• Bunty –  Bunty: #01 (18 January 1958) – #1550 (26 September 1987)
• Life With Bunty –  Bunty:  #1551 (03 Oct 1987) – #1657 (14 Oct 1989)
• Bunty – A Girl Like You–  Bunty:  #1658 (21 Oct  1989) – ?
• Art: Doris Kinnear (1958-1987), Andy Tew (1988-2000)

Plot/Thoughts

While a few girl comics had general names like School Friend or Spellbound, the most common thing for the titles was  to be named after girls, i.e. Bunty, Judy, Tracy, Emma, Tammy, Sally  etc. Bunty isn’t the most common girls name, particularly these days,  so I think the name is more likely to bring up memories of the comic than a person. Bunty was represented  by a girl of the same name in the comic. For the majority of the Bunty publication she was the first thing you saw on the covers, but even after revamps, she still  survived  by moving inside the issues and having a comic strip.

The first issue of Bunty had two girls featured on the cover a blonde and a curly black haired girl (the cover art for issue 1 by Doris Kinnear who continued to draw the covers for many years). The emphasis was more on the fact that this was a brand new comic with free gift rather than any cover character. The second issue again emphasized the free gift more than the Bunty character but it was now clear that the blonde girl was the comic’s namesake.

By Issue 3 the cover was dedicated to a Bunty comic strip. It was usually laid out with three small panels and one big panel for the pay off. There was no word balloons instead the story was told in short rhymes.  Sometimes competitions or advertised free gifts would take over the front cover but otherwise this format stayed for over 1500 issues, after which the cover had pictures depicting stories inside the comic instead.

Bunty started off as young girl with long blonde hair in plaits, later her image was updated, with a new shorter haircut. The other regular characters were her two parents, who would often be exasperated with her, in the early covers, she also had an older dark haired sister. She disappeared later, perhaps old enough to move away or just simply forgotten about! Sometimes friends would pop up but mostly just as when it was convenient to the plot.

When the covers started to portray stories from inside the book. Bunty was moved to the back cover, so usually a full colour strip. Although sometimes if an advertisement or Design a Fashion was on the back cover the strip was inside and in black and white, The strip was named Life with Bunty. Her hair was short and curly and now it was a longer strip more of a story and more dialogue with word balloons, no more rhyming captions. It was still wrote as a humour strip.

This only lasted a 100 or so issues, then Bunty got revamped again. With issue 1658, the comic was now being printed  on glossy paper and inside a lot more fully coloured strips appeared. The Bunty strip was renamed again; as Bunty-A Girl Like You. I believe a regular artist for this was Andy Tew. Again Bunty got a new hairstyle to depict the change, this is even commented on on the first strip.

Her parents were still there and still recognizable as their earlier counterparts. Two more regulars were added; friends Lisa and Jo and they became a permanent trio. Jo was a black curly haired girl (I wonder if she was a nod to that black curly haired girl that appeared on the first issue!) and Lisa a red head. Often these strips concentrated on Bunty’s crush of the week, or fashion, so it was a lot more teen aimed than earlier strips. Bunty as a humour strip of a teenage girl also seemed to replace the younger Toots model. Later the srips were re-printed under Girl Zone banner.

Its good to see the comics namesake survived throughout the years and the character of Bunty was a memorable one.

Other Appearances

Annual Appearances

• A Bite for Bunty – Bunty Annual 1969 [Artist: Doris Kinnear]
• Life with Bunty – Bunty Annual 1989 [Artist: Doris Kinnear]
• Life with Bunty – Bunty Annual 1990 [Artist: Doris Kinnear]
• Bunty- A Girl Like You (x2) – Bunty Annual 1990 [Artist: Andy Tew]
• Bunty- A Girl Like You (x2) – Bunty Annual 1991 [Artist: Andy Tew]
• Bunty- A Girl Like You (x2) – Bunty Annual 1992 [Artist: Andy Tew]
• Bunty- A Girl Like You (x2) – Bunty Annual 1993 [Artist: Andy Tew]
• Bunty- A Girl Like You (x2) – Bunty Annual 1994 [Artist: Andy Tew]
• Bunty- A Girl Like You – Bunty Annual 1995 [Artist: Andy Tew]
• Bunty- A Girl Like You (x2) – Bunty Annual 1996 [Artist: Andy Tew]
• Bunty- A Girl Like You (x2) – Bunty Annual 1997 [Artist: Andy Tew]
• Bunty- A Girl Like You (x2) – Bunty Annual 1998 [Artist: Andy Tew]
• Bunty- A Girl Like You (x2) – Bunty Annual 1999 [Artist: Andy Tew]

Summer Specials

• Life with Bunty – Bunty Summer Special 1988 [Art: Doris Kinnear]
• Life with Bunty – Bunty Summer Special 1989 [Art: Doris Kinnear]
• Bunty – a Girl Like You – Bunty Summer Special 1988 [Art: Andy Tew]
• Bunty – a Girl Like You – Bunty Summer Special 1991 [Art: Andy Tew]
• Bunty – a Girl Like You – Bunty Summer Special 1992 [Art: Andy Tew]
• Bunty – a Girl Like You – Bunty Summer Special 1993 [Art: Andy Tew]
  • Reprinted as Girl Zone – Bunty Holiday Special 2003
• Bunty – a Girl Like You – Bunty Summer Special 1994 [Art: Andy Tew]
• Bunty – a Girl Like You – Bunty Summer Special 1995 [Art: Andy Tew]
  • Reprinted as Girl Zone – Bunty Holiday Special 2001
• Bunty – a Girl Like You – Bunty Summer Special 1996 [Art: Andy Tew]
  • Reprinted as Girl Zone – Bunty Holiday Special 2004
• Bunty – a Girl Like You – Bunty Summer Special 1997 [Art: Andy Tew]
• Bunty – a Girl Like You – Bunty Holiday Special 1998 [Art: Andy Tew]
• Girl Zone – Bunty Holiday Special 2002 [Art: Andy Tew]