Category Archives: Miscellaneous

A Brief Overview of Covers

16th February 2019MiscellaneousCoverslorrsadmin

Covers are such an important part of the comic, as that is what the potential reader first sees. It will be what draws them in and peaks their interest, this interest could be for many reasons; such as recognizing a familiar and trusted logo or character, bright colours that catch your eye, an interesting free gift, a humorous strip that makes you want to see what’s inside, a cover girl that you can identify with or the promise of exciting stories inside.

Looking at just the 11 DC Thomson girls comics, I’ve identified 10 categories of covers that were most common. Of course there are some variations within these and I’m not going into composition details or other details just the main picture on the cover. So here are the 10 categories, in no particular order:

Comic’s Namesake – Comic Strip

Apart from Spellbound, all the other DCT titles were girl names, so it made sense to create a character to represent the title. Giving that character a humorous strip on the cover, starts things off on a nice light note. With a lot of comics doing this, there was some variation in how this strip would be represented between comics, keeping things fresh. Usually though the strip kept to the format of having one large panel and some smaller panels (I only count those that had at least two panels with continuing narrative in this category).

To start this trend off was of course, Bunty. While the Bunty character went through some updates and changes in hairstyle, for a long run the cover consisted of 2-4 small panels and one larger panel of Bunty there weren’t any speech bubbles just rhyming text captions. The layout was played around with at times to keep things interesting. This general theme lasted for nearly 30 years, the majority of Bunty’s lifetime, so it must have been successful. This is probably why when Tracy launched,(after some short lived comics by DCT) it stayed close to this formula. It seemed to be trying to capture the classic look of some of the more long running comics. Tracy was another blonde girl, accompanied by her budgie, Elton, with white background and with usually just one or two panels, it had captions rather than speech bubbles. This pretty much stayed for the entirety of its run.

I include Mandy in this category although it is a little different from the others, as it continued the comic strip on the back page (or inside cover), but as there was more than one panel at the front and it is a title character, I’ll include it here. This setup did give it advantage over others in this category as it left more space on the cover for the set-up. The strip used speech bubbles rather than captions. It had a very clean look and followed the same pattern for a long time, with white background and full profile of Mandy, making the whole cover for eye catching. This style was kept for about the first 11 years of the comic. Similar to Mandy, Debbie also had a comic strip with one large panel and one small panel that continued on the back page, although it was Debbie’s younger sister Maisie that would mostly take the lead in the story. Prior to those covers Debbie tried a few different cover types.

Diana, had many different covers, but occasionally had a Diana strip as the cover. Initially it seems to have started with just a 3 panel strip at the bottom of the page with Diana and her friend Wendy. Later she got a full cover strip, some with the title Diana’s Daydream, so there would be a boxed panel followed by several cloud “daydream” panels and back to boxed panel when Diana was back to reality. As I don’t have too many issues during this time, so unsure how long it lasted or if there were other variations, it was bit different format to the Bunty and Tracy strips, although yet another blonde girl!

So quite a popular category and I think it does work well as a cover. Along with logo it brings instant brand recognition, stories inside may change but to have a familiar character, someone to visually identify with book,and have adventures to follow is quite effective.

Comic’s Namesake as a Cover Girl

I consider this to be a separate category, though the lines sometimes get it bit blurry with the previous . But while these covers might have a strip inside they weren’t a straight continuation from cover. Sometimes these covers could have a caption box but that was it. Comics mentioned in previous section, Mandy and Tracy switched to these type of covers but this wasn’t a very big change for them.

In general, these comics made a good job of making these characters look distinct, such as the girl with a dark-haired bob is instantly recognisable as Mandy. Also the character’s often had a companion, whether it was Tracy’s budgie, Elton, or Judy’s three kittens, which again created a familiar visual for the reader. While characters changed their looks to keep with the times, Judy had the most drastic makeover. She started out as a platinum blonde straight haired girl, mostly wearing dungarees and when she returned after a break she became a curly haired brunette! This may have helped to distinguish her a bit more from other blondes and certainly when Tracy joined up it was easy to see who was who. Tracy and Emma and then of course Judy later joined with Mandy to become M&J. While initially the M&J covers were same style to their inside strip, they later got a more painted look.

Debbie was a bit different as it first depicted character with a full busy background of events going on in frame. Then it changed to a close up Debbie with a plain coloured background. Sometimes this picture would have a frame, such as pumpkins for Halloween. The comic Emma had the gimmick of Emma being a reporter, so the covers with Emma often included the person she was interviewing that week.

So like the previous category, quite popular choice, again probably helped with name recognition to associate the comic with a particular character.

3. Comic serial

To really fit as much as possible into the 32 pages of the comic, there was possibility of using the cover (and usually back page) as a full serial. This was a long running trend for Judy it did this for one off serials such as Beneath the Blue Sea and Marina and the Monsters, but mostly used regular characters such as Sandra of the Secret Ballet and Bobby Dazzler. The latter being the longest running, so that Bobby must have become synonymous with Judy.

Nikki also tried this though instead of many panels it was just one large panel with story continuing inside, this was used for a short serial Coping but otherwise it was used for The Comp, Nikki’s most well know strip. It must have helped to have recognisable characters on the cover and once they’ve read that they would want to read more. It may also seemed like more value for money, getting an “extra” story.

4. Free Gift advertisements

At some point a comic would use this to attract the reader, most commonly first issue, but also often in conjunction with a big change in line up. This was sometimes used to advertise competitions too. Often a character would be showing off the free gift, such as wearing the bracelet.

5.Celebrities (both drawn and photos)

Using popular celebrities could also be good to draw in a reader. In the case of Emma it often had celebrities that would have features/interviews inside the comic. While Judy also used photos of celebrities, it also had drawings of them. Mostly celebrity pin ups were used on back of page, especially in later years which can make it hard for collectors when the comics is missing it’s back page (though not as bad as when the Bunty cut out wardrobe used to feature one the back!).

