WGW: Whitby Goth Weekend Oct 2019

Tags

Abbey Wharf, Alternative, Bizarre Bazaar, corsets, Doctor and the Medics, Dracula, Goths, Halloween, October 24-27, St Marys Church, Steampunks, Vampires, Victoriana, Victorians, WGW, WGW 2019, WGW part II, Whale bones, Whitby, Whitby Goth Weekend

Whitby Goth Weekend 24-27 October 2019

Twice a year Whitby, a quaint seaside town in North Yorkshire, becomes the mecca for the darkside. Goths, Steampunks, Victorian enthusiasts all gather for the Whitby Goth Weekend.  The event, which grew out of a goth music festival developed by Jo Hampshire back in 1994,  is now so huge that accommodation is often booked out for two years in advance and it’s estimated that it these two weekends bring in over a £1.1 Millions pounds to the local economy.

WGW brings in the crowds!

I’ve been going to the Goth weekend for many years with Bonnie and Occasionally Miss Jessel has managed to join us, but life and general mischance have meant I’ve not been since the 2015 October event.  My recollections of the at last visit was that there was a change in the air, the Goths who came for the music festival seemed to be in retreat in the face of Victorian enthusiasts and the Steampunk advance.  The locals also seemed to be growing tired of photographers and visitors disrespecting and damaging the historic graveyard of St Mary’s.  What had always seemed to be a very inclusive and welcoming atmosphere had developed fissures and the tensions were bubbling up to the surface. While I still enjoyed the evant, I was left wondering what would happen, if, indeed, it would survive.

WGW at Abbey Wharf

Doctor and the Medics at Abbey Wharf

I’m happy to say that WGW is going strong.  In the face of a huge explosion in popularity over the last few years and the diversity of alternative sub-genres in evidence, it is clear that the event has successfully evolved and regenerated into a wonderful and inclusive event.

These days the music events have diffused and WGW have many official events across the weekend.  The events are all free, but you can get fast-track and VIP tickets (which are worth it, as even after 11pm the Queues were long).  Jo and the other organisers seem to have successfully brought music back to the forefront of the event Abbey Wharf played host to a Stars and Moons Productions Barnum and Bailey/Greatest Showman themed night, headlined by the legendary Doctor and the Medics.  It was packed out and there were queues all night to get in.

The Bizarre Bazaar has also lost none of its allure since moving from Whitby Pavilion to Whitby Leisure Centre (just a short way along from the Pavilion).

Tourists flock through St Mary’s graveyard.

This year sadly  Miss Jessel was unable to join me, but Bonnie and I went down with some younger friends who had never attended the event before.  I don’t think that they were quite ready for how difficult it was to get anywhere without being swarmed by photographers! One of them even made it into the national papers (look for ‘woman in black corset and dramatic face makeup enjoying a stroll’ in the link below) not bad for her first visit!!

Modern Vampire hunters!

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7618815/Goths-steampunks-seaside-town-Whitby-twice-yearly-Goth-Weekend.html

Here are some of the images from Whitby Goth Weekend 2019.

The Goths and the Victorians

Victorian Vampires at St Mary’s Church.

Death stalks the St Mary’s graveyard.

Miss Jessel has a rival in this gothic governess.

Death and the maiden

Detail

The Vampire chained

 

Goth guy

 

Vampyra in the YHA (outfit designed and created by Iga Pecak)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Close up by the whale bones

Vampire Alley

 

RNLI guess the weight of the pumpkin!

Grey lady and gent

Purple lady

The Mad Hatter

Bride of the bat

Detail

Victorian Steampunk couple

The undisputed queen of the vampires

Steampunks and the rest

 

Steampunk Pirate hat by Iga Pecak

Detail

Steampunk explorers at the whale bones

Steampunk gentlemen

Gentleman playing the saw at the bandstand

STeampunk pixie girl

Gorgeous Georgians

 

You shall not pass!

Anime girl

Bring out your dead!

Where else but Whitby would you see a lady out strolling with her dragon?

And the final word goes to the fabulous Goth Cat and friend!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

FROM THE HAUNTED PALACE!!

Whitby Goth Weekend April 2015

Tags

199, 2015, 21s Anniversary, Alternative, April, Goth, Jordan Reyne, Manuskript, Music Festival, St Marys Church, Steam punk, Steampunk, Steps, Victorian, WGW, Whitby, Whitby Abbey, Whitby Goth Weekend

Whitby Goth Weekend.

