Tammy and June 2 August 1975

Cover artist: John Richardson

Bella at the Bar (second Bella story) (artist John Armstrong, writer Jenny McDade) – final episode

Waifs of the Wigmaker (artist Mario Capaldi, writer Bill Harrington)

Ella’s Ballet Boat (artist Jim Eldridge)

Aunt Aggie (artist J. Badesa, writer Pat Mills, creator Gerry Finley-Day)

Carol in Camelot St. (artist Douglas Perry)

Typewriters for Writer Types! – competition 

The Truth about the Treasure (artist John Armstrong) – Strange Story

Bessie Bunter (artist Arthur Martin)

Wee Sue (artist John Richardson)

No Tears for Molly (artist Tony Thewenetti, writer Maureen Spurgeon)

Now we come to 1975 in our Tammy August month round. 

Inside, Bella’s second story comes to an end, and readers finally see how she clears her name after being framed and publicly disgraced by the jealous Natalia Orlov. This Bella story drew lots of letters from readers, including ones trying to guess how Bella would win out against Natalia. As it turned out, they were not bad guesses. But none of them anticipated Bella damaging her back (while saving Natalia, and Natalia confessing in return) and becoming wheelchair-bound as the cost of clearing her name. And so the scene – Bella’s road to recovery – is set for her third story, which readers are informed will be starting soon. So now Bella is on her way to becoming a recurring regular in Tammy instead of a serial. Meanwhile, readers will get a new tennis story, “Backhand Billie”.

Aunt Aggie (the TV star with the sweet persona on screen, the scheming one in real life) is also doing another sequel. In this week’s episode, how much does it take to get Aunt Aggie jealous? It’s Helen getting a bit of fan mail of her own. Just a few letters for Helen, and Aunt Aggie brings out her big guns. But, as usual, Helen finds a way to make it all rebound on awful Aunt Aggie. 

In “Waifs of the Wigmaker”, there’s no more slaving in the wig factory for Moira, says Ma Parting. She’s training Moira up for something bigger, and Moira is to take on another identity for it. Sounds ominous. On the plus side, while dodging the authorities, Ma Parting was forced take Moira through a secret tunnel to the factory. Moira’s got the escape route from the wig factory at last, and Ma Parting showed it to her herself! 

This week’s Strange Story is a treasure hunt story, which leaves the hunters with a moral: there is more than one kind of treasure. In “Ella’s Ballet Boat”, the floating ballet company is dogged by more sinister treasure hunters, in search of a treasure chart hidden on their boat. 

Carol Clancy finds King Arthur is being taken a bit far at her new school in Camelot Street. Her school carries on the Round Table and the Camelot tradition, complete with quests and defending the weak and poor against fairytale threats of dragons, ogres, robber barons and such. You couldn’t possibly find things like that in the modern world? Well, they are up against “dragons” this week – a motorcycle gang by that name. But there’s a more pressing threat from Mordred. No, not the witch – the deputy head who wants the head’s position, which would bring down the Round Table. 

In the Tammy regulars: Bessie takes advantage of bob-a-job week, but it all blows up in her face. She also meets a boy scout who’s just like her. Miss Bigger’s cousin is giving a lecture about his game hunting in Africa. Sue badly wants to see it, but Miss Bigger won’t let her. When Sue wins in the end, “even that hyena [on photo slide] don’t look so wild as Miss B.” Molly is the only one standing by a new tenant farmer, Mark Travers; everyone else has turned against him because of claims he’s a fraud. Even his wife has doubts. And now Pickering swings by with an invitation that sounds like a plan to catch him out altogether.

Tammy and June 31 August 1974

Cover artist: John Richardson

Bella at the Bar (artist John Armstrong, writer Jenny McDade)

Swimmer Slave of Mrs. Squall (artist Douglas Perry, writer Gerry Finley-Day?) – final episode

Sadie in the Sticks (artist Juliana Buch)

Wheels of Fate (artist John Armstrong) – Strange Story

Bessie Bunter (artist Arthur Martin)

Jeannie and her Uncle Meanie (artist Robert MacGillivray)

Wee Sue (artist Mario Capaldi)

Cat Stevens – feature

No Tears for Molly (artist Tony Thewenetti, writer Maureen Spurgeon)

Eva’s Evil Eye (artist John Richardson, writer John Wagner) 

In the 1974 issue in our Tammy August month round, three of the four serials (Bella, Sadie and Eva) that began in the Tammy and June merger issue are now on their penultimate episodes, and the fourth (“Swimmer Slave of Mrs. Squall”) finishes. That means readers will soon have a huge lineup of new stories to look forward to. It’s always great to see a big lineup of stories begin in one issue. 

