- Jodie and the Otter – Emma: #01 (26 February 1978) – #19 (01 July 1978)
- Jodie and the Otter – Emma: #30 (16 September 1978) – #42 (09 December 1978)
- Jodie and the Otter – Emma: #81 (08 Sep. 1979) also printed in Judy: #1026 (08 Sep. 1979) continued in – Judy and Emma: #1027 (15 September 1979) – #1037 (24 November 1979)
Other Appearances:
- Jodie and the Otter – Bunty-Judy Summer Special 1980
Notes
- Before the Emma comic merged with Judy, the first part of a “Jodie and the Otter” story was published in both the last issue of Emma and the Judy issue #1026. After the merger the story continued in Judy and Emma #1027.
- Art: Tom Kerr (2nd story)
- Art: Rodney Sutton (part of 3rd story only, Judy and Emma: #1032 – #1037 and Bunty-Judy Summer Special 1980)
- Translated into Dutch: Debbie Parade Album #3 (1980) as “Jodie en de otter”
Plot
Jodie and the Otter ran for 3 series, two series in the Emma comic and it survived a merger with Judy to have one more series in that title, as well as appearing in a Bunty-Judy Summer Special issue. In the first series we meet Jodie Masters and her longtime companion, Buster the otter. Jodie lives in a small Canadian town and is a champion swimmer, she is to fly to Toronto to compete in a long distance swimming championships, but disaster happens along the way when the small plane gets in trouble. Jodie bails out of the plane into the Canadian wilderness. Jodie parachutes to safety and then meets an otter and helps free him from clinging weeds, grateful he decides to join Jodie on her journey and she is glad of the company. Meanwhile, the pilot does manage to land the plane and go for help, and then the search is on for Jodie.
Jodie names the otter, Buster, and the two of them make their way through the wilderness, encountering dangers along the way, such as a mountain lion, rapids, lightning storm, fire, a grizzly bear, rattlesnake, quicksand and a mine collapse! It is the start of a lifelong friendship as Jodie and Buster help each other, Buster helps find her food, saves her life but also causes trouble when he accidentally sets fire to trappers cabin. Jodie sometimes despairs at her situation, such as when the helicopter sees the cabin but doesn’t see her, but Buster helps to keep her going. Eventually Jodie is rescued and Buster stays with her. Even after all her ordeals she is still determined to attend championship, in two days! Her main rival, Karen, isn’t happy to see her return, and Karen’s manager, notices that Jodie relies on her otter, so plans to use it to their advantage by stealing Buster. On the day of race, Jodie is not doing well as she worries where Buster is. Buster manages to break free and finds his way back to her in the water, giving Jodie the push she needs and she wins the race.
The second story has a different artist, two men, Ackerman and Sapstein, from New York visit Jodie with and opportunity to perform with Buster in a water spectacular show for 3 months. Although Buster takes an instant dislike to the Mr Ackerman, Jodie agrees to do it because she knows money is tight for her parents currently. When she gets to New York she finds out they want Her and Buster to perform extreme stunts. When she tries to refuse she learns the small print of the contract she signed, said they can use Buster with or without her, so she decides to stay for his sake. She is locked in an apartment and Buster is kept caged in the water dome. As soon as she gets the opportunity she escapes and finds Buster breaks him out. She doesn’t have much money but they ravel as far as they can. But Ackerman and Sapstein, catch up with them and they have to make a run for it again.
She gets help from a farmer but Ackerman has enlisted a gang, known as the Syndicate, to go after her. She manages to make it to the airport and call her parents, they send, their friend, Joe, a helicopter pilot to pick her up, but the gang gets to Joe first and forces him to fly them all to a cabin, where they tie them up to await the arrival of Ackerman and Sapstein. Buster chews through the ropes and Jodie escaped with him, swimming across a lake, with the gang following and shooting at them. They get to an island in the middle of the lake, then, Buster creates a distraction and Jodie steals the gang’s boat to get back to the mainland and rescues Joe. The police come and when Ackerman and Sapstein arrive to get Jodie and Buster, they are instead arrested and Jodie gets out of her contract. (I should think, kidnapping, hiring gangs and shooting at her would make the contract null and void!)
In the third story Jodie gets an opportunity to go to a training camp for Olympic hopefuls. It is strictly no pets but Buster sneaks into the baggage hold on the bus. Just before they reach their destination, Buster is disturbed and runs off, Jodie spots him and is then worried about him, causing trouble for her in camp as she is distracted. Despite her distraction, she still shows promise, particularly in their practices in natural water. Wen another girl, Angeline, gets in trouble in the water, Jodie rescues her and then catches up with the rest of the girls in practice. The couch is impressed but Angeline is annoyed.
Meanwhile Buster gets into trouble with some hunters but finds an ally in a Native American named Stands Tall. They get caught in storm and Stands Tall is injured by a tree felled by lighting. He is found by hunters and get brought to the nearby camp but Buster runs off. Hearing about the otter that was with the man, Jodie now has hope that he is near. Sneaking out to search for him, finally they are reunited. Jodie tries to keep Buster secret but he causes a mess in the dorm room and scampers off, she has to confess everything to her coach. He doesn’t believe the otter could have traveled so far to find her and thinks she had sneaked him in from the start, he tells her to leave camp for breaking the rules. Stands Tall has recovered and meets Jodie while she is out looking for Buster. They rescue Buster from a Wolverine, and Stands Tall comes back to the camp with Jodie, to corroborate her story, but the coach is not interested in listening. As Jodie packs her bags, Angeline is attacked by a snake, but Buster catches the snake. Grateful, the coach now listens to story and allows Jodie to stay and Buster to be the camp mascot. Angeline is also grateful and becomes friends with Jodie. Now able to concentrate on her swimming she is pleased when herself and Angeline both qualify for the Olympic team.
Thoughts
After Sue Spiker, this character appeared the most in the short lived Emma comic. It had two sequels, one that was in the merged Judy and Emma comic, with the first episode printed in the last Emma issue as well as Judy to entice readers over. Girls finding wild companions is not unusual, and it does give the artists opportunity to draw some wonderful wildlife details. There are different artists, for all the stories, and the last looks to be partly done by Rodney Sutton, they all do a good job with the wildlife aspects, though the 2nd artist had some dodgy human expressions in parts! The second story overall is probably the weaker of the three, plot wise as well there is a lot of contrivances, and getting the gang involved in kidnapping for an otter to do some tricks for 3 month show seems a lot more hassle then it’s worth!
The stories are all quite different but adventure is a major theme in all of them. They are entertaining reads, the first and third being my favourites. I like the third had Buster having his own adventure before finding Jodie, while still keeping Jodie’s story line interesting. The first is good at establishing why the two would develop such a strong bond, and is certainly the most exciting adventure. While it only had one series once Emma merged with Judy, it still had a good run with 3 series total and a summer special, again showing that Emma comic had a lot to offer.
