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.

Oh a quick google tells me it was in Judy - I forgot I used to get both.

Oh the four Mary's, I can remember Mary Radliegh, Mary Cotter, Mary Field, but what was the name of the other one (illustrated with dark shoulder length wavy hair)
Its driving me mad!

@mammmamia I remember Hopeless Hope! My parents used to buy me those little 'Comic Library' books to keep me quiet on holiday. Hope was fat and unfit, and had to go and live with her very sporty cousins. She eventually found a sport she liked (scuba diving?) and became as fit as her cousins.

‘Melody Lee a dancer she will be’ from Bunty the trials and tribulations of an orphan making it into ballet

hazel wasn't it Mary Simpson?

I'd forgotten Twinkle. My great aunt used to work in a newsagents and always brought me the latest comics and mags, I loved Twinkle.

I remember one a bout a girl who was at her gran's grave and she saw a meteor crash, she goes home and her gran is there and no-one, except the girl can remember gran dying.

The gran goes around pretending to be a nice old lady, but secretly commits acts of evil
. Only the girl.is aware of this. Eventually it turns out that the meteor crash was an alien spaceship and gran was an evil alien.

There was also a really good story in Misty that was a direct left from Carrie.

Totally forgot I had these till I read this thread. They were a careful selection from the ones my Mum still has it her house in the attic. Not sure where the Mandy and Misty ones are they were my favourite although Misty used to keep my awake terrified in the dark for hours at night 😱

Look at the difference in the The Four Marys artwork. I went right off them after they did that.

Thanks for this thread, it has distracted me from a miserable day . I've just googled and Girls Comics of yesterday website has all the plots! Dark secret of Blind Bettina...classic plot!

One of those stories stuck with me - more so the images; Does anybody remember in either Judy/Bunty/Misty from the 70s, a story where a girl ends up in a large pot of boiling water after being taken by cannibals? Think they were in a jungle and also I think there was something earlier in the story about her being at a clothes line. Character had dark hair in a bob and I remember the story being quite lighthearted. I'd love to find it again. txs.

I also remember the fake-blind cousin and come home Kathleen and the Four Marys of course. I loved Bunty so much. I used to read that and then my big sister's copy of Buster. Happy days.

Ygritte it's sacrilege isn't it?! Awful!!

I struggle to recall the stories but I was a fan of Bunty.

I've a vague recollection of one strip where the main character was a girl from a poor (maybe just ordinary) background. She was staying in a very big house of a rich family (can't recall why) one detail I recall (for some reason) she had a bath and afterwards cleaned in. The girl from the big house was puzzled by her cleaning it, saying that's what the maid was for.

Kitty and Jo they're sisters but don't know.
Lisa the lonely ballerina.

Still a bit of a magazine addict!

Does anyone remember 'Shed no tears for Tammy' from the Mandy comic? It was about a girl who discovered her best friend, Tammy, was terminally ill - but Tammy hadn't been told - so she made secret efforts to prevent her from over-exertion, which usually caused upset in some way. I missed the ending because we were away on holiday and of course, the papers were cancelled that week. I was gutted to find it had finished because I hoped desperately that Tammy wasn't ill at all and everything would be fine. I would love to know how it ended if anyone remembers it!

Gullibelle

'That's not my Gran!' I remember her going to visit her grave which had mysteriously disappeared and later on, evil Gran slamming her sisters hand in the car boot. I loved that story!

My favourite was Misty - the first copy I ever read had a story about an evil man who was half man, hand tree which for some reason, terrified me. Also a story about a selfish girl who ended up slipping on snail slime into a cellar filled with giant carnivorous snails

Hateful Harriet was about a girl who was dying and so pretended to be horrible so that her younger brothers and sisters would hate her and so not mind, when she died of consumption, after finding them all new homes.

There was also a brilliant story in Mandy called Ella and the Electrids, about these weird electrical creatures that appeared and caused havoc when Ella was stressed. I always thought it would be a brilliant band name.

The Girls Comics of Yesterday website is awesome. I just looked up No Tears for Tammy but it doesn't say how it ended unfortunately.
Thankfully my parents were sensible enough to make sure the newsagents kept our comic orders when we went on holiday. (My dad did insist on unplugging the video recorder though so many an all important telly episode was missed. Totally missing the point of what the video recorder was for there Dad )

@TheMemoryLingers
I have a copy of Hopeless Hope!

@Igotmylipstickon yes! I remember that in my cousin’s annual along with Trudi and friend on a ski or mountaineering holiday, where Trudi has a fall?

Re: cannibals were they in the South Pacific and there was a professor?

I remember that’s not my gran too!

I used to like the four parters in the annuals.

There was one with a talented ice skater who was kept captive in a castle and another where four girls were forced to row (or was it swim?) across The Atlantic. As you do

I remember:

Diving Belle
Tansy of Jubilee St (?)
Shona a crofter (?) who lived alone ?
Pam of Pond Hill

Something about girls who after a gas leak (?) had to inhabit each other’s worlds until they died: sporty girl world, cake world for gluttonous one etc...

Also something about a world after disaster where only grass left in a museum & someone found a single blade & nurtured against law?

Also gamma and alpha girls & a hive mother?

And aliens that raised humans as pets!

Oh and Stone hearted Stella. Statue that came to life?

@TheaDecker Brilliant! My comic libraries may be buried somewhere in my parents' attic, but it would take an excavation job to find them. Interesting that Hopeless Hope has stayed with more than one of us!

... I remember sharing Hope's horror when her aunt and uncle dropped her off miles from their house so she and her cousins could run home - the cousins bounding with enthusiasm, natch.

Some story about a gymnast who for some reason, and with no practice, manged to do an amazing floor routine to an Elton John song - possibly Yellow Brick road?