On the cover, one of the Cover Girls is outbouncing kangaroos with her pogo stick. But the cover’s let down a bit by how cardboard the kangaroos look, as if a kid drew them. Surely John Richardson can draw far better kangas than that? 

Ghost stories in the Strange Stories are by no means unusual, but the ghost certainly is – a ghost lorry. It starts haunting Gail Hawkins when she holidays in a village where heavy traffic has been diverted after a fatal lorry accident. But why is it haunting Gail, and why is a voice telling her to get the hell out? 

You would think teachers would have no problem with pupils stopping at a cafe for a coffee on the way home from school, would you? Not when the teacher’s Miss Bigger, who makes a big fuss over such a trivial thing – Sue and Co stopping for some coffee before starting homework, and turns it into yet another weekly round of Miss Bigger trouble for Sue to sort out. 

Molly’s caught up in one of the complex mysteries she’s ever tackled, and the more she probes it, the more questions it raises than answers: a wounded war pilot whose face is bandaged, and he won’t speak or give his name; a community that clams up about him; a strange couple have taken over his old home, Poppy Farm, and try to hold him prisoner, as they have done with his wife Emily for years; a boy says Poppy Farm is cursed; and now nothing’s left of the pilot but his uniform and bandages. Gets weirder by the minute, doesn’t it?

Jeannie and Aunt Martha do something that is long overdue – walk out on Uncle Meanie because of his skinflint ways. Unwisely, they say Uncle Meanie will foot their hotel bills, so he’s on their tail like a shot with more scheming to get them back. He does get them back, but in the end is forced to give in the demands that sent them packing in the first place: fork out the money to replace the dilapidated furnishings he been too mean to replace. 

Bessie Bunter and her class offer to help out the youth orchestra when their van breaks down by bringing the instruments to the hall. But things get horny when Miss “Stackers” Stackpole has them take a shortcut through a field, which for some reason has no “Beware of the Bull” sign on the gate. Someone should have a word with the farmer about that! Bessie, after a bit of trouble with Stackers earlier in the story, gets a happy ending by saving the day. 

Tammy & June 21 June 1975

Cover artist: John Armstrong

Bella at the Bar (artist John Armstrong, writer Jenny McDade)

Waifs of the Wigmaker (artist Mario Capaldi, writer Bill Harrington) – first episode

Red Letter Rosie

Ella’s Ballet Boat (artist Jim Eldridge) – first episode

Aunt Aggie (artist J. Badesa, creator Pat Mills) – return

Bessie Bunter

Lure of the Lamp (artist Christine Ellingham) – Strange Story

You Need Hands – Competition

Wee Sue (artist John Richardson)

No Tears for Molly (artist Tony Thewenetti, writer Maureen Spurgeon)

It’s been a year since June merged with Tammy. How has the merger impacted on Tammy in that time? The June logo is still on the cover, but instead of the Cover Girls we have Bella on the cover this week. Bella, who first appeared with the merger, has clearly become so powerful that she sometimes pushes the Cover Girls off the cover. The John Armstrong artwork on the cover must have been a big attraction as well. 

The second Bella story (by popular demand) is going far longer than the first, not only because of the popularity but also because of the story arc (Bella clearing her name after being publicly disgraced by a jealous rival) requires a whole lot more development and episodes to resolve. It is also much darker than her first story (which was pretty dark as it was), as poor Bella has to battle her way through her wrongful disgrace as well as obstacles set forth by her cruel guardians, nasty tricksters and other enemies in order to keep up her gymnastics. Despite them all, she has done well enough to represent Britain in a championship, but the stigma just keeps catching up again and again.

Also returning from Tammy’s earlier years, by popular demand, is Aunt Aggie. Like “The Honourable S.J.” from Judy, she’s a nasty piece of work and a very crafty schemer who can put on a phoney face of kindness that fools everyone (in Aunt Aggie’s case, as a warm-hearted TV celebrity). Only the long-suffering protagonist who has to cope with her knows the truth. But unlike the Honourable S.J., Aunt Aggie is a full adult, and she is also played for humour, with a hilarious weekly comeuppance as our protagonist foils her nasty schemes. It’s a very deft combination of nastiness and comedy.

