Tammy 3 November 1979

Cover artist: John Richardson

Bella (artist John Armstrong)

My Terrible Twin (artist Juliana Buch)

Sarita in Uniform (artist Diane Gabbot(t))

Temper, Temper, Tina! (artist Giorgio Giorgetti)

Bessie Bunter (artist Arthur Martin)

Molly Mills and the Gipsy’s Curse – final episode (artist Douglas Perry, Maureen Spurgeon)

The Sea Dragon – Strange Story (artist Julio Bosch)

Wee Sue (artist Robert MacGillivray)

Edie the Ed’s Niece (artist Joe Collins)

Guitar Girl (artist Angeles Felices)

Tuck-In with Tammy – feature 

For Halloween, we profile the Tammy Halloween issue for 1979 (though it is dated Novemer and not October). It is the last time the Cover Girls celebrate Halloween on the cover. This time the following year, they were gone. 

Inside, Wee Sue and Bessie Bunter are going to Halloween parties. Things don’t exactly go without a hitch for either of them, but everything works out in the end. Less so for Edie, who goes to a Halloween party in a cat costume but finds herself being chased by dogs! Molly’s tale, “The Gipsy’s Curse”, has a spooky theme to it, which adds to the Halloween theme. Gipsies have put a spell on Pickering to make him do what they want, but now it’s making him too nice for his own good. Molly decides Pickering has to be returned to normal, bullying and all. 

The Storyteller could have gone with a Halloween theme, but instead he gives a cautionary tale about not meddling with things you don’t understand. Two sisters on the island of Cumba resurrect the costume of the Sea Dragon of Cumba, ignoring warnings that they don’t understand its power or what it is supposed to be used for – which is not exactly for attracting the tourism their father wants.

Guitar Girl Jacey Jones also has a party theme. She has been hired to entertain at a posh girl’s birthday party but soon discovers it’s no party for her. The snobbish mother disapproves of her presence and – horrors! – has hired her nasty arch-rival Sabrina to entertain as well! If that weren’t bad enough, Sabrina pulls a dirty trick on Jacey to make her look a thief and snobby mum’s screaming for the police. How can Jacey prove her innocence? 

Bella has been fostered by a rich couple, but they have a real thing about gymnastics for some reason, which is the mystery of the story. Their disapproval has driven her to go to a gymnastics club behind their backs, under a false name, but this week Bella’s jealous rivals at the club have found her out. Uh-oh, looks like blackmail is about to be added to Bella’s problems.

“Temper, Temper, Tina!”, now on its penultimate episode, and “Sarita in Uniform” also have girls driven to do things in secret. Sarita, a gypsy girl, is going to school behind her gypsy guardians’ backs. They don’t approve of education or even gypsy traditions. Tina, a brilliant athlete with a short fuse, has been dodging school for ages. But why is she doing it, and where has she been in all that time? Everyone’s about to find out in the final episode next week, as things are clearly coming to a head now. 

“My Terrible Twin” is the sequel to an earlier serial by the same name. Moira and Lindy are fraternal twins. In the first story (reprinted by popular demand in 1984), Lindy was the terrible twin. She had served time for shoplifting but had still not reformed or learned responsibility, with the long-suffering Moira trying to keep her on the straight and narrow. But this time the terrible twin is Moira, who accidentally winds up on the ship where Lindy has a job and is playing tricks Lindy because she mistakenly thinks Lindy has developed a snobby attitude over her job. And, as the story carries on, this proves to be only the beginning of a long line of misunderstandings that have Moira making Lindy’s life a misery.

Tammy 4 August 1973

Jumble Sale Jilly (artist Juliana Buch)

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

The Cat’s Eye on Katy (artist Douglas Perry) – final episode

The Making of Mary (“Wild Horse Summer” artist from Jinty)

The Sea Spirit (artist Juan Escandell Torres)

A Special Tammy Portrait – Rod Stewart

Simple Simona (artist Julio Bosch?)

Tammy Competition

The Secret of the Stables (artist Reginald B. Davis)

No Love for Liza (artist Jaume Rumeu)

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

We now turn to 1973 in our Tammy August month round, and the letters from readers in the issue are insightful reading. Two letters indicate Tammy could have been overusing the misery-laden formulas she had been renowned for since her first issue and she still had to strike a better balance with complementary material:

“Nearly all your stories are sad, they’re about orphans and blackmail, cripples and cruel parents, beatings and imprisonments…I get enough horror at school. Can’t you help make the world a happier place by printing more stories like Aunt Aggie…”

“It seems you think all you require to hold us readers spellbound are heroines with not-so-well-off and exceedingly nasty parents and grandparents or guardians…I think you should take all these horrible people out of your comic, or send them to Stanton Hall and Mr. Pickering – for some of their own medicine!”

