‘Can I have a comic, Mum?’
Every issue, our Editor at Large, Valery will be reliving the best bits of our lives. This fortnight, the early stories that fired our imaginations
Iwas an avid comic fan as a child – from Playhour (remember Bunny Cuddles, the jam-loving rabbit?) through to Petticoat when I was a teenager. I read them avidly from cover to cover and I’m not the only one. Like me, many of you can still recall the characters and stories we all followed from week to week. I loved the (now politically incorrect) Bunty comic strip, ‘I’ll make you Miss World’, but Sue Doyle recalls another Bunty perennial, The Four Marys. “They went to a boarding school called St Elmo’s (it always looked such fun) and were called Mary Radleigh, Mary Cotter, Mary Simpson and Mary Field. In Judy, I loved Bobby Dazzler and my favourite story was Wee Slavey about a young Victorian girl in service.” Poor Wee Slavey is remembered by Susan Hill, too. “She was treated very badly and took a warmed brick to bed to keep out the cold. On a cold winter’s night, when my sister and I were curled up under our blankets, we would discuss how sorry we were for the poor tramps on park benches and how glad we were not Wee Slavey – at least we had rubber hot water bottles.” Betty Dixon also learned a life lesson from her comic. “When I was 14 I got a Saturday job and with the money bought the Girls’ Crystal every week. “One day my mum called us to the table for our meal. ‘No reading at the table and put the comic down’ had obviously been repeated several times, but I was eager to know what happened next in the stories so I continued reading. The next thing it was snatched from my hand, thrown in the range fire and went up in flames. It worked, I never repeated my error.” A couple of decades later, Pam Jones’ life lesson wasn’t quite so drastic. “My mother disapproved of Jackie, saying it was too grown up for me (I was 13!) and if she caught me with it I would be severely punished. I would sneak it into the house in my satchel and read it while ‘doing my homework’ in my bedroom, with one eye on the doorknob. She never did find out.” Yours readers have always been a clever bunch, judging from the number of you who won competitions, including Suzanne Scaife: “Throughout the Seventies, I loved Look-In magazine with its comic strips of popular ITV children’s programmes. “As a huge Famous Five fan, I was thrilled to win the bike that was used in filming the TV show. The actress who played Ann came to my house for the presentation, and we had a great day.” A comic also brought Irene Roberts closer to her hero – Cliff. “When I was seven years old, my older cousin got Valentine magazine and each week collected a part of a picture of Cliff Richard which, over the weeks, built up into a life-size image. I loved Cliff
‘My mother disapproved of Jackie, saying it was too grown up for me (I was 13!)’
and my cousin let me have the photo for my bedroom wall. Neighbours of ours were related to Cliff’s auntie, who told him about this young fan, and he sent me a signed photo, ‘To little Irene, with lots of love from Cliff Richard’. I was thrilled!” Jeanne HoareMatthews had a little help
‘My little brother had a regular order for the Eagle comic and I had its sister publication, Girl’
from a relative as well. “My sister, Mari I’Anson, was the artist for Diana’s All-sorts page and asked me to write some poems for it. I was hesitant at first but soon had poems published and have been writing poetry ever since, including a few published in Yours.” Lisette Davidson has never forgotten her first win – thanks to The Dandy. “I was only nine years old and it was a prize for designing an alien on the back of a plain postcard – mine was a three-legged alien from Mars! I won an underwater Letraset transfer set complete with pages of underwater transfers and a three-foot long underwater scene to stick them on.” Lisette wasn’t the only girl who enjoyed boys’ comics. “In the Fifties, my little brother had a regular order for the Eagle comic and I had its sister publication, Girl,” remembers Mary Cook. “As I was a tomboyish child, Girl was far too ladylike for me. We both loved Dan Dare and his skirmishes with his adversary the Mekon. We were thrilled when Radio Luxembourg launched a dramatised version, Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future. Listening to that was the highlight of our week.” As a child, Brenda Watt loved The Beezer, Dandy, Topper and Beano. “Years later, my son had the Eagle and Scream comics and there was always a scramble at the door to read them first. I loved Dan Dare and also the eerie serial The Thirteenth Floor in Scream. “My son once won a competition in the Eagle, writing about ‘Your Favourite Teacher’. His teacher received a box of chocolates and flowers as a result. My son is now in his forties and we still hear from her.” That’s the power of comics for you. Match that, Dan Dare!