Jinty 9 February 1980

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

Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost (artist Hugh Thornton-Jones)

Spirit of the Lake (artist Phil Townsend, writer Benita Brown?)

The Perfect Princess (artist Trini Tinturé)

The Chamois Trail (artist Bill Mainwaring) – Gypsy Rose story

Alley Cat – Rob Lee

Toni on Trial (artist Terry Aspin)

Sports Pages – featuring Martina Navratilova

Winning Ways 5 (writer Benita Brown)

White Water (artist Jim Baikie)

When Statues Walk… (artist Phil Gascoine)

Spring Greenery – feature 

This week’s Gypsy Rose story (recycled from Strange Stories), brings readers some Bill Mainwaring artwork. The tale takes us to the Swiss Alps, where a trail of chamois carved on the mountains takes a mysterious hand in saving lives, and we’re left wondering if the spirit of the man who carved them take a hand also.

In “When Statues Walk…”, Laura discovers how to get into the cavern where these walking Viking statues are holding the captive princess, and plans for rescuing her are coming together.  

In “The Perfect Princess”, Princess Victoria’s latest trick almost gets rid of Sally, but she survives to fight another day. Victoria gets locked up in a tower for her conduct, and things backfire on her when she tries a cannon escape (obviously, her dumb father didn’t thoroughly check out the tower for all possible means of escape). Meanwhile, Sally’s imposture is in danger of discovery when her foster parents send a message that they are coming to visit. She has thought of something, and so far, it is working. But the next episode will tell.

The dragon hijinks continue in “Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost”, with Sir Roger playing St George to slay a dragon, which is actually people dressed up. Though he got things wrong, it has the benefit of taming another dragon – a dragon teacher – when he accidentally takes off her skirt with his lance, and everyone is laughing at the sight of her bloomers! 

Pam of Pond Hill contributes to the increased sports presence in Jinty with her current story, where Marty Michaels’ interfering sister Trina becomes her self-appointed sports coach. Talk about bossy! Trina ought to be in the Army. Worse, Mum and Dad are actually encouraging Miss Bossyboots and her bright ideas for training Marty. Then comes another complication: Marty disobeys teacher’s orders and takes a secret spring on the new school trampoline, but soon pays the price for her infraction when she hits her back on the trampoline. Ouch! That bang looks serious.

In the other sports stories:

Toni now realises she has an enemy sabotaging her at the sports club, but with so many people against her because of her mother’s disgrace, the suspects are many. She reaches breaking point and runs away – but it looks like she’s run straight into danger. 

Sneaky Cynthia’s accident (unwittingly caused by “The Spirit of the Lake”) is definitely making things difficult for Karen. Cynthia is unconscious, and Karen’s dreading what she will say about the accident when she wakes up. But the story has given us another beautiful cover.

Bridie finally gets a canoe, which was going second-hand, but only on deposit. She has to raise the rest of the money, but how? 

Jinty 2 February 1980

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

Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost (artist Hugh Thornton-Jones)

Spirit of the Lake (artist Phil Townsend, writer Benita Brown?)

The Perfect Princess (artist Trini Tinturé)

House of Ghosts (artist Robert MacGillivray) – Gypsy Rose story

Toni on Trial (artist Terry Aspin)

Sports Pages – featuring Karen Witt

Winning Ways 4 (writer Benita Brown)

White Water (artist Jim Baikie)

When Statues Walk… (artist Phil Gascoine)

Alley Cat (artist Rob Lee)

In this issue, Alley Cat and Gypsy Rose return for 1980. This week’s Gypsy Rose story (recycled from Strange Stories) brings readers some Robert MacGillivray artwork, which has not been seen in Jinty since “Desert Island Daisy”.

It looks like Laura’s task is to liberate a captive Viking princess in “When Statues Walk…” from these walking Viking clay statues. Another one of them gets broken, and Laura is worried a teacher will discover the secret if she puts the pieces together. 

In “The Perfect Princess”, bratty Princess Victoria gets rid of another rival, Isabella. Sally, the remaining rival, is pleased about that, as Isabella was the favourite. But she doesn’t realise Victoria plans to get rid of her next by making it look like she pulled that trick on Isabella.