6. Photo Cover Girls

The appeal of using a girl around the same age as the reader must have been that it was someone they could identify with and maybe there was a possibility that they too could become a cover girl. This became the trend in the 90s, with M&J and Bunty, the last comics standing! It was also used previous to that in Suzy and Diana, but those comics were a bit more dynamic, with more variety and colourful backgrounds, and it also fit in with it’s more glossy magazine feel. Occasionally other comics did this like Emma and Judy but not for a long amount of time. For the 90s though, that is all we saw and as they tended to be on white background, with similar poses and framing. this became quite generic and repetitive. From a glance it’s hard to tell what stories were running at these times, and it’s my least favourite cover type.

7.Full cover of inside story

If I was to pick a favourite cover it would be in this category. It would act as an advertisement for an inside story, giving us a taste of what’s to come. It showcased many great artists from the likes of John Armstrong, Ian Kennedy, Norman Lee and others. Which meant there were some very dynamic covers, and also depicted a wide variety of scenes such as historical, sci-fi, tragedy etc. so every week was new and different. Spellbound in particular had some great atmospheric covers that could be pin-ups in their own right. Judy, Nikki and Bunty also used these covers for a time.

8.Several inside stories advertised

Instead of full spread for a story, sometimes covers would advertise several things inside the comic, whether it be stories, or mixture of stories an features. Again a lot of comics tried this at some point. Seems like a good strategy for readers to see immediately what they could expect.

9. Non- character cover

Sometimes the cover would not be related to content inside the comic but would depict a girl that would be similar to reader’s age, that should appeal to them. This style could have different scenery and were generally very colourful. Diana used these covers to begin with and had quite a variety of pictures. M&J also used these for a time, though they didn’t have as much going on in the background of picture, focusing more on close up.A few other comics did this style occasionally too.

10.Miscellaneous & Variations

I’m sure there are many others that don’t quite fit into the above categories. Some examples would be would be Girl Talk from Nikki. This could nearly been counted in the first of my list even though the characters Liz and Lucy weren’t named after the comic, they did essentially become representatives. Up to Date Kate also became a regular cover girl for Diana towards the end of it ‘s run.

There were special occasions and holidays to celebrate which could mean an appropriately themed cover. More unusual were instructional covers such as Judy‘s ballet & hairstyle instructions.

Final Thoughts

All this is to highlight what variety of covers that these 11 comics had over a span of 40 years. While I could have gone into a lot more detail, I think this highlights a good mix of covers. It is interesting how some comics, like Bunty stuck to one format for long periods of time while others like Judy changed things around quite often.

I’m sure everyone has their favourite style, like I mentioned previously my favourite is covers that depicted a story on the front, but there were plenty of other good covers too. I did think the 90s photo girls were a bit plain in comparison and I can only speculate it that made it less attractive to readers at the time, but on the other hand many magazines used cover girls and did fine. Whatever the case there was some very interesting styles over the years and for long time they worked to grab the potential reader’s attention.

7 Years Celebration!

13th August 2018Miscellaneouslorrsadmin

Today is the site’s 7th birthday!

A lot has changed since I launched it in 2011 – changes not only here, but in British comics and in my personal life. I’m glad that I have been able to keep this up and running and all the connections I’ve made through this site.

When I started writing this blog there seemed to be very little talk about old British girls comics,(which is what led to the thought “why not do it myself!”) but over the years, I’ve found I am not alone, there are more people interested in the topic. Special mentions for Mistyfan who contributes articles to this site and the jinty resources site and Derek Marsden (Phoenix) who has provided many details about the DCT publications. He is currently busy writing a book “Bunty and her Sisters” and I very much look forward to it’s release. The comicsuk forum have also been a helpful and lovely bunch, especially with helping to track down stories. I’ve been most happy to have gotten in contact with some of the creators of these stories and given them their must deserved credit.

Another pleasing change has been the revival of British Comic scene in general, in the last 7 years. When I started, Bunty (the last remaining girls comic) just stopped doing annual books and the weekly had been finished for years. On a brighter note, The Phoenix did launch soon after this site started and it still going strong today, along with the Beano and 2000AD. Comicscene a new magazine dedicated to British comics has just launched, it’s first issue focusing on women (highlights for DCT include articles on Valda and Supercats). But the biggest news of course was Rebellion’s purchase of old IPC/Fleetway titles and the launch of their Treasury line. I grew up mainly on DCT comics but thanks to Rebellion reprints I am discovering some great gems of IPC stories too. It is also great to see new stories with a second Scream!Misty special coming this Halloween too. It’s exciting times, that I couldn’t have imagined happening years ago. [Edit for Update: I just listened to the Classic British Comics Panel from SDCC, it’s well worth a listen: https://2000ad.com/post/3875]

As for the site itself, I’ve slowed down a lot in the last year, having a toddler at home keeps me busy! But I am looking forward to sharing these comics with her when she’s older and in the meantime I’m glad I can still put out posts regularly. In the future, I still intend to do long posts covering stories in detail and I’ve few ideas for some different articles too. I also want to keep on increasing the index of stories – which just gives brief description and issue dates. I am pleased that I now have a complete list of serials done for 4 of the shorter publications; Emma, M&J, Nikki and Spellbound. Those 4 publications also have lists that can be sorted by year as well as story name. As well as serials, I am also working on indexing the annuals. So there’s plenty of work to keep me going for another 7 years and beyond!

Update on Some Changes…

30th August 2015Miscellaneouslorrsadmin

Just a quick post on some changes to the site. Most obviously I have updated the look, although I think I favored the old header as it gave a clearer image of Ken Houghton’s artwork, from the story “The Time Machine” (which seemed appropriate for this site!) but I prefer the new layout overall. I will keep having long posts on stories on stories and other comic related articles which will be listed under blog posts.

I had set up a separate site to be more of an index of the comics but I have now decided to merge the two sites. I had a lot of the stories indexed with the help of Mistyfan, those posts provide short overviews on the stories, as well as creator and issue details when known. Those shorter posts will continue here, as well as that under Annuals, there are posts listing the content of the book, with some looking at Annuals in more details. Another plan is to add a creator index, this is one of the tougher projects as the comics were not credited, but I’ll try and add what I do know.