Eventually the horrible people and sad stories did fade from Tammy, but for now, they continue. Among them is Juliana Buch’s first story for Tammy, “Jumble Sale Jilly”. Jilly Burridge is struggling to be an artist in the face of a family who scorn such things and don’t treat her so well either. This week, it looks like the fairy godmother figure to help Jilly has arrived in her life. In “No Love for Liza”, Liza Bruce also battles to be an artist against the odds piled on by a nasty stepfamily. And we have yet another nasty family in “The Making of Mary”. Mary Regan is forced to live with her horrible Uncle Ernie, who wants to take over her grandfather’s business. To add insult to injury, Uncle Ernie has also framed her grandfather and now he’s in prison. Imagine having to live with the very man who set up your grandfather!

On the same page, there is more on the long-standing Molly Mills debate that made her the most polarising character in Tammy. Some readers liked her:

“I disagree…that Molly Mills is rubbish. She’s great. My Mum and I both read it every week and if you take her out we won’t buy Tammy anymore!”

And others didn’t:

“Is [Molly Mills] going to be in the paper forever? She drives me mad. Please do something about her!”

Meanwhile, the nasty Kitty and Betty have already done something about Molly in her new story this week – they’ve pulled a spiteful trick on her, and now poor Molly faces the sack! But such things are hardly new in Molly. She’s bound to bounce back in the end, and then there’ll be the next time.

Tammy started off lacking humour to help balance her dark material. Two years on, she is building up a stronger presence of humour with strips like “Aunt Aggie”, a rotten schemer acting as a sweet figure on TV who gets her comeuppance every week, and “Simple Simona”, a clueless girl who is always the victim of her scheming cousins without even realising it, but she always triumphs over them in the end – again without even realising it. 

Elsewhere, it’s the final episode of “The Cat’s Eye on Katy”, and the letters page indicates it was a popular, gripping story. The witch doctor’s curse is broken by the good ol’ amor vincit omnia (love conquers all), when Katy saves the life of the cat he bewitched into doing evil against her in revenge for his imprisonment. Though he’s thousands of miles away, he knows what’s happened, and he’s still stuck in prison, doing cursing of a different sort: “Cursed white magic has won! My power over cat beast is gone!”. “The Sea Spirit”, which started in the same issue as “The Cat’s Eye on Katy”, is now on its penultimate episode.

Girls love a good mystery story, and there’s a mystery about Silver Star, the horse at Penny Lane’s stable, which she is salvaging from neglect. The mystery deepens when Silver Star responds to a strange whistle, and in the middle of the night, Penny spots him galloping off. Is it that whistle again?

Tammy 26 August 1972

Belinda Black-Sheep (artist Mario Capaldi) – first episode

Miss High-an’-Mighty (artist Julio Bosch?)

The Lame Ballerina (artist P. Montero, writer Gerry Finley-Day?)

Lulu (cartoon)

The Uxdale Urchins (artist Eduardo Feito)

Swim for Your Life, Sari (artist Juan Garcia Quiros, writer Gerry Finley-Day?)

Skivers’ School (artist J. Badesa)

Dog Paddle Doris (artist Carlos Prunes, writer Maureen Spurgeon)

The Greek Girl (artist John Armstrong, writer Bill Harrington?) – first episode

Here Comes Trouble (artist Luis Bermejo)

Lonely Romy (artists Luis Bermejo and Miguel Quesada (inks))

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

A Special Tammy Portrait – Don McLean

We come to 1972 in our Tammy August month round, and in this issue, two new stories start: “Belinda Black-Sheep” and “The Greek Girl”. Mario Capaldi, who went on to become one of the longest-standing stalwarts on the Tammy team, starts his first story for Tammy, “Belinda Black-Sheep”. Belinda McRea and her father become outcasts in their fishing village after Dad commits a seeming act of cowardice that led the deaths of his fellow fishermen in a storm. But did he really? Or did he lose his mind in some way and was not responsible for his actions? Or did something else happen? He seems to recall saving them, but he’s become so addled we don’t even know what to think, much know where to start working out what happened. 

In the second new story, “The Greek Girl”, Rose Banks has no confidence in herself, and it shows in her appearance (scruffy) and schoolwork (“appalling”). She wishes upon the statue of Penelope, the Greek goddess of confidence, to become more confident. (Incidentally, there really is a Greek goddess of confidence, but her name is Flaunta, and she is the second cousin of Aphrodite.) Soon after, a girl and a cat who are dead ringers for the goddess and her cat come into Rose’s life. Oops, is it the old “be careful what you wish for” again? Incidentally, this was one of the John Armstrong Tammy stories chosen for reprint in the Misty annuals, and a number of them were written by Bill Harrington.

