Unhappy Families

[Tammyfan]

I remember a story in Suzy, though not the title, where a high diving girl is sent to
live with her aunt and cousin. The aunt is unfriendly and the cousin is jealous because she is also competing for the high diving team. She even goes as far as to set fire to her own room and put the blame on our heroine to get her thrown out of the house. Our high diver was so popular she came back for a sequel. This time there are no nasty relatives, but a jealous rival causes her to have a nasty accident that shatters her nerve.

[Tammyfan]

And that brings us to the scores of stories about girls causing trouble for stepsisters, foster sisters or cousins who are living in their home. They do it because they are jealous, don't want to share, feel usurped or are just plain spiteful. Sometimes it is between blood sisters, with revenge as the usual motive. DCT titles were full of them. Twin Trouble, (Judy) That Bad Bettina!, The Lying Eyes of Linda Lee (Mandy), Looking after Lois (Bunty) and What Lila Wants...(M&J) are some examples.

Sometimes these troublemakers are just part of the main plot, as in Allison's Uncles (Mandy), where Allison meets a spiteful cousin with her second uncle and No Haven for Hayley (Tammy), where a scheming foster girl worsens the dysfunctional relationship Hayley has with her over-busy mother.

"Sharing with Sonya" (Bunty) is one story that takes a refreshing twist on the theme. Here the victim catches on to what's happening, but instead of trying to catch out the troublemaker, she turns the tables with her own set of tricks!

"Sorry Sue" (Mandy & Judy) is another twist which starts with the aftermath - now I have never seen that before or since. Here the protagonist is sorry for how she treated her foster sister and driving her back to the children's home. But her every attempt to put things right backfires and she ends up giving the impression she is still picking on the girl.

[peace355]

Other stories that fit into the scheming cousins/stepsisters/foster sisters are "They're My Mom and Dad" and "Choose Me!" (Judy)

One variation on the theme is "Prove You Want Me" (Judy) a girl play tricks on her new foster parents as she is afraid they only want her for the money benefits, and wants to see if they are genuine

[philcom55]

Oddly enough one story in Tracy was actually called 'Unhappy Families'. In this case, however, the unhappiness didn't arise from any dysfunctional relationships within the heroine's own family but was visited upon other people's families by her sister's creepy pack of 'Happy Families' cards.







- Phil Rushton

[Marionette]

Wow. That Mrs Porter; one second she's telling Emma off for being irresponsible, next second she's leaving her with her small child, without even asking. And then when the girl appears to be as irresponsible as she'd assumed she was, she goes all passive aggressive, blaming her for not being able to go out. What a cow.

[Tammyfan]

I think I remember that one, vaguely. Where the heck did Emma get that pack anyway?

[DavidKW]

A strip that I came across the other day was one called I think "Hard Hearted Hannah" drawn by Dudley Wynne (of Valda fame) about a girl with an incurable disease who has to find adoptive homes for her younger siblings whom she cares for & she has to be cruel to make the process less painful for them.

I noticed that Sad Sarah was published in Mandy in 1987, so it must have been a posthumous publicated for Rob MacGillivray. He must've had a good backlogue of strips.

[philcom55]

More wicked stepmothers and stepsisters in this 1963 series from Diana that seems to have something in common with 'Lisa the Lonely Ballerina'. There's also some pretty stiff dancing - but what can you expect when the heroine has to practice in the garden shed!





To prove that all Aunts weren't as horrible as Lisa's, however, and that the return of her long-lost father wasn't always the answer to a teenage girl's dreams, here's an interesting twist on the theme from DC Thomson's little-seen Hi!







- Phil Rushton

[philcom55]

Here's a very odd variation on the theme of foster fathers from 1968, showing that they really did do things differently then:







"...Say hello to your new fathers Diana - Mr Savile, Mr Glitter, Mr Hall, Mr Harris (allegedly), etc."

I must say I'm impressed by the brutal suddenness with which Diana loses her real father at the beginning. One can't say that Bunty didn't prepare its readers for the harsh realities of life!

- Phil Rushton

[Phoenix]

Re: Unhappy Families
Tammyfan wrote:
Phoenix: thanks for that! Are you able to give us an idea of how it ended, please?

Unfortunately, not at this time. I'm currently very busy completing a project, which may overall take the best part of a couple of months. I also have a couple of visits to London scheduled. I doubt whether I will be posting much on any topic on comicsuk during that time. In any case, as you will recall, my girls' story papers are just not accessible enough.

The Double Life Of Sad Sarah is an interesting story that makes use of a not uncommon literary device, that of the story within a story, notably used by Chaucer, Shakespeare and Cervantes, and the idea of a fictional character who can move from his or her fictional world into the real world, as in the film Cool World where Brad Pitt's character does just that. There will be lots of other examples. The Sad Sarah story starts out promisingly but immediately becomes episodic, with just enough carryover to allow us to call it a serial.

