Jinty and Lindy 6 November 1976

Jassy’s Wand of Power (Keith Robson)

Gertie Grit, the Hateful Brit! (artist Paul White)

Stefa’s Heart of Stone (artist Phil Townsend, writer Alison Christie)

Rose among the Thornes (artist Jim Baikie)

Champion in Hiding (artist Hugh-Thornton Jones) – final episode

Sisters at War! (artist Trini Tinturé)

Alley Cat (artist Rob Lee)

Girl in a Bubble (artist Phil Gascoine, writer Pat Mills)

Is this Your Story? (artist John Richardson)

Daisy Drudge and Milady Maud (Ken Houghton)

In Jinty’s fireworks issue for 1976, Gertie Grit does the honours when her time-travelling gets her caught up in the Gunpowder Plot itself (below). Funny – the biggest fireworks of this historical event seem to come from Druid Caractacus.

Gertie isn’t the only one in the issue getting a taste of the Tower of London. That’s where Jassy is about to be sent to as well. It’s the fate of all those who claim to have psychic ability in this drought-stricken story.

The Thornes’ latest trick is play “ghost” to get their hands on the magistrate’s property, but Rose’s gran turns the tables by scaring the Thornes with the same ruse. Halloween was last week, you Thornes!

Ruth finds out the reason for “Stefa’s Heart of Stone” and starts a “Melt Stefa” campaign with her classmates to soften it. But from the looks of things, not even global warming would “melt Stefa”. However, jealousy is proving more effective; Stefa gets her nose put out of joint when her parents start treating Ruth like their very own daughter. 

Mandy in this week’s “Is This Your Story?” doesn’t want to share her brother with a girlfriend. She breaks them up, but her brother’s reaction isn’t what she expected. Her conscience pricks up and she gets them back together. 

In “Daisy Drudge and Milady Maud”, Maud finds a friend in a servant at the finishing school while Daisy can’t in the cruel household she has ended up in. The household is on holiday in the country and Daisy seizes another chance to escape. Unfortunately they catch up (again), and Daisy breaks a bone in her hand in the process. And nobody, not even the servants, has an ounce of sympathy for her there. Rather, they all laugh at what great sport it’s been chasing her.

“Champion in Hiding” ends this week. It turns out nasty Aunt Shirley and Mrs Blackmoor were in cahoots to stop Mitzi and Firefly from winning the dog championship, but win they do. Mrs Blackmoor’s furious and won’t pay Aunt Shirley because she failed, so Aunt Shirley is punished by ending up with nothing.

Helen’s back in the bubble and the sinister Miss Vaal manages to forestall Helen’s art teacher when she makes enquiries into what’s going on. Then Helen makes a bold move with the black book she stole from Miss Vaal to help her make a rush for freedom. Will it work?

In “Sisters at War!”, Uncle Jason runs away from hospital and camps out in hiding although he’s not well. Mum is furious when she finds out Sue has been helping to hide him though she knows about his condition. 

Spotty Muchloot and Alley Cat have another battle, this time with toffee. Well, we always knew Spotty was stuck-up.

Gertie Grit and the Gunpowder Plot

Gertie Grit and the Gunpowder Plot

Tammy 5 November 1977

Cover artist: John Richardson

Bella (John Armstrong)

C.L.A.R.A. (artist Giorgio Giorgetti) – first episode

No Place for Children (artist Eduardo Feito)

Good Old Guy Fawkes! (feature)

Down to Earth Blairs (artist José Casanovas)

Bessie Bunter

Glennie’s Gift (Colin Merrett) – Strange Story

Selena Sitting Pretty (artist Diane Gabbot(t))

Edie the Ed’s Niece (artist Joe Collins)

Wee Sue (artist John Richardson)

Rowena and the Realms of Night (artist Peter Wilkes)

Here we have the Tammy Guy Fawkes issue from 1977. As you can see, it’s bang on the day. Inside, we have a couple of reminders about the Fireworks code, Guy Fawkes jokes, and a Guy Fawkes story from Bessie. Poor Bessie is confined to sick bay with a sore throat on Guy Fawkes Night. Undaunted, Bessie sneaks out of bed and finds weird masked figures who look like they’re going to blow up the school. She proceeds to have fun foiling them. But it’s just Miss Stackpole and the pupils re-enacting the Gunpowder Plot. Once that misunderstanding is cleared up, Bessie feels her throat cleared up enough to join the fireworks party. There are also a few references to bonfire night in “Down to Earth Blairs”, but the only fireworks are from Betsy when she gets on the wrong end of Dad’s swill collection. 

