Lady Penelope #1

22 Jan 1966; Cover price 7d.
20 pages. Colour & B&W.
City Magazines Ltd.

Photo montage cover.

Free Lady Penelope signet ring.

Contents:

.2 Your Post, M'Lady / Contents

.3 Perils of Parker UNTITLED w: UNKNOWN; a: UNKNOWN.

.4 The Man from U.N.C.L.E. UNTITLED w: UNKNOWN; a: Juan González Alacreu (uncredited).

.6 Sandy Barton Flinch from Every Shadow text story (uncredited); illustrated by John Canning.

.8 Schooldays - Italian Style text feature (uncredited).

.9 The Beverly Hillbillies UNTITLED w: UNKNOWN; a: Paul Trevillion (uncredited).

10 Lady Penelope UNTITLED w: Alan Fennell (uncredited); a: Frank Langford (uncredited).

12 Lady Penelope Investigates Jimmy Tarbuck text feature (uncredited).

13 "FABulous" - says Lady Penelope J. Rosenthal (Toys) Ltd. advertisement.

14 Space Family Robinson UNTITLED w: Brian Woodford (uncredited); a: John M. Burns (uncredited).

15 It's FAB Calling text feature (uncredited).

16 FAB Club Fashions are FAB Club Prizes! competition (uncredited).

18 Bewitched UNTITLED w: UNKNOWN; a: UNKNOWN.

20 Marina, Girl of the Sea UNTITLED w: Alan Fennell (uncredited); a: Rab Hamilton (uncredited).

Having first appeared in comics it is appropriate that Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward receive her own title. Unfortunately, the cover doesn't play up the quality of illustrations within, and to a casual reader may appear to have more in common with a tie-in magazine than a comic, and the tacky ring doesn't help the title overcome initial impressions. Comics can launch with poor covers and recover in due course, but it is unusual to hew so closely to recognisable elements and still feel like a cheap imitation.

Matters improve with Perils of Parker, presumably a twist on the title of the third episode ("The Perils of Penelope"), which follows Parker's attempts to avoid being given a new image. It is a throwaway script, with barely a hint of plot, but the dialogue accurately captures the characters' dialogue from the series. Despite closely resembling prior depictions, there's something about the strips use of large heads which is unappealing.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is remarkable for the quality of the art, and how close the likenesses to the main cast are. Being the first part of a continuing story, there isn't a great deal of action, but as a taster of the adventures to come there is much to enjoy. Pedro Vincenti, a Spanish agent staggers across a Majorcan beach and dies, clutching a dead mouse, which requires Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin's involvement. It hints at the usual Spy-Fi elements, though the most overt nod to the genre is a pet lion.

No comic featuring a beautiful woman, reclining on a bed alongside her pet lion, can be all bad.

The idea behind Schooldays - Italian Style is a great one: look at the lives of children around the world, in order so British children can contrast and compare details. Unfortunately the cramped space into which the feature is pushed (leaving a quarter page of text) means that any insight into the life of Teresina Vincetti, the subject of the inaugural piece, is limited. There is no indication what lessons are on offer, so how closely to (or far from) the readers experiences of school must be inferred.

I want to know more about the school itself, and the curriculum, which is frustrating. City Magazines had some wonderful text features in their titles, but this is one instance of brevity harming the intent of the piece.

A trip to the funfair for Elly May and Granny in The Beverly Hillbillies strip leads (through a series of amusing incidents) to Elly Mae taking possession of a tiger. The script sticks to the familiar elements of the series, and Trevillion's art (helpfully signed) is light and attractive, while capturing the cast in slight caricature. It is better than the US strips, but feels slightly rushed by only being given a single page to play with.

The star of the comic, Lady Penelope herself, takes the two-page colour spread. There isn't much action, though it seems that young Penelope has gotten in over her head with the discovery of a piece of microfilm. The leisurely pacing would have been a problem if it were not for Frank Langford's art, which - although a little plastic in places - has the effect of tying the story to the Thunderbirds series with clever use of camera angles and layout.

Recaps and retellings of prior stories in media tie-ins are, generally, lacking in substance. When your chosen story is as thin as Space Family Robinson, the problems are multiplied, and it is only John M. Burns' attention to detail in the art duties which makes the strip stand out.

Dog-sitting for a neighbour is a longstanding comedy staple, and Bewitched runs with the jokes for all they are worth. There are some clever tweaks to the usual fare (Endora using her powers to increase the dog's size, prefiguring Digby several years later), before everything is wrapped up happily in a rather rushed conclusion. The languid, an incident-packed, storytelling from the parent series seems relatively glacial in comparison, and it would have benefited from more room to breathe.

There's relatively little to recommend Marina, which is set before events seen in Stingray, save for the art. Treaty signings aren't the most exciting or dramatic events for stories to concentrate upon, and the outcome of the proposed treaty seen in the opening installment of Marina has a predictable outcome, though the narrative concludes before the story reaches a point where the betrayal is uncovered.

The good largely outweighs the bad in this issue, with some gorgeous artwork making up for any deficiencies in the narratives. A surfeit of photographic elements takes away from some of the gloss, and the text features could have been expanded without sacrificing any of the stories - the competition spread over two pages could easily have been done on one page without any loss of impact, and the introductory text wastes a lot of space.