If we had a list of the 100 greatest serials in girls comics

[Phoenix]

I think I've got the first episode of The Girl Who Can't Cry. I'd like to have more discussion on that one before we decide whether or not to advance it.

Yes, I'm not sure about that one either. I accept that the non-crying fairy or witch is here being transferred to aliens, which is certainly not a crime, but the way it is structured is limiting. Linda's admirable desire to discover which of her new classmates is the alien is translated into a series of attempts to make them cry one at a time, or one per instalment, to put it another way. She interprets what they say and do, or don't do, to fit in with her premise. Consequently, she forces Carol Midhurst into a stream to see if she can swim despite the girl claiming a medical reason why she can't, only to discover that she is wearing a wig, having lost her hair during a severe illness. She cries. The reason Pauline Mason sneaks out at night to use the telescope in the school's observatory is not to contact her alien friends but to improve her chances of decent marks in her next exam in order to impress her parents, who are always too busy to come to school functions. She cries. Then it's Sue Canning's turn, then Milly Ainsworth. The only one she doesn't investigate properly, and who pulls the wool over her eyes, is the alien, Phyllis Lawson, who is helping Linda in her search. There is some progression, mainly leading to the increasingly insistent threats from the headmistress to expel Linda, who becomes the most hated girl in the form, but still perseveres because she had actually seen the alien spacecraft and the girl. It isn't at all a bad story, but for me it does seem to fall short.

[Tammyfan]

Lady Sarah's Secret? Is that the one about a lady who disguises herself as a ghost to help a Squeersian school? If so, it was reprinted in M&J and I quite liked it.

[Tammyfan]

The list as it stands now. Only 16 places left, so make them count!

1. A Horse Called September (June/Tammy)
2. Alice in Spaceland (Princess Tina)
3. Alona the Wild One (Princess Tina)
4. Angel; The Diary of Angel (Mandy)
5. Anna, Junior Miss/Girl with the Golden Smile (Judy)
6. Balloon of Doom (Bunty)
7. Bella (Tammy)
8. Belle and Marie; Belle of the Ballet (Girl – first series)
9. Bessie Bunter (School Friend/June/Tammy)
10. Bobby Dazzler (Judy)
11. Catch the Cat (Bunty)
12. Cherry & The Children (Girls Crystal/Schoolfriend/June)
13. Cinderella Jones (Judy)
14. Cinderella Spiteful (Tammy)
15. Cuckoo in the Nest (Tammy)
16. Cult of the Cat (Misty)
17. Down with St Desmonds! (Bunty)
18. Dracula's Daughter (Jinty)
19. Ella on Easy Street (Tammy)
20. Force of Evil (Suzy)
21. Fran’ll Fix It! (Jinty)
22. Fran of the Floods (Jinty)
23. Jane Bond (Princess Tina)
24. Jill Crusoe (School Friend)
25. Junior Nanny (Judy)
26. Lady Penelope (Lady Penelope)
27. Land of No Tears (Jinty)
28. Lettice Leefe: The Greenest Girl in School (Girl – first series/Princess Tina)
29. Lorna Drake (Bunty)
30. Lucky’s Living Doll (June)
31. Luv Lisa (Bunty)
32. Maisie’s Magic Eye (Sally/Tammy)
33. Mam’selle X (Girls’ Crystal/School Friend/June)
34. Moira, Slave Girl of Rome (Princess Tina)
35. Molly Mills (Tammy)
36. Moonchild (Misty)
37. Olympia Jones (Tammy)
38. Pam of Pond Hill (Jinty/Tammy)
39. Patsy on the Warpath (June)
40. Patty’s World (Princess Tina/Pink/Mates/Girl – second series)
41. Penny’s Place (M&J/Bunty)
42. Sandra of the Secret Ballet (Judy)
43. Secret of the Skulls (Tammy)
44. Slaves of War Orphan Farm (Tammy)
45. Starr of Wonderland (Diana)
46. Sue Spiker (Emma)
47. Sugar Jones (Pink)
48. Susan of St Bride's (Girl – first series)
49. The Blind Ballerina (Judy)
50. The Button Box (Tammy)
51. The Cat Girl (Sally/Tammy)
52. The Children’s Champion (Bunty)
53. The Comp (Nikki/Bunty)
54. The Double Life of Sad Sarah (Mandy)
55. The Daughter of Lorna Doone (Princess – first series)
56. The Flights of Flopear (Bunty)
57. The Four Faces of Eve (Misty)
58. The Four Marys (Bunty)
59. The Frightening Fours (Judy)
60. The Girls from NOODLES (Diana)
61. The Happy Days (Princess Tina)
62. The Honourable S. J. (Judy)
63. The Human Zoo (Jinty)
64. The Land of Nowhere (Bunty)
65. The Pink Peril (Diana)
66. The Sad Spells Of Fay Martin (Mandy)
67. The Secrets of Charlie Chatterbox (Bunty)
68. The Seeker (Bunty)
69. The Silent Three (School Friend)
70. The Sentinels (Misty)
71. The Strangest Stories Ever Told (School Friend/June/Tammy)
72. The Supercats (Spellbound/Debbie)
73. Toots (Bunty)
74. Trixie’s Treasure Chest (Debbie)
75. Two-Faced Teesha (Tammy)
76. Valda (Mandy)
77. Vanessa from Venus (June)
78. Wee Slavey (Judy)
79. Wee Sue (Sandie/Tammy)
80. Wendy and Jinx (Girl – first series)
81. Wendy at War (Debbie)
82. Westward the Wagons (Princess Tina)
83. Winner Loses All! (Misty)
84. Worlds Apart (Jinty)

