Jinty 31 October 1981

(Cover artist: Mario Capaldi)

• Pam of Pond Hill (artist Bob Harvey, writer Jay Over)
• The Marble Heart – Gypsy Rose story (artist Carlos Freixas)
• Tansy of Jubilee Street (artist Peter Wilkes)
• Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost (artist Hugh Thornton-Jones)
• Winning Ways – badminton (writer Benita Brown)
• Thursday’s Child Has Far to Go… (artist Christine Ellingham)
• Hallowe’en Magic (text story)
• Badgered Belinda (artist Phil Gascoine)
• Snoopa (artist Joe Collins)
• Man’s Best Friend: Mastiffs
• The Bow Street Runner (artist Phil Townsend, writer Alison Christie)

This was Jinty’s last Halloween issue. As you see, the cover is a lead-in to the digital watch offer inside. The cover and the text story are the only things honouring Halloween. None of the regulars – Tansy, Snoopa, Gypsy Rose or even the resident ghost, Sir Roger, do anything to commemorate. It is business as usual. Perhaps the upcoming merger was the reason for the lack of Halloween spirit in the issue. 

In the stories, Tess comes back to Pond Hill, but her victim Sue is finding it difficult to forgive her for bullying. Meanwhile, Tess is finding it hard to accept her new stepmother. The Bow Street Runner is suspended from her cross country club thanks to a dirty trick from her enemy. Belinda continues to secretly tend the badgers in the face of bullying, the squire seeming to promote hunting vermin at the school, and losing sleep because she’s staying up half the night minding them. Dad promises extra pocket money if Tansy and Simon are helpful to each other, but he should have known better. In “Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost”, a visiting ghost friend drops in on Sir Roger, and the television reception becomes the casualty of their swordplay.

We know Thursday’s Child has far to go – but travelling all the way from England to Poland on cattle boats, on foot, and as an Allied mascot? That’s what Thursday’s Child Lisa does to find her parents, whom she does not believe died in WWII.

Gypsy Rose is still on repeats. This time it’s the story of a Greek girl who was turned into a statue as a punishment for going too far in teasing her lover, which led to his death. The statue sheds tears as a warning to other girls who mistreat their boyfriends.