #129 (30 Oct. 1993)- #194 (28 Jan. 1995) [not in every issue]
  • Artist: Guy Peeters (Judy #1607, JudyAnn93)
  • Artist: Oliver Passingham (Judy: 1632-1635, M&J: 11-41, 48, 50, 52, 58-59,61-63, 65-66, 69, 72, 77, 85-86, 91-92, 98, 101, 103-110,113-115, 122, MandyAnn94)
  • Artist 2: Mike Dorey (M&J: 129-141, 143, 150, 153, 158, 163, 171, 173, 191-194, MandyAnn95)

This is an updated repost of a previous entry (10 years ago!), as I’ve re-read more stories and learned new information.

Plot

There wasn’t an ongoing plot, instead a skeleton, named Bones, introduces short scary stories, sometimes with a moral attached. It was usually 2 to 3 pages long. The stories varied from greedy girls getting what they deserved to innocent people being hassled by gremlins! A few stories focused on Bones and also had him interact with characters and influence outcomes.

Origins

The spooky storyteller was a common appearance in these comics, most famously the Man in Black in Diana and Damian Darke in Spellbound, this story would take the spookiness one step further with a skeleton narrating the tales. The story that would become known as Skeleton Corner, had a quieter beginning then others though, first appearing in a one-off story aptly called Hallowe’en Story in Judy issue 1555 (28 October 1989), a skeleton tells the tale of a poor girl in Victorian London, who gets a much needed job as a sculptor’s model. The sculptor emphasises the importance of being punctual and she is even when it is later discovered that before the last sitting, she was killed! This is a story that I believe was originally a Damian Darke story, though I can’t find the exact issue right now. The Skeleton returned again the following Halloween in issue 1607 with another story The Girl From Further Down. At this point the skeleton has not been named as Bones or there is not mention of Skeleton Corner. Then in issue 1631 (13 April 1991) there is an advertisement for the upcoming issue with the Skeleton saying “Hi girls – it’s me again” and talking about the story Flower Power that will appear in the next issue. From issue 1632 to Judy’s last issue  in 1635, the stories appeared with their own title with the caption “Tales from Skeleton Corner” beneath it. When the stories continued in the Mandy & Judy magazines it followed this format, until issue 59 when the individual titles were dropped and it just became known as Skeleton Corner.

Stories

Comics like Misty and Jinty were better known for their spooky stories, but there was still room for these kind of stories in other comics too.  Skeleton Corner was a bit of a softer approach, to the IPC comics but there were still some gems of stories featured. The storytelling skeleton, Bones, while he may appear scary he didn’t have a creepy personality, he was presented as a more as a friendly person who just happened to be a skeleton. He did set the tone well for the stories, as being a supernatural character that was possibly creepy but not overly disturbing!

There were two main artists for its run Oliver Passingham and Mike Dorey. Guy Peeters also did an early story and some of the annual stories. Whoever was on drawing duties always did a good job, I am a fan of both artists though I think Dorey had an edge on creating a darker tone.

The stories themselves varied and of course being short stories they were sometimes they were limited with the space to work with. Often the stories had a girl who was greedy, selfish or ignored the rules getting a fitting punishment. Other times the main character could be a nice person, who just had the bad luck to move into the wrong house or meet the wrong person. Some of the more effective scary stories were when the ending was left ambiguous with Bones only hinting at what may have happened. There are stories that could leave you quite unnerved, so it had a good mix, of the truly spooky and the stories that were lighter or had more happier endings.

Here’s a selection of some of my favourite stories in publication order rather than a ranking:

 

  1. Watching You! – Judy: #1635 (Art: Oliver Passingham)

Becky Brown keeps seeing a sad figure of a girl in her neighbour’s house which is currently being built. She finally goes to investigate and finds a paint splattered dungarees, which she figures flapping in the breeze was creating an illusion of a figure… but then she turns to see the figure in her own bedroom window. A nice build up as we see Becky get the courage to explore the other house and just when there seems to be a rational explanation, the twist of the figure now appearing in her own bedroom is well done.

  1. What’s in a Name?– M&J: #14 (Art: Oliver Passingham)

Sonia is writing a story for a competition, she decides to make it a romantic story and names the protagonist Pippa Gale. She is surprised when her brother starts dating a girl named Pippa Gale, even more surprising is Pippa has also entered the competition and named her protagonist Sonia Steel. While Sonia and her brother laugh at the coincidence, Sonia doesn’t tell them she is worried as her story is called “The Tragedy of Sonia Steel”

  1. The Longest Night – M&J: #38 (Art: Oliver Passingham)

Rachel’s brother Jon keeps having nightmares about it being dark forever, their gran says it reminds her of a legend of battle between light and dark. When the electricity goes out Jon lights a candle to keep away the dark but nearly starts a fire. They put the candle out, but in the morning it seems there was truth in the story as now darkness has won because there is no light!

