Jinty 27 May 1978

• Concrete Surfer (artist Christine Ellingham, writer Pat Mills)
• Alley Cat – (artist Rob Lee)
• Winning Birthday Girls! – Competition results (artist Christine Ellingham)
• Somewhere Over the Rainbow (artist Phil Townsend, writer Alison Christie) 
• Knight and Day
• Your A-to-Z of Things to Do! – part 2
• Clancy on Trial (artist Ron Lumsden)
• Talking to the Star from “Robin’s Nest” – Tessa Wyatt
• Rinty ‘n’ Jinty
• The Zodiac Prince (artist Trini Tinturé)
• Slave of the Swan (artist Guy Peeters) 
• Cathy’s Casebook (artist Terry Aspin)
• Snow in Summer – feature 

Concrete Surfer is set for a face-off against her spiteful cousin Carol in a skateboarding contest. Carol has stolen her skateboard, and in the contest she shows what a brilliant skateboarder she has become. She’ll be very hard to beat. 

Alley Cat is seeing red after being painted with it by an angry artist. But he and the artist sort things out in the end and enjoy a nosh-up together.

In “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”, the dreaded grey telegram informing the Peters family that Dad’s been killed in action puts a damper their enjoying the upcoming VE Day celebrations. What’s more, Mum is now the family breadwinner and has to find a job. Her new job as cleaner at a theatre looks set to advance the plot considerably.

Pat Day’s natural mother, now Mrs Knight, hence the “Knight and Day” title, is suddenly demanding her back after four years of abandonment. What’s brought this on? Pat soon finds out it was just so she and her family would qualify for a council flat. Surprise, surprise. Added to that, stepsister Janet’s a bully, and we doubt the parents are much better. 

The Swan’s tricks to ensnare her Slave, the amnesiac Katrina Vale, grow worse and worse. This week she spins a lie that Katrina is a delinquent who burned down an orphanage, which is why she lost her memory, and the Swan’s the only one who will have her. Oh, no! If Katrina and her only helper Sarah fall for this, Katrina will not only be even more ensnared but lose her avenue of help as well.

Clancy on Trial is having a real trial all right, and it’s not just learning to walk again after an accident. No sooner has she arrived at grandfather’s place when she discovers how demanding he is in how he is testing her. At least she is rising to the occasion so far.

In “Cathy’s Casebook”, the demands on Cathy’s doctor father remain as unrelenting as ever, which means the demands on her to help relieve his workload are too. Naturally, new troubles crop up this week, and, as usual, it’s up to Cathy to find a way to sort them out. No peace for the wicked.

The Zodiac Prince sorts out a circus act, but it’s not long before another candidate for his astral gifts appears. This time it’s a girl who’s being cruel to a donkey.

Jinty 20 May 1978

• Somewhere Over the Rainbow (artist Phil Townsend, writer Alison Christie) – first episode
• Get in the Swim! – Competition
• Concrete Surfer (artist Christine Ellingham, writer Pat Mills)
• Knight and Day – first episode
• Your A-to-Z of Things to Do! – part 1
• Clancy on Trial (artist Ron Lumsden) – first episode
• The Zodiac Prince (artist Trini Tinturé)
• Slave of the Swan (artist Guy Peeters) 
• Cathy’s Casebook (artist Terry Aspin)
• Snow in Summer – feature 

This issue is an exciting one, for two reasons. First, we have a competition and part 1 of a new pull-out on A-Z of of things to do, so Alley Cat and “Sue’s Fantastic Fun-Bag!” get bumped to make room for them. Second, three new stories start.

The first new story is a real attention-grabber for using a four-page spread instead of the usual three. It’s “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”, which went on to become one of Jinty’s longest-running serials. It has already proved what a powerful story it’s going to be, as it has knocked “Concrete Surfer” off first spot in the issue, a spot “Concrete Surfer” has enjoyed since its run began. It reunites the Alison Christie/Phil Townsend team from “Stefa’s Heart of Stone” and “Save Old Smokey!” with another emotional serial to warm your heart and make you cry. Dorrie and Max Peters are excited that World War II is about to end, but then comes the dreaded grey telegram, which means their father has been killed in action. And that’s only the first episode. What more could be in store for these kids? 

