Girl comic 1950s-60s

[matrix]

After discussing 'Girl' comic on the 'Belle of the ballet' thread I thought it might be an idea to discuss it further on a seperate thread, where if anyone would like to add any more details or scans for us all to see.

I myself at this stage only have about a dozen copies from the late fifties so cannot offer very much.

The scan below is of one of the "famous women of history strips" mentioned by Phil on the 'Belle' thread, this story is about Gladys Aylward, who among other things shepherded one hundred orphans across the mountains trying to keep them safe from the Japanese, lovely artwork from Gerald Haylock worth getting the comics just for this story!

[Phoenix]

Just to get your thread up and running, matrix, here is most of the cover of Girl Volume 2 No. 40 (Jul. 29 1953). Belle Of The Ballet is running inside.

[philcom55]

According to the Rev. Chad Varah (who wrote many of them when he wasn't busy speaking from the pulpit or founding the Samaritans) those back-page, biographical strips about famous women were Girl's most popular feature. I agree with Matrix that the ones drawn by Gerald Haylock were particularly outstanding, and one assumes that IPC thought so too - hence their decision to reprint his life of Marie Curie in Princess Tina.

Here's an episode of 'Bride of Ireland, the true story of St. Bride' from 1960 - followed by a detail of the final panel, scanned from Haylock's original artwork:





- Phil Rushton

[matrix]

Thanks Phoenix, by the late fifties 'Wendy and Jinx' had retired to the black and white section of the comic, with 'Susan of St Brides' on the cover. Scan below, I like the coloured pjs, and the use of hot water bottles! Interestingly drawn by two artists Ray Bailey, and Philip Townsend, not knowing their work, did one do the main characters and the other the rest?

Is that your original artwork Phil, or scanned from elsewhere? Another nice piece of artwork.

I have seen some more references for the comic, but they do seem to stop after 1961, which as Phil mentioned on the 'Belle' thread seem to be rarer, so does any one know did they start repeating strips in the later issues or were they all original?

[philcom55]

I stumbled across that 'Bride of Ireland' artwork a few years ago in a London comic shop, along with a pile of other Girl back pages. As they hadn't been kept in very good condition and the owner specialized in American comics he was happy to get rid of them at £20 each - unfortunately I could only afford two!

As far as I know Girl contained all original material up to the end of 1962, but I don't have any issues from '63 or '64 so anything is possible during that period. I do know that Fleetway introduced 'The Happy Days' at the very end - presumably to prepare readers for the impending merger with Princess.

Ray Bailey was Hulton's choice as Girl's cover artist - thus when 'Wendy & Jinx' replaced 'Kitty Hawke' on the cover he automatically inherited the new strip, and similarly with 'Susan of St. Bride's'. Although Philip Townsend went on to draw other strips in his own right (eg 'Riverside Hotel') I'd imagine that he was simply acting as Bailey's assistant on 'Susan' in the same way that Frank Hampson had the help of an entire studio in producing two pages of 'Dan Dare' for Eagle every week. When IPC/Fleetway took over they took a dim view of this practice and thereafter expected their artists to work single-handed or to pay for any assistants out of their own fee.

Finally, in my opinion it wouldn't be fair to go any further with this thread without mentioning the one strip that appeared in every single issue of Girl (not to mention continuing for several more years in the pages of Princess) - John 'Captain Pugwash' Ryan's brilliant 'Lettice Leefe'. Here's a particularly nice example from 1960:



- Phil Rushton

[matrix]

Oh well, at least you managed to get two Phil! I totally agree about the 'Lettice' strip after reading it in 'Princess' in b/w it is a real bonus to see it in colour.

I can now shed a little light on the comic in the early sixties, at the end of 1961 there were some pop covers, then in 1962 they added reader type covers which continued into 63, then at the end of 63 'Belle and Mamie' appeared on the cover in quite large comic format that continued until about April/May 64, where again pop covers were introduced. 'Lettice Leefe' and 'Wendy and Jinx' are still going strong, more details to follow!

[philcom55]

Oh well, at least you managed to get two Phil!

True! Here's a spectacular panoramic panel from the other one (though offhand I don't know which issue it appeared in):



- Phil R.

[matrix]

That is a nice piece especially seeing that scene in colour, with the Roman soldiers etc, reminds me of how 'Moira the slave girl of Rome' might look?

That poor girl does not have a lot of choice does she!

[philcom55]

Following on from the Doctor Who references begun on another thread it's worth noting that Gerry Haylock later went on to draw that character for a number of comics. Here's a nice painted example from 1972:



While I generally prefer comics with hand-drawn covers I must admit that some of the later photo-covers used by Odhams could be pretty classy. Here's a particularly intriguing one from December 1962:



According to Denis Gifford the final issues of Girl converted to a 'magazine format' from 4th April 1964, though I'm not sure what practical difference this made. As I've said I don't have any copies from that year - but for the record here's the cover of the very first (and admittedly rather unprepossessing) combined issue of Princess & Girl:



- Phil Rushton

[matrix]

A very good Jon Pertwee likeness in that 'TV Action' comic.

Unfortunately a lot of the Princess comics were like that, although they did try something different with pop covers at the end of 1963 early 1964.

The scan below introducing the characters of the two comics is from the week before the merge.

[matrix]

On the 18th nov 1961 'Susan of St Brides' nursing story came to an end, after running for about seven years, it was replaced by another nursing story 'calling Nurse Abbott'.

Ruth Abbott, who after leaving an orphanage arrived at a restaurant only to hear the nurses from 'Susan of the brides' celerbrating a student nurse qualifying to be a nurse, from that point on Ruth is determined to become a nurse.

'Calling nurse Abbott' ran for exactly one year it was written by Frank Redpath, and drawn by Philip Townsend, and Leo Davey.

[suebutcher]

I have Vol 12 No 28, 13 July 1963, and the strips are "The Girl from France" (starting on the cover), "Round Table", "A Scooter To Sydney", "Model In America", "Riverside Motel", and "Lettice". By this time, it's moving to a teen magazine format, with fashion, advice and pop articles. (And a big poster of The Beatles, which is why I bought it.)

[matrix]

I have Vol 12 No 28, 13 July 1963, and the strips are "The Girl from France" (starting on the cover), "Round Table", "A Scooter To Sydney", "Model In America", "Riverside Motel", and "Lettice". By this time, it's moving to a teen magazine format, with fashion, advice and pop articles. (And a big poster of The Beatles, which is why I bought it.)

Any chance of a scan of the cover?

If you ever want to sell that comic would fit into my collection very well!

[alanultron5]

Excuse my `butting in` here, but does anyone know if `Diana` comic was a DC Thomson publication?

[Lew Stringer]

Excuse my `butting in` here, but does anyone know if `Diana` comic was a DC Thomson publication?

Yes. Here's an advert for Sparky that might interest you, from a 1967 issue of Diana:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_448y6kVhntg/T ... ianaad.jpg