Of course all this fits in around my job and other commitments, but I do want to keep posting regularly. Any feedback, questions and suggestions are welcome!

Star – Love Stories in Pictures

26th July 2015Miscellaneousromancelorrsadmin

A popular format for stories were the small digest picture story libraries. These could tell a variety of stories and were a light easy read and complete, so no need to track down the rest of the story. I’ve already looked at some of the DC Thomson picture story library for girls that were published under the names of 4 of their popular titles; Bunty, Mandy, Judy and Debbie. IPC also had their equivalent picture library which is discussed on the Jinty blog here

DC Thomson published other types of digests to capture different audiences such as the lighthearted Beano and Dandy comic libraries, Commando war stories in pictures and romance based Star- Love Stories in Pictures. Another romance based digest was Blue Jeans photo novel but it used black and white photos and was aimed at teens. Although I never read the Star digests when they were originally published, it is nice to see some familiar artists and interesting stories available digitally.

DC Thomson has only a small collection of digital content on comixology (more details here) including Beano and Dandy Annuals, Best of Bunty, Commando and Star, but the collection is growing and hopefully will continue to expand. The Star-Love Stories were first published in the 1960s and lasted until the 1990s with over a thousand issues printed. The Star digests had something in common with the Commandos as they both had the same editor for a time Chick Checkley. Unfortunately like other DCT publications details of the creators involved are still hard to come by, some familiar artists do pop up though. This looks to be Julian Vivas work.Also some familiar themes appear such as jealous rivals, career driven protagonists, historical stories, mysteries to be investigated, cruel guardians, family feuds and misunderstandings. One of my favourite’s in this collection is “Mistress of Jarmyle” digital issue #9 (originally printed in 1989 as #1195). A historical story set in Somerset in 1815, Caroline Bennet returns from America, to claim back her family home, Jarmyle, and seek revenge on Lord Grantley, the man responsible for taking over Jarmyle and killing her father in a duel. She keeps her identity hidden in order to get close to the nephew of Lord Grantley intending he will pay for his late uncle’s crimes. The art is very pretty and the digital upgrade makes it very clean and crisp. The plot is somewhat predictable but there are still some surprises and it’s a good read. The art on the covers of these books are nothing like the inside art, but they are very vibrant and striking.

Another story “Journey to Love” has orphan Jo Gibbs, a young woman who is taken advantage by her guardian who expects her to do all the housework and give her the money she earns (a familiar setting!). Jo decides enough is enough and pursues her goal of becoming a nurse which leads her to taking a job at a residential home. This in turn leads to her to be taken on the pensioner’s trip to Spain, where this potential romance and some shady business going on. Other stories include “Treacherous Heart” where an aspiring model, Alison, has to deal with a jealous rival who isn’t happy with her getting top jobs and envies her photographer boyfriend. She plans to sabotage Alison. In “Two Hearts” sisters Liz and Corrie move to the Scottish highlands to help with their father get his hotel up and running. The sisters are very different Liz more willing to muck in, while Corrie is more snobbish. They both find love interests but it seems that Corrie has her eye on Liz’s potential partner. I found the ending a bit rushed in this story but the story kept me interested as I didn’t know who was going to end up with who.

In the original format a small pin up of popular band or star would be inside the front cover. This is not included in the digital format but it may have been fun to include this in for nostalgia. Still for just 69p each, there is plenty of nostalgia to be captured in the stories. So far there are 12 digital issues available. They are fun reads and I’m looking forward to future releases.

Short Stories & Storytellers

3rd April 2015Miscellaneousshort story, storytellerlorrsadmin

Short stories were a popular feature in girls comics, most likely because it was quicker to plot out a 2-4 page story, a variety of artists and writers could work on a series of short stories with no pressure on developing a big plot. Also it was a good way to fill up space, complete stories also could be used as stand in, before a new serial started or to acknowledge a special occasion, such as a special Christmas story (e.g. Stir It Up- M&J). If there was a long running series of short stories, there was usually a theme or storyteller to tie the stories together. Often the story would still have their own individual title but would have the logo or storyteller introducing the story so we can have more of a connection with it.

Themes

First looking at some of the regular short stories that were linked by a theme rather than a storyteller. The most loosely connected theme was in Nikki where the logo of Short Story is what linked the stories. This series continued in Bunty for a while after the comics merged. Although these stories didn’t have a particular theme they were usually set in present day and based on school girls and often involved boys. A story with a more definite theme was; Broken Hearts (Suzy/Bunty) not surprisingly these stories often involved romance but not always as hearts can be broken in many ways. Such as a girl’s jealousy of her sister goes too far when her sister ends up in hospital and she regrets her actions. More stories that related to heart issues but focused solely on romance were Judy’s It Must Be Luv and later in M&J was The Boy Zone, the latter reprinted a lot of Nikki’s Short Story. Also in Judy was Zodiac where each story represented a star sign, like the Gemini story about twins who can’t agree about anything. An Emma short series focused on dogs in The Dog Next Door. In Debbie the fabled origin stories of flowers were told in old time setting in Flower Story. Misty had lots of short stories some of which came under the heading of Beasts / Nightmares. More on the mystery and spooky side was A Turn of the Key in Spellbound, where hidden secrets were often uncovered. M&J reprinted some of these under the slightly revised heading The Key Turns.

Storytellers

As well as having a theme a Storyteller was a popular way to tie things together. While still telling a variety of stories there was also a character that you could identify with the stories making it more connected and maybe you could have your favourite storyteller. There was two frequent inspirations for storytellers either a special item, or those that were inspired by the mysterious and spooky.

Examples of the item Storytellers include Dolwyn’s Dolls (Bunty) A Tale from the Toy Museum (Bunty) Mother Goose (Judy), The Silver Saddle (Mandy), Madame Marlova Remembers (Debbie), The Button Box (Tammy) and Jade Jenkins Stall (M&J).