Uncle Meanie, who carried over from the Sandie merger, is now gone. Wee Sue, the other addition from Sandie, is now being drawn by John Richardson. The June additions, the Storyteller and Bessie Bunter, have established their staying power. Molly is still going as well, along with the misery-laden Cinderella and slave stories that made Tammy a hit when she was first published. 

The current Cinderella story, “Red Letter Rosie”, is now on its penultimate episode. A new slave story, “Waifs of the Wigmaker”, starts this week. It’s slavery in a Victorian wig factory, and the cruelty is a whole lot more than just exploited workers. The girls are deliberately degraded with measures such as being chained up as they work and newcomers having their hair cropped on arrival and forced to make their first wig with it. The villain of it all, Ma Parting, is an noteworthy one for being totally blind. But her blindness makes her an even more dangerous villain and hard to escape from, because her other senses are so acute they’re virtually superhuman. 

Tammy was never without a ballet story for long. The new one, “Ella’s Ballet Boat”, makes a nice change in having a ballet troupe instead Tammy’s more usual ballet formula in having an individual ballerina as the protagonist. It also gives us more variety of characters and character development. 

Tammy & June 29 June 1974

Cover artist: John Richardson

Bella at the Bar (artist John Armstrong, writer Jenny McDade)

Wee Sue (artist Mario Capaldi)

Sadie in the Sticks (artist Juliana Buch)

The Haunted Headline (artist Juan Escandell Torres) – Strange Story

It’s Great Here – Competition

Bessie Bunter

Swimmer Slave of Mrs. Squall (artist Douglas Perry, writer Gerry Finley-Day?)

Jeannie and Her Uncle Meanie (artist Robert MacGillivray)

No Tears for Molly (artist Tony Thewenetti, writer Maureen Spurgeon)

Eva’s Evil Eye (artist Charles Morgan, writer John Wagner)

For the 1974 instalment of our Tammy June month round, we profile Tammy 29 June 1974, two weeks into the Tammy & June merger. Appropriately enough, June was the month June merged with Tammy in 1974, and it was one of the most beneficial mergers Tammy went through. She gained a more varied mix of serials, regulars, and now the weekly complete story.

The stage was now set for the regulars Tammy was to have for the next six years: Bella Barlow, Wee Sue, Bessie Bunter, the Storyteller, Molly Mills and the Cover Girls. After a steady, long-standing build towards regular strips in her lineup, Tammy finally had a strong core of regulars to keep her going. It took a few mergers to do it, though. Bessie Bunter and the Storyteller came over from June and Uncle Meanie and Wee Sue from Sandie. Wee Sue proved to have the strongest staying power of the two Sandie strips. Bella Barlow was not yet a regular in Tammy. At this stage she was a serial strip, but she became so popular that she turned into one of Tammy’s longest-running regular strips. 

The Storyteller was now providing readers with a regular weekly dose of the supernatural story. In so doing he enabled Tammy to explore all sorts of settings, from Roman times to the future, and more fantasy and science fiction. His other benefit was bringing “complete stories” to Tammy on a regular basis. Before then, complete stories had only appeared sporadically in Tammy.

The drawback to having more regular strips was less room for serials. Nevertheless, the dark, cruelty-laden Cinderella serials and slave story serials of Tammy’s earlier years were still appearing. In the first weeks of the merger they took the form of “Swimmer Slave of Mrs. Squall”, “Sadie in the Sticks” and Bella herself. Bella proved so popular that she ensured the Cinderella story would be a mainstay of Tammy forever. “Eva’s Evil Eye” seemed to indicate the bullying serial was appearing a bit more in Tammy, and the new Molly Mills story was taking a novel approach in doing the “schemer” story, a formula seen more often in the DCT titles. 

Tammy & June 27 September 1975

Cover artist: John Richardson

Bella at the Bar – artist John Armstrong

Glenda’s Glossy Pages – artist Mario Capaldi, writer Pat Mills

Wee Sue – artist John Richardson

Backhand Billie – artist unknown

Bessie Bunter

Molly Mills: A Cure for Claire – artist Tony Thewenetti, writer Maureen Spurgeon

Wheeler Delia – artist unknown

Have a Heart! – Competition

The Greatest Gift (Strange Story) – artist Douglas Perry

Serfs of the Swamps – artist Douglas Perry

Although this is a September issue, I am bringing it out for Christmas because the Strange Story has a dash of Christmas in it. The story sure is a warning not to take generosity – something to show more of at Christmas – to extremes or come before things that should take priority, like paying the bills. Some of you may wonder if the grandfather deserved the Strange Story rescue, even if he did seem to learn his lesson, and if something up there is going, “All right, this once, but if it happens again…” After all, Dickens frequently commented on the consequences and misery of debt in his stories, and “A Christmas Carol” itself was written to pay off debt. Well, judge for yourselves.

