John Wagner: Interview

John Wagner is known to have worked on girls’ comics and written girls stories in the 1970s. I didn’t know of any previous interviews which had focused on this part of his career in particular: many thanks to him for answering the questions below in this brief interview.

1 I’d love to know how you got started in writing for girls’ comics, and what you did during that part of your comics career. What stories did you write? How did you balance writing comics alongside being an editor – or was that all part of what the editor was expected to do?

The girls’ comic side of my career started with Romeo, the DC Thomson romantic comic/mag, the poor sister of Jackie. Girls’ romance was just a step up from normal girls’ fare with the addition of boys. We never touched on lesbian love back then! Then when I left to go freelance with Pat Mills, girls’ stories was one of our target markets. We were given “School of No Escape” (was that in Sandie or Tammy? [that was in Sandie]) by the managing editor, John Purdie. The story had already been started, was running, but either the writer had quit, or been sacked. In any case editorial didn’t know quite how to handle it. It was quite a challenging first assignment but we made a pretty good fist of it. I helped Pat devise “School for Snobs” and write the first couple of episodes before we split up and I went to work in the IPC office in London. My only girls’ comic story after that was “Jeannie and Her Uncle Meanie”.

2 We’re always on the lookout for information on other creators of girls comics from the  time. I have already asked you for any suggestions on the name of the artist on “Slave of the Trapeze” and “School of No Escape”, which sadly for us you weren’t able to recall. Are there stories by other people that you particularly remember from that time, which you would be able to help us to credit the creators on? For instance, anything written by any of Gerry Finley-Day, Malcolm Shaw, Charles Herring, Jay Over, Ian Mennell, Benita Brown, Maureen Spurgeon?

Malcolm Shaw was my sub on Sandie for a while, quite a good, reliable one. I’m afraid I don’t remember any particular stories any of the people you mention wrote, though Gerry would have done two or three for me. Never heard of Jay Over or Benita Brown and assume Maureen then went by another surname that I can’t remember.

3 Pat Mills has fond memories and a lot of respect for specific girls’ comics titles and the hard-hitting gritty stories that ran in them. What kind of comparisons would you draw between the world of girls’ comics and that of the boys’ titles you worked on?

They were pretty different, up until Pat and I started work on Battle Picture Weekly. I refer to the IPC boys’ stories, as DC Thomson boys’ comics had some excellent stories and were almost the equal of their girls’ titles. But IPC boys’ titles had stagnated, with stories that were formulaic, repetitive, barely credible and carried very little emotional power. They paled in comparison to the stories in Judy, Mandy and especially Bunty – clever, meaty, affecting.

4 You started your comics career working for DC Thomson before moving south to IPC/Fleetway. Were there things about creating comics that you learned at DC Thomson which you were keen to bring with you to IPC, or perhaps keen to move away from? Or other memories of differences between the two publishers?

I was keen to move away from poverty! The key lesson I learned there was self-criticism. Nothing you write can’t be better. Always question yourself – am I getting the best out of that scene, those characters, is there a better way of doing things?

5 Finally, anything you can tell us about your time at Sandie would be good to know. It was a fairly short-lived title, only lasting for 89 issues. What do you think that was down to? Did you leave it as it finished, or earlier? Who else worked on it that you can recall?

My memory is that they closed it down – or merged it – on a circulation of about 180,000 (though that figure may be inflated in my mind). In any case the low cover price meant that they had to sell enormous numbers. I was told the comic was going under and that they wanted me to move on to Princess Tina (which was also dying) and revamp it in an attempt to save it. Norman Worker (I think) was brought in to see Sandie laid to rest. In turn I made an awful hash of Tina, whereupon I quit journalism to become caretaker of an estate in Scotland, never to return (I thought!).

I’ve already mentioned [in email] some of the names of Sandie staff – subs Kyra Clegg, Rhoda Miller, Malcolm Shaw. Ally McKay was assistant art man for a while, and John…John…ah, I forget, but he was art editor.

Many thanks again to John Wagner for this interview. I have a small number of issues of Sandie, which I looked at in this post. Catawiki has details on a few Sandie issues also, and the Great News for All Readers blog has posted in detail about two issues in 2016. Mistyfan also wrote a post about the advert for Sandie’s launch, and another on issue 7 of Sandie in 1972.

