Unhappy endings

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.

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Tammyfan
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Unhappy endings

Post by Tammyfan »

Most girls serials end happily. But what about those that don't, because they were trying to be different or realistic, or because the ending was not thought out more?

Examples I can think of include:

Nothing ever Goes Right! (Judy) - Heather ends up in an unmarked grave.
The Image of Iris (Judy). But readers howled in protest and demanded a something be done so they could get a happier ending. So the editor brought out a sequel.
Betta to Lose (Tammy) - Betta ends up in the same old misery as before, because neither her headmistress nor her parents change the attitudes that have caused her misery.
Winner Loses All! (Misty) - Sandy escapes her contract with the Devil, but only because her father takes her place.
Witch! (Bunty). Ellie is taken away from the villagers who hate her because they think she's a witch. But they still hate her, and that hatred will be harboured for more of their generations.
The Sentinels - bittersweet ending (Misty)
Dance into Darkness (Jinty) - happy for the heroine, less so for the cursed girl.
Blind Faith (Jinty) - ends on a sad note.
Fancy Free! (Jinty). Sad, grim, but realistic ending.

Can anyone think of others?
Last edited by Tammyfan on 21 Dec 2015, 00:43, edited 2 times in total.

Phoenix
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Re: Unhappy endings

Post by Phoenix »

Tammyfan wrote:The Image of Iris (Judy). But readers howled in protest and demanded a something be done so they could get a happier ending. So the editor brought out a sequel.
The Image Of Iris 1510 (Dec. 17 1988) - 1527 (Apr. 15 1989) and 1534 (Jun. 3 1989) - 1542 (Jul. 29 1989)

Tammyfan is quite correct in the sense that the editor of Judy claimed in her editorial in issue 1529 (Apr. 29 1989) to have received lots of letters about ''The Image Of Iris'' story, and that Many readers were not happy that we left Iris in the mirror and Siri free. She then asked Well, what do you think? Write and let us know.

In a panel next to the editorial she printed four of these letters of complaint. Susan Farr of Cumbernauld said I was very disappointed at the ending. Will there be another series? I don't like the idea of Siri being free and Iris being left in the mirror and I think you should write another story showing what happens to Iris in the mirror. Tracy Marshall of Penrith wrote Surely you can't just leave Iris trapped in the mirror? I prefer happy endings, and if you don't do something about it, I'm going to stop buying ''JUDY''. Jane, Sonya and Emily from Bolton said BOO! HISS! You are rotten! ''The Image of Iris'' story was great, but you left Iris trapped inside the mirror and Siri, the baddie, free outside! How could you? We think Iris should be freed. PLEASE! Finally, Karen Bedford of Wirral wrote How could you be so cruel as to leave Iris trapped in the mirror and Siri free in the last episode of ''The Image of Iris''? I am not the only one who feels this way. My friend, who also reads ''JUDY'' agrees with me.

Now I'm quite happy to accept that there may well have been some complaints from readers, just not the above ones. In my opinion there will have been an editorial meeting much earlier which may have come up with the idea of splitting the story into two parts, possibly to find out whether readers would accept Iris being left trapped in the mirror, in which case the last nine instalments would not have been used at all. I suspect though that what we got was the editorial ploy. My reasons are based on timing. First, issue 1529 will already have been printed, or made ready for printing, several weeks earlier, and definitely before the false tabs of the apparent ending of The Image Of Iris. Secondly, the second part of the serial could not possibly have been written and drawn between 1527 and its publication in 1534 in order to respond directly to readers' protests. I can't remember who told me this but Thomsons, and almost certainly all other companies publishing titles on a weekly basis, needed to have five issues ready for printing at any one time, so it would never be possible for reader feedback to be printed a mere two weeks after a serial ended.

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peace355
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Re: Unhappy endings

Post by peace355 »

Angel (Mandy) - even if the heroine is reunited with her family and (implied) ascends to heaven, it's still a tragic young death.

The Revenge of Verna (Judy) - Verna nearly brings family to poverty due to her mistaken belief that they are responsible for her father's death. She ends up dying in order to correct the damage she has done.

Robyn's Return (Bunty) - Robyn is never accepted by her classmates.

Tammyfan
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Re: Unhappy endings

Post by Tammyfan »

I just remembered - "Hard Hearted Harriet" from Mandy was another that ended sadly, similar to Angel.
Last edited by Tammyfan on 21 Dec 2015, 00:34, edited 1 time in total.