Dragon hijinks abound in “Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost”. First it’s a dragon teacher, and now Roger’s playing St George with some visitors dressed as a Chinese dragon.

The latest Pam of Pond Hill story adds to the increasing presence of sport in Jinty. Marty Michaels has a big problem: her sister Trina, who goes overboard with crazes, and thinks she either knows it all or can gain it from books. Trina’s latest craze is to become an athlete. Although she eventually realises it’s not for her, it’s the immediate springboard to her next craze: interfering with Marty’s athletics by becoming her self-appointed trainer. Marty thinks this sounds ominous, and she can only be right. We doubt books alone would make anyone a good sports trainer.

In the other sports stories:

Sneaky Cynthia is doing a stakeout to find out what this accelerated learning is that’s turning Karen into a brilliant ice-skater. Of course she can’t see “The Spirit of the Lake”, who’s giving Karen coaching – and as a result, she gets a shock that causes her to have an accident. This could make things awkward for Karen. 

More sabotage for “Toni on Trial” from jealous Julie. This week, she loosens the spikes in Toni’s shoes, and when Toni falls on top of her as a result, she accuses Toni of doing so on purpose. And with so many people thinking badly of Toni because of her mother’s disgrace, it’s all too easy for the accusation to gain traction.

And finally, Bridie has to resort to some “equal rights for women” arguing to get into a canoe club for Boy Scouts. They make their own canoes, which could give her the canoe she needs, but then she discovers there’s a snag – their canoes are for troop use only.

Jinty 19 January 1980

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

Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost (artist Hugh Thornton-Jones)

Spirit of the Lake (artist Phil Townsend, writer Benita Brown?)

The Perfect Princess (artist Trine Tinturé)

In the Soup! – Cookery feature

Toni on Trial (artist Terry Aspin)

The Battling Burtons – sports feature

Winning Ways 2 (writer Benita Brown) 

White Water (artist Jim Baikie)

Jinty Calendar of Verse – part 2 of a pull-out feature

When Statues Walk… (artist Phil Gascoine, idea Terence Magee, writer Gerry Finley-Day?)

This week’s episode of “When Statues Walk” takes the cover spot, and it is one of Jinty’s best covers. One look, and you can’t take your eyes off it. In the episode, all this haunting by creepy Viking statues is giving Laura nightmares, and the nightmare includes a wolf with a demon tail. But the excavations reveal the body of the wolf in question. Was there more to it than just a dream?

Brother Herbert, the ghost monk from way back in part one of “Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost” who gave Sir Roger the power to materialise for more effective haunting, is not pleased to find Sir Roger over-familiarising himself with the living instead. He sends in a ghost bulldog to deal with the matter, but one plate of food from Gaye and he’s their best friend.

In “Pam of Pond Hill”, Terry threatens disco trouble, but Pam strikes at the very heart of the problem – Terry’s brother Stan. His prejudices against teachers, due to bad school experiences, have prompted Terry to become the school troublemaker. Giving Stan a piece of her mind completely turns the corner, and she really surprises Stan in how his prejudices against teachers get challenged. In fact, they get so much challenged that he himself prevents the dreaded disco disaster from happening.

In “Spirit of the Lake” Karen takes to midnight skating to keep things up with her mystery coach. “The Perfect Princess” (not) is now trying to get rid of Sally by tying her up and taking her place at a ball to make trouble for her. In “Toni on Trial”, Toni thinks she’s got the hurdling layout sussed for the trials, but she doesn’t know jealous Julie set up the hurdles at the wrong distance, to make her screw up at the trials. In “White Water”, Bridie disobeys orders not to do canoeing practice unsupervised and gets expelled from the club. Undeterred, she’s going to get her own canoe. 

Jinty 12 January 1980

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

Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost (artist Hugh Thornton-Jones)

Your Free “Decorette” Transfer – gift 

Spirit of the Lake (artist Phil Townsend, writer Benita Brown?)

