Tammy & Misty 13 June 1981

• Sandy – A Girl Like You (artist Juliana Buch)
• Olympia Jones (artist Eduardo Feito, writer Anne Digby)
• Bella (artist John Armstrong)
• Wee Sue (artist Hugh Thornton-Jones)
• Tune-In (feature)
• The Breaking of Faith (artist Giorgio Giorgetti)
• Water under the Bridge – Strange Story from the Mists (artist John Richardson)
• Stella Stirrer (artist Tony Coleman)
• Edie and Miss T – cartoon (artist Joe Collins)
• Linda’s Fox (artist and writer Ron Tiner)

For 1981 in Tammy round robin we profile 13 June 1981.

The Misty logo still appears on the cover, albeit reduced in size, and Strange Stories from the Mist are still going. In this week’s tale Misty herself hosts the tale and even appears in the tale. Fiona encounters a bridge that is haunted by the spectre of an evil tyrant. In life he enjoyed murdering peasants and throwing their bodies in the river. In death he lures live people to their deaths in the river, but when he tries it on Fiona he is outwitted when she gets rescued. The villagers downplay her experience, but there are definite signs they more about it than they let on.

A full-page splash panel of a serial now leads off the covers. Usually it is Bella, but right now it is the second Sandy Rawlings story, “Sandy – a Girl Like You”. Sandy is always having boyfriend and boyfriend-related problems. This week it is lovesick fools who develop crushes and the problems these can cause. Sandy has a lovesick boy, Timmy Harris, hanging around her like a shadow, and it’s causing a nuisance and embarrassment for Sandy. He is too young for her and classmates are sniggering, but how to get him off her back? He’s like a limpet on it. Meanwhile, classmate Jane develops a crush on the new maths teacher, which is also causing problems.

Although Bella is not on the cover, she is running in the issue. In fact, her story started with her running away from Jed and Gert’s abuse. In so doing she has ended up joining a circus. Bella soon decides circus life isn’t for her, but can’t leave them because rogue Uncle Nick is trying to ruin them with nasty tricks so he can add them to his fairground. This week he poisons the performing poodles.

This week’s episode of Olympia Jones takes a pivotal turn for her. During an emergency she accidentally discovers her horse Prince is a brilliant show jumper. All of a sudden, her dreams of an equestrian Olympic gold, which seemed to die with her parents, are reviving. The training begins, and Prince is doing so well that trainer Miss Carson (“Carsie”) decides his debut will be the County Open. Ye-ikes! Olympia has never entered a swish horse event like that and the competition will be far stiffer and grander than the gymkhanas she entered before. Will she and Prince be up for it?

In Wee Sue, the headmistress wants the pupils to have more nature studies, so Miss Bigger takes the class out for a lesson on apiarism – “the study of bees” she tells smartass Sue, not “the art of monkey impersonation”. Boy, the old tartar really is letting Sue get away with such cheek this week. Unfortunately for Miss Bigger, her lesson ends up with her diving into the duckpond to escape the swarm she found in the hive. As a result, she gets a nasty cold and can’t stand any mention of bees. So don’t tell her Sue got in the local newspaper for finding rare bee orchid.

“Linda’s Fox” is the third example we have found on this site where the artist wrote the story they illustrated. Linda Barnes takes solace in a litter of foxes next door, especially one cub she names Ross, after her policeman father is wrongly imprisoned at the hands of “Splinter” Mallory. In this episode both Ross and Linda get hard knocks – literally – and haven’t got their protectors to help them. Ross is venturing into the outside world and discovering some of the dangers, and at the same time loses his mother. Meanwhile, Splinter’s bully son and his gang attack Linda. Linda’s policeman father is not around to deal with it, and they don’t deal with it themselves by reporting it because Linda is scared it will make things worse.

Faith Adams values her new friend Claire Ellerman as she doesn’t make friends easily. However, her classmates keep telling her Claire is no good: she comes from the local home for problem children. Claire’s explanation for this seems reasonable enough and Faith accepts it – but is it true? Is she really the daughter of rich parents living abroad who’s only staying at the home because the matron is her cousin? And now a classmate has planted another seed of doubt about Claire in Faith’s mind: did she steal the fancy paintbox she brought to art class?

Stella “Stirrer” Smith has taken a kitchen job at a posh school but is the constant target of bullying at the hands of snooty girls. She is finding the kitchen the perfect way to hit back at them. So far her tricks have gone smoothly and she’s gotten away with them. But this week she runs into trouble with her first cliffhanger. She is trying to get revenge at the school hockey match but gets cornered under the table. Will she be caught or find a way to stay hidden?