[Tammyfan]

I think I've got the first episode of The Girl Who Can't Cry. I'd like to have more discussion on that one before we decide whether or not to advance it.

Yes, I'm not sure about that one either. I accept that the non-crying fairy or witch is here being transferred to aliens, which is certainly not a crime, but the way it is structured is limiting. Linda's admirable desire to discover which of her new classmates is the alien is translated into a series of attempts to make them cry one at a time, or one per instalment, to put it another way. She interprets what they say and do, or don't do, to fit in with her premise. Consequently, she forces Carol Midhurst into a stream to see if she can swim despite the girl claiming a medical reason why she can't, only to discover that she is wearing a wig, having lost her hair during a severe illness. She cries. The reason Pauline Mason sneaks out at night to use the telescope in the school's observatory is not to contact her alien friends but to improve her chances of decent marks in her next exam in order to impress her parents, who are always too busy to come to school functions. She cries. Then it's Sue Canning's turn, then Milly Ainsworth. The only one she doesn't investigate properly, and who pulls the wool over her eyes, is the alien, Phyllis Lawson, who is helping Linda in her search. There is some progression, mainly leading to the increasingly insistent threats from the headmistress to expel Linda, who becomes the most hated girl in the form, but still perseveres because she had actually seen the alien spacecraft and the girl. It isn't at all a bad story, but for me it does seem to fall short.

Okay. Yep, always the one you least suspect. Still, I do wonder how it ended.

[Phoenix]

The list as it stands now. Only 16 places left, so make them count!

Wouldn't that be 15, Tammyfan? I was under the impression that you were going to advance Skinflint School.

[Tammyfan]

The list as it stands now. Only 16 places left, so make them count!

Wouldn't that be 15, Tammyfan? I was under the impression that you were going to advance Skinflint School.

Oops, forgot to put that one on! Thanks for the reminder.

[Phoenix]

Okay. Yep, always the one you least suspect. Still, I do wonder how it ended.

Some enormous spaceships descended over the school grounds and started to take some of the pupils on board. At the same time, their clones were leaving the craft and making their way towards the school, one of the adult aliens pointing out that this was only the beginning of a planet-wide takeover, although admitting that it was a long-term project.The quick-thinking Linda points to a nearby fire engine, and tells the alien that if he doesn't abandon their entire mission she will have them all sprayed with the salt water in the fire engine, a procedure that Linda knows is a valid threat as she had noticed that Phyllis was afraid of salt. Naturally it is a massive bluff, as the fire engine only contains ordinary water, but the aliens decide not to take the risk, and scamper up the spaceship's walkway and clear off for good. From being the most hated girl in the school Linda becomes the most popular, everybody is very relieved, and her obsessive approach to the task of unmasking the alien is finally considered worthy of praise.

[Tammyfan]

@Phoenix: thanks!