Douglas Perry is drawing this Strange Story while also drawing a serial, “Serfs of the Swamps”. The locals of a hamlet seem to be making Lynn Wake and her marooned classmates work like serfs – and now they are forced to dress like serfs too, in dreadful sack cloth garments. One rather gets the impression these people are out to use the girls as slave labour. 

Talking of serfs, Bella is, is usual, being underfed while forced to work like a serf for Aunt Gert and Uncle Jed, who show no mercy for the back injury Bella is trying to recover from. The lack of food makes Bella black out while she’s doing swimming therapy, and because she’s in the water, that’s now put her in terrible danger. 

Assistant manager Mrs Mallis isn’t making “Wheeler Delia” work like a serf at the rollerdrome where she works although she dislikes her. Instead, she’s gotten Delia sacked, and when Delia is reinstated she reports Delia to the orphanage for breaking bounds. This prompts Delia to run away from the orphanage and take refuge at the pier, but someone has caught her. And it looks like…guess.

Bessie is always coming up with screwy schemes to get out of schoolwork and exams because she hopeless at schoolwork. This week she pretends her eyesight is ailing. Predictably, food being the sight to behold for Bessie is her undoing and soon everyone “sees” through her. 

An Indian doctor claims to have the power to make Mistress Claire walk again – but the moment Claire starts walking, Molly suddenly loses the power of her own legs. Now she’s the one in the wheelchair and Mistress Claire is wheeling her around. What a turnabout! What’s going on? A legal rep believes this weird doctor is behind it and offers to help Molly sue for damages. Lord Stanton’s response is to sack Molly. At least there’s a bright side to this episode: Pickering gets a bite on the nose from a parrot!

Backhand Billie wants to become a top tennis player under her own steam and not because she’s the daughter of a tennis star. Okay, but she has been going about it the wrong way: John McEnroe tactics, nasty tricks, and not being a good loser. She’s now having second thoughts about this, but the damage she’s done is not easy to reverse and she still doesn’t like losing. Miss Ball the academy head now offers to help, with CCTV post mortems of Billie’s playing, but how ready is Billie to take things on board?

Wee Sue goes to a mini-market for cheap sports gear, only to discover the reason it’s so cheap is that the man is a crook who cheats customers with rubbish goods. Ever heard of caveat emptor, Sue? Or if it is too good to be true, it usually is? And get a load of the name of the crook’s mini-market: “Honest Pat Mills’ Mini-Market”! Wonder what Pat Mills thought of the in-joke.

Glenda is now convinced the glossy pages really can work magic after she gets a flash bicycle out of them and her snooty arch-enemy Hillary is seething. But then Mum starts a fire in the fireplace where Glenda has hidden the glossy pages – and all of a sudden the bicycle catches fire. Yikes, what other magic is at work here? Is it that old adage, if it is too good to be true it usually is again?

Tammy 6 November 1976

Cover artist: John Richardson

Bella at the Bar (artist John Armstrong)

Towne in the Country (artist Mario Capaldi)

Sally in a Shell (artist unknown, writer Terence Magee)

Wee Sue (artist John Richardson)

Edie the Ed’s Niece (artist Joe Collins)

Bessie Bunter

Molly Mills: A Friend from the Sea (artist Tony Thewenetti, writer Maureen Spurgeon) – first episode

The Excursion – Strange Story (artist Carlos Freixas)

Babe at St. Woods (artist José Casanovas)

Olympia Jones (artist Eduardo Feito, writer Anne Digby)

As 5th November is nigh, we are bringing out some old issues commemorating Guy Fawkes, beginning with the Tammy Guy Fawkes issue from 1976. We seem to have a very generous tramp giving a penny for the guy on the cover. Or should it be penny for the guy’s jacket? Bessie Bunter, Wee Sue and Edie the Ed’s Niece all have Bonfire Night as their theme this week. There seems to be some carryover from Halloween, with people being mistaken for ghosts and other scary things, and Wee Sue’s headmistress making Guy Fawkes masks out of Halloween masks. 

