Comics for girls part 2: Bunty, 1987
Last time we visited School Friend in 1953. This time it's Bunty, the British Girls' comic for basically the latter half of last century. And yeah, I'm biased because I love it like I love 90s X-Men and Tomb of Dracula and CB&MI:13. But it's not just my opinion! Google "Bunty the book for girls", you'll see what I mean.
Anyhow, 1987 was a great year in many ways I am sure, but in particular it brought the world a) me, and b) this annual.
I actually want to share almost every story from this annual, because they are mostly grand. But scanning takes me SO LONG, that this time I only have two stories, two previews, and one BONUS FUN PAGE.
Now you remember that recent Black Canary post showing her figuring it's a "guy thing" to go misty eyed over Robin Hood memorabilia? HMMMM. Meet.. Robina Hood (yeah.. forgive her the name)!
This isn't the only Robin Hood-themed strip that Bunty had over the years; there was one about the adventures of the man himself (or rather, in the one story I have from that series, the adventures of a girl who lives in Nottingham Castle and idolises him).
So we meet our heroines, as they takes taxes from the tax collectors. Robina, by the way, shoots one of them through the hat. Very restrained of her.
Flo Tuck! Little Jane! Winnie Scarlet! Albus Severus Potter!
When all of a sudden..!!
Turns out it was a young knave whose vision was impaired by his borrowed helmet, thinking that the girls were outlaws attacking innocent victims. Their knocking of him sprains his ankle, or something, so they take him home with them and he tells his tale of woe.
Robina, natch, has an idea about all of this. So she goes to see..
Old grey-hair Robin! And Tuck. Marion's nowhere to be seen, by the way, but one cannot have everything.
Fighting all polished up, the gang sneak into the tournament, in what I feel is the best panel in the whole story:
DISGUISED IN GOWNS. Like the men always are! But they are too! Because their lives do not call for gowns usually! <3!
Robina goes off to join the tournament, and starts to think it's a bad idea, particularly when Alan Dale - the only male descendant, who happens to be evil - half-recognises her. Then she discovers just who she'll be jousting.
Uh-oh! but she does okay..ish.
Her armour flies off after the fall, and everyone gasps and tries to capture her and suchlike. Her noble opponent is having none of that!
The bad guys can't risk upsetting the Duke of Aragon, and the Duke thinks Robina's just great, so the girls get all the loot, share it with the blonde kid they hurt earlier, and live happily ever after making jokes about what bad quality the kid's armour was. Hurrah!
Time for story two, after this interval! Print out and play.
I have a fondness for this story because in my younger years I spent hours deciding just what my bus-house would be like on the inside. She's living my dream!
Willa's pals don't want to leave straight away, so Willa fixes them up with flower-picking jobs for the day. Which probably sounds a much nicer job that it really is.
They help.
Betrayal! Willa and pal with the doctor also find that their wallets are missing. :[.
Whilst working off their doctor-debt and making friends, the girls discuss how lovely it is there, and how sad it is that science is making flower-based perfume obsolete. Eventually its their turn to do the evening entertainment for the fellow pickers (they put on a fashion show, of course).
And that's that. A short story (the longest tale in this volume's twelve pages (the Four Marys)), but one emphasising the.. romance of being decent and hardworking, I guess. And it's a good example of the 'black and white and one colour' method of colouring I talked about last time.
Finally, two intro-panels from stories I'm not going to fully post. One for the girls being tough, one for the CRACK. Because I know what you love, s_d. And I love it too! (And I promise, this is not the weirdest pet story in the book. TUNE IN NEXT TIME.)