Comics UK

Sounds fine to me Tammyfan! Anybody who wants to learn more about the history of British girls' comics would be hard-pressed to find a better selection.

The nice thing about threads like this is that they can go into hibernation - sometimes for years - only to suddenly spring back into life when somebody discovers them out of the blue on a google search. And in the meantime plenty of people will read them with interest, even if they don't post contributions of their own.

Of course there will always be unseen strips to stumble across and new comics to unearth - like this nice Bessie Bunter cover I picked up a couple of weeks ago:



- Phil Rushton

philcom55 wrote:Sounds fine to me Tammyfan! Anybody who wants to learn more about the history of British girls' comics would be hard-pressed to find a better selection.

The nice thing about threads like this is that they can go into hibernation - sometimes for years - only to suddenly spring back into life when somebody discovers them out of the blue on a google search. And in the meantime plenty of people will read them with interest, even if they don't post contributions of their own.

- Phil Rushton

Yes, I know there are strips out there we haven't considered because of gaps in our knowledge, or we couldn't track them down (such as a couple of Pat Mills' suggestions), or for other reasons. And as new people come on board, they might have their own ideas for this list.

And thank you for posting the Bessie Bunter cover. It looks really gorgeous!

OK by me Tammyfan! A good diverse selection.

I can see this topic re-mererging & updating over time too, as we will keep reading, finding & discovering new overlooked strips.

Thanks for nice cover upload, Phil (oh to reach in & grab that comic to read/put in my collection!).
June had many great front cover artworks - could be another topc discussion there on best grils' comics front covers perhaps...

DavidKW wrote:
Thanks for nice cover upload, Phil (oh to reach in & grab that comic to read/put in my collection!).
June had many great front cover artworks - could be another topc discussion there on best grils' comics front covers perhaps...

Why not start one - at least for the June covers?

What an interesting and long subject. Sorry to contribute so late TammyFan & all.

For what it's worth, here are my 11 favourite serials - it was 10, then I remember 'A Horse Called September' from someone else's list. Bear in mind however I mainly read Tammy (which lasted a long time) plus Jinty. I only ever read a few issues of Spellbound (the only DC Thomson girls paper I read) and a few issues of Penny. So this story list has a Tammy bias:

1. Pam of Pond Hill (Originally Jinty, then Tammy)
2. It's a Dog's Life (Tammy)
3. Supercats (Spellbound) I only read a few but enjoyed them.
4. Button box (Tammy) The one with Hooty the owl was my fav around 1982/3
5. Cuckoo in the Nest (Tammy)
6. A Horse Called September (June/Tammy)
7. The Cult of the Cat (Misty)
8. The Secret of Angel Smith (Tammy)
9. Jump, Jump, Julia (Jinty or Tammy)
10. Romy's Return (Tammy)
11. The Perils of Pauline (Jackpot) The readers had to work out the clue each week in this adventure strip.

Muffy wrote:What an interesting and long subject. Sorry to contribute so late TammyFan & all.

For what it's worth, here are my 11 favourite serials - it was 10, then I remember 'A Horse Called September' from someone else's list. Bear in mind however I mainly read Tammy (which lasted a long time) plus Jinty. I only ever read a few issues of Spellbound (the only DC Thomson girls paper I read) and a few issues of Penny. So this story list has a Tammy bias:

1. Pam of Pond Hill (Originally Jinty, then Tammy)
2. It's a Dog's Life (Tammy)
3. Supercats (Spellbound) I only read a few but enjoyed them.
4. Button box (Tammy) The one with Hooty the owl was my fav around 1982/3
5. Cuckoo in the Nest (Tammy)
6. A Horse Called September (June/Tammy)
7. The Cult of the Cat (Misty)
8. The Secret of Angel Smith (Tammy)
9. Jump, Jump, Julia (Jinty or Tammy)
10. Romy's Return (Tammy)
11. The Perils of Pauline (Jackpot) The readers had to work out the clue each week in this adventure strip.