Jinty & Penny 14 March 1981

• Pam of Pond Hill (artist Bob Harvey, writer Jay Over)
• The Ghost Dancer (artist Phil Townsend)
• No Expectations – Gypsy Rose story (artist Hugo D’Adderio)
• Snoopa (artist Joe Collins)
• Just the Job
• Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost (artist Hugh Thornton-Jones)
• Tansy of Jubilee Street (artist Peter Wilkes)
• Land of No Tears (artist Guy Peeters, writer Pat Mills)
• No Medals for Marie – (artist Phil Gascoine, writer Alison Christie Fitt)
• Winning Ways 48 (writer Benita Brown)
• Life’s a Ball for Nadine – (artist Mario Capaldi)

Pam thinks Miss Larks is being blackmailed, which leads to an embarrassing moment when Fred and Terry jump what they think is the blackmailer by mistake. Oh well, they were just trying to be helpful. The ‘blackmailer’ is Miss Larks’ nephew Steve Arnott, who takes over the reins for the upcoming school magazine Pam is struggling over.

“The Ghost Dancer” is approaching crunch time. Ferne wants to end her deception but is too scared of the consequences. But fate takes a hand when Ferne finds out that Jolie is in danger from a cracked pillar. Everyone sees the supposedly wheelchair-bound Ferne suddenly running off to try to avert disaster.

“No Medals for Marie” enters its penultimate episode. That mean old Miss Simon won’t let Marie’s family have the country home they so desperately need for Paul’s health. She’s going to abandon Paul to slowly die of asthma in his polluted town although she knows how serious his condition is. And it’s just because she’s so jealous at Marie finally winning a medal.

“Life’s a Ball for Nadine” is also on its penultimate episode. There are two jealous sisters going up against Nadine at netball and disco and trying to cheat her out of both. Nadine beats one sister at netball in this episode, but now she has to beat the other at disco in the final episode.

The Gamma Girls have won the preliminary rounds at the Golden Girl trophy, but it’s not all victory. Perfecta is on the trail of their secret trainer, who is Miranda’s mother. Cassy manages to foil Perfecta this time, but she is still suspicious. Plus, the dreaded Hive Inspector is going to pay a visit. He has the power to take Miranda and her mother away if he discovers their secret, and they will never return.

This week Gypsy Rose brings us an original story instead of a recycled Strange Story. Dora Lambert faithfully goes to Miss Harleigh to read Charles Dickens to her. Despite the Dickens title she reads from in the story, Dora expects and asks for nothing, even though her poor family could do with it. However, Gypsy Rose has forewarned us that there could be a surprise in store.

Sir Roger accidentally creates a double of himself, and then it’s triplets. Gaye ends up with treble the trouble of feeding a gluttonous ghost.

Tansy’s got a detective kit. She’s on the case of the missing hockey cup, which has disappeared from her bedroom window. For once pesky brother Simon and practical joker Peter are in the clear, so who could have done it?

No-One Cheers for Norah (1972)

Sample Images

“No-One Cheers for Norah” was one of Sandie’s very first stories. It is going to be discussed here because it has been mentioned in several Jinty blog entries as sharing parallels with Jinty’s “Toni on Trial”. There has been speculation it was the same writer. A promising athlete (or swimmer in Norah’s case) finds her career under threat from an old theft charge that was levelled at her mother/father.

When examining this story I also noticed it shares parallels with “Tricia’s Tragedy”, so it could be the same writer here too.

Published: Sandie #1, 12 February 1972 – #12, 29 April 1972

Artist: John Armstrong

Writer: Unknown

Plot

Norah Day is a keen swimmer, but her widowed father is so poor they are driven to training her in the canal. Nonetheless she has managed to win one trophy.

Dad falls ill and Norah is sent to stay at rich Uncle Phillip’s while he’s in hospital. Straight off the mark though, her relatives treat her like a piece of dirt. They call her a “slum kid”, a disgrace to the family, and they don’t let the neighbours even see her. Cousin Lorna says she doesn’t want her friends to know Norah is her cousin. They make her sleep in a shabby attic when they could easily give her a nice room. At mealtimes they won’t let her share the table with them and she has to eat separately. They see her as being more useful as a servant. In fact, that is what they lead Mrs Maddox, the president of the Dolphins Swimming Club that Lorna is a member of, to believe – that Norah is their new help. Lorna even throws Norah’s newly won trophy out the car window!

When Norah tries to join the Dolphins Swimming Club too, Lorna rips up Norah’s swimsuit and tells her to get out of the club. The relatives are making it loud and clear that they are not going to let Norah keep up her swimming, especially as it could pose a threat to Lorna’s swimming career. Swimming club President Mrs Maddox says she wants Lorna to win the club championship again and she thinks Lorna is now ready for bigger things. Besides, there are the swimming club fees Norah can’t afford and of course her horrible relatives won’t cover them.

