Like a deep, dark, weirdness-filled mirror the world of Bunty (and girls' comics in general) continues to hold fustar.info in its thrall. The more I look, the more wonders (and terrors) I see returning my gaze.

Two weeks ago we revisited the jolly adventures of "Belle" and a ball that "had developed remarkable powers after being treated by space travellers from the planet Orbis".

As is the case with many such powerful, "paranormal" objects, ownership passes (over the centuries) from person to person. A quick bit of detective work (by myself and Jess) revealed the identities of the previous and current guardians - Sylvia Plath, and the Cruise/Holmes child-bot:

Thanks to the good people over at the Comics UK forums I've been reminded that narratives about young girls and "uncanny balls" were by no means rare or unusual. Take, for example, this brief excerpt from "The Ball of Hate"¹ - kindly uploaded by "steelclaw":

A demonic glass ball that tells young Ms. Thorpe seductive (and destructive) untruths = fantastic stuff. It's not clear who/what "treated" (or possessed) this particular ball, but the fact that it's difficult to get rid of clearly marks it out as a thing of evil. Perhaps the dark gods of "Orbis" are responsible?

Speaking of evil, any discussion of uncanny balls and young girls must make mention of Mario Bava's Operazione Paura (a.k.a. Kill, Baby… Kill!) - a film in which…

"…the townsfolk of a backwards Carpathian village are bedevilled by the spectre of a young girl with long blonde hair, whose ghostly visitations are announced by the arrival of a white ball that rolls into the scene, seemingly with a will of its own."

The Movie Morlocks article "Follow the Bouncing Ball" (source of the above quote) also reminds us that Fellini borrowed the image for "Toby Dammit" ("his contribution to the horror anthology Spirits of the Dead"). Behold:

Creepy and scarifying, but I've saved the best till last. Not a ball this time, though not far off. Courtesy of that man "philcom55″ (over at Comics UK) comes this slice of freakiness, scanned straight from the pages of Bunty No. 1471 (March 22, 1986). You'll need to click on the image for the full effect…

That's some intuitive leap by young Katherine. Her town is hit by a "violent storm" and she becomes convinced that the blame lies with her sister's "strange balloon".² Hmmm…her logic is not like our Earth logic. Still, given that some people believe the Twin Towers were felled by missiles hidden inside holograms of planes, I suppose it's not totally outrageous. I mean, look at its face for God's sake!

Since "philcom55″ himself has succinctly captured the unease the page generates (even among adult readers/viewers) I'll leave the penultimate words to him:

I'm particularly struck by the way in which a symbol of childish joy and wonder is transformed into something so horrifically sinister (rather in the style of Ray Bradbury's 'Something Wicked This Way Comes'); what's more the effect is cleverly enhanced by limiting any colour to the balloon itself while everything else is depicted in black and white.

Amen, brother.

1. Drawn by Dudley Wynn, from Mandy I think? [back]
2. I should add that the "Balloon of Doom" artist is none other than Robert Macgillivray, he of "The Flights of Flopear". [back]