Childhood Comics and Annuals

[Anita Bensoussane]

Girls' comics contained quite a lot of science-fiction stories and tales revolving around ghosts, creepy happenings and people being possessed. I liked those sorts of stories best!

Julie, I would have gone back and bought you a Best of Bunty Annual but unfortunately I took the last one and I haven't seen them anywhere else.

[Julie2owlsdene]

The thought was there, Anita. I will look for it in our supermarkets down here when I'm next in Truro, as we have a Sainsbury there, sadly not anywhere near where I live. But it's always a nice trip out to Truro.

[Stephen]

Girls' comics contained quite a lot of science-fiction stories and tales revolving around ghosts, creepy happenings and people being possessed. I liked those sorts of stories best!

I remember reading one story - possibly from a Judy - that TERRIFIED me as I was reading it late at night and simply wasn't expecting the ending. From what I can remember, a teenage girl is hiking around the Peak District when she meets a teenage boy. They chat for a while, then they part company. Then the girl meets a group of hikers and tells them about the boy, but for some reason they seem to suggest he might be the ghost of a teenage hiker who was killed around those parts many years before. When they part company, you see the girl thinking to herself that the boy she met couldn't have been the ghost - because SHE was! SHE was the one who was killed all those years ago and has been haunting the area ever since!

That really upset me at the time!

[Domino]

My childhood comics were Knockout (featuring the strips Billy Bunter, Our Ernie and Sporty) and Film Fun (I remember getting irritated by the Abbott and Costello strip which portrayed Costello as the straight one and Abbott as the fool!) I think I also had at various times Radio Fun and TV Fun. Not all at the same time, of course. I was an avid reader of the Eagle from issue No 12 in 1950 to about 1956. The Dan Dare strip got me hooked on science fiction, and I still regard Frank Hampson as a great illustration artist.

Dave

[Lenoir]

Knockout joined up with Valiant which was the comic I read. "Kelly's Eye" and Bunter were two of the strips that came with. I enjoyed the science-fiction type stories and the funny stories.
The artists who illustrated the more serious stories were very talented.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Girls' comics contained quite a lot of science-fiction stories and tales revolving around ghosts, creepy happenings and people being possessed. I liked those sorts of stories best!

I remember reading one story - possibly from a Judy - that TERRIFIED me as I was reading it late at night and simply wasn't expecting the ending. From what I can remember, a teenage girl is hiking around the Peak District when she meets a teenage boy. They chat for a while, then they part company. Then the girl meets a group of hikers and tells them about the boy, but for some reason they seem to suggest he might be the ghost of a teenage hiker who was killed around those parts many years before. When they part company, you see the girl thinking to herself that the boy she met couldn't have been the ghost - because SHE was! SHE was the one who was killed all those years ago and has been haunting the area ever since!

That really upset me at the time!

Yes, some of the stories were upsetting. Thinking about it further, the stories that left most impression on me were the emotional ones rather than the spooky ones. Jinty Annual 1980 contains a long picture-strip story called 'No Time for Pat', about a fifteen-year-old girl called Pat who works for a travel agent and is looking forward to going globe-trotting in the future. She lives with her dad but he has go abroad with his job, leaving his daughter to care for herself (I doubt that would be acceptable these days, but it was apparently considered fine back then as no one in the story remarks on it). Anyway, Pat has been suffering from fainting spells so she has a few check-ups and is shocked to learn that she is seriously ill and only has six months left to live. I was stunned when I read that as a child. The artist had drawn her looking so vibrant, lithe and bright-eyed with a swinging ponytail, and I found it hard to accept that her life could be cut so terribly short. And then she befriends a little girl who can't walk and who reminds Pat of her dead sister, and who grows to depend on Pat... Well, I won't give away the ending but I could barely bring myself to read on.

