British girls' comics flourished in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

from the 1950s through the 1970s, before beginning to decline in popularity in the 1980s and 1990s. Publishers known for their girls' comics included

DC Thomson DC Thomson is a media company based in Dundee, Scotland. Founded by David Couper Thomson in 1905, it is best known for publishing ''The Courier (Dundee), The Courier'', ''Evening Telegraph (Dundee), The Evening Telegraph'' and ''The Sunday Pos ...

and

Fleetway Fleetway Publications was a magazine publishing company based in London. History It was founded in 1959 when the Mirror Group acquired the Amalgamated Press, then based at Fleetway House, Farringdon Street, London. It was one of the companies t ...

IPC IPC may refer to: Businesses and organizations Arts and media * Intellectual Property Committee, a coalition of US corporations with intellectual property interests * International Panorama Council, an international network of specialists in ...

. Most titles appeared weekly, with the content primarily in picture-story format. The majority of the stories were serialized, with two or three pages per issue, over eight to twelve issues. They were marketed toward young teen girls. British girls' comics were often titled after common girls' names. Examples include ''Judy'', ''Diana'', ''Jackie'', ''June'', ''Penelope'', ''Mandy'', ''Tina'', ''Sally'', ''Tammy'', ''Sandie'', ''Debbie'', ''Misty'', ''Emma'', ''Penny'', ''Tracy'', ''Suzy'', and ''Nikki''. Long-running titles included ''

Bunty ''Bunty'' was a British comics, British comic for girls published by D. C. Thomson & Co. from 1958 to 2001.Gibson (2003)p. 91/ref> It consisted of a collection of many small strips, the stories typically being three to five pages long. In cont ...

'', '' Mandy'', and '' Judy'' (all

) and '' Jinty'', ''

Misty In cryptography, MISTY1 (or MISTY-1) is a block cipher designed in 1995 by Mitsuru Matsui and others for Mitsubishi Electric. MISTY1 is one of the selected algorithms in the European NESSIE project, and has been among the cryptographic tech ...

'' and '' Tammy'' (

History

Origin

Girls' comics were the natural evolution of a trend that started with story papers. As boys' story papers like ''

The Magnet ''The Magnet'' was a British weekly boys' story paper published by Amalgamated Press. It ran from 1908 to 1940, publishing a total of 1,683 issues. Each issue contained a long school story about the boys of Greyfriars School, a fictional publ ...

'' and ''

The Gem ''The Gem'' (1907–1939) was a story paper published in Great Britain by Amalgamated Press in the early 20th century, predominantly featuring the activities of boys at the fictional school St. Jim's. These stories were all written using the pe ...

'' gained readerships of young teens, publishers like

Amalgamated Press The Amalgamated Press (AP) was a British newspaper and magazine publishing company founded by journalist and entrepreneur Alfred Harmsworth (1865–1922) in 1901, gathering his many publishing ventures together under one banner. At one point the ...

looked to expand the market by producing story papers for girls. Titles like ''

School Friend ''School Friend'' was the name of two different British weekly publications marketed toward girls, both of which were pioneering in their respective categories. Although both published by Amalgamated Press and both marketed toward girls, the cont ...

'', '' Schoolgirls' Own'', and ''

The Schoolgirl ''The Schoolgirl'' was a British weekly story paper aimed at girls. Published by Amalgamated Press (AP), ''The Schoolgirl'' ran in two series, the first from 1922 to 1923, and the second (essentially continuing a sister publication) from 1929 to ...

'', all launched in the period 1919–1922, established a girls' market."Schoolgirl's Own,"
Friardale Website. Retrieved March 10, 2021. By the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, story papers were phasing out in favor of comic books and television. The first girls' comics,

' ''

'' and Hulton Press' ''

Girl A girl is a young female human, usually a child or an adolescent. While the term ''girl'' has other meanings, including ''young woman'',Dictionary.com, "Girl"'' Retrieved January 2, 2008. '' daughter'' or '' girlfriend'' regardless of age ...

