Desperately Seeking Suzy Stories 1984

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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Phoenix
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Re: Desperately Seeking Suzy Stories 1984

Post by Phoenix »

An apology, Tammyfan. Careless reading on my part, I'm afraid. The serial in Suzy that I have referred to as Star Of The Secret Pool is actually called Star Of The Silver Pool. The protagonist is an invalid called Alison West. Her mother, a top diving coach, has disappeared in a plane crash so Alison has been sent to live with her cruel uncle and aunt and their selfish daughter, Brenda. Alison has discovered a mysterious silver pool deep in a forest. There, with the aid of a mysterious voice, Alison has been learning to dive. More mundanely she has been secretly practising some of her diving skills on apparatus in Brenda's personal gym. Despite her aunt's decision to lock her in the cellar to prevent her from getting to the diving championships in the nearby town, Alison manages to escape with the help of a mysterious monk. A neighbour drives her to the venue, where she becomes county champion. Outside the building the monk appears again and leads her to a waiting car belonging to Mr Bundock, the family solicitor. When Alison asks where they are going he says he is to take her to the appointed place, which is an airport. The plane takes her to the very place in the Tibetan Himalayas where her mother's plane had crashed over a year earlier. There she sees her silver pool and the face of her mother. She feels guilty about letting her mother down but her mother disagrees. When Alison turns round she sees her flesh-and-blood mother who has been cared for by the monks since the crash. A monk tells Alison that her mother had only been able to recover because her daughter had been strong too. The monk tells them that the work of the pool is over, and it is now time for them to return to their own world, time to begin their lives again.

Tammyfan
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Re: Desperately Seeking Suzy Stories 1984

Post by Tammyfan »

Thank you, Phoenix. It does not in fact sound like the story I was thinking of. Maybe that story was in Girl II.

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Re: Desperately Seeking Suzy Stories 1984

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Tammyfan wrote:Thank you, Phoenix. It does not in fact sound like the story I was thinking of. Maybe that story was in Girl II.
Do you no longer have your collections to refer to, Tammyfan? If not, what made you part with them? I certainly wouldn't part with mine, even at gunpoint!

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Re: Desperately Seeking Suzy Stories 1984

Post by Tammyfan »

Phoenix wrote:
Tammyfan wrote:Thank you, Phoenix. It does not in fact sound like the story I was thinking of. Maybe that story was in Girl II.
Do you no longer have your collections to refer to, Tammyfan? If not, what made you part with them? I certainly wouldn't part with mine, even at gunpoint!
I did not collect that story, just followed it on the news stand. But yes, there were some collections I did regret parting with.

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Re: Desperately Seeking Suzy Stories 1984

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Tammyfan wrote:I did not collect that story, just followed it on the news stand. But yes, there were some collections I did regret parting with.
I have no idea what happened to my original accumulation of DCT's story papers for boys in the family home. There certainly weren't enough of them for their loss to be a big deal, but I suspect they were thrown away at some point after I had moved out permanently. The issue of The Rover that I referred to in an earlier post was bought in late 1972, not that long before the paper, the last of Thomsons' Big Five, bit the dust in the second week of 1973. Of course by this time the company had started to produce three picture story papers for boys, The New Hotspur, The Victor and The Wizard, which at the time were of little interest to me. I didn't start collecting in earnest until sometime after my divorce in 1985. I started with The Big Five, including their pre-war and wartime issues, and their free gifts, and then moved on to Thomsons' picture story papers for boys. I didn't begin collecting their girls' papers until 2000. I now have most of the company's story papers for boys and girls. I don't feel that I need any more because I can always consult the missing ones in the British Library, which I can visit whenever I need to. London is only just over two hours from Liverpool on the Virgin Pendolino, it's ony £54 for a period return, and I've always got somewhere to stay while I'm there.

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Re: Desperately Seeking Suzy Stories 1984

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Phoenix wrote:I didn't begin collecting their girls' papers until 2000. I now have most of the company's story papers for boys and girls. I don't feel that I need any more because I can always consult the missing ones in the British Library, which I can visit whenever I need to.
Mmm, well last night I noticed that a seller was advertising a shedload of issues of D. C. Thomsons' Suzy, an elusive title, all bar one on a Buy-It-Now basis. I won the one being auctioned and 51 of the Buy-It-Nows. They were £4.74 each plus p&p. I already had a copy of all the others on offer. I'm in a very good mood this morning. :D

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Re: Desperately Seeking Suzy Stories 1984

Post by peace355 »

Nice buy Phoenix. I had seen some Suzys up on ebay recently and on 30thcenturycomics website, seems they are suddenly emerging from wherever people had them hidden!