  1. Wake Me Up! – M&J: #50

Lucy Kemp is determined to stay awake so she can greet her dad when he returns late from a long business trip away. She thinks keeping herself scared will help. She tries to read Skeleton Corner from her M&J mag to help, but then says Bones is not that scary. Bones shows up to try and prove her wrong but she only laughs at him! While Bones interacting with the characters, or having his own stories were not always the most compelling, this is a fun little meta story!

  1. Skeleton Corner – M&J: #108 (Art: Oliver Passingham)

Jo Johnson and her friend Emma are stuck waiting at a bus stop, so the begin playing a prize giving arcade game called Aladdin’s Cave. They win a brooch at first and are surprised when their money is also returned. They continue doing this for a while, but Emma begins to get nervous she worries that something is wrong that the goods might be stolen and that something’s not right with the game and leaves. Jo continues but then the machine starts to shake and all the prizes help form a large frightening genie. A case of greediness being punished!

   

  1. Bargain Basement! – Mandy Annual 1994 (Art: Oliver Passingham)

Carrie works part time at a department store Dinnegans. She is excited about the Christmas party, but it turns out to be quite boring with an old fashioned band. She is about to leave when she hears music coming from the basement. She finds a party much more to her liking and a good looking guy asks her to dance.  For some reason she isn’t put off by his enigmatic way of talking, even when she is the one that gives him his name Mark.

Mark is disappointed when Carrie leaves, but says they can meet at next years party. The next day Carrie mentions to another employee, that she joined the other Christmas party. She tells her there was no other party. Carrie investigates the basement and gets nervous when it is filled with dusty mannequins, she trips dropping her pen. She is jumpy the rest of the day, and is shocked to find Mark a mannequin set up for a new office display. She thinks she may have imagined it all, when she spots her pen beside Mark and a note “See you at the party next year”. Bones finishes the story by telling us readers that Carrie has decided to leave her job, so there’s a vacancy if anyone is interested, they have great Christmas parties! This is one of the stories that I always remembered, there can be something very creepy about mannequins and though they don’t threaten Carrie, it still has the right amount of scariness, to think of objects watching you and coming to life.

 

  1. Skeleton Corner – M&J #129 (Art: Mike Dorey)

Deanne and Emma are on school trip to a wood which has unusual branch sculptures. Emma is rude to the creator of the sculptures and when Emma and Deanne sneak away from the group they are horrified when Emma is turned into sculpture herself. This is one of the more horrific stories told in Skeleton Corner, with some body horror included, while Emma has not acted nicely the punishment hardly seems fitting to the crime and the art really captures it well.

 

  1. Skeleton Corner – M&J:  #140 (Art: Mike Dorey)

Sally Townsand is a late comer to her new boarding school, so she is given a single room that isn’t normally used. Sally doesn’t like an old faded picture of gates hanging up and is going to take it down, but the housekeeper insists it must always stay there.

Sally takes it down later anyway, she notices a crack in the wall but figures her poster can hide it just as well. That night she is woken up by knocking and tearing noises coming from the wall. Bits of plaster start to fall off. She runs to get the housekeeper who place the picture back up and tells her as long as its there nothing can get through. Bones ends the story by explaining that gates are used to keep things in as well as out. A disturbing tale as the reader is let to wonder what is the gate keeping in, though luckily for Sally she doesn’t find out!

 

 

  1. Skeleton Corner – M&J:  #141 (Art: Mike Dorey)

Rachel Gunn and her family move into a new house, they are quite happy and she settles in quickly at her new school. Her younger brother tells her how the previous family disappeared. Soon after Gary starts disappearing and reappearing.

Rachel thinks its Gary playing tricks on her, until it happens with her parents as well. She wakes up one morning and there is no trace of her family, though the car is still in the driveway. Feeling scared she rings the police. The police arrive but there is no sign of Rachel and they discuss how its strange that the same thing happened to the previous family, but its not like people vanish into thin air! This has a nice bit of a build up for a short story and it’s made even creepier when these things are left unexplained.

 

  1. Skeleton Corner – #191

On a school trip Amy is not pleased to be roomed with wimpy Debra. She is kept awake all night by Debra claiming she hears noises and turning on a torch. The next night Amy hears the noise as well and asks Debra to pass the torch. She is handed the torch but as she turns on torch, Debra walks into room with teacher she had gone to fetch, so who handed Amy the torch! Again the right amount of creepiness while the presence in the room doesn’t seem malicious it is little disturbing to think there is some unknown entity in the dark!

