Phoenix's Future Plans

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.

Moderator: AndyB

User avatar
peace355
Posts: 343
Joined: 05 Sep 2011, 22:32
Location: Uk
Contact:

Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

Post by peace355 »

big bad bri wrote: Derek couldn't you sort of cheat i.e. Jane model miss 108 ( for example or whatever number or system you use ) 108 A 108 B 108 C etc but i have no idea how you will lay it out etc but i think that's what i would do so each serial although the same character etc still gets 3 lines and i would do that as a synopsis for all multi arc serials,just a thought.
So are you suggesting Derek does 19 separate entries? I think the problem may be because of limited space, Jane Model Miss isn't deserving of 19 entries. I would suggest a generic summary of character mentioning that she had number of series. Or if there is one series you deem worthy of mention, a synopsis of that with an extra line saying that there were other serials.

Phoenix
Guru
Posts: 5360
Joined: 27 Mar 2008, 21:15

Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

Post by Phoenix »

peace355 wrote:
big bad bri wrote: Derek couldn't you sort of cheat i.e. Jane model miss 108 ( for example or whatever number or system you use ) 108 A 108 B 108 C etc but i have no idea how you will lay it out etc but i think that's what i would do so each serial although the same character etc still gets 3 lines and i would do that as a synopsis for all multi arc serials,just a thought.
So are you suggesting Derek does 19 separate entries? I think the problem may be because of limited space, Jane Model Miss isn't deserving of 19 entries. I would suggest a generic summary of character mentioning that she had number of series. Or if there is one series you deem worthy of mention, a synopsis of that with an extra line saying that there were other serials.
Thank you both for your observations. Cheating wouldn't sit well with me, Bri, to be fair. Nevertheless I do need to find a way of indicating that there were nineteen series. I may have to get round the issue by doing a two and a half line synopsis of the first series, and in the remaining half line, just state that it ran for a further eighteen series. Of course I suppose I could also raise the issue in the Introduction.

big bad bri
Posts: 1761
Joined: 03 Mar 2006, 15:50

Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

Post by big bad bri »

I know you don't have the time or space but i personally would love to see a small synopsis on every series they done in all comic titles from a history point of view for future generations etc, and would make me want to hunt them down , such as i did when reading about Misty a few years ago which made me hunt down all the weekly issues which was my first ever foray into girls comics so now i having been buying the rebellion girls comics reprint graphic novels.

Kashgar
Guru
Posts: 2781
Joined: 09 Nov 2006, 14:15

Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

Post by Kashgar »

big bad bri wrote:I know you don't have the time or space but i personally would love to see a small synopsis on every series they done in all comic titles from a history point of view for future generations etc,
Oh, wouldn't we all Bri! But such enterprises can be extremely fatiguing even if all of the relevant information is to hand and especially when it's down to one person to make the Herculean effort needed to bring such a project to fruition and as for posterity it can be a greedy and rather thankless taskmaster.
I could proceed with such a task on the D C Thomson boys' picture papers as I have them all and throw in all the annuals and summer specials for good measure but I would quite happily leave such a task to someone else and eagerly await any volume they might publish on the subject.

Phoenix
Guru
Posts: 5360
Joined: 27 Mar 2008, 21:15

Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

Post by Phoenix »

I am well aware, Bri, of exactly what you want vis a vis indexes of comics because you have raised the issue before. It needs to be pointed out though that writing a book of any description requires the time it will take to do a professional job, however long that might be. Anything less would be unacceptable to Kashgar, to me, and hopefully to every other member of these forums. Between us we have produced seven indexes. Kashgar has written THE BEANO DIARIES, THE DANDY MONSTER INDEX 1937-1990, THE MAGIC INDEX, TOPPER TALES and THE BOOK OF THE BEEZER. My output so far consists of FREE GIFTS IN THE BIG FIVE, and THIS WAS THE WIZARD, the latter with input from Kashgar, who provided the names of the artists who drew the heading block illustration adorning the first instalment of most of the serials. My first book was printed for me by D. C. Thomsons themselves, and bound by Hay Binders Ltd. in Newcastle upon Tyne, but THIS WAS THE WIZARD was printed by Deanprint Limited in Stockport. In both instances they posted the finished books to me, after I'd paid them of course!! My contact at Thomsons asked me back in 2014 what I planned to write next, and I said that I wasn't sure but it would probably be something on their output for girls. I believe that I still have two more books in me, which I have mentioned on the forum, and am steadily preparing, BUNTY AND HER SISTERS and ADVENTURE AND HIS BROTHERS. In the space that could be allocated to artists' names, I will be putting the title of the story paper that printed the serial.

