Girl (British comics)

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Girl was the name of two weekly comics magazines for girls in the United Kingdom.

Girl
The cover of Girl issue 1, featuring Kitty Hawke and her All-Girl Air Crew, 1951
Publication information
PublisherHulton Press, Odhams Press, IPC
ScheduleWeekly
FormatOngoing series
Publication date2 November 1951 – 3 October 1964
No. of issues675
Editor(s)Marcus Morris, Jean Crouch

The first and more well-known volume was published from 1951 to 1964. It was launched by Hulton Press on 2 November 1951 as a sister paper to the Eagle Girl 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.

A second volume of the series was published by IPC from 1981 to 1990, during which time Dreamer and Tammy were merged into it.[1]

Original series

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Like the Eagle, Girl was founded by the Rev. Marcus Morris, with the close participation of Morris' fellow clergyman Chad Varah. The lead strip was originally Kitty Hawke and her All-Girl Air Crew, drawn in full colour by Ray Bailey, about a group of women running a charter airline. The strip was not very popular — it was apparently felt to be too masculine — and it was moved to the black-and-white interior pages, replaced on the cover by the schoolgirl strip Wendy and Jinx, written by Michael and Valerie Hastings and drawn by Bailey.[2][3][4]

Other strips included:

1980s series

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Girl
Publication information
PublisherIPC Magazines
ScheduleWeekly
FormatOngoing series
Publication date14 February 1981 – March 1990
No. of issues478

According to Jacqueline Rayner, writing about girls' comics in The Guardian, the second volume of Girl "was a stepping stone between the traditional 'picture-story papers' and . . . teen mags such as Jackie and Blue Jeans." It "had photo-stories, boyfriends, pop stars and problem pages, alongside its occasional illustrated story."[22]

The IPC title Dreamer, which debuted on September 19, 1981, merged into Girl after Dreamer's May 15, 1982, issue. The merged publication carried the title Girl and Dreamer in the period 1982–1983 (issues 89 to 110 at least).[23]

The fellow IPC title Tammy (launched 1971) was intended to merge with Girl in the summer of 1984, but, according to the Grand Comics Database, "a printer's dispute in June 1984 prevented the final issues being published and it was simply cancelled. Girl did carry the Tammy masthead for several issues from 25th August 1984 but these issues contain no material from Tammy."[24]

In March 1990, Girl was merged into its fellow IPC title My Guy, which became My Guy and Girl for a period.[25] Girl volume 2 published 478 issues.

Strips

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References

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  1. ^ "Complete AP / Fleetway Comic Index". www.dandare.info. Archived from the original on 14 September 2019. Retrieved 26 June 2011.
  2. ^ Girl Flight! Kitty Hawke and Worrals of the WAAF versus Angela Air Hostess, Gad, Sir! Comics!, 19 September 2007
  3. ^ "Girl at BritishComics.com". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 26 June 2011.
  4. ^ "Ray Bailey (I)". lambiek.net.
  5. ^ a b c d Steve Holland, Betty Roland, Bear Alley, 8 September 2006
  6. ^ "Marjorie Slade". lambiek.net.
  7. ^ "Stanley Houghton". lambiek.net.
  8. ^ a b Steve Holland Pat Nevin, Bear Alley, 1 May 2008
  9. ^ a b Eagle writers - Geoffrey Bond (1920 - 2009) aka Alan Jason, Eagle Times, 31 December 2009
  10. ^ a b "Gerald Haylock". lambiek.net.
  11. ^ a b "Eric Dadswell". lambiek.net.
  12. ^ Eagle Writers - Charles Chilton (1917 - ), Eagle Times, 30 July 2008
  13. ^ "Harry Winslade". lambiek.net.
  14. ^ "John Ryan". lambiek.net.
  15. ^ a b "Peter Kay". lambiek.net.
  16. ^ a b Steve Holland, Peter Ling (1926-2006), Bear Alley, 21 September 2006
  17. ^ a b c d Steve Holland, Dudley Pout, Bear Alley, 31 January 2007
  18. ^ "Charles Paine". lambiek.net.
  19. ^ "Roy Newby". lambiek.net.
  20. ^ Eagle writers: J. H. G. Freeman (1903-1972) aka Gordon Grinstead, Eagle Times, 30 January 2009
  21. ^ Shu-fen Tsai, [1] Girlhood Modified in Susan of St. Brides in Girl magazine (1954-1961) (pdf), Dong Hwa Journal of Humanistic Studies 2, July 2000, pp. 259-272
  22. ^ Rayner, Jacqueline (17 August 2012). "Jinty, Tammy, Misty and the golden age of girls' comics". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 1 October 2020.
  23. ^ Girl (IPC, 1981 Series), Grand Comics Database. Retrieved March 8, 2021.
  24. ^ Tammy entry, Grand Comics Database. Retrieved March 4, 2021.
  25. ^ Carroll, Michael Owen. "Can You Help Me Track Down My Guy?," Rusty Staples Comics Blog (June 26, 2018).

Sources

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