Dolwyn’s Dolls took place in a small doll shop, where the owner sold and repaired dolls and told her customers many stories about dolls, sometimes the stories had a magical element. Very similar was A Tale from the Toy Museum but it had a bit of wider scope with more toys rather than just dolls. Also the storyteller herself had more background development as she was a grandmother telling her bored granddaughter tales when she comes to stay with her over the holidays. Mother Goose from Judy had another shop owner specialising in nursery and fairytale items. Once Upon a Rhyme in Mandy also dealt with fairy tales but was more magical as the stories were told by a fairy godmother. A more updated version of this theme was Jade Jenkins Stall, although it was not actually titled as such as each story Jade told had it’s own title. Jade stories came from items she sold at her second hand charity stall and she introduced each story. Jade addressed the reader the directly and also interacted with the characters in her tales, often they would return the item they bought at the stall. It was a good modernisation of item storyteller also Jade’s second hand stall meant stories were very much in the present. The Button Box has a more family theme, as a family heirloom is a box filled with buttons from all across history and social classes. Unusually it is not a wise older person telling the tales but a young girl Bev who was confined to a wheelchair. In Mandy’s The Silver Saddle Janet’s aunt Helen, tells her the stories of the girl riders and their mounts who have done notable deeds and earned an inscription on the silver saddle. Another story where we learn more about the storyteller is Madame Marlova Remembers from Debbie. Marlova didn’t collect a particular item but had many stories about the ballerinas she taught over the years. She went onto have a prequel serial about how she became a ballerina.

(Left to Right: Dolwyn’s Dolls,Madame Marlova Remembers)

The spooky storyteller was a popular choice, the stories were not so tied to one particular storyteller so could be used again, for example Tammy’s Storyteller’s Strange Stories were reprinted with Jinty’s Gypsy Rose now telling the tale (read more about Gypsy Rose here). Two very similar looking character’s were The Man in Black, from Diana and Damian Darke from Spellbound. This is not surprising considering that Spellbound seemed to feature other stories that originated in Diana (i.e. Supercats, The Strange Ones). Damian Darke proved to be popular enough to survive two mergers, first with Debbie then Mandy (He also appeared in some Debbie Picture Story Library books). Spellbound also had Miss Hatherleigh a custodian of Cremond Hall, who told strange stories of the Cremond family that date from the 12th century. Judy had She of the Shadows a mysterious veiled woman telling stories who appeared in one annual, but more notable was the later character Bones, a skeleton in Skeleton Corner that also continued on in M&J. While other spooky storytellers may be mysterious a special otherworldly, having a skeleton truly passed it into supernatural.

(Left to Right: Damian Darke, She of the Shadows, Skeleton Corner [Bones])

Thoughts

Clearly with the amount of stories that fall under the heading these were popular themes. As well as regular writers and artists, I suspect similar to 2000AD’s Future Shocks it could be a good way to test out new talents. While I liked some of the complete stories that had a theme, I found those linked with a storytellers as well were better, probably because I can more easily associate a particular story with a character. Also in some cases like The Button Box and Madame Marlova we got more insight into the storyteller and their lives. In some cases particularly the spooky stories the length constraints can affect the story, and sometimes the endings become predictable and rely on familiar twists. Still clearly a big advantage of these complete stories was you get a great variety in one serial, so you were sure to find a story that works for you.

Mergers – D.C. Thomson

24th August 2014Miscellaneouslorrsadmin

Mergers were often a disliked policy known as “hatch match and dispatch”. Pat Mills has talked on the topic before (in an interview with Jinty blogger – comixminx) and the policy did lead to the end of some good comics, that would soon fade into the background of the dominant title. I think there could have been alternative solutions but at the end of the day the publishers are a business and if a comic isn’t making money then it’s not very viable to continue it (though in certain cases it seems a book could have succeeded given the right marketing etc.) . But at least a merger may see popular stories continue on in another book. How successful that merger was handled could vary.

I’m just going to look at the 11 DCT girls comics and what they brought to the comics they merged with.

Merger Chart (click on image to see a larger image):

Diana (23/02/63 – 04/12/76) [720 issues]

Diana was the third girls comic launched by D.C. Thomson. It differed from it’s predecessors; Bunty and Judy straight away with it’s bigger, more colourful format. It was more expensive (by 1½d) and actually had less pages but it had a full colour pull out magazine, full of factual features and stories. Closer to the end of it’s run it became more feature heavy and seemed to be making the transition to a more teen magazine. Teen romance comic Romeo merged with it in 1974 (Romeo had already encompassed Cherie at this point). Diana merged with teen magazine Jackie (issue #674). I don’t have later issues of Diana but I did think it’s move towards teen mag and it’s eventual merge with Jackie was an odd choice. The last issue only had 3 picture stories and one text story, the rest of issue was dedicated to features such as pop gossip and personality quiz. Maybe because it was more pricy and other titles dominating the pre-teen market, it was thought it would be more profitable to aim the comic at teenagers instead.

The “Diana Jackie” banner title stayed for 7 issues before being dropped and Diana’s presence was soon forgotten in the title. Even the first merger issue Diana barely makes itself known, other than the name on the cover, a mention in the letter from the editor. and a Jackie Starscope offer to celebrate. Picture story “If Love had Wings” that started in the last Diana issues continued in Jackie. Oddly enough some of Diana‘s popular stories ended up in other comics. Debbie gained “Mary Brown’s Schooldays” and “Up to Date Kate”. The new Spellbound comic gained “Supercats” which had first appeared in Diana annuals under the name “The Fabulous Four”, also the spooky storyteller “Damian Darke” was quite similar to Diana‘s “Man in Black”, as well as serials like “Paula and the Wasps of Terror” being reprinted in the comic.