Final Thoughts

It was not a new concept to have a spooky storyteller telling stories, The Man in Black (Diana), Damian Darke (Spellbound) and Gipsy Rose (Jinty) all scared readers and taught them lessons weekly. Skeleton Corner was the last of these type of stories that continued this tradition and was successful in having a long enjoyable run of stories.

The next page has a full list of stories that appeared.

Pages: 1 2

The Girl With No Name

Judy,

Plot

The girl with no name lived a life of drudgery a prisoner of Sir Clifford and Lady Manning, who kept a wild-life park. Her only friend was Tomb, a chimp. When Delia Greenwood, a newcomer to the area, had visited the house with her father, a blacksmith, to shoe the Mannings’ horses, the girl tried to pass her message which was intercepted by Sir Clifford.

Notes

  • Art: Bert Hill

Appeared

  • The Girl With No Name – Judy: #1153 (13 February  1982) – #1166 (15 May 1982)

Terror of the Tennis Courts

Judy, ,

Plot

Young Tennis Star Leila Broome had been compared to her dead stepmother, Alma Drew who had been a tennis champion and called the smiling star because she was so pleasant. Then outbreaks of vandalism during tournaments that Leila took part start happening, that upset Leila off the court as well and her fathers apparent hatred for the game made matters worse. Leila’s best friend Lynne, suspected a silver charm once belonging to Alma that Leila had started wearing, was having a strange effect on her. Some further investigation finds that Alma was not as sweet as everyone thought.

Notes

  • Reprinted and translated into Dutch (as “Het geheim van het zilveren racket” – The Secret of the Silver Racket”) – monthly Debbie Stripstory #8/1978.

Appeared

  • Terror of the Tennis Courts – Judy: #855 (29 May 1976) – #865 (7 August 1976)

Glyn of the Golden Voice

Judy, , ,

Plot

Glyn Quentin and er friend Hazel Brown both sang in the Hawfield Girl’s Choir run by Gyn’s uncle and guardian Paul Quentin. Glyn not the best of singers would much rather being playing tennis, but her uncle forbids her playing until after a big competition (Eisteddfod) is finished. Then he surprises everyone saying Glyn will sing solo, which also doesn’t make the previous soloist Esther happy. On the evening of the competition Glyn sings superbly much to Hazel’s surprise.

Notes

  • Art: Julio Bosch

Appeared

  • Glyn of the Golden Voice – Judy: #507(27 September 1969) – #516 (29 November 1969)

Lynne Against Lareno [1978]

Emma, , ,
  • Lynne Against Lareno –  Emma: #01 (26 February 1978) – #09 (29 April 1978)
  • Art: Norman Lee

Plot

Lynne Frankin arrives in Lareno, a small town located just before the Mexican border, to visit her friend Kate Marlow. Kate moved to Lareno to set up a riding school, but when Lynne asks a taxi driver to take her to Kate’s school, he drives off saying there is no such place. The Sheriff and Mayor are also unwelcoming, and the mayor tells her, Kate died of a fever showing her a fresh grave with the markings still wet. The Sheriff, lets her stay in a cell for the night saying the hotel is full and that he will bring her to bus in the morning. But Lynne doesn’t believe their story and wants to stay and find out what happened to Kate even if the whole town is against her.

First she tries to talk to the town doctor but he is uncooperative and the Sheriff is always close by watching. Then she tries to hire a car so she can drive to the riding school, but is told none available. With no other option she decides to walk to Kate’s school, but a fake sign along the way leads her astray. She would be lost in the desert but luckily she figures out by how the sun is casting shadows, how to get back on to the road. She meets a young man, Mike, who is friendly until he finds out who she is, he drives off. She finds er way to Kate’s school which appears to be abandoned but then Sheriff Tully arrives and arrests her for trespassing. A secret friend gives her the bail money she needs through the cell window and the friend also helps by leaving her food, when no-one will sell her anything.

Lynne spies some residents trying to bury something on the outskirts of town until Sheriff Tully clears them off. They are having some worries but the Sheriff tells them to remember what happened to the last person who raised objections. She wonders if they are talking about Kate. Before she can investigate further she is caught again and this time locked in a hotel room. She sees some newcomers arrive and she is about to get their attention when she is stopped by Mike. She also sees Kate but Mike tells her that Kate is dead and who she saw was the Sheriff’s daughter. Thinking Mike is not going to help her she manages to find a way out from where she is being held. She tracks down the strangers she saw earlier and tells them her story, but they in turn says she knows too much and take her captive!