Phoenix
Guru
Posts: 5360
Joined: 27 Mar 2008, 21:15

Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

Post by Phoenix »

I have to be up at Russ and Rach's by 8 o'clock tomorrow morning to take Lois to St Michael's Hospital for a further session of physio. Assuming she survives the experience, I'll then take her to school. When we get to school I'll be a smidgen more careful where I put the car than I was last time. I don't want to hear again the words ''sh*t parking, Gramps" as I'm taking her in to explain why she is late again. I'll collect her at 3.15 as I do every day. She's a real chatterbox on the way home, and I'm sure that she shares confidential information with me that she might not share with anybody else. Apart from her mother possibly, but only possibly. My lips remain sealed.

Goof
Posts: 208
Joined: 15 May 2018, 19:43

Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

Post by Goof »

Phoenix wrote:I may have to get round the issue by doing a two and a half line synopsis of the first series, and in the remaining half line, just state that it ran for a further eighteen series. Of course I suppose I could also raise the issue in the Introduction.
Would you be able to spare two 3-line slots for this series? If so, you could devote the first three lines to a generic description of the series (i.e. details of the main characters and the type of story involved), and the other three to brief one-line summaries of the best three serials, as examples of the 19 stories.

Also, have you decided what to do about The Four Marys, which is presumably the biggest example of this problem? If so, could the format used for that series be adopted as a blueprint for other instances of multiple stories involving the same characters?

Phoenix
Guru
Posts: 5360
Joined: 27 Mar 2008, 21:15

Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

Post by Phoenix »

Goof wrote:Would you be able to spare two 3-line slots for this series? If so, you could devote the first three lines to a generic description of the series (i.e. details of the main characters and the type of story involved), and the other three to brief one-line summaries of the best three serials, as examples of the 19 stories. Also, have you decided what to do about The Four Marys, which is presumably the biggest example of this problem? If so, could the format used for that series be adopted as a blueprint for other instances of multiple stories involving the same characters?
Apologies for the delay in replying. I had to take my 12-year-old granddaughter, Lois, to hospital for her 8.30 physio appointment concerning her left arm that she broke last summer, which went well according to the nurse. Nevertheless she still can't stretch it out flat, possibly due to the metal pins in there. I then drove her to school, and went in with her to explain to the receptionist why she was late. She signed in at 9.15 so she won't have missed much, and this time she didn't comment on my parking skills!! I'll pick her up at 3.15 as I always do. Her next hospital appointment is in three weeks time.

The issue of how exactly to include The Four Marys could well apply also to Jane - Model Miss, Lorna Drake, Moira Kent, The Girls From N.O.O.D.L.E.S., The Comp, and Wee Slavey, and other returnees. One approach would be to treat them as special cases and allot a section of say four A4 sides to each of the most deserving, and then insert them roughly equidistantly throughout the book.

Goof
Posts: 208
Joined: 15 May 2018, 19:43

Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

Post by Goof »

Yes, and this approach would perhaps make it easier to accommodate differences in the way the stories were written in some of these cases. As far as I know, most of them consisted of a sequence of largely self-sufficient stories which could be summarised separately, but soap-like serials such as The Comp used storylines which could overlap or run concurrently.

Phoenix
Guru
Posts: 5360
Joined: 27 Mar 2008, 21:15

Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

Post by Phoenix »

I have just got back from the White Hart, having enjoyed an uninterrupted, and very leisurely pint of CORNISH. I took my notes with me on DCT's serials for girls and boys. The background music there is not obtrusive so my thoughts were not disturbed, and I was eventually able to reach a conclusion about my immediate plans. This was that I am going to embark this evening on my next book, which will be called ADVENTURE AND HIS BROTHERS. The stories will be selected from ADVENTURE, THE ROVER, THE WIZARD, THE SKIPPER, THE HOTSPUR, THE VANGUARD, and THE RED ARROW, all of which are in text form, plus THE NEW HOTSPUR, BUDDY, SPIKE, CHAMP, BULLET, SCOOP and WARLORD, all of which are presented in pictures. The only other decision that I reached this lunchtime is that quality text serials from THE BLUE BIRD will be included in BUNTY AND HER SISTERS. We mustn't spoil the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar, must we?

Phoenix
Guru
Posts: 5360
Joined: 27 Mar 2008, 21:15

Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

Post by Phoenix »

I had several things planned for today, but they got undermined virtually before I even got started. I got an early phone call from a bank in Penzance to alert me to the fact that I was overdrawn by 50 pounds. I said that was impossible so I had to go down there to find out the exact nature of the problem. It turned out to be true, caused by an annual payment to the DVLA that I had forgotten about. In itself that was a relief because I had thought it might be some sort of scam. While I was in the bank, Rach rang to ask me if I would be able to take the children swimming later. I said I would but not before two o'clock because I was in Penzance, but instead of having driven down there I had gone on the bus, the schedule in both directions being two buses per hour, and a twenty minute journey, and I hadn't had any lunch. However, I can read most of the interesting articles in The Guardian in 40 minutes, so I got a pasty from Philps's, had a pint in the White Hart, then walked home. Lois rang and asked if her friend Jess could come swimming with them, and I had no objection so long as she cleared it with her mother. She had done so already. Now normally, when I take the children swimming, we go to the Tregenna Castle Hotel in St. Ives, but for some reason that wasn't possible today, so the only alternative was the main baths in Penzance. As there is no bus service that goes directly to the baths, I had to drive them there. As it is the school holidays, not only was the pool packed, but also a strict one-hour rule was in place. Alex has a painful backache so he only lasted about 20 minutes at best but at least the girls got the full hour. All of them had a portion of chips in the cafe there, and then I took them home. Alex will need a doctor's appointment later this week.