Tammyfan
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Re: Unhappy endings

Post by Tammyfan »

"Deceived" from M&J was another. Amy finds out her friend Diane has been going out with her boyfriend Gary behind her back and dumps her. Added to that, Diane finds out that Gary has been two-timing her as well. So she has lost her best friend over a rotten two-timing creep.
Last edited by Tammyfan on 21 Dec 2015, 00:34, edited 1 time in total.

comixminx
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Re: Unhappy endings

Post by comixminx »

'Angel', as Peace says. Other than that, well, I suppose you might count the short stories in Misty - not serials of course - which typically ended much less happily than the equivalent Strange Stories or Gypsy Rose stories in other titles.
jintycomic.wordpress.com/ Excellent and weird stories from the past - with amazing art to boot.

Tammyfan
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Re: Unhappy endings

Post by Tammyfan »

"Bad Luck Barbara" (Mandy) - similar to "Witch!", and we're also left with an ominous hint that the villagers' hatred may transfer to the unsuspecting new owner.
"Friend or Foe?" (Bunty) - Karen repents the tricks she played on her new friends, but they find her out and dump her.
"False Friend" (Bunty) - Natalie finds out Karen was just taking advantage of her and dumps her, but Karen remains defiant and out to do it to someone else. One reader wrote in expressing disappointment at this ending and says there should have been punishment, not Karen getting away with it. Yes, I'm sure that even a panel showing Karen being sent to Coventry would have made this reader happy, and it's not too much to ask.
"Waves of Fear" (Jinty) - though this story did end happily, I was disappointed at no apparent punishment for Jean, despite their finding out about the trick Jean played to get Clare expelled.

There was one story (in Tracy I think, though I could be wrong, and I don't remember the title of the story) where the protagonist sets out to clear her best friend, whom she believes has been wrongly accused of stealing. But she finds out her friend is the thief after all; some sort of psychology problem. For this reason the school takes a lenient approach and the problem girl is forgiven. But not by her friend; she has been hurt too badly to forgive and tells her to find a new best friend.
Last edited by Tammyfan on 20 Dec 2015, 22:18, edited 1 time in total.

Tammyfan
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Re: Unhappy endings

Post by Tammyfan »

Phoenix wrote:
Tammyfan wrote:The Image of Iris (Judy). But readers howled in protest and demanded a something be done so they could get a happier ending. So the editor brought out a sequel.
The Image Of Iris 1510 (Dec. 17 1988) - 1527 (Apr. 15 1989) and 1534 (Jun. 3 1989) - 1542 (Jul. 29 1989)

Tammyfan is quite correct in the sense that the editor of Judy claimed in her editorial in issue 1529 (Apr. 29 1989) to have received lots of letters about ''The Image Of Iris'' story, and that Many readers were not happy that we left Iris in the mirror and Siri free. She then asked Well, what do you think? Write and let us know.

In a panel next to the editorial she printed four of these letters of complaint. Susan Farr of Cumbernauld said I was very disappointed at the ending. Will there be another series? I don't like the idea of Siri being free and Iris being left in the mirror and I think you should write another story showing what happens to Iris in the mirror. Tracy Marshall of Penrith wrote Surely you can't just leave Iris trapped in the mirror? I prefer happy endings, and if you don't do something about it, I'm going to stop buying ''JUDY''. Jane, Sonya and Emily from Bolton said BOO! HISS! You are rotten! ''The Image of Iris'' story was great, but you left Iris trapped inside the mirror and Siri, the baddie, free outside! How could you? We think Iris should be freed. PLEASE! Finally, Karen Bedford of Wirral wrote How could you be so cruel as to leave Iris trapped in the mirror and Siri free in the last episode of ''The Image of Iris''? I am not the only one who feels this way. My friend, who also reads ''JUDY'' agrees with me.

Now I'm quite happy to accept that there may well have been some complaints from readers, just not the above ones. In my opinion there will have been an editorial meeting much earlier which may have come up with the idea of splitting the story into two parts, possibly to find out whether readers would accept Iris being left trapped in the mirror, in which case the last nine instalments would not have been used at all. I suspect though that what we got was the editorial ploy. My reasons are based on timing. First, issue 1529 will already have been printed, or made ready for printing, several weeks earlier, and definitely before the false tabs of the apparent ending of The Image Of Iris. Secondly, the second part of the serial could not possibly have been written and drawn between 1527 and its publication in 1534 in order to respond directly to readers' protests. I can't remember who told me this but Thomsons, and almost certainly all other companies publishing titles on a weekly basis, needed to have five issues ready for printing at any one time, so it would never be possible for reader feedback to be printed a mere two weeks after a serial ended.
If so, this would not have been the only serial to have unpublished episodes that were published later. There was the one about Brenda and her boyfriends (don't remember exactly what it was called) that published previously unpublished episodes.

Tammyfan
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Re: Unhappy endings

Post by Tammyfan »

peace355 wrote:Angel (Mandy) - even if the heroine is reunited with her family and (implied) ascends to heaven, it's still a tragic young death.

