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Schoolgirls’ Picture Library 76
Loyal to Her Disgraced Mother
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=60270

When I saw 'Goof's posts on these British Girls comics, I was quite happy. As comic book works they are as good as anything on the site. Glad to see him identifying the artists, I see the Reading Group as a way to expose the more arcane corners of CB+ to a wider audience.
I'm a bloke, started reading comics in mid-primary school, so wasn't particularly interested in  'Girls' comics. But I would always browse anything on the newstands and always appreciated the quality.
So, this one.
They almost all featured schoolgirls from Private schools. A lot of the stories happened in the schools and those who didn't usually featured private school-girls on holiday or groups of them on excursions.
There is almost always someone falsely accused of a crime - usually theft. They are disgraced and no longer have access to (the school-mansion-castle) and so the girls have to solve the mystery. The stolen object is usually still on the premises and hidden and comes to light at the end of the narrative. This is what Hitchcock called the MaGuffin.
I should point out that the school as such is never at fault, there is a strong 'loyalty to your school' element to these. Both myself - male and 2 of my sisters went to boarding schools and let me tell you that's not always the case.     
So, lets look at this one.
The key words are in the title, 'Loyal' and 'Disgraced'.
There are a lot of overheard 'Whispered' conversations in these stories.
On page #2 and the narrative begins to unravel when Julie overhears the conversation in the train.
Strange expression, 'Might even use her position to hit against me' ?
Dying her hair seems apt for a girl's comic. Don't think that would happen in a boys comics. 
"she was a bully at heart' I have just given a talk on bullying to a men's group, so that stands out for me.
Now that I think about it, 'Bullying' is usually one of the characteristics of  the villains in these stories.
'A bit of a Tartar.'      

The Tatars are a Turkic people living in Asia and Europe who were one of the five major tribal confederations (khanlig) in the Mongolian plateau in the 12th century –
user214187
Commented Jan 8, 2017 at 13:06
In Alan Bennett's The Uncommon Reader, the character of Queen Elizabeth refers to the photographer Cecil Beaton as "a bit of a tartar," and then goes on to describe him telling her to stand here or stand there, which supports the bossy/domineering definition. –
Jim McCoy Commented Jan 6, 2019 at 12:22 

Enter DAPHNE, the Nerd ugly duckling, who we know immediately is going to be a friend of Julie. Although in this case, it's hard to see why she was introduced at all.
If Julie's mother was 'Miss Jones' it's stretching it to believe that "Miss Mosley' wouldn't suspect 'Julie Jones' from the get-go.
Pages 38- 39. The baddie always meets with a mysterious stranger, usually a male, who we can see from his face is a nasty piece of work.
The idea that a shape on a wall is the key for a secret entrance is very (Can't help myself) 'Indiana' Jones!
There is always a secret panel or room in a building in these stories.
The Heroine gets framed, but truth will out and the baddie gets hers.
Since a policeman turns up and reveals the culprit in the act, I think it's a given that there will be institutional punishment, but clearly the main point in these is the clearing of the name of the accused.
It seems that these books are designed for a very specific audience of girls who have a private school background. They are also very Biritish of a certain era. 
Yes, the art is excellent and appropriate.
More on these later.             

Incaseof!

Welcome my friend - to the show that never ends!

Jump in! Join in! Yes, there is plenty to see and do here!
Again, Welcome!   

Thanks for those comments, Goof. Here are a few thoughts:

I’m sorry I’ve been a bit slow to respond, but I have been away from home since posting the stories.

No worries at all. Everyone on here has different schedules and we comment when we can.

The SPL series was a spin off from School Friend comic. When this first appeared in 1950, it was the first of the modern picture story papers for girls, and a largely untried format for this readership, as earlier girls’ papers had been text story only. It offered a diet of school, ballet and exotic adventure that was very similar to the early SPLs. The first issues sold a million copies a week; that’s more than even Eagle achieved on its first appearance, despite its far superior production values. In the context of that time, this indicates a pretty phenomenal level of interest in this kind of fiction. Although I don’t know any figures, I have heard from more than one source that girls’ comics consistently outsold those for boys for many years. I don’t think that nearly enough recognition has been given to the huge popularity of these stories.