The Perfect Princess (artist Trine Tinturé)

Toni on Trial (artist Terry Aspin)

Tracy Austin – feature

Winning Ways (writer Benita Brown) – first appearance

White Water (artist Jim Baikie)

Jinty Calendar of Verse – part 1 of a pull-out feature

When Statues Walk… (artist Phil Gascoine, idea Terence Magee, writer Gerry Finley-Day?)

Grate Idea! – cookery feature

It’s New Year, and Jinty celebrates with part one of a pullout calendar, in verse, which also takes the cover spot this week. Starting “Winning Ways”, a feature on sports tips, was also fitting to start at New Year, and part one is this issue. “Winning Ways” was written by Benita Brown, who is thought to have written “Spirit of the Lake”, Jinty’s only ice-skating story. No new stories can begin for New Year in this issue, as the current ones still have a way to go, and “The Perfect Princess” is only on its second episode. 

Jinty sure has been getting bigger on sports over the December–January period. She now has sports pages, “Winning Ways”, and three sports serials: “Spirit of the Lake” (ice-skating), “Toni on Trial” (athletics), and “White Water” (canoeing). 

There are disco problems in “Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost”, in the form of a ghost jester. When Sir Roger unwittingly upstages him at the disco, he’s riled and is going to lodge an official complaint. 

Sally Smith steals a girl’s identity to get into the contest for “The Perfect Princess” to replace Victoria, the princess who’s been deemed unfit to inherit the throne because she’s a real terror. Knowing girl’s comics, Sally can only get away with that deception for so long, and she’s had one narrow escape already. Meantime, Sally has an even bigger problem – Victoria is trying to get rid of her and the other candidates, and she’s got rid of one already. But Victoria may find Sally is not so easy to get rid of.

Another terror, Terry, threatens trouble in Pam of Pond Hill. Pam is helping her form teacher, Miss Peeble, to find her feet. She’s lacking in confidence and assertion, has a lot of unruly kids in her class and other pupils walk over her, and now she’s in charge of the school disco. But Terry is bringing in even more larrikins with him to the disco and says it’ll be a riot. Disco dread for Pam, and will it be disco disaster for Miss Peeble?

And speaking of terrors, terror really ups the scale in this week’s episode of “When Statues Walk…”. A statue walks all right – right into Laura’s flat for the pendant in her possession! Thanks to Laura’s dog, it doesn’t succeed. And now there’s a very tearful call for help coming from the pendant. 

Jinty and Penny 26 April 1980

Stories in this issue:

• Pam of Pond Hill (writer Jay Over, artist Bob Harvey)
• Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost (artist Hugh Thornton-Jones)
• Seulah the Seal (artist Veronica Weir)
• Alley Cat (artist Rob Lee)
• Tearaway Trisha (artist Andrew Wilson)
• Rinty N Jinty
• Lost in Time! – board game to pull out and play
• The Venetian Looking Glass (artist Phil Gascoine)
• Tansy of Jubilee Street (artist Ken Houghton)
• Blind Faith – first episode (artist Phil Townsend)
• Stories of the Stars: Evonne Goolagong
• White Water (artist Jim Baikie) – last episode

‘Start collecting our super colour 3 part game’, the cover announces. I remember thinking that the game (which involves moving between various eras such as Ancient Egypt and a time of dinosaurs) looked quite fun, but I would never have pulled the centre pages out to put a game together! I am not totally sure if the cover is done by the same artist who created the interior pages with the game – which look to me to have been done by Ken Houghton.

Everyone is teasing Pam about her friendship with Goofy Boyle, making like they are boyfriend and girlfriend. Pam denies everything but of course that is also quite hurtful to Goofy, especially when Pam intervenes to save him from being beaten up by bullies.

Seulah and his human friend Bonnie are still looking out for each other, and miss finding each other by a very close call. Instead Seulah finds a narrowboat with a feast fit for a king – or a hungry seal – in the form of a huge salmon all laid out! But when the owner returns, he is trapped…

Tearaway Trisha has Trisha and Fran reconciling their misunderstandings – Trisha goes up onto the hospital roof to talk Fran down from the edge, but in the end Fran is the one who rescues Trisha when she wobbles and nearly falls off the side. All seems like it is going well for Trisha at the end of the episode, but she is too ready to be tempted by her old, rambunctious friends.

