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.

Yes, Clawdy, Dilly Dream! But I don’t think Belle of the Ballet was in Girl, as I did not have that, I had The Eagle instead, together with School Friend.

The Silent Three were the inspiration for Posy Simmonds’ cartoon strip in the Guardian, originally called the Silent Three of St Botolph’s .

I’m too young to have read any of the stories in the original mags, but I’ve had Bunty annuals for Christmas sometimes (years ago).

I remember this one story about a rich girl who was really rude to her maid, and there was some sort of twist where it turned out that the maid was actually the daughter of the rich family and the rude rich girl was actually from a poor family, they had to swap. So the ‘rich girl’ had to experience servant life, how awful it all was... turns out that it was actually just a dream, and the rich girl was much nicer to her maid after that, as she suddenly realised how awful being a maid was.
(Hopefully that made sense... rude rich girl had a dream that she was a servant, and was nicer to her maid as a result). I think the rich girl might have been called Lucinda, or something. I think I chucked out the annual ages ago.

Yes! Great thread OP.

I loved my childhood comics, and the travelling library. I was just describing Supercats to my DS 11, two days ago.

I started off with Twinkle (stories like Nurse Nancy and her toy hospital, Patsy Panda etc) then moved on to Spellbound - quite a change in tone.

Spellbound I think had a storyline about a girl trapped in a tidal cave that started flooding and she had to wait until it filled up before she could escape through a manhole-type hatch in the ceiling. Thrilling!

I think Spellbound was then replaced with Misty? Or they merged? And then Misty merged with Tammy which seemed a bit tame in comparison, although reading some of the storylines here I'm not so sure!

Around the World with Wendy was my favourite in Twinkle, about a girl who had a doll who looked just like her. They apparently lived on a cruise ship and had adventures in each port they called at. Each adventure ended with Wendy being given a doll from that country.

I also liked Tanya from Tongo which was about an orphan from the South Seas who came to the UK and had trouble settling in at school because she was used to cavorting half naked around the jungle. She had to learn how not to be ‘a savage’ if I remember rightly. Oh dear.

Actually Tanya from Tongo must have been Bunty.

I remember a strip about someone called Candy Floss in a magazine but it wasn't the one a pp mentioned. She was a pop star who was absolutely awful to everyone behind the scenes but she always got her comeuppance at the end of every "episode."

I have posted on here before but the one I remember the most was the Little Stranger about the UFO that comes down on a house/village, but the heroine evades its magic rays by having fallen over in the garden or something. In the morning the heroine discovers that she suddenly has a - superficially cute but actually really sinister - little sister that she never had before. Everyone else thinks the little sister has always been there and thinks the heroine is jealous and blanking her adorable little sis to be mean but it's clear that the little sister (her name was Darla) is the vanguard for an alien invasion.

I loved Mandy and later Nikki. I've got an almost complete set of Mandy Annuals from the 70s and 80s. I remember the doll story mentioned above - whenever someone posed the doll, its owner was forced to act like the pose, which often got her into trouble - e.g. doll looking snooty, so she acted snooty and upset her friends.
Also 'The Secret Life of Julie-Ellen Jones' (I think it was called) where, unable to choose between two boys, Julie decided to date one as herself and another as her 'twin sister' Ellen.

Tracy was my favourite. I remember a story called Heather's Hateful Hands about a girl who went on a school trip to a castle and put her hands in the imprints of a woman who was imprisoned as a witch at the castle. This then caused her hands to be possessed by the witch and the witch wound make her do horrible things. Eg. Was cutting someone's hair and the witch made her hack away at the hair.
Judy was my favourite annual. I was born in 71

I’m a bit younger but I had some Bunty and Mandy annuals passed down from older cousins I think. I also seem to remember smaller book versions, kind of soft back but around A6 size, or am I imagining that?!

I remember a story about “Hopeless Hope” and one about a spoilt girl whose cousin has to live with her as she’s an orphan, they are both swimmers or something but the cousin is much better, the girl fakes an accident caused by the cousin and pretends she has gone blind and the cousin has to give up her swimming career until eventually she finds out the girl is faking. Does anyone remember this?

I also had Hi magazine!

Oh! So much nostalgia!! Our dentist used to have piles of Buntys - I actually used to arrive early for appointments so I could have a good read I remember Bella at the Bar, now someone has mentioned it, and the balloon of doom.

There was also one about a poor girl who found like a magic Argos catalogue. The things she coveted all arrived for free, so obviously she got carried away with getting more and more stuff - until a weird, skull shaped cigarette lighter arrived and burned the whole house down. The moral messages at times weren't exactly subtle!

There was also the promising young tennis player who went blind after a bang on the head, but learned to play so well using her other senses that no-one realised (??). The super tense finale (spoilers) was she had to play a big final on a court with planes flying overhead, so she couldn't hear where the balls were landing. Then she tripped and fell and hit her head of the net post - and lo! her sight was restored and she won the match. Hurrah!