A new story, “C.L.A.R.A.” starts. Professor Crichenor (who looks more like he’s from the stage than the laboratory with that outfit of his) offers the services of his computer C.L.A.R.A. (Crichenor’s Learning And Reasoning Aid) to raise the falling academic and sporting performance of Glumthorpe Comprehensive. Although the PTA’s response is to throw Crichenor out – literally – he intends to prove himself. He’s going to begin by making our protagonist, Frances Cummins, more organised.

Oh, poor Bella! Some jealous girls put a shard of glass in her shoe to sabotage her performance and she’s cut her foot very badly. Nasty! Once her foot is bandaged she manages to perform sufficiently to get a medal, but now someone is raising an objection to it. 

The mystery of the missing children in Tarnbridge deepens. Postcards arrive from them, but there are no postmarks. And the parents are getting angry and demanding answers from Mr Nash about where their children are.

In the Strange Story, Lorna loses her sight after a rock hits her on the head at a crumbling ruin. Her guide dog Glennie grows critically ill, but before he dies he leads her back to the spot where the accident happened. Another rock falls and returns her sight. The Storyteller makes an annual pilgrimage to put flowers on Glennie’s grave on Lorna’s behalf.

Selena takes advantage of heavy rain to run in a race without anyone seeing her and realise she is no cripple. She manages to get back to her wheelchair and thinks she’s still sitting pretty – but then discovers she overlooked the tell-tale mud all over her shoes. Is she going to be unstuck this time, or will she find a way out of yet another close call?

Sue and her friends are at a department store in search of a birthday present for their art teacher, but Sue’s small size keeps getting her into all sorts of scrapes, including landing in a washing machine. However, her small size helps in the end when the teacher is locked out and needs someone to get into window. Then it’s birthday celebrations.

A pedlar informs Rowena of the full danger her brother faces at the hands of the Nightqueen: if he takes the hand of the Nightqueen’s daughter in the upcoming dance of night, he will join the legion of the living dead!

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 5 November 1983

• Lucky By Name… (artist Juliana Buch, writer Malcolm Shaw)
• Pam of Pond Hill (artist Bob Harvey, writer Jay Over)
• Glenda’s Glossy Pages (artist Tony Highmore, writer Pat Mills)
• Room for Rosie (artist Santiago Hernandez, writer Alison Christie)
• Remember November… (artist Len Flux, writer Maureen Spurgeon)
• The Button Box (artist Mario Capaldi, writer Alison Christie, sub-writer Ian Mennell)
• The Dawn Horse – a Pony Tale (artist Hugo D’Adderio, writer Chris Harris)
• Spell of Fog (artist Tony Coleman, writer Jake Adams)
• The Crayzees (artist Joe Collins)

This was the last Guy Fawkes issue Tammy ever published, and it is bang on 5 November. Tammy dropped Bessie and Wee Sue in 1982, so they are no longer able to provide any special stories for Guy Fawkes. We have a Guy Fawkes feature, “Remember November…” and in “The Crayzees” we learn Miss T does not like fireworks because they are so noisy. So what is in that mystery parcel she has ordered for 5 November? Joe Collins was always one for incorporating the Fireworks Code into his Tammy cartoons and this one is no exception. It is written all around the border of the full-page cartoon. We also have a recipe for a Bonfire cake in “Tammy’s Tasties”.

Room for Rosie had her Guy Fawkes story in the Halloween issue, but there is some carryover this week. Rosie has taken damage from the bonfire party, so her chances of a home have been reduced. Can Pauline find a way to restore her?