The ghost theme continues in the Strange Story, where a boring double maths period gets livened up by what appear to be ghost girls. A priest and even a psychiatrist are called in to deal with the ghost infestation. It turns out the ghosts are time-travelling schoolgirls on an educational tour: “harmless exhibits – guaranteed safe” says the ad on their coach, which looks like a space rocket. It doesn’t say anything about “boring”.

This week’s episode of “Olympia Jones” rounds off the horrible night from last week, when Mr Rott sacked Olympia for the animal cruelty he knows his daughter Linda committed, to save his hide from the animal welfare inspector. He’s now yelling at Linda for almost landing him in trouble with animal welfare. Hmmph, we notice he’s not telling her off for the cruelty she inflicted. As it is, it’s all water off a duck’s back to her.

Next morning, the Rotts are surprised and then pleased to find not only Olympia gone but the horse they mistreated too – Olympia took him to get him away from Linda’s cruelty. She’s left her gypsy wagon home as payment and insurance the Rotts won’t come after him. But we can bet our Bonfire Night party that their paths will cross again. After all, there is that false charge of animal cruelty to be cleared up and we all want to see Linda get her comeuppance. Meanwhile, Olympia lands on her feet as a pony trek instructor at an adventure centre.

Elsewhere in the issue, the rabid dog that everyone’s been trying to find over the past several episodes of “Towne in the Country” finally gets tracked down and destroyed. But no luck yet in nailing that crooked pedlar who keeps selling fake animal medicine. At least Val stops him from drowning some puppies, ironically with help from the rabid dog.

“Sally in a Shell” is now more like Sally in a sweatshop. Dad and Dora reopen Miss Hanning’s craft shop as “The Shell Shop” and keep Sally locked in a room, cranking out shell ornaments at sweatshop pace for it. To add insult to injury, Sally finds out Dora is stealing the credit for making them. That’s the last straw for her, but how can she escape?

Babe wants to see a gangster film in town, but the snobs are pulling tricks to stop her going by landing her in a series of detentions. Babe breaks detention to see the film, but the snobs discover this. Can Babe sort them out before they grass on her?

In the new Molly Mills story, Mistress Claire is acting strangely: she wants a basket of raw fish; she wants a freezing cold bath prepared; she wants Molly to to buy some toys; and a flipper appears under her blanket. Molly finally finds out what’s going on when she discovers water coming down from Claire’s room. 

Bella’s on the move for the Montreal Olympics again. This time she’s going on horseback, and we are informed she is about to face an erupting volcano.

Tammy 30 October 1976

Cover artist: John Richardson

Bella at the Bar (artist John Armstrong)

Towne in the Country (artist Mario Capaldi)

Sally in a Shell (artist unknown, writer Terence Magee)

Wee Sue (artist John Richardson)

Edie the Ed’s Niece (artist Joe Collins)

Bessie Bunter

Molly Mills and the Music Hall (artist Tony Thewenetti, writer Maureen Spurgeon) – final episode

The Final Fly-Past – Strange Story

Babe at St. Woods (artist José Casanovas)

Olympia Jones (artist Eduardo Feito, writer Anne Digby)

It’s now October. So it’s time to bring out some Halloween covers and spooky stories in commemoration of Halloween. The cover for this Tammy Halloween issue is one of my favourite covers.

Looking inside the issue, one feels Tammy could have done much more with the Halloween theme. For example, Wee Sue, Bessie Bunter and the Storyteller could all been given Halloween stories (Halloween parties, ghosts, witches, etc). Instead, Sue tries her hand at being a tour guide; Miss Stackpole orders music lessons for Bessie but in the end decides a cats chorus is preferable to Bessie’s piano playing; and a WWII flying ace comes back from the grave in search of his good luck charm. 

Bella is still determined to make the Montreal Olympics despite her lack of passport (it got left behind when she ran away from the Barlows) and being unable to compete. Following a shipwreck, her cover story will be that she lost her passport at sea. But right now Bella is stranded again (this time in Iceland) after the shipwreck, and she’s got a young kid, Karen, in tow from that shipwreck.

This week’s episode of Olympia Jones is a turning point in the plot: Olympia and Prince the horse break away from their horrible existence at Rotts’ Circus. Olympia’s hand is forced when Mr Rott sacks her for the animal cruelty that he knows jolly well his daughter Linda was responsible for. It’s to get animal welfare off his back when they discover the evidence of Linda’s cruelty. Of course Olympia isn’t leaving the ill-treated Prince to the tender mercies of the Rotts, so she makes off with him, offering her caravan home as payment for him. Readers will eagerly read on to find out where they end up, not to mention how Olympia gets cleared of the animal cruelty charge. If you weren’t hooked on the story before, you should be after this episode.

