Tag Archives: mystery

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) – (?)

The Golden Girl

Judy,

Plot

Clio Chrysos, a young Greek girl studying’ to be a teacher in England, is given the job of accompanying a party of school children on a tour of her native land. In the group is Professor Whitfield, the leader of the party, teacher, Alex Sorkin and his wife, Adelaide. Clio’s hair is yellow – rare for a Greek – and her surname means gold. When Professor Whitfield introduces her to the Sorkins as his  “golden girl”, they appear, very startled. The Sorkins say they do not know any Greek, but Clio is astonished to overhear both the Sorkins speaking to – a workman in perfect Greek.

Notes

Appeared

  • The Golden Girl – Judy: #248 (10 October 1964) – #257 (12 December 1964)

The Secret of the Black Loch

Judy, ,

Plot

Lyn Logan plans to practise high-diving from the tall trees of the Black Loch beside which she has come to live. After finding a huge print by the Loch, her father shares the belief of the local folk that a monster inhabits the Loch and he forbids Lyn to dive in it. Without practice she won’t be able to compete in the Scottish Championships.

Notes

Appeared

  • The Secret of the Black Loch – Judy: (?) – #247 (03 October 1964)

Rebellion Specials 2020 – Part 3: Tammy & Jinty

Treasury of British Comics, , , , , , , ,

As this site is about girls comics clearly Tammy & Jinty special is one I’ve been eagerly awaiting. I was pleased with last year’s issue and this year takes a different approach but is still a joy to read.

This  year there are just 2 new complete stories and  1 reprint of the first episode of Ping-Pong Paula (compared to last year’s 9 short stories). This approach certainly has the advantage of giving the stories more time to breathe, although I was little disappointed not to see some returns from last year like Justice of Justine or Bella of the Bar. Personal preference would maybe have split the difference and have 3-4 new stories, so could still have longer stories but bit more variety. Still the stories here are a great read and I wouldn’t be opposed to seeing more retro strips occasionally too. Starting off we have Boarding School (by Rachael Smith and Yishan Li) where a girl, Tabatha and her brother, Richard are the only students at a mysterious boarding school with 4 governesses. While they all fawn over Richard, Tabatha is pretty much ignored, because of this while exploring she meets a girl from outside the school and after talking with her, Tabatha begins to question the motives of the governesses and what are they hiding. I won’t give too much away, but this was an intriguing mystery story, with strong sibling bond and a good villain.

In Cat Girl Returns (by Ramzee and Elkys Nova) we meet the original Cat Girl, Cathy, all grown up and still tracking down bad guys though now as police officer, not as a costumed hero. Meanwhile her daughter Claire is trying to find a costume for a party and comes across her mother’s old cat girl outfit. While at the party Claire begins to notice some strange things, like she now has enhanced senses, and when a social media star gets taken by some criminal she is on hand to help. I like that we get to see Cathy work her case and how it connects to Claire’s heroics. While I’ve liked Rebellions update on characters, it was very fun to see continuation of the Cat Girl story rather than a straightforward reboot. DCT digital Spellbound reprint (which unfortunately was only available for short period before being pulled) had a similar idea where after reprint of  I Don’t want to Be a Witch” there was a short story focusing on Celia’s daughter. It is nice to see these legacy characters as we get a new updated character but also get to see what the older character grew up to become. It probably wouldn’t work for every story but it fits Cat Girl just right.

The other story we get is the first episode of Ping-Pong Paula,this comes after an interview with Alison Fitt (nee Christie) and is fitting example of her work. I wonder if the story is set for a reprint, which would be another reason to print the first episode here to entice readers in, I would be happy to see a volume of this. The other feature we get is a piece on Giorgio Giorgetti, I had not realised he’d died young, so it was nice to read his son’s memories of his fathers work.

An excellent addition to Rebellion’s specials collection and I must also mention a gorgeous cover by Marguerite Sauvage.

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

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

Plot

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

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

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

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

Thoughts

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

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

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

Forgotten Island

Debbie,

Plot

Alison Blair was spending holidays at her Gran’s cottage on the lonely Dunes island she was happy to meet a girl her own age but then she mysteriously hurried off.

In the sequel, Alison returns to the island with her friends Karen and Julie. They thought the island was deserted but then they hear some strange stories about ghosts haunting the island.

Notes

  • Photo story

Appeared

  • Forgotten Island – Debbie: #494 (31 July 1982) – #498 (28 August 1982)
  • Return to Forgotten Island – Debbie: #508 (6 November 1982) – #513 (11 December 1982)