'', appeared in the early 1950s, with ''School Friend'' selling in excess of one million copies per week. (The ''School Friend'' comic was in fact the descendant of the ''School Friend'' story paper from the 1920s.) The girls' comics trend took off in the latter half of the 1950s, with the long-running titles ''

'' and '' Judy'', as well as titles like ''

Boyfriend A boyfriend is a man who is a friend or acquaintance to the speaker, often specifying a regular male companion with whom a person is platonically, romantically or sexually involved. A boyfriend can also be called an admirer, beau, suito ...

'' and ''

Princess Princess is a title used by a female member of a regnant monarch's family or by a female ruler of a principality. The male equivalent is a prince (from Latin '' princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for ...

'', all debuting in the years 1956–1960. (British

romance comics Romance comics are a genre of comic book, comic books that were most popular during the Golden Age of Comics. The market for comics, which had been growing rapidly throughout the 1940s, began to plummet after the end of World War II when military ...

, marketed toward older teen girls and young women, also flourished from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s. Other than a few examples, however, romance titles had petered out by the mid-1970s.) DC Thomson had published its first girls' magazine, ''

'', in 1958. The success of this title led the company to publish '' Judy'', which was also successful: between them, ''Bunty'' and ''Judy'' achieved a circulation of over one million. DC Thomson went on to launch other similar titles in the 1960s, including '' Jackie'' (1964), '' Diana'' (1965), and '' Mandy'' (1967).

Industry consolidation

In the period 1958 to 1968, a series of mergers and acquisitions led to the girls' comics industry consolidating into two main publishers:

and the newly created

. In January 1959 Cecil Harmsworth King, chairman of the

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily Tabloid journalism, tabloid newspaper. Founded in 1903, it is part of Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), which is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the tit ...

newspaper group, acquired

. Within a few months he changed its name to Fleetway Publications, Ltd. Shortly thereafter,

Odhams Press Odhams Press was a British publishing company, operating from 1920 to 1968. Originally a magazine publisher, Odhams later expanded into book publishing and then children's comics. The company was acquired by Fleetway Publications in 1961 and th ...

absorbed both Newnes/ Pearson and the Hulton Press. King saw an opportunity in this to rationalise the overcrowded women's magazine market, in which Fleetway and Newnes/Pearson were the major competitors, and acquired Odhams. Fleetway took over Odhams in March 1961. In consequence, King controlled two national daily and two national Sunday newspapers, almost one hundred consumer magazines (including comics), more than two hundred trade and technical periodicals, and interests in book publishing. In 1963 all the Mirror Group companies were combined by the creation of a parent (or "holding") company called the

International Publishing Company TI Media Ltd. (formerly International Publishing Company, IPC Magazines Ltd, IPC Media and Time Inc. UK) was a consumer magazine and digital publisher in the United Kingdom, with a portfolio selling over 350 million copies each year. Most of it ...

(known informally as IPC). All of the existing companies continued to operate, but as IPC subsidiaries.Birch, Paul
"Speaking Frankly,"
''Birmingham Mail'' (14 December 2008). When the dust cleared, IPC controlled five girls' comics titles — ''

'', ''

'', '' Girls' Crystal'', ''

June June is the sixth and current month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars—the latter the most widely used calendar in the world. Its length is 30 days. June succeeds May and precedes July. This month marks the start of su ...