In “Towne in the Country”, Val and her vet father are on the hunt for a rabid dog, and the police are involved too. To make things even worse, the dog’s owner won’t accept her precious dog has rabies and has to be destroyed, and a crooked pedlar has taken advantage of this to sell her some of his fake animal medicine.

Babe of St. Woods foils a robbery at the school tuck shop. Being a gangster’s daughter may give her an empathy for criminals, but on the other hand she can’t have those thieves stealing her lollipops.

Molly goes to the rescue of a music hall show after its director collapses, and she manages to recruit help from the Stanton Hall staff. Even misery boots Pickering helps out. 

“Sally in a Shell” discovers her father and sister Dora’s plot to destroy Miss Hanning’s business, but they prevent her from alerting Miss Hanning. Miss Hanning collapses, still thinking Sally was responsible for her business failing (actually it was one of Dora’s tricks) and her shop closes down. No prizes for guessing who buys it off her.

Edie the Ed’s Niece is finding it a tough choice, filling out the favourite stories coupon. Many readers must have found it equally difficult at times to pick three faves plus a least fave out of the weekly selection.

Tammy 14 August 1976

Cover artist: John Richardson

• Bella at the Bar (artist John Armstrong)
• Towne in the Country (artist Mario Capaldi)
• Storm over Jerra Island – Strange Story (artist Veronica Weir)
• Tag Along Tania (artist Giorgio Giorgetti)
• Bessie Bunter
• Molly Mills and the General Strike (artist Tony Thewenetti, writer Maureen Spurgeon)
• Wee Sue – artist John Armstrong
• Drawn to Destiny – Strange Story serial (artist Tony Higham)
• Odds on Patsy – final episode (artist Eduardo Feito)

The issue for 1976 in the Tammy round robin is 14 August 1976. The cover is one of my favourites. The Star Trek reference makes it particularly funny if you like Star Trek. It’s a change having a pesky kid brother (or is it a cousin?) instead of a kid sister for the Cover Girl to deal with. And there is another in-joke with the reference to Dan Dare, the famous space adventurer from Eagle. Tammy did not go for SF as much as Jinty – you see SF more often in the Strange Stories than Tammy’s serials – so it’s great to get an SF reference on the cover.

The Olympics featured heavily in Tammy in 1976, which was the year of the Montreal Olympics. Bella has an Olympics-themed story, complete with the Olympics rings being added to her logo. Bella is trying to reach the Montreal Olympics although she has no passport and was passed over for the British team thanks to Jed and Gert Barlow. Right now she is stranded in France with an acrobatics team. They are stringing her along with false promises of getting her to Montreal, and Bella has not yet realised their game. Moreover, her desperation to find gym equipment to train on has landed her in a sticky situation. Later the same year Tammy ran her Olympics-themed classic, Olympia Jones.

Another thing to run strongly in Tammy in 1976 was stories published at readers’ requests, by open invitation from Tammy. One starting next issue is “Dumbells Academy”, about a school run by the most incompetent staff in the world. This story appeared at the suggestion of one reader: “I’d like to see a story about a school where all the staff are really nutty.” It replaces “Odds on Patsy”, a horse story where Tammy opted for a story on horse racing and jockeys, which makes a nice change from show-jumping. Could the same writer have written “Gail at Windyridge”, another story on jockeying that appeared in Tammy later on?

Expanded Strange Stories also appeared at readers’ requests, which ran for several episodes. The current one is “Drawn to Destiny”, about Diane Hudson, a girl who is jealous of her twin sister Sylvia. And when Diane takes up drawing, her jealousy takes a sinister turn when whatever she draws seems to come true. It starts really scaring her and she doesn’t know what to think, but her jealousy is intensifying too.

Although we have a Strange Story serial, the regular Strange Story continues. This week’s mystery is how the villagers of Jerra Island managed to evacuate from a volcanic island in the 19^thcentury. According to legend, the pastor had a vision of it, but how did that happen? And how did Brenda’s church snowstorm souvenir get encased in lava for over 100 years near the site where the pastor saw the vision? She only bought it that day!

Girls’ serials did not often delve into politics, but Molly gets badly tangled in local politics when Lord Stanton has her and Pickering running a bus service during a nationwide strike in support of miners demanding better conditions. This does not please the strikers because it’s blacklegging. It is quite funny seeing the bully butler Pickering in a bus driver’s outfit though! However, Molly has worse problems now than the strike and blacklegging – she is trapped in a crumbling mine with Pickering and Lord Stanton.