Determined to keep up her swimming, Norah turns to swimming in the park lake. Eventually Mrs Maddox notices Norah and offers her a free place, but she has to go through a trial, which Norah wins despite a number of faults in her swimming. They decide the faults can be corrected with proper training, and on the whole Norah has potential as a swimmer. They agree to let Norah compete in the championship finals. Lorna realises how big a danger her cousin is. She still lets Mrs Maddox think Norah’s the family servant and enrols her at the club under a false name. The other club members are snobby and look down on Norah too, and the committee is quite snobby towards her as well. Meanwhile, Mrs Maddox senses that Norah reminds her of someone, but can’t quite place it.

When the news gets back home, the family predictably treat Norah worse than ever. However, Mrs Maddox eventually discovers how badly they are treating Norah, and how they have led people to believe she is their servant because they were too snobby to let them know the truth. Mrs Maddox is the most important person in town, so being shown up in front of her is extra-humiliating for the nasty relatives.

Poor Norah still has to wait upon her snooty relatives, though. And they still pose a threat to her swimming: Uncle Phillip says he has to tell Mrs Maddox who Norah really is because of the difficult position Norah has put them in. Meanwhile, Mrs Maddox begins coaching to correct Norah’s swimming faults and she begins to improve.

But then Uncle Phillip tells Mrs Maddox what he had been planning to tell her, and making the excuse it was the reason they had put up the story Norah was their servant. Whatever it is, it has Mrs Maddox deeply shocked and telling Norah it is best they don’t meet again. Norah has no idea what it is about. When she confronts Lorna, Lorna says her father was a crook who served jail time. Norah thinks Uncle has been telling Mrs Maddox a pack of lies. Lorna picks a fight with Norah, which Uncle and Aunt blame Norah for. He says he’s not keeping Norah in the house any longer and sends her to his clothing factory in Claydon, where he instructs his manager to give her all the worst jobs.

Norah goes to see Mrs Maddox, who says the story is true. Norah’s father was once the secretary of the club, but was sent to jail for stealing a sum of £480 from the club twenty years ago. Realising Norah is not like her father (as Uncle said), Mrs Maddox resumes Norah’s training. She is going to put Norah in the Dolphins team and get the English selectors to take a look at her. This is something Norah’s father always wanted as his imprisonment robbed him of that chance, but he can now fulfil it through Norah.

Norah goes to see her father. Dad’s condition has worsened, and the only thing keeping him going is the hope Norah will be selected for England. His thought bubbles reveal he is innocent of the charge that sent him to prison. So who is guilty?

After visiting her father Norah can’t go back to her uncle’s, so she sleeps in her dad’s house. But then new tenants move in. Norah has no choice but to go back to her uncle’s – only to be thrown right out of the house. They figure a night of roughing it in bad weather will make Norah unfit for the selections. Norah sneaks into her uncle’s factory to spend the night there.

While looking for food Norah comes across an old document, which reveals Uncle Phillip set up his business with a down payment of £480. This is the exact amount Norah’s father was accused of stealing, and the date of the down payment corresponds with the time the money was stolen. Norah recalls that Uncle Phillip used to bear a physical resemblance to Dad. Then she puts two and two together.

Uncle Phillip now catches her in the act and she confronts him over what she has deduced: he stole the money and left Dad to carry the can over it when (presumably) they mistook Uncle Phillip for Dad because of the physical resemblance. When she tries to run for it he knocks her out and locks her in the cellar (at least with some food and water). Norah escapes through a drain, but has to swim for her life against a torrent of dye waste being released from the factory. By the time she arrives at the baths she is bright purple!

Norah tells Mrs Maddox what happened and what she has discovered about Uncle Phillip, flourishing the document she still has (and has somehow survived the dye bath). She also begs to be allowed to compete for her father’s sake. Mrs Maddox says they will sort out the theft business later, and tells Norah she can compete. Everyone knows this is going to be tough because they know Norah is exhausted from that dye bath swim and Lorna won’t give an inch. And the Dolphins club girls are still unfriendly to Norah. As the race unfolds, however, cheers are heard for Norah as people see how well she is swimming despite everything. Norah’s determination, lust for revenge, and amended swimming faults are outweighing her tiredness. She wins against Lorna and is selected for England.