Lucy Craven is under the spell of the Venetian Looking Glass: it has similarities to “Slave of the Mirror”, not least because they both include mirrors in the story title, but the fact that Lucy is enslaved by a set of shoes that her evil ancestor forces her to wear is a little spookier in some ways. Cousin Rosalind is in hospital because she fell from her horse, but that only happened because Lucy spooked her horse.  She vows never to hurt her cousin again but the ghost of her evil ancestor has other plans.

It’s the start of “Blind Faith”: one of the least plausible stories in girls comics, as it features a blind showjumping horse who is coached into winning events by his dedicated owner. In this first episode Cromwell is taken over the water jump by Clare, the daughter of his owner: she wants to prove she can help the horse overcome his nerves. Sadly there is an accident and Cromwell hits his head – which turns him blind. “You little fool!” says the unsympathetic father. “A few minutes ago we had a horse with a slight problem. Now we don’t have a horse” – as he leads Cromwell off to the knackers.

I don’t know much about tennis player Evonne Goolagong but her name has always stuck in my head, not though I could tell you much of what is contained in this short piece about her without re-reading it. (She won Wimbledon in 1971, I see.)

Canoeing story “White Water” comes to an end in this issue – Bridie Mason and her frenemy Jocelyn get themselves into trouble because of a challenge they talked themselves into. They are in serious danger in the water and only great paddling gets them back to safety. The experience leads to them making things up with each other and coming to terms with their own foolish actions.

Jinty 22 December 1979

• Pam of Pond Hill (writer Jay Over, artist Bob Harvey)
• Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost – first episode (artist Hugh Thornton-Jones)
• Christmas Sweets and Nuts – feature
• Spirit of the Lake – first episode (artist Phil Townsend, writer Benita Brown?)
• Alley Cat
• Tale of the Panto Cat
• Toni on Trial (artist Terry Aspin)
• Sports Pages – Tessa Sanderson
• White Water (artist Jim Baikie)
• When Statues Walk… – first episode (artist Phil Gascoine)
• Rinty ‘n’ Jinty
• Black Sheep of the Bartons – final episode (artist Guy Peeters, writer Alison Christie)

My copy of this issue is so badly doodled from a previous owner that I had to go to Catawiki for a scan of the cover to put up. Thank you, Catawiki!

This issue starts Jinty’s Christmas fun, yet the three new stories that start in this issue all have ghost themes. The most significant of them is perhaps “Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost”. Sir Roger and his fellow ghosts are outraged at how tourism and commercialism at Stoney Hall are destroying their respectability as ghosts. The other two resident ghosts walk out to haunt a nice quiet graveyard, but the Shop-Steward of Amalgamated Association of Resident Ghosts and Haunters (A.A.R.G.H!) gives Sir Roger the power to materialise sometimes so he can really put a scare into those pesky tourists. Sir Roger is all eager to start with Gaye, the caretaker’s daughter who is the worst of them all – but the blurb for next week hints that it’s not going to be as easy as that.

“When Statues Walk…” is the ghost story that really sets out to be scary. North Street has a reputation for being haunted, and weird things start happening when workings start there. Then the screaming really starts when Laura takes home some broken pottery from the site and reassembles the pieces. But it’s not her that’s screaming – it’s the Viking head that the pieces have made!

And the third ghost story is “Spirit of the Lake”, a supernatural companion story where the ghost offers coaching in skating as well as comfort to Karen Carstairs, who is not made to feel welcome in the home of her relatives.

It’s the last episode of “Black Sheep of the Bartons”. Bev was resorting to the desperate measure of quitting judo to gain her father’s trust. But now fate has enabled her to prove herself to him without giving up her beloved judo, and she’s a heroine too! And the ghost theme continues with a complete Christmas ghost story that will fill Bev’s old slot, and then a new story starts for New Year.

In part two of “Pam of Pond Hill”, Miss Peeble is having trouble finding her feet as a teacher. Fred and Terry take advantage to give her a bad time while Pam tries to help her, but it’s got her branded as teacher’s pet.