Having looked through some at the library, there are some really good stories, it's a pity they weren't reprinted in other publications after it folded. The only ones I know of that were; "The Ninth Nightmare" was reprinted in Nikki and "The Jordans of Jedworth" had sequels in Judy. Of course there could have been others that I haven't come across.

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Re: Desperately Seeking Suzy Stories 1984

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peace355 wrote:I had seen some Suzys up on ebay recently
There must be something wrong with my search facility then, unless they appeared when I was in Cornwall when I'm usually too busy to search eBay on my mobile, because I have had searches out for fifteen items for some years, Suzy being one of them. The system does work because less than a month ago a search for an EP by the Carter Family, number six in a set of six, struck pay dirt. I bought it but it is too scratchy to be really enjoyable to listen to so I'm maintaining that search. It was great to hear those lovely songs again nevertheless. I have had the other five EPs for many years. I either lent the sixth to my late brother or he half-inched it because I only found it in the family home after he passed away. It was unplayable due to its new shape. If it hadn't have been for the hole in the middle it could have served admirably as an ashtray. I'm pretty certain that I bought all six EPs in one of the two branches of NEMS in Liverpool out of an early pay packet from my first permanent teaching post.

Tammyfan
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Re: Desperately Seeking Suzy Stories 1984

Post by Tammyfan »

Suzy seems to be cropping up more on ebay than she did before. I wonder what led to this? Maybe people are putting up their Suzys because she is getting more Internet attention and the demand is increasing?

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Re: Desperately Seeking Suzy Stories 1984

Post by Phoenix »

All the issues of Suzy arrived this morning via Parcelforce. They are in really excellent condition too. A small photo of Limahl has been snipped out of one of them but who's going to miss him? Number 170 contains the first instalment of Force Of Evil, which was good to read again. Number 44 is still to arrive as it was an auction win.

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Re: Desperately Seeking Suzy Stories 1984

Post by big bad bri »

Phoenix wrote:. A small photo of Limahl has been snipped out of one of them but who's going to miss him? .
to me the comic would be incomplete so i would have to buy it again.

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Re: Desperately Seeking Suzy Stories 1984

Post by Phoenix »

big bad bri wrote:to me the comic would be incomplete so i would have to buy it again.
I understand that compulsion very well, Bri, and in the past I have upgraded many a comic, some with rips, others with unsightly stains or pages missing. However, I no longer have any desire to continue along that path. Where would it stop? Don't get me wrong, I love issues in Fine condition but I try these days to focus on the stories as I've always tried to do. I just think that if every comic in my collection was in Mint condition I would be on edge just opening it. I will admit that most of my comics are in really good nick and that if I accidentally tore a page in one I would try to replace it, but if I couldn't find a replacement I wouldn't get all hot under the collar about it. After all, they were produced to be read by boys and girls, many of whom would at no time be thinking of saving them once they had read them. It's only people like us who feel that compulsion to save them all. What my lads will do with my collection when I peg out I don't know but I think they will be sensible and have them auctioned off by a firm or individual that knows their value. I don't want to be looking down at it screaming ''£8 for my number 1 Bunty? For heavens sake, that's worth three figures, and the first one is not under 5!!!!!!!! :headbash: :lol:

Tammyfan
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Re: Desperately Seeking Suzy Stories 1984

Post by Tammyfan »

Phoenix wrote: Number 170 contains the first instalment of Force Of Evil, which was good to read again.
Force of Evil must have been extremely popular with Suzy readers, and had them guessing whether or not the father was a traitor. Shame it was not reprinted in Bunty at some point after Suzy merged.

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Re: Desperately Seeking Suzy Stories 1984

Post by Phoenix »

Tammyfan wrote:Force of Evil must have been extremely popular with Suzy readers, and had them guessing whether or not the father was a traitor. Shame it was not reprinted in Bunty at some point after Suzy merged.
I'm not sure how we can know the extent of the popularity of any serial that does not get reprinted if the comic doesn't have an Editor's page on which he/she communicates weekly with his/her readers. You are right of course that Suzy's readers will have been guessing, otherwise the story would inevitably have lost a significant degree of uncertainty. As for a reprint in Bunty, there was ample time between June 1987 and the middle of 2000 for it to have happened so the company's editorial staff either rejected any suggestion of a repeat or never even considered it. It was a fine story nevertheless, really quite different from the norm.

Tammyfan
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Re: Desperately Seeking Suzy Stories 1984

Post by Tammyfan »

It certainly was different, so I think it was a real shame it had no reprint in Bunty. One of the underrated gems that fell into obscurity. Thankfully forum discussions and blog entries are now retrieving such gems and giving them some profile.

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