I've managed to pick up a couple of volumes of School Friends annuals from the 1960s at second-hand sales. I would have loved these when I was probably around 9-13, but I don't recall anything similar in Australia. I still like looking through them now. Have also picked up a couple of volumes of Eagle annuals. My hubby remembers reading Dan Dare comics as a kid, but I don't remember seeing them.

You touch on a point about girls’ comics stories in general which I’ve found both baffling and frustrating, and which affected the genre right through its history – what happens to the villains at the end of the story.

In fact, Miss Molsey has come off worse than most, simply because she was actually arrested - even though we’re not told what happened later. This is far from typical. It’s much more common for the villains simply to fade away at the end, with no attempt made to catch them or bring them to account. This may be understandable up to a point in the kinder world of these early stories, but it persists into the far grittier stories in 1970s/1980s comics. Some of these deal with what, in a more realistic setting, would be serious crimes, but still many of the villains are allowed to get away with murder. Sometimes almost literally murder; here’s an example from Tammy in 1971. The heroine is sent to what is supposed to be a “reform school”. In fact, the headmistress, helped by a head prefect, runs a regime of humiliation and outright torture of the inmates. At the end, they try to kill the heroine and her three friends by sabotaging a cable car that they are using to escape. When the authorities eventually catch up with them, the prefect (who did the attempted killing), simple sneaks away. The headmistress however is caught, and…loses her job.

I don’t think it’s merely ghoulish to be concerned about this kind of thing. These stories are mostly about good triumphing over evil. They have a moral message, and I think that’s compromised when the villains are allowed to get off scot free.

That's interesting. I can certainly appreciate that they didn't want to be bloodthirsty or show retribution, but it's strange that they didn't even show many examples of criminals being arrested. That's quite a contrast to the 'Crime Does Not Pay' kinds of comics, where they would even show criminals being hung. Not suggesting they do that in these girls' comics of course, but you would think that showing the fate of the crook would reinforce the moral point.

Schoolgirls’ Picture Library 143 - Dancer in Hiding

Yes, I agree that the art is what really stands out here. What I particularly wanted to highlight was that the artwork for these stories has been so undervalued that an artist as fine as this has remained completely anonymous.

Yes, it's excellent. Such a shame the artists didn't always get their due. Sometimes the writers weren't named either. I guess the publishers saw them just as employees or contract workers, but they were doing top quality art.

Personally, I don’t tend to worry much about incidental inconsistencies in stories like this, but if we are doing this kind of analysis I’m a bit surprised that comments so far haven’t picked up on Vicki’s willingness to deface a public poster by drawing a mask on Elisabet Beaumont’s picture!

Actually, I did wonder about that but forgot to mention it. But rather than defacing the poster, I was thinking about how the masked singer was trying to keep her real identity secret and the mask added to the poster would have shown LeBlanc that they were onto it.

And I do like to find those inconsistencies. I'm a former academic and am now a writer/editor, so I can't help myself. But it usually doesn't stop me enjoying a story if it's still pretty good overall 

Cheers

QQ

Great issue.

Link to the comment: Forbidden Worlds 71

Thanks for your comments, Quirky Quokka. I’m sorry I’ve been a bit slow to respond, but I have been away from home since posting the stories.

Schoolgirl's Picture Library 76 - Loyal to Her Disgraced Mother

You’ve highlighted two points in particular which have also struck me about this type of story.

"But they were certainly popular at the time. The letter at the end says there were over 100 000 readers, with some as far away as Australia".

The SPL series was a spin off from School Friend comic. When this first appeared in 1950, it was the first of the modern picture story papers for girls, and a largely untried format for this readership, as earlier girls’ papers had been text story only. It offered a diet of school, ballet and exotic adventure that was very similar to the early SPLs. The first issues sold a million copies a week; that’s more than even Eagle achieved on its first appearance, despite its far superior production values. In the context of that time, this indicates a pretty phenomenal level of interest in this kind of fiction. Although I don’t know any figures, I have heard from more than one source that girls’ comics consistently outsold those for boys for many years. I don’t think that nearly enough recognition has been given to the huge popularity of these stories.

