Tammy’s 10th Birthday Issue

Cover artist: Robert MacGillivray

Characters/serials on the cover: Sandy Rawlings; Molly Mills; Belinda Bookworm; Wee Sue; Bella Barlow; Mary Moldesworth from Bessie Bunter?; Push-along, Patti; Bessie Bunter; Miss Bigger

•  Bella (artist John Armstrong)
• The Black and White World of Shirley Grey – first episode (artist Diane Gabbot, writer Jake Adams?)
• Push-along, Patti (artist Juliana Buch)
• Wee Sue (artist Robert MacGillivray)
• Help Yourself to a Holiday – competition
• Molly Mills and the Echoes from the Past – new story (artist Douglas Perry)
• Edie and Miss T (artist Joe Collins)
• Tune-In (feature)
• Belinda Bookworm (artist Giorgio Giorgetti)
• Imaginary Abbie – Strange Story from the Mists (artist Eduardo Feito)
• Rita My Robot Friend (artist Tony Coleman)

While it is out of the garage, I am going to discuss the issue where Tammy celebrated her 10^th birthday (sadly, this is something Jinty never reached). Tammy certainly pulls out the stops to celebrate: her commemorative cover; Edie and Miss T redecorating their rooms with 10 years’ worth of Tammy; Miss Bigger taking Wee Sue and her friends on a special tour to the Tammy office; and Molly reflecting on her 10 years at Stanton Hall (once Pickering points out she had been there that long). And of course it wouldn’t be complete without celebratory competitions.

When revisiting past Tammy characters, we see that the focus is on ones who are currently running (Belinda Bookworm), have appeared in comparatively recent years (Thursday’s Child, Cindy of Swan Lake), or whose memory still lingers on (Olympia Jones, Babe of St Wood’s). The only really early Tammy character to reappear is Cat Girl. There are no Slaves of ‘War Orphan Farm’, Aunt Aggie, School for Snobs, Beattie or any of the characters from the first years.

Wee Sue has a very special commemorative story, reproduced below. Miss Bigger takes the class on a tour of King’s Reach Tower to see how Tammy is produced. Sue ends up in the copy room where she falls asleep trying to read 10 years’ worth of Tammy. Her dream takes her to flashbacks of Tammy characters, old and new, and finally Tammy’s birthday party. The Tammy stories referenced to in the Wee Sue story are, in alphabetical order:

Babe of St. Wood’s

Belinda Bookworm

Bella Barlow

Bessie Bunter

Cindy of Swan Lake

Goldie Alone

Jeannie and Her Uncle Meanie

My Terrible Twin (not mentioned, but the protagonists are recognisable)

Molly Mills

Olympia Jones

Push-along, Patti

Sandy Rawlings (three stories appeared in total, individually titled)

The Cat Girl

Thursday’s Child

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Wee Sue celebrates Tammy’s 10th birthday 7 February 1981

Wee Sue celebrates Tammy’s 10th birthday 7 February 1981

Wee Sue celebrates Tammy’s 10th birthday 7 February 1981

Wee Sue celebrates Tammy’s 10th birthday 7 February 1981

However, the Molly story does reflect back on the early days and hints at how different the tone of Tammy was back then. Molly not only remembers the time she arrived at Stanton Hall but also how much more cruel Pickering was back in the early days.  Indeed, the Molly strip has become tamer now in comparison to what it was in Tammy’s early years. It has clearly been toned down. Pickering is still a bully who picks on Molly, but the stocks, beatings, dungeons and cold duckings in the lake are now a thing of Tammy’s past, thank goodness. Even the catty Betty and Kitty, who played a dirty trick that nearly got Molly sacked on her first day, have lost their cattiness and are more friendly with Molly.

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Tammy herself has been toned down as well. When she was first launched, she revelled in stories filled with darkness, cruelty, torture and suffering. But readers loved it and her sales rocketed. Stories with the Cinderella theme or slave theme (girls used as slaves in one form or another) abounded, and a number of them, such as “Slaves of ‘War Orphan Farm’” and “The Four Friends at Spartan School” really pushed the envelope with the tortures their heroines went through. But by the late 1970s these had all faded. All that remained of them was Bella Barlow, who is still badly treated by Jed and Gert Barlow, although she has just rescued them from hard times.

But Tammy had not gone all light and soppy. Her current stories, “Belinda Bookworm”, “Push-along, Patti” and “Rita My Robot Friend” all feature heroines who are being bullied/ostracised at school and trying to rise above it. Tammy’s new story, “The Black and White World of Shirley Grey”, will also feature some extremely vicious and horrifying bullying in the weeks ahead.

It has been just over a year since Misty merged with Tammy. The Misty logo is smaller now and there have been fewer spooky stories than when Misty joined. But the Strange Stories from the Mist continue, as do Edie and Miss T and the Misty horoscope.

