tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4202625234167413814.post5813479038162991227..comments2024-02-28T17:50:10.303+00:00Comments on LUCID FRENZY JUNIOR: “THEY DON’T MAKE THEM LIKE THIS ANY MORE...”Gavin Burrowshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16347163260510316959noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4202625234167413814.post-43608698834336615862010-06-20T02:45:15.461+01:002010-06-20T02:45:15.461+01:00Some heroines have the ability to change their bad...Some heroines have the ability to change their bad situation in an instant but don't use it that way.<br /><br />In "Girl with the Power" (can't remember the comic) the heroine's father is wrongly imprisoned and she is taken in by a horrible couple who treat her as a slave. An laboratory accident gives her the power to move objects by thought. She could use this power to strike back at her oppressors (as Rosemary Black does in Misty's "Moonchild") but instead uses it to secretly get her chores done in record time.<br /><br />It turns out that the slave-driving couple are the ones who committed the crime her father was jailed for. So when they try to get rid of her, only then does she use the power to strike at them. Afterwards she blacks out.<br /><br />When she comes to, the crooks are in jail, her father is free, and her power has disappeared - which is often the case in these "acquiring strange powers" stories.Briony Chttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13889264059416271977noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4202625234167413814.post-75822922722261766902010-06-18T05:45:39.288+01:002010-06-18T05:45:39.288+01:00Having an accident (usually getting hit by a car) ...Having an accident (usually getting hit by a car) is a very common way for a heroine to resolve her problem. <br /><br />Such is the case in Judy's "Hard Times for Helen" and Tammy's "No Haven for Hayley". I put these stories together because they use similar themes (perhaps they had the same writer). In both stories the heroines suffer misery, problems, neglect, and misunderstandings because their mothers are over-doing charity work. <br /><br />Both heroines get hit by cars (too preoccupied with their problems to watch the road), and while they are in a semi-conscious state, ramble out their troubles to medical staff, who then speak to their mothers.Briony Chttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13889264059416271977noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4202625234167413814.post-14946226970182682172010-06-18T01:00:58.765+01:002010-06-18T01:00:58.765+01:00What is even more surprising is that some heroines...What is even more surprising is that some heroines try to escape their situation by talking to their parents. This is very unusual in girls' comics (and for that matter, real-life).<br /><br />Unfortunately in most cases, the parents just won't help for one reason or other - until the climax of the story, anyway. In Mandy's "Bad-Luck Barbara" (a parallel story to Bunty's "Witch!") Barbara tries and tries to tell her parents about the villagers' hostility, but they just don't get it. I have no information about how this particular story ended, so I don't know how Barbara's situation was resolved.<br /><br />In Judy's "Be Nice to Nancy" (reprinted in M&J as "Be Nice to Nikki"), Yvonne Baxter is under strict instructions from her father to be nice to his boss's daughter, Nancy, who has just transferred to Yvonne's school. Unfortunately Nancy is a vicious bully and being 'nice' to her is causing serious problems. However, Mr Baxter just won't listen when Yvonne tries to talk to him. Mrs Baxter does seem to listen, but doesn't do anything to help Yvonne. However, it is Mr Norden himself, and not Yvonne's parents, who provides the rescue.<br /><br />But in some stories, parents do surprise the reader. In Bunty's "Mum Knows Best!" Jacqueline's parents are too overprotective. I was extremely surprised to see this story resolved with Jacqueline deciding to speak to her parents and they listen. More often the heroine gets fed up, runs off, and has an accident.Briony Chttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13889264059416271977noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4202625234167413814.post-17819057887461858722010-06-17T18:19:04.320+01:002010-06-17T18:19:04.320+01:00"I think the stuff about Lydia becoming frien...<i>"I think the stuff about Lydia becoming friends with the Little People relates to the forgiveness that was so prevalent in girls' comics."</i><br /><br />it could easily be a little of both! Boys have normally done quite a lot to have to forgive by that age!<br /><br /><i>"Not all heroines try to find a way out of their situation."