Anyone who has had a good poke around on this blog probably knows that I absolutely LOVE Whitby Goth Weekend.  Having missed a couple of events over the past year or so I was all set to head off to the home of Goth for the Halloween WGW last year when disaster struck.  Boggle Hole YHA inexplicably decided to cancel all of their bookings over that weekend at the last minute.   Of course by that time there was no accommodation left within a 20 mile radius of Whitby ….Grrrr didn’t they know I needed my Whitby fix?

Anyway, patience was finally rewarded, and this weekend I got to stay in Abbey House (my favorite YHA – right next to the Abbey ruins and St Mary’s graveyard) and wander about a variety of historic settings in Whitby dressed in full Victorian Goth regalia and enjoying some fantastic bands in the evenings.

This years events are special because Whitby Goth Weekend is celebrating its 21st anniversary.  Jo Hampshire probably never imagined how her alternative music festival would mushroom over the years.  These days the Music festival element can seem a little swamped by all of the weekend Goths, Victorian enthusiasts and the ever-growing steam punk invasion, but for those who still remember the original raison d’être for the weekend there were some fantastic bands on at the Spa Pavillion including Abney Park, Jordan Reyne, Manuskript, The Chameleons, Doctor and the Medics and The Damned (to name but a few).

Anyway, here are some of my photos of this weekends event…

First glimpse of the Whitby Abbey.

St Marys Churchyard and the 199 Steps

St Marys Church, Whitby

 

Heading down into the Whitby from St Mary’s

Down in Whitby town

A First Class Steam punk general

The proud owner of possibly the coolest wheelchair ever.

A group of intrepid steam punks outside the penny arcade.

Whitby Goth Weekend Saturday Night at the Pavillion

Saturday night at the Spa Pavillion – Jordan Reyne

 

Jordan Reyne

Manuskript

A Night Walk

The path through the churchyard that leads to the Abbey

 Photographs

All photographs by Lenora

Whitby Goth Weekend Music Festival

http://www.whitbygothweekend.co.uk/news.php

 

Guilty Pleasures: a photographic love affair with trees

Tags

English woodland, Northumberland, photography, scottish borders, studeley royal park, Trees, Woodland

Trees in the Hall Grounds, Wallsend, Oct 2013

I’m not sure why I class this as a guilty pleasure, perhaps it’s because despite the fact that I am often completely enraptured with the trees that I come across, I am woefully ignorant of their species, their folk-lore and their medicinal uses!  I really can’t tell my Beech from my Sycamore, my Ash from my birch tree.  fortunately the trees don’t seem to mind too much and still pose for my pictures.

The other reason that it is a guilty pleasure is because, as anyone who has ever hiked with me will know, I am always being enticed off the beaten track to snap some amazing tree,  then having to scramble to catch up with everyone.

Despite my arboreal ignorance, I believe that trees have a presence, a distinct personality and a deep connection with the universe and that as humans we should respect and protect the trees in our environment.  Although we may not understand their words, if you listen hard you can their song on every whispered breeze.

Here are some of the pictures I have taken over the past few years – mainly in England and Scotland, but also overseas.

Crow Bank, Wallsend, Oct 2013

Near Ripon, Nov 2013

Near Ripon, Nov 2013

Near Ripon, Nov 2013

Studley Royal Park, Nov 2013 (am I just imagining it or does this tree have a slightly phallic bulge?)

Autumn colours, Studley Royal Park, Nov 2013

Twilight in Studley Royal park, Nov 2013

Northumberland, Dec 2011

Blanchland Dec, 2011

Robin with attitude, Winter, Wallington in Northumberland 2012

Keilder, winter 2010

Blanchland, Winter 2010

Holly around an old church Nr Blanchland, Winter 2010

Cedar of Lebanon at Highgate Cemetery, Feb 2010

Silver Birches, Patterdale, Lake District, Feb 2008

Border Abbey’s Way April 2009

Border Abbeys Walk, Eildon Hills in the distance, April 2009

River Tweed, Border Abbey’s Way, April 2009

The Robin Hood ‘Prince of Thieves’ tree, Hadrian’s Wall, 2007

Windblasted tree on Hadrian’s Wall, 2007

The Hares hip bones, Rising Sun Nature Park, Early Summer 2013

Early Summer, 2013

Scottish Borders, July 2013

Bushbury, West Midlands, High Summer 2005

The Vendee Region France, June 2008

Vendee, France, June 2008

Cuba, September 2010

Havana, Cuba, September 2010

Volubilis, Morocco, May 2009

Nile Desert and Trees, Egypt 2009

Nile Trees, Egypt 2009

Dream Tree, Belsay Hall Exhibition, Northumberland

The Greenman, Cragside, Northumberland

If you want to help to protect native woodlands you can find out more about projects in the UK on the Woodland Trust’s website.