[Phoenix]

I've decided to withdraw one of my suggestions, The Chair That Rocked St. Claire's! after rereading it. There is nothing wrong with it, in fact it's hilarious, but it is episodic and has no development during its run, and that rules it out of contention as far as I'm concerned. The concept is wonderful though. Dr Winifred Rose, the headmistress of St. Claire's College for Girls, is sent a rocking chair by her brother in Africa. What she doesn't know is that when anybody sits in the chair and rocks to and fro, the wood that that chair is made from gives off a vapour that causes that person to act like a mischievous youngster, so she gets into fights, even with teachers from other schools, does cartwheels in the school playground, slides down banisters, that sort of thing. It is an adapted female version of the fifteen-episode serial Dr. Crusty's Rollicking Rocker, which appeared in the boys' text story paper The Wizard in 1940, with three crucial differences. In the St. Claire's tale, Dr. Rose's niece Christine, and other members of the Second Form know all about the chair's properties, and are able to control some of the situations, or manipulate them, which could be seen as a benefit, other people sit in the chair and are equally affected, and thirdly the story has an ending when Dr. Rose's brother turns up with Chief Ozuko of the Matambari tribe to reclaim the chair, which had been given to the brother by mistake. As a kind of compensation, the chief gives Dr. Rose an idol made of the same wood to remind her of the chair. Christine, who is the daughter of Dr. Rose's brother, says in the final panel that she can't wait to rock the idol. In the Dr. Crusty tale, which did have some progression, nobody else knows his secret, nobody else sits in the chair, and at the end he still has the chair. I suppose both stories do leave open the possibility of a sequel, but that didn't happen in either case.

[Tammyfan]

@Phoenix: okay, I'll take it off the list of possibles.

Mind you, a lot of stories are episodic and are structured more on what I call the scrape of the week than developing characters. This sort of format can really spin a story out. And they can become huge favourites.

[Phoenix]

Well leave it in then, if you like. It may well be one of those stories that really appeal to females, as matrix was suggesting. Mind you, it does appeal to me too. Perhaps I've just got a thing about episodic stories, and maybe I'm the odd one out.

[Phoenix]

I don't know how useful this information is to you, peace, but the article you linked us to is claiming, admittedly with a fair degree of uncertainty, that Starr Of Wonderland first appeared in Diana 190 (Sep. 17 1966). In fact that serial started in 187 (Sep. 17 1966), but that was her second series.

It occurs to me, peace, that I have been very remiss in not giving you the details of the first series of Starr Of Wonderland. It appeared in Diana 168 (May 7 1966) - 177 (Jul. 9 1966). The second series was still running in issue 197, but unfortunately I don't have the issue in which it finished.

[Tammyfan]

Well leave it in then, if you like. It may well be one of those stories that really appeal to females, as matrix was suggesting. Mind you, it does appeal to me too. Perhaps I've just got a thing about episodic stories, and maybe I'm the odd one out.

Episodic stories do have the disadvantage that they run the risk of getting tedious and/or stretching credibility.

[Tammyfan]

Here is the corrected version of the list as it stands now.

1. A Horse Called September (June/Tammy)
2. Alice in Spaceland (Princess Tina)
3. Alona the Wild One (Princess Tina)
4. Angel; The Diary of Angel (Mandy)
5. Anna, Junior Miss/Girl with the Golden Smile (Judy)
6. Balloon of Doom (Bunty)
7. Bella (Tammy)
8. Belle and Marie; Belle of the Ballet (Girl – first series)
9. Bessie Bunter (School Friend/June/Tammy)
10. Bobby Dazzler (Judy)
11. Catch the Cat (Bunty)
12. Cherry & The Children (Girls Crystal/Schoolfriend/June)
13. Cinderella Jones (Judy)
14. Cinderella Spiteful (Tammy)
15. Cuckoo in the Nest (Tammy)
16. Cult of the Cat (Misty)
17. Down with St Desmonds! (Bunty)
18. Dracula's Daughter (Jinty)
19. Ella on Easy Street (Tammy)
20. Force of Evil (Suzy)
21. Fran’ll Fix It! (Jinty)
22. Fran of the Floods (Jinty)
23. Jane Bond (Princess Tina)
24. Jill Crusoe (School Friend)
25. Junior Nanny (Judy)
26. Lady Penelope (Lady Penelope)
27. Land of No Tears (Jinty)
28. Lettice Leefe: The Greenest Girl in School (Girl – first series/Princess Tina)
29. Lorna Drake (Bunty)
30. Lucky’s Living Doll (June)
31. Luv Lisa (Bunty)
32. Maisie’s Magic Eye (Sally/Tammy)
33. Mam’selle X (Girls’ Crystal/School Friend/June)
34. Moira, Slave Girl of Rome (Princess Tina)
35. Molly Mills (Tammy)
36. Moonchild (Misty)
37. Olympia Jones (Tammy)
38. Pam of Pond Hill (Jinty/Tammy)
39. Patsy on the Warpath (June)
40. Patty’s World (Princess Tina/Pink/Mates/Girl – second series)
41. Penny’s Place (M&J/Bunty)
42. Sandra of the Secret Ballet (Judy)
43. Secret of the Skulls (Tammy)
44. Skinflint School (Judy)
45. Slaves of War Orphan Farm (Tammy)
46. Starr of Wonderland (Diana)
47. Sue Spiker (Emma)
48. Sugar Jones (Pink)
49. Susan of St Bride's (Girl – first series)
50. The Blind Ballerina (Judy)
51. The Button Box (Tammy)
52. The Cat Girl (Sally/Tammy)
53. The Children’s Champion (Bunty)
54. The Comp (Nikki/Bunty)
55. The Double Life of Sad Sarah (Mandy)
56. The Daughter of Lorna Doone (Princess – first series)
57. The Flights of Flopear (Bunty)
58. The Four Faces of Eve (Misty)
59. The Four Marys (Bunty)
60. The Frightening Fours (Judy)
61. The Girls from NOODLES (Diana)
62. The Happy Days (Princess Tina)
63. The Honourable S. J. (Judy)
64. The Human Zoo (Jinty)
65. The Land of Nowhere (Bunty)
66. The Pink Peril (Diana)
67. The Sad Spells Of Fay Martin (Mandy)
68. The Secrets of Charlie Chatterbox (Bunty)
69. The Seeker (Bunty)
70. The Silent Three (School Friend)
71. The Sentinels (Misty)
72. The Strangest Stories Ever Told (School Friend/June/Tammy)
73. The Supercats (Spellbound/Debbie)
74. Toots (Bunty)
75. Trixie’s Treasure Chest (Debbie)
76. Two-Faced Teesha (Tammy)
77. Valda (Mandy)
78. Vanessa from Venus (June)
79. Wee Slavey (Judy)
80. Wee Sue (Sandie/Tammy)
81. Wendy and Jinx (Girl – first series)
82. Wendy at War (Debbie)
83. Westward the Wagons (Princess Tina)
84. Winner Loses All! (Misty)
85. Worlds Apart (Jinty)