Miss High-an’-Mighty, a spoiled, arrogant Victorian girl named Ursula Thorndike, has to be the hardest nut of all to crack in redemption stories. Bill Fletcher, a convict made good, is taking her on a tour to see how the other half live in the hopes it will change her. Ursula’s had to agree, as it is the only way to save her family from bankruptcy, but so far none of it is making any impression or improvement on her. 

Molly’s in a really complicated fix. She’s taken in an amnesic girl named Lorna, and then a Lady Lancton claims Lorna stole jewellery from her. Lorna is indeed scared shitless of Lady Lancton, but is it for that reason? Molly’s attempt to get Lorna’s side of things is soon putting her in danger.

In “Lonely Romy”, another Cinderella story, Romy hits the road after her spiteful stepsister frames her for stealing a watch. The truth is discovered later, but by this time Romy’s found a new venue for her paintings.

In “Here Comes Trouble”, the trouble for Mitzi Trouble comes from spiteful Katy Dennison. First Katy dopes her horse, and now she’s started a grass fire that’s raged out of control, just to get Mitzi into trouble, but it’s put lives in danger.

Girls’ comics often had some bizarre premises, and “Dog Paddle Doris” is one. Doris Farrell is making her name as…the best dog paddle swimmer around. Although it’s the only stroke she can do, she’s joined a swimming club and is competing in races, against girls who are doing freestyle. She even wins a freestyle event, but she was doing dog paddle, not freestyle. Aren’t there any grounds for disqualification here? 

“Swim for Your Life, Sari” is another swimming story, about a long-distance relay swimming race for Sari Marsh and her team. But Sari soon finds there is more danger than just the risks of the race – something sinister is afoot, and it looks suspiciously like the relay race is a setup for it.

Jill Hudson discovers Louisa “The Lame Ballerina” isn’t that lame, but thinks there’s a medical problem and wants to be friends. The truth is, Louisa is faking lameness to avoid the ballet she’s being pushed into, and now she sees a glorious opportunity to take advantage of Jill.

“Skivers’ School” looks like it’s riding on the success of “School for Snobs”. But instead of teaching snobs a lesson, the special school teaches ill-mannered girls to behave. Flo and Ethel Binns have been sent to it to learn how to be ladies. The hijinks have their skivvying backfiring on them and being foiled by the headmistress Miss Meake. We’re always left wondering as to whether Miss Meake does this without realising it or not, which is probably a running gag.

The Uxdale Urchins win the semi-finals despite problems along the way, but now there’s a real hurdle – the finals are in London, and they can’t afford a horse box.

Princess II, 24 December 1983

• The Last Christmas Carol (artist Purita Campos) – complete story
• The Grovel Game – feature (artist Joe Collins)
• The Ghostly Ballerina (photo story)
• Fairy Tale (artist Julio Bosch)
• Best of Friends… (photo story) – first episode
• Cinders on Ice (artist unknown) – final episode
• Sadie-in-Waiting (artist Joe Collins)

 

More Princess II’s have been added to my collection. Christmas may have been a couple of months ago, but here is Princess II’s one and only Christmas issue anyway.

Leading off the cover is a complete Christmas story from Purita Campos. Sue and Jill Crawley are new to the neighbourhood and feel lonely. They go out carol singing for charity, which turns into a spooky time travel trip to the Blitz. They give an old lady her final Christmas carol and return with souvenirs of the 1940s.

Christmas carolling does wonders on Grovel too. He’s pressganged into being Santa Claus but is more like the Grinch until Christmas carols work some Christmas magic on him and he starts enjoying himself. We can also play “The Grovel Game”, where the objective is to be the first to give Princess Bee her presents, but Grovel is trying to stop you.

There is also a Christmas dinner in “Cinders on Ice” to celebrate the fairytale ending we all expected. Yep, that story was definitely written to tie up with the Christmas issue.

The Ghostly Ballerina gives Clare Thomas the power to dance brilliantly, and everyone is surprised at the sudden improvement. But it is obvious that the power comes at an unpleasant price, which starts with it turning Clare’s friend Sonja against her.

Fairy tales get screwed up and turned on their heads in “Fairy Tale”. This week it’s a dotty old genie who is hard of hearing and can’t hear wishes properly – or even hear if what people say really is a wish. As a result, our protagonists get unwanted hair length and now they look like Rapunzels.

In the new photo story, Lizzie and Katie are “Best of Friends”. Then the old “three’s a crowd” comes in between them when new girl Linda comes along, and Katie’s in tears.