Spellbound (25/09/76 – 14/01/78) [69 issues]
The sixth DCT girls comic took an unusual approach compared to it’s predecessors. There was no girl’s name in the title and it’s stories had the specific theme of being spooky with mystery, thrills. While it is often considered a lighter version of the IPC Misty it actually finished a month before Misty arrived. I’m sure Misty would have gained some of the Spellbound fans when it launched, as the latter was unfortunately short lived. For the end of its run there seemed to be a bit of pressure to finish stories, with no new stories launching, some stories ran for 5 to 6 pages (rather than the average 3 pages).

The comic started not long before Diana ended and gained a lot from that title, as addressed earlier. Looking at the comics in the 70s, it seemed to be a time when DCT were being more experimental with it’s publications. Despite being short-lived, it did produce some memorable stories and unlike Misty it did have a good number of regular characters. The spooky storyteller “Damian Darke”, “The Supercats” and “The Shop at Shudder Corner” were a strong presence throughout it’s run. So when it merged with Debbie (in issue #258) the “Supercats” and “Damian Darke” became regular stories and “The Shop at Shudder Corner” briefly appeared in the comic and made appearances in annuals and picture story library books. “Damian Darke” even continued in Mandy, after Debbie merged with it. At first the Spellbound stories had their own section at the back of the book which also included Supercats Club and complete spooky text stories.The Spellbound logo stayed on the cover for over a year (until #349), although it did get smaller over time. While Supercats didn’t last as long as Damian Darke, it was replaced by more spooky stories that fitted the Spellbound theme, these were new stories and had the Spellbound logo on them like “The Power Over Patti”.

Emma (25/02/78 – 08/09/79) [81 issues]

A month after Spellbound finished, a new comic Emma emerged, but it wasn’t much more successful than the former only lasting a year and a half. Back to the traditional girl name title, Emma had a different approach in that it’s namesake was a reporter who interviewed people for the comic, as well as having her own strip “The Emma Report”. When it merged with Judy (issue #1027) it brought two regular stories “Jodie and the Otter” and “Sue Spiker”. The first part of “Jodie and the Otter” actually started in the previous issue of Judy and at the same time the last issue of Emma, giving readers an extra incentive to pick up Judy (as well as that there was a 2nd part of a competition). Two other new stories start in the issue “The Frightening Fours” and “Run, Rabbit, Run!” while 4 Judy stories continued.

The merger also came with an increase of price by 1p. Another important aspect of the merger was Emma’s Mag, the 4 page centre magazine full of features came over from Emma (Judy features like Pony Clinic would also appear in the mag). The mag had the most lasting impact, continuing well after Emma was dropped from the banner, it was eventually renamed Mini Mag and lasted until Judy ended in 1991. When a “Judy & Co.” strip started it involved Judy and her 2 friends. These friends were Tracy and Emma obvious nods to the comics that had merged with it (although Emma was no longer a reporter instead she was a pupil).

Debbie (17/02/73 – 15/01/83) [518 issues]

Debbie didn’t gain as much momentum as it’s predecessor’s but it still had some gems of stories like “Wendy at War” and “Trixie’s Treasure Chest” (Trixie finished in the last issue of Debbie and surprisingly wasn’t carried over to Mandy). Unfortunately it seems to be more remembered for it’s increase of low quality photo stories towards the end of it’s run. It merged with Mandy (issue #836). Two stories came over to Mandy for the initial merger. The photo story “The Randell Road Girls” was a school soap story but didn’t last too long. The other story was “No Rest for Rosie”.

The spooky storyteller “Damian Darke” was popular enough to survive a second merger, although it didn’t appear until a few issues after the merger (#841). The Debbie logo stayed on the masthead for 24 issues and was dropped in issue #860. Overall Debbie didn’t have a lasting impact on Mandy.

Tracy (6/10/79 – 19/01/85) [277 issues]

Tracy launched after the poorly received Spellbound and Emma and stuck more to the successful formula of Bunty, Judy and Mandy. It ran for a respectable 277 issues before merging with Judy (issue #1306). The Judy and Tracy banner stayed for over 2 years and both characters, Judy and Tracy (along with pet kits and budgie, Elton) appeared on the cover. Previous to this the cover depicted a story in the comic. Tracy brought three stories with the merger; “Microgirl”, “Georgie and the Dragon”, “Harvey -Go Home!”. Beside each of these stories a caption “a Tracy Story” ran beside the titles for a while. “Little Amy” also started in the last issue of Tracy and simultaneously in the previous issue of Judy, again this encouraged Tracy readers to make the switch over to Judy. “Harvey” was the longest lasting story, still going in 1987.

As with many of these mergers, there was also a competition to entice people to give the “new” comic a go. The other impact Tracy had was in Judy’s Mini Mag Elton (the budgie) sometimes had a feature: Elton’s Bird Talk. Also as mentioned before, Tracy stayed around in the comic strip Judy & Co. until the end of Judy’s run.

Suzy (11/09/82 – 13/06/87) [249 issues]

Suzy launched after Tracy and was more glossy, colourful and it was more feature heavy and had a lot more photo stories (the first issue has 4 photo stories and 2 picture stories). It seemed to fit somewhere between a teen mag and a girl’s comic. It is maybe because of this that it has been the more forgotten publication of the DCT Girls titles. The photo stories were more suited to the glossy paper rather than Debbie’s newspaper quality (which may be one of the reasons Debbie didn’t last too long after Suzy’s launch). While Suzy started off with the standard 6-7 stories, later this decreased to 4 stories per issue. Before the end of it’s run the number of stories per issue, actually increased again. I suspect, like Diana, this was to make it fit better with the publication it was to be merged with. When they increased the number of stories in issue #236, it also came with a free picture story library book. Again a competition appears for the merger. Suzy brings two stories “Broken Hearts” a series of short stories with the connecting theme of character having the heart broken (often due to a romantic situation). Due to it’s short story format this would appear sporadically for a while. The other story was the soap like “Suzy’s Scene”. On the cover Bunty gained a friend Suzy for a while but she soon faded away like the Suzy logo which only lasted 8 issues before disappearing.

Other serials from Suzy did turn up in other DCT publications later, most notably “The Jordans of Jedworth”, a story about triplet girls in a boarding school, appeared in Judy.