</i><br /><br />I was more surprised that not all of them <i>didn't!</i><br /><br />Interesting comments. Glad to hear about the index. I do vaguely know David Roach of old. Days of the <i>'Hellfire'</i> fanzine, back in the Eighties!Gavin Burrowshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16347163260510316959noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4202625234167413814.post-8509133194664682512010-06-17T05:42:23.531+01:002010-06-17T05:42:23.531+01:00Not all heroines try to find a way out of their si...Not all heroines try to find a way out of their situation. In fact, some of them put up with it, no matter how bad it gets, rather than worry their family.<br /><br />Such is the case with Ellie Ross from Bunty's "Witch!" Ellie and her parents have just moved into the village of Littledene. The parents are thoroughly enjoying their new life, but Ellie is persecuted by the superstitious villagers who think she is descended from the village witch.<br /><br />However, Ellie just won't tell her parents what is going on because they are so happy in Littledene and she doesn't want to spoil things for them. She doesn't even tell them when they smash her mother's pottery workshop! She probably wouldn't even have told them a lynch mob nearly kills her if her mother had not seen it and called the police.Briony Chttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13889264059416271977noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4202625234167413814.post-5508329776586384882010-06-17T03:52:55.776+01:002010-06-17T03:52:55.776+01:00Tammy spearheaded the revolution in girls' com...Tammy spearheaded the revolution in girls' comics that ushered in a new streak of cruelty, tortured heroines and dark stories.<br /><br />However this had all faded by the eighties and only Bella remained from Tammy's pioneering days of tortured heroines.<br /><br />Pat Mills himself informs me that there was a counter-revolution in Tammy and change in editorship.<br /><br />Interestingly, the same editor allowed credits to be printed in Tammy from 1982 to 1984. So there is more information available about Tammy's artists and writers than originally thought. David Roach is working on finding more credits and we're compiling an index for Tammy (and Jinty).Briony Chttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13889264059416271977noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4202625234167413814.post-71328563325807822762010-06-17T03:47:55.698+01:002010-06-17T03:47:55.698+01:00Dear Gavin,
I think the stuff about Lydia becomin...Dear Gavin,<br /><br />I think the stuff about Lydia becoming friends with the Little People relates to the forgiveness that was so prevalent in girls' comics. <br /><br />Sometimes the forgiveness went a bit far, with people being forgiven for things that are very difficult to forgive - including attempted murder!Briony Chttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13889264059416271977noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4202625234167413814.post-49149107106261538222010-06-16T18:54:15.617+01:002010-06-16T18:54:15.617+01:00Hi Briony,
Thought I knew your name and discovere...Hi Briony,<br /><br />Thought I knew your name and discovered I have some copies of <i>'The Girly Comic'</i> that you're in! Googling also reveals that, like Jenni, you're a bit of a girls' comics expert. (Which I'm certainly not!)<br /><br />Had spotted the "again" but didn't have any context to put it in. They would alternately retell and reprint the same story endlessly, so I suppose it's not surprising. Perhaps they even reprinted it with the "again" added to make it seem like a sequel! <br /><br />The stuff about Lydia befriending the little people is interesting. Does it reflect the transition of boys from others to friends?Gavin Burrowshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16347163260510316959noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4202625234167413814.post-41977098032950121312010-06-16T05:20:45.826+01:002010-06-16T05:20:45.826+01:00The Bunty holiday special said Lydia had found The...The Bunty holiday special said Lydia had found The Land of the Little People "again" - so it sounds like she escaped from them before but stumbled back under pressure from readers who wanted to see more. Her escape in the holiday special may not last for long either.<br /><br />But I suspect something changed in the writing of "Lydia" because in one Bunty annual she is on friendly terms with them and helping her former nemesis who is in a spot of bother.Briony Chttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13889264059416271977noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4202625234167413814.post-52143673764878353712009-10-08T19:06:58.622+01:002009-10-08T19:06:58.622+01:00Hi Jenni,