In “Tale of the Panto Cat”, Verna gets so spiteful at wrecking the Cinderella panto that she causes sabotage and injuries. And it looks like she’s achieved her aim – all the stars of the show are now out of action because of her. They really need a fairy godmother now if the show is to go on.

Everyone is picking on Toni at the athletics club because of her mother being branded a thief. Two girls are even playing spiteful tricks on her, and it looks like they’re set to continue for the duration of the story. And Bridie’s mum won’t even let her pursue canoeing, because she thinks all water sports are dangerous after the accident that killed her husband.

Jinty 5 April 1980

• Spirit of the Lake (artist Phil Townsend, writer Benita Brown?)
• Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost (artist Hugh Thornton-Jones)
• Bridge of Heart’s Desire – Gypsy Rose story (artist Trini Tinturé?)
• Wildflower Wonderland (feature) – last part
• The Venetian Looking Glass – (artist Phil Gascoine)
• Alley Cat
• Toni on Trial (artist Terry Aspin)
• Sports Pages – Lorna Vincent; Winning Ways 11 (writer Benita Brown)
• Rinty ‘n’ Jinty
• White Water – (artist Jim Baikie)
• Easter Bonnet Crossword
• Tearaway Trisha – (artist Andrew Wilson)

This is the issue before Penny merged with Jinty. The announcement (above) says that next week we say hello to Seulah the Seal, Tansy of Jubilee Street and Snoopa. So what ends in this issue that gives way to them?

Nothing much, really. Pam takes a break in this issue. But then her previous story finished last issue and they clearly wanted her to start with a whole new story for the merger – a wise decision. It is the last part of Wildflower Wonderland. And it sounds like it is the end of “Toni on Trial” soon, because Toni has at last found someone who could help clear her mother, and the blurb for next week tells us there will be another clue. Just as well, because the town is really rubbing Toni’s nose into her mother’s disgrace this time, with a cruel headline: “Brave Girl Saves Cup Her Mother Stole!” Poor Toni is in tears!

But all the other stories are still going strong and clearly have a way to go. “White Water” has been going as long as Toni, but there is no hint of it ending yet. Maybe there will be in the next episode or two. Trisha finally has an idea to raise the money for Fran’s operation, but Fran is not impressed with all the publicity and turning on Trisha big time. And Lucy is still haunted by the evil mirror and shoes that make her do things and go places she does not want.

The Gypsy Rose story, “Bridge of Heart’s Desire”, fills in the Pam slot this week. It is reprinted from June and will later be reprinted in Tammy. The story prompted a letter from one reader who said she turned this story into a play when her drama class was assigned a task of putting on their own play and nobody had any idea what to do. She went through her old Jintys and decided this story was just right for it. The teacher thought the end result was “very good”.

Jinty 29 March 1980

• Pam of Pond Hill (writer Jay Over, artist Bob Harvey)
• Wildflower Wonderland (feature)
• Spirit of the Lake (artist Phil Townsend, writer Benita Brown?)
• Rinty ‘n’ Jinty
• Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost (artist Hugh Thornton-Jones)
• The Venetian Looking Glass – (artist Phil Gascoine)
• Alley Cat
• Toni on Trial (artist Terry Aspin)
• Sports Pages – Suzanne Dando; Winning Ways 10 (writer Benita Brown)
• White Water – (artist Jim Baikie)
• Tearaway Trisha – (artist Andrew Wilson)
• Sandwich Crunch – feature

In Pam of Pond Hill, the school dinner dilemma has gotten worse, not better, with the departure of Mrs Harvey. Mrs Bounty refuses to return, and the temps are producing dinners that are completely inedible.

Talk about life (or death?) imitating art – Karen discovers that when she was alive, her phantom coach starred in a movie where she played a ghost who haunted a lake and taught a child to skate. Now she’s doing it for real as the “Spirit of the Lake”.

The ghost that haunts the “Venetian Looking Glass” forces Lucy to rip up her cousin Rosalind’s embroidery. And she doesn’t even remember what happened afterward.