Afterwards, Mrs Maddox tells Norah her uncle just slunk off and the guilty look on his face told her all she needed to know. Mrs Maddox then tells Lorna to pack up and leave the Dolphins Club: “there’s not very much to be said for you either!” Lorna is roundly booed as she goes, for word has been around. Soon after, Lorna and her parents move away in shame.

Mr Day recovers and is eager to start a new life now that his name has been cleared. This includes marrying Mrs Maddox, and Norah welcomes her as a stepmother. Six weeks later, Norah wins her first race for England.

Thoughts

These will be discussed in context of the parallels with “Toni on Trial” and “Tricia’s Tragedy”. There certainly is a parallel with Toni in that a wrongful charge of stealing from a sports club was levelled at the protagonist’s parent years before and is threatening her own sports career. However, the wrongful charge is a much more powerful plot driver in Toni than in Norah. In Toni it’s established by part three and casts a cloud over the protagonist that just won’t go away because the townsfolk just won’t forget and the real culprit keeps fuelling it. So Toni is anxious to get to the bottom of it all for her own sake as well as clearing her mother’s name. In Norah the wrongful charge is not even revealed until nearly two thirds of the way through the story, and it’s only done so because Uncle Phillip believes it’s the only way to neutralise the threat Norah poses to Lorna. Even after it’s established, clearing the parent is not a priority. It only happens by sheer luck in Norah finding the document, drawing the right conclusions, and Mrs Maddox believing her. The wrongful charge and exoneration serve more as part of the plot resolution and punishing the unpleasant relatives than driving the plot as they do in Toni. The story format is more like a Cinderella story than an “exoneration” story, as was the case with Toni.

The parallels with Tricia are much stronger. First, both stories feature swimming. Second, a rogue uncle is responsible for a wrongful accusation against the protagonist’s father, which has driven him and his family deep into poverty while the rogue uncle’s family have grown richer and cruel to them because of it. Third, in both Norah and Tricia the protagonists can’t afford to train at the baths so they have to resort to a quarry pool (Tricia) or a canal or lake (Norah). Fourth, divisions between rich and poor have created further rifts between the poor protagonist and her unpleasant rich relations, who just rubbish her and her family. But the nasty relatives are not content with this and try to ruin the protagonist even more to stop her triumphing over their daughter at an important swimming match. In the case of Tricia it’s to stop her inheriting money from her grandfather. In Norah, it’s because they’re so snobby they don’t even want people to know she is family. Fifth, in both Norah and Tricia the unpleasant relatives take advantage to bully the protagonist, turn her into a slave, and pull all sorts of nasty tricks to stop her beating the cousin in the swimming match. Finally, in Norah and Tricia it all culminates in the swimming match where everything is at stake and it’s a battle for revenge. And once the truth is established, both the unpleasant cousins in Norah and Tricia are roundly booed off and soon move away in shame with their parents.

Jinty & Penny 20 June 1981

• Pam of Pond Hill (writer Jay Over, artist Bob Harvey)
• Food for Fagin (artist Trini Tinturé)
• What the Eye Doesn’t See – text story (artist Mario Capaldi)
• Russalka – Gypsy Rose (artist unknown)
• Just the Job
• Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost (artist Hugh Thornton-Jones)
• Tansy of Jubilee Street (artist Peter Wilkes)
• Angela’s Angels (artist Leo Davy)
• Worlds Apart (artist Guy Peeters)
• Working Horses
• Dracula’s Daughter (artist Mario Capaldi)
• Alley Cat (artist Rob Lee)

Pam tracks down runaway Steve during a school trip to London and that storyline is all wrapped up happily. It isn’t long before another one spins again, and it’s centred on a Pond Hill pupil named Mack who has a real ear for music. Mack’s also a non-white character, which is quite refreshing.

Mum has told Olivia her dog Fagin’s only getting one tin of food a day and it’s up to her to stump up the rest to fill Fagin’s bottomless tum. Olivia is doing her best, but is beginning to find Fagin is causing difficulties there.

In the text story, Sally is finding it difficult to accept wearing glasses. Then she finds the boy she fancies needs glasses too. So it’s a date thanks to glasses!

It’s another recycled Strange Story for Gypsy Rose. Russalka is a spirit who haunts the Danube River and lures men to their doom. Katerina discovers Russalka is trying to do this with her brother Georgi. What can she do?

In “Angela’s Angels” Sharon is getting into all sorts of scrapes helping a patient. First it’s getting her off a window ledge without falling and then helping to keep her boutique going – which causes a brush with the law. Meanwhile, the Angels’ bandaging class ends up looking like a casualty clearing station.

