Bunty

.

Layout and Features

The average issue of 'Bunty' would contain seven or so short comic-strip stories, broken up by letters pages, competitions, featured readers, puzzle pages, promotions, next-week previews or (minimally) advertisements. The back page, while it used to feature a cut-out doll and paper clothes, eventually gave way to a wall-poster (usually of a member of whatever boy-band was popular at the moment).

Regular Stories

The Four Marys

The Four Marys was the longest story the comic ran - drawn by artist Barrie Mitchell, it spanned right from its creation in 1958 to its end in 2001. When the strip started, public boarding schools like St. Elmo's, the girls' boarding school, were common, but as time went on, they became less accessible to 'Bunty's general audience, which was possibly why The Comp (see below) was introduced. It centred around four young teenagers who lived in a girls-only boarding school in Elmbury, and often had problems with studying, being bored, or helping (and being hindered by) the other girls or teachers within the school. The Four Marys appeared to be about 14 in age, although it was never concrete- the only hint given is that they are over 12, but under 17.

Regular characters included-

Lady Mary Radleigh (Raddy): Raddy was the only blonde of the four, a polite but outspoken girl with a rather wealthy family (their home, Radleigh Hall, was featured intermittently in the strip). Raddy was depicted as the responsible one of the four who ran for school campaigns, took on prefecting duties and took up activist causes. Her well-placed upper-class connections meant that her father (Earl Radleigh) could usually support her in whatever scheme her attention was placed on.

Mary Simpson (Simpy): Simpy, a dark curly-haired girl, was a scholarship student from a lower-class background who was excellent at maths and had won her place at St. Elmo's through sheer hard work and dedication. At the time of 'Bunty's creation, this was a rather political topic - admission to upper-class public schools still mainly ran on wealth, and the class divide was a hotly debated issue. Simpy, although accepted without question by the other Marys, nevertheless had a good deal of prejudice from her classmates, and many of her plotlines were centred around the difficulty of dealing with her separation of class.

Mary Field (Fieldy) and Mary Cotter (Cotty): Fieldy as the short-haired sporty member of the group, as her name suggests. An extremely active and energetic girl, Fieldy won a great deal of trophies for the school during her stint there. Cotty, the last member of the group, was artistic, long-haired and polite - a shy, well-spoken and sweet balance to Fieldy's vivaciousness.

Mabel Lentham and Veronica Lavery: The school bullies. Snobbish, upper-class and unlikeable, Mabel and Veronica usually ended up causing trouble for the four Marys out of spite. Mabel was clearly the ringleader, leading the rather weaker and less confident Veronica along in her wake. Their dialogue often included the phrase "utterly, utterly".

Miss Creef and Dr Gull/Miss Mitchell: The Marys' form mistress and headteacher respectively. Miss Creef (nicknamed 'Creefy') was a strict dark-haired spinster who always dressed in an academic gown and mortar-board. She was uptight and fastidious, like the early headmistress Dr Gull. Dr Gull was replaced after some time with Miss Mitchell, a young, blonde and very pretty woman who often came as a comic contrast the severity of Miss Creef.

The St. Bartoph Boys:Four boys who went to the local boys' boarding, St. Bartophs. They would occasionally meet up with the Marys in town, or for school functions like dances. Mabel and Veronica were always notoriously jealous of their enemies' friendship to the boys.

The Four Marys was always the staple story of 'Bunty', and the one it was most famous for. Even though the concepts of the comic strip became archaic as time went on, it was kept on for posterity and ran right to the end of the series.

The Comp

A comic drawn very much in the same way as The Four Marys, this was set around a more 'real life' situation, inside a mixed-sex comprehensive school. The Comp was originally published in "Nikki", and moved to "Bunty" after that comic folded.

Regular characters included-

Rosalind (Roz) Cummings:A red-haired American girl, living in Britain after her English father's divorce from her American mother. Roz's sister, Carly, who still lived in America with their mother, feautured infrequently in the story, and later was even given her own one-page spinoff about her life in LA ('Carly's Crowd'). Later, Roz's father marries again, introducing a stepmother Cathy and step-sister Stancee to the plot. Much of the story centring around Roz at that time was her difficulty in accepting her new step-family, although she and Stancee became good friends later on. Roz was by far the mouthiest and most adventurous of the regular characters. Her best friend was Hayley.

Laura Brady:A sporty blonde-haired girl who encouraged the others to take up sports such as (regularly) tennis or field hockey. Although being very down-to-earth and practical (helping her brother out frequently with his mechanics job and learning to drive early), she was, regardless, a very girly girl. Laura became captain of the school's girls' football team, and although she endured much teasing from Hodge and Freddy, brought the team to much success. Laura and Hodge had a very innocent sort of 'will they/won't they' romance for much of the series. Laura had an older brother called Maxwell, and was best friends with Becky.

The Twins (Becky and Hayley Sinden):Two brown haired identical twins - the first, Hayley, disliked sports and was rather fashion-conscious, with longer hair she kept in a high ponytail. The second one, Becky, was a short-haired tomboy who was best friends with Laura, and was one of the first to support her idea of a girls' football team. Becky and Hayley had two young brothers, Ben and Tom, and two cousins, Blair and Hannah.