Tammy & Jinty 27 March 1982

• Bella (artist John Armstrong)
• Danger Dog (artist Julio Bosch)
• Pam of Pond Hill (artist Bob Harvey, writer Jay Over)
• The Crayzees (artist Joe Collins)
• Dance of Death – the Strange Story (artist Hugo D’Adderio)
• Little Sisters (artist Mario Capaldi)
• Nanny Young (artist Phil Gascoine)
• Bessie Bunter – Old Friends
• The Human Zoo (artist Guy Peeters, writer Malcolm Shaw)
• Sandy – A Fresh Start… (artist Juliana Buch)

 

Bella is in the finals for the Superkid Contest, and will receive advanced coaching if she wins. But she has problems with the press sniffing around her and then being asked to sign a form endorsing Superkid products. The trouble is, she has never used them and can’t in honesty sign the form.

This issue has one of my favourite Pond Hill episodes: the episode that concludes the St Dorrit’s storyline, and it appears below. Pam’s form has been temporarily housed at St Dorrit’s, a super-snob school, when Pond Hill’s foundations collapse. But from beginning to end, the snob school has made the Pond Hill pupils unwelcome and their lives a misery. In the conclusion, Pond Hill reopens and Pam & Co get their long-awaited revenge on St Dorrit’s. Mind you, I still can’t figure out how the snobs fell for the trick Fred and Terry pulled on them. Maybe the snobs can’t either.

(Click thru)

 

When Misty merged with Tammy, Strange Stories changed to “Strange Stories from the Mists” with the Storyteller alternating with Misty in narrating them. After the Jinty merger it went back to Strange Stories, with the Storyteller alternating with Gypsy Rose. It was a total delight to see that the Gypsy Rose stories during this run were 100% new material; no tired reprints from Jinty or recycled Strange Stories. This one, “Dance of Death” (or should that be “Dance with Death”?) is so creepy and atmospheric that I can’t help wondering if it was originally scripted for Misty. Anyway, the story is worth reproducing here for the Hugo D’Adderio artwork.

(Click thru)

 

It is part two of “The Human Zoo” reprint, brought about by popular demand. Presumably this included “Pam’s Poll” way back in 1980. Shona and Jenny Lewis, plus other captured people, find out what it is like to be Mary Celeste when they fall into the clutches of the aliens who are hinted to be responsible for Mary Celeste. The aliens think humans are just animals – and they treat animals like animals too. They take them away from Earth to the cattle market on their home planet. For Shona and Jenny it is extra anguish as they get sold to different owners, and are forcibly separated. Now it’s not just survival and escape but also finding each other again.

In Nanny Young, Nanny is not deemed suitable for turning Cockney girl Charity Ogden into a refined young lady. Though Nanny still has her job, the task of refining Charity has been given to a Miss Hooper, who is a real bully. But that’s only the start; Charity overhears a conversation that warns her Miss Hooper is some sort of criminal, but she can’t even convince Nanny of this.

In “Little Sisters”, gran complains that she’s hard up. Inspired by the loss of her own tooth, dear little Samantha comes up with an idea that might help: give gran’s false teeth to the Tooth Fairy in exchange for money. The trouble is, she does not advise anyone first, and gran’s in a flap when her teeth go missing. But that’s nothing on big sister Carol, who is assigned the role of Tooth Fairy to Samantha. She gets the false teeth on her arm and screams the house down!

Bessie Bunter is not keen on a cross country run until she hears that there is a feast waiting at the other end. All of a sudden she’s off at breakneck speed. Of course there are difficulties along the way, including Bessie getting stuck in an oak tree and mist arising, but she ends up saving a driver from a nasty accident. This makes the feast even more of a reward for her.

Crunch time for Beth, who is trying to keep her dog Sammy hidden from the authorities, who suspect he is contaminated from a laboratory experiment. Beth didn’t believe it, but now she finally realises it is true: Sammy causes all sorts of weird effects in humans who get too close to him for too long. He is a danger dog after all.

In the Sandy Rawlings stories, Dad has a long history of causing complications for Sandy by shoving her towards boys he thinks are suitable for her instead of giving her freedom to try things out for herself. To make things worse, his choice of ‘suitable’ boyfriends are directed by his snobbishness and business contacts, not compatibility or what Sandy wants. In this episode, it leads to such a horrible tangle of complications (no going into details) that Sandy is not only in deep trouble with Dad but with the whole school as well. Sandy, who has only just got out of being the school outcast (also because of Dad), is now the school outcast again.

Danger Dog (1982)

Sample Images 

Published: Tammy & Jinty 9 January 1982 to 17 April 1982

Episodes: 15

Artist: Julio Bosch

Writer: Unknown

Translations/reprints: Translated into Dutch as “Gevecht om Thomas” (“Fight over Thomas”) and published in Tina #10/1985-24/1985.

