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.
We now have more details on Slave of the Trapeze (or whatever the serial came to be called).
"The main character's name was Sally. The villainous circus owner's name was Barker. Sally was blackmailed by Barker into doing dangerous stunts on the trapeze. Sally's father was a cripple as a consequence of a trapeze accident forced on him by Barker. Barker threatens to dismiss Sally's father and so destroy him pyschologically unless she performs as he demands. To make matters worse, Sally has vertigo. A mystery helper - a clown always in costume and greasepaint - gives Sally moral support...I vaguely remember artwork being somewhat similar to Spartan School."
And here are some examples of what the artwork in Spartan School looked like.
Hmm, this Barker guy sounds a bit like Yablonski in Tammy's Circus of the Damned in 1978. Yablonski is out to create the greatest show on earth by blackmailing his performers into dangerous stunts. Even the animals hate him, especially the tiger. And there is a clown who is secretly helping the heroine in this story too. But he has to do it on the quiet because he is officially Yablonski's crony. I wonder if this story was a descendant of the story we are looking for?
As a matter of interest has anyone managed to find out any more about 'Slave of the Trapeze'? Given the combined collections we have available it seems quite remarkable that nobody's been able to unearth a single episode yet.
philcom55 wrote:As a matter of interest has anyone managed to find out any more about 'Slave of the Trapeze'? Given the combined collections we have available it seems quite remarkable that nobody's been able to unearth a single episode yet.
Hi,
Slave of the trapeze is a story appearing in Sandie (September 1972) and ended in issue 11/11/1972. I'll try to post the end episode. The story is about a girl whose mother was killed in a very difficult trapeze act imposed to her by the cruel circus manager. The girl was obliged to make difficult trapeze acts by command of the manager so that the latter does not fire her cripple father. The girl, with the help of her mother's previous trainer who had escaped from the prison ( she was charged with the death of the girl's mother) and returned to the circus disguised as a clown, managed to do the difficult act and put in jail the cruel manager who treated her so cruelly and was responsible for her mother's death.
philcom55 wrote:Yay! Thanks Sila (and Marionette). And congratulations to Helsbels who was right all along.
- Phil R.
I've only just seen the conclusion to this thread! I had a funny feeling it was from Sandie, though I still haven't delved into my collection to have a look at that story yet!
philcom55 wrote:Yay! Thanks Sila (and Marionette). And congratulations to Helsbels who was right all along.
- Phil R.
I've only just seen the conclusion to this thread! I had a funny feeling it was from Sandie, though I still haven't delved into my collection to have a look at that story yet!
We have received information that this story was originally written for Tammy but appeared in Sandie. And it was hugely popular.
I've spent some of this evening looking for, and then through, some of my IPC titles for girls, none of which have seen the light of day for at least five years, and lo and behold I have come across the opening instalment of Slave Of The Trapeze in the issue of Sandie for 2 September 1972, and it's the only episode I've got. Below is the three-page episode, which I hope you can read.
I´ll just stick my oar in here although it´s seven years later to these comments, I´m the author of Slave of the Trapeze, name of Terence Magee. It was one of the best stories I wrote for Fleetway/IPC Magazines, and voted number one every week it appeared in Sandie. I and others have never been able to find out
who the artist of the great artwork was, hope they come forward!
Thanks for putting it up, Phoenix!