They take her to the riding school and Lynne gets more pieces of puzzle as they seem to think plane crashed there and are looking for something the Sheriff and Deputy arrive and arrest the men and Lynne. Mayor Novak is getting jumpy, talking about taking his share and leaving. Then Lynne sees the Mayor driving off and Deputy shooting after him. Mike tells Lynne to escape in the confusion. Lynne uses the opportunity to search where she last thought she saw Kate, she finds her asleep (possibly drugged) in a cellar, she is unable to rescue her as she is tracked down again. She comes across Mayor Novak’s car he has already been caught and there are men taking crate of gold ingots back to town, now Lynne knows what the town has been hiding. Lynne sees Mike, he helped er before but she doesn’t know if she can really trust him, she isn’t given a choice when more of the Sheriff’s men come after her and start shooting at her, she as to jump into his jeep to escape. It is the right choice as Mike has been secretly helping her. They make contact with state police and rescue Kate. The whole story comes out, a gang had committed a big robbery and were flying to Mexico when their plane crashed near Kate’s school, killing all the crew. The town decided to share out the gold, but Kate and Mike wouldn’t go along with it, which is why they locked up Kate, as Mike was a local they gave him the benefit of doubt that he wouldn’t turn them in. The strangers that arrived were part of the gang looking for the gold. After the police have finished their investigation, Lynne, Kate and Mike leave Lareno for good as there’s nothing left for them there anymore.

 

Thoughts

This must have been fun for Norman Lee to draw, having small American town in the desert, makes it a different backdrop to the frequent British locations. The isolation and unfamilar area, certainly ups to stakes for Lynne too. With seemingly the whole town against her and nowhere close by to go for help, she is left to fend for herself. She has the option of leaving, but shows her loyalty to her friend by sticking around through the hostilities to find out what happened. Lynne also shows herself as resourceful, like figuring out how to get out of desert or finding loose floorboard to escape through. The mystery is intriguing enough as well, the reader must wonder what the town is hiding and is Kate really dead. Along with that there is a lot of action and excitement, such as Lynne getting stuck in quicksand or getting shot at! When she finally goes to strangers for help it turns out they are worse than the people of Lareno!

There are some questions like why would Kate choose this place to start a riding school, doesn’t seem the most lucrative of places to set up a business and it is a long way from England. Also as Mike was person to raise objections initially it seems odd to let him guard Lynne. Sheriff Tully does seem to be running the show, as we do see others a bit nervous of the scheme, so it is interesting that he is not interested in doing a deal with the gang saying he doesn’t do deals with crooks, but considering what he has done to that point the has already crossed the line into unlawful behaviour, but maybe in is mind he has been able to justify his actions. It’s the only time we see him express any morals so we don’t get to develop that further, for most of the story he is just the main antagonist to deal with. The other towns people are unfriendly to Lynne but seem less confident than Sheriff Tully. Of course with so many people involved and everyone getting jumpy its inevitable that their downfall will come. It is an exciting journey along the way and again showed off the variety of stories the Emma comic started with.

 

Unbeatable Beatrix

Judy, ,

Plot

In the year 1990, Riga Cussons is a pupil at a Special Grade School where future sports champions are given specialist coaching under ideal conditions. Riga aims to be a ski champion—Her closest rival, Beatrix Lander, proves hostile and, when Riga asks if she is related to the Beatrix Lander  who was permanently injured trying to become a Junior World Ski Champion twelve years previously, Beatrix vigorously denies any connection. Yet on a visit to the Landers’ house, Riga sees a woman she knows to be the former champion!

Notes

Appeared

  • Unbeatable Beatrix – Judy: #455 (28 September 1968) – #462 (16 November 1968)

The Doll’s House

Debbie, Picture Story Library, , , ,
  • The Doll’s House – Debbie PSL: #155 [1991]
  • Mystery Stories from Damian Darke

Plot

Damian Darke tells the story of a cursed Doll’s House and how it affects each new owner.

The story starts in the the 19th century, with Charlotte and her new doll’s house, that she shows off to visitors; Amanda Carter and her father. We think this will be the house of the story title, but when jealous Amanda causes Charlotte to fall on the house and break it, we know it can’t be. Instead Amanda asks her father for an even better doll house than Charlotte’s had been. He commissions a talented craftsman to  build it, but then he cheats the Mr Sugam out of money pushing him to floor when Sugam protests. Sugam curses the Carters  as they leave and later dies of his head injury. The police show up to question Mr Carter just as Charlotte is showing off her new house to Amanda. Charlotte is shocked to see the figure of Mr Sugam in her doll house lying unconscious on the floor, although no-one else can see it, she blurts out everything and the police arrest her father. After her father went to prison Charlotte was sent to a home for destitute children and the doll house ended up in a second-hand dealer’s shop.

