Best Of Misty

Once Per Month

Parent:Misty

Alien Seed: Libby has to go stay with her boring uncle in holidays, he is growing a special plant from prehistoric seed, it turns out to be carnivorous with a drug-like scent and she chops it down to save him. He doesn’t believe her and she is sent home, and final panel shows more growing.
An Eye For An Eye...: Slave Esther has a cruel mistress who captures leopards and treats them badly and kills one for skin, takes the other to Rome but the leopard roars and attracts attention of Arab pirates on a Dhow (African ship) who take them prisoner and release the leopard, Livia ends up sold as a slave.
Catch Me If You Can...: Jilly takes short cut and meets Vicky who teases her, gets home OK but cannot see her at school so goes back to wood, discovers Vicky is a ghost and ends with Vicky chasing her (‘Sobbing and stumbling, Jilly fled as if her life depended on it… as perhaps it did…’ (final panel of Vicky looming, Jilly crying).
Cave Of Dread (Beasts): Steffie overcomes her phobia of furry things and saves her friend in cave of bats, wins respect of bullies
Cry Baby!: Catherine is adopted and constantly teased by her older sister Sarah which makes her cry, her tears drop in a wishing well and she gets one wish, next day she says ‘I wish you knew’ [what it was like to be cry baby] and Sarah is transformed into a crying baby.
Curse Of The Condor: Kate has nightmares about her grandfather being attacked by condor (he is archaeologist looking for this Inca lost city, Cori-Cancha), he collapses on the way there and giant condor comes and shades him with wings, and shows him vision of the city that he believes is real before he dies.
Danger In The Depths
Danse Macabre: Nadia cheats to get starring ballet role (de luca effect 11), steals mistress's ballet shoes for luck... Skeletal orchestra etc red shoes adaptation, forced to dance until she collapses, Lois gets role and Nadia has ‘damaged her feet’ and shoes ‘danced to pieces’
Day Of The Dragon
Examination Nerves: Sheila has a nightmare about a German interrogation, puts it down to worries about her O Levels which she passes and goes to Germany that summer to work as an au pair. Struggles to find the house and when she arrives is so tired she falls asleep, wakes up to find police there and a body being carried out, interrogation scene identical to the nightmare she had.
Fancy Another Jelly Baby?: Gillian is addicted to eating jelly babies from Mr Black’s local shop and then notices that they look like children who have disappeared, she goes to investigate his shop but is caught and put into sweet making machine – wakes up to find that although that was just a dream ‘Mum says, if I keep eating so many I’ll turn… into one – aaaaargh! Aaaaaargh!’
Going...Going...Gone!: Pickpocket Tracey steals magical lens that makes her invisible but it gets smashed by a tramp who finds it and the world vanishes around her (medium fades to white)
Hangman's Alley
House Of Faith...: Susan’s parents leave her home with housekeeper for a month, she treats house carelessly (parties, tramples garden) and everything she touches seems to break, gardener and housekeeper tell her it is because house needs love to survive but she ignores them, that night she goes onto balcony hearing sounds and it collapses and she dies ‘The house of faith had been a place of love. It died, becoming only a house of greed, of emptiness… but the house of faith made sure it did not die alone!’
House Of Horror
Hunt The Ripper: Mysterious guest at victorian lodging house - Alison looks in his trunk convinced he is ripper but 'body' is a ventriloquists dummy - reveals he is Count Dracula and he pursues her then kills Jack the Ripper 'Throughout the night those two creatures of evil grappled with each other, forgetting Alison. Who knows who won? But there were no more Ripper murders ... And Count Dracula was detained so long he could not return to his native earth before the sun rose. In some dirty East End alley he must have withered to dust in the sun's rays.' (13) - reassuring narrative voice conclusion
Hush, Hush, Sweet Rachel
If Only...: Poor Lois wants to swap lives with rich Kora, visits witch 'I will help you because you're a girl after my own black heart' (7) turns out kora is dying that's why she is spoiled
It's A Dog's Life! (Beasts): Mrs Abbott gives her dog Ling the best of everything and then discovers she has a grand-niece who comes to visit and is nice and starts becoming the favourite and Mrs Abbott realises ‘You are a selfish little thing’ and decides to change her will but that night Ling trips up Jane on the stairs and it is implied she dies
Last Encounters...: Family on spaceship, recurring dream of landing on a planet and being thrown into air by a quake, turns out they land on earth and are tiny, man wakes and throws their ship into air thinking it a kid’s toy – ‘…not all spaceships are gigantic!’
Malice In Wonderland: Owner in midst of his deserted wonderland carnival, has been haunted by ghost girl, he finally sees her and climbs to top of rollercoaster chasing her, she reveals she died in neglectful accident and same happens to him – story ends with wonderland popular again but he is the ghost that haunts it.
