Time Travel strips in Girls' Comics

[Tammyfan]

"Time after Time" was a title used twice in Bunty for time travel stories, one in 1997 and the other in 1999.

The 1997 version featured a watch that a girl picked up in a car boot sale and sure enough it is a time travel piece. But after numerous misadventures trying to find the right way to use the power, the heroine eventually returns to the time she first picked it up and puts it back. Yes, like so many serials where the heroine finds an object with a power, she decides it's more trouble than it's worth and gets rid of it. That or it eventually loses its power or gets destroyed.

The 1999 version had a town (can't remember its name) where everything repeats over and over. What's more, there's a sign that says that if you come back to the town for a third time, you stay there forever.

[stevezodiac]

Off topic but worth bringing to your notice.

I always enjoyed the Time Travel stories in Star Trek and there was an excellent one In ST-Voyager which actually involved an official time ship. Unfortunately the commander had become unstable and kept trying to change the time line so that his deceased wife and kid could come back - but every time he made a change he would wipe out millions of people on one planet or another. Then Voyager became involved and was on the verge of destruction - with Voyager a battered hulk and just captain Janeway on board (the rest of the crew having abandoned ship). I won't tell you how it ended. Yesterday's Enterprise was shown recently on Pick TV - another great time travel story - this one from TNG.

[philcom55]

...Of course, the best of all Star Trek episodes to involve time travel was Harlan Ellison's classic 'City on the Edge of Forever'. In my humble opinion anyway!


I only have a few 'Glory Knight' episodes Matrix, but I don't think her series could have lasted for more than a year.

"The Haunted Station' in Princess was another series where the means of travelling back to the past was glossed over rather vaguely. Here's a page in which artist Julio Bosch captures the moment of transition with some highly effective scratch marks:



(As a matter of interest, does anyone know if this story was a reprint?)

Yet another way of travelling forward in time was explored in the 1974 Bunty series 'Princess of the Sun' where an Inca princess woke up in the present day after a sleep of several hundred years.



However, the earliest time travel series I've so far been able to find in any girls' comic is 'The Strange Journey of Jessica Jones', which appeared in Bunty during 1963. Here the heroine simply 'walked' back to the time of the seventeenth century English civil wars...'in some strange way'!





- Phil Rushton

[Tammyfan]

Here is a fun time travel story from Jinty 1976. Our ghastly Gertie causes the Great Fire of London, the French Revolution, the destruction of Pompeii, an Ice Age and other historic happenings during the course of her time travels.

[Tammyfan]

Re Philcom: As a matter of interest, does anyone know if this story (The Haunted Station) was a reprint?


I do know that Princess was reprinting a lot of old stories from Tammy and Jinty at this stage - not a good sign for a fledgling comic. But I doubt The Haunted Station was among them because Julio Bosch's art never appeared in Jinty. Bosch - or at least Bosch-style art did appear in Tammy, but it was extremely rare. So I think we can safely assume The Haunted Station was a Princess original.

[philcom55]

I didn't think I'd seen The Haunted Station before, though it was unusual in that Princess doubled up the episodes towards the end. Presumably they wanted to finish it off before the comic was cancelled.

Thanks for posting those Gertie Grit pages Tammyfan. They're a nice example of the humorous time travel storylines that IPC liked to feature in many of their comics - though they certainly weren't alone in seeing the funny side of the subject. Here's the first episode of 'The Magic Mirror' which appeared in DC Thomson's Diana. during 1969.





Having discovered the miraculous properties of her mirror Maggie went on to meet some of history's most illustrious characters over the following weeks, including Sir Francis Drake and Robin Hood. At one point she even helped Hannibal and his elephants to cross the Alps!

- Phil Rushton

[philcom55]

Another quirky time-travel series from Diana!

Little did the Robinson family realize when they took up residence in an isolated Welsh cottage that it was situated right next to Merlin's cave - nor that the irritable wizard was in the habit of silencing noisy neighbours by temporarily 'swishing' them back into the past.

In spite of its humorous premise this series featured some surprisingly realistic art that looks like the work of Luis Bermejo's studio (though not necessarily by Luis himself).



...That really is a beautiful cow!

- Phil R.

[Tammyfan]

Philcom: when a comic doubles up on episodes - or turns normally three-page episodes into four pages - it means they're trying to clear out serials in an awful hurry before an upcoming cancellation or merger.

Thank you for the latest samples and I'm glad you like Gertie. Most of Gertie's adventures were confined to the past - but there was one episode where she lands in the distant future. Maybe I'll upload that one later on.

[matrix]

Diana certainly had some nice comic strips, could that be Mr trevisans work Phil? I can see shades of "Wizard of oz" and "secret garden" coming through although not as detailed, and the girls face looks like his work?

In respect to the cow, has it been stretched to fit that caption at the top or are some cows that long!

[felneymike]

Looks fine to me

[Tammyfan]

A popular vehicle for time travel in girls' comics was an object that had some history behind it. Whenever the girl rubbed it or shone a magic torch on it, it would whisk her back to the time period the object came from. Of course she was always whisked back again. One example is Polly's Patches (Debbie, I think) where Polly owns a pair of jeans full of patches. Each patch has a history and whenever a patch gets rubbed it takes her to that time period.

[peace355]

Hazel of Hattfield Hall had a girl that would travel back in time and help her ancestors, I think she was restricted to the house and would also appear more as a ghost than solid person if I'm remembering right. It was a Judy story.

[philcom55]

I don't think that's Giorgio on 'Swish Family Robinson', Matrix - though he may have had a hand in the colouring which doesn't seem to be in Luis' usual style. Offhand I can't remember if he ever worked for the Bermejo studio.


One of the weirdest methods of time travel to appear in a British comic must have been that employed each week by Lorna Butterwick: Cheese!!!

In each instalment of the first series of 'Lorna at Court' the essay-writing heroine is bullied into producing an article for the school magazine, only to find herself whisked back to the court of some famous Queen where she is able to take notes on the relevant period of European history. Interestingly, there is always a certain amount of ambiguity as to whether her trips are just cheese-induced dreams or genuine manifestations of some obscure form of cheese-magic. As can be seen in this debut tale the strip was clearly intended to have an educational value similar to many early Doctor Who episodes - so much so, in fact, that it is packed with enough historical detail to fill a medium-size textbook!





- Phil Rushton

[philcom55]

Next to eating cheese one of the strangest methods of time travel ever to appear in British girls' comics must surely have been Ursula Wade's amazing 'time umbrella' - seen here in a 1973 issue of Debbie as it transports her to the time of Robin Hood!



- Phil R.

[matrix]

Here is an ad for a time travel strip from "sally" comic, "The girl from tomorrow" where she travels from the future to the year of the comic!