Seeking 'Phantom of the Fells' (Bunty?)

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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Tammyfan
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Re: Seeking 'Phantom of the Fells' (Bunty?)

Post by Tammyfan »

I don't know of any John Richardson checklist.

He was a filler artist in Tammy's "Eva's Evil Eye", and drew the Misty serial "End of the Line". He drew lots of complete Misty stories, Strange Stories, some Tammy complete stories, and a few of the Monster Tales from the Tammy & Jinty merger. He spent 1973-1980 drawing the Cover Girls for Tammy, and was a long-standing artist on Wee Sue. He also drew "Terror of the Cats" and "The Nightcomers" in "Scream!".

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peace355
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Re: Seeking 'Phantom of the Fells' (Bunty?)

Post by peace355 »

There's a list of his work on Misty here: https://www.juliaround.com/misty
You can sort the columns by artist.

I believe he's also the artist for "The Girl with the Black Umbrella" which appeared in Mandy 1972
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Goof
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Re: Seeking 'Phantom of the Fells' (Bunty?)

Post by Goof »

Here’s a few more (probably all reprints, apart from the Mandys):

June Book 1982: two “Lucky’s Living Doll” stories
June Book 1973: “Could It Be You?”
Mandy Annuals 1974 & 1975: “Stella Starr - Policewoman from Space”
School Friend Annual 1973: “The Misfit”
Jinty Holiday Special 1980: “The White Blackbird” and “The Yellow Dress”

And two picture libraries:

Judy Picture Story Library #237: “Green for Danger”
Judy Picture Story Library #254: “Dora’s Dragon”

Goof
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Re: Seeking 'Phantom of the Fells' (Bunty?)

Post by Goof »

And here are three short stories from the Misty Holiday Specials, which surprisingly are not credited in Julia Round's list:

Summer Special 1978: "Black Sunday"
Holiday Special 1979: "Old Ethna's House" and "The Pipe Dream of Marty Scuttle"

Tammyfan
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Re: Seeking 'Phantom of the Fells' (Bunty?)

Post by Tammyfan »

Richardson drew "Fair Shares" and "Shock Treatment" for Tammy, and "The Gargoyle" and "Old Bug's Last Trip" in Tammy's Monster Tales. Scans of Old Bug and Gargoyle can be found at https://jintycomic.wordpress.com/2017/0 ... les-1982/.
He was also a filler artist for The Leopard from Lime Street at one point. He drew two stories, the first where Billy fakes the death of the Leopardman because he is too close to being exposed, and the next story, where a criminal takes advantage to impersonate "the Leopardman's ghost" to commit crime sprees. Needless to say, he prompts the real Leopardman to return.

A list of Scream issues can be found here for information on Richardson's contributions to the title. They included complete stories as well as two serials.
https://jintycomic.wordpress.com/issues ... am-issues/
Last edited by Tammyfan on 19 May 2019, 06:57, edited 1 time in total.

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philcom55
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Re: Seeking 'Phantom of the Fells' (Bunty?)

Post by philcom55 »

Richardson was also the artist of A Song For Andrella in Mirabelle.

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Tammyfan
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Re: Seeking 'Phantom of the Fells' (Bunty?)

Post by Tammyfan »

Richardson drew a lot of Strange Stories for Tammy. No full list of the Strange Stories exists, but ones he drew included Lost for Words and The House of Leopards.

Goof
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Re: Seeking 'Phantom of the Fells' (Bunty?)

Post by Goof »

As we've gone this far, why not try and compile a checklist for John Richardson's girls' comic art, as far as we can? If nothing else, it might help to generate a little more interest in a very underrated artist.

I'm happy to do the list, and here's a first version, which should include everything posted so far. if anybody can provide further stories, or any of the missing dates on the list, I'll add them in.

I'll check the rest of the annuals and specials and add any which I've missed.

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Phoenix
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Re: Seeking 'Phantom of the Fells' (Bunty?)

Post by Phoenix »

Goof wrote:if anybody can provide further stories, or any of the missing dates on the list, I'll add them in.
The issue numbers and dates for The Girl With The Black Umbrella in MANDY are 300 (October 14 1972) - 313 (January 13 1973).

Goof
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Re: Seeking 'Phantom of the Fells' (Bunty?)