Miss Cassidy's Cat...: Neighbour jilly chases cat, thinks mrs c has made him giant but final panel reveal she has shrunk her instead. Given viewpoint of witch through eye shaped panels p25
Monster Of Green Acres: (2nd person narration addressed to madman stalking the town) – people become increasingly scared and town ends up deserted, revealed it is the scarecrow who ‘just didn’t know when to stop’.
Mummy: Hilary goes to meet her mum at museum where she is cleaner, investigates noise caused by Drs attempt to dissect mummy – it comes alive but then crumbles into dust when it realises its true love has also died, tells mum but she doesn’t believe (arrows used for direction and clumsy ending).
Nobody's Child: Carrie is an orphan and pickpocket on historical London streets (‘All right, so it’s wrong to cheat and steal, but wot other chance did I ‘ave? Wot other way can I live?’) and mongrel dog starts following her and preventing her thefts, takes her to a pauper’s graveyard and Annie Dawkins’ grave, where an old lady tells her about her death due to thieving and that this is her dog, Carrie decides to go straight and final panel selling violets and making money.
Queen's Weather (Beasts): Sally and Gina are sunbathing and wish they could do this all the time (like queens or princesses), Sally swats a bee and they plot their revenge (narrator reveals this) and mass on her, stinging her, and she becomes queen of the hive.
Red Knee - White Terror! (Beasts): Andrea buys bananas from market with poisonous spider while hearing news report on radio, lots of panels showing spider on her without her realising (so reader knows more), it attacks her in bath but is just her brother’s toy trick (exploiting medium), final panel she relaxes and hand dangles down – as real spider approaches!
Reflections: Vain Anna sees herself as hideous monster in a magic mirror her dad has brought back from Hong Kong – goes to magic mirror fairground and friends play a trick on her to think this is real and she resolves to change - pink colour way back cover and reveal that Dad has accidentally broken ‘real’ mirror (so she will see herself OK in future) - it works by suggestibility.
Roots (Nightmare): Jill goes to stay in Evergreen with her granddad for the summer, uncanny realisation townspeople standing out in rain at night and nobody has died for years, discovers they have roots. Final reassuring panel added where she decides to stay.
Run, Rabbit, Run!: Emily is called rabbit and bullied at school, saves a wild rabbit from snare and finally stands up for self, rabbits calls friends and they terrify the bully and she realises she is not afraid any more
Safe Until Morning (Beasts): Rita bored on camping holiday with parents, falls in lake but monster watching her lifts her out, and then scares away potential muggers, and retreats back into depths, next day she is found and family decide to go home having looked for Loch Ness Monster for weeks without a trace.
Screaming Point
Seal Song (Beasts): Meg and her mother abused by her cruel stepfather, she encounters a seal on beach that sings along to her recorder, he tries to trap it to put in a show but song becomes hypnotic and he is swept out to sea.
Slowcoach: In Oceantown people come and go often, new student Shelley is very slow and gets in trouble for tearing up school vegetable patch, doesn’t notice enormous storm one night and we are shown trail of slime as she is revealed to be a snail
Song Of Petina: Beggar orphan Petina begs king to stop hunting and he adopts her and agrees, but is goaded into it by his soldiers, and when they shoot a bird she disappears and a dead dove is found in her bed
Spend, Spend, Spend!: Goldie wants money to buy nice clothes for herself, makes a deal with two goblins that they will give her money and when she has spent it all will become part of their …errr… collection. Decides to keep last 10p but parents borrow it and she locks goblins out of house, but they transport the entire house with her inside it to their realm.
The Body Snatchers
The Day The Sky Grew Dark... (Beasts): Tatum sent to live with Uncle Maxwell in his creepy silent house, discovers he is keeping birds in cellar and experimenting to gain power of flight, they escape and peck him to death, she answers phone and says ‘right now… he’s feeding the birds’
The Devil's Dummy: Deirdre and Pam go to ventriloquist’s show and he makes a fool of Deirdre. Months later announces his retirement and buries dummy they go to dig it up and it shouts ‘THIEF!’ at them, they escape but Pam goes back and encounters ventriloquist who tells her dummy is possessed with soul of a vampire and story ends with possessed Deirdre calling for her boyfriend as he has bitten her.