The smaller ones came out monthly and would be just one longer story. Every so often you would get one free with the weekly comic. I seem to remember it would always be one that wasn't the same title as your comic but one of the 'sister' ones. So if your comic was Mandy your free monthly one would be a Judy one, if you got Bunty you might end up with a Mandy one!!
You can actually still buy the Commando monthly ones (war stories for the boys) - 4 titles are released each month!

I remember the swimmer with the evil fake-blind cousin, and the blind tennis player!

I have just remembered another story. It was a story set in a female ruling society and men had no rights and just used for manual work (and I assume sperm donations!). Teenage girl lives with her mum and her mum has a baby. There is big disappointment when the baby is born a boy and has to sent off to the Boys House. The girl somehow befriends a teenage boy and start to realise how unfair life is for males. I think she teaches him to read. I can't remember how it ended though.

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.

Could have been Wildcat.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildcat_(UK_comic)

It rings a vague bell with me. My dad was in the military and I spent most of my childhood abroad. Saturdays were spent on base whilst dad read the UK papers and I had a cherry coke (only time I was allowed) and as many comics as I could convince him to buy. I think I still have some in a box somewhere along with my favourite 2000ADs kept because I had a huge crush on Judge Anderson.

I had various comics and annuals and definitely remember 'The Four Mary's'. There was also a story about a character called 'Lettice' but the only thing I remember is her name!

Was it Lettice Leaf -The Greenest Girl In The School ?

I loved these so much. I had loads of 2nd hand ones that predated my era although I’m in my 40s and I read them over and over. I also loved the Angel stories. They were quite traumatic stories of malnourished orphans living in sewers.

One of mine had a factual piece where a 13 year old girl visited the National Indoor Exhibition Centre in Birmingham for no obvious reason. 3 pages of black and white photos of empty halls and corridors. I couldn’t understand the point of it then and I still don’t now!

I loved Misty. My fav story was the girl who was wrongly put in an orphanage because her evil great aunt wanted her fortune but the lawyers said there had to be proof she was dead so the aunt put a spell in a rag doll and sent it to the girl to kill her. The rag doll came to life and pushed a the orphanage owner down the stairs. Then it was going to burn the girl in her bed but it tripped when it was carrying the fire torch and burned so the aunt died! And it was all sorted out and the girl ended up leaving the orphanage in a rolls Royce! The rag doll was truly creepy!
Also I still have my Sunshine comb from the first edition of Nikki comic!

I was enthralled by the long running story in Bunty called something like Princess of the Sun. It was about a girl priestess in ancient Britain who walks into a stone circle at gets transported to modern times. She has lots of adventures in 1970s England and makes lots of friends but eventually chooses to return to pre historic Britain via Stonehenge. I was gutted when it finished.

Great thread. Four Marys was one of my favourites too. I was a loyal Bunty subscriber throughout my childhood, my sister subscribed to something else (I can't remember what now). We used to go and collect them from the newsagents every week.

There are two stories I can remember now - one from Twinkle (I think), which was about a panther-like creature (sort of a Beast of Bodmin Moor) on the loose in a town. The main character saw it in her back garden and reported it to her parents, who obviously dismissed the idea out of hand, so she had to track it down herself. (As you do.)

The other one I remember was about a girl passing her driving test, and all the freedom it gave her - I can't remember what the actual storyline was though. Seems a bit old for a Bunty-aged audience so I'm not sure what that featured in.

Also, I had an incident with Bunty where I dropped it as we were crossing a busy road. My mum ran back into the road and got it for me She did like reading the Four Marys herself though!

I used to get Tammy, remember Bella at the Bar, No Tears for Molly, Wee Sue and a serial story about a girl called Bibi. Also a story about four junior chefs who were kidnapped and forced to work in a restaurant called the Hot Stove (Slaves of the Hot Stove), the restaurant was shaped like an oven I think on the outside - we used to call a particular service station the Hot Stove because of it's unusual shape after the story!

A friend used to get Misty, some of the stories could be a bit creepy.

I loved Bunty and as I got a bit older there was a (short-lived) magazine for girls called Hi! and it editor of that I think was the woman who went on to found a very successful skincare range - Liz Earle!

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.

@merryhouse - OMG, you're the only other person I've ever come across who remembers this strip! I know I read it among my youngest aunty's comics around 1972/3, but I have ^never* been able to remember or find out what the strip was called, or which comic it appeared in!

Please can you tell me? (If you do, I'll be your best friend for ever and ever, and you can have my bag of Jelly Tots! )

Ooh I loved Bella At The Bar. Also remember the blind tennis player one.

There was a strip called Tilly’s Magic Tranny [hmm grin] where the girl had a radio that plated songs that made people act differently. I also seem to recall one about a Chinese missionary and a time travel one where the girl goes back to the Second World War.

How I loved The Four Mary’s!

Does anyone remember the Bunty story about Iris and her evil reflection Siri who would sometimes manage to trick her way into our world?