Favourite Stories from Girls Comics

[bookmum08]

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.

There was a story called something like "the sign of the acorn" about an orphan girl who went to work for a manor house, and horrible things kept happening to her, she nearly drowned, was treated really badly, but it turned out she was ACTUALLY the heir to the manor or something similar, and she married the kind boy who looked after her and it was a happy ending.

There was also a terrifying one about a family who moved into a house with creepy garden gnomes in the garden. Bad things started happening - the cat got run over, the kid nearly drowned in the pond, and it ended with the parents waking up in the night to find the gnomes had crept into the house and surrounded them, and it ended there... horrifying!

These were in annuals, Mandy/Bunty/Judy or similar, from the 70s (they were my mum's). I've never been able to find them anywhere. Anyone remember them?

I remember the Garden Gnome one WelcomeToGreenvale. A bit of googling suggests it was in the Diana 1982 annual (A Man in Black Story: In an English Country Garden…).

No Tears for Molly (in Tammy) was great - about a housemaid in the 1920s. I loved that so much at the age of about 10 that I asked to have my hair cut in a 1920s bob like Molly's, and my mum let me.

There was one (also in Tammy) about a girl in the French resistance, who for some reason did all her secret work dressed up as a cat.

But the very very best one (also Tammy) was The Camp on Candy Island, about a group of girls who were being held in a prison camp run by a sadistic blonde woman called Candy Floss ... oh god, how I loved Candy Floss. Her hair was wonderful, and I wanted her hi-de-hi style striped blazer so much it hurt.

There was another Tammy one I loved about a poor girl, homeless I think, whose one talent was cutting beautiful birds out of paper. I can't remember what that one was called.

Um ... I seem to have had an obsession about the hairstyles of characters in comics. I hadn't realised that.

Another one I loved was Sugar Jones, in Pink - an apparently beautiful TV star (great hair!) who was actually quite old, and desperate to preserve the illusion of youth.

No Tears for Molly! That's the Downton Abbey style story I remember. Thanks Time40.
Tammy did have some awesome stories. When it stopped being published it happened so quickly some of the stories weren't even finished.

I absolutely adored miss angel and her waifs ... one I remember of a violinist with scoliosis or something ... and a blind child that she taught to make baskets . Still have my mums Mandy/Bunty/Diana books upstairs . I admit I still read them if fed up now .

I was born in 1991 and have more vivid memories of Mizz/Girl Talk magazine . Can’t remember if they had stories sadly .

Over the years I have re-bought all the annuals I had from the 60s. When I look at them I still remember how I felt at the time, all the excitement of a book-shaped present at Christmas and trying not to read them in one go! Although I never read Diana comic, they were my favourite annuals, black and shiny covers with a trendy teenager on the front. Ah, those were the days....

I remember Bunty having another ongoing school based story to provide a bit of a contrast to the Four Marys. It was called The Comp I think, and was much more modern.

I also remember a photo diary called Luv Lisa. I'd never experienced suburban life and was amazed at the freedom she had to cycle to her friends and stuff.

The oft reported alleged true glitch in matrix story on Mumsnet of the woman who saw a child in a garden looking out of a window who was her when young - and she had previously seen a woman at a window as a child - or something like that...was in a Girl annual circa 1980.

The Four Marys rings a bell! Can't remember much about it though.

The only story I remember was about a secondary-aged girl rushing to school and then everyone was ignoring her. When she went home it turned out she'd been hit by a car and died, and it was her ghost who'd carried on her day as usual!

Bookmum, the one with the haunted camera is very similar to a film on Netflix called Polaroid. It's weird that you and me remembered it at a similar time.

I remember one story about a girl who had no memory called Jay. I also remember the story about the dying girl who looked after the waifs in Victorian London. She was blonde and very pretty.

OMG I was just tellling someone about the 4 Mary's this week!
I remember one about an enchanted
Mirror which was cracked
And left a disfigured face.
A bunty annual I think

TrickyD I loved School Friend, especially The Silent Three! I remember Belle Of The Ballet, maybe that was in Girl comic. Also Dilly Dreem. And Jill Crusoe. And one featuring Terry Brent, a detective with a sidekick assistant, his niece Paddy!