Some months later a girl Lynn spots the Doll House and begs her adoptive mother to buy it for her birthday. But while her husband is away Mrs Blake can’t afford to buy it for her, instead she gives her a family necklace. Lynn ungrateful put it on stuffed parrot in the attic. When Mr Blake does return he buys the doll house for their daughter Alice’s birthday, thinking the girls can share it. Lynn is seething with jealousy and says Alice is clearly the favourite “real” daughter. When an opportunity arises for one of the girls to be painted as part of an advertising campaign, Lynn pushes Alice into a quarry getting rid of her competition. She rushes home and goes to find the old necklace in the attic to wear, she gets a shock to see one of the doll’s now life size in the attic with her and the door locked. Alice luckily surviving the fall rushes to her parents to tell them what happened, but they can’t find Lynn anywhere.  Alice later sees 2 dolls in the attic of her dollhouse, one of which looks curiously like Lynn, it disturbs her so much she gets rid of the house.

It was bought by Sir Martyne for his children Elizabeth and Max. They were spoilt and ill-tempered and didn’t improve even as they grew up and their parents died. They raised the rent on their tenants to keep up their lifestyle and when they discover that one of their tenants have a girl they fostered that may be a long-lost heiress they force the Harrises to give the girl to them, hoping to get her fortune. The girl, Maggie, is allowed to play with the doll house, when she sees it on fire she douses it with water, angering Max, who calls her a liar. Later a fire breaks out in the actual house, Maggie tries to warn the siblings but they don’t believe her, she runs for help but it’s too late for the Martynes. Maggie does discover se is an heiress and is able to buy the land for her now adoptive parents the Harrisses. The doll house which was salvaged from the fire is sold off.

It appears again in the 1920s, by now legends have build up about the house that it can avenge evil and foretell the future. Milly who next gets the house is fascinated by the idea it could tell the future. Later it appears to come true, as her father is at a meeting, Milly sees the mother doll fallen out of bed onto the floor. She check on her own mother and sees her in a similar state, and looking older. Unfortunately the phone lines are down, forcing Milly to ride her horse in a storm to get help. She rides through the nearest village but it is now a run down ghost town. She meets a man who tells her a business man built a chemical plant in the village then an explosion killed half the people. Milly sees the old sign on the chemical plant has her father’s name on it, the man continues telling her the businessman died of heart attack and a little later his daughter found her mother on the ground sick from grief, she rode off in storm for help but fell when her horse stumbled. Milly begs him to stop, that it can’t be true, then she wakes up in her own bed, her parents beside her. When she tells o her dream, it turns out the meeting her father was at was about building a chemical plant, but he now changes his mind.

Finally in more recent time the Doll’s house is owned by Barbara, she notices a new figure in the house when suddenly a girl appears at the window. She talks a bit strange saying the house drew her there, and seems to vanish when Barbara goes to introduce her mom. Her mother goes to visit the new neighbours who seem to be cagey about their daughter. After another visit from the girl to Barbara, the family confront the neighbours with a handkerchief they found. It turns out their daughter is in a coma, when Barbara goes to talk with her, she wakes up and everyone is delighted. Damian Darke ends the tale saying the girls have now grown up and the Doll house is changing hands again perhaps someone has already bought it for the reader.

Thoughts

Halloween is the perfect time for a Damian Darke story. The storyteller had a few picture story library books, unlike the first book; Beyond a Strange Door… which had 4 different stories with a common theme, this book has the same object, connecting them all. The story starts with a good misdirect, as we see Charlotte with her new doll’s house we think this will be the story’s namesake, so it is surprising when it gets broken. After Amanda gets her house and Mr Sugam is cheated out of his money and he places the curse, it looks like nonsense words but appears to be just backwards, if we translate forwards he say “I curse – I curse…. no joy or..” we don’t see what comes after the “or” I wonder if there was addendum for good people as the strange house’s powers seem to evolve from punishing bad people to helping deserving people by warning them of future events.

The first 2 stories have jealous and spiteful girls being punished, the third story also has nasty people making their end, but also a change when Maggie is able to escape the fire and Martyne’s because of the doll house. The next story the helps Milly by showing her a premonition and in final story it seems to call to the comatose Fran helping her to get well again. It is strange that it evolves from punishing people when they do something wrong, to actively helping good people, certainly a very powerful house/curse! In particular things seem very elaborate in Millys story as not only does she something in the doll house but a very realistic and detailed dream of a whole village being wiped out. The creepiest story is Lynn’s end to become trapped as a doll in the attic, while it may be seem deserving after attempting to kill Alice, the Blakes were actually willing to forgive her and get the mental health treatment she needs (very generous and progressive of them!),  of course they never find her, and Lynn is fleft to her horrible fate. After beginning with some unsettling stories, the last story is quite positive as the doll house helps both a comatose girl and it’s owner to find a lifelong friend, then with it’s ending of Damian Darke saying that the house could end up in a reader’s hands, the thought may be that it could help you… if you are a good person. But also could be considered a warning if you have any jealous or greedy thoughts!