The Revenge of Verna (Judy) - Verna nearly brings family to poverty due to her mistaken belief that they are responsible for her father's death. She ends up dying in order to correct the damage she has done.

Robyn's Return (Bunty) - Robyn is never accepted by her classmates.
Re "Robyn's Return" - Robyn got a fresh start in a new school, so it wasn't all unhappy. But when you think of what she left behind at her old one, yes it is a bit sad.
Last edited by Tammyfan on 21 Dec 2015, 00:35, edited 1 time in total.

Phoenix
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Re: Unhappy endings

Post by Phoenix »

Tammyfan wrote:If so, this would not have been the only serial to have unpublished episodes that were published later.
The last nine instalments would have been published in sequence immediately after issue 1527 had it not been for the charade set up by the editor of Judy.
peace355 wrote:The Revenge of Verna (Judy) - Verna nearly brings family to poverty due to her mistaken belief that they are responsible for her father's death. She ends up dying in order to correct the damage she has done.
In Verna's defence it should be pointed out that she starts to feel guilty about halfway through the serial when she sees the effect on the Hayden family when the bailiffs start in earnest to remove all their possessions. She realises that she has gone too far, and from that point all her efforts are to help to ensure that her relatives are comfortable, warm, and as well fed as possible. She only goes to see the family miser, old Uncle Silas Hayden, when Mr Hayden and his daughter Hatty get ill and the doctor's bills will be impossible to pay. She catches a severe chill on a very raw night, but she learns two things, first that Silas will not help the Haydens, and secondly that as it was Silas who had refused to help her father when he asked for it, she has been punishing the wrong family. She admits her wrongdoing to the family but is soon delirious. A hugely repentant Silas turns up to tell the family, and Verna, that to all intents and purposes his wealth is at the family's disposal. Verna lives on just long enough to see Hayden House restored to its former glory. She dies running across the garden towards a vision of her father.

Tammyfan
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Re: Unhappy endings

Post by Tammyfan »

Less of a happy ending for Verna than other heroines who made the same mistake.

Tammyfan
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Re: Unhappy endings

Post by Tammyfan »

In Tammy's "Slaves of the Hot Stove", the ending was stupid as well as dissatisfying. The escape (from Madam Mange who used secret slave labour in her restaurant) was the mixture for a Yorkshire pudding that was growing to the size of a room and threatening to suffocate our villain unless she agreed to release all her prisoners. Now whoever heard of a Yorkshire pudding growing that big, even with a cargo full of flour? What's more, Mange gets away and there is a blurb that the world will hear from her again. But if there was a sequel with Mange planned, it didn't happen.

Phoenix
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Re: Unhappy endings

Post by Phoenix »

It is certainly an unusual plot, but if you put your mind to it, Tammyfan, I'm sure you will come up with a couple of hundred serials across the full range of girls' story papers that are equally weird. Or boys' story papers for that matter.
Tammyfan wrote:threatening to suffocate our villain unless she agreed to release all her prisoners.
How was the threat communicated to Madam Mange, and by whom, and as the slaves are released, how exactly is the ending unhappy?

Tammyfan
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Re: Unhappy endings

Post by Tammyfan »

Phoenix wrote:It is certainly an unusual plot, but if you put your mind to it, Tammyfan, I'm sure you will come up with a couple of hundred serials across the full range of girls' story papers that are equally weird. Or boys' story papers for that matter.
Tammyfan wrote:threatening to suffocate our villain unless she agreed to release all her prisoners.
How was the threat communicated to Madam Mange, and by whom, and as the slaves are released, how exactly is the ending unhappy?
The protagonist tells Mange directly. The slaves are freed, but Mange gets away to strike again. I would upload the episode, but right now there is stuff in the garage interfering with access to my collections.

Phoenix
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Re: Unhappy endings

Post by Phoenix »

Thank you. I get the impression that the slaves would have preferred the Madam Mange ne mange plus scenario rather than the Madame Mange ne mange pas one.
Tammyfan wrote:I would upload the episode, but right now there is stuff in the garage interfering with access to my collections.
That sounds just like my lounge.....and my bedroom.....and definitely my dining room. My garage, actually if we are going to be truthful it is a hut, is full of packaging, which I would be using when selling unwanted items on eBay if only I could find the time to advertise them. I don't know what the seasonal weather is like over there in New Zealand but if our shirtsleeve weather is anything to go by, I'm assuming that you will get three or four feet of snow by the 25th. Either way, do enjoy your Christmas holiday, Tammyfan, and indeed that goes for all other members too, even those who would never be seen dead accessing our Girls' Comics section. :) :D :lol:

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