Plot

It is slightly ahead in the future (from the time of writing). Beth Harris’ town has a cruel practice in regard to stray animals: rounding them up and taking them to High Fell Research Station for experimentation. Her dog Sammy falls foul of this practice when he got lost. His collar got lost as well, so he was taken for a stray and ended up at High Fell. Beth breaks into High Fell to rescue Sammy, and is confident she got him out before the scientists did anything to him.

However, Beth’s father insists Sammy be returned to High Fell in case he is carrying some sort of contamination from that place and is dangerous. Beth does not believe that, and she is not having Sammy returned to High Fell either. She ends up going on the run with Sammy on the moor, intending to come back once she’s proved Sammy’s not dangerous.

Unfortunately for Beth a huge manhunt is soon after her, with men in contamination suits and tracker dogs searching the moors, and the High Fell owner insisting on Sammy’s return. He refuses to disclose details about the experiments performed on Sammy or exactly what sort of contamination he could be carrying. Considering what a horrible-looking man he is, his reticence is very suspicious.

The manhunt is all over the press and big news in town. As the news gathers momentum, there are hints that people who disapproved of High Fell and its animal experiments are beginning to voice their outrage and express sympathy for Beth. On the moor, Beth finds some of these sympathisers helping her whenever she meets them, such as an old lady living on the moor named Old Meg.

Meanwhile, Beth increasingly begins to realise that weird things have been happening to her, and have been ever since she got Sammy back. She is having bizarre bouts of going deaf, going blind, voice going wrong, seeing in the dark, super-strength, super-healing, and the muscles in her body going completely kaput. These wear off, but they are increasing in frequency and intensity. They happen to other people she comes into contact with as well. These include the kindly Old Meg and scheming gypsies who hold Beth and Sammy prisoner, hoping to claim a reward for bringing them in.

At first Beth thinks these things are due to her getting contaminated with chemicals during her rescue mission and she is the one who is dangerous, not Sammy. But eventually she realises these weird things only happen when she is in close contact with Sammy. He is dangerous after all. Whatever was done to him causes peculiar things to happen to any human he comes into contact with. She believes the High Fell scientists must have known this and it is the real reason they want him back.

Beth, the human who stays close to Sammy the most, is feeling the worst of these effects. She soon finds they are getting both worse and weirder. So bad now in fact, that Beth discovers that distance from Sammy is no longer safe. There is no telling where they will lead, and her very life could be in danger. But she can’t bear the thought of Sammy being destroyed or returned to High Fell. She tries to drive Sammy off, but realises that is not the answer either, as he could still come into contact with humans.

After long thought Beth makes the decision to leave Sammy tied up in an old cottage and go back to town to get help from her parents. But by the time she arrives home the chemicals are having such a bad effect on her – despite her distance from Sammy – that she is confined to bed. By the time she recovers, Sammy has been in that cottage without food or water for whole three days.

They get to Sammy in time, and also discover the three-day nourishment deprivation has cured him of the chemical effects. He is safe to go home. It is never established just what High Fell did to Sammy and why. Beth thinks they were developing a weapon of some sort. High Fell is closed down and their experiments stopped because of the bad publicity Beth caused them. Beth hopes that if the research station reopens, it will be to more savoury experiments.

Thoughts

“Danger Dog” was one of the best stories to appear during the Tammy & Jinty merger. It’s strong, dark, subversive, freaky, and chilling stuff. It is possible the story was originally written for Misty as there is evidence (Monster Tales) that Misty was still an influence on Tammy during the merger despite her logo’s disappearance on the cover. The story looks like it was strongly influenced by “The Plague Dogs” by Richard Adams. “The Secret of NIMH” could be in the mix as well.

Danger Dog not only decries the cruelties of animal experimentation but also the dangers of science when it is used for unethical ends. Unlike most evil scientists in girls’ comics it is never established just what those scientists did to Sammy or why. Never knowing exactly what that experiment was about makes the story even more sinister and creepy. As we see those weird effects on Beth, watch them grow increasingly bizarre, and eventually learn it is because of Sammy, it’s even more frightening, because we don’t know just what is behind it. For one thing, is the experiment backfiring or going wrong for some reason? Or is it unfolding as the scientists intended, with perhaps even more results than they anticipated? Are they really developing a secret weapon? Or is it some other chemical experiment?