Sir Roger discovers they’re out of bread and needs to catch up to Gaye before the shops shut. Of course there are a lot of hjinks across the way, and it’s still not the end when they find the baker shut. They end up with floating bread as anything carried inside Sir Roger’s apparel becomes a ghost of its former self, while the baker finds floating coins coming out of his till. Meanwhile, there are hijinks in Jubilee Street over Japanese culture.

In “Worlds Apart”, the Russians cheat their way into winning the war against Britain and the British team is executed on exercise bicycles. Yes, even the death penalty in Ann’s dream world is governed by sport. But the joke’s on the Russians when Ann’s death by exercise bicycle causes the sports world to gradually disappear under their very eyes. The next dream world the girls arrive in starts with a medieval castle and they can’t move a muscle. Nor can anyone else around them. Looks like they’ve been that way for a long, long time because there are cobwebs all over the place, and all over them too.

In “Dracula’s Daughter” it’s Mr Graves’ first day as headmaster of Castlegate. It’s a nightmare for everyone, even the teachers. Is that a headmaster or Hitler addressing the school? The girls are calling it “Dracula”.

Alley Cat is back this week. He’s got a toothache but is scared of the dentist, so he tries some DIY dentistry. The results give the dentist a real laugh.

Jinty & Penny 2 May 1981

• Pam of Pond Hill (artist Bob Harvey, writer Jay Over)
• Diving Belle (artist Phil Gasoine)
• The Missing Link – text story (artist Mario Capaldi)
• The Lost Chord – Gypsy Rose Story (artist Eduardo Feito)
• Just the Job
• Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost (artist Hugh Thornton-Jones)
• Worlds Apart (artist Guy Peeters)
• Tansy of Jubilee Street (artist Peter Wilkes)
• Fancy Free! (artist Phil Townsend)
• Angela’s Angels (artist Leo Davy)
• Snoopa (artist Joe Collins)

This week’s text story should delight readers who ever met a bully teacher. The appropriately named Miss Bull (which lends itself to “Bully-bonce”, “Bossy Bully” or, most often, “Bully”) runs her sports classes like a drill sergeant. So the girls are dismayed when Bully pushes her way into coming on their half-term camp. However, when Bully shows just how competent she is at pitching a tent, it’s a humbling for her and a huge laugh and relief for all the girls when the Head decides Bully’s not fit to supervise the camping.

Pam strikes problems in raising the money to cover the costs of the school magazine that the “Worms” ripped up. She hasn’t patched things up with Goofy, and we are warned nasty Jill Cook is going to make even more trouble.

Betty’s got a really crazy plan for Belle’s diving training this week – she wants Belle to take the place of a stunt diver at the fairground. Now this looks awfully dangerous for a girl who’s not trained in the stunt, and the stuntwoman has clearly taken years to perfect it!

In “Worlds Apart”, the girls learn the meaning of gavage in this bizarre world where everyone is grotesquely fat, and the fatter the better. In hospital, the girls are force fed until they are just as fat. Only greedy Sarah is enjoying it because it’s her kind of world. Could there be a clue here?

This week’s recycling of a Strange Story in the Gypsy Rose tales treats Jinty readers to some Eduardo Feito artwork. When Clare stops in a small village with her singing group she feels like she’s been there before. Even weirder things start happening when they rehearse in the community hall.

Gaye pulls tricks on Sir Roger with a tape recorder to stop him being so lazy. When Sir Roger discovers the ruse he decides to fight fire with fire, although he finds 20^th century technology a bit incomprehensible.

Tansy’s heartthrob pop star is in town, but she’s having trouble getting even a view of him. In the end she goes better than she ever imagined.

Fancy’s mother finally tells her a few facts about her absent father. He’s an escaped convict who claims he was innocent of the crime he went to prison for. He remains at large and his whereabouts are unknown. Ben says he may be able to provide more information.

Helen’s struggling with her nursing and is swotting too hard. The girls give her a book that they hope will help. Later, suspicion falls on Lesley when a patient reports a theft.

Snoopa’s got earache, but wrapping his ear to keep it warm is getting him into all sorts of scrapes.

