Comics UK

Phoenix wrote:

Tammyfan wrote:Does anyone have Catch the Cat #1161, the last page of the episode in #1159 and middle page to the episode in #1163?

Yes, I do, Briony. However I will have to ask you to wait until next week for any scans as my London grandchildren, Aurora (5) and Kelsey (2), are currently staying with me until Saturday, and they take a deal of looking after. ''Grandad, can we go/will you please take us to/ the park/ some play zones/ the swimming baths/ Southport''. Mind you, to be totally honest, I would actually much rather be taking them places than rooting through back issues of Bunty. They get me out of the house, and we have a lot of fun. It's simply a question of priorities. I'm sure you can understand this.

philcom55 wrote:

Tammyfan wrote:Looks like we are getting close to the ending with this episode, dated 24 June 1972. Assuming Hantz is right, where's your money on who The Cat is?

Curiouser and curiouser! It sounds as though the Cat has to be a transvestite, an old woman or Janine herself...or maybe Hantz himself suffered from multiple personality syndrome, with a cross-dressing alter-ego that even he didn't know about!

On the subject of all-black costumes, Diana's Black Nightingale was another early-70s heroine who wore similar attire to fight the nazis in occupied Europe - and while she didn't model herself on any kind of cat she didn't look much like her namesake either:



- Phil Rushton

Tammyfan wrote:Does anyone have the publication dates for Black Nightingale, please? I am asking because we have a query about finding this story on Girls Comics of Yesterday.

Tammyfan wrote:Does anyone have the start and end dates for the third Catch the Cat serial in 1986, please?

Phoenix wrote:

Tammyfan wrote:Does anyone have the start and end dates for the third Catch the Cat serial in 1986, please?

I've only three or four issues missing in that year, Briony, so I will extract the required information for you tomorrow afternoon. Patience is a virtue.

peace355 wrote:Catch the Cat! – Bunty: #1490 (02 August 1986) – #1501 (18 October 1986)

Phoenix wrote:

peace355 wrote:Catch the Cat! – Bunty: #1490 (02 August 1986) – #1501 (18 October 1986)

This adventure for Marie Bonnet starts in issue 1491 (Aug. 9 1986), not in 1490, where it is merely trailered. The issue number and date of the final episode are correct.

philcom55 wrote:...Hmmm, so which of those comics was your favourite Tammyfan?

While most of the one-off tales of 'mystery and imagination' that were featured in comics like Misty, Spellbound, Tammy, June, Jinty, etc. depended on rather hackneyed twists that you could see coming a mile off, every now and then one of them would really get under your skin, staying with you for years afterward.

For me, one such was the following tale that appeared in Misty dated 23rd September 1978, with marvelous artwork by Eduardo Feito (who also illustrated the classic time travel serial 'A leap through Time..' in the same issue).









To be honest I'm still not sure why I found this story so disturbing. On the face of it Jan appears to get off much more lightly than most people who fall foul of one of the Chief of Tempters' diabolical schemes. Even if she does have to go through the rest of her life feeling like a character in 'Winnie the Pooh' that doesn't seem like such a terrible hardship: certainly not one worth losing her immortal soul over. It's only a matter of superficial appearances after all: the world itself hasn't really changed at all.

The trouble is I just can't get it out of my head - the thought of never seeing a human face again, and being confronted by that awful leering 'thing' in the mirror every time you try to comb your hair or brush your teeth!

Maybe - just maybe - it really would drive you stark staring mad in the end...!

- Phil Rushton