In the second new story, “Knight and Day”, Pat Day’s mother suddenly wants her back after four years of abandonment and nothing to do with her. Change of heart and wanting to make things up? We’ll be surprised. Unfortunately, social welfare doesn’t see it that way; they’re forcing Pat to go back to her mother when she was so happy with her foster parents. 

The third new story, “Clancy on Trial”, went on to become one of Jinty’s most popular stories, and it’s drawn by Ron Lumsden, which is a bonus. Grandfather has a change of heart about disowning Clancy’s mother over her marriage. For the first time in Clancy’s life, her grandfather is going to have something to do with her and is impressed at how Clancy is determined to walk again after an accident. But it doesn’t look like Clancy’s relationship with her grandfather is going to be an easy one. 

There’s a major development in “Concrete Surfer”, which tells us the story will reach its conclusion soon. After weeks of not being 100% sure whether her cousin Carol really is a smarmy schemer, Jean finally catches her out. But proving the truth about Carol to others is not going to be easy. Also, there’s the matter of Carol stealing Jean’s skateboard to stop her entering a competition.  

The Zodiac Prince reunites a girl with her father, who works as a clown at the circus, and gives her an astral gift to make her a circus star. But this has upset another circus worker, and we’re warned this will lead to big trouble next week.

Investigators come sniffing around in search of Katrina Vale in “Slave of the Swan”, and the Swan is pulling tricks to keep her Slave in her power. It looks like the Swan wins again, but bits of memory are filtering through Katrina’s amnesia. Will it be her key to freedom?

Dad has to defend himself against a charge of neglecting a patient. Or rather, Cathy does the defending for him as he hasn’t got the spirit to fight. She gets Dad off, and the board agrees to help delegate his workload. But of course fresh trouble isn’t far off, and here it is in the last panel – a runaway horse. 

Jinty 1 April 1978

• Concrete Surfer (artist Christine Ellingham, writer Pat Mills)
• Sue’s Fantastic Fun-Bag! (artist Hugh Thornton-Jones)
• Slave of the Swan (artist Guy Peeters) – first episode
• Waking Nightmare (artist Phil Townsend)
• The Zodiac Prince (artist Trini Tinturé)
• Paula’s Puppets (artist Julian Vivas)
• Rinty ‘n’ Jinty – cartoon
• Shadow on the Fen (artist Douglas Perry)
• Impossible Dreams! (competition story, writer Katy Buxey, spot illustration artist unknown)
• Darling Clementine (artist Richard Neillands, writer Alison Christie) – final episode
• Grabby Bag – Feature

Now we are in April, so here is Jinty’s 1 April issue for 1978. Strangely, despite the date, there’s no April fooling in it. Not even from Alley Cat, who doesn’t appear at all this week. And instead of having fun on April Fool’s Day, Henrietta the Fun-Bag shows Minnie the Moaner that the good old days are not all they’re cracked up to be, and she should appreciate modern times more. A session in the stocks in the 18th century (as shown on the cover) certainly teaches Minnie that!

However, in Jinty’s new ballet story, “Slave of the Swan”, we have a girl who’s about to be fooled all right, but in a most terrible way. Katrina Vale goes to seek help from Mum’s old friend Rosa Kachinsky after Mum is hospitalised. But she contracts amnesia along the way, and Kachinsky, who has gone from being Mum’s friend to her worst enemy, is all set to take advantage of this when she sees it. 

It’s the final episode of “Darling Clementine”. It’s nice to see it doesn’t end on the cliché of the heroine miraculously rising from her sickbed to win the waterskiing contest and the prize money her dad so badly needs for a country cottage. Instead, she’s not sufficiently recovered from her hospitalisation to be on top form and is placed third, and then it’s the power of the press and human interest stories to the rescue. 

Concrete Surfer Jean’s annoyed that there’s no skateboard park around and wants to do something about it. She’s also trying a lot harder to get along with her relatives, but as she doesn’t trust her cousin Carol, it’s not going to be easy.