"I think Miss Grundy is a sweetheart compared to the diabolical Miss Molsey. Would have been great to see her come to a sticky end--crushed by the giant boulder, shot with a poison arrow during archery practice, locked in the pottery kiln, falling into a vat of boiling oil--though I guess that wasn't in the spirit of the Schoolgirls' Picture Library."

You touch on a point about girls’ comics stories in general which I’ve found both baffling and frustrating, and which affected the genre right through its history – what happens to the villains at the end of the story.

In fact, Miss Molsey has come off worse than most, simply because she was actually arrested - even though we’re not told what happened later. This is far from typical. It’s much more common for the villains simply to fade away at the end, with no attempt made to catch them or bring them to account. This may be understandable up to a point in the kinder world of these early stories, but it persists into the far grittier stories in 1970s/1980s comics. Some of these deal with what, in a more realistic setting, would be serious crimes, but still many of the villains are allowed to get away with murder. Sometimes almost literally murder; here’s an example from Tammy in 1971. The heroine is sent to what is supposed to be a “reform school”. In fact, the headmistress, helped by a head prefect, runs a regime of humiliation and outright torture of the inmates. At the end, they try to kill the heroine and her three friends by sabotaging a cable car that they are using to escape. When the authorities eventually catch up with them, the prefect (who did the attempted killing), simple sneaks away. The headmistress however is caught, and…loses her job.

I don’t think it’s merely ghoulish to be concerned about this kind of thing. These stories are mostly about good triumphing over evil. They have a moral message, and I think that’s compromised when the villains are allowed to get off scot free.

Editors went to quite a lot of trouble to get feedback for their stories, so we can probably assume that this was what most readers wanted. Why so? Well, there’s been a certain amount of scholarly research into girls’ comics in recent years, but I’ve yet to come across a convincing explanation for this.

Schoolgirls’ Picture Library 143 - Dancer in Hiding

Yes, I agree that the art is what really stands out here. What I particularly wanted to highlight was that the artwork for these stories has been so undervalued that an artist as fine as this has remained completely anonymous.

I’m not sure that there’s anything so unusual about ballets danced in long dresses. A lot of the original Ballets Russes costumes were calf-length or longer. Also plenty of more modern productions use long heavy costumes where the story and period require it.

I think you’re right that Sir Percy Granger name-drops the composer. The interesting thing perhaps is that the writer probably expected his 8- 13 year old readership to pick up the reference. I’ve seen other more explicit examples of how writers of girls’ stories expected their ballet-mad readers to be surprisingly well informed about music.

Personally, I don’t tend to worry much about incidental inconsistencies in stories like this, but if we are doing this kind of analysis I’m a bit surprised that comments so far haven’t picked up on Vicki’s willingness to deface a public poster by drawing a mask on Elisabet Beaumont’s picture!

This week...

New: The Adventures of Smoky Dawson 7 (see below!)

Expanded: True Pirates Comic 1

Pirates and Westerns are two genres that were popular in the Australian Golden Age (in prose fiction as well as comics) that haven't been covered as much as they could be here. Some rectification this week.

The Smoky Dawson comic is partially on the site already (as Smoky Dawson vs the Bat). Hopefully that'll be removed soon. I'll be adding info about Smoky Dawson as a long lasting pop culture icon in Australia, but also about the fictional adventures spun off from Smoky's persona, and on the apparent unofficial crossover with a British comic character, the Bat. The comic requires a bit more context than most others! (I'll also add a Tex Morton comic later, just to cover off the the real life musician with a fictional adventure sideline sub-genre)

A secret panel that can only be opened with a pottery vase???

I really should have explained why I found this ludicrous. The gal decided to hide the valuable pottery from possible crooks. Eh, okay. But to hide it behind a panel that can only be opened by sticking a piece of pottery against it and turning it? Bwah? Talk about clunky. Are the rises and ridges on the pottery and the panel big enough to turn? What about shrinkage and melting during the firing process? And most importantly... what if someone broke the vase? It's a terrible idea for a key.


