[crashryan]

An entertaining story with solid art. But didn't they let evil Thora and her no-good father escape?

Link to the book: Schoolgirls' Picture Library 022 - Their Stowaway Friend

[Andrew999]

He's taken away by a gendarme to the station (says so in the boring text bit that most of us struggle to read). Of course, I'm tempted to say that anyway none of us can escape from our conscience.......

[crashryan]

Andrew, I shamefacedly admit I missed that bit of information. I strove manfully to read all the captions, but I was burning out by the end and gave the last few pages only a cursory scan. Not a smart choice in an SPL story. I rather liked the story, though, and enjoyed the head villain's opulent Air Bnb castle. I notice that the bad girl in an SPL story almost always works as an accomplice to her father or her uncle. I've only found a couple of wicked mothers. The bad girls hardly ever work alone and I've yet to see one teamed up with a crook who's not a relative. I suppose to the editors that would have been unseemly; it risks suggesting too close a relationship with an adult. It would have been interesting for the heroine to unmask an enemy who turns out to be her relative. In those days, though, that gimmick would probably have made the heroine seem less of a "good girl." You can't be all that good if you share the bloodline of a bounder.

[Andrew999]

A very accurate analysis, I'd say, Crash.

It's true that schoolgirl stories have a stereotypical structure - essentially chums who are loyal and stick together against an evil in their midst (who in turn has been corrupted by an outside influence - invariably a male relative. We could have a long and deep discussion about these Jungian archetypes) - but as in pantomime, Shakespeare or even Bollywood movies, I find the joy comes from seeing how the writer manipulates the essential elements into plot, character, drama and resolution - and how the artist portrays them.