[Tammyfan]

This is what is left on the list of possibles. We can only pick 15 out of this list (or elsewhere, if there is something we have not thought of yet). I am thinking The Jealousy of Jemma and Nothing Ever Goes Right! could advance. Anyone else got thoughts on those two? Hannah in the House of Dolls is another possibility. I heard about that one vaguely and know it is one of Bunty's best-remembered stories. But as I have never seen it properly, I don't have enough information to judge on it.

I'm not sure if School's Out! is strong enough to advance. It was another soap opera concerning home and school. It appeared to be popular, but I don't think it is as well remembered as The Comp or Penny's Place. Some, such as Climbing Rose and Cloris and Claire, I know nothing about. So I reckon if nobody advocates them further, they drop off.

1. A Leap in Time (Misty)
2. Babs & the Family (School Friend)
3. Captain Kate (June)
4. Climbing Rose (Judy)
5. Cloris and Claire (June)
6. Come Home Kathleen (Bunty)
7. Diana's Diary (June)
8. Dilly Dream (School Friend)
9. Glenda Good & Bad (June)
10. Glenda’s Glossy Pages (Tammy)
11. Hannah in the House of Dolls (Bunty)
12. Hetty in the House of Secrets (Spellbound)
13. I Hate Janey! (Judy)
14. I'll Never Leave You (June)
15. Jane, Model Miss (Diana)
16. Jeanie & Her Uncle Meanie (Sandie/Tammy)
17. Justine For Justice (Sally)
18. Kathy Of Marvin Grange (June)
19. Kitty Hawke (Girl – first series)
20. Mary Jo (Princess)
21. Mini Mum (Bunty)
22. My School Chum Mum (Bunty)
23. My Schoolfriend Sara/My Friend Sara (School Friend/June)
24. Nobody Knows My Name (June)
25. Nothing ever Goes Right! (Judy)
26. School for Snobs (Tammy)
27. School's Out! (Bunty)
28. Slave to the Dolls (Tracy)
29. Surprise Corner (Poppet/June)
30. The Bennets of Ballet (Bunty)
31. The Chair that Rocked St. Claire's (Judy)
32. The Change in Claire (Bunty)
33. The Face of Romany Fortune (Spellbound)
34. The Guardian Tree (Mandy)
35. The Jealousy of Jemma (Debbie/Mandy/M&J)
36. The Quest Of Katie Courage (Suzy)
37. The Slave of Form 3B (Jinty)
38. Time after Time [1999] (Bunty)
39. Tilly Tuffin (Princess Tina)