Looking for Judy comics from the early 80s... or information

Discuss all the girls comics that have appeared over the years. Excellent titles like Bunty, Misty, Spellbound, Tammy and June, amongst many others, can all be remembered here.

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klakadak-ploobadoof
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Re: Looking for Judy comics from the early 80s... or information

Post by klakadak-ploobadoof »

I know nothing about girls' comics and this discussion has made me curious and wanting to try build a collection of one or two titles. I would appreciate recommendations as to which ones might be the most interesting from the perspective of art and quality of stories. To narrow down the list of the various options, I can say that my favourite period in UK comics is late sixties and seventies, besides, I would prefer a comic that had a run of less than a decade. Any suggestions, please?
Check out my blog about comics from other peoples' childhood: http://kazoop.blogspot.com

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Re: Looking for Judy comics from the early 80s... or information

Post by Phoenix »

As far as girls' story papers from the Thomson stable are concerned, KP, I'm sorry to say that by restricting your preference to about a decade you would miss out on all the best titles. My personal recommendations would be Bunty (1958-2001), Judy (1960-1991)and Mandy (1967-1991), but they were such long-running titles because they were so popular. I think your best bet initially would perhaps be to look on eBay for a selection of various titles from within the period 1966-1974 and then, once you have read them, make up your mind where to go from there.

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Re: Looking for Judy comics from the early 80s... or information

Post by tony ingram »

klakadak-ploobadoof wrote:I know nothing about girls' comics and this discussion has made me curious and wanting to try build a collection of one or two titles. I would appreciate recommendations as to which ones might be the most interesting from the perspective of art and quality of stories. To narrow down the list of the various options, I can say that my favourite period in UK comics is late sixties and seventies, besides, I would prefer a comic that had a run of less than a decade. Any suggestions, please?
Misty. Without a doubt. 102 issues, 1978-1979, and an excellent title. Or possibly DC Thomson's Spellbound. Or, indeed, both.

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philcom55
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Re: Looking for Judy comics from the early 80s... or information

Post by philcom55 »

tony ingram wrote:Misty. Without a doubt. 102 issues, 1978-1979, and an excellent title. Or possibly DC Thomson's Spellbound. Or, indeed, both.
I'd second that. Might be a bit pricey though... :roll:

Another possibility could be DC Thomson's Lucky Charm series which collected some of their best girls' serials from Bunty, Mandy, etc. as complete stories (though I'm still trying to track most of them down myself! ).

Oddly enough one of the best girls' strips ever was the three-volume 'Ballad of Halo Jones' which ran in 2000AD of all places! (From what I can remember Alan Moore said that he deliberately aimed this at female readers after discovering that 'Tooth' was attracting rather more of them "than any British boys' comic has a right to expect").

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Re: Looking for Judy comics from the early 80s... or information

Post by Audiate »

Unfortunately, it's difficult (and/or pricey) to buy a 'sampling' of girls' comics and be guaranteed good artwork and stories -- unless you have a good second hand comic shop near you that can help you out.
I can only talk about Judy as I didn't read the other girls' comics (although I've certainly heard good things about Misty from many people) -- what I can tell you is that not ALL the stories were good, and/or had good artwork; however, some were exceptional. But finding those exceptional ones can take a bit of work... and money.
I recently bought a set of Judy's -- about 3 from each year, for a 5 year range -- and even that cost quite a bit! Anyway, some of the artwork was much poorer than I remembered, and some was every bit as good. The trouble is, because the stories all begin and end at different times, you have to buy many comics to get the full run of the stories you do like! (And that's if you can find all the issues).

If/when I ever get my scanner working, I can send you a few scans if you like...

If I were super duper rich, I'd buy the reprint rights to the Judy stories, pick all my favourites, and publish them in collections so that people could read the really good stories in their entirety!
er, anyone here super duper rich and feel like doing that...? :D

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Re: Looking for Judy comics from the early 80s... or information

Post by Audiate »

Just had another thought...

A more budget-friendly way to do it might be to buy some of the annuals.

Can anyone here comment on whether the stories in the girl-comic annuals were as good quality as (the best of) the ones in the weekly comics? Were they done by the same artists, or different ones?