The Dummy (Nightmare): Bertie the dummy introduces tale (‘Hello, boys and girls’) with jokes (‘I’ve a kind face. ‘What kind’, did I hear you say? Well it was the wrong kind for Rhoda…’ and tells her story – father thinks more of his dummies than of her so she wishes on lucky rabbit’s foot that Beattie (fairy in his act, tricks us into thinking is real at first) gives her, ‘I wish Dad loved me as much as he does Bertie and Samantha’, and is transformed into a dummy, but this proves to be a nightmare and when she wakes he comes in to say he’s realised he doesn’t spend enough time with her (had same nightmare) and they go out to spend day together while Bertie winks at us
The Eyes Of The Gorgon: Jenny has weak eyes and lives with Uncle Seth, who is obsessed with myth and legend, on museum tour she learns legend of gorgons and finds various statues about his house, opens a forbidden box of papers that reveal he performed experiments on her eyes and she is a gorgon, accidentally turns him into a statue too
The Family (Nightmare): Judy is teased at new school for her scientist dad being a ‘mad scientist’ like Dr Frankenstein who is making monsters, goes to ask him about it and he reassures her, but next day same teasing and she goes up to his lab to investigate, while her teacher phones town they came from to find out more about them and help Judy make friends, but told they have no child at all – Judy runs down stairs when she hears her Dad coming but slips and final splash panel shows her as a robot (‘Poor Judy. Perhaps she shouldn’t have hunted quite so hard for her father’s… monster?’)
The Final Piece: Rita mugs kid for jigsaw bought at jumble sale but only finds one piece inside, takes it to donator to complain and finds nearly complete jigsaw into which she puts the final piece and it is a picture of her, trapping her in house until another mean child comes along and completes the puzzle, so donates it again to jumble sale
The Four Faces Of Eve
The Guardian Lynxes... (Beasts): Naomi and archaeologist father excavate an old tomb in Crete, find stone lynxes at entrance, once inside they come alive but Naomi orders them back imperially. They find statue of princess who looks just like Naomi, and she convinces father to leave everything be.
The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter: Criminals go to hide their loot in deserted lighthouse but encounter its keeper Andy who they shoot dead (fourth wall shot of gun firing at us), his daughter then enacts revenge on them and turns out she is a mermaid in final panel (EC style narration: ‘No, Wigg – you won’t manage it! You’ll never manage anything again…’)
The Love And The Laughter: Molly makes a pact with Devil for her soul to help her Uncle’s ailing circus (despite his claims she helps him just by being around), it works and they make lots of money in just one day, then conjurer returns and Uncle figures out pact, they burn the book and spell is broken
The Not So Genial Genie: Protagonist finds genie in bottle on deserted beach and releases him but turns out to be evil and claims he will conquer earth, she convinces him to demonstrate his power (‘All I’ve seen so far is a big puff of smoke. And it ponged so much you should be ashamed!’) and he turns himself into a fly, which she swats.
The Power Of Young Melissa: Melissa is able to restore those who have died before their time back to life, is caught by mob boss dying of old age, takes life from his men using the death stored inside her.
The Queen's Hair: Middle-ages, cruel Queen Elida has no hair due to illness when young, out hunting she is given hairband by old crone that will make her hair grow if she wears it for 24 hours, no more, and it works but she forgets and hair grows out of control, and witch has died in cold dungeon, it takes over palace and kills her ‘She brought about her own downfall by becoming a prisoner of her own hair.’
The Sad Eyes Of Sorrow: Frankenstein's monster in a freak show, reveal at end that this is his real face and wears human mask.
The School Of The Lost...
The Treatment: Londoner Glenda sent to correctional school decides to run away (‘I’ll get out of here without anyone’s help – and if any of you get in my way, you’ll get hurt bad!’ – circular central panel she breaks fourth wall and its boundaries with a clenched fist), cook helps her, revealed it is a trick by owners and Glenda is transformed into a tree and replaced by a perfect replica ‘filled with the gentle calm of the countryside’ – final panel of real Glenda trapped in tree trunk.
The Uglies: Vain Mandy wins another beauty pageant and gloats, when walking out that evening comes across and ugly pageant, they tell her people can be beautiful on inside and she agrees to change her ways and leave, but then they reveal ‘you can’t go’ and that they are ‘even uglier’ on the inside ‘And Mandy screamed again, long and lingering, but no-one heard, no-one at all!’
Titch's Tale... (Beasts): Titch is teased for being small, goes up to hill to fly kites with others one day and they all start to vanish, pulled up into air, revealed aliens are fishing but she is so small they throw her back.
Who Killed Teacher?: Mandy complains for always being kept behind in school and starts trying to scare her teacher as revenge. Teacher runs in front of car and is hit, Mandy tells friend Grace what she has done and Grace reveals Mrs Prendergast was a witch and had been teaching her – she swaps their bodies ‘at the exact moment of death’ saving Mrs Prendergast and killing Mandy.
Who's A Pretty Boy Then?: Mean relatives are shocked to discover their rich Uncle Hector has left them nothing in his will except a parrot, which spews insults and pecks Vanessa’s face and escapes, they throw the cage away not realising its bottom is filled with diamonds.