Local politics are also a feature in Wee Sue. The council is building an old people’s centre but the oldies don’t want it because they don’t think it’s sound enough. Meanwhile, Sue and her friends would have loved the same site for a roller skating rink. Sue’s suggestion to the council: turn it into a community centre and convert the roof into a skating rink. Now everybody’s happy.

Tania Foster has always been the muggins and dumping ground of the gang of she hangs out with. Now she realises it, she is trying to stand up for herself. The trouble is, they keep finding ways to keep her put upon, including blackmail and dirty tricks. This week they push her into doing all their maths homework for them at the disco while they enjoy themselves and laugh at her. Too bad for them they forgot a noisy disco was not the best place for Tania to concentrate on maths and they end up in detention for “disgusting” homework. It is one of many instances where their treatment of Tania backfires. But Tania is still the muggins of the gang and finding a way to get them to treat her with respect is proving elusive.

“Towne in the Country” is a period story where All Creatures Great and Small meets “Cathy’s Casebook”. Valerie Towne and her vet father have moved to a new post in the country. Valerie soon realises she is going to be deeply involved in her father’s work, but she is not all that confident around animals. And there are other problems such as their vet’s clinic being a mess and queues of kids lining up with pets, expecting Valerie to cure them. And now Valerie and her father have a jumbo-sized problem – treating a sick circus elephant!

Bessie and her class go to the fair. After a series of mishaps, hijinks and getting messed up, everything ends happily for Bessie – with lots of food, of course.

Tammy & June 14 June 1975

Cover artist: John Richardson

• Bella at the Bar (artist John Armstrong, writer Jenny McDade)
• Slaves of the Hot Stove – final episode (artist Douglas Perry, writer Gerry Finley-Day?)
• Red Letter Rosie
• Last Laugh for the Jester – the Strange Story (artist John Armstrong)
• Wee Sue (artist John Richardson)
• Bessie Bunter
• Lill Waters Runs Deep – final episode (artist Mario Capaldi)
• No Tears for Molly (artist Tony Thewenetti, writer Maureen Spurgeon)
• Picture – Alan Merrill-Arrows

The issue for 14 June 1975 has been chosen for 1975 in the Tammy round robin. Bella’s second story, where she has to cope with unjust public stigma after being wrongly expelled from a Russian gymnastics school, definitely must rank as her darkest. Bella has managed to overcome the stigma enough to be chosen for the British team at a European championship. But the cloud is always hanging over her, and it shows in the cold way her coaches and fellow team members treat her. It gets worse this week when another team member, Jill, gets injured trying to copy Bella and blames her. Then, when Bella is on the bars, something goes wrong. Bella can’t get a grip and now she is about to take a bad fall. And we have a sneaky suspicion Jill is behind it.

“Lill Waters Runs Deep” and “Slaves of the Hot Stove”, the two other stories that began in the same issue as the new Bella story, both end this week.

“Slaves of the Hot Stove” has been a bizarre slave story from the start. Everything, from the racket to the escape plans, revolves around food. Madam Mange runs a secret kitchen in a restaurant with kidnapped top cooks as slave labour, complete with chains and rags. Its ending this week must rank as one of the…weirdest ever published in girls comics. To break all the slaves free from Madam Mange altogether, protagonist Carol Cook scares her to death with a giant Yorkshire pudding that grows so huge it threatens to smother her. Er…yes…most believable…quite how the chemistry should work. Madam Mange escapes, already plotting to cook up more evil somewhere else, and the world will hear from her again. But if Tammy was planning a sequel with Madam Mange, it didn’t eventuate for some reason.

Lill Waters has been a crafty schemer and so far gotten away with everything until two men who saw her true self show up at her home. How does the family react when they hear about Lill’s scheming? They laugh their heads off! They always thought she was a shy little thing, and here she is all clever and crafty, and tell her that her scheming didn’t matter because it was herself she really hurt. Well, that is one way to deal with it, and it really works. After that, Lill changes her ways, and the family gives her a new makeover to match.

Laughter has surprising results in this week’s Strange Story too. Mary Barnes is a swot and a nerd who wouldn’t know what funny is if she wrote a thesis on it. Then, during a school trip to an old castle Mary picks up a jester’s stick – and all of a sudden she’s playing practical jokes on the school party. Later, holding the jester’s stick enables her to save the guide’s life, and those practical jokes also had a hand in saving him.

