''School Belle'' was a British comics series, originally published in the first issue of the British comics magazine ''

School Fun ''Buster'' was a British comic which began publication in 1960, originally published by IPC Magazines Ltd under the company's comics division Fleetway, then by Egmont UK Ltd under the same imprint until its closure in 2000. Despite missing is ...

'' on 15 October 1983 until the magazine merged with

Buster Buster may refer to: People First name *Buster Drayton (born 1952), American boxer *Buster Glosson, retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant general *Buster Mathis (1943–1995), American heavyweight boxer *Buster Mathis Jr. (born 1970), American heavyw ...

on 2 June 1984. The strip continued to run in "Buster" until the magazine ceased publication in 2000. The series was written by

Keith Reynolds Keith Reynolds (born 25 December 1963) is a British former cyclist. Following national success as a junior where he won the season long National Junior Road Series in 1981, he competed in the team time trial event at the 1984 Summer Olympics. ...

and drawn by Tom Paterson.

Concept

The series centered on a pretty and popular girl named "School Belle", a pun on the terms 'school bell' and ''belle of the ball'', and the attempts of various boys to become her latest boyfriend. A recurring theme was Belle's feud with the unattractive and jealous Grotty Glenda, who would often plot to cause trouble for Belle. Glenda usually enlisted her steady boyfriend, the physically imposing but henpacked Beefy Bernie, to help her; however, he secretly found Belle attractive, and she was often able to distract him from Glenda's schemes by flirting. In 1988 Belle was given a regular boyfriend, public schoolboy Sebastian. Another theme of the strip was the attempt of various 'nurks' - nerdy and unattractive boys - to gain Belle's attention. The nurks became such a popular feature of the strip that, in 1987, it began featuring a 'Know Your Nurks' breakout box, in which a different comically named nurk (e.g. Cyril Stinkinbottom) would appear in detail alongside an amusing fact about him. Sometimes the strip would have Belle be on the "losing end", particularly when she got too taken with her personal appearance. One example being where a movie was shooting in Belle's hometown and she found work as an extra. When the leading man is a handsome movie star, Belle (like most other girls) is beside herself. When she arrives on set, she learns the film is actually a horror movie, and she is cast as a vampire, whilst the hunky leading man is a vampire hunter! In 1990, following comments from readers that Belle was not actually that pretty, she was redrawn in a very different style, with a more modern hairstyle and casual clothing replacing her old-fashioned school uniform. The change was explained in a strip which showed Grotty Glenda dressing up as Belle to pose for the strip's artist, making Belle look bad in the process. Belle's boyfriend Sebastian was also replaced by a more modern counterpart. However, when Buster went fortnightly in the mid-nineties and switched to reprints, the original Belle reappeared.

Sources

British comics British comics characters Child characters in comics Comics about children Female characters in comics Gag-a-day comics Comics set in schools Romance comics 1983 comics debuts Comics characters introduced in 1983 2000 comics endings Defunct British comics Comics set in the United Kingdom {{Comic-strip-stub