Resident ghost Sir Roger does not think much of Gaye’s disco gear (and it does look kind of ridiculous). He thinks the Elizabethan dress in a portrait is more becoming for her. Gaye is surprised to find that Sir Roger is right – the dress does suit her once she tries it on. What’s more, it comes in dead useful when a thief tries to steal the portrait!

The grandparents won’t allow Toni to go to the celebration party for winning the trophy, because it was at such a party that the cup was found in her mother’s bag and she was branded a thief. Toni goes anyway, but it looks like the grandparents had the right idea after all – Julie is now accusing Toni of stealing the same trophy!

Bridie finds out too late that Jocelyn had tricked her; she feigned trouble to have Bridie come out and rescue her, but things looked the other way around to the campers. And things get even worse when Bridie ends up as Jocelyn’s servant and at her beck and call all the time.

Trisha goes to a cycling show, and is picking up tips from the performers themselves. But she gets more than she bargained for when the female performer nips off just before a performance to get some food (naughty, naughty!) and the other performers ask her to fill in.

Jinty 22 March 1980

• Pam of Pond Hill (writer Jay Over, artist Bob Harvey)
• Pressing Flowers – feature
• Spirit of the Lake (artist Phil Townsend, writer Benita Brown?)
• Meet the Glibbs – quiz
• Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost (artist Hugh Thornton-Jones)
• The Venetian Looking Glass (artist Phil Gascoine)
• Toni on Trial (artist Terry Aspin)
• Sports pages – Gillian Gilks; Winning Ways 9; writer Benita Brown
• White Water – (artist Jim Baikie)
• Alley Cat
• Tearaway Trisha – (artist Andrew Wilson)
• A Page for the Contrary Mary! (feature)

“Spirit of the Lake” is a story with a theme and artwork that naturally lends itself to beautiful covers, and this one is no exception. It is no wonder that this story featured on so many Jinty covers, including the covers that feature panels from the first and last episodes. The haunting gets even more mysterious when Cynthia spitefully smashes the record with the theme the ghost uses on it – but then Karen hears it out of nowhere! Could it be that she still has a ghostly coach although the lake they were using has now melted?

The other ghost in the issue, Sir Roger, is put out that there is a fancy dress banquet at Stoney Hall and he is not included. Of course there’s hijinks when he gatecrashes ghost-style.

The issue has a quiz that tests your assertiveness skills and dealing with horrible people who like to cause misery. In the quiz you have to deal with the Glibbs, who are a whole family of such people.

In the last issue, Pam was worried that they would be in trouble with Mr Gold the headmaster after their demonstration against Mrs Harvey’s health menu went too far and turned into brawling – and it’s hit the headlines too! But Pam gets a real surprise when it’s Mr Gold who ends up in trouble – with the county council for not following regulations when he appointed Mrs Harvey as dinner lady or agreed to her menu. But Pam and Tracy could be in trouble anyway, because they got trapped in Mr Gold’s office while the row was going on and are hiding in the cupboard. They need to find a way to escape before they’re caught!

Lucy finds out more about her namesake who haunts “The Venetian Looking Glass” and why. But the haunting gets worse when Lucy puts on the ghost’s shoes and becomes completely possessed with the ghost’s quest for vengeance!

Toni wins the very same cup that her mother was accused of stealing. But it’s a bittersweet victory because of the past, and Toni’s enemies just won’t stop going on at her about it. On the other hand, Toni hears something that could be another clue to the mystery.

Tearaway Trisha is humiliated when a policeman says she needs cycling lessons and her mother agrees. But there’s a more important worry when she hears that a huge sum of money is needed for plastic surgery for the injured Fran and is resolved to raise it – but how? Perhaps there is a clue in the poster of a cycling act in the last panel…

In “White Water”, things get worse for Bridie on the camping trip when she is branded a sneak and sent to Coventry. The coach advises her to sort things out with her enemy Jocelyn, and there could be a chance when Bridie sees her heading into danger.

