Jinty and Penny 7 March 1981

• Pam of Pond Hill (artist Bob Harvey, writer Jay Over)
• The Ghost Dancer (artist Phil Townsend)
• Farah’s Three Wishes (artist Hugo D’Adderio) – Gypsy Rose story
• Just the Job – feature with Leo Sayers and Rod Stewart – first episode
• Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost (artist Hugh Thornton-Jones)
• Tansy of Jubilee Street (artist Peter Wilkes)
• Land of No Tears (artist Guy Peeters, writer Pat Mills)
• No Medals for Marie (artist Phil Gascoine, writer Alison Christie)
• Winning Ways 47 (writer Benita Brown)
• Life’s a Ball for Nadine (artist Mario Capaldi)
• Alley Cat (artist Rob Lee)

This week’s sports cover has Mario Capaldi drawing gymnastics, a sport we seldom see him depicting in girls’ comics. “Just the Job” replaces “Behind the Screen” this week, and its job is to inform us what’s behind the world of pop music. Alley Cat takes the spot as the humour cartoon this time. Snoopa must have been on holiday.

The Gypsy Rose story is another recycled Strange Story, and it’s a morality tale in “be careful what you wish for”. A genie grants Persian girl Farah three wishes – but warns her to think carefully before making a wish because he can only grant exactly what she asks for. This means granting her wishes literally, as Farah finds out when she blows her first two wishes because she jumped the gun and did not heed the genie’s warning. Will she think carefully about the third wish and make it the right one? Or will she end up wasting three perfectly good wishes – and maybe have an even deeper regret than that?

Ferne’s plan to help Jolie get over her dancing block is to dress up in her mother’s Firebird costume and pass herself off as “The Ghost Dancer”, which the girls all think is haunting the school. The plan does help Jolie’s dancing – but then blabbermouth Jolie tells everyone, so now the ghost rumour is worse than ever.

In “Land of No Tears”, the Gamma girls beat the odds and make it through the preliminary rounds in the Golden Girl award. Unfortunately there’s now a lot of heat on them, especially as the authorities are astonished to find no record of Cassy in their computer (well, there wouldn’t be as she’s an unwitting time traveller from the 20^th century!). The dreaded Hive Inspector is being called in, and Perfecta is on the trail of the Gamma girls’ secret trainer.

Miss Simon – after a taste of what asthmatic Paul goes through – agrees to Marie’s request to let her have Simon Hall a year earlier because Paul is deteriorating so badly. Even so, it’s still nine months off. Will Paul last the distance?

Pam’s still stuck on the school magazine and Miss Peeble tries to help, but not very successfully. Miss Larks is definitely not under arrest, but she is on leave, and it’s linked to what Pam thinks is a blackmailer. She spots someone in Miss Larks’ apartment who could be the miscreant and gets the gang organised to catch him.

Sir Roger answers a “ghost for hire” ad. Sounds reminiscent of the old “Rent-a-ghost” strip from Buster. Tansy tries all sorts of nutty tactics to avoid “Dismal Dee” – but she’s the one who ends up dismal, because it cost her the chance of a concert ticket to see her current favourite pop group.

As well as having to fend off the cheating Syreeta and Selena, who are out to cheat her out of a disco contest (Syreeta) and netball match (Selena), Nadine now has to choose between the two events. For the first time she shows team spirit and chooses netball over disco. Stuffy Betty has had a change of heart too, and she wants to help Nadine against the two cheats.

Jinty & Penny 14 March 1981

• Pam of Pond Hill (artist Bob Harvey, writer Jay Over)
• The Ghost Dancer (artist Phil Townsend)
• No Expectations – Gypsy Rose story (artist Hugo D’Adderio)
• Snoopa (artist Joe Collins)
• Just the Job
• Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost (artist Hugh Thornton-Jones)
• Tansy of Jubilee Street (artist Peter Wilkes)
• Land of No Tears (artist Guy Peeters, writer Pat Mills)
• No Medals for Marie – (artist Phil Gascoine, writer Alison Christie Fitt)
• Winning Ways 48 (writer Benita Brown)
• Life’s a Ball for Nadine – (artist Mario Capaldi)

Pam thinks Miss Larks is being blackmailed, which leads to an embarrassing moment when Fred and Terry jump what they think is the blackmailer by mistake. Oh well, they were just trying to be helpful. The ‘blackmailer’ is Miss Larks’ nephew Steve Arnott, who takes over the reins for the upcoming school magazine Pam is struggling over.

