Comics UK

For girls comics the standard protagonist seemed to be White British, but there are times stories went against this norm. Recently looking at Emma comic, there was more representation of different ethnicities (though still not many) than I expected. I wondered if we were to make a list of stories with non-white protagonists, how long would it be.

Ones that I can think of to start -

Emma:
Yang Ling (Chinese)
Teech n' Me (Puerto Rican)
Viva Marisa! (South American)

Judy:
Cybela (Black)
A Place for Homing (Native American)

Mandy:
Yum-Yum in Search of Her Sister (Japanese)

Bunty:
The Three Imps - Kiki (Black)
The Comp - Kiko (Japanese)
"Please Mum" (Indian)
Pocahontas (Native American)

Nikki:
The Comp - Nadina (Indian)

M&J:
Penny's Place - Sita (Indian)

Jinty:
Life's a Ball for Nadine (Black)

There was a black girl (Jo) among the student nurses in "Angela's Angels" from Jinty.
A Chinese protagonist (Susie Choo) in "The Sweet and Sour Rivals" from Jinty.
A black boy (name of Mack or Mick I think) in Jinty's "Pam of Pond Hill". Had a real gift for the piano.

'Cotton Jenny' was another notable strip from Bunty.

philcom55 wrote:'Cotton Jenny' was another notable strip from Bunty.

Ah yes, that's another one I was trying to remember.

The two Jinty stories "Sceptre of the Toltecs" and "Alice in a Strange Land" had South American protagonists.
"The Sun God's Golden Curse" from Tammy had Spanish protagonists.
"7 Steps to the Sisterhood" from Jinty had an Indian protagonist (Nirhani) and a half-Chinese antagonist (Kim).
"Bound for Botany Bay" from Jinty had an Aborigine named Mary.
Aborigines, Middle Easterners and Native Canadians (Canadian Indians) appeared in Bella.
A Middle Eastern Muslim protagonist (Ayesha or something like that) appeared in Tammy's "Daughter of the Desert".
Mary Malloway in Tammy's "Mouse" was half Scilian, and Scilian protagonists and antagonists appear in the story.

Seeing the name Merrimac in that strip leads me to explain its origins (my wild west and civil war fascination coming into play here). I first came upon the battle of the Monitor and Merrimac when I collected the Civil War News cards in the sixties.

This from wiki:

USS Merrimack, also improperly Merrimac, was a frigate, best known as the hull upon which the ironclad warship CSS Virginia was constructed during the American Civil War. The CSS Virginia then took part in the Battle of Hampton Roads (also known as "the Battle of the Monitor and the Merrimack") in the first engagement between ironclad warships.

Merrimack was the first of six screw frigates (frigates with steam power and propeller, "screw") begun in 1854. Like others of her class (Wabash, Roanoke, Niagara, Minnesota and Colorado), she was named after the eponymous river. In Massachusetts, the Merrimack River flows through the town of Merrimac, often considered an older spelling which has sometimes caused confusion of the name.[1]

"Linda's Fox" from Tammy had a black protagonist named Julie (best friend of the main one).

The first issues of Bunty contained a strip version of Harriet Beecher Stowe's 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' drawn by Paddy Brennan.

Kashgar wrote:The first issues of Bunty contained a strip version of Harriet Beecher Stowe's 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' drawn by Paddy Brennan.

Adaptations of or inspirations from such novels must have created a few more non-white protagonists in girls' serials that we haven't listed yet.

Cotton Jenny is one I should have remembered.

Not great representation but Bunty (Bill Rithies) Little Lulu is another one.

Judy:
Before the Summer Ends... (Black)
Kimi Kami (Japanese)

Wasn't there a strip somewhere called "Yum Yum, My Chum" or something like that, where the titular protagonist was Asian?

Oddly enough there were two strips which starred Asian characters called Yum-Yum in British girls comics - one in DC Thomson's Diana and another in Fleetway's Tina/Princess Tina.

philcom55 wrote:Yum Yum, My Chum

That could be a story about someone eating one of their friends, and finding them very tasty.

Phoenix wrote:

philcom55 wrote:Yum Yum, My Chum

That could be a story about someone eating one of their friends, and finding them very tasty.

yes, it's very much in the lines of 'what were they thinking' / how did they get away with it?!

comixminx wrote:

Phoenix wrote:

philcom55 wrote:Yum Yum, My Chum

That could be a story about someone eating one of their friends, and finding them very tasty.

yes, it's very much in the lines of 'what were they thinking' / how did they get away with it?!

Or how different times used to be?
Perhaps it's the influence of "The Mikado". It has a character called Yum-Yum.