The effects themselves add to the horror of it all. It’s not just because they are frightening but also because they are just plain weird. Seeing in the dark, and then going blind? All the muscles in your body going flat? Now that is just weeiirrd! And what makes it even weirder is that some of these effects can be described as temporary super powers, such as the super-strength or seeing in the dark. But the final effect turns Beth’s face into an utter horror story, which shocks her parents when they see it. It must have shocked the doctors and authorities as well, and if it didn’t have them tearing White Fells apart to find out just what that research station was doing we would be very surprised. And we can just see the angry demonstrators outside the research station once word of Beth’s condition spread. It would have been no surprise if Beth’s final state had been the final straw that shut down White Fells.

It’s the irony of the story that if Sammy had turned out to be safe like Beth hoped, High Fell might not have been shut down. Having him turn out to be dangerous after all would have been the clincher in stopping the High Fell experiments.

We strongly sympathise with Beth and Sammy, and we cheer Beth for wanting to save her dog from those experiments. We desperately want Beth to emerge triumphant at proving Sammy is not dangerous and not have to return to that research station. And we expect that to happen. After all, this is a girls’ serial. So it is gutting for us all when the story establishes that Beth was wrong all along and her dog really is dangerous like Dad said. It’s definitely not the way we expected the story to go.

After this, Beth is faced with a choice that no girl and her dog should ever face: the love of her dog or risk him being destroyed. And let’s face it: public safety and Beth’s own well-being are at stake, and they have to come first. But it’s an agonising, heart-wrenching decision for Beth, and here the story delivers its most powerful emotional impact.

Setting the story a little distance in an unspecified future year adds a dystopian element to the story. This makes the concept of a town sending strays to a research station for experimentation instead of animal shelters for rehoming a bit more credible. The unspeficied time setting also means the story will work anywhere, anytime, which will be handy if it comes up for reprint.

Sandie 29 April 1972

• No-one Cheers for Norah– final episode (artist John Armstrong)
• Slaves of the Sorcerer (artist Desmond Walduck?)
• Wee Sue (artist Vicente Torregrosa Manrique)
• Odd Mann Out (artist A E Allen)
• Silver Is a Star (artist Eduardo Feito)
• Not So Lady-like Lucy
• Friends and Neighbours
• The School of No Escape – final episode (artist “B. Jackson”, writer Terence Magee)
• Brenda’s Brownies (artist and writer Mike Brown)
• Sandra Must Dance (artist Douglas Perry)
• Bonnie’s Butler (artist Julio Bosch?)
• Anna’s Forbidden Friend (artist Miguel Quesada)
• A Sandie Pop Portrait – Mark Lester (artist Bob Gifford)

In this issue of Sandie we say goodbye to two of her first stories: “No-One Cheers for Norah” and “The School of No Escape”. The former finishes with a needle race to beat the relatives who have not only made Norah’s life a misery ever since they met but also ruined her father’s life. The latter ends with the pretty typical deus ex machina of the aliens just vanishing away just as they are about to triumph because time’s up, and everyone but the heroine loses all memory of them for no apparent reason.

Replacing them next week are “Lorna’s Lonely Days” and “The Captives of Madam Karma”. The latter is written by Pat Mills.

In “Slaves of the Sorcerer” Beth Williams finally gets the police onto Caspar. But when they arrive at the fairground there’s no sign of him. The lead they have been given is in fact another trap for Beth set by Caspar, and he’s waiting to pounce.

Boys are admitted to Wee Sue’s school. They get quite a shock when the titch they tease turns out to be brilliant at footy. Then Sue finds one of the football boys stuck on a ledge and climbs up to the rescue.

“Odd Mann Out” is now leading a demonstration against the tyrannical way things are run at her school. But why the hell is the headmistress smiling about it instead of looking worried?

Trudy loses Silver – to the rag-and-bone man. And everyone knows how cruel he is to animals. Can Trudy get him back?

Ann Friend and her family in “Friends and Neighbours” have moved into a new house. The neighours haven’t been friendly but now Anne believes they are worse than she thought – they are trying to scare her family out of the house with a ruse that it’s haunted. They deny it angrily and mean to prove it by sitting up with them.

In “Sandra Must Dance”, enemy Robinia Drew discovers the twins’ bizarre secret – Joan can transfer her ballet talent into her twin sister Sandra through a psychic bond. Robinia locks Joan up to prevent her from doing so during a performance. Can the twins pull things off despite this?

This week’s episode of “Bonnie’s Butler” has a row with the Major and Bonnie loses the present she was going to give Angie. Things get even more bizarre when Bonnie wins an unwanted hip bath at an auction, but her butler uses it to put everything right.

In “Anna’s Forbidden Friend”, Julia’s father takes advantage of Anna and Julia to hatch a scheme to get everyone out of Madeley Buildings. He managed to turn everyone against them once before and now plots to do it again. And his scheme includes kidnapping his own daughter!