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Re: Looking for Judy comics from the early 80s... or information

Post by Phoenix »

klakadak-ploobadoof wrote:I know nothing about girls' comics
tony ingram wrote:Misty. Without a doubt. 102 issues, 1978-1979, and an excellent title. Or possibly DC Thomson's Spellbound. Or, indeed, both.
In view of KP's comment above and the suggestion made by Tony, I think it only fair that we present a caveat, because where papers like Bunty, Mandy, June and Sandie always carried a decent spread of what we can call types of story, both Misty and Spellbound had a much more restricted range. Their stories focused on and developed round subjects like ghosts, curses, witches and hauntings. Personally I'm not into such themes, although I admit that they were very popular, but it may be, of course, that KP will absolutely drool over them. Nothing wrong with that but, what if he does not like them? Let's assume that he ignores my suggestion, which he has every right to do, but goes along with Tony's, supported by Phil's seconding, which again he has every right to do, and goes out and spends say £100 (including p&p) on a selection of issues of Misty and Spellbound. How is he going to feel when they are delivered to him and he only then discovers that he has bought a pile of general scary tales based on mysticism and the occult, if he doesn't like that sort of theme? I don't think he would be too pleased, and the artwork, however good it may be, would probably not be sufficient compensation. So this should be pointed out to him in advance.

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Re: Looking for Judy comics from the early 80s... or information

Post by Audiate »

Perhaps we could post some samples of each?

If we each took a scan of one or two of our favourites, I don't think it would be infringing copyright to post them here (would it?) as none would contain the full story. (Plus, it's for 'educational purposes'...) :)

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Re: Looking for Judy comics from the early 80s... or information

Post by tony ingram »

Audiate wrote:Just had another thought...

A more budget-friendly way to do it might be to buy some of the annuals.

Can anyone here comment on whether the stories in the girl-comic annuals were as good quality as (the best of) the ones in the weekly comics? Were they done by the same artists, or different ones?
Bit of both, but I picked up a few Judy Annuals from a charity shop the other day and the art is frequently more impressive than in the weekly with a lot more in colour.

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Re: Looking for Judy comics from the early 80s... or information

Post by tony ingram »

Audiate wrote:Perhaps we could post some samples of each?

If we each took a scan of one or two of our favourites, I don't think it would be infringing copyright to post them here (would it?) as none would contain the full story. (Plus, it's for 'educational purposes'...) :)
If I get a chance, I'll post some scans later. There is no copyright infringement if it's for review and not a complete story, BTW.

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Re: Looking for Judy comics from the early 80s... or information

Post by Digifiend »

Only if it's not complete? Then most of the pages shown in the Sparky File thread breach copyright! :shock:

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Re: Looking for Judy comics from the early 80s... or information

Post by Raven »

Digifiend wrote:Only if it's not complete? Then most of the pages shown in the Sparky File thread breach copyright! :shock:
Of course they do! And it's not necessarily just okay in the eyes of the law if it doesn't contain a complete story - I don't think 'fair use' is clearly defined; I expect a court of law would decide that after the event, but it's down to the nature of the use (is it a genuine 'review' in a legitimate publication?), importantly how *substantial* a part of the story it is (would just a few panels be more appropriate?), plus might it impact on sales if the material is released commercially.

It is something folk should be aware of when posting lots of copyright material.

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Re: Looking for Judy comics from the early 80s... or information

Post by Digifiend »

Well Thomsons and Egmont, etc haven't sued Al so far, have they? :D :lol:

Note that in my Lord Snooty thread, I only posted two panels (panels 2 and 4 in the strip). I was well aware I had to be careful posting something which was still on sale.

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Re: Looking for Judy comics from the early 80s... or information

Post by Raven »

Digifiend wrote:Well Thomsons and Egmont, etc haven't sued Al so far, have they? :D :lol:

I think Al always gets permission for the page a day and other stuff, hence the 'courtesy of IPC Media' notices on the pages.

Snooty: whether something's on sale or not doesn't necessarily make any difference, mind!

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Re: Looking for Judy comics from the early 80s... or information

Post by klakadak-ploobadoof »

I think your best bet initially would perhaps be to look on eBay for a selection of various titles from within the period 1966-1974 and then, once you have read them, make up your mind where to go from there.
Thanks for your suggestions. Is there any particular reason for you recommending this particular period? What about later on in the seventies?
I'd second that. Might be a bit pricey though...
Misty No. 1 is currently on available on ebay. It is complete with free gift but the condition doesn't look great on the picture. Besides, the asking price is rather high at £60. The seller says he has a full run with only 2 issues missing, and he would agree to sell them as a joblot for a non-negotiable amount of £250. Is this a reasonable price for the title?
Check out my blog about comics from other peoples' childhood: http://kazoop.blogspot.com

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