Briefly, the basic story concerns Debbie Walters' father, a struggling cartoonist, who gets a commission to draw a picture strip story for a girls' comic to run for several weeks. He calls it Sad Sarah, and it recounts graphically the way Sarah is treated as a skivvy by the family she is staying with, a theme much used of course by actual writers of other stories in Mandy, or any other girls' paper for that matter. The unusual development occurs first when Debbie's father notices that some panels of the opening episode that he has already completed are different from the way he drew them, and secondly Sad Sarah suddenly makes a personal appearance in Debbie's bedroom. She is very angry at the way she is being portrayed in the cartoon strip, and is determined to rebel in the real world, from which incidentally she can disappear whenever she feels like it.

The mayhem she causes has to be seen to be believed, but it invariably gets Debbie into trouble because she has to introduce Sarah to her friends, schoolmates, relatives, and local shopkeepers etc. as her friend. One way or another she manages to spend all Debbie's money, and eats anything she can get hold of, regardless of where it is or who it belongs to, because of course as she is starved in the Sad Sarah strip, she is always ravenous. She succeeds by blackmailing Debbie, making clear to her that if she doesn't comply, she will magically alter the drawn cartoon strips to show her rebelling, which will lead to Debbie's father losing his commission.

Four episodes from the end of the serial Debbie's father gives Debbie the good news that the editor is so pleased with his strip that he wants him to extend the story, but for Debbie this is the worst news she could have had. However, there is a light on the horizon. Debbie's dad decides to draw the strip to a close by having Sarah's mother come out of hospital, now therefore able to take Sarah home. The reader sees two panels of Debbie's father's strip in which Auntie Vi is telling Sarah's mother how they've tried to make her happy there, and Sarah deciding not to tell her mother about how badly she was treated as she would only be upset.

In the real world Sad Sarah is not at all impressed by that ending, and threatens to change the ending significantly after the final episode has been put in the post. A Deus ex machina is in the wings though in the person of Mrs Arnott from the local Writers Circle. She is not at all impressed by the strip showing such a weak and spiritless creature, and states that her new book will feature a girl who is out for what she wants, and doesn't let anybody stand in her way. Sad Sarah tells Debbie that that woman is her kind of author, who will give her the opportunity to be the kind of character she has always dreamed of being, and says goodbye to Debbie.

Debbie's dad informs her that he is going to get married again so they will have to move house. Debbie is delighted because she will have a new Mum, and moving house will mean a change of school, and a chance to start afresh and make new friends. Above all, no more Sad Sarah and no more trouble.

[Tammyfan]

Thank you for posting the summary of the Double Life of Sad Sarah, Phoenix! I wonder if real life artists for girls' comics worked like Mr Walter? I know Veronica Weir was a work at home artist, so maybe she did work that way.

[Tammyfan]

Here's a very odd variation on the theme of foster fathers from 1968, showing that they really did do things differently then:







"...Say hello to your new fathers Diana - Mr Savile, Mr Glitter, Mr Hall, Mr Harris (allegedly), etc."

I must say I'm impressed by the brutal suddenness with which Diana loses her real father at the beginning. One can't say that Bunty didn't prepare its readers for the harsh realities of life!

- Phil Rushton

Mandy also ran "Alison's Uncles". Alison has four uncles. The idea is that she try each uncle out in turn and then decide which one will be her guardian. Not surprisingly, the first three don't work out. Number one was just after her money. Number two had scheming, jealous cousin Jane who played tricks on Alison. Jane was caught out, but the parents thought it best that Alison did not live with Jane. I don't know what happened with number three. Alison hits it off better with number four. The trouble is, she can't quite tell him she isn't a keep-fit fanatic like himself.

[peace355]

The third uncle and his wife were well off. They basically treat Alison as a novelty and show her off to their friends, but they soon get bored of her and end up leaving her on her own when she was sick.

In the end she ends up staying in the children's home where she is quite happy (she didn't want to get in the way of the fourth uncle's chance of a coaching job).

Similarly in M&J there was A Home for Helen, where Helen is passed around to different relatives after her parents deaths and runs into problems in her new homes.

[Tammyfan]

The third uncle and his wife were well off. They basically treat Alison as a novelty and show her off to their friends, but they soon get bored of her and end up leaving her on her own when she was sick.

In the end she ends up staying in the children's home where she is quite happy (she didn't want to get in the way of the fourth uncle's chance of a coaching job).

Similarly in M&J there was A Home for Helen, where Helen is passed around to different relatives after her parents deaths and runs into problems in her new homes.

Thank you for the information. Maybe Alison kept up correspondence and visits with number four?

[Tammyfan]

Wow. That Mrs Porter; one second she's telling Emma off for being irresponsible, next second she's leaving her with her small child, without even asking. And then when the girl appears to be as irresponsible as she'd assumed she was, she goes all passive aggressive, blaming her for not being able to go out. What a cow.

Perhaps it's the influence of the evil playing cards. They are supposed to bring unhappiness to families after all.