Bunty, 20 August 1983
It’s good to see a bit of dadsplaining called out. Bunty’s father was often the fall guy on the front cover of this classic comic, and here he’s deserving of the mockery dished out after fancying himself as a camera buff. As Bunty herself observes, ‘What a stunt!’
Art by Doris Kinnear.
Bunty was a hugely-successful girls’ comic, read by several generations of readers between 1958 and 2001. Its cornerstone story was The Four Marys – the adventures of four boarding school girls sharing the same first name – which lasted the entirety of the publication’s run. The artist here is Selby Donnison.
This week’s episodes sees Marys Field, Cotter, Simpson and Radleigh solve the mystery of a rose thief in the gardens of their school, St Elmo’s. The story’s a bit nicey-nice, but the artwork is atmospheric and there’s an exciting pace to it all.
There are a lot of imaginative strips in the rest of the comic: Balloon Girl (artist Robert McGillivray), The Girl with Many Faces and The Wandering Starrs (Manuel Cuyás) all look like strong ongoing tales, while Aunt Kate’s Curiosity Shop offers a good format for regular one-off stories.
On the back cover: it’s Weetabix again!