“The Ghost Dancer” is approaching crunch time. Ferne wants to end her deception but is too scared of the consequences. But fate takes a hand when Ferne finds out that Jolie is in danger from a cracked pillar. Everyone sees the supposedly wheelchair-bound Ferne suddenly running off to try to avert disaster.

“No Medals for Marie” enters its penultimate episode. That mean old Miss Simon won’t let Marie’s family have the country home they so desperately need for Paul’s health. She’s going to abandon Paul to slowly die of asthma in his polluted town although she knows how serious his condition is. And it’s just because she’s so jealous at Marie finally winning a medal.

“Life’s a Ball for Nadine” is also on its penultimate episode. There are two jealous sisters going up against Nadine at netball and disco and trying to cheat her out of both. Nadine beats one sister at netball in this episode, but now she has to beat the other at disco in the final episode.

The Gamma Girls have won the preliminary rounds at the Golden Girl trophy, but it’s not all victory. Perfecta is on the trail of their secret trainer, who is Miranda’s mother. Cassy manages to foil Perfecta this time, but she is still suspicious. Plus, the dreaded Hive Inspector is going to pay a visit. He has the power to take Miranda and her mother away if he discovers their secret, and they will never return.

This week Gypsy Rose brings us an original story instead of a recycled Strange Story. Dora Lambert faithfully goes to Miss Harleigh to read Charles Dickens to her. Despite the Dickens title she reads from in the story, Dora expects and asks for nothing, even though her poor family could do with it. However, Gypsy Rose has forewarned us that there could be a surprise in store.

Sir Roger accidentally creates a double of himself, and then it’s triplets. Gaye ends up with treble the trouble of feeding a gluttonous ghost.

Tansy’s got a detective kit. She’s on the case of the missing hockey cup, which has disappeared from her bedroom window. For once pesky brother Simon and practical joker Peter are in the clear, so who could have done it?

Jinty & Penny 20 June 1981

• Pam of Pond Hill (writer Jay Over, artist Bob Harvey)
• Food for Fagin (artist Trini Tinturé)
• What the Eye Doesn’t See – text story (artist Mario Capaldi)
• Russalka – Gypsy Rose (artist unknown)
• Just the Job
• Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost (artist Hugh Thornton-Jones)
• Tansy of Jubilee Street (artist Peter Wilkes)
• Angela’s Angels (artist Leo Davy)
• Worlds Apart (artist Guy Peeters)
• Working Horses
• Dracula’s Daughter (artist Mario Capaldi)
• Alley Cat (artist Rob Lee)

Pam tracks down runaway Steve during a school trip to London and that storyline is all wrapped up happily. It isn’t long before another one spins again, and it’s centred on a Pond Hill pupil named Mack who has a real ear for music. Mack’s also a non-white character, which is quite refreshing.

Mum has told Olivia her dog Fagin’s only getting one tin of food a day and it’s up to her to stump up the rest to fill Fagin’s bottomless tum. Olivia is doing her best, but is beginning to find Fagin is causing difficulties there.

In the text story, Sally is finding it difficult to accept wearing glasses. Then she finds the boy she fancies needs glasses too. So it’s a date thanks to glasses!

It’s another recycled Strange Story for Gypsy Rose. Russalka is a spirit who haunts the Danube River and lures men to their doom. Katerina discovers Russalka is trying to do this with her brother Georgi. What can she do?

In “Angela’s Angels” Sharon is getting into all sorts of scrapes helping a patient. First it’s getting her off a window ledge without falling and then helping to keep her boutique going – which causes a brush with the law. Meanwhile, the Angels’ bandaging class ends up looking like a casualty clearing station.

Sir Roger discovers they’re out of bread and needs to catch up to Gaye before the shops shut. Of course there are a lot of hjinks across the way, and it’s still not the end when they find the baker shut. They end up with floating bread as anything carried inside Sir Roger’s apparel becomes a ghost of its former self, while the baker finds floating coins coming out of his till. Meanwhile, there are hijinks in Jubilee Street over Japanese culture.