'', and ''

'' — while DC Thomson controlled three — ''

'', '' Judy'', and '' Diana''. (

City Magazines City Magazines was a British publisher of weekly comics and men's magazines that operated from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s. The company's most notable publications were comics magazines based on licensed television properties, including '' TV ...

was still in the mix as well, with their title ''

''.) IPC set up a management development department in 1965 so that its various subsidiaries would no longer be in competition with each other for the same markets. This led to a reorganisation of the Group, in 1968, into six divisions, with

IPC Magazines TI Media Ltd. (formerly International Publishing Company, IPC Magazines Ltd, IPC Media and Time Inc. UK) was a consumer magazine and digital publisher in the United Kingdom, with a portfolio selling over 350 million copies each year. Most of it ...

in charge of all comics content. In the period 1960–1970, there were between seven and ten girls' comics in publication in the UK at any one time, with one estimation that the girls' comics market was larger than that of

women's magazines This is a list of women's magazines from around the world. These are magazines that have been published primarily for a readership of woman, women. Currently published *''10 Magazine (UK), 10 Magazine'' (UK – distributed worldwide) *''Al Jam ...

"Hatch-match-dispatch"

The 1970s was a period of tumult for the British girls' comics industry.

's ''Bunty'', '' Judy'', '' Jackie'', and '' Mandy'' (as well as the "little girls'" comic ''

Twinkle Twinkle may refer to: * Twinkling, the variation of brightness of distant objects People * Twinkle (singer) (1948–2015), born Lynn Annette Ripley, English singer-songwriter * Twinkle Bajpai, Indian singer, television and film actress * Twinkl ...

'') continued strong through the decade. IPC, on the other hand, changed gears editorially — as writer/editor Terence Magee details, "

Pat Mills Patrick Eamon Mills (born 1949) is an English comics writer and editor who, along with John Wagner, revitalised British boys' comics in the 1970s, and has remained a leading light in British comics ever since. He has been called "the godfath ...

and John Wagner /nowiki>were brought in/nowiki> to shake things up. The safe and gentle middle-class stories gave way to gritty, working-class yarns." The company introduced a slew of new titles, most of which lasted a few years before merging into other company titles — IPC's "hatch-match-dispatch" method. Examples include '' Sandie'' (1972–1973; merged into '' Tammy''), ''Pixie'' (1972–1973; merged into ''

''), ''Lindy'' (1975; merged into '' Jinty''), and ''Penny'' (1979–1980; merged into '' Jinty''). The IPC Fleetway stablemates '' Tammy'' (1971–1984), '' Jinty'' (1974–1981), and ''

'' (1978–1980) existed somewhat outside this trend, although in the end both ''Misty'' and ''Jinty'' ended up absorbed into ''Tammy'' (which absorbed four other titles during its run — '' Sandie'', '' Sally'', ''

'', and ''

'' vol. 2 — before being merged itself with IPC's ''

'' vol. 2 in 1984). By 1974,

's girls' comics had fallen off somewhat — ''Bunty'', ''Judy'', ''Mandy'', and ''Debbie'' had a combined circulation of 750,000 that year — but remained the market leader. At its height in the late 1970s, ''Tammy'' sold 250,000 copies per week.McDade, Jenny
"Creating Tammy: A True Story,"
''Down The Tubes'' (12 October 2008).

Transition to slick magazines

Starting in the mid-1970s, IPC introduced a line of slick girls' magazines that downplayed the traditional comics content, instead featuring mainly product-related articles and

photo comics Photo comics are a form of sequential storytelling using photographs rather than illustrations for the images, along with the usual comics conventions of narrative text and word balloons containing dialogue. They are sometimes referred to in ...

. Titles in this line included ''

Pink Pink is a pale tint of red, the color of the Dianthus plumarius, pink flower. It was first used as a color name in the late 17th century. According to surveys in Europe and the United States, pink is the color most often associated with charm, p ...

'' (1973–1980; merged into ''

Mates Mates is an English surname, and may refer to: * Mates (born 1964), British newsreader and journalist * Michael Mates (born 1934), British politician * Frederick S. Mates, founded the Mates Investment Fund in 1967 that crashed in the bear market ...