Thank you for your suggestions. As you see, most of your favourites are on the list already. I had considered It's a Dog's Life for nomination but was not sure as the animal cruelty in that one is among the most sickening I have ever seen in girls' comics. As for The Perils of Pauline, that would be better on the 100 best adventure strips elsewhere on this forum.

Leaving aside the list for the time being it seems to me that this thread could still be used to to highlight any new strips we uncover. 'Aunt Isobel Rose Remembers' is one such that I recently came across when I picked up a run of Princess comics from 1960. I was particularly struck by the novel way in which Roxy's weekly visits to her Great Aunt lead into stories about her own girlhood many years before in the same village. It's almost like a comic-strip version of 'Lark Rise to Candleford', with artwork that beautifully evokes the idyllic atmosphere of life in rural England during the years before the Great War.





- Phil Rushton

Lovely Phil. Trying to remember who artist is?Wlist=[/list]

Yes, the thread stays open for new discoveries. And I enjoyed this one about Aunt Isobel!

Cecil Doughty comes to mind.

By George I think you've got it Kashgar!

I thought there was something naggingly familiar about the art in that episode of 'Aunt Isobel Rose Remembers' but for some reason Doughty never occurred to me - possibly because I'm used to the more recognizable inking technique he developed later on for titles like Look & Learn. However, to my eye this super 'Jack O'Lantern' page from earlier in the same year seems notably similar to the style of 'Aunt Isobel' - particularly in it's convincing depiction of the countryside and its effortless mastery of period detail. The only slight problem is it would mean that he must have worked on both strips at the same time (the Princess story is dated April 30th while Jack O'Lantern didn't finish until July 30th).



Of course Doughty was equally at home on girls' comics, having just completed a ten-year stint on the 'Terry Brent' series in School Friend. He really was a fantastic artist who'd probably be much better remembered today if he'd drawn more Fantasy or Science Fiction strips instead of specializing in historical subjects.

- Phil Rushton

Here's another Jinty story I revisited. Wonder if it is good enough to consider for the list? Here is the link so you can see for yourself:

http://jintycomic.wordpress.com/2014/07 ... -a-bubble/

Tammyfan wrote:Here's another Jinty story I revisited. Wonder if it is good enough to consider for the list?

It certainly seems a worthy contender, Tammyfan. It has just about the right number of instalments to cope with the twists and turns of really quite unusual plot.

Lately I have been revisiting another Jinty story, Waves of Fear, and wonder about its merits, at least for honourable mention. It is a forward-thinking, disturbing story that explores the horrors of mental illness and the frightful mistakes people can make when they don't realise that a person is suffering from a medical problem. Discussion of the story can be found at:

http://jintycomic.wordpress.com/2014/09 ... fear-1979/

philcom55 wrote:Of course Doughty was equally at home on girls' comics, having just completed a ten-year stint on the 'Terry Brent' series in School Friend. He really was a fantastic artist who'd probably be much better remembered today if he'd drawn more Fantasy or Science Fiction strips instead of specializing in historical subjects.

- Phil Rushton

Sorry to come to this so late (see your posts of April 2014!), but as you've said in the past Phil, these threads do resurrect from time to time. When you first showed Aunt Isobel Rose remembers I saw Leslie Otway but interestingly with a lot more detail which we don't normally see. When you said Doughty I wondered and reminded myself of some of his work but couldn't see it - I'm no expert.
If you just compare the Aunt Isobel Rose (3rd tier, 3rd panel) face of the gentleman to Doughty's Jack O' Lantern last panel faces, I think the latter is decidedly Doughty (and I realise it is attributed) with his - what I see as - unfinished faces compared to Aunt Isobel Rose artist's more complete work.
Also Otway had a habit of angling heads which I see happening here.
Just my opinion and I bow to Phil and Kashgar as they certainly have proven themselves!
~Norman