Guilty Pleasures…Leech’s pictures from Punch Magazine

Tags

Caricatures, comic sketches, English history, John Leech, Punch Magazine, Social History, Social Satire, Victorian

The cheap tailor and his workmen by Leech (detail) by John Leech

Just a short post today as I have been a bit busy this week.  I haven’t posted any guilty pleasures for a while and one of my biggest guilty pleasures of all time is the purchase, acquisition and general obsession with books.  Especially crusty old leather-bound tomes…

Finding a (rare) idle moment today I was perusing my book shelf and came across a book I had almost forgotten about… Leech’s Pictures.

Image by Simon Finch Books, Holt

I picked this book up in a wonderful dusty little bookshop in Holt, a beautiful little Georgian market town in Norfolk.  The bookshop is in a rickety and maze-like seventeenth century building with crampt and winding staircases that require careful navigating – especially with a pile of books in your arms!  When ever I visit Holt I make a beeline for this bookshop – there are so few independent booksellers left on the High Street these days, it’s always a treat to find a real Gem like this one.

John Leech – Caricaturist

John Leech, public domain image via Wikimedia

John Leech was born in London on 29th August 1817, his parents hailed from Ireland.  Even as a child he was quick with his pencil and his talent was quickly recognised.  He went to Charterhouse school and there became friends with William Makepeace Thackeray (famously the author of Barry Lyndon and Vanity Fair) – the two remained friends for life.

Although he had some medical training, by eighteen he had begun to focus on his art as a profession and published some comic character sketches under the name of Etchings and Sketchings by A. Pen, Esq.  He then worked on a number of  magazines and produced illustrations for Dickens novels such as A Christmas Carol.

He worked in Lithograph and Wood Engraving, the latter being his main method of illustration in Punch Magazine.

Mr Leech and Mr Punch

Mr Punch, himself

He began his long association with Punch satirical magazine in 1841 and this continued until his death in 1864.  Leech’s style and technique quickly developed and by 1845 Ruskin was applauding Leech in fine style describing his work as:

“admittedly the finest definition and natural history of the classes of our society, the kindest and subtlest analysis of its foibles, the tenderest flattery of its pretty and well-bred ways”

Leech’s satirical sketches mainly focus on mocking the social foibles of all classes, and he was also famous for his sporting scenes.  Nevertheless his illustrations also sometimes have a keener edge.  Leech was not afraid to look at some of the harsher truths of life in the Mid Victorian world and he seems to have had a keen sympathy for the plight of horses.

I find the sketches to be a fascinating window onto  the world of Mid Victorian Britain: its mores, its aspirations, its foibles.  Leech’s pictures help, literally, to illustrate some aspects of the Victorian mindset and world view.  As such, his humour can take a somewhat hierarchical, patriarchical and ultimately imperialist tone (some of the depictions of other races in particular, can appear very distasteful to the modern eye).   However as an overall barometer for his era they provide a valuable social commentary.  Despite these flaws, many of his sketches show a keen eye for human nature, and even after nearly 150 years the humour remains evident in many of them.

Leech’s Pictures of Life and Character from the Collection of Mr Punch

Here are a few images from my copy of Leech’s pictures, they are from his Second Series and seem to date from the 1860’s – the book has clearly been read and re-read hence some of the images are a little, shall we say, crumpled!  If you click on the images they come up full size so you can read the captions.

The topics covered range from social satire, to political comments; events such as Crystal Palace Exhibition, the Crimea and sea bathing as well as a look at the  social mobility of the lower classes…ENJOY

My copy of Leech’s Pictures c1860’s

Frontispiece of Leech’s Pictures

Latest from Paris

The cheap tailor and his workmen

A Very Bad Way
‘You look quite wretched Frank’
‘Wretched, my boy! You may imagine how wretched I am when I tell you I don’t even care how my Twowsers are made!’

Managing Mama. ‘My goodness Ellen, how pale you look, for goodness’ sake bite your lips and rub your cheeks.’

Seaside – the bathing hour

New cricketing dress to protect all England against the present swift bowling.