Another memorable story wasn't in an annual but in the Jinty comics I had as a child - 'I'll Make Up for Mary'. Twin girls went swimming in the sea on holiday and one of them, Mary, drowned. She might even have drowned trying to help her twin sister, but I can't recall the details now. Mary had always been popular and confident, whereas her twin was shy and retiring. Believing that her parents would have preferred her to drown instead of Mary, the surviving twin (whose name I can't remember) tries to turn herself into Mary, copying her hairstyle and fashion sense and forcing herself to try activities and hobbies which her sister used to enjoy. But attempting to model herself on someone else has disastrous results.

Then there was the girl who was the only human left (because of a mistake) after all other humans had been destroyed. I forget the title of the story, but in the final episode time is turned back to a few days before the destruction. Humanity will still be wiped out as before, but this time the girl will be included along with everyone else.

Another story, 'The Forbidden Garden', featured a world which was so polluted that no vegetation would grow. A girl named Laika managed to grow a flower for her sister, who was dying, but she was breaking the rules and would be severely punished if discovered.

All rather frightening and startling, yet I loved it when the next issue of Jinty came through the letterbox!

[Kate Mary]

I found The Best of Bunty Annual and Best of 70s Girls comics in my local Sainsbury's today and I must admit I gave in to temptation and bought them, even though 70s comics were after my time. Some of the comic strips were reprints of earlier material (Vanessa from Venus had turned into Minna from Mars - but the strips are identical). There were also Best of Beezer and Best of Topper which evoked fond memories but I couldn't get them all. It seems that all these titles are exclusive to Sainsburys.

A few Christmases ago I was given a The Very Best of Black Bob - The Dandy Wonder Dog which was a brilliant present, I loved that story from the Dandy.

http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2010/ ... k-bob.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Does anyone else remember Black Bob?

[Anita Bensoussane]

Some of the comic strips were reprints of earlier material (Vanessa from Venus had turned into Minna from Mars - but the strips are identical).

That's interesting, Kate. I recently heard that no new Rupert stories have been written for the Rupert Annuals for years - they just reprint old stories.

I don't remember Black Bob but The Very Best of Black Bob looks like a beautiful book.

[Kate Mary]

The latest Rupert Annuals have just one new story per annual, Anita, the rest are reprints. The current artist is Stuart Trotter and I guess all he is contracted to do is one story and a cover, even the endpapers and puzzles have appeared in previous annuals. I still buy them however as I have a complete run of annuals from the first one in 1936, although the earliest I have are facsimiles. The Rupert stories in the Daily Express are all reprints, they haven't had new ones for years.
.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Thanks for the information on Rupert, Kate. How wonderful to have a complete run of Rupert Annuals, even with the earliest ones being facsimiles.

[Sonia]

I am very new to this site, but would like some information about British Girls Comics particularly those published in the Years 1966 to 1968.

In India it was impossible to get June and Schoolfriend or Schoogirls. I would love to know if anyone knows anything about June and Schoolfriend, featuring Mimi the Mesmerist, I think there are quite a number, I read Mimi the Mesmerist and Mimi goes to Arabia. I would also like to know about Vanessa from Venus.

Thank you ever so much

Sonia

[Kate Mary]

I was a June & School Friend reader way back then and I remember Mimi the Mesmerist and Vanessa from Venus. Vanessa first appeared in June (before the merger with School Friend) in 1961 and ran for several years until at least 1967, her best friend on Earth was Sally Prentice, although she frequently had adventures on her own especially in the later years. Mimi started about 1966. The best thing to do is to post on the forums of Comics UK:

http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Hope that helps.

[Lenoir]

My sister used to get June and School friend. I have a few of them because I just can't give away old things like this!
I see Mimi the Mesmerist in the issue dated 19th March 1966. Mimi Michigan of the Fourth at St. Ethelfreda's.
Vanessa from Venus is also in.

[Rob Houghton]

Merged with an older thread.

I'm probably showing my age here, but who else had these annuals as a child? Some I owned belonged to my sister (especially the Teddy Bear annuals) but I always enjoyed them, as they were very lavishly illustrated.

[Katharine]

I don't think anyone I know actually owned one, but I certainly remember seeing them in the shops. It's possible I might have an odd comic or two in the loft.