The Tammy revolution?

[Kashgar]

In the current issue of 'Crikey' there is an article that praises the IPC/Fleetway girls title 'Tammy' as being something of a iconoclastic groundbreaker in the history of girls' comics. This I feel is unwarranted praise for a title that, despite being a good example of it's kind, travelled the same highways and by-ways that girls comics had done for years and would continue to do so.
It was certainly a successful girls' title, by Fleetway standards at least, lasting for a creditable 13 years but even then by the standards of the powerhouse girls' titles published by rivals D C Thomson Bunty, Judy and Mandy it was still relatively small beer. It also didn't, as the article seemed to imply, herald in any other girls' titles of particular worth. Certainly not in terms of lasting popularity at the time as evinced by the steady stream of amalgamations that took place in the Fleetway girls' paper universe in the 1970's and 1980's.
The fact that Pat Mills and Gerry Findlay-Day had great days in the Fleetway boys' picture papers to come hardly warrants this back-dated praise for the 'revolution' they apparently brought about in the girls' comic field several years earlier. Tammy was a good girls' picture paper but to say it was more than that is over-egging the pudding.

[Lew Stringer]

Interesting. Inspired by Pat's comments about Tammy (in Crikey and in conversations we've had) I bought some old girls comics from eBay. I must say I agree with you Ray. Perhaps it was the issues I bought but I couldn't see any difference in tone, overall, between Tammy or Diana. They both played on the emotional angles, but that's what girls comics always did.

Did Tammy perhaps feature more working class heroines than previous girls comics? Did it have more brutal emotional trauma?

Lew

[Muffy]

I did like Tammy, when younger - though I was reading in the early 1980s around 1981/1982/1983. The story's then were very similar to 'Jinty' and 'Penny' (other IPC comics).

'Bella' one of the main story's was about a window-cleaning gymnast. 'Pam of Pond Hill' was a Grange Hill type story with more humour. Horses and Pony's featured regularly with 'Jump Julia Jump' and 'A Horse called September'. Orphans also appeared regularly (remember one where she had to scrub steps in Victorian England and another where she befriended a little dog). 'Romy's Return' was about 2 friends who had fallen out over the netball team. Some story's reflected what was happening elsewhere, in 1982 there was a story about space invaders after ET's success. 'Nanny Young' was about a young enthusiastic Nanny - whenever she got things sorted she had to move on. 'Button Box' had a wheelchair-bound protagonist, whose box of buttons each had a story attached to them. Another story featured a girl whose best-friend had sadly died and she decided to turn her heart to stone and not have any more friends ever again.

But certainly there were no posh heroines.

Tammy definitely appealed more to me than the DC Thompson's comics like 'Mandy'. Of course by then 1980's Pat Mills would have been concentrating on Charley's War; Nemesis; Slaine and other quality story's - so wouldn't say that they were really gritty or sad.

'Misty' did merge with Tammy too about 1981.

[colcool007]

I think the article should have been more geared towards the apprenticeship of Editor Gerry Findlay-Day as that appeared to me to be the main thrust of the article rather the thought of Tammy as a 'ground-breaker' comic.

The only real biggie that came into girls comics on the back of Tammy was Misty and we know that the Gothic revolution didn't even last 2 years as a weekly comic. (Muffy, the amalgamation was Jan 1980! ) But as already mentioned, most of the movers and shakers that introduced Tammy had moved onto brighter things by the time that amalgamation had taken place.

While Tammy will hold a place in the hearts of the 70's kid, I have to agree that it didn't add much to the girl comics genre.

[philcom55]

Personally I thought that Sally (1969-1971) was Gerry Finlay-Day's prototype girls' comic, and that Tammy (which duly swallowed its predecessor within weeks of appearing) was simply intended as a way of re-launching it after a very damaging period of industrial action. I haven't read the earlier issues of Tammy, but going by Sally's rather dull line-up of strips it's hard to see Finlay-Day as the sort of ground-breaking pioneer that Pat Mills presents him as. What's more I always found him to be one of the weaker scripters in 2000AD (and I got the impression that Mills thought so too at the time he was editing it!). Even Rogue Trooper - arguably his only memorable creation - could be said to have owed most of its success to Dave Gibbons's initial input.

Having said that I've no doubt that Tammy really did serve as a launchpad for some of IPC's 'grittier' 1970s comics like Action and Battle, but more because of the writers (Mills, Wagner, McDade, etc.) it was lucky enough to attract rather than any revolutionary editorial vision.

- Phil Rushton

[Kashgar]

The only real biggie that came into girls comics on the back of Tammy was Misty and we know that the Gothic revolution didn't even last 2 years as a weekly comic.

But even here Col Thomson's had gotten in first with 'Spellbound'. So even this stuttering 'revolution', as neither title was a great commercial success, was hardly instigated by Fleetway.

[stevezodiac]

I've always been intrigued by the artwork in Bella and noticed the initials JA or AJ (they are written interlocked so hard to tell which initial comes first). Can anyone give me the name of the artist?

Ta muchly.

[Lew Stringer]

I've always been intrigued by the artwork in Bella and noticed the initials JA or AJ (they are written interlocked so hard to tell which initial comes first). Can anyone give me the name of the artist?

Ta muchly.

John Armstrong.

Lew

[philcom55]

Pat Mills gives the 'Bella' artist's identity as John Armstrong (there's even a photo of him in the latest Crikey! )

- Phil R. ( ...Darn! Lew beat me to it! )

[Lew Stringer]

The only real biggie that came into girls comics on the back of Tammy was Misty and we know that the Gothic revolution didn't even last 2 years as a weekly comic.

But even here Col Thomson's had gotten in first with 'Spellbound'. So even this stuttering 'revolution', as neither title was a great commercial success, was hardly instigated by Fleetway.

Not to mention Warlord inspiring IPC to do Battle Picture weekly.

I haven't seen Spellbound but I'm pretty sure the "revolution" Pat speaks of is nothing to do with who came up with a mystical girls weekly first, or a war weekly come to that, or how long the comics ran for. It's more to do with stories dealing with more of a modern social environment I think, or being a bit harder edged. It's more about a shift in tone from the fifties/sixties comics into a tougher style. Pat suggests this started with Tammy and then ran into Battle, Action, and 2000AD.

Lew

[colcool007]

The only real biggie that came into girls comics on the back of Tammy was Misty and we know that the Gothic revolution didn't even last 2 years as a weekly comic.

But even here Col Thomson's had gotten in first with 'Spellbound'. So even this stuttering 'revolution', as neither title was a great commercial success, was hardly instigated by Fleetway.

You're right there, but I was thinking of the realism that came more and more into Fleetway comics from the time of Tammy onwards rather than Misty being the first and only 'Goth' comic, which I can see as easily being misconstrued.

A good example of this realism is that although DCT's Warlord was grittier than what had gone before, the Editor was still unable or unwilling to portray a German as a central character until Battle did it with Panzer G-Man and Hellman swung his hammer in anger in Action.