Schoolgirls’ Picture Library 143

Dancer in Hiding

A masked dancer? Let me guess, her parents were killed by theatre critics and she fights crime in retaliation! 

A nice, if flawed, story, (QQ listed a few I noticed and a few I missed) and good art.

Very good quality and amazing site.

Link to the comment: Oral Roberts' True Stories 114 - Song of Freedom

Schoolgirls’ Picture Library 143 - Dancer in Hiding


The art in this one is especially good. The fact that it focused on a ballet gave a lot of scope for movement and the artist did an excellent job of the different poses and moves of the figures. The faces were also very good and there were lots of interesting angles that gave different perspectives. Even if you don't think the story will interest you, it's worth looking through for the artwork.

It was a good story overall that would have appealed to younger girls at the time. The masked woman makes it mysterious right from the get-go. A few things I noticed in the story:

p. 2 - How does the pianist know they're dancing well when she has her back to them?

p. 3 - It was pretty brave of Vicki to run after a masked and cloaked figure who'd just thrown a rock through the window. My first thought would have been that someone wished them harm. But jolly hockey sticks, these girls won't let anything stop them and it turned out well.

p. 9 - I had to laugh at the sketches of the ballet. "And as they began to see the possibilities of such a ballet, their excitement grew." Really? It looked hilarious and I don't think that was the aim. Laura the scene painter also has her work cut out for her if she's using that tiny paintbrush to do the backdrop.

p. 10 - It would take some practice to do a ballet in those Edwardian dresses. They don't exactly leave the legs free.

p. 13 - I did a double-take when Sir Percy Granger popped up, because I thought they were talking about the famous Australian composer. But when I looked the composer up, it's spelt with an 'i' (Percy Grainger). Though I wondered if they were giving him a nod.

I must admit that I misunderstood the premise here because I thought LeBlanc had stolen the Ballet of Sports and that the performance was going to show that Ainsworth had written it. I couldn't understand how that would clear up a case of plagiarism. But when I got to the end, I realised that LeBlanc had stolen another ballet and that he'd convinced Sir Percy that it couldn't have been written by Ainsworth because he had no new ideas. Now this new one would show that he does indeed have new ideas. At least, I think that's the gist  I also couldn't understand why the ballerina had to wear a mask in front of the girls, but I guess she was worried LeBlanc could pop up at any moment.

p. 16 - The varnish in the library was an ingenious plan, but should we be concerned that Laura was able to get her hands on such a large quantity of varnish at such short notice and could have passed out on the fumes before the others got there?

p. 22 - I'm not sure I'd be as excited as little Binnie if I had to do a somersault dressed as a croquet ball 

p. 33 - The girls set out on their bicycles at dusk, and find Elisabet Beaumont, the masked singer, is performing at a theatre at night. Yet they then warn her not to come to rehearsal that night? The timeline doesn't fit.

p. 51 - When a fellow stops the bus and tells the girls to come with him, you know it won't end well. What a dastardly plan to have them stranded on an island without their mobile phones Lucky Ainsworth was able to spy them performing his ballet in full costume on the rocky island.

Well, there are a few plot holes, but the girls win the day, Ainsworth is vindicated, the baddie loses and they all live happily ever after. An appealing story for girls at the time, with excellent artwork.

Cheers

QQ

Schoolgirls’ Picture Library #76

Loyal to Her Disgraced Mother

Had a funny thought while reading this. Betty as Julie and Miss Grundy as the evil teacher. 

A secret panel that can only be opened with a pottery vase??? Suddenly the trap at the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark is seeming more and more plausible. Would have made the ending more exciting as Julie and Miss Mosley race down the school hallway as poison darts shoot from the walls and a giant boulder comes after them. 

SuperScrounge, I think Miss Grundy is a sweetheart compared to the diabolical Miss Molsey. Would have been great to see her come to a sticky end--crushed by the giant boulder, shot with a poison arrow during archery practice, locked in the pottery kiln, falling into a vat of boiling oil--though I guess that wasn't in the spirit of the Schoolgirls' Picture Library.  Maybe you could whizz up the alternative version.

Cheers

QQ