Servantgalism. ‘Ousemaid from town ‘is Hann Jenkins at home?’
Suburban cook: ‘no; she has just gone to her milliners’
‘ousemaid ‘then give her my card, please, and tell her I ‘ope she got home safely from the ball’

dropped something madam?

The parliamentary female

The railway engine and the foxhunter – a prospective sketch

A country ball

The Beard and Moustache movement
Railway Guard ‘Now Ma’am, is this your luggage?’
Old lady (Who concludes she is attacked by brigands) ‘Oh yes! Gentlemen, it’s mine Take it-take all I have! But spare, oh, spare our lives!’

Further illustrations of the mining districts
First polite native: Who’s ‘im Bill?’
Second ditto ‘A stranger!’
First ditto ”eave a brick at ‘im’

Police wear beards and moustaches, panic among the street boys

Comments on the effectiveness of table tapping

The British Weather

New Christmas game for fox-hunters during a long frost.

Scene on the English coast

What a shame
Young lady (inclining to embonpoint). ‘I shall want him again this afternoond – from two to four!’

The Great exhibition at Crystal Palace emptied the theatres

An early example of Goth fashion?

The Crimean War
‘Well, Jack. Here’s good news from home. We’re to have a medal’
That’s very kind. Maybe one of these days we’ll have a coat to stick it on!’

A hint for the horseguards.
Showing how all the weight of our heavies might be preserved, and more fairly adjusted.

The peril of keeping ones gloves in ones hat.

Sources

Leech, John, Pictures from Life and Character From the Collection of Mr Punch,  Second Series, published c1860 by Bradbury and Evans

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Leech_%28caricaturist%29

Guilty Pleasures: Whitby Goth Weekend

Tags

Goth, Guilty Pleasures, Steam punk, Whitby, Whitby Goth Weekend

This gallery contains 25 photos.

Whitby Goth Weekend runs twice a year and is the brainchild of Jo Hampshire, this year the first weekend ran …

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Guilty Pleasures: Gabriella Pierce’s 666 Park Avenue Series

Tags

666 Park Aveune, fiction, Gabriella Pierce, supernatural chick lit, supernatural romance, The Dark Glamour, The Lost Soul

A Review by Lenora

Book 1: 666 Park Avenue

This series is definitely a guilty pleasure! I first came across Gabriella Pierce’s 666 Park Avenue series by accident.  I had begun following the TV series based on the books but found out that it was being cancelled mid-season.  Curious as to how the story ended I decided to read the books.  It is worth stating that the books bear very little relation to the TV series.  I have to admit to quite liking the ‘Dynasty does the Dark-side’ style of the TV series but the books were so much better.

Just one word of warning before you read on: if you haven’t read all of the books yet you might want to only read part of this post – there are a couple of potential spoilers below!!

Book One:  666 Park Avenue

Jane Boyle is a witch, only she doesn’t know it.  She has grown up in France, isolated and protected by her grandmother who is a powerful witch and is unbeknownst to Jane, in hiding.  Whilst in Paris working as an architect Jane meets and falls in love with the fabulously wealthy and gorgeous Malcolm Doran, a member of the Manhattan elite.  Book one describes Jane’s coming to terms with the fact that she has a secret witchy heritage, she also gets to indulge her penchant for designer labels courtesy of the Doran’s unlimited wealth.  Much shopping ensues.  Jane finds herself at the centre of the wedding of the year as planned by Lynne Doran, matriarch of the Doran Clan, wearer of scary peach lipstick and plotter of nefarious plans involving Jane.  Jane soon finds out that Lynne is pretty much the wickedest witch on the block tracing her ancestry back to the original witch Ambika and her evil daughter Hasina – Lynne’s favourite hobby in between shopping and sniping at Jane  is bumping off rival witches and stealing their power.  Jane also has to come to terms with the terrible secrets Malcolm is hiding from her.

Stop reading here if you haven’t read book Two!!!

Book Two: The Dark Glamour

Book 2 – The Dark Glamour

The second book has Jane, now single and undercover in Manhattan, trying to avoid the murderous plans of Lynne by reuniting her with her long-lost daughter Annette.  To do this she must play a dangerous game with some very dangerous (and needless to say gorgeous) Romanian witches, so she takes on a glamour and becomes the exotic Ella Medieros.  More shopping ensues.  Jane unpicks more of the mysteries of her own past and how they link her family to the Doran’s.  She discovers only too late that reuniting Lynne with her long-lost daughter will have devastating consequences for all of them.