The House of the Silver Sword / Suzette of the Silver Sword [1963-1968]

Diana, , , , , , ,
  • The House of the Silver Sword–  Diana: #01 (23 February 1963) – #07 (06 April 1963)
  • Suzette of the Silver Sword – Diana: #86 (10 October 1964) – #93 (28 Nov. 1964)
  • Suzette of the Silver Sword – Diana: #178 (16 July 1966) – #186 (10 September 1966)
  • Suzette of the Silver Sword – Diana: #212 (11 March 1967) – #219 (29 April 1967)
  • Suzette of the Silver Sword – Diana: #264 (09 March 1968) – #275 (25 May 1968)
  • Art: Don Walker (series 1-2), Jesus Redondo (series 3-5)

Plot

One of the first stories to appear in the Diana comic, although only 7 episodes long, it returned for a further 4 series. The story follows a promising young fencer, Suzette Jamieson. In the first series The House of the Silver Sword, 14 year old Suzette is determined to become a great fencer like her famous ancestors. Her teacher advises her she shows promise but needs more that 1 lesson a week if she wants to win the Championships.  Suzette knows this won’t be possible as her parents struggle to afford what they do provide, but then a letter from her Aunt Claire arrives. She has invited Suzette to stay with her,  as her mother has described her as bossy and bad-tempered, Suzette isn’t sure about the offer, but her parents tell her it is a good opportunity. Her Uncle Henry, a famous fencer will be able to give her daily lessons during her stay. Meanwhile at Beaugarth house, Aunt Claire and Uncle Henry are discussing Suzette’s arrival. Aunt Claire wants to make sure their home and the famous silver sword that has been passed down through the generations is left to a true Jamieson. Her other niece, Glenda, has been a disappointing swords-woman in that regard. Glenda overhearing this, starts scheming against Suzette as she wants the fortune for herself.

While Glenda acts nice to Suzette, two serious accidents happen after her arrival, the canopy on her bed falls down and sharp piece of metal is left in her glove. Luckily she escapes both incidents unscathed. Her Uncle Henry is much kinder and softer than Aunt Claire but also no fool, right away he suspects Glenda of having a hand in the accidents and tells Suzette, but she can’t believe someone would be so spiteful. Glenda continues her campaign against Suzette, she slashes a painting of ancestor and sets Suzette up to take the fall. Henry clears her name by proving she couldn’t have reached so high. Then on the day of the qualifiers she sends a fake telegram saying Suzette’s father is ill and she needs to return home immediately, luckily a train mix-up means Suzette finds out her father is fine and gets to compete in the heats for qualifying for championship. As a last desperate attempt Glenda throws Suzette’s fencing gear in a duck pond. Glenda is exposed, although Suzette has to go to competition in the soiled gear. This leads to mockery by the other competitors, and she has a run in with her biggest competition, Moira Parr. Despite these obstacles, Suzette goes on to win championship and weeks later Suzette now the owner of the silver sword also has her portrait added to the Jamieson collection at Beaugarth House.

When Suzette returns in the sequels the stories are now known as Suzette of the Silver Sword. In the 2nd series Suzette’s father’s business is failing, and she has no choice but to sell her silver sword for some money. As she is about to sell it she sees a young girl, Wendy Carstairs, being terrorised by some toughs. Suzette scares them off and is offered a job by Mr Carstairs as companion to his daughter, he also buys the silver sword but says she can use it any time and he would also like her to teach Wendy to fence. Since moving to the house, there has been a campaign to get the Carstairs out. Wendy who has already lost her mother, is a very timid and scared girl, Suzette helps protect her and also build up her confidence. Suzette helps fight off the gang attacking the house several times, and also does some investigating. Finally they pretend to leave the house for good and see that the gang had hidden stolen jewellery in the house which is why they wanted the Carstairs out. While waiting for the police Suzette and Wendy  keep the gang occupied. Mr Carstairs in gratitude says Suzette can keep the silver sword and the money from the reward for her father.

In the third series, Suzette is in Austria, to compete in a Fencing Contest. After a minor bus accident she gets separated from group and comes across a girl being attacked. She saves the girl, Annalise and is invited back to castle where she lives with her guardians, the Wagners. Suzette is told Annalise is due an inheritance but only if she can prove she is a good swords-woman like her ancestors by taking a test on her 16th birthday. Annalise while technically good, has been put off by the attacks and then the appearance of the Black Swordsman, a fencer dressed all in black who Annalise thinks is the ghost of a man who killed an ancestor 100 years ago. While Suzette certainly doesn’t believe in ghosts, it does seem he has knowledge of the castle with an ability to disappear quickly (it turns out there are secret passageways in the castle). In discussion with the Wagners, it seems the likely culprit is Annalise’s cousin, Rudolf, who will inherit everything if she fails her test. Suzette spars with the black swordsman several times and also with the return of the men who attacked Annalise the first day she met her. Suzette comes up with the idea to pretend Herr Wagner was badly injured in one of these skirmishes, this finally gives Annalise the motivation to fight back. Together they take down the Black Swordsman and his hired men, and reveal that it was Rudolf behind the mask. Annalise does well on her test and has proven herself honourable and brave, deserving of her inheritance.

