CARRIE'S DEN

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It is more than 40 years since I bought my first copy of Mayfair - Volume 10 No 9 (September 1975). I still remember vividly the cover, which featured a naked Gillian Duxbury kneeling up on a sun-bed facing the camera - bare bum raised high in the air. Every guy who bought that issue thought the same as me - why the hell didn't the photographer go round the back? ... or are you just pleased to see me?

The issue featured the usual half dozen pretty young things shedding their clothes and treating readers to an eyeful of their charms. However, it wasn't any of them, nor even the lovely Ms Duxbury, who stole my heart. Towards the back of the magazine was a two-page comic strip titled "Carrie" which featured a blond young lass being molested in a public library. She shouted for help and was glared at by the library staff who pointed angrily to a large notice reading "Silence".

The lass gave us a "what's a girl to do?" look and shrugged. I fell madly in lust with her on the spot.

In those days Carrie's misadventures were drawn by Don Lawrence. I discovered some years later that Lawrence's Carrie stories had been collected together and published in several countries - in France she became "Sophie", in Germany she was "Virginia" and in Holland "Cathy". Each story was a true work of art, lovingly drawn with tremendous attention to detail.

Sssssshhhhhh!

A few months after I discovered the Carrie strip in Mayfair the artist changed, and Mario Capaldi took up pen and brush.

His Carrie was what my grandmother would have described as "bonny" (a bit more to get hold of than Lawrence's version), A wash and brush up madam? although he clearly tried to remain true to the original.

I recall Capaldi's debut featured a mad scientist and his robot maidservant who (much to Carrie's delight) is programmed to bathe and towel her off. When the robot delivers a freshly scrubbed Carrie to the professor in his bed we realise the old guy was not quite so mad as we first thought.

A year or so later the artist changed again, to Steve Kingston. Kingston's style was more cartoon-like than either of his predecessors and his Carrie was more the traditional blonde bimbo (though interestingly it seemed as though she was no longer a natural blonde.) Kingston has since said "Carrie is and always was a 'true' blonde, I was just a little over enthusiastic with the Burnt Umber!! (that's what happens when an illustrator uses too many references!) If, or when, she returns then her pubes will match her beautiful locks!"

A handful of issues in 1981 featured Connie (Carrie's cousin) drawn by Brian Forbes. Happily similar misfortunes plagued Connie (it must have been a family thing) and she invariably ended up naked with her legs apart.

The site is no longer updated. Carrie was of her time and the world has moved on a lot.


CARRIE'S DEN

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