Poor Paula! She has seen how the destruction of her father’s factory has made Marnie and her family suffer and is finally learning to look beyond herself. She tries to do something nice for Marnie, but it blows up in her face and makes her enemies worse. And here’s another development – Dad has escaped from prison. 

In “Waking Nightmare”, Phil finally reads what has been in the newspapers about their escape – she’s actually busted a mentally ill girl out of an institution where she was receiving medical treatment. What does she do about it? She and Carol carry straight on, to where Carol’s gran lives – only to find gran isn’t there and the people who are don’t look very nice.

For once, Dad has praise for the Zodiac Prince when he helps a girl to prove herself as a mechanic. 

In “Shadow on the Fen”, our heroines get a nasty shock when the Witchfinder shows up at school as the new archaeology teacher! What’s his game now? Is it connected with the apothecary’s shop being unearthed at the archaeological dig?

Tammy 19 February 1983

Pam of Pond Hill (artist Bob Harvey, writer Jay Over)

E.T. Estate (artist Guy Peeters, writer Jake Adams)

Bella (artist John Armstrong, writer Primrose Cumming)

The Button Box (artist Mario Capaldi, writer Alison Christie)

Into the Fourth at Trebizon (artist Diane Gabbot(t), writer Anne Digby) – text adaptation

Just Like a Child… – complete story, repeated from Strange Stories

Heart to Heart Hints (Mari L’Anson) – Valentine feature

The Crayzees (artist Joe Collins) 

Happy Valentine’s Day (writer Maureen Spurgeon) – quiz 

Nanny Young (artist Phil Gascoine, writer Maureen Spurgeon)

Cuckoo in the Nest (artist Tony Coleman, writer Ian Mennell)

Goodies – Valentine’s Day cookery feature

For Valentine’s Day, here is the Valentine issue from Tammy 1983, an issue that is now 40 years old this year. Happy 40th!

Inside, we have plenty of Valentine features, including a Valentine’s Day story from “The Crazyees”. You would think The Button Box would have joined Valentine’s Day with a love story from the button box, but instead it’s a button story about Elizabeth II’s coronation.

Setting the Valentine theme off is a most beautiful Valentine’s Day cover, one of my favourites, with Tammy’s resident features: Bella, Pam of Pond Hill and The Button Box. It also features what must be the most extraordinary story ever in girls’ comics: “Cuckoo in the Nest”. There are loads of Cinderella stories, slave stories, animal stories, sports stories and SF stories, but you surely won’t find another serial like this in girls’ comics. Love it or hate it, you can never forget it. Why? It has a boy, Leslie Dodds, as the main protagonist, no less. Also, he is masquerading as a girl at a boarding school, would you believe? The reason for it is bit complicated to explain here, but maybe there’ll be an entry on this one at some point. So we have a boy who has to learn hard and fast about the girls’ world to keep up his masquerade, and the girl readership gets a taste of the boys’ world into the bargain. No doubt the closet male readership enjoyed this story too, along with the footy that’s in it. The story is now on its penultimate episode, which ends on the note that the game is now well and truly up for Leslie, and there’s no place to hide.

Still on the subject of masquerades, aliens are taking over “E.T. Estate” (and then Earth, of course) by switching all the people with themselves as doubles. They try to do this with Jenny Holmes, the only girl who knows what they’re up to. However, this time a weakness comes into play, which causes it to fail. But then Jenny discovers her parents have been switched. How? These aliens may be able to duplicate the human beings they replace, but boy, are they lousy actors! Their impostures would make the “Cuckoo in the Nest” look professional by comparison. Another weakness exposed. 

Bella’s current job is gymnastics instructor. There’s nothing new about that, but this time she’s doing it in an Islamic country where teaching oppressed Muslim girls gymnastics gets her caught right up in a modernism versus fundamentalism clash, with an usurper taking advantage to overthrow the Shah Bella works for. Shades of Iran! Right now, Bella’s retelling her pupils the story of how she taught gymnastics in Australia. However, the flashback doesn’t quite square with the original 1978 print. Either there’s something wrong with Bella’s memory or there’s some cavalier editing here. 

