On this day, 1 March 1980: Penny
Cover artwork: Mario Capaldi
On this day, 1 March 1980 ... with the fortieth of its 45-issue run, Penny was drawing closer to its eventual merge into Jinty. I believe it was aimed at a slightly younger girl readership than both Jinty and Tammy, as it's not quite as dark - there's a stronger mix of lighthearted stories and humour strips among the more dramatic serials, which themselves don't have quite such despairing conclusions as was common among Penny's contemporaries.
Highlights of this issue include Seulah the Seal, a beautifully drawn Tarka the Otter-style tale about a young seal separated from its mother and lost amid Britain's inland waterways, an adaptation of Enid Blyton's Secret Seven drawn by John Armstrong, regular 'lighter' serials Sad Sal and Smiley Sue and Tansy of Jubilee Street, and Blunder Girl, one of the earlier IPC creations of the great cartoonist Jack Edward Oliver.
I've found it hard to track down the creators of these stories, and some of the attributions below are based on Jenni Scott's A Resource on Jinty website where a listing is given for the previous week's issue. I don't have a copy of number 39 so am having to assume that the artists are the same as in 40.
Seulah the Seal: Veronica Weir (artist)
Sad Sal and Smiley Sue: creators unknown, although there is a signature in one episode that reads S.D. (or J.D.) Duggan
The House of Arden (text story, adapted from E Nesbit): Douglas Perry (artist)
Kay's Camp Site: Maria Dembilio (artist)
Tansy of Jubilee Street: Ken Houghton (artist)
The Blue Island Mystery: Keith Robson (artist)
Good Work Secret Seven (adapted from Enid Blyton): John Armstrong (artist)
Kathy's Convict: Jesús Peña (artist)
Blunder Girl: Jack Edward Oliver (artist)