In the 4th series Suzette is hired to teach  a group of actors to fence for the parts in the play “The Three Musketeers”. The lead female is Sara Lawrence but someone uses her fear of spiders against her shocking her and harming her voice. Suzette first suspects her understudy Joan may have a hand in it as she has the most to gain, but Joan is quickly cleared. The next likely suspects is one of the men playing the musketeers, especially after an accident at fencing practice where the swords button is removed. The “Spider Man” continues to strike at Sara, and also Suzette to stop her interference. She is lured into a trap where she is bitten by black widow spider, but luckily is found and brought to the hospital in time. After another encounter with the Spider Man, Suzette narrows her suspects down to two, Tony who plays D’artagnan or John who plays Porthos. After nearly drowning at the hands of the Spider Man, Suzette helps set up a trap luring him out with Sara’s return to stage. She catches John in the act of trying to attack Sara, but with Suzette’s swift actions, John is bitten by his own spider. John had attacked Sara to get revenge on her father who had paralysed his sister in a car accident. Then they reveal Sara is still safe and it was her understudy pretending to be her. For the actual show Sara is able to return and have a successful performance, sharing applause with Suzette for all her help.

In the 5th series Suzette is forced to be bodyguard to Julie Diamond by her crook father when he kidnaps her parents. Things are dangerous as rival gang run by  Costello wants to get Julie as revenge on Diamond, but Julie does not know any of this so is quite annoyed to have Suzette around all the time. Julie meanwhile wants to star in an ice show, which makes Suzette’s job more difficult but she convinces her to audition in disguise under a pseudonym. Julie proves she can get the part without her father’s name. Julie makes the mistake of trusting her friend Rod, he plans to betray her for money, but Diamond gets to him first. He tells Julie he paid him off, but actually has him locked up in part of the house. Suzette has some sympathy for Rod after seen he has been beat up, but he tries to use her sympathy to escape. He is foiled but now Suzette is more on her guard. When Julie’s disguise is accidentally exposed at a rehearsal, Suzette has to join the show to protect her. It all comes to a head when Costello’s men come to ice rink and attack, a fight breaks out between the two gangs while Suzette tries to protect Julie. The Costello gang are defeated but one confesses it was revenge for Diamond taking jewels that Costello had robbed. Diamond goes to jail and the Jamieson’s are released. Suzette attends the ice-show and ca friendship has grown between her and Julie, se knows she wasn’t aware of her father’s criminal activity and will continue to be there to help her of her own free will now as a friend.

Thoughts

When reading the first series, it seemed like a standard story of a jealous relative trying to make protagonist look bad while acting nicely to their face. It is not a story that I thought would spawn many sequels and yet Suzette continued to have adventures, although very little in common with the first series. She is of course and an accomplished fencer, which comes in handy, but her inheritance, Beaugarth House, aunt and uncle aren’t even referenced again after the 2nd series.  Instead she ends up finding herself  with mysteries to solve and young girls to protect. There are some common threads across some of the series such as Suzette happening upon girls being attacked is an occurrence in 3 of the stories, (although in the last series it is a set up by Mr Diamond to test her) and her teaching 2 of the girls fencing, but all the stories stand on their own. It’s funny in the first series Suzette seems a little naive, not believing her cousin could be so nasty, whereas in later series no-one if above suspicion for her, perhaps her experience made her less trusting.

While the first couple of stories were fine, personally I think the stories got stronger later, the fifth story is my favourite. While she is still a fencer, they don’t feel the need to make that a big point in the 5th story, Julie has no interest in learning fencing unlike Wendy and Annalise in the earlier stories. In the 4th series it makes a change to have Suzette unknowingly teach the antagonist about fencing, and Sara who she protects is a singer. In the fifth series they go a step further, the only time fencing is used is for defense, Julie has no interest in fencing but proves herself an excellent skater. It is nice that the friendship grows between her and Suzette, as she starts of a bit antagonistic towards her. This story also has the most stakes, as Suzette’s parents are kidnapped so their well-being is dependent on her doing a good job body-guarding Julie.