In Pam of Pond Hill, Tess Bradshaw has gone crazy over synchro swimming. However, an unfair ban (now lifted) on Pond Hill pupils using the public swimming baths at any time and now a clash of instructors have been causing problems. But that is nothing compared with Tess’s biggest problem: her nonstop yakking and bragging about synchro, which constantly annoys everyone if it doesn’t put them off her.

“Just Like a Child…” (reprinted from Strange Stories, with text boxes replacing the Storyteller) is a cautionary tale not to be too quick to dispose of your old childhood treasures, just because you think you’re past them. You never know, as Andrea Owen finds out when she is a little too zealous to switch from toys to teen stuff, only to find that one toy won’t be got rid of that easily. 

In Nanny Young, there’s a fake ghost called Sir Roger when the residents of rundown Manor Towers play ‘ghost’ to get publicity to save the manor (which backfires). It might be coincidence, but could this be a reference to Sir Roger from “Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost”? 

Jinty 2 December 1978

The Girl Who Never Was (artist Terry Aspin)

Sue’s Fantastic Fun-Bag! (artist Hugh Thornton-Jones)

Somewhere Over the Rainbow (artist Phil Townsend, writer Alison Christie)

Alley Cat (artist Rob Lee)

No Cheers for Cherry (artist Phil Gascoine)

Let’s Go Nuts! Cookery feature

Jinty’s Top-Model Game – feature 

She Shall Have Music (artist Ron Smith)

Sea Sister (artist Peter Wilkes)

Fran’ll Fix It! (artist Jim Baikie)

The Human Zoo (artist Guy Peeters, writer Malcolm Shaw)

Home-made Christmas cards – feature 

It is now December, and Jinty is starting off the countdown to the festive season with a feature on how to make your own Christmas cards. Sadly, the rest of her Christmas countdown got cut off by a strike, causing her to miss three issues that December. In the New Year, Jinty belatedly printed the episode of Fran’s Christmas party, which must have been intended for the Christmas issue. Strangely, Tammy was not affected and had all her issues that month. Perhaps the IPC strikes did not affect their titles all the same way.

As we see on the cover, things are getting stormy in “Sea Sister”, and she’s not the only serial with it this week. Storms and floods are turning the tide in both “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and “The Human Zoo” and helping our heroes to escape their respective confinements. In the former, it’s a cruel children’s home. In the latter, it’s an alien lab, which is also demonstrating that the aliens, so advanced compared to Earth, are light-years behind Earth when it comes to a flood crisis. Their technology is not made for water except in avoiding it. There’s no water drainage, no boating vessels, no flood control, no rain gear or umbrellas. They can’t even swim although they have seen it from humans. All because they are afraid of water, presumably because of their evolution.  

The Girl Who Never Was is given some magic spells to help her survive in the magic world, but there are drawbacks. The biggest one is a limit on the number of spells, so Tina has to really use her head in how she uses them – or avoid wasting them. Will it help the selfish Tina acquire the good sense she badly needs?

In “She Shall Have Music”, good sense is still very far from Lisa’s thinking. Her parents have given her an electronic piano so at least she has something for piano practice, but the arrogant Lisa considers it way beneath her and angrily kicks it to pieces like the spoiled brat she is. Her parents are deeply hurt, but all she can think about is piano, piano, piano. Then she tracks down her original piano, which is going up for auction. Knowing how obsessive she is about getting that piano back, this can only mean more trouble. 

Sue and her fun-bag are annoyed at how Aunt Thora goes on and on at how you should spread a little happiness wherever you go and keep a smile on your face at all times…with Henrietta around, that is asking for it!

In Alley Cat, Spotty Muchloot thinks he’s foiled Alley Cat at last when he bells the cat, but it backfires on him because of unforeseen consequences.

Fran plays Dick Turpin and “ghost” to keep a horse safe from crooks, but they track her and the horse down all the same. Better come up with something fast to fix them, Fran!

Cherry’s luck finally seems to have changed, with a big chance that could finally break her free of the relatives that she doesn’t even realise are exploiting her. But we’re not counting our chickens with her still in the clutches of those sneaky relatives.

