More classic UK weekly comics - Tammy #1
Another entry from my UK comic series...
In the UK in 1971 we'd just gone for decimal currency, the Open University had just started and British military bases in Malta were closed down. And "Tammy" was launched...
First up... scarily cheery looking girl on cover
(Sadly, the ring and bracelet were not included in the reprint)
Tammy is a typical product of it's period, a combination of "Plucky adventurous girl" stories and "Kitchen sink drama". The stories are all continuing (so you'd be tempted to by #2 I suppose.... and 3 pages each, so in the spirit of SD, I won't post all of any story, but a sample from a few.
We start with standard weird event" story...
I think you can guess where this is headed.... of course she decides to go and visit <s>Brigadoon</s> Trebaran, where her modern ways instantly mark her as a witch to the people of 200 hundred years ago, and as for her cassette player...
To be fair, I'm sure there are some small towns in the Bible Belt where "The House of the Rising Sun" would probably STILL have much the same reaction....
The on to the "Girls School" type story, where a brave young teacher dares to defy stuffy convention... And perhaps in engage in a little more hugging of pupils than is entirely defensible...
Timmy clearly has self image and possibly gender identity issues (Timmy? Not a name I've ever heard a girl use... unless Timmy is just a REALLY femme guy...)
So, Sally doesn't offer her a job as live-in leman, but does outline her plan for an "open" school... no, not like THAT, but a school where the pupils help run it and decide on how it will be run (and people said Morrison was avante garde for doing this with Xaviers School thirty years after this came out!)
And thus are the seeds of further plots sewn as Miss Steele plots her revenge on the young upstart.. etc etc etc
Now, my favourite lurid title of any of these.... You don't need to see more than one page to know how THIS is going to work out...
A shame I had to cut the scenes down the mine that the kids have to work in... To give this it's due, while some children who were evacuee's WERE very badly mistreated by the families they were staying with, it generally wasn't something that was discussed in public, nor would it be for some years to come, so this is rather brave in it's approach.
And now the classic "Cinderella in another form" story.... Feel free to "Booo!" and "Hisss!" at appropriate moments, it's that sort of story..
Again, I bet you can imagine the direction this was going in....
I skipped over other stories "Bettina at Ballet School", "Courier Carol" (A young girl who helps with her uncles coach tour business), "Glen" (The asventures of a girl and her dog), "Dawn and Kerry - Double for Trouble" (sort of a distaff Hardy Boys without the fun bondage potential, well for me at any rate) and "Out Janie - Little Mum" (The story of a teenager who's just left school having to put her own dreams on hold whilst helping raise her younger brothers and sisters following the sudden death of their mother and her fathers severe injury in a housefire. Yeah, it's a giggle a minute on THAT council estate) and "No Tears for Molly" about a young girl from London in the mid 1920's, starting in service at a posh manor house, having to deal with a hostile butler (Alfred he ain't) and mischevious co-workers...)
All sorts of fun stuff in this, if you're into that sort of thing....
Next time... "Whizzer and Chips!" Are you a Whizz Kid? Or a Chip-ite?