Nikki (23/02/85 – 02/09/89) [237 issues]

Nikki had a strong school theme running throughout the comic. It had features such as messages on the Bike School Wall, and What Every Girl Should Know About….(teachers/ boys etc). A lot of it’s stories were based around schools, most famously of course was it’s long running soap story “The Comp”.

The merger with Bunty was well handled I think. The main pull of Nikki was fan favourite “The Comp”, the story had lots of characters and ongoing story-lines, so two weeks before the merger Bunty published “Nikki at the Comp” where new character Nikki (named as homage to the comic) moves to Redvale and joins the Comp, it is through her eyes we are first introduced to the regular characters. Meanwhile the Nikki comic continued it’s own story lines of the regular characters, with the new Nikki character only in the background. So when Nikki actually merged with Bunty (issue #1652) “The Comp” was already established and the story proved to be as popular as it had been in Nikki lasting nearly up to the last issue of Bunty.

Other stories that came over was “Short Story” which is basically what you would think it would be; one issue complete stories. It lasted for a while and would often pop up later, usually convenient to fill space before a new serial started, or for around the holidays. Also Nikki’s cover girls Lucy and Liz of “Girls Talk” came over. They ended up extremely reduced in size but did stay present a long time, changing their name to “Girl’s Talking” and having a 2 panel strip in the corner of Bunty’s letters/features page. A new serial started in the issue as well, “I’ll Never Forgive You”.

Talk Shop (a letter’s page) also came over from Nikki and lasted a while, unlike the Bike Shed Wall (messages page) which only featured for a short period. The Nikki logo didn’t last pass Bunty’s revamped look in issue #1658. Other consequences of the merge was Bunty’s long running school story “School’s Out!” ended to make way for “The Comp” which may have disappointed some fans but like I said “The Comp” soon became a firm favourite.

Judy (16/01/60 – 11/05/91) [1635 issues]

Judy launched as companion paper to Bunty. It had a lot of career driven stories and long running humorous stories. Unlike the other mergers Mandy & Judy was launched as a new comic with an issue #1, because of this most of the stories were new. The exception was the M&J classic section which featured reprints of old Mandy and Judy favourites. The first reprint was the Judy story “The Honourable S.J.”, later issues would feature “Wee Slavey” and “Junior Nanny” among others. Judy also brought it’s humour strip “Pepper the Pony”. “Skeleton Corner” while not in the first issue, it did turn up later and had a very long run. A later story “Nurses” seems like it may have been influenced by a Judy story “Nightingales”. The characters Mandy and Judy also gained their own strip “M&J – Neighbours and Friends”. After that finished for a while “The Diaries of M&J” took it’s place.

A free pen was given away with the first issue to entice readers to pick up the new comic and for a few issues after that, other gifts were offered. It had the advantage being an issue #1, so it could entice new readers to buy it, as well as try to bring over old Judy and Mandy readers. Although on the downside it was 5p more expensive (35p) than Judy or Mandy had been.

Mandy (21/01/67 – 11/05/91) [1269 issues]

Along with Bunty and Judy, Mandy was one of the longest running comics and well remembered particularly for long running stories “Angel” and “Valda”. It had a lot of drama stories and also had a lot of text stories even after text stories became infrequent in its counterparts.

As stated above Mandy and Judy merged together to make a new comic, with lots of new stories. The first issue featured a new story with the Mandy classic “The Diary of Angel”, also it brought it’s own humour strip to rival “Pepper the Pony”; “Glenda the Guide”, it seems Pepper won that battle as Glenda did not last too long. Over the years the classic section featured such Mandy stories as “Valda” and “Little Stranger”. Other than the classic section M&J was keen to develop it’s own stories with such long running stories as “Penny’s Place”, “Nurses” and “Stage School”.

M&J (18/05/91 – 24/05/97) [315 issues]

When M&J merged with Bunty (issue #2055) it really showed how much the publications were struggling. The only thing Bunty gained was the long running soap “Penny’s Place”, while it first was continuing the story, later it just had reprints of the story. It didn’t really encourage M&J readers to stay on. They didn’t even keep up the classic section. Oddly enough 3 issues before M&J finished a new story “Four in the Saddle” started, it didn’t appear in the last issue of M&J and did not continue in Bunty either. The last issue of M&J had 2 stories doubled up in order to complete them, so it may indicate the merger happened sooner than originally planned. The M&J logo appeared only briefly and was very small compared to the rest of the masthead. I’ve already talked about M&J here and clearly there was lots to like about it so it was a pity that Bunty didn’t gain more from its merger.

Bunty (18/01/58 – 17/02/01) [2249 issues]

Of course when Bunty ended there was no comic for it to merge into. Over the years it had taken in many other comics and it evolved over time, so it was quite different from it’s early years. It’s only mainstay was “The Four Marys” who changed along with the comic although they still had chances to solve a mystery or two. By the end the comic was becoming more reliant on reprints. So it made sense that when the Bunty Monthly comic launched the next month (March 2001) it was all reprints.

Bunty Monthly was 64 pages and cost £1.50 (compared to the 80p the last issue of the weekly Bunty cost) and had love hearts sweets as a free gift in the first issue. The format seemed to be to reprint one serial in full and have 2 other serials along with the occasional “Toots”. It’s first issue had reprints of “The Four Marys”, “Jenny the Gymnast” (the entire serial) and “Wendy’s Wishing Well”. There seemed to be a move by the 3rd issue to entice some nostalgic fans, it was renamed The Best of Bunty and the masthead changed to the classic Bunty logo. Also added was the slogan of “classic stories from the 50s, 60s, 70s” along with pictures of old covers. This didn’t work out though and after just 5 issues, Bunty Monthly ended in July 2001.