Jinty & Penny 11 April 1981

• Pam of Pond Hill (artist Bob Harvey, writer Jay Over)
• Diving Belle – (artist Phil Gasoine)
• Emily’s Last Stop – text story (artist Mario Capaldi)
• The Puppet That Came to Life! Gypsy Rose Story (artist Carlos Freixas)
• Just the Job
• Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost (artist Hugh Thornton-Jones)
• Whose Face Will Appear in the Mirror? (Quiz)
• Tansy of Jubilee Street (artist Peter Wilkes)
• Fancy Free! – first episode (artist Phil Townsend)
• Angela’s Angels – first episode (artist Leo Davy)
• Winning Ways 51 (writer Benita Brown)
• Land of No Tears – final episode (artist Guy Peeters, writer Pat Mills)

It’s the last episode of “Land of No Tears”. The Gamma Girls’ win has sparked off more than they intended and it’s symbolised by the spectators knocking the Hive Inspector into the pool. The Gamma Girls have made people realise how fed up they were with the system that oppressed even their emotions. The letters page prints a letter from one reader thanking Jinty for reprinting the story, especially as she had lost her original copy.

“Land of No Tears” was reprinted because of “Pam’s Poll”, and in this issue another story starts repeating because of the poll. Many readers voted for a nursing story, so “Angela’s Angels” returns. Jinty made a strong point in the announcement that this was one of Jinty’s first stories, so newer readers must have been delighted to be reading a story from Jinty’s first days.

Pam has a bad falling out with Goofy because she laughed at his submission for the upcoming school magazine without realising who wrote it. On the day of the launch all the magazines are found ripped to shreds! Pam can only think of one person who had the motive, and is praying it wasn’t him.

Sir Roger’s sad to find that he’s badly affecting the Stony Hall business of guided tour by scaring people off. He tries to boost the business.

It’s Tansy and June vs Peter and Simon in a bike contest. When the contest is tied it’s up to the bike scrambling to break it. Tansy does scrambling in more ways than one – she accidentally causes Mrs Spikle’s eggs to go for a scramble. Despite this her bike scrambling nails a victory for her and June.

Fancy’s encounter with Ben and his wild bird hospital has brought on some improvement in her character: she begins to have second thoughts about bullying. Just as well, because she’s being taken to the headmistress.

Betty uses some pretty strong-arm tactics to get Belle diving again. At least it works.

Another Strange Story from June is recycled for Gypsy Rose. A Spanish orphan named Maria makes a living entertaining people with her puppet Chica. She wishes she could be rich and buy Chica a puppet theatre. Events starting with Chica somehow appearing in a rich man’s garden make this dream come true. But the mystery of how Chica got into the garden remains unsolved.

In this week’s text story, a leisure centre appeal is going badly. It is also up against competition from an appeal to save a loco named Emily, which does better but also fails. Then inspiration strikes: convert Emily into the leisure centre!

Jinty & Penny 28 March 1981

• Pam of Pond Hill (artist Bob Harvey, writer Jay Over)
• The Ghost Dancer – final episode (artist Phil Townsend)
• The Queen’s Vengeance! Gypsy Rose story (artist Trini Tinturé)
• The Long Shot – text story (artist Mario Capaldi)
• Just the Job
• Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost (artist Hugh Thornton-Jones)
• Are You Good at Arguments? (Quiz)
• Tansy of Jubilee Street (artist Peter Wilkes)
• Fancy Free! – first episode (artist Phil Townsend)
• Spot of Trouble – A Jinty & Penny special story (artist José Casanovas)
• Land of No Tears (artist Guy Peeters, writer Pat Mills)

This week the Pond Hill-hating Wormsley Comprehensive makes its only appearance in the entire run of Pam of Pond Hill. It is such a neglected, rundown, graffiti-smeared dump it makes Pam appreciate Pond Hill. It’s no wonder the Wormsley pupils (“Worms”) are so rough. So could jealousy be the reason they hate Pond Hill? Pam and Steve never get the chance to even ask, for they get nabbed by the “Worms” and are now set to get a variant on tarring and feathering.

Two Phil Townsend stories overlap this week: “The Ghost Dancer” (ends) and “Fancy Free!” (begins). Ferne embarks on secret training to get out of that wheelchair and back into her ballet shoes. Fancy Cole is a problem girl who wants to have the freedom to do anything she likes. That includes bullying, it would seem. Still, things could be so different if her mother was kinder and looked after the place more instead of indulging in bingo all the time.

“A Spot of Trouble” is a Jinty and Penny special story. Apparently it is a filler, as two serials ended last issue but only one begins this issue. Natasha rescues an abandoned pup, Spot, in the Gulf States. The locals don’t much care for dogs, so the hotel manager doesn’t see the point in Natasha befriending Spot. He sees things in a new light when Spot saves Natasha from a deadly snake. The artist of this story is a bit uncertain. It looks like José Casanovas but it does not have the intricate detail that his other Jinty stories had. Perhaps it is an early Casanovas reprinted from somewhere.