Ditto – stop here if you’re not up to the final book yet!!!

Book Three:  The Lost Soul

The third and (so far) final book in the series sees Jane reunited with Malcolm and fighting to save Annette as Lynne plans a spell that will see the undying Hasina reborn again into Annette’s body.  Jane uncovers much more about her magical heritage and why she is of such importance to Lynne/Hasina. There is a lot of action in this last novel as Jane learns more about her powers and begins to use them, but in doing so puts everyone she loves at risk.

Book 3: The Lost Soul

If you like your chick-lit with a supernatural twist then you will probably enjoy these books.  Obviously I want to avoid spoilers but it’s just the usual story of: boy meets girl, girl goes shopping, boy and girl fall in love, girl goes shopping, boy betrays girl, girl goes shopping, girl has to fight ancient evil…(after picking the right outfit of course!) etc, etc.

Nevertheless there are some interesting twists.  The ancient matriarchal lineage from Ambika through her witchy daughters creates possibilities for future novels;  the idea of trying to save someone who doesn’t want to or cannot be saved is explored and there is no guarantee that there will be the happy ending for everyone that you might expect for chick-lit/supernatural romance.  There is also quite a lot of humor and even a nod to the wicked witch of the west in her ruby slippers. Although magic plays an integral part in the story and the acquisition of it is Lynne’s driving force, the novels are surprisingly light on the nitty-gritty of magic.  Similarly back-stories exist for many of the characters but are not overly explored except as they relate immediately to the narrative.

Although the ending leaves an opening for another installment of the serial,  I secretly hope that Pierce leaves this as a trilogy. The ending leaves the reader free to imagine what happened next rather than spelling things out to obviously.

Basically the books are a light frothy look at witchy socialites, and are very entertaining if not very deep.  Good for a long train journey or a lazy evening in the company of a glass of vino and a bar of chocolate!

Gabriella Pierce’s 666 Park Avenue Series is available on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/

Guilty Pleasures: Carry on Screaming

Tags

Carry on films, carry on screaming, hammer films, horror films, kenneth williams

Carry on Films are my Guilty Pleasure….

Sergeant Bung: ‘A young lady has disappeared and we’re anxious to trace her whereabouts’
Dr Watt: ‘Oh, whereabouts?’
Bung: ‘Hereabouts’
Mr Potter: ‘At 10 o’clock’
Bung: ‘Or thereabouts’
Constable Slobottom: ‘In this vicinity’
Bung: ‘Or roundabouts – we’re police officers’
Potter: [exasperated] ‘-or lay-abouts!‘

This is one of the classic scenes from Carry on Screaming – with a mix of carry on regulars such as Jimmy Dale and Kenneth Williams along side Harry H Corbett (standing in for Sid James as Sergeant Bung) – delivering the quick fire wit and word play of classic carry on films.

Studio Canal DVD

I have always loved the carry on films – especially the ‘historic’ or ‘literary’ parodies:  Carry on Henry with costumes better than some Hollywood Epics; Carry on Cleo sending up Julius Caesar, Anthony and Cleopatra with such verve; and one of my all time favorites Carry on don’t lose your head a less than decorous take on the Scarlet Pimpernel.

However, possibly the best Carry on Film ever made (in my opinion at least) is the fabulously creepy Carry on Screaming.  Directed by Gerald Thomas with and written by Talbot Rothwell it premiered in 1966 and lovingly parodied both the Universal Horror films of the 1930’s and the Hammer Horror films that were so popular at the time.  It deals in typical Carry on fashion with several of the staples of the horror genre:  Dracula (Dr Watt’s catch-phrase ‘Frying tonight’ is supposed to be a reference to Dracula ‘Flying tonight’); Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde; Mad scientists; homicidal Egyptian Mummies; wolf-men; the vampire temptress; the virginal heroine/victims (with varying degrees of allure:  see Sergeant Slobottom in a frock for reference!) Even the title song was memorable and had its own legend attached to it – for many years fans thought Carry on regular Jimmy Dale was the singer (he wasn’t – it was actually Ray Pilgrim).

Jimmy Dale as Wolfman

One of the distinctive things about the film is the look of it – it really feels like a classic hammer horror from its dark sinister woods to the OTT cobwebbed Victorian mansion ‘Bide-a-wee’ with its crazy scientific paraphernalia in the basement.  This may be due to the influence of photographer, Alan Hume, who also worked on Hammer and Amicus horror films in the 1960’s.