Final Thoughts

While it may seem that some titles got lost in the dominant comic, even if the comic kept going it would have still evolved over time. Long running comics like Bunty and Judy had a different focus in the 80s or 90s compared to the 60s. I think mergers like Bunty and Nikki, Judy and Tracy, Mandy & Judy were quite well handled, others not so much. Of course it would have been nice to see our favourite comics continue on and I think the drop off of readers wasn’t all about new distractions like TV and computers, there was a variety of reasons, including a decline in quality. It is a shame that it’s been 13 years since the last of the classic girls comic was published (excluding annuals). But rumours that Misty stories are going to be reprinted and even comics such as the American Ms Marvel doing so well, makes me hope that this won’t be the end of girls comics and wish that there may be a revival!

Tara Annual 1984

13th January 2014Miscellaneouslorrsadmin

I’m guessing not a lot of people are familiar with this annual. Unfortunately, the annual I own is missing half its pages but I still think its worth talking about as it seems to be a rare item! This book was published in Ireland, it’s written and illustrated by Irish people and it actually credits the writers and artists. It’s 72 pages long (including covers) and cost £2.95 at the time. Other than this annual I do not know anything about the publication of Tara, the back cover says “see you soon girls”, which would imply it was going to be a regular book. This is the only Tara annual/comic I’ve come across though.

The contents are typical of a girls’ annual with picture stories ranging from the dramatic to the humorous, text stories involving heroic horses and informative features and art/craft items. Again my copy is missing a lot of pages but I will look at the 4 complete picture stories in the annual:

A Romance for Doris Karloff (Pages: 4-5)

Story & Art: John Byrne

This is a cute little story told in rhyme. Doris goes to the local disco hoping to meet a guy, but the potential “handsome hunks” either already have a girlfriend or obsessed with bikes. She is happy when she meets a guy who wants to walk her home. Alone outside the disco he tells her his name is Vince. Doris is delighted until she sees his pointy teeth and realises he’s a vampire. She is nearly done for but then the full moon rises and she shows that she has secrets of her own. She changes into a werewolf and chases Vince with the conclusion that True Love Conquers All! This is a fun story with some great cartoon illustrations.

“Crowning Glory” (Pages: 9-16)

Story: Emily Austin

In Paris 1650, fashion and beauty mean everything. Madame Clopin is a person of high society that has many admirers and jealous rivals. She is a vain creature and is not pleased at rumours that her looks are due to cosmetic skills of her young servant Marie, rather than natural beauty. Madame Clopin is a hard mistress and does not like that Marie could rival her beauty.

Marie is in love with a struggling artist, Paul, who protests at her giving him half her meagre wages. He promises when he makes his money they will be married and all her sacrifices will be repaid. Later back working at Chopin’s house, Marie takes in an old street seller and feeds her a good meal. She asks her to leave quietly so Chopin doesn’t find out she was there. The old woman tells her she can help her, and that a cruel mistress could put lines on a pretty face. She gives her a a potion that she says will perserve her good looks and give her good fortune. Marie is too polite to refuse but after the woman has gone she goes to dispose of the bottle. Madame Chopin catches her and thinks she is hiding good cosmetics for herself. She drinks the potion. The next day there are big shocks as all her hair has fallen out.

She fires Marie blaming her for the evil potion and she blacklists her so no one will hire her. She sends for doctors all over Paris to try and restore her hair. With no money left Paul has been taken to debtors jail. Marie comes up with the idea to make Clopin a wig from her own hair, and bargain for Paul’s freedom. Clopin gives her money and Marie and Paul are married. He becomes a famous artist and her a famous wig maker. Madame Clopin is still as vain as ever.

Aisling (Pages: 17-24)

Story & Art: Thomas McGee

In Ancient Ireland an assassin tries to kill the King, he fails and is killed for his treachery This is seen by his servant sister Morgyn and she promises to avenge his death. She gets her chance a few months later when the King and Queen give birth to a baby girl, Aisling. While everyone is at a feast celebrating the birth, Morgyn steals the child away and prepares to kill her in the woods. But she finds that she cannot go through with it and has to return the child. On her return they are attacked by wolves, she manages to save Aisling but not herself.

Later a huntsman finds Aisling and assumes the dead body near her, is her mothers. He takes her home to his wife and they call the girl Síona and they raise her. Years later when Síona is out gathering fruit, tragedy strikes as her home is attacked and she returns to find her parents dead. Passing warriors find her and take her back to the castle. She works as a servant there and one night she over hears some men planing to kill the king and boasting about killing her adoptive parents. She attacks them and alerts the guards. She is knocked unconscious but the guards turn up and kill the conspirators. The queen looks after Síona and notices she has the family birthmark and so she is their long lost daughter Aisling. (the family birthmark a common occurrence in stories of lost children!)

In the story I think Aisling/Siona could have spared more distress over the death of her adoptive parents and her comment at the end about finding her “real family” also seems dismissive of the people who raised her. Otherwise it is an interesting story. It really shows the Irish roots of the book and it is nice and unusual to see a story in a girls comic set in ancient Ireland with references to such things as Badhb (Irish Goddess of War). Of course Sláine started in 2000AD in 1983 as well so maybe that was an influence for the story. The art could be better in some areas such as awkward hand actions in places, but it has some nice atmospheric pieces like when Morgyn is attacked and the outside scenery is quite nice. .

Wonder Worm (Pages 49-56)

Story & Art: John Bryne

The cover girl for the annual gets her origin story told here. Obviously this is a parody of Wonder Woman and is full of puns. It takes place in Toadstool City and also features frog reporter, Croak Kent. It starts with evil Dr. Medusa ready to change her dimwitted dustbin henchmen into Supermen when they are interrupted by Wonder Worm. While wondering where she came from it flashes back to a newspaper office (Tadpole Times) where Croak Kent is given his assignment to interview Dr Issac Newt inventor of the Super formula.

While there Dr. Medusa breaks in and manages to steal a small amount of the formula. Dr. Issac explains to Kent the direness of this falling into the wrong hands. Kent is eating an apple at the time and throws it away in disgust when he sees a worm in it. Of course it lands right in the remaining potion. The worm after hearing the conversations decides the potion is too dangerous to keep around and drinks the whole lot. Kent meanwhile tracks down Medusa and her gang but passes out when actually confronted by them.