Jinty 18 November 1978

The Girl Who Never Was (artist Terry Aspin)

Alley Cat (artist Rob Lee)

Limerick Winners – contest results

Somewhere Over the Rainbow (artist Phil Townsend, writer Alison Christie)

No Cheers for Cherry (artist Phil Gascoine)

Welcome to…Rainbow Corner! – Feature 

Shadow Games – Feature

She Shall Have Music (artist Ron Smith)

Sea Sister (artist Peter Wilkes)

Fran’ll Fix It! (artist Jim Baikie)

The Human Zoo (artist Guy Peeters, writer Malcolm Shaw)

Biscuit bonanza – feature

Fran sure deserves the cover spot this week because of her latest potty antic – landing a horse she’s trying to protect in the school swimming pool! She’s really excelled herself this time. 

Spotty Muchloot pulls another trick on Alley Cat, this time to keep him tracked and stop him pinching his food. But of course Alley Cat’s fast to detect it and turn the tables on Spotty. 

Tina (The Girl Who Never Was) and Lisa (She Shall Have Music) continue to make their difficult situations even more difficult for themselves because of their selfish attitudes, because of which they can’t see beyond themselves or realise there could be different ways to handle their situations. At the end of it, it looks like Lisa’s in trouble in front of the whole school, but there’s a strange development for Tina. 

This week, our space aliens in “The Human Zoo” demonstrate that in some ways, they are not as advanced as we first thought, and Earth has the upper hand over them in some areas. Shona and her friend Laika glimpse the aliens’ farming methods – which is done by hand ploughs and tools, and captured humans as (cruelly treated) beasts of burden – while Earth, far less advanced, has long since gone over to mechanised farming in developed nations. These aliens have the flying saucer, food replicator robots, a time machine and the flying skateboard, but they don’t have the frikkin’ tractor?! The logic to it is that farming machines would need repair and maintenance, whereas slave humans can be quickly replaced. Oh? For how much longer? The aliens are driving native humans to extinction, and it is getting too expensive to take ones from Earth. Considering how efficient and cost-effective Earth’s mechanised agriculture is by comparison, these aliens would do well to take a leaf or two out of our book. Well, on to the alien city, where things take a surprising but weird twist in Shona’s search for her lost sister Jenny. 

A police cell? That’s the latest shelter for our runaway orphans in search of the home “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”, as the police haven’t anywhere else to put them. Don’t worry, the door’s not locked. The police have to do their duty and send them back where they started, but our orphans are working – well, singing – their way to the policemen’s hearts. 

Cherry gets an audition, but whether by accident or design, her mercenary relatives have dolled her up to such ridiculous levels that Cherry’s not on form for it. Can she recover and turn things around, or will there be no cheers for her again?

“Sea Sister” finds the stone she came for. The trouble is, it’s been set into a wall to fix a hole. And she’s growing attached to her new friend, Jane Bush, but she can only stay until she retrieves the stone. Things are definitely getting problematic. 

Tammy & Jinty 5 June 1982

Cover artist: John Armstrong

Bella (artist John Armstrong, writer Primrose Cumming ) – new story

The Devil’s Mark (artist Phil Townsend) – Monster Tales

Pam of Pond Hill (artist Bob Harvey, writer Jay Over)

Wee Sue (artist John Richardson) – Old Friends

Nanny Young (artist Phil Gascoine)

The Human Zoo (artist Guy Peeters, writer Malcolm Shaw)

Make Waves! (Mari L’Anson) – feature

Wheels of Death (artist Ken Houghton) – Strange Story

Di and the Dolphins (artist Eduardo Feito)

We come to 1982 in our Tammy June month round, and the Tammy & Jinty merger era. The following month, everything in the merger was swept away for everything to start new and anew in the new look Tammy on 17 July 1982. So the weeks leading up to it was clearing the decks, with double episodes of serials, some material cut from “The Human Zoo”, and new stories shorter in length, such as new Bella story starting here. The Jinty logo has shrunk, another sign the Jinty merger was on its way out.