Sandie 8 April 1972

Stories in this issue:

• No-one Cheers for Norah (artist John Armstrong)
• Slaves of the Sorcerer (artist Desmond Walduck) – first episode
• Wee Sue (artist Vicente Torregrosa Manrique)
• Brenda’s Brownies (artist and writer Mike Brown)
• Odd Mann Out (artist A E Allen)
• Silver Is a Star (artist Eduardo Feito)
• Not So Lady-like Lucy
• Our Big BIG Secret (artist Jim Baikie)
• The School of No Escape (artist unknown artist ‘Merry’)
• Wendy the Witch (artist and writer Mike Brown)
• Sandra Must Dance (artist Douglas Perry)
• Bonnie’s Butler (artist Julio Bosch)
• Anna’s Forbidden Friend (artist Miguel Quesada)
• A Sandie Pop Portrait – Sacha Distel (artist Bob Gifford)

The contents have moved around quite a lot in this issue compared to the previous eight – for instance “Silver Is A Star” has been moved much nearer the middle of the paper than it was, and “Anna’s Forbidden Friend” has moved to the last spot (which I think was probably one of the best spots, as providing the denouement of the issue).

Norah hurries to her father’s hospital bed, as he is in a bad way. She hears his side of the story of his disgrace (he says he didn’t do it) and her visit gives him a new will to live.

Catawiki credits both the new story, “Slaves of the Sorcerer”, and last week’s “Little Lady Nobody”, as both being by artist Desmond Walduck. I disagree and have credited “Little Lady Nobody” as being by Roy Newby. Soon I will post about the story, which was the first Sandie story to finish, and you can decide for yourselves. In this first episode, Beth Williams is accused and then acquitted of stealing, but she soon finds herself entangled in a trap that is much harder to escape from. The story is set in 1930, but the historical elements are not very strongly outlined, at least not yet.

Wee Sue rescues a dog from the roadside – she has recognized that its yellow collar means it belongs to a nearby scientific establishment. Researcher Miss Brog claims only to be kind to the animals she is experimenting on – but if so, why did the dog run away?

Susie Man’s elder sister carries out her threat to expel Susie’s classmate Sarah in revenge for Susie’s trouble-making, but the class rally round Sarah and (at Susie’s  further instigation, of course) hide her in the storeroom while they run round trying to find evidence to condemn the Head as a crook and a liar.

Trudy wins a steeplechase event that brings with it a first prize of one hundred pounds – so she is able to buy back Mr MacReady’s pawned saddle. We are told that next she will have to find money to save the stables…

Eva, one of Miss Voor’s mysterious sidekicks, is remorseful and tries to help Dale – but Miss Voor overpowers her mentally and Dale is soon being pushed over the side of a cliff rather than being helped to rescue her classmates.

Sandra has been accepted to the Southern Ballet Company for a trial period, but rival Robinia Drew has also been invited along. One way or another, the twins’ secret seems likely to be out fairly soon – especially as Joan has to sign the contract herself, with her own signature.

Anna is tied up by the roughs from her estate, with a placard reading “I am a traitor”. Julia unties her and then runs away, saying “I don’t want to have anything to do with you or Madeley Buildings any more!” – to the reader, a transparent ploy, but will it fool the onlookers?

Princess II, #26, 17 March 1984

• The Secret Swimmer (artist Phil Gascoine)
• The Dream House (artist Mike White)
• Rusty, Remember Me (artist Eduardo Feito)
• Stefa’s Heart of Stone (artist Phil Townsend, writer Alison Christie)
• Day and Knight (artist Juliana Buch)
• Are You a Teacher’s Pet? (quiz)
• Flight from the Romanys (artist Maria Dembilio)
• Fun Fair – puzzles
• Horse from the Sea (artist Rodrigo Comos)
• The Haunted Station (artist Julio Bosch)
• Sadie in Waiting (artist Joe Collins)

 

The merge into Tammy is in three weeks, so how does this issue contribute towards the merger? “The Dream House” has a double episode, it looks like “Flight from the Romanys” is getting close to finishing, but “The Secret Swimmer”, “The Haunted Station”, “Rusty, Remember Me” and “Day and Knight” are on their second episodes. And anyone familiar with the original run of “Stefa’s Heart of Stone” knows it still has a long way to go.

Liza now becomes “The Secret Swimmer” and secretly training for the event Nikki is now out of, because she feels it is the only way to get the girls to talk to her again after wrongly blaming her for Nikki’s accident. But getting up at early hours for training and pushing herself too much are beginning to take their toll.

Mr Day is pushing headlong into his new marriage with Carrie Knight’s mother, despite protests from his daughter Sharon that Carrie is bullying her. Dad is not listening and Carrie is very good at pulling the wool over his eyes. And now Carrie is causing another heartbreak for Sharon – she has to rehome her beloved cat Monk because of Carrie’s asthma.

