Cristina y Sus Amigos - Manuel Cuyas

[RuthB]

Thanks! Hopefully a 1974 copy will turn up soon on ebay!

[philcom55]

Speaking of stories about evil dolls in British girls' comics, here's another one from Diana:





- Phil Rushton

[Tammyfan]

I wonder if stories about evil dolls were more prevalent in DCT titles than IPC titles. The only evil doll stories I recall from Tammy were The Destiny Dolls and The Dream House, about an evil doll's house. There was Proud as Punch, where we have a living Punch, but Punch was not evil. Jinty had Paula's Puppets, but they were simply puppets with powers which could be used for either good or evil. The only serial to mention dolls was Golden Dolly, Death Dust!, but the doll was good, not evil. And IPC's horror stalwart, Misty, never even had a doll serial, much less an evil doll serial. There seemed to be more stories about evil or supernatural dolls/puppets in DCT titles like Mandy.

[Tammyfan]

And here is another evil doll: "Little Dolly Demon" from Judy Picture Library #220. If you're looking for the most evil doll ever in girls' comics, this one will be hard to beat. It can move on its own, scare the living daylights out of you with its blazing eyes, commit vandalism and other destruction, and even start and manipulate fires. About the only thing it does not do is talk.

http://library.doeth.net/judy/images/220a.jpg

Sorry that the picture is small.

[philcom55]

Brrrr! There's something especially creepy in the way she's staring right out of the cover, almost as though she can actually see the reader!

- Phil R

[Tammyfan]

Brrrr! There's something especially creepy in the way she's staring right out of the cover, almost as though she can actually see the reader!

- Phil R

Yes, I've just noticed that evil dolls in girls' comics fall into three categories:
1: Agents of destruction, chaos and terror (eg Little Dolly Demon, Hannah in the House of Dolls)
2: Mind controllers who manipulate people's behaviour (eg The Doll of Terror, The Many Faces of Moppet)
3: Curse carriers that imprison people, make them ill or cause them to have accidents (eg The Dream House, The Destiny Dolls)

[Tammyfan]

I came into a print of Little Dolly Demon, so now you can have a proper taste of this evil doll:

[philcom55]

OMG - that really ought to be X-rated! It makes The Exorcist look like Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm!

Does anyone know who drew it? It has a look of John Ridgway, or maybe John Stokes (though I've never heard of the latter working for DC Thomson).

- Phil R.

[Peter Gray]

Evil dolls coming to life freaks me out...
That recent Doctor Who episode where characters turned to dolls I don't think I could watch that again!!!!!

[Tammyfan]

OMG - that really ought to be X-rated! It makes The Exorcist look like Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm!

Does anyone know who drew it? It has a look of John Ridgway, or maybe John Stokes (though I've never heard of the latter working for DC Thomson).

- Phil R.

I do know it is the same artist who drew Teddy, another bewitched toy story, which appeared in Mandy.

Here is some more Little Dolly Demon, if it will help identify the artist:

[DavidKW]

I have a Misty annual which featues a rag doll called Raggsy, who's cursed but is a good luck charm too.

[Tammyfan]

I have a Misty annual which featues a rag doll called Raggsy, who's cursed but is a good luck charm too.

I know the Raggsy story. I don't get the logic of a doll that an evil aunt has bewitched to get rid of her hapless niece, yet it grants the niece's wishes too. Unless the aunt knows the girl is likely to have a death wish because she lives a miserable existence in the orphanage the aunt has sent her to. But why the heck the doll just doesn't set out to kill the girl is beyond me.

[marckie73]

No, Christina was done for the Spanish market only. It started in a magazine called Mundo Juvenil in the mid sixties and then it went through a couple of magazines in the seventies and eighties.

A couple of the stories were published in the Netherlands, around 1973. Two volumes were published at the time.

[RuthB]

Yes, since I posted that I found them. They were little carboard cover volumes, around 30 pages.

[marckie73]

Yes, those are the two! I like the stories very much. A pity they didn't publish more of them over here.

I took the books out today: each had 48 pages, and as I guessed, they were published in 1973. There were two more books in this series: one of Patty's World and one of the Happy Days.

Even though the stories of Christina were only published in these books, and not like Patty and the Happy Days in Tina, they still must have sold well. I remember in the 80's and early 90's you came across these books almost everywhere.