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Favourite Stories from Girls Comics

318 replies

bookmum08 · 08/03/2020 18:45

Inspired by the favourite children's books thread I was interested in people's fave stories from the old weekly girls comics - Bunty, Mandy, Tammy etc.
My favourite was definitely Angel in Mandy Comic. The story of a rich Victorian girl who discovers she only has a year to live so she fakes her death, runs away from home so she can devote her time to caring for homeless waifs and strays in the poor part of London.

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bookmum08 · 13/03/2020 22:54

I wonder what became of the girl who was Lisa? Maybe she is on mumsnet.
Lisa are you out there....?

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Woofsaidtheladybird · 13/03/2020 22:59

Wasn't there a 'Jinty'?

I had a an actual LETTER printed in Tammy & Princess and got a £3 postal voucher!

Remember moving from that to Jackie... and then Just Seventeen .... aaaah Smile

Witchofzog · 13/03/2020 23:28

@bookmum08 Hi was (in my opinion) the better version of Jackie. It was kind of tween I think with some stories but articles too. I really liked it. I then moved onto Mizz and then More.

I remember Lisa had really really long hair. She would be in her late thirties at my forties now Shock

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Art & design
Witchofzog · 13/03/2020 23:31

Did anyone have penpals from these magazines? Bunty had a penpal section and I got an advert published. I ended up with loads of replies and kept some of them for years

JaneJeffer · 14/03/2020 00:09

I remember one from Judy called Chained to her Racquet about a tennis player!

Does anyone remember Diana annual? I loved the illustrations.

I used to read my DB's Warlord and Wizard comics as well.

TheMemoryLingers · 14/03/2020 00:15

I've remembered a comic library called 'Sylvia Must Skate' about a skater who'd been in an accident where her parents died and she had to live with her evil aunt and uncle, and be a skating partner to their son who was a really bad skater. She had a knee injury so skating was really painful. They threatened to get rid of her dog if she didn't co-operate. In the end she escaped by tracing 'help' on the rink so it was spotted by her old skating partner.

QueenOfTheAndals · 14/03/2020 07:43

@JaneJeffer Yes I remember Diana! I didn't think anyone else did. I found a copy of the annual I had on eBay so might buy it for old time's sake. It featured a slightly odd interview with Joanna Lumley who claimed the secret to her figure was having her tonsils out when she was in her twenties!

Favourite Stories from Girls Comics
GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 14/03/2020 08:13

I remember School Friend, TrickyD.
Lettice Leefe, the lovable duffer!

Can you imagine that now?!

Some years ago in a 2nd hand bookshop I found the same School Friend ‘Pets‘ Annual I’d been given as a present. I loved that book and thoroughly enjoyed re-reading it.

Clawdy · 14/03/2020 08:17

I though Dilly Dreem was the Lovable Duffer, and Lettice Leefe was The Greenest Girl In The School. But it was a long time ago!

JaneJeffer · 14/03/2020 08:58

Queen I had that one and a couple of others but I lent them to a friend along with some other annuals when I was at school and never got them back Sad I can still remember a fashion spread with a fiowy turquoise dress over trousers which I coveted!

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 14/03/2020 09:01

Oh, yes, you’re right, Clawdy - I’d forgotten Dilly Dreem!

kalinkafoxtrot45 · 14/03/2020 09:22

I remember Hard-Hearted Harriet! Loved those melodramatic Victorian stories. My favourite was Misty comic though. With the Cult of the Cat, and Hush Hush Sweet Rachel. There was a really creepy story called Last Dance At At The Disco, where the disco is quiet and empty, and the two girls are told they are going into the afterlife, but it’s all a mistake and they are restored to the normal world.

QueenOfTheAndals · 14/03/2020 09:30

@JaneJeffee YES, I remember that outfit too! I think it was from this story. Hard to believe Lisa was only 13, she looks about 25!

Favourite Stories from Girls Comics
JaneJeffer · 14/03/2020 09:42

Yes that's it! That horse could do with a wash Grin

TheMemoryLingers · 14/03/2020 09:48

I've got four old 'School Friend' annuals that I picked up at a jumble sale as a child. I love them. As an adult, they're fascinating. A common theme for stories is young women becoming reconciled to a secretarial career - which, I suppose in those days, would have been the lot of a large chunk of school leavers. It's as though they're saying 'we've spent years stuffing you with tales of prima ballerinas, champion show jumpers and junior detectives, but don't lose sight of the fact you'll probably end up in a typing pool.'

TrickyD · 14/03/2020 10:08

One of them had a competition to copy a picture of a cat. My big brother showed me how to ‘square’ it for accuracy. I won a selection box of chocolates.

sueelleker · 14/03/2020 10:30

I remember a one-off picture story from Jackie. A girl lived with her elderly aunt/grandma, who was ill; but she insisted on going out to a party. After a while the party was very dull-warm Coke (no booze) and boring music. She wanted to leave, and was told this was her afterlife; and she could never leave. Don't know why this one should have stuck with me.

millymaud · 14/03/2020 10:31

I loved Bunty.

I remember a story called Witch, which I think might have featured a girl called Ellie (I could be wrong) but she had black / dark hair in a pixie cut. She was believed to be a witch by the villagers and I think she’d moved with her mother to Cornwall.

I remember one called tennis trouble featuring a girl called jenny.

There was a story about a girl called Kim who was a singer and released a single that went to no 1. Her parents wouldn’t stop bragging about her and her friends were jealous. I still remember the songs lyrics were “you can’t dance, you’ve got two left feet, all you can do is shake to the beat!”

There was one called Remember Me Rosie - Rosie and Sam were best friends then Rosie moves away as her dad gets a great new job. Sam is delighted to be moving to the same area a few months later but Rosie has made new friends and moved on and starts to bully Sam.

The comp - weren’t there blonde twins called Becky and Hayley, and a girl called Nikki?

TheMemoryLingers · 14/03/2020 10:36

The character 'Nikki' joined the Comp when it moved from the Nikki comic to Bunty (i.e. Nikki folded). Apparently (I learned this from the girls comics website linked above) Bunty introduced the Nikki character a couple of weeks before the merger and ran a parallel story showing some of the events in The Comp from a different perspective.

millymaud · 14/03/2020 10:38

Didn’t she have long dark hair, and had a best friend with shorter hair?

Witchofzog · 14/03/2020 10:50

@millymaud the character with the long hair was Sam and the girl with the shorter hair was Julie.

@JaneJeffer thats a different Lisa. But my god, that Lisa is definitely a grown woman

Pomegranatemolasses · 14/03/2020 11:03

Does anyone remember Lisa the lonely ballerina? Think it was in Debbie.

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bookmum08 · 14/03/2020 11:05

One of my Diana annuals has an article about how to be a babysitter. It includes how to make the bottle of milk. Apparently we should be adding a spoonful of sugar Grin.

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twosoups1972 · 14/03/2020 11:06

@millymaud the tennis story was Double Trouble about twins separated at birth

JaneJeffer · 14/03/2020 12:40

Witchofzog I wrote to a pen pal but never got a reply, could have been you Grin