Bella’s new story is the last Bella story to have the cover spot in the splash panel cover era. The story begins with Bella having nowhere to go but Uncle Jed and Aunt Gert, which usually means slaving for them until she finds a way to break free and pursue her gymnastics. She is astonished to find them coming over all nice to her, but they have a long track record of phoney niceness to her when it suits them, and this is no exception. 

The merger regulars (Monster Tales, Old Friends and the Strange Stories) carry on as usual. Nanny Young, a new regular that started with the merger, and Pam of Pond Hill, which came over from the merger, will continue with the new look Tammy. Bessie, Molly, Tansy and Wee Sue are in rotation as the “Old Friends” regular, but they look tired and clearly on their very last legs.

As there are so many regulars with the merger, there is not much room for serials. One reader even wrote in during the merger asking for more serials and no more “Old Friends”. She got her wish with the new look Tammy, with “Old Friends” dropped and the number of regulars reduced, which allowed for more serials. Right now, we have “Di and the Dolphins” and a welcome reprint of “The Human Zoo” from Jinty. 

The current Pond Hill story puts more focus on Pam’s boyfriend Goofy than usual. Goofy, a bit on the bumbling side, wants to prove he can be good at something. His choice is making and entering a soapbox racer in a derby. He is adamant Pam is to stay out of it and not help in any way, saying she’s too interfering. Trouble is, he’s making things too difficult for her not to interfere! It’s soon evident he doesn’t know what he’s doing, he’s bitten off more than he can chew, and he badly needs the help he so adamantly refuses.

Jinty 4 February 1978

Come Into My Parlour – artist Douglas Perry

Sue’s Fantastic Fun-Bag! – artist Hugh Thornton-Jones

Two Mothers for Maggie – Jim Baikie

Alley Cat – artist Rob Lee

Waking Nightmare– Phil Townsend

Concrete Surfer – artist Christine Ellingham, writer Pat Mills

The Jam – feature 

Rinty ‘n’ Jinty – cartoon

Paula’s Puppets (first episode) – artist Julian Vivas

Land of No Tears – artist Guy Peeters, writer Pat Mills

Darling Clementine – artist Richard Neillands, writer Alison Christie

You Really Take the Biscuit! – feature

In this issue, two stories are clearly on their penultimate episodes: “Come Into My Parlour” and “Land of No Tears”.

In the former, Mother Heggerty’s spell forces Jody to set fire to the Kings’ store. But she’s been caught in the act. She could be facing criminal charges, but the blurb for next week says fire will strike at something else other than the store. Maybe someone is going to burn the old witch at the stake or something?

In the latter, Cassy comes close to losing the vital swimming marathon the Gamma Girls need to win because of a forced bargain with the ruthless Perfecta. Fortunately Perfecta injures herself from over-exertion in the race and drops out, freeing Cassy from all that and enabling her to catch up in the nick of time. Everyone is cheering her on, much to the villainous Hive Inspector’s chagrin. His response to secret helper Miss Norm’s delight in Cassy catching up – “What do you mean, Miss Norm? It’s a disgrace!” – cracks me up every time. Now Cassy is duking out the final length with two others and it’s so close. Everyone except the Hive Inspector and Perfecta is on the edge of their seats to see if Cassy will win. 

“Two Mothers for Maggie” looks like it could be nearing its end as well. Mum is critically ill. It looks like the crisis has actually aroused a bit of conscience in Maggie’s horrible stepfather, but he’s not treating Maggie any better because of it. 

A new story starts, “Paula’s Puppets”. Paula Richards is a spoiled, selfish girl whose rocky road to redemption starts when her father’s toy factory burns down and he is arrested for it. Her life turns upside-down while he protests his innocence. We believe him though nobody else does, but we know the poor bloke’s going to go down for it. Meanwhile, Paula finds some weird puppets at the burned-out factory, which seem to possess some kind of power. 

People should really watch what they say with Sue’s Fantastic Fun-Bag around. Two pitying women whisper what an “absolute dragon” poor Jenny’s got for an aunt and she needs a knight in shining armour. Henrietta obliges, but she has taken it a bit literally and hijinks ensue. But of course it sorts out the old dragon.