Tansy’s in a fix when she forgets Mother’s Day and has to lay her hands on a present fast. Sir Roger is embarrassed when he accompanies Gaye to the museum and finds a document he signed is on display, and it says he is “ignorant, timid and the biggest liar in the kingdom”. It’s hijinks time when he tries to keep Gaye from finding out.

“The Long Shot” is the first of the text stories that will continue during 1981, with the spot illustrations being expanded for the covers. The cover could also be considered the last of the Mario Capaldi sports covers as it features a sport. There are no “Winning Ways” this week, so perhaps they have now been phased out.

This week’s Gypsy Rose story is another recycled Strange Story (which appeared in June). Julie laughs at ghosts and the supernatural, and never refuses a dare. So she accepts a dare to spend the night in a house supposedly haunted by a vengeful Elizabeth I. Julie emerges not quite sure if what she saw that night was a dream or not, but she stops laughing at ghosts. The Storyteller was more smug about this than the paste-up of Gypsy Rose is. Julie also discovers a lost miniature that not only triggered the apparent haunting but also saves the house from demolition. The story has been uploaded to the Gypsy Rose gallery in the panel section.

Miss Norm reveals the full story of how she became to be both the Hive Mother and the Gamma Girls’ secret trainer. Her training is paying off because the Gamma Girls are doing so well in the finals – much to the consternation of the bigoted Hive Inspector. Unfortunately Cassy made a bargain to let Perfecta beat her in the swimming marathon and sees no way out of it. However, the blurb for next week says fate is going to step in, so it sounds like there is a way out after all.

Jinty & Penny 21 March 1981

• Pam of Pond Hill (artist Bob Harvey, writer Jay Over)
• The Ghost Dancer (artist Phil Townsend)
• Kathie Come Home! Gypsy Rose story (artist Hugo D’Adderio)
• Snoopa (artist Joe Collins)
• Just the Job
• Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost (artist Hugh Thornton-Jones)
• Tansy of Jubilee Street (artist Peter Wilkes)
• Land of No Tears (artist Guy Peeters, writer Pat Mills)
• No Medals for Marie – final episode (artist Phil Gascoine, writer Alison Christie Fitt)
• Winning Ways 49 (writer Benita Brown)
• Life’s a Ball for Nadine – final episode (artist Mario Capaldi)

Why do Pond Hill and Wormsley Comprehensive hate each other? That’s the question Steve intends to lead off the first issue of the school magazine with. He is set on going to Wormsley Comprehensive to conduct an interview with its pupils and is dragging Pam there with him, despite warnings from Goofy that the Wormsley pupils will just do something horrible to them. If you ask me, the Wormsley pupils don’t even know they hate Pond Hill or ever stop to think about it. The Pond Hill pupils certainly have no idea what the feud’s about.

Two stories end this week: “No Medals for Marie” and “Life’s a Ball for Nadine”. Marie decides it’s time to confront “that jealous battle axe” of a godmother over the blackmail she’s been pulling to stop her winning medals ever since they first met. However, Marie is in for a surprise, and it’s the one that guarantees a happy ending for all concerned. The godmother now goes from stopping Marie winning medals to a race to see who can win the most medals and trophies the fastest. No medals for guessing who’s leading. In “Life’s a Ball for Nadine”, the team resorts to a most unusual netball throw to make sure Nadine gets into the disco contest that her jealous rival’s cronies are trying to stop her entering. Nadine wins hands down of course, and “she’s the disco and netball queen!”.

One of the replacement stories starting next week is “Fancy Free!”, but why is there only one new story when two have ended? It also means two Phil Townsend stories will overlap because Townsend will finish “The Ghost Dancer” while starting “Fancy Free!”. Normally that sort of overlap happens with Phil Gascoine in Jinty.

In “The Ghost Dancer”, Ferne ends her wheelchair deception to save a fellow pupil from a dangerous pillar. But Ferne takes the pillar herself and it turns her deception into reality! Now she’s stuck in a wheelchair for real. Will she ever dance again?

There is even more cause for tears in “Land of No Tears” this week. To save Miranda from being taken away, Cassy is forced into a bargain to throw the swimming marathon in Perfecta’s favour – and so lose the Golden Girl Trophy that is the Gamma Girls’ ticket to a better life.

Gypsy Rose brings another recycled Strange Story. Twin sisters are separated after an accident and one loses her memory. So she can’t understand these strange flashes of a girl looking just like her and calling her name. Of course it’s the twin calling out for a reunion.

