Comics UK

Thanks, Phil, those pages made my day! The "Little Orphan Annie" influence sticks out like a sore thumb.

Working my way through Tammy I've just reached The Lame Ballerina. Say what you like about IPC girls, they don't let a minor thing like a crippling disability get in the way of their ambitions.

I've just been looking at past threads in a rather desultory manner, and I came upon this one from 2012. As in the meantime I have acquired all the relevant issues of Judy, it occurred to me that I could now clarify the situation regarding the three serials titled The Blind Ballerina. The first one appeared in 187 (Aug. 10 1963) - 202 (Nov. 23 1963). That was repeated in 786 (Feb. 1 1975) - 801 (May 17 1975), and then again in 1064 (May 31 1980) - 1079 (Sep. 13 1980). Carol Scott, a promising young dancer with the Del Solta Ballet Company, is blinded on stage in a complete accident when she is struck on the head by a falling chandelier. Inevitably she has to leave the Company, but her best friend Alison Taylor then resigns to look after her and to help her learn to dance again. They eventually get work with the Beaumont Ballet Company. However, Freda Winters, the leading ballerina there, becomes extremely jealous of Carol's ability so, along with her friend Gladys Payne, she starts to engineer a series of 'accidents'. Between them they cause the one that inadvertently triggers the beginning of the recovery of Carol's sight by tampering with a platform from which Carol is to leap down to the floor during a solo dance. The platform gives way and Carol crashes to the floor, banging her head in the process.