''), '' My Guy'' (1978– 2000), '' Oh Boy'' (1976–1985; merged into ''My Guy''), ''

'' (1975–1981; merged into ''Oh Boy''), '' Blue Jeans'' (1977–1991), and the second iteration of ''

'' (1981–1990; merged into ''My Guy''). Meanwhile, DC Thomson's girls' titles which had launched in the slick format in the 1960s, such as '' Jackie'', continued in that format; and others, such as '' Diana'' (1965–1976; merged into ''Jackie'') and '' Judy'' (1960–1991; merged with '' Mandy''), changed to become slicks.

Decline

By 1980, there were eleven girls' comics titles in publication (not counting the slicks, which had much less comics content), but the last girls' comics of any note to debut happened in 1985: '' Nikki for Girls'', which only lasted until 1989. Even DC Thomson's girls' titles fell victim to "merger mania": '' Mandy'', which began in 1967, absorbed ''

Debbie Debbie (or Debby or Deb) is a feminine given name, commonly but not always short for Deborah (or Debra and related variants). Debbie is a name of Hebrew origin, derived from the Hebrew name Deborah, which means “ bee”. Notable people *Debb ...

'' (which itself had previously absorbed '' Spellbound'', published 1976–1978) in early 1983. ''Suzy'' (published 1982–1987) merged into ''Bunty''. And by the time ''Mandy'' merged with '' Judy'' (launched in 1960) in 1991, that title had previously absorbed ''Emma'' (1978–1979) and '' Tracy'' (1979–1985). By 1990, only four girls' comics were in publication, all published by

: ''Bunty'', '' Mandy'', '' Judy'', and ''

'' (the latter was a separate category of comics for "little girls"). The last girls' title, ''

'', was canceled in 2001.

Back catalog reprints

The Fleetway/IPC back-catalog is now owned by

Rebellion Developments Rebellion Developments Limited is a British video game developer based in Oxford. Founded by Jason Kingsley (businessman), Jason and Chris Kingsley in December 1992, the company is best known for ''Sniper Elite'' and multiple games in the ''Lis ...

, which since 2016 has reprinted a number of ''Tammy'', ''Jinty'', and ''Misty'' serials, and is due to republish further series as part of ''The Treasury of British Comics''. In October 2017 Rebellion published a '' Scream! & Misty Halloween Special'', which contained all-new stories featuring characters from those comics.

Content

Girls' comics generally offered a mix of romance, pathos, school, and girl-next-door stories, thriving well into the era when consumer, fashion, and

teen idol A teen idol is a celebrity with a large teenage fan base. Teen idols are generally young but are not necessarily teenagers themselves. An idol's popularity may be limited to teens, or may extend to all age groups. By region Asia Ea ...

fare became popular in girls' magazines. The stories were generally moralistic in tone, with long-suffering heroines finally achieving happiness, while villainous relatives or girls who were liars, cheats, and bullies received their comeuppance.Smith, James Cooray
"The dark, forgotten world of British girls’ comics is about to be resurrected: The UK’s most surreal and innovative comic strips have long been gathering dust. As a publisher acquires the archives, they could be heading for a renaissance,"
''The New Statesman'' (27 September 2016). Also popular were stories of girls confronting adversity and overcoming it.Rayner, Jac
"Paper Worlds: Why girls' comics were wonderful,"
BBC (18 June 2014). One of the earlier titles, ''

'', founded by the Rev.

Marcus Morris Marcus Thomas Morris Sr. (born September 2, 1989) is an American professional basketball player who last played for the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Kansas Jayhawks befor ...