A misunderstanding has Tansy think Mr Grady’s being put in a pensioners’ home. She rallies the whole street to save him, but ends up in the doghouse with them all when the misunderstanding comes to light.

Sir Roger puts on a show of spooking to get Stoney Hall into a guidebook. Unfortunately he meets his match in the guidebook’s editors, who are the biggest sceptics he has ever met.

OuBaPo: Fran’ll Fix It!

In this OuBaPo experiment I have reworked the “Fran’ll Fix It!” episode where she gets kidnapped by Sheik Abbis because he mistook her for Princess Natisha. In the original episode, which appeared in Jinty 21 October 1978, it happened because Fran unknowingly resembled the princess after donning a Middle Eastern costume to hide a false beard that got stuck. In this version Fran sets out to dress up like Princess Natisha and fix the Sheik in order to help the princess, who is a new pupil at the school. The false beard is still there, but this time it’s all part of the fixing. The original episode can be found at the link above.

 

Remake of “Fran’ll Fix It!” Sheik Abbis episode

Jinty & Penny 16 May 1981

Cover artist: Mario Capaldi

Stories in this issue

• Pam of Pond Hill (writer Jay Over, artist Bob Harvey)
• Diving Belle (artist Phil Gascoine)
• The Silent Admirer– text story (artist Mario Capaldi)
• Ancient Remedy – Gypsy Rose story (artist Hugo D’Adderio)
• Just the Job
• Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost (artist Hugh Thornton-Jones)
• Worlds Apart (artist Guy Peeters)
• Tansy of Jubilee Street (artist Peter Wilkes)
• Fancy Free! – (artist Phil Townsend)
• Winning Ways 52 (writer Benita Brown)
• Angela’s Angels (artist Leo Davy)
• Alley Cat (artist Rob Lee)

In “Pam of Pond Hill” Goofy doesn’t realise nasty Jill Cook is taking advantage of him. He’s been completely taken in by her sob story that her father’s a bully (yeah, riiiiight). And now poor Mrs Dankins’ flat has been invaded by Jill and her mates for a wild party, all because of Goofy’s gullibility.

Another party gets gatecrashed in “Diving Belle” so Belle can use the diving board there. It’s one of Betty’s desperate measures to get Belle trained up for this all-important dive she keeps foreseeing.

This week’s Gypsy Rose story is completely new. For once there’s no recycled Strange Story. Joanne’s got warts on her right hand and she finds a very unusual helper – the ghost of the Wise Woman of Barling Castle. Cromwell’s goons executed the wise woman for witchcraft, but that clearly hasn’t stopped her from curing people.

A witch also appears in this week’s episode of “Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost”. Sir Roger tries a dating service for ghosts, but he is not impressed when it pairs him up with a witch. The dating service must have slipped up at the witch’s end as well; she wanted Sir Roger for a servant, not a date.

The protagonist in this week’s text story has more luck with dating than Sir Roger. Jenny is a shy girl who finds a poem that seems to be from a secret admirer. It turns out the poem was not for her, but it cures her of her shyness and pairs her up with a real date.

In “Worlds Apart”, the girls reach their limit with the fatties’ world when Ann dies because she’s too fat for running and the fatties’ idea of first aid is to shove assorted foods down Ann’s throat to revive her. The girls rebel and start throwing food right back at the people who keep shoving it down their throats. Things take a surprise twist when Sarah seems to drown but is then rescued by…Ann?

An Oliver Twist film gives Tansy the strangest of nightmares. She finds her whole home and Jubilee Street in Victorian settings. Her brother Simon is all filthy from cleaning chimneys. Victorian manners must have impacted on the Victorian Mr Court – he actually serves Tansy for once. Tansy finds herself a maidservant to snobby Angela but isn’t taking any of Angela’s arrogance. The dream provides plenty of fodder for the homework Tansy’s teacher sets later: an essay on imagining what it is like to live in Victorian times. The full episode has been uploaded on the Peter Wilkes page at https://jintycomic.wordpress.com/galleries/panel-gallery/peter-wilkes/

In “Fancy Free!” there is a shock over the money Ben gave to Fancy – it came from the bank robbery Fancy’s father was imprisoned for. While Mum faces awkward questions at the police station over the money, Fancy goes to Ben for a good explanation.

In “Angela’s Angels”, Lesley doesn’t want her fellow Angels to know her father’s rich. Unfortunately, pulling the wool over their eyes is causing misunderstandings. Meanwhile Helen brings a kitten into the hospital, which is against regulations. Worse, it is about to trip a blind patient.