This brings us back to the start where the Worm having drank the potion has now grown in size and gained powers. Wonder Worm also finds she can shrink back down her size which she uses to her advantage, sneaking into a gun and throwing the bullet of balance so it destroys the stolen potion. She then proceeds to beat the baddies up and disappears before the police turn up.

A few days later newly promoted Croak Kent thinks he must have beat the criminals up during his blackout. Luckily Wonder Worm has stuck around and become his private secretary to help him out! It is an absurd little story but also a lot of fun.

Other contents in the annual include two text stories “Trixie Saves the Day” and “Tiger’s Adventure” both written by E. Colohan with spot art by E. Shaw-Smith. There’s some interesting features on elaborate doll houses, how cats were depicted in art and writing throughout history, and how to interpret dreams. There is also a drawing in grids lesson with a picture of Wonder Worm & Croak Kent.

Overall I don’t think it met the competitive standards of D.C. Thomson or IPC. Although it would be better to judge it if it wasn’t missing pages. That being said there is some fun stuff here and it’s nice to see Irish writers/artists trying to do their own thing. The book while having similar elements to other girls comics did still have it’s own style. Being Irish it’s nice to see some of myths being used like in Aisling and the John Bryne stuff is particularly fun. Also it’s always good to see people getting credited for their work. I wonder if it gained more popularity, bigger budget etc. would it have attracted more high profile writers and artists and could it have actually become a solid competitor in the girls comics market.

The Old Children’s Bookshelf

4th August 2012Miscellaneouslorrsadmin

So I’ve been to Edinburgh for a few days, which was great. What was even better was that I came across a lovely nostalgic book shop. The Old Children’s Bookshelf, is a small shop near the end of the royal mile (specifically: 175 Canongate
Edinburgh EH8 8BN)

It is full of old children’s books with lots of first edition hardcopies at reasonable prices. You’ll find books by Enid Blyton, Elinor Brent-Dyer, Carolyn Keen, J.M. Barrie among many others. More relevant to this blog is the collection of British comics. Of course there are plenty of comics like Beano, Topper and Wizard, but also there is a nice selection of comics aimed at girls.

The shop isn’t very big but it does have a good variety of books. The front of the shop has a collection of books and annuals including Bunty, Diana, Jackie, Judy, Mandy and School Friend. A small back room has a selection of comics and prints, including Beano, Girl’s Crystal, Diana, Judy and Twinkle.

It’s a nice shop with friendly staff. Even if you don’t buy anything, it felt very comfortable just browsing. So I’d definitely recommend a visit if you are in the area.

UPDATE: Since writing this post, unfortunately the shop has closed down, but thought it should still be remembered anyway.

Book Review: The History of Girls’ Comics-Susan Brewer

22nd February 2012Miscellaneouslorrsadmin

In the past Girls Comics has been a neglected subject in the comic world. There are many websites, blogs, books, articles dedicated to US comics and even to boy UK comics. In the last few years though, there has been more recognition for girls comics. Hopefully this will become a continuing trend. I was quite pleased when I found this book “The History of Girls’ Comics” I thought it was great to have a book fill the gap of information on this subject. While I did enjoy reading it, I did find it didn’t exactly deliver what it promised to be.

It is a nice read and there are a lot of positive things to this book, but it has it flaws too. First the title, it says “a history” of girls comics, rather than a historical view of these comics it is written in a more nostalgic framework. There is nothing wrong with being anecdotal and nostalgic, but makes the history part of the title a bit misleading. Although Brewer does touch on the historical context a little, again the tone is more casual, not very analytical. This is not necessarily a bad thing depending on what you are looking for from the book.

Its not a large book only just over 200 pages, but there is a lot of subjects covered even if some is a bit more briefly than I would of liked. Some other problems I had was some of the repetitiveness, for example in one chapter; using the example of Bunty as a first issue, there is a detailed description of the first cover. When talking about the Bunty comic a page later there is yet another long description of the cover page. Then there are some mistakes that should have been caught by editors, like in one part Bunty is said to have been released on Wednesdays, though previously the correct day Tuesdays had been mentioned. These are small issues but can be a bit annoying.

What the book actually covers is quite a lot, although it can be a bit limited at times, I know there is a large amount of comics out there, so Brewer can’t go into great detail with every one. Some comics just get a paragraph whereas others like Bunty get page and a half, so maybe would have liked some more details, on the less known comics. While I am most familiar with golden and silver age comics, Brewer also has chapters dedicated to comics for tots and early comics and teen magazines and I did learn interesting things about these comics/magazines that I did not know. There is also a chapter dedicated to Brewer’s personal talk of favourite characters which was a nice addition, yes some of my favourite characters weren’t mentioned but it was nice to see a bit more detail on characters. The chapters on comics; the descriptions break down into general what to expect from the book looking at early and later issues. I found the book only touches on things it could have been bigger, more detailed (i.e. dates, artists) and analytical. But for what it is it is a nice and informative read. So that covers the first half of the book, which was the part I was most interested in.

The second half of the book covers features such as the clubs, freebies, problem pages, newspaper strips, toys and annual tie ins. It ends on a chapter about going about collecting comics. These were an enjoyable addition to the book, but one chapter I thought didn’t need to be included was the part works chapter, and its appendix at the back. I wouldn’t have considered them as girls comics, and it seemed strange to have a whole chapter dedicated to them, but maybe that’s just me. I just thought that chapter could have been used to talk about other things, like the publishing companies or creators or even just expanding on the previous chapters.

While I was slightly disappointed that some of my expectations of the book weren’t met, it is still a good book for anyone interested in the subject to look through. The nostalgic tone is nice and easy to read. The book does actually cover a lot even if it what it covers is a bit brief in some cases. Overall for what it is, its a nice read, if you want to have a nostalgic look at these comics, you may find new information and there is enough detail to keep you interested as long as you aren’t looking for a complete critical analysis of the subject. It’s a good read and I’d recommend it to any comic lovers.