Possession in British Girls' Comics

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.

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hypnojoo
Posts: 30
Joined: 23 Feb 2018, 09:45

Re: Possession in British Girls' Comics

Post by hypnojoo »

hypnojoo wrote:
29 Mar 2021, 15:02
Thanks so much to everyone for all the story suggestions here. I've been doing a lot of date checking etc and reading up on those I can access. I'm wondering if anyone has any images from The Doll of Terror from Diana c.1968? I think this might be the first supernatural possession (everything I've checked before it has a sf/alien type explanation) and would really love to have a look at it (but only have a handful of actual Dianas and scans from much earlier/later)...
...turns out a 'foreign power' is responsible - undermining the supernatural aspect. argh! my search continues...

Tammyfan
Posts: 1981
Joined: 23 Aug 2012, 10:41

Re: Possession in British Girls' Comics

Post by Tammyfan »

hypnojoo wrote:
29 Mar 2021, 14:59
Tammyfan wrote:
25 Mar 2021, 09:36
hypnojoo wrote:
10 Mar 2021, 12:07


Great examples thanks both - I'll def dig into Sandra Wilson. Interesting it's so often linked to dancing - Misty def picks up on this eg The Monkey (#80) although that's not exactly ballet! - and sometimes adds a fairytale vibe, e.g. Danse Macabre (#52) which is basically 'The Red Shoes'...
You realise that Misty never had a ballet serial? She had two completes featuring ballet, "Two Left Feet" and "Danse Macabre", but no ballet serial. A bit remiss for a girls' title. Even the short-lived Princess (second series) managed one.
That's a really interesting point! All the other usual suspects are there (horseriding, boarding schools, swimming...) maybe part of an attempt to mark itself out as 'different'?
Misty did have a horse riding serial, “Winner Loses All!”. Yep, definitely no winners in that story, and all because Dad kept blaming himself for his wife’s death and sank into alcoholism to drown his guilt.

Tammyfan
Posts: 1981
Joined: 23 Aug 2012, 10:41

Re: Possession in British Girls' Comics

Post by Tammyfan »

Here is an entry on one of the possession stories listed here, "Secret of the Skulls" https://jintycomic.wordpress.com/2021/0 ... ulls-1976/

Tammyfan
Posts: 1981
Joined: 23 Aug 2012, 10:41

Re: Possession in British Girls' Comics

Post by Tammyfan »

Here is another entry on another possession serial, "What's Wrong with Rhona?" from Tammy https://jintycomic.wordpress.com/2021/0 ... hona-1977/

Helen Fay
Posts: 9
Joined: 09 Dec 2019, 14:32

Re: Possession in British Girls' Comics

Post by Helen Fay »

hypnojoo wrote:
10 Mar 2021, 12:22
Thank you all for the suggestions (and sorry for delayed reply, I didn't get any email alerts for some reason).

Been chatting about this on Facebook as well and seems this theme has no real presence in 50s or early 60s; but then seems to take off around mid-1960s, mostly in Diana. But (Interestingly) early instances are more alien/sf in nature at that point. Stories like 'Singing for the Green Stranger' (Diana 1965), where a choir is hypnotised by alien; 'The School Under the Rocket' (Diana 1966), where Sharon is hypnotized by a female alien robot in order to sabotage a space flight; 'The Mysterious Medallion' (Bunty 1967)... 'The Doll of Terror' Diana 1968 has been suggested as first to show a demonic possession.
That 'Singing for the Green Stranger' story you mention sounds exactly like 'Sing a Song of Terror' from Spellbound. Mind you I've always found there are direct links between Diana, Debbie and Spellbound (eg The Fabulous Four/Supercats) and various Diana series and features were revived in Debbie - which of course eventually merged with Spellbound.

Tammyfan
Posts: 1981
Joined: 23 Aug 2012, 10:41

Re: Possession in British Girls' Comics

Post by Tammyfan »

Here is another entry on an evil influence/possession story https://jintycomic.wordpress.com/2021/0 ... gray-1983/

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