A new Pam of Pond Hill starts. It would have been nice if Jay Over had written a Pam of Pond Hill Guy Fawkes story, which is something Pam never had. Instead, Pam and her friends find themselves being roped into a cookery contest by Jenny Bates, who is using the excursion to see her favourite pop group, the Phonees. Moreover, Jenny has chosen them more for their good nature than their talent for cooking. They decide to go along with it because they are under the impression Jenny’s days are numbered and it’s her dying wish. Actually, it looks suspiciously like Jenny’s playing on their sympathy. Anyway, Jenny’s reason for entering them all in the contest is selfish and not giving any thought to winning for the school – which they don’t have much chance of.

In “Lucky By Name” everyone is now thinking Lucky the foal has some strange power over animals. Snobby Amanda and her father demand the foal be examined by a research institute but Lucky’s owners refuse because the institute has an unsavoury reputation for animal experimentation. Now someone is stealing Lucky, and we strongly suspect Amanda and her father are behind it. Lucky, if you really do have a power over animals, now might be a good time to use it…

This week’s episode of “Glenda’s Glossy Pages” was drawn by Tony Highmore instead of Mario Capaldi. Capaldi must have been unavailable for some reason, but he returns in the next episode. In the story, the power of the glossy pages drives off the police who think Glenda stole the items she mysteriously got from the catalogue, but they warn she hasn’t heard the last of them. Next, it looks like the catalogue is helping Glenda by giving her the confidence to swim against her arch-enemy Hillary. But when Hillary suddenly develops cramp, Glenda finds herself just swimming off instead of helping. What the hell has come over her? Well, it’s not hard to guess, especially as Glenda is at a loss to explain it herself but just can’t help it. We rather suspect the same thing is behind Hillary’s cramp too.

The Button Box gives us more Jackson family history this week. This time it’s a World War II story on how gran’s sister met her husband – all through one of the buttons in the box, of course.

This week’s pony tale is a sad one and based on fact. It discusses the last of the Tarpan horse breed in the Ukraine. Sonja and her father travel to the Ukraine in search of the Tarpan breed – only to find the Tarpans are on the brink of extinction and two parent Tarpans being shot by farmers pushes them over the edge.

In “Spell of Fog” Sally is convinced the mysterious rising mist is Alice Compton’s angry response to the sensationalised, historically inaccurate filming of her persecution for witchcraft. But the filming continues, so the mist intensifies. It’s got everyone scared and has even shattered a window.

Beforehand, we are introduced to Alice’s sad-looking self-portrait, the only one of her pictures to survive her burning at the stake. It seems her “extremely modern, natural style” was too far ahead of its time; people called it “the Devil’s likeness” and it sounds like this is one of the reasons why she was branded a witch. The self-portrait is clearly a plot thread to be followed up, but will it be in a way that tells us anything about the mist?

Jinty 7 November 1981

(Cover artist: Mario Capaldi)

• Pam of Pond Hill (artist Bob Harvey, writer Jay Over)
• The Sable Knight – Gypsy Rose story (artist Keith Robson)
• Treasure Trove – text story
• Tansy of Jubilee Street (artist Peter Wilkes)
• Friday’s Child is Loving and Giving….
• Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost (artist Hugh Thornton-Jones)
• Badgered Belinda (artist Phil Gascoine)
• The Bow Street Runner (artist Phil Townsend, writer Alison Christie)
• Alley Cat

This was Jinty’s last Guy Fawkes issue, and there were only two more issues before the merger. Jinty‘s drop in energy seems to be falling even more with this issue, because the Guy Fawkes celebrations are even more lacklustre than those for Halloween in the previous issue. Only the cover features Guy Fawkes. The text story inside is on a completely different topic – a treasure trove – and the spot artist is not even Mario Capaldi. All the regulars are on business as usual and none of them are even thinking of fireworks and bonfire parties.

The back cover is a surprise, though. Alley Cat, who had not been seen in Jinty for several years, suddenly makes an appearance. There is no sign of Snoopa, and Snoopa artist Joe Collins draws a spot feature of some jokes in this issue. Was Collins not available this issue and the editor had to find fill-ins for the gag spots?