Comics UK

Tammyfan wrote: A lot would have been drawn from their own experiences or what they had seen in real life.

Author Nina Ephron's mother reputedly told her to take notes as ''Everything is copy''.

Tammyfan wrote:I do recall one Bunty story, "April Fool", which actually said the protagonist April Mason (who would believe anything, anything!) was based on a real person they were still trying to forget.

I can't recall this title, Tammyfan, but such an assertion will have been very unusual if only because it will have immediately subtracted some essential fiction from the story. Was the story in the weekly issues or in one of the annuals?

April Fool was in the regular comic and drawn by Douglas Perry.

Tammyfan wrote:April Fool was in the regular comic

As it is not listed on the Girls Comics Of Yesterday site, Tammyfan, could you please tell me more or less when it appeared in Bunty.

Somewhere in the 1980s, I think. Sorry I can't be more specific.

Tammyfan wrote:Somewhere in the 1980s, I think.

Oh well, not to worry. I'm bound to come across it one of these days.

Phoenix wrote:

Tammyfan wrote:Somewhere in the 1980s, I think.

Oh well, not to worry. I'm bound to come across it one of these days.

Still some gaps in the Bunty collection, eh?

Tammyfan wrote:Still some gaps in the Bunty collection, eh?

No, not really. I don't have absolutely all the issues but I noted the content of all those I don't have when I did the research in the British Library. What I haven't done yet is cross-reference the serials. Consequently it isn't yet an entirely straightforward job to locate a specific story, which is why I'm reluctant to go through a decade of issues of Bunty just to find April Fool when I know I'll find it eventually. Then, of course, there is the additional problem that you are not absolutely sure yourself that it did appear in the eighties.

Tammyfan wrote:Somewhere in the 1980s, I think.

Actually April Fool - she'll believe anything! appeared in Nikki not Bunty. Edit -Although thinking now, it's possible it was printed first earlier in the 80s for Bunty?

206 (28 January 1989) -216 (8 April 1989)



I'll update the site, with Nikki reference. There's a lot of Nikki stories I haven't put details about yet, must get onto that!

Thanks for the info about April, Peace 355!

If you think April is an exaggeration in gullibility you should see the stuff conspiracy theorists believe. I remember the story ending with another witness coming forward about the aliens (don't remember what happens to them) so people aren't quite sure what to think about April's story now. For her part, April resolves to try to be less gullible.

peace355 wrote:Actually April Fool - she'll believe anything! appeared in Nikki not Bunty. Edit -Although thinking now, it's possible it was printed first earlier in the 80s for Bunty? (Nikki) 206 (28 January 1989) -216 (8 April 1989)

I do have the complete serial in Nikki so in the light of the above information from peace355 I will now check my early eighties issues of Bunty to see if I can locate it. I must be able to find it because the title doesn't figure anywhere in the notes I took from the British Library on the issues of Bunty that I didn't have at that time.

Phoenix wrote:

peace355 wrote:Actually April Fool - she'll believe anything! appeared in Nikki not Bunty. Edit -Although thinking now, it's possible it was printed first earlier in the 80s for Bunty? (Nikki) 206 (28 January 1989) -216 (8 April 1989)

I do have the complete serial in Nikki so in the light of the above information from peace355 I will now check my early eighties issues of Bunty to see if I can locate it. I must be able to find it because the title doesn't figure anywhere in the notes I took from the British Library on the issues of Bunty that I didn't have at that time.

Does your Nikki print have the blurb in the first episode where it says the story is dedicated to a real person the writer was still trying to forget?

Tammyfan wrote:Does your Nikki print have the blurb in the first episode where it says the story is dedicated to a real person the writer was still trying to forget?

Yes it does. Also, in view of the possibility that there was an earlier printing in Bunty of April Fool sometime in the eighties, I have this evening checked the first issue of 1979 and every sixth issue thereafter until the end of 1988 in search of the title. I have to report that it isn't there. I do have fifteen issues missing from my collection in that decade but they are all individual issues not runs, so no serial could be hidden therein. It would seem therefore that the serial only appeared in Nikki.

Phoenix wrote:

Tammyfan wrote:Does your Nikki print have the blurb in the first episode where it says the story is dedicated to a real person the writer was still trying to forget?

Yes it does. Also, in view of the possibility that there was an earlier printing in Bunty of April Fool sometime in the eighties, I have this evening checked the first issue of 1979 and every sixth issue thereafter until the end of 1988 in search of the title. I have to report that it isn't there. I do have fifteen issues missing from my collection in that decade but they are all individual issues not runs, so no serial could be hidden therein. It would seem therefore that the serial only appeared in Nikki.

Given the year the serial appeared, in 1989, I did not think it was likely it was reprinted in Bunty either. Any reprint would have been around the 1999 mark and I never saw it then.

Tammyfan wrote:Given the year the serial appeared, in 1989, I did not think it was likely it was reprinted in Bunty either. Any reprint would have been around the 1999 mark and I never saw it then.

I've been assuming all along that any other appearance of April Fool would have appeared earlier than the Nikki printing, which itself would have been the repeat. Both you and peace355 suggested that the serial might have been in Bunty in the eighties but at no point until now has anybody suggested that it might have been later. Have I just wasted a whole evening?

Phoenix wrote:

Tammyfan wrote:Given the year the serial appeared, in 1989, I did not think it was likely it was reprinted in Bunty either. Any reprint would have been around the 1999 mark and I never saw it then.

I've been assuming all along that any other appearance of April Fool would have appeared earlier than the Nikki printing, which itself would have been the repeat. Both you and peace355 suggested that the serial might have been in Bunty in the eighties but at no point until now has anybody suggested that it might have been later. Have I just wasted a whole evening?

If you have, some of it was my memory being confused as to where it was printed. I thought it was Bunty and don't really recall reading issues of Nikki as well at the news stand. Peace raised the possibility of an earlier Bunty print; I don't think I did.

Anyway, thank you for checking up.