In “Stefa’s Heart of Stone”, Dad’s job is on the line because of Stefa’s tricks to dodge Ruth, Joy’s look-alike at school. Stefa gets no sleep because her heart of stone is struggling against her guilty conscience. But conscience does not win, and neither does common sense. By the final panel it looks like Stefa will indeed get Dad sacked because of her wanting to avoid Ruth.

Donna Jones needs a vet for the injured fox cub, now named Rusty, but money is a problem. And there is another problem – animals aren’t allowed in their flat, and the caretaker is not the sort who would understand the situation.

Jan Dale is becoming more convinced that the doll’s house is evil and taking away the elder members of the family she is working for. Now Diana, the eldest daughter, has disappeared like the parents, but the two youngest kids seem to be helping it.

Lydia Parks, who has only just escaped from the gypsies who kidnapped her, now has to escape from a workhouse. She finally does, but it’s now more urgent than ever to get home, because her sick friend at the workhouse badly needs help.

In “Horse from the Sea”, Janice and Tracey Penrose discover a rift in the Penrose family, which stems from when Charles Penrose blamed his father for a mining accident because the old miser was cutting corners at the expense of safety. It would not be surprising if Janice’s stepfather was descended from the old meanie, because it looks like he’s deliberately keeping Janice an invalid so she won’t inherit, and committing other fraud too.

“The Haunted Station” is more like a time travel device. It has already sent Linda Brent and Wendy Smith to the 1930s, where they get entangled with a frightened girl who is being chased by someone. Now it looks like it’s about to send them back to the 1930s again.

Princess Bee wants to go riding – and so does Grovel. He ends up regretting it because Princess Bee uses him for her mount after he messes things up (below).

Horse hijinks, “Sadie in Waiting”, Princess II, 17 March 1984

Sandie 1 April 1972

Stories in this issue:

• No-one Cheers for Norah (artist John Armstrong)
• Odd Mann Out (artist A E Allen)
• Brenda’s Brownies (artist and writer Mike Brown)
• Anna’s Forbidden Friend (artist Miguel Quesada)
• The School of No Escape (artist unknown artist ‘Merry’)
• Our Big BIG Secret (artist Jim Baikie)
• Not So Lady-like Lucy
• Wee Sue (artist Vicente Torregrosa Manrique)
• Little Lady Nobody (artist Desmond Walduck?) – last episode
• Wendy the Witch (artist and writer Mike Brown)
• Sandra Must Dance (artist Douglas Perry)
• Bonnie’s Butler (artist Julio Bosch)
• Silver Is a Star (artist Eduardo Feito)
• A Sandie Pop Portrait – Steve McQueen (artist Bob Gifford)

It’s nice to see the some of the elements in colour on the front. Norah’s swimming suit looks great and the colour work really enhances the image taken from the story inside. Last week’s cover showed us Sandra the ballet dancer with brown hair, which looked rather nice. Imagine if this had been published by Marvel in colour inside and out – somehow it seems to make a difference to how you see a character if you imagine them with a different hair colour.

Norah’s cousin tells her that her father is a crook who stole money from the swimming club – and Mrs Maddox believes the story, because she knew him when he was the secretary of the club. She will carry on being Norah’s supporter and mentor though, as she can see that the girl is not also a crook.

Susie Mann thinks the head of the school is living luxuriously at the school’s expense – and the glimpses we catch of the head’s sinister sideways glances have the reader thinking that it must indeed be so.

Anna and her friend Julia have managed to get Mr Crossley to come and talk to the estate dwellers in person – but Ramage has manged to poison the well against the estate owner and he is not well received.

Dale is made to drink a mysterious beverage when she is spying on Miss Voor – but she is helped by Eva, who seems to be at least a bit on Dale’s side against Miss Voor.

In “Wee Sue”, she has to deal with machinations by Miss Chivers who wants her niece to be sports captain instead of Sue – and who is threatening to evict Sue’s mum from her home if Sue doesn’t go quietly.

It’s the last episode of “Little Lady Nobody”. Lady Elaine has been found guilty of being an impostor and is sentenced to be transported for life – but in the nick of time, Sir William Moresby is found alive and on his way home. All comes well at the last moment. An advert tells the reader that next week’s new story will be called “Slaves of the Sorcerer”.

Sandra is dancing superbly well most of the time but her rival does manage to get the wheel-chair bound twin sister out of the way for long enough to nearly put the kibosh on the dancing twin’s chances in front of the great Dame Valerie in the audience.

Trudy finds out that her sporting rivals have gone to the lengths of trying to poison Silver by slipping yew tree leaves in his feed bag – they really are sinking low.