(with the close participation of fellow clergyman Chad Varah), was very much an ''educational'' magazine whose heroines, including those who got into scrapes, became involved in tales that had a moral substance. A considerable number of pages were also dedicated to real-life tales of heroic women in various fields. Common girls' comics storylines included: * orphans forced to live with cruel or uncaring relatives * girls enduring blackmail, hardship, or unpopularity to protect a secret (often on behalf of their family) * girls slaving for cruel employers or criminals * saving animals from cruelty * cruel factories, shops, boarding schools or workhouses * heroines adopting masked identities to secretly help people * spiteful girls causing trouble for an unsuspecting cousin, foster-sister or classmate * girls becoming unpopular because events keep conspiring to make them appear jealous or selfish * blundering girls getting into one scrape after another * girls pretending to be disabled in order to take advantage of people * girls who were put under a curse or came into possession of apparently supernatural objects which adversely affected their lives, but of which they were unable to rid themselves until they worked out how * boyfriend-themed stories (by the 1980s) The various strips in the girls' comics were usually broken up by letters pages, competitions, featured readers, puzzle pages, promotions, next-week previews, and advertisements. ''

'''s ''The Four Marys'', drawn by Barrie Mitchell, was the longest serial in girls' comics, running from the magazine's creation in 1958 to its end in 2001. It centered on four young teens — each named Mary — in a girls-only boarding school in the fictional location of Elmbury, who often had problems with studying, staying alert, or helping the other girls and teachers. Of the four main characters, two were middle-class, one was the aristocratic daughter of an

earl Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. In modern Britain, an earl is a member of the Peerages in the United Kingdom, peerage, ranking below a marquess and above a viscount. A feminine form of ''earl'' never developed; instead, ...

, and one was working-class, attending the school on a scholarship.Gibson (2003)
p. 92
/ref> Three related

titles — '' Tammy'' (launched 1971), '' Jinty'' (launched 1974), and ''

'' (launched 1978) — had their own particular focus. ''Tammy'' concentrated on sadder ''

Cinderella "Cinderella", or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a Folklore, folk tale with thousands of variants that are told throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988. The protagonist is a you ...

''-themed stories and dark tales of tortured heroines. Many stories were full of cruelty and adversity, based on research showing that girls wanted stories that made them cry.Paul Gravett
Comics Britannia Part 2 - Girls and Boys
paulgravett.com, 2 December 2007. ''Jinty'' concentrated on

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

or otherwise fantastical stories. ''Misty'' concentrated on supernatural and horror stories, featuring plots such as "pacts with the devil, schoolgirl sacrifice, the ghosts of hanged girls, sinister cults, evil scientists experimenting on the innocent and terrifying parallel worlds where the

Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

won the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

." Writer

, later to become famed for his work on '' 2000AD'', scripted many strips for all three titles.

Writers and artists

Despite the intended audience for the comics being female, the vast majority of the writers and artists responsible for the girls' comics industry were men. One notable exception was Marion Turner, who wrote hundreds of strips for DC Thomson's line, especially for ''Mandy'', ''Judy'', and ''M&J''.lorrsadmin
"Marion Turner – DCT writer,"
''Girls Comics of Yesterday'' (25th October 2019). In general, artists and writers were not credited in girls' comics (or indeed most British comics of that era). As was common practice in the 1960s and 1970s, many illustrators were recruited via art agencies, including ones that specialized in Spanish artists (the UK was a popular market for Spanish artists as the exchange rate meant the work paid well) — notable Spanish girls' comics artists included Luis Bermejo, Purita Campos, Carlos Freixas, Jesus Redondo, and Jordi Badía Romero. Artists can sometimes be identified by their work in '' Tammy'' (which moved to a system of crediting creators in the early 1980s) or in boys' comics such as '' 2000AD'', which brought in such a policy from earlier on. In other cases, it is possible to identify the artists from their signatures on the pages of the comics themselves. Identification of writers in girls' comics is currently dependent on information provided by the writers themselves.

Notable writers

* Ruth Adam — ''

'' (''Lindy Love'',Peter Kay at Lambiek Comiclopedia
/ref> ''Susan of St. Bride's'') * Angus Allan — '' Lady Penelope'' (various strips) * Charles Chilton — ''

'' (''Flying Cloud'') * Primrose Cumming — '' Tammy'' (''Bella Barlow'') * Anne Digby — '' Tammy'' (''Olympia Jones'') *

Gerry Finley-Day Gerry Finley-Day (born 1947, in Broughty Ferry, Dundee) is a Scottish comics writer, prolific from the 1960s to the 1980s, best known as the creator of "Rogue Trooper". Career He began his career at D.C. Thomson & Co., before becoming the ...