Tammy Annual 1986

• Cover artist: Mario Capaldi
• Pam of Pond Hill (writer Jay Over, artist Bob Harvey)
• Animal Magic (feature)
• The Bell – Strange Story (artist Jaume Rumeu aka Homero Romeu)
• Crayzees (artist Joe Collins)
• The Button Box (artist Mario Capaldi)
• Wish Upon a Star (feature)
• The Black and White World of Shirley Grey (artist Diane Gabbot, writer Jake Adams?)
• Party Pieces (feature)
• Bella (artist John Armstrong)
• The Crayzees (artist Joe Collins)
• Yule Tide – text story (artist Tony Coleman, writer Ian D. Mennell)
• Wee Sue (artist Robert MacGillivray)
• Snow – poem (writer Deborah Pfeiffer)
• What’s Your Resolution? (quiz)
• Sally’s Secret – Strange Story (artist Veronica Weir)
• Animal Magic
• Wee Sue (artist Robert MacGillivray)
• Second Sight – Button Box story in text (artist John Johnston, writer Ian D. Mennell)
• Animal Magic
• ‘Make It’ a Great Year! (feature)
• Flutter by, Butterfly! (feature)
• Sweet Eats (feature)
• The Crayzees (artist Joe Collins)
• Snowy, the Christmas Snowman (feature)
• The Crayzees (artist Joe Collins)
• Wee Sue (artist Robert MacGillivray)
• Molly Mills and the Sporting Life (artist Douglas Perry)

This was the last Tammy annual, with a gorgeous cover from Mario Capaldi. Capaldi had illustrated several covers for the Jinty annual and one for the Misty annual, but this was his first – and last – cover for the Tammy annual. Could it well be the last cover Capaldi ever produced for any girls’ annual as well? By this time the IPC girls’ titles had faded and DCT had taken more of a centre stage.

Pam of Pond Hill leads off the annual with her last Christmas story. Pam and Goof are sent to collect the Christmas tree for the school. Sounds simple and foolproof? Pam and Goof find out it’s anything but.

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The two text stories, “Yule Tide” and “Second Sight” take the unusual step of crediting the writer, Ian D. Mennell. “Second Sight” is unique for being the only Button Box story ever published as a text story, and it is a story that I have always enjoyed. Carmal, an Oriental girl, starts out as a selfish rich girl. Not surprising, considering that her uncle is a rogue. She mistreats a blind busker by putting buttons in his bowl instead of coins. But karma strikes when the uncle’s victims take a revenge attack that leaves Carmal blind and alone, and she is taken in by the very same busker she had mistreated. She learns his trade, and also learns what it is like to have mean people throw worthless rubbish in your busking bowl instead of money. In the process she becomes a more considerate and kind person – and so has the uncle, once he has tracked her down.

Meanwhile, Capaldi’s picture Button Box story is about a housemaid who hates her job because she is an outdoor type. When she foils a robber (realising he left a loose button from his jacket at the scene of the crime), it opens up a new career for her as a policewoman and enjoying the great outdoors on the beat.

Talking of housemaids, the last Molly Mills annual story reprints “The Sporting Life”, an annual sports event between the villagers and the Stanton Hall staff. Normally the villagers get on well with Stanton Hall, but when it comes to sports day it is far from a friendly match. It’s a needle event, and the needles are sharper than usual because the villagers have Olympic hopefuls on their team, and then spoilsport Pickering bans the staff from training after he gets caught up in mishaps from it.

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The poem “Snow” is also given a credit. The writer is Deborah Pfeiffer. This is the only work in Tammy credited to Pfeiffer.

The reprints are taken from 1981, including Diane Gabbot’s second-to-last Tammy story, “The Black and White World of Shirley Grey”. The original run had the honour of starting in Tammy’s 10^th birthday issue. Shirley Grey refuses to tell lies in the wake of an accident she irrationally blames herself for. But Shirley is taking it to such extremes that she refuses to tell even a white lie, no matter what the circumstances. You can imagine what that leads to, and it starts with the boss’s wife asking Shirley what she thinks of her dress (which is hideous!).

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The annual is the one that stops the Bessie Bunter appearances. I find this a bit sad as I have always been a big fan of Bessie. Maybe there was no room for Bessie, or the editors decided she had had her day? If they did, it may reflect what happened in the regular comic. Bessie’s days became numbered in 1980 after Tammy swallowed Misty. During the merger Bessie was demoted from regular appearances to “from time to time” appearances while Wee Sue and Molly were still going strong.

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The Bella story is more intriguing in that Tammy is taking a serious attempt to giving the colouring more of a 3-D look in the use of the hues and tones. In the previous annuals this was only applied to skin toning, but now it is being applied to everything. The story has Bella losing her confidence because she is under a cloud that she won a medal by default when her rival withdrew. Bella’s coach is handling her badly, which only makes matters worse. But of course things turn around and it ends with Bella all set to make the coach eat his words. And it’s nice to see Bella’s last annual story focus on her gymnastics and not the machinations of Jed and Gert, which were the most frequent basis of Bella’s annual stories.

In the last Wee Sue story in the annual, Sue’s final word is “’bye!.” I wonder if this is meant to be a double meaning as this is the last-ever Tammy annual, and this particular reprint chosen for this reason.

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