Red Letter Rosie is now at its climax. Rosie’s horrible stepsister Gloria has been part of a scheme to kidnap Rosie’s pen friend Sarah Wilson, take her place, and rob the Wilson family. The crooks succeed with the robbery, but that’s not the worst of it. Sarah has grown ill because of her kidnapping and it looks very serious. Rosie’s horribly afraid for Sarah’s life.

The School for Snobs is in open war against a snob (Serena) who plays soldiers with everyone, even her father. Serena soon proves a tough one to crack and Hermione has to bring out her big guns. They take the form of the girls dressing up as a robot army to show Serena the logical conclusion of where her army discipline will lead. After this, Serena waves the white flag of surrender.

Miss Bigger’s out to impress the mayor. But it turns out to be in the wrong way when the mayor turns up incognito, realises what a tartar she is, and sets up a trap to teach her a lesson. So Wee Sue wins over Miss Bigger without even trying this week.

Bessie plays tricks with a Halloween mask and roller skates, but her scheme unravels and “Stackers” the headmistress confiscates the skates. But things come right for Bessie in the end when Stackers tries the skates herself and gets in trouble.

Mistress Claire has entered Molly in a Servant of the Year Award, but catty Betty and Kitty are out to make sure she doesn’t win. The journalist testing Molly for the award has discovered their tricks but decides to let them continue in order to test Molly’s true worth for the award.

Further reprints from Rebellion: “Bella” and two Jinty stories

You will perhaps have already seen the latest exciting information on the internet: Rebellion Publishing is bringing out two volumes of girls comics reprints from Tammy and from Jinty respectively.

“Bella at the Bar” is billed, appropriately, as “A modern day Cinderella story”. At 96 pages it is the right length to include the first two “Bella” stories but the blurb is fairly general and gives little away to the aficionado as to exactly what the contents are. It seems unlikely that it includes Bella’s later struggles to reach the Moscow Olympics or travels to mysterious Arab countries where she tutors princesses – or at least not yet, as this is billed as Book One. May there be many more!

Rebellion have chosen a strong pair of stories from Jinty to launch what is again billed as Volume One of (hopefully) a series: “The Human Zoo” and “Land of No Tears”. No cover is shown on the initial announcement on the Simon & Schuster website, but there are plenty of great images that could be used, of course. As with the Misty volumes, they have made sure to link the two stories in some clear way – this time rather than choosing the same author, they have gone for the same artist. Guy Peeters is an under-recognized girls’ comics artist and I am glad to see him get more attention.

Where possible, I am keen to link to the original publisher’s site. I see that the Bella book is listed as being one of the “Treasury of British Comics” line, but it is not yet mentioned on the specific website for that imprint. I found it on the Simon & Schuster website: I think that Rebellion have a distribution deal with them, which is presumably why it is listed there. I’m not quite sure why the Jinty volume is listed as being one of Rebellion’s Graphic Novels (a list that on searching seems to include “Charley’s War” and “Marney the Fox”, but also some less all-ages titles such as “Bleach”). It would be nice to see all the announced titles listed clearly on the Treasury of British Comics site, which is a good dedicated shopfront that is easy to navigate and use.

Finally, a word of warning to other sites announcing these two new titles  and future ones in the series – be careful to attribute the creators and the stories correctly. “Bella” is correctly credited as being by Jenny McDade as writer and John Armstrong as artist, but in future Bella stories it will be harder to be sure of the writer. During Tammy’s era of printing credits, Primrose Cumming is known to have been the writer of the time – hopefully the publishers will check with erstwhile editor Wilf Prigmore in case there was any other writer in between those two times, but certainly Jenny McDade did not write all the Bella stories over the ten years that it ran.

“The Human Zoo and Land of No Tears” is billed as being by Pat Mills as writer and Guy Peeters as artist. The sharp-eyed reader of this blog will spot straight away that “The Human Zoo” is known not to have been written by Mills – although the writer is not definitively established it is thought likely to have been one of Malcolm Shaw’s. That uncertainty presumably makes it harder for the publishers to be clear about the authorship: in the circumstances they can’t just say straight out that it is by Malcolm Shaw I suppose. However, that lack of clarity will muddy the waters for others and I fear it will lead to a perpetuation of the unexamined notion that Pat Mills wrote the vast majority of girls comics – something which he does not himself claim, but which others not infrequently do on his behalf.