— '' Tammy'' (''The Camp on Candy Island'') * Scott Goodall — ''

'' (some episodes of ''The Strangest Stories Ever Told'') * Peter Ling — ''

'' (''Penny Starr'', ''Two Pairs of Skates'')Steve Holland
Peter Ling (1926-2006)
Bear Alley, 21 September 2006 * Terence Magee — '' Tammy'' (''Spartan School''), '' Sandie'' (''Slave of the Trapeze''), '' Jinty'' (''Merry at Misery House'')Terence Magee: Interview
A Resource on Jinty website (May 13, 2014). *

— '' Tammy'' (''Becky Never Saw the Ball'', ''Thursday's Child'', ''Glenda's Glossy Pages''); '' Jinty'' (''Girl in a Bubble'', ''Land of No Tears'', ''The Human Zoo'', ''Concrete Surfer''); ''

'' (''Moonchild''; ''Hush, Hush, Sweet Rachel'') * Frank Redpath — ''

'' (''Lucky's Living Doll'') * Betty Roland — ''

'' (''Angela Air Hostess'', ''Laura and the Legend of Hadley House'', ''Pat of Paradise Isle'', ''The Rajah's Secret'', ''Vicky in Australia'')Steve Holland
Betty Roland
Bear Alley, 8 September 2006 * Malcolm Shaw — '' Jinty'' (''The Robot Who Cried''); ''

'' (''The Sentinels'', ''The Four Faces of Eve'', ''End of the Line''); '' Tammy'' (''E.T. Estate'') * Chad Varah — ''

'' (various strips) * John Wagner — '' Tammy'' (''School for Snobs'')

Notable artists

* John Armstrong — '' Tammy'' (''Bella Barlow''); ''

'' (''Moonchild''), '' Girls' Crystal'' * Jim Baikie — ''

'' (''Gymnast Jinty'', ''Tilly's Magic Tranny''), '' Jinty'' (''Left-Out Linda''; ''The Kat and Mouse Game''; ''Face The Music, Flo!''; ''Ping-Pong Paula''; ''Miss No-Name''; ''Willa on Wheels''; ''Rose Among the Thornes''; ''Spell of the Spinning Wheel''; ''Fran'll Fix It!''; ''Two Mothers for Maggie''; ''Wild Rose''; ''The Forbidden Garden''; ''Village of Fame''; ''White Water''; ''Left-Out Linda''); '' Tammy'' (''Glen — Lonely Dog on a Quest'') * Luis Bermejo — '' Girls' Crystal'' * H. M. Brock — ''

'' (''

Lorna Doone ''Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor'' is a novel by R. D. Blackmore, first published in three volumes in London in 1869. It is a romance based on a group of historical characters and set in the late 17th century in Devon and Somerset, particu ...

'') * John M. Burns — ''

'' (various strips), '' Girls' Crystal'' * Purita Campos — '' Princess Tina'' (''Patty's World'') *

Evelyn Flinders Evelyn Betty Flinders (21 March 1910 – 31 October 1997) was a British comics artist who worked in girls' comics. She entered the Hornsey School of Art at the age of fifteen, and in 1928 got her first job with the Amalgamated Press, drawing fo ...

— ''

'' (''

The Silent Three ''The Silent Three'' (originally ''The Silent Three of St. Kit's'') was a British comic strip published in the girls' comics magazine ''School Friend'' from 1950 to 1963, written by Horace Boyten and Stewart Pride, and originally illustrated by Eve ...