In “Worlds Apart”, the Russians cheat their way into winning the war against Britain and the British team is executed on exercise bicycles. Yes, even the death penalty in Ann’s dream world is governed by sport. But the joke’s on the Russians when Ann’s death by exercise bicycle causes the sports world to gradually disappear under their very eyes. The next dream world the girls arrive in starts with a medieval castle and they can’t move a muscle. Nor can anyone else around them. Looks like they’ve been that way for a long, long time because there are cobwebs all over the place, and all over them too.

In “Dracula’s Daughter” it’s Mr Graves’ first day as headmaster of Castlegate. It’s a nightmare for everyone, even the teachers. Is that a headmaster or Hitler addressing the school? The girls are calling it “Dracula”.

Alley Cat is back this week. He’s got a toothache but is scared of the dentist, so he tries some DIY dentistry. The results give the dentist a real laugh.

Jinty & Penny 2 May 1981

• Pam of Pond Hill (artist Bob Harvey, writer Jay Over)
• Diving Belle (artist Phil Gasoine)
• The Missing Link – text story (artist Mario Capaldi)
• The Lost Chord – Gypsy Rose Story (artist Eduardo Feito)
• Just the Job
• Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost (artist Hugh Thornton-Jones)
• Worlds Apart (artist Guy Peeters)
• Tansy of Jubilee Street (artist Peter Wilkes)
• Fancy Free! (artist Phil Townsend)
• Angela’s Angels (artist Leo Davy)
• Snoopa (artist Joe Collins)

This week’s text story should delight readers who ever met a bully teacher. The appropriately named Miss Bull (which lends itself to “Bully-bonce”, “Bossy Bully” or, most often, “Bully”) runs her sports classes like a drill sergeant. So the girls are dismayed when Bully pushes her way into coming on their half-term camp. However, when Bully shows just how competent she is at pitching a tent, it’s a humbling for her and a huge laugh and relief for all the girls when the Head decides Bully’s not fit to supervise the camping.

Pam strikes problems in raising the money to cover the costs of the school magazine that the “Worms” ripped up. She hasn’t patched things up with Goofy, and we are warned nasty Jill Cook is going to make even more trouble.

Betty’s got a really crazy plan for Belle’s diving training this week – she wants Belle to take the place of a stunt diver at the fairground. Now this looks awfully dangerous for a girl who’s not trained in the stunt, and the stuntwoman has clearly taken years to perfect it!

In “Worlds Apart”, the girls learn the meaning of gavage in this bizarre world where everyone is grotesquely fat, and the fatter the better. In hospital, the girls are force fed until they are just as fat. Only greedy Sarah is enjoying it because it’s her kind of world. Could there be a clue here?

This week’s recycling of a Strange Story in the Gypsy Rose tales treats Jinty readers to some Eduardo Feito artwork. When Clare stops in a small village with her singing group she feels like she’s been there before. Even weirder things start happening when they rehearse in the community hall.

Gaye pulls tricks on Sir Roger with a tape recorder to stop him being so lazy. When Sir Roger discovers the ruse he decides to fight fire with fire, although he finds 20^th century technology a bit incomprehensible.

Tansy’s heartthrob pop star is in town, but she’s having trouble getting even a view of him. In the end she goes better than she ever imagined.

Fancy’s mother finally tells her a few facts about her absent father. He’s an escaped convict who claims he was innocent of the crime he went to prison for. He remains at large and his whereabouts are unknown. Ben says he may be able to provide more information.

Helen’s struggling with her nursing and is swotting too hard. The girls give her a book that they hope will help. Later, suspicion falls on Lesley when a patient reports a theft.

Snoopa’s got earache, but wrapping his ear to keep it warm is getting him into all sorts of scrapes.