Post by Goof »

Phoenix wrote:The issue numbers and dates for The Girl With The Black Umbrella in MANDY are 300 (October 14 1972) - 313 (January 13 1973).
Thanks very much, Phoenix, I'll add this to the list.

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philcom55
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Re: Seeking 'Phantom of the Fells' (Bunty?)

Post by philcom55 »

The 1980 Strips portfolio produced by the Society of Strip Illustration includes this short biography of Richardson:

"John was born in 1943. He became involved in the strip profession rather late, in the early seventies, when DC Thomsons gave him a chance to draw a strip in their Bunty title. This led to further work on most of their publications - covering a wide range of styles from humour to serious adventure. He took a short break from illustrations to write scripts for their Commando Library.
He later returned to drawing for IPC Magazines in London and has been with them ever since. John would much prefer to script the strips he illustrates, as he has done with 'Tailpipe' in Link House's magazines, Custom Car and Superbike."

Tammyfan
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Joined: 23 Aug 2012, 10:41

Re: Seeking 'Phantom of the Fells' (Bunty?)

Post by Tammyfan »

Goof wrote:As we've gone this far, why not try and compile a checklist for John Richardson's girls' comic art, as far as we can? If nothing else, it might help to generate a little more interest in a very underrated artist.

I'm happy to do the list, and here's a first version, which should include everything posted so far. if anybody can provide further stories, or any of the missing dates on the list, I'll add them in.

I'll check the rest of the annuals and specials and add any which I've missed.

Image
Image
Image
Fair Shares and Shock Treatment in Tammy were complete stories, not serials.

Goof
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Joined: 15 May 2018, 19:43

Re: Seeking 'Phantom of the Fells' (Bunty?)

Post by Goof »

Tammyfan wrote:Fair Shares and Shock Treatment in Tammy were complete stories, not serials.
Thanks for this, Tammyfan. I'll amend it in the list.
philcom55 wrote:The 1980 Strips portfolio produced by the Society of Strip Illustration includes this short biography of Richardson:"John was born in 1943. He became involved in the strip profession rather late, in the early seventies, when DC Thomsons gave him a chance to draw a strip in their Bunty title. This led to further work on most of their publications - covering a wide range of styles from humour to serious adventure. He took a short break from illustrations to write scripts for their Commando Library.He later returned to drawing for IPC Magazines in London and has been with them ever since. John would much prefer to script the strips he illustrates, as he has done with 'Tailpipe' in Link House's magazines, Custom Car and Superbike."
Thanks for this, Philcom. You certainly get the impression from this and from the interview linked above that he doesn't (or didn't) much like drawing stories scripted by other people. Maybe this is why he did so few serials.

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

Re: Seeking 'Phantom of the Fells' (Bunty?)

Post by Tammyfan »

John Richardson Short Stories in Tammy (may be some gaps still)

Complete Stories
Moonlight Prowler 17 July 1982
Shock Treatment 20 November 1982
Carla’s Best Friend 15 January 1983 (Reprint from Misty, originally A Girl’s Best Friend)
The Turning Point 12 March 1983
Donkey’s Years 17 September 1983
Fair Shares 24 December 1983?
By the way, these were printed during Tammy's credits era. None of them credit John Richardson as the writer. "Carla's Best Friend", being a reprint, had no credits at all.

Strange Stories (may be incomplete)

The Beauty Contest 6 March 1981
Monster Movie 28 March 1981
The House of Leopards 9 May 1981
Water Under the Bridge 13 June 1981
All the Fright of the Fair (no date available)
The Carrier Bag 22 August 1981
Quicksilver 16 September 1981
Down to Earth 10 October 1981
Safe as Houses 17 October 1981
Unmasked 20 December 1981
Star Born 26 December 1981
The Burry Man 20 March 1982

Monster Tales
The Gargoyle 16 January 1982
The Guardian 27 February 1982
Old Bug’s Last Trip… 15 May 1982
Last edited by Tammyfan on 22 May 2019, 08:31, edited 2 times in total.

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

Re: Seeking 'Phantom of the Fells' (Bunty?)

Post by Tammyfan »

The June stories "Could It Be You?" aka "Is This Your Story?" were reprinted in Jinty 1976-1977, so John Richardson artwork was reprinted there.

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