'') * Cecil Langley Doughty — ''

'' (''The Untold Arabian Nights''),Eagle writers - Geoffrey Bond (1920 - 2009) aka Alan Jason
Eagle Times, 31 December 2009 ''

'' (''Terry Brent'') * Derek Charles Eyles — '' Princess Tina'' * Carlos Freixas — ''

'' (''Angie’s Angel'', ''My Family, My Foes!'',''Wild Girl of the Hills''), '' Jinty'' (''The Valley of the Shining Mist''), ''

'' vol. 2 (''Miranda's Magic Dragon'') * Phil Gascoine — ''

'' (''The Twin She Couldn’t Trust''!), '' Jinty'' (''Girl in a Bubble'', ''Fran of the Floods'', ''The Green People'', ''Gail's Indian Necklace'', ''Badgered Belinda'', ''No Cheers for Cherry'') * Harry Hargreaves — ''

'' (''Scamp'') *

Tom Kerr Tom Kerr was a British comic strip artist whose work has appeared in comics such as ''Look-in'', the ''Eagle'', '' Valiant'', and '' TV21''. He has also drawn for many annuals of the 1960s and 1970s, including the ''Monkees'' annuals, ''Look-i ...

— '' Girls' Crystal''; ''

''; ''

'' (''Orphans Alone'') * Sean Phillips — ''

''; '' Judy''; '' Nikki'' * Jesus Redondo — ''

'' (''Hangman's Alley'', ''Amanda Must Not Be Expelled'') * Jordi Badía Romero — ''

'' (''Wolfsbane'', ''Hunt the Ripper'', ''Screaming Point!'')''Misty Presents The Jordi Badia Romero Collection'' (Rebellion Graphic Novels, October 17, 2019) * John Ryan — ''

'' (''Lettice Leefe, the Greenest Girl in School'')John Ryan entry

Lambiek Galerie Lambiek is a Dutch comic book store and art gallery in Amsterdam, founded on November 8, 1968 by Kees Kousemaker (, – Bussum Bussum () is a commuter town and former municipality in the Gooi region in the south east of the prov ...

's Comiclopedia. Retrieved 30 Aug 2015. * Ron Smith — ''

''; '' Judy''Michael Molcher, "Brush Strokes of Genius: Ron Smith Part One", ''Judge Dredd Megazine'' #288, 15 September 2009, pp. 16–22 *

John Millar Watt John Millar Watt (14 October 1895 – 13 December 1975) was a British painter, illustrator and comics artist who created the comic strip ''Pop''. Early life Born in Greenock on the River Clyde, Scotland, the son of James H. Watt, an engineer, an ...

— ''

'' (''Daughters of Adventure'', ''

The Scarlet Pimpernel ''The Scarlet Pimpernel'' is the first novel in a series of historical fiction by Baroness Orczy, published in 1905. It was written after her stage play of the same title (co-authored with her husband Montague Barstow) enjoyed a long run in Lo ...

'')

Notable examples

Timeline

Notes

References

Sources

* Freeman, John
"British Girls Comics: There Should Be A Book...,"
DownTheTubes.net (Aug. 27, 2020). * * Holland, Steve

''Collecting Books and Magazines'' (2001). * * * Scott, Jenni
"Female writers in a girls’ genre,"
''A Resource on Jinty: Artists, Writers, Stories'' (February 28, 2015).

External links

Jac Rayner's Blupo Blog
about British girls' comics
Girls Comics Of Yesterday
fansite
Dr Mel Comics
website of a British comics scholar
Girls Comics UK Facebook group
* Carroll, Michael Owen
"Eaglution of British Comics, part 3,"
Rusty Staples Comics Blog (June 30, 2018). * Carroll, Michael Owen
"'Remind me again… What’s the publisher's daughter's name?'"
Rusty Staples Comics Blog (June 19, 2020).
My Guy Family Tree
— graphic showing the merging of AP, Fleetway, IPC (mostly) girls' titles over the decades {{DEFAULTSORT:British girls' comics Children's magazines published in the United Kingdom Romance comics History of women in the United Kingdom