Jinty 16 February 1980

Stories in this issue:

• Pam of Pond Hill (artist Bob Harvey, writer Jay Over)
• Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost (artist Hugh Thornton-Jones)
• Spirit of the Lake (artist Phil Townsend, writer ?Benita Brown)
• Alley Cat
• The Perfect Princess (artist Trini Tinturé)
• The Poisoned Rose – Gypsy Rose story (artist Trini Tinturé)
• Toni on Trial (artist Terry Aspin)
• Robin Cousins (text feature)
• Winning Ways 6: The Dolphin Butterfly Stroke (writer Benita Brown)
• White Water (artist Jim Baikie)
• When Statues Walk… (artist Phil Gascoine)

What a jolly, lively cover! The next week’s issue will have a much more dramatic set of images, but it’s nice to have some variety.

This issue leads off with the mostly-humorous stories of “Pam of Pond Hill” and her friends. Marty is suffering through having her brainy sister Trina as her training coach – suffering being the right word because she is also hiding a sports injury, or trying to. Pam is worried because she can see something is wrong although Marty isn’t letting on – but as the episode ends up with Marty lying on the shower room floor in a faint, the cat is let out of the bag! This is a well-handled example of the ‘stony face’ sort of plot idea – the suffering heroine who tries to hide it, normally very annoyingly. In this story we feel genuinely worried for Marty, alongside Pam and her friends.

In “Spirit of the Lake”, horrid Cynthia is laying it on thick by pretending to have lost her memory of the accident in the previous episode, whereas really she wants to trick Karen into revealing her secret skating teacher. The tables are turned when Karen is stopped from following the speed-skating Cynthia down the end of the lake – because the ghostly skater has turned up to warn of thin ice and deadly danger! Will Karen be able to skate fast enough to save Cynthia next week – and will Cynthia be at all grateful, I wonder?

“The Perfect Princess” shows the aftermath of the exploded cannon in the tower that Victoria was trapped in – her parents think she is dead and even her rival Sally is faintly sorry: “Victoria was anything but sweet and lovely! Still, I wouldn’t have wanted her blown up.” However, Victoria is alive and well and still scheming – and has been handed an absolute godsend tool to use against her challenger, in the form of precious information about Sally’s background that she had been trying to keep hidden.

There is a second Trini story in this issue – a Gypsy Rose story of a spiteful cousin who asks a wicked magician for a charm to make sure that her object of desire falls in love with her and not her rival. The charm turns the sweet cousin into a bad-tempered shrew – but true love wins through before too long.

“Toni on Trial” has Toni running away from her club’s outing on a bleak rainy night; but this turns into a blessing in disguise when she finds a frightened kid whose friend has had an accident. Toni applies some basic first aid and common sense, and runs to get help; but meanwhile, her friend Anne has gone to Toni’s grandparents house and broken the news that she has run away, which the grandfather reacts very badly to – by burning Toni’s new running shoes! “It’s like her mother all over again! She brought shame on the family. Now her daughter’s done the same! … As long as she lives in this house, she’ll never take place in another race!”

The Sports Jinty pages in the middle of the comic feature ice skater Robin Cousins – very suitable for a weekly paper with an ice skating story in it – and a didactic strip showing you how to do a butterfly stroke in swimming, by kicking like a dolphin. It’s quite a good teaching method, I suspect, for small and specific ways to improve your performance in your chosen sport. Here is an example page, as we have not shown one before on this blog.

click thru

Bridie Mason is finally paddling her own canoe rather than a borrowed club boat. Here again there are a number of teaching tips – in this case on understanding the ‘draw stroke’. It’s far from all about teaching though – the drama is not far away as snobby rival Jocelyn is happy to needle Bridie into spending money she can’t really afford, not when she still has to pay off her new canoe. She finds the money by agreeing with her mother that they can sell her electric sewing machine, but it all backfires when her canoe teacher lets the cat out of the bag that Bridie has already earmarked the money for her new “White Water”!

“When Statues Walk” has Laura thinking she is rescuing an innocent princess from the fearsome clay warriors; there are some lovely, atmospheric pages as she makes her way past the watchers to the buried longship with the prisoner. The prisoner is untied – and the deception is unravelled too, as it becomes clear that she is not Princess Leh, but Hel, demon goddess of the underworld!