Diana had high quality paper and really gives the artists to show their range, Don Walker in the first 2 series really can show his range with more shading.  The first series goes into more particulars about fencing, I am not that familiar with the sport but the stances do look convincing to me, so I believe Don has done good job depicting the sport. I do like his work, but Jesus Redondo is really the best on this series, though that may be in part due to him given more interesting things to work with in the later series. It is interesting to see this earlier style of Jesus, while recognisable as his, it is a lot more subdued than his later work.

 

Dark Days at Torloch Towers [1977]

Spellbound, ,
  • Dark Days at Torloch Towers – Spellbound: #35 (21 May 1977) – #41 (02 July 1977)
  • Artist: Juan Sarompas (thanks to David Roach for confirming)

Plot

At the secluded boarding school, Torloch Tower, a new science teacher, Miss Ray is preparing  a special experiment with her class. They leave the solution for over night but friends Gail Thomson and Pat Moore return to the lab late to collect something Gail forgot. They can’t get in to the locked room but see in the window a strange black cloud forming from the solution and escaping through the key hole. Suddenly the girls start bickering, they return to dorm room still angry but the next morning they feel bad about the fight. They go back to the lab to investigate and find the room trashed. Their friend Faye is watching them, when a strange black bird appears in front of her, she becomes spiteful and tells the headmistress about the girls being outside when they shouldn’t be. Gail and Pat get called to the head’s office and already Faye is regretting her actions and is there too asking the headmistress to forget what she said, they all get punishment for their actions. Faye thinks the other girls won’t be friends with her anymore but because of their experience they believe her that something evil and strange came over her.

Gail and Pat are showing Faye the lab when Miss Ray appears. The normally understanding teacher,  accuses them of wrecking the lab, then girls notice the dark  shape nearby that then dives into lake. The evil influence doesn’t last too long at least and Miss Ray apologies to girls. The cloud now in the form of a fish causes two other students attack another swimmer. It leaves the water turning into a lizard. Gail, Pat and Faye wonder what they can do to stop the creature especially as it can change shapes, but they know they must try to stop its nasty influence. Later Gail and Pat see the cloud in its original form again, it is moving slower and they observe it feeding off ink and becoming stronger and faster again.

Revitalized the shape makes Joan the captain at the hockey match want to win game at all costs.  She gets sent off for foul play on other team. Then the cloud takes shape of a cat and causes the real school cat to attack Pat. Later, surprisingly the Cloud stops at prize day notice and looks like it is reading it. It then turns into a question mark, and the girls can’t make sense of what it is planning. The parents arrive for prize giving and the Headmistress is influenced to say insulting things at the ceremony, Pat pulls fire alarm to stop the speech. Gail and Pat discuss if the parents take action on what the Head said their could be real trouble and they need to destroy the thing before it destroys the school (incidentally the parents don’t complain it seems because it is never mentioned again). The girls consider talking to Miss Ray for help, but she has taken some leave to visit her mother. Pat gets idea to kill the “pest” with fly killer but it only makes it angrier. While cleaning up spilled ink they then think they should use ink remover on the thing, they lure it in with some ink to feed on and the pour the ink remover over it. The thing is completely destroyed, the nightmare is over and the girls are happy to forget about it and enjoy the rest of the school term.

Thoughts

This story has great art, from the impressive school and its location to the menacing cloud, also the layouts and composition are really good. This elevates the story a lot, the mysterious shape that can change into  animals (and a   question mark) makes for a very creepy opponent, and the art captures that and the girl’s terror perfectly. The three main characters all are given their own personalities, Pat being the most proactive, Faye being nervy and Gail being the more calm supportive one.  We don’t know what motivates the shape but it is interesting rather than many other evil influence stories, it doesn’t latch onto one person, and neither is its effects long lasting. This give the girls a better chance of defeating it. They are smart enough observe the creature, then come up with a solution from what they have seen.

The story does leave a lot of unanswered questions, from the beginning it was so vague what experiment the class were doing, I thought that Miss Ray was behind it, (it wouldn’t be the first time a nice new teacher wasn’t what they seemed). So how the cloud/shape was created was unclear and also what it’s ultimate goal was. The girls are surprised when it seems to read the noticeboard, showing it has some intelligence, perhaps it particularly wanted to stir up jealousy as the swimmer, hockey and prize giving instances were all related to people being better at something than others. Whatever the reason, it is quickly defeated in the last episode and the girls are happy to just forget about it, which is a bit of an anti climatic ending.

 

 

The Big Hand

Judy, , ,

Plot

Millie Munro, trained by her guardian, Mrs Peters, is to take part in the County Junior Tennis Championships. She plays badly until she becomes the possessor of a racket known as the Big Hand, once owned by Champion Juliet Hambro. Harold Scales, the crooked coach of the reigning junior champion, does everything in his power to stop Millie’s progress.

Notes

  • Art: Ian Kennedy

Appeared

  • The Big Hand – Judy: #474 (8 February 1965) – (?)