Jinty & Penny 11 April 1981

• Pam of Pond Hill (artist Bob Harvey, writer Jay Over)
• Diving Belle – (artist Phil Gasoine)
• Emily’s Last Stop – text story (artist Mario Capaldi)
• The Puppet That Came to Life! Gypsy Rose Story (artist Carlos Freixas)
• Just the Job
• Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost (artist Hugh Thornton-Jones)
• Whose Face Will Appear in the Mirror? (Quiz)
• Tansy of Jubilee Street (artist Peter Wilkes)
• Fancy Free! – first episode (artist Phil Townsend)
• Angela’s Angels – first episode (artist Leo Davy)
• Winning Ways 51 (writer Benita Brown)
• Land of No Tears – final episode (artist Guy Peeters, writer Pat Mills)

It’s the last episode of “Land of No Tears”. The Gamma Girls’ win has sparked off more than they intended and it’s symbolised by the spectators knocking the Hive Inspector into the pool. The Gamma Girls have made people realise how fed up they were with the system that oppressed even their emotions. The letters page prints a letter from one reader thanking Jinty for reprinting the story, especially as she had lost her original copy.

“Land of No Tears” was reprinted because of “Pam’s Poll”, and in this issue another story starts repeating because of the poll. Many readers voted for a nursing story, so “Angela’s Angels” returns. Jinty made a strong point in the announcement that this was one of Jinty’s first stories, so newer readers must have been delighted to be reading a story from Jinty’s first days.

Pam has a bad falling out with Goofy because she laughed at his submission for the upcoming school magazine without realising who wrote it. On the day of the launch all the magazines are found ripped to shreds! Pam can only think of one person who had the motive, and is praying it wasn’t him.

Sir Roger’s sad to find that he’s badly affecting the Stony Hall business of guided tour by scaring people off. He tries to boost the business.

It’s Tansy and June vs Peter and Simon in a bike contest. When the contest is tied it’s up to the bike scrambling to break it. Tansy does scrambling in more ways than one – she accidentally causes Mrs Spikle’s eggs to go for a scramble. Despite this her bike scrambling nails a victory for her and June.

Fancy’s encounter with Ben and his wild bird hospital has brought on some improvement in her character: she begins to have second thoughts about bullying. Just as well, because she’s being taken to the headmistress.

Betty uses some pretty strong-arm tactics to get Belle diving again. At least it works.

Another Strange Story from June is recycled for Gypsy Rose. A Spanish orphan named Maria makes a living entertaining people with her puppet Chica. She wishes she could be rich and buy Chica a puppet theatre. Events starting with Chica somehow appearing in a rich man’s garden make this dream come true. But the mystery of how Chica got into the garden remains unsolved.

In this week’s text story, a leisure centre appeal is going badly. It is also up against competition from an appeal to save a loco named Emily, which does better but also fails. Then inspiration strikes: convert Emily into the leisure centre!

Jinty & Penny 21 March 1981

• Pam of Pond Hill (artist Bob Harvey, writer Jay Over)
• The Ghost Dancer (artist Phil Townsend)
• Kathie Come Home! Gypsy Rose story (artist Hugo D’Adderio)
• Snoopa (artist Joe Collins)
• Just the Job
• Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost (artist Hugh Thornton-Jones)
• Tansy of Jubilee Street (artist Peter Wilkes)
• Land of No Tears (artist Guy Peeters, writer Pat Mills)
• No Medals for Marie – final episode (artist Phil Gascoine, writer Alison Christie Fitt)
• Winning Ways 49 (writer Benita Brown)
• Life’s a Ball for Nadine – final episode (artist Mario Capaldi)

Why do Pond Hill and Wormsley Comprehensive hate each other? That’s the question Steve intends to lead off the first issue of the school magazine with. He is set on going to Wormsley Comprehensive to conduct an interview with its pupils and is dragging Pam there with him, despite warnings from Goofy that the Wormsley pupils will just do something horrible to them. If you ask me, the Wormsley pupils don’t even know they hate Pond Hill or ever stop to think about it. The Pond Hill pupils certainly have no idea what the feud’s about.

Two stories end this week: “No Medals for Marie” and “Life’s a Ball for Nadine”. Marie decides it’s time to confront “that jealous battle axe” of a godmother over the blackmail she’s been pulling to stop her winning medals ever since they first met. However, Marie is in for a surprise, and it’s the one that guarantees a happy ending for all concerned. The godmother now goes from stopping Marie winning medals to a race to see who can win the most medals and trophies the fastest. No medals for guessing who’s leading. In “Life’s a Ball for Nadine”, the team resorts to a most unusual netball throw to make sure Nadine gets into the disco contest that her jealous rival’s cronies are trying to stop her entering. Nadine wins hands down of course, and “she’s the disco and netball queen!”.