Ella is not making much progress with her training for the waterskiing event she wants to win for her family, nor with convincing others she was not to blame for her cousin Clem’s accident. Then Ella makes progress with something else – finding the girl who really caused Clem’s accident. But when she confronts the girl, the miscreant makes it clear she is not going to own up and clear Ella’s name. 

Alley Cat gets freebies from the sausage factory, but trust Spotty Muchloot to make trouble. Fortunately it all turns to the advantage of the factory and Alley Cat is rewarded, much to Spotty’s consternation.

Phil is trying to work out how break into Hardacre House, where she believes Carol is being held prisoner. It’s still very odd that Carol’s family clam up about it. It gets even odder when Phil learns Hardacre House and its owners are very mysterious, and she does not like the look of them when she sees them. After an accident with a tractor she is finally inside. The blurb for next week hints she will not like the look of what she finds there either.

Skateboarding is the only thing that gives Concrete Surfer Jean Everidge the upper hand over her smarmy cousin Carol. Jean’s about to start her new school with Carol, but the leadup to it is not going well, and Jean senses Carol is behind it. 

Jinty 14 January 1978

Come Into My Parlour – artist Douglas Perry

Sue’s Fantastic Fun-Bag! – artist Hugh Thornton-Jones

Two Mothers for Maggie – Jim Baikie

Alley Cat – artist Rob Lee

Waking Nightmare – Phil Townsend

Willy de Ville – feature 

Rinty ‘n’ Jinty – cartoon

Darling Clementine – artist Richard Neillands, writer Alison Christie

Susanna’s Snowstorm (Gypsy Rose story) – artist Keith Robson 

Land of No Tears – artist Guy Peeters, writer Pat Mills

Race for a Fortune – artist Christine Ellingham

The Wild Horse – feature 

Jody has become evil thanks to an additional spell from the witch Mother Heggerty. She now believes she is capable of anything, regardless of how terrible it is, and is loving every minute of it. How is she going to break free of Mother Heggerty’s power when right now she doesn’t even want to?

Cassy gets even more of a taste of how totalitarian this Land of No Tears is. She learns the Hive Inspector, who’s about to pay a visit, has powers to take you away: “No one knows where to, but you never return!” Shades of the Gestapo! Miranda is terrified she will meet this fate if the Inspector finds out she is secretly seeing her mother, and she breaks off with Cassy. Meanwhile, the ruthless Perfecta breaks off with her own friend to train every waking hour for the Golden Girl Award. Cassy is shocked to see the former bosom pals “walking away from each other like robots!” 

Ella bravely sets out to learn to waterski to win the competition for Clem, in the face of everyone who’s against her because they think she deliberately caused Clem’s accident. But her first attempt at waterskiing is such a disaster she’s lucky she didn’t hurt herself.

The same can also be said for sneaky cousin Rodney when he steals Katie’s roller skates to overtake her in the “Race for a Fortune”. But he soon finds he’s nowhere near as good on them as she is. He goes careering down a hill and lands on the back of a rodeo steer with her! Roller skating is back in the hands of the expert by the end of the episode. Thanks to his little stunt she has taken the lead again, and she’s gotten a lot of money out of it as well. 

In “Sue’s Fantastic Fun-Bag!”, a thief breaks into the school, his first attempt at crime. But his remark that he could become the world’s leading cat burglar really is asking for it with Henrietta around, especially when she’s the first thing he tries to steal. Needless to say, his first attempt at crime is his last by the end of the episode.

In the Gypsy Rose story, Susanna is given a snowstorm and finds it has a tale to tell, with each instalment appearing every time she shakes it. The trouble is, the tale is scaring her to death. Gypsy Rose tells Susanna that she must either follow it through to know how the tale ended or put the snowstorm away. Susanna decides to follow through because she must know (not to mention us readers) what the ending is, but what will the final shake of the snowstorm reveal?