The performances as well were wonderfully hammy – with Kenneth Williams playing the arch villan Dr Watt, Fenella Fielding oozing Hammer-horror sultriness as Valeria his sister.  The forces for good included Harry H Corbett playing Sergeant Bung, Peter Butterworth as his bumbling side-kick Slobottom and the gorgeously goofy Jimmy Dale as Mr Potter the window cleaner whose lady friend (played by Angela Douglas) had been abducted in Hokum woods (Hokum woods – love it!).

Smoking indoors was allowed back then..

Nutty slack

Other Carry on regulars also feature as bit players – Joan Simms as Bung’s shrewish, telephone-phobic wife; Charles Hawtrey (written in at the last-minute for the American market) does a very camp turn as a toilet attendant known as Dan Dan the —- Man. Even future Dr Who, Jon Pertwee,  has a cameo role as the police’s own mad scientist Dr Fettle.

I would like to end with a transcript of my favorite scene from Carry on Screaming, a scene between Sergeant Bung, Constable Slobottam and Dr Watt…the scene owes a lot to Abbott and Costello’s ‘Who’s on first’ sketch but is done with the Carry on teams inimitable style:

Bung: ‘Are you prepared to make a statement?’
Watt: ‘I did didn’t I?’
Bung: ‘I’d like my assistant to get it on the record sir.  Now, if I could have your name please.’
Watt: ‘Dr Watt’
Slobottom: ‘Dr-Who- sir?’
Watt: ‘Watt – Who was my uncle or was, I haven’t seen him for ages.’
Slobottom: ‘We appear to be at Loggerheads sir’
Watt: ‘No, this is Bide-A-Wee, Loggerheads is about 5 miles down the road.’
Slobottom: ‘No, no, about your name.’
Watt: [irritated] ‘Watt’
Slobottom: ‘What’s your name?’
Bung: [shouting] ‘Watt’s his name!’
Slobottom: ‘Thats what I’m trying to find out sir’
Bung: ‘Excuses, excuses, nothing but excuses.  Just get the statement down ‘I haven’t see or heard anything suspicious in the vicinity this evening.’
Watt: ‘You too ey?  So glad it wasn’t just me who didn’t…’

‘Frying Tonight!’

Sources

Images and quotes taken from the DVD version of the film:  Programme Content Copyright 1966 Canal+ Image UK Ltd; Script written by Talbot Rothwell.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carry_On_Screaming
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Hume
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060214/
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/466443/index.html

The Cavern of Dreams…Fleetway’s Misty Annuals for girls

Tags

1980s, Fleeetway Annuals, Girls annuals, Misty Annuals, mystery comics, Supernatural comics

The legend that was – Misty.

Misty, a Fleetway Annual produced by IPC Magazines,  was a very unusual thing – a supernatural horror comic aimed at young girls.  As a child I was always fascinated by the more shadowy things of this world, the more mysterious and less fluffy and pink the better.

I first found Misty not so much in a Cavern of Dreams, but in a box of old Beano comics. It was a rainy day at school and play-time had been cancelled, everyone was left kicking their heels in the classroom.

Leafing through those discarded comics I was immediately hooked – I mean these comics were just what I had been looking for as a proto-gothy 10 year old.  I couldn’t believe that someone had thrown them out and they had ended up at school – I mean as soon as I saw them they were major ‘objects of desire’ to me – how they never found their way home with me I will never know!

Not only did the comics have weekly serials, one-off stories, but they also had short stories and factual articles about the supernatural and quirky historical facts – so the proto-history geek in me was also happy.  I think what I loved most was that the stories didn’t peddle the line that there was always a happy ending…things often ended badly for the heroines of Misty stories.

It was only a minor set back to discover that the weekly comic had long gone – it only lasted for 101 issues between 1978 – 1980 so I was too late for that feast of the macabre.  But, Misty still graced the world in the form of her Annuals and for the next four years no Christmas was complete without my Misty Annual.

Nothing lasts for ever though, and eventually I traded in my Misty annuals in exchange for some more ‘grown up’ horror novels at local second-hand book shop.

It didn’t take me long to regret it, and now I am re-claiming my Misty collection bit by bit.   Even after all this time they are still great stories. And although the Misty Annual is no more, you can still read some of the complete stories online thanks to Egmont who now own the Misty copyright. Stories appear on the official Misty website:

http://www.mistycomic.co.uk/Misty.html