Amy Lister and Aisha/Kiko Kimura:Amy, a fat, adopted girl who got the best marks at school and Aisha, a Chinese-looking who upheld the rules and had a great deal of common sense, were also regular characters, although not part of the main group. Aisha had a good fan base at the time of her creation, as back in 1958 there were few British comics that included a non-white British character. At some point after the move of The Comp to 'Bunty', Aisha was turned into Kiko, a Japanese girl with strict traditionalist parents who were reluctant to let her mingle with her new friends, especially the boys.

Hodge and Freddy:John Fredricks and David Hodgeson (Freddy and Hodge, as they were most commonly called) were the regular boys of the series, often sarcastic and slightly mean to the girls, they were often put straight by Laura and Becky when they were beaten at sports of their own choosing.

Nikki and Claire:Nikki Johnson and Claire Carter, also regular characters, were Year Nine pupils in the same class as the others. Claire was the centre of a couple of plotlines due to her hearing impairment, and the adjustments she and her family had to make to cope with it. She could also lipread, which provided a convenient plot-element to many story-lines through her lipreading what the school bullies were up to.

Pippa Cragston and Morag Gordon:The Comp's answer to the Four Marys' Mabel and Veronica, Pippa and Morag were the school bullies.

Grim Gertie:Miss Gertrude, or 'Grim Gertie', was the strict headmistress of Redvale Comprehensive.

The Comp finished a short time before Bunty's end, the story being that Redvale Comprehensive closed down and the pupils were sent to different schools.

Luv, Lisa

This story was written out as a diary, with pictures to accompany it. The pictures took the form of photographs, being the only regular comic to do so (although regularly 'one-time' comics also took the form of being shown in photographs). Regularly her stories would consist of her whining about people, boyfriends and situations she was in with her friends- although sometimes she would have a "story" set about her, with an adventure such as finding good Christmas cards. Her friend's names changed from issue to issue, the only regular characters being her slightly-older (or even twin?) dim-witted brother and her middle-lower class mother. Lisa was definitely aged 16, which raises questions about her brother (too stupid to go on to non-compulsory education, but 16 is the age that compulsory education finishes, so he couldn't possibly be older (like it says) and still go to her school).

Bunty - A Girl Like You

A one-page feature included a short comic strip about the comic's namesake, a blonde girl called Bunty, and her friends Haya and Payal. The strip was so short it usually couldn't convey more than a quick joke - mostly about normal teenage girl subjects like boys, family or school.

Penny's Place

A comic drawn in much the same way as The Comp and The Four Marys, Penny's Place began in the comic 'M&J' (an amalgamation of earlier comics, 'Mandy' and 'Judy'), but was taken up by 'Bunty' when 'M&J' ended. The story centred around Penny, whose parents owned a cafe called 'Penny's Place', and her three best friends, who all lived in the same town and attended the same school. Penny's best friend Donna was from a lower class family and had several brothers and sisters, and these siblings were often involved in storylines.

The story came to an end in the late 1990's, but due to popular demand 'Bunty' began to publish the story again from the beginning. During this time, both 'Bunty' and 'Mandy' published 'Penny's Place' in their Christmas annuals.

Moira Kent and Lorna Drake

"The Dancing Life of Moira Kent", the story of an aspiring ballerina, appeared in the first issue of Bunty, and Moira Kent was a regular feature for many years, the character eventually achieving international stardom. When the storyline was discontinued, it was replaced with "Lorna Drake", also about a ballet dancer, who attended the Thelma Mayne Dancing School (Thelma having been a ballerina herself before an accident prevented her from dancing ever again). However, Moria still appeared in the annuals, where she had opened her own ballet school.

Other Stories

As a rule, very few stories in 'Bunty' ran for years on end - those mentioned above are exceptions. Usually, the stories would run for six months or so until the plotline(s) ran out, unless they were particularly popular. In looking at the run of issues, it is possible to pick out a dozen or so regular artists, the styles of which become easily recognisable over time. Subjects for stories would vary wildly - while contemporary photo-strip stories about normal schoolgirls became popular in the 90s, there were many other hand-drawn comics to balance them out, their settings ranging from historical to futuristic and country to country. The content of Bunty's strips were constantly varying, and perhaps accounted for its run of over forty years.

List of strips and stories

*"The Four Marys"- see above
*"The Comp"- see above
*"Moria Kent"- see above
*"Lorna Drake"- see above
*"Penny's Place"- see above
*"Luv, Lisa"- see above
*"Lydia and the Little People"- A girl is forced to be a slave by a group of leprechauns.
*"Carrie's Magic Cookbook"- A girl discovers a magical cookbook, which takes her back in time to when a recipe was first made everytime she uses that particular recipe.
*"Mighty Mo"- A comic strip about a Desperate Dan-esque girl.
*"Miss Merlin"- A comic strip about Merlin's daughter.
*"My Sister Mitzy"- The adventures of a girl and her troublesome little sister.
*"Gilly of the Flower Garden"- The adventures of a girl who works at a garden centre.
*"Wendy's Wishing Well"- A young girl lives at a cafe with a wishing well. She devotes herself to making people's wishes come true.

Fanzines

In recent years, a community of fanzines has grown up that hark back in a gently ironic fashion to the "Golden Age" of girls' comics - these include "Pony School", "Sunny For Girls" (part of the "Solar Wind" group of comics) and "Misty". All of these titles reference "Bunty" as an inspiration, and even run pastiches of well-known "Bunty" strips.