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.
Tammyfan wrote:Ana's ballet stories included "Cindy of Swan Lake" (Tammy), which was very popular with readers, and "Blind Ballerina" (Jinty).
She also did a couple of ballet-related picture libraries (published in the same month, oddly): Judy 271 "Unfair to Favourites" and Bunty 271 "The Dances of Donna Dean".
The Bunty story involves a kind of Bella of the ballet - a talented child with brutally abusive guardians - who is rescued by a ballet student who has failed as a performer herself. The ex-student, lacking any purpose in life after her failure, drifts into teaching ballet to a small group of children including Donna, and in helping her to success finds a new vocation for herself as a teacher. It's a good story, and brilliantly drawn.
Ana also drew a Bunty PSL called "The Bravest of Them All", which was about a Dutch family posing as Nazi collaborators in order to conduct secret resistance work against them. Unfortunately this turns the whole town against them and when the Liberation comes they are thrown against the wall to be shot as traitors. Luckily the Allies put the townsfolk straight in the nick of time.
I didn’t know the stories she did covered such a wide range. Most of her PSLs that I’ve seen are dance or sport related. One in a very different vein is the rather clunkily-titled “Jane at St A’s” (Debbie 143), a story of a cruel stepfather who controls his wife and child by psychological bullying rather overt violence. It’s a story that tests the artist’s ability to convey a wide range of feelings and reactions through facial expression rather than gesture or movement. Not all girls' comic artists do this well – some can’t do it at all. Ana Rodriguez does it very well in this story.
Goof wrote:I didn’t know the stories she did covered such a wide range. Most of her PSLs that I’ve seen are dance or sport related. One in a very different vein is the rather clunkily-titled “Jane at St A’s” (Debbie 143), a story of a cruel stepfather who controls his wife and child by psychological bullying rather overt violence. It’s a story that tests the artist’s ability to convey a wide range of feelings and reactions through facial expression rather than gesture or movement. Not all girls' comic artists do this well – some can’t do it at all. Ana Rodriguez does it very well in this story.
Thank you for the links, Tammyfan! I was particularly struck by the artwork for the escape scene in Make-Believe Mandy. Hopefully Rebellion will manage to reprint at least one of these stories. She's an underrated artist.
peace355 wrote:Thanks for that Tammyfan. Interesting story though it unfortunately seems to have one of those narratives of the fat person being ugly and mean and all the heroes are "pretty" girls
The fat person is the villain though. By the way, the artist looks like Ron Smith.
I don't think the fact that the fat person is the villain makes it better! I agree with Peace, it is an unfortunate and rather prejudiced way of doing a story.
If you are a fan of girls comics there are several features in Issue 1 of ComicScene UK on the subject. Not many copies left of this issue though so best order it at www.comicscene.tictail.com if you want a copy!