Discuss all the girls comics that have appeared over the years. Excellent titles like Bunty, Misty, Spellbound, Tammy and June, amongst many others, can all be remembered here.
philcom55 wrote:In some ways Justine was Superman to Cat Girl's Batman (with a bit of Wonder Woman thrown in for good measure!). It's a shame they never got to team up like their male equivalents at DC (in fact, given the number of characters with an SF background in Sally's original lineup they could almost have formed their own 'Justice League').
The artwork on this rather cursory 'secret origin' from Sally no.1 may seem a bit unspectacular, but later episodes were to be drawn by such luminaries as Mike Noble and John Burns.
That's a very brief origin. "Oh! You have saved me from a momentary inconvenience! As a reward I'll give you the power of flight and X-ray vision. Go and become a superhero." such an obvious put up job.
I have a Mike Noble episode of Justine and it looks great.
And you're right, Sally is full of genre heroines. There's even a cowgirl strip. It's positively humming with creativity.
The Tammy Project: Documenting the classic British girls' comic, one serial at a time.
Marionette wrote:The more I find out about Sally, the more I want to read it. Which is a problem because copies seem to be incredibly scarce. And expensive, when they do show up. *sigh*
At least there are plenty of Sallys listed in the gallery. Maybe some nice person here will burn their copies on a disc for you.
That would be a kindness. And I'd be able to write about Sally if I had scans available for reference. Can anyone help?
The Tammy Project: Documenting the classic British girls' comic, one serial at a time.
Tammyfan wrote:
Sorry, this Sara is 1971. Sarah Jane Smith did not appear on Doctor Who until 1973.
Entirely true. But Sara Kingdom appeared in The Dalek's Masterplan in 1965-66.
Sara Kingdom was a relatively obscure companion who only lasted for one Who story (even if it was a long one). It is possible there's a connection between her and the Sally Sara, but it may be stretching a point. Still, Sara Kingdom...Sara's Kingdom. Quite a pun there....
Tammyfan wrote:
Sara Kingdom was a relatively obscure companion who only lasted for one Who story (even if it was a long one). It is possible there's a connection between her and the Sally Sara, but it may be stretching a point. Still, Sara Kingdom...Sara's Kingdom. Quite a pun there....
Exactly. And if titles of serials in girls' comics are known for one thing, it's the puns. And bear in mind that Doctor Who was massive in the late sixties. More popular than it is now because the alternative options were a lot more limited. And Sara Kingdom was a strong, popular character in the most epic Dalek story there had ever been. Bear in mind also that Sally was stuffed with SF strips. The likelihood of the editorial team responsible for that not following the premier British SF TV show seems pretty small to me.
Originally I assumed they'd come up with the punny title and written the story around it, but now it looks like they had the story already up and running, but with the blah Schoolgirl Princess title, and then someone came up with the terrible pun that fitted the story, and they liked it so much they changed it between episodes. I think it's hilarious.
The Tammy Project: Documenting the classic British girls' comic, one serial at a time.
The other stories in Sally #1 were:
Farm Boss Fanny
Legion of Super Slaves
The Castle Kids
Girl from Tomorrow
Des and Dink
Tiny Tina
Daddy Come Home
Thunk
Calamity Kate
Sue and Prue
If Cat Girl was Batman, Justine was Superman and Masie was Green Lantern, then I guess Tiny Tania must have been Sally's version of the Atom. Here she is in her debut episode, taken again from Sally no.1.
...If nothing else this strip ought to convince young girls to steer clear of strange men who promise to "take you to a wonderful world beyond your imagining"!
Sara Kingdom was a great character with a highly memorable name - though she stuck in my memory more from her appearances in print than on the TV. I suspect that, like the Daleks, she was owned by Terry Nation rather than the BBC, and that for a time he had hopes of spinning her off into a TV series of her own as a kind of futuristic Emma Peel or Modesty Blaise. That's something I'd have really liked to see (Jean Marsh was kind of hot in those days!).
Tiny Tania? Someone made a mistake in the gallery because it said Tiny Tina. At least the alien did save Tania from the foster father, though I'm not quite sure if it was the right way. I guess we find out as the story develops.
Last edited by Tammyfan on 08 Aug 2013, 23:18, edited 1 time in total.
philcom55 wrote:Gosh, I hadn't noticed that - it sounds as though poor old Tania had abusive foster parents and an abusive stepfather!
- Phil R.
Nah, someone must have made a mistake with the lettering. Now I'm not sure if they're foster parents or step parents. And I wonder if they did turn up again later in the story?
philcom55 wrote:Gosh, I hadn't noticed that - it sounds as though poor old Tania had abusive foster parents and an abusive stepfather!
- Phil R.
Nah, someone must have made a mistake with the lettering. Now I'm not sure if they're foster parents or step parents. And I wonder if they did turn up again later in the story?
I've noticed that a lot of writers don't seem to understand the distinctions between someone who has been fostered, adopted, or has a step-family. There's at least one Tammy story I read recently where a heroine's entire family is described as step.
And regardless of which relationship the writer intended, they always hate the heroine. As I have two adopted sisters, I find that doesn't fit with my personal experience.
The Tammy Project: Documenting the classic British girls' comic, one serial at a time.
Sally is full of dodgy mentors. Sure, they might give you superpowers and then micromanage how you use them, but they might also shrink you down to the size of a mouse so you can have an "adventure".
The Tammy Project: Documenting the classic British girls' comic, one serial at a time.
Marionette wrote:The more I find out about Sally, the more I want to read it. Which is a problem because copies seem to be incredibly scarce. And expensive, when they do show up. *sigh*
I've been getting more and more intrigued with Sally too ever since this thread started.
philcom55 wrote:Gosh, I hadn't noticed that - it sounds as though poor old Tania had abusive foster parents and an abusive stepfather!
- Phil R.
Nah, someone must have made a mistake with the lettering. Now I'm not sure if they're foster parents or step parents. And I wonder if they did turn up again later in the story?
I've noticed that a lot of writers don't seem to understand the distinctions between someone who has been fostered, adopted, or has a step-family. There's at least one Tammy story I read recently where a heroine's entire family is described as step.
And regardless of which relationship the writer intended, they always hate the heroine. As I have two adopted sisters, I find that doesn't fit with my personal experience.
There was a mystery as to why, in Jinty's Make-Believe Mandy, Mandy's family hated her. But I guessed right away that it was because she was not related to them by blood. Which left another question - who was she really?
Tammyfan wrote:
There was a mystery as to why, in Jinty's Make-Believe Mandy, Mandy's family hated her. But I guessed right away that it was because she was not related to them by blood. Which left another question - who was she really?
Wasn't she actually a princess by birth who'd been smuggled out of an obscure European country due to unrest/revolution? Thus yet again playing out the scenario of wealthy (and blue-blooded!) origins! For some reason she'd been fostered out to the family who despised her! I'll have to re- check my Jinty comics to find out how they came to have Mandy in their care.
