Misty Reprints Volume 3

[Goof]

Amazon are advertising Volume 3 of the Misty reissues for release on 20 September. The contents are Wolf Girl and "other stories". Presumably this means a collection of short 3/4 page stories. One of the artists shown is Jorge Badia Romero, who I think did several short picture stories for Misty. Has anyone heard what other stories will be included?

[Tammyfan]

No idea. The only serial Badia drew for Misty was “Screaming Point!”. The others he drew were complete stories. The last two reprint volumes were serials only, but could they be going for more complete stories this time?

[Goof]

Yes, it looks as if that's right. If they had included Screaming Point! presumably they would show the story on the front cover, or summarise it in the blurb, as they have with the serials in earlier volumes. So it looks as if it will probably be a few complete short stories.

[Tammyfan]

If you look at an index of Misty stories you will find she had far more complete stories than serials. I think Misty overused the complete stories (comeuppances, revenge, tragedy, monsters etc) and should have devoted more pages to serials. Most certainly there should have been more regular characters. If they had been popular enough they would have made Misty’s side of the merger stronger, as regulars are what carry through in a merger.

[Goof]

That’s interesting! I only really know Misty from the reprints, and the annuals and specials, where short stories usually predominate in any event. I didn’t realise that the weeklies depended so heavily on complete stories at the expense of serials. It’s a shame if this led to a lack of long-running characters, because it seems to me that maybe some of the published stories could have been taken further than they were.

I was particularly struck by this in the case of The Four Faces of Eve. The resolution of the story is a perfectly effective happy ending, but I don’t think it does justice to the scope and originality of the underlying idea – that a Frankenstein-type creation should not result in a misfit or monster, but a complete human being.

The scope for developing this idea is huge, and it’s easy to think of any number of ways that they could have carried on the story. Eve’s nightmares are sign of the psychological disruption caused by way she was made. Might she develop other and worse hallucinations or delusions? Eve inherited performing talent from Lucy Bartram, even though (as far as we know) she received her face but not her brain. Might she also develop characteristics of the criminal Margaret Hawthorne who Madame Moroni perceived as “determined, ruthless even”? Might Eve try to contact the dead girls’ families (she'd already met Lucy’s grandmother)? If so, how much would she dare to tell them? If they learn the truth about her, what future claims might they make on her as partly “their” child, if for example she earned or found a lot of money? How would strangers react if they discovered her story? Might well-meaning scientists try to use her as a guinea pig for “research”? Might less well-meaning types try to dissect her to find the secrets of her creation?

I’m sure Misty could have made a sequel to the published story out of this or similar material, but I think there was scope to take the idea further, and make of it an open-ended serial, perhaps following Eve’s development as she grew older. That would have given them one regular character, of a distinctly Mistyish type, which might been have carried over into Tammy.

[Tammyfan]

That’s interesting! I only really know Misty from the reprints, and the annuals and specials, where short stories usually predominate in any event. I didn’t realise that the weeklies depended so heavily on complete stories at the expense of serials. It’s a shame if this led to a lack of long-running characters, because it seems to me that maybe some of the published stories could have been taken further than they were.

I was particularly struck by this in the case of The Four Faces of Eve. The resolution of the story is a perfectly effective happy ending, but I don’t think it does justice to the scope and originality of the underlying idea – that a Frankenstein-type creation should not result in a misfit or monster, but a complete human being.

The scope for developing this idea is huge, and it’s easy to think of any number of ways that they could have carried on the story. Eve’s nightmares are sign of the psychological disruption caused by way she was made. Might she develop other and worse hallucinations or delusions? Eve inherited performing talent from Lucy Bartram, even though (as far as we know) she received her face but not her brain. Might she also develop characteristics of the criminal Margaret Hawthorne who Madame Moroni perceived as “determined, ruthless even”? Might Eve try to contact the dead girls’ families (she'd already met Lucy’s grandmother)? If so, how much would she dare to tell them? If they learn the truth about her, what future claims might they make on her as partly “their” child, if for example she earned or found a lot of money? How would strangers react if they discovered her story? Might well-meaning scientists try to use her as a guinea pig for “research”? Might less well-meaning types try to dissect her to find the secrets of her creation?

I’m sure Misty could have made a sequel to the published story out of this or similar material, but I think there was scope to take the idea further, and make of it an open-ended serial, perhaps following Eve’s development as she grew older. That would have given them one regular character, of a distinctly Mistyish type, which might been have carried over into Tammy.

Misty only had two sequels (three if you count the sequel to The Sentinels in the special last year). They were The Nine Lives of Nicola (sequel to Cult of the Cat) and Spider Woman (sequel to The Black Widow, but printed in the merger, not Misty herself). But yes, a sequel to The Four Faces of Eve could have been interesting.