Your link didn't seem to want to wo...Hi Jenni,<br /><br />Your link didn't seem to want to work for me. But a quick consultation with Mr. Google brought up...<br /><br /><a href="http://www.gatewaymonthly.co.uk/common.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.gatewaymonthly.co.uk/common.html</a><br /><br />...would that be the piece?<br /><br />PS While we're 'talking', were you thinking of going to Comics Friends Reunited this Saturday?Gavin Burrowshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16347163260510316959noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4202625234167413814.post-1976495506982900012009-10-08T12:55:05.413+01:002009-10-08T12:55:05.413+01:00The Cinderella story and the Slave story are two v...The Cinderella story and the Slave story are two very pervasive story types that appear again and again, and in both of them the protagonist is, by the nature of the story, fairly passive. Even then, though, there are more and less passive examples. <i>Cinderella Smith</i> in Jinty has the protagonist climbing out of windows and down drainpipes to pursue her aims; she is caught in a Cinderella trap by her wicked aunts who hold the purse-strings and who persuade authority that they are not evil. She has to endure the situation for now, but at the same time she is actively trying to change it. In contrast, <i>The Slave of Form 3B</i>, also in Jinty, has a tediously passive victim / protagonist who whines and wails and mostly submits to her fate.<br /><br />But there are indeed other types of story. Briony Coote has an interesting piece <a href="" rel="nofollow">here about the Shock Treatment story</a>, where she is talking about snobbery in various stories. Again, short of time to write more, but if you follow that link you will find someone else who has beaten your 3 stories!Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10777767458893996352noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4202625234167413814.post-55321221343240231542009-10-06T23:23:53.025+01:002009-10-06T23:23:53.025+01:00Hi Jenni,
The perception I had was that the passi...Hi Jenni,<br /><br />The perception I had was that the passivity of the girl protagonist was set against the activity of the bully/authority figure, they became almost defining features. However I noticed in your interview with Pat Mills (the one I linked to) that he spoke of the Cinderella story as one story type among many, not the universal model. So I will concede this point if you turn out to have read more girls' comics than me. The number you need to beat there is three. (There were no sisters in the House of Burrows...)<br /><br />Certainly agree that <b><i>Tammy</i></b> and <b><i>Misty</i></b> modernised things. Though as I said the <b><i>Bunty</i></b> strip 'Lydia and the Little People' could be said to first expose the model and then break it, all because it <i>wasn't</i> "down-to-earth" but fantastical.<br /><br />After reading the <b><i>Tammy</i></b> strip about the "freedom school" I noticed a <b><i>Guardian</i></b>news item on free schools. Intrigued to see the phrase reappear, I read it. It seems the definition of a 'free school' nowadays is 'freedom for a private corporation to run one for a profit.' One of those times where you don't know whether to laugh or to cry...Gavin Burrowshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16347163260510316959noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4202625234167413814.post-73806932660593256782009-10-06T11:43:50.585+01:002009-10-06T11:43:50.585+01:00Cor! A long piece; I cannot do all the comments I ...Cor! A long piece; I cannot do all the comments I might want because of time constraints.<br />* Re boys not reading girls comics - yes, indeed; but boys <i>with sisters</i> will certainly have done (not just my own experience I'm drawing on here).<br />* Yes, Jim Baikie did a lot of work in girls' comics; there are some excellent stories he illustrated in Jinty, for instance.<br />* triumvirate not triumerate by the way<br />* Re the passivity of the girl protagonists - the Cinderella story does focus on passive endurance by its nature, I suppose, but generally I reckon that by having all the protagonists and most of the characters be female, you pretty much end up having to have active female role models in girls comics, which I'd view as positive in principle. Of course, how it works out in practice may be a different matter! Jinty / Tammy / Misty generally aim for a more modern, down-to-earth active view of girls as compared to Bunty.<br /><br />JenniUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10777767458893996352noreply@blogger.com