One of the replacement stories starting next week is “Fancy Free!”, but why is there only one new story when two have ended? It also means two Phil Townsend stories will overlap because Townsend will finish “The Ghost Dancer” while starting “Fancy Free!”. Normally that sort of overlap happens with Phil Gascoine in Jinty.

In “The Ghost Dancer”, Ferne ends her wheelchair deception to save a fellow pupil from a dangerous pillar. But Ferne takes the pillar herself and it turns her deception into reality! Now she’s stuck in a wheelchair for real. Will she ever dance again?

There is even more cause for tears in “Land of No Tears” this week. To save Miranda from being taken away, Cassy is forced into a bargain to throw the swimming marathon in Perfecta’s favour – and so lose the Golden Girl Trophy that is the Gamma Girls’ ticket to a better life.

Gypsy Rose brings another recycled Strange Story. Twin sisters are separated after an accident and one loses her memory. So she can’t understand these strange flashes of a girl looking just like her and calling her name. Of course it’s the twin calling out for a reunion.

A misunderstanding has Tansy think Mr Grady’s being put in a pensioners’ home. She rallies the whole street to save him, but ends up in the doghouse with them all when the misunderstanding comes to light.

Sir Roger puts on a show of spooking to get Stoney Hall into a guidebook. Unfortunately he meets his match in the guidebook’s editors, who are the biggest sceptics he has ever met.

Jinty and Penny 18 April 1981

Stories in this issue:
(Cover artist: Mario Capaldi)

• Pam of Pond Hill (artist Bob Harvey, writer Jay Over)
• Diving Belle (artist Phil Gascoine)
• Best Foot Forward – text story (artist Mario Capaldi)
• Whispers In The Wind: Gypsy Rose story (artist Antonio Borrell)
• Just The Job: Television Make-up Artists (feature)
• Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost (Hugh Thornton-Jones)
• What Do You Make of It? (personality quiz)
• Tansy of Jubilee Street (Ken Houghton)
• Fancy Free (artist Phil Townsend)
• Angela’s Angels (artist Leo Davy)

This week’s issue has a free gift: two packets of ‘Sarah Kay’ stickers. It means that my copy of Jinty & Penny has a fairly big tear in the front cover where it was attached, but luckily the scan doesn’t show it all that badly.

Pam is upset: her friend Steve has been working together with her to make a magazine by and for their year at school, but it has been vandalised by mysterious person or persons unknown. Pam is worried that it might have been Goofy: it turns out not to have been, but her nemesis Jill Cook has been spreading rumours and Goof is in turn upset with Pam.

Belle McBane is “Diving Belle” – a story that to me feels a little old-fashioned and shoehorned in. Belle is being instructed in diving by a mysterious gypsy woman, who urges her not to lose time in getting better and better at diving. But why?

Text story “Best Foot Forward” is an ‘ugly duckling’ type ballet story – the main character has a jealous rival who tries to nobble her so that she has no chance of success in the audition for a dance school. Of course, talent wins out in the end.

“Whispers in the Wind” is a Gypsy Rose story that looks to have been reprinted from an earlier title – I don’t know the artist. Wendy Price stays in a haunted hotel room and helps to clear the reputation of a ghostly maid, who has proved that she is not a thief after all.

The feature on make-up artists is quite interesting and informative – it is part of a series on jobs that readers might be interested in doing when they are grown-up.

Personality quizzes were a staple of my childhood and early secondary school. This one has the quite nice twist that as you answer questions about what you would do in certain circumstances, you fill in a section of the picture with the specified colour. If you answer more pink answers then you will end up with a flower coloured in, or similarly a brown wren or a blue fish.

“Fancy Free!” is a Philip Townsend strip, about a troubled and angry girl who has few friends apart from wild birds, and a fellow bird enthusiast.

The last few pages include a reprint of an early episode of “Angela’s Angels“, one of the stories published seven years previously in the first issues of Jinty when it was a new title. With a reprinted serial, a reprinted Gypsy Rose story, a two-page letters section, and a text story this issue of Jinty feels to me slightly thin – perhaps a sign of the approaching merger with Tammy in November of the same year. There are only 20 pages of comics included, though to be fair the features are pretty good and the text story is quite readable.