Phoenix
Guru
Posts: 5360
Joined: 27 Mar 2008, 21:15

Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

Post by Phoenix »

I'm not sure whether I mentioned on any thread that I was going to London to spend a long weekend with Andrew and his two daughters, Aurora (7) and Kelsey (4). I went last Thursday and got back home at teatime yesterday. Five hours on the train from Paddington to Hayle. Five hours!!!!! Please feel free to insert your own swear word between 'Five' and 'hours'. The main point of the visit was to take the girls to Paultons Park in Southampton, where 'Peppa Pig World' is situated. We bought tickets to cover two days so that we weren't trying to cram everything into one day, plus we got a 25% discount, so as a result we stayed one night in a Holiday Inn there. Andrew had a family room, and I naturally had a single. I had no preconceptions about PPW, but if I had had any, my experience would have wiped them out. Looked at from the point of view of the children for whom it was created, it was brilliant. There were seventy different attractions such as 'Jungle Adventure', 'Penguin Feeding', 'Meerkat Talk And Feed', and 'Lost Kingdom', which basically consisted of what I assume was a lifesize T-Rex with a very long neck topped off with a small head. It would certainly have made very short work of Peppa and George if they had been unwise enough to venture within range. Just a snack really. When we got back to London, we took the girls to a large fair in Battersea Park, where we stayed for several hours. They loved the rides of course but their favourite was a slide, high and wide, onto which they launched themselves, landing about a third of the way down it, then sliding the rest of the way. Wimps those girls are not!! I do remember some years ago a similar but much shorter slide in the main square in Truro. I was in charge of Lois's shoes that day. It's only 5 to 9 but I'm not expecting any phone call today asking me to take anyone swimming as all the children went back to school yesterday. Back to my routine - continue working on my book, not forgetting to collect Lois at 3.15.

Phoenix
Guru
Posts: 5360
Joined: 27 Mar 2008, 21:15

Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

Post by Phoenix »

I forgot to mention that at 'Peppa Pig World' there is an enormous shop near the exit, which has a wide entrance, apparently with no doors. Obviously the girls wanted to go in but although they picked a few items up, inspected them, and then put them down again, they didn't want us to buy any of them. However, I bought for myself a very attractive glasses case with a red base and a sky blue top, which proclaims a truth - 'So Many Books - So Little Time'. Apart from its basic visual appeal, that logo reminded me forcibly of the same one proclaimed by 'Readers Rest', a new and secondhand bookshop, which is situated about half way up the appropriately-named Steep Hill in Lincoln, which I used to visit regularly while my friend Dave Hardwick was alive. I have not been back since his funeral. Obviously I have never forgotten him, but now, every time I take the glasses case out of my pocket, I am virtually guaranteed to think of him.

User avatar
Adam Eterno
Posts: 1471
Joined: 05 Dec 2014, 01:05
Location: Southampton/London
Contact:

Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

Post by Adam Eterno »

Phoenix wrote:The main point of the visit was to take the girls to Paultons Park in Southampton, where 'Peppa Pig World' is situated.
It's a great place for kids. It's less than 20 minutes from me and I've lost count of the number of family and friends who have come to visit with littleuns over the years and we've all ended up there. I sometimes wonder whether the purpose of the visits was really to see me and my boy or just to have a local base to go to Paultos Park!

Phoenix
Guru
Posts: 5360
Joined: 27 Mar 2008, 21:15

Re: Phoenix's Future Plans

Post by Phoenix »

Well it wasn't long before I was back in my routine. I picked Lois up from school and after tea took her to her ballet class in Lelant. As they are in the last stages of rehearsal for their new show, which opens in a theatre in Redruth at some point in the next fortnight, the session was to be 90 minutes long. I imagine that getting the costume changes spot on will have been uppermost in Liz Nolan's mind. Rather than drive home just to come back again, I decided that a pint in The Badger was just what was required so, as always, I told Lo to come straight into the pub when Liz had brought the rehearsal to a close. I spent most of my waiting time listing post-war stories from THE ROVER, as listed in Colin Morgan's index to THE ROVER that will probably make the final cut for ADVENTURE AND HIS BROTHERS. I can't speak for other members of course but I find it very difficult to do nothing. Obviously I haven't yet got these titles in alphabetical order, but they are on specific pages, Nick Smith's Ragged Rovers being listed under 'N' for example, along with The Nameless One and Night Fighters.

Post Reply