Ooh, forgot Wendy and Jinx! Girl comic.

The one about Melody the "carrier bag kid" who dreamed of being a ballerina (can't remember what it was actually called)

Come Home Kathleen, about a poor Irish girl who goes to live with her aunt in London and then the war starts

All the ones where a spoilt rich girl loses her money or runs away or fakes her death to save her parents the agony of a long illness and then Discovers What's Really Important In Life

There was one about twins only one of whom passed the eleven-plus. The other one kept pigs at one point, until they got foot-and-mouth

Anyone remember a comic called Tracy? I remember a story about a girl who was in an accident and in a wheelchair but recovered, but then mistakenly believed her parents were getting divorced once she was better so faked still being wheel chair bound. No idea why that’s stuck with me.

Tracy ‘merged’ with a lesser rag called Dreamer I think. And when they ruined your favourite in that manner there was always a letter from a reader saying how great it was because she read X and her sister read Y so now mummy only had to buy one comic. Pull the other one comic editor

Yes, my people! I loved ‘Misty’. They did so many dark twisty tales, usually with a good moral involving nasty bullies meeting grim ends (one where a skeletal hand emerges from a grave and strangles someone springs to mind). There was an ongoing serial about four futuristic superheroines whose superpowers were all natural elements - you had Electra who controlled lightning, Hercula who was, er, strong and, I think, Fauna who did something impressive like talking to animals?

The Comp was originally in Nikki Comic but then moved to Bunty when the two comics merged. I had almost the whole run of Nikki. I say had because when I was about 16 my mum said it was time to clear out all my comics. About 7 or 8 years worth of Mandy, Nikki, Tammy, Princess, the one called Hi that no one remembers and even some Beanos. She has yet to be forgiven for that.
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kierenthecommunity

here you go

@Dinosauratemydaffodils

Aaah! Yes! It was definitely this, I remember the cover. Later than I thought. Thanks, just found a copy on ebay for £4.

I had a Misty annual or two, agree that they were the grimmer ones. Possibly the Acorn story was a Misty.

Unrelated - could be from any of the annuals, but probably not a Bunty thing - There was a sci-fi story that appeared to be a serial - about a group of women in space who found a planet based on the Hyacinth Eaters, perfection as long as they ate the things... there was a whole lot of women being tied up and hanging in cocoons upside-down, I now feel doubtful that it was written or drawn by a woman.

Uh, I meant Lotus Eaters. Where did hyacinth come from? Was that from that story? Because hyacinth felt like part of it. I don't know

Oh! A story about a ballet dancer who was thought to have died (in a boating/water accident?) only to have actually washed up on a shore somewhere. I learned about Anna Pavlova from this story, it wasn't about her but she was stated as one of the main character's inspirations. I think it was colonial-era gross and racist, but don't quote me on that.

A story about a child building a snowman. When they look out of the window in the night, the snowman is pointing. The house is on fire or something and it was warning the child about it. That utterly terrified me as a kid. Its blank face... ugh still gives me the shivers.

Barracker

Oh my goodness, you star 😃

Does anyone remember ‘Wee Slavey’? Comic tales of a lowly Victorian housemaid continually having to get the snooty daughters of her employers out of trouble? The one I remember best involved her having to teach them to cycle by running along holding onto their bikes as they wobbled. It always ended up with her saving the day, completely unsung, and back cheerily drudging below stairs, and was a strong argument for revolution.

I still have my Bunty Annuals from the 1960's
But my real claim to fame is that I designed ballet outfits for the paper dress up doll on the back page.
I was sent a postal oder for 10 shillings and a Bunty Scarf!
A sign of how times have changed they printed my entire name and address and I got loads of girls writing to me asking to be my penfriend !

I loved Bunty , Judy, Princess and Jackie I always turned to the Cathy and Claire pages first in Jackie.

I loved those cut out dressing up dolls @HazelBite. How impressive that you designed some.
I actually saved a pic of a Bunty back page on pinterest the other day (sad).

I liked the 4 Marys too. I remember a story about them only being given sweet food to eat until they eventually begged for healthier options. This obviously inspired my career choice of food and nutrition teacher