Maggie’s sleazy stepfather shows what an abuser he is when he gets so mad he locks her in the coal shed without food or water. Then he refuses to let her see her TV debut, so she has to go to a TV shop in pouring rain to see it. Maggie has a good mind to tell Miss Keyes about the abuse, but she’s staying quiet because Mum doesn’t want word to get around.

Alley Cat is back. Arch-enemy Spotty Muchloot picks on him for first aid practice, and now poor Alley Cat looks like an oversized cocoon. But can he still turn things around?

Phil finds out the girl she saw being bundled off in the middle of the night is named Carol, and her mother is clearly not telling the truth about things. Phil manages to wheedle Carol’s current address out of the mother, enabling her to write to Carol. Carol’s reply is a coded message for help. The plot thickens!

Jinty 7 January 1978

Come Into My Parlour – artist Douglas Perry

Darling Clementine – artist Richard Neillands, writer Alison Christie

Two Mothers for Maggie – Jim Baikie

Waking Nightmare (first episode) – Phil Townsend

Superstars ‘78 – feature 

Calendar 1978 – feature 

Sue’s Fantastic Fun-Bag! – artist Hugh Thornton-Jones

Mark Hamill of “Star Wars” – feature 

Land of No Tears – artist Guy Peeters, writer Pat Mills

Rinty ‘n’ Jinty – cartoon

Race for a Fortune – artist Christine Ellingham

A Box of Silken Flowers – feature

This is Jinty’s first issue for 1978. It’s not her New Year issue, which took the odd turn of being on the last day of the old year 1977, but there are still New Year themes. We also get a delightful feature about Mark Hamill of Star Wars.

Jinty starts her first story for 1978, “Waking Nightmare”. The nightmare begins when Phil Carey is woken up by toothache and sees a girl being dragged off in the middle of the night. Her parents don’t believe her, and at the house where Phil saw the girl being taken, the mother denies everything – but she does make odd remarks about a secret and trouble she hoped to leave behind. We’re suspicious already.

Sue’s new year’s resolution is to be extra-nice to people, and she urges her fun-bag to hold her to it. But she soon finds her excessive niceness is turning her into a nuisance and now she’s in trouble with a lot of people. We suggest your resolution should just be yourself, Sue. 

On the subject of niceness, Mother Heggerty has found the Saxtons and wants revenge on them, but she finds her slave Jody is too nice for that. So she casts an additional spell to make Jody evil. Now why the silly old witch couldn’t have picked an evil girl like Stacey from Jinty’s Slave of Form 3B in the first place we’ll never know, but we’re deeply worried. The spell is bound to make Jody far more evil than any genuinely bad girl we’ve seen in Jinty.

In the Land of No Tears, the cold-hearted residents get a real surprise when the “reject” Gamma Girls beat the odds and are through to the finals of the Golden Girl Award. It should be a victory celebration for Cassy, but security have put the damper on everything by saying they will be sending the Hive Inspector over to make enquiries. And judging from the way Miranda’s mystery mother is reacting, this Inspector is kind of like the Gestapo.

In part two of “Darling Clementine”, Clementine (Clem) is in a coma after some horrible girl knocks her into the river. Worse, her cousin Ella is being accused of it instead, and everyone, including her own Uncle, turns against her. Poor Ella is not even allowed to visit Clem in hospital. Not knowing what else to do, Ella bravely decides to train herself up for the water-ski event that Clem was going to enter.

“Race for a Fortune” takes a spooky turn, but a hilarious one. Katie thinks her cousins’ latest trick is to play Roman ghosts on her at an old barn. So when a pair of glowing Romans does appear, she thinks it’s a huge joke and plays along with it. But she learns later that the glowing Romans weren’t her cousins. In fact, they scared those cheating cousins off. Unfortunately, not right back to the beginning of the race. 

The strife over “Two Mothers for Maggie” takes a very bad turn this week. Mum forbade Maggie to go to Miss Keyes’ party, where she could be on the rise as a star. Maggie goes there anyway and soon she is on the rise after saving Miss Keyes’ dog. Then Mum comes along in a terrible temper and drags her out in front of everyone. How embarrassing! And it’s not over. Poor Maggie has to face the wrath of her unfit guardian stepfather next week.