Something for the girls
Something for the girls |
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Page 5 of 17  Girl (Hulton Press, 1952). Art/script: Ray Bailey. A pioneering girls' title, somewhat upmarket in tone. These formulas proved immensely appealing. Bunty was a massive seller, and came to define the style for comics aimed at this age range. DC Thomson followed it with Judy (i960), Diana (1963) and Mandy (1967).3 In the 1970s IPC (International Publishing Corporation) joined the fray, and started to make the running with titles like Tammy (1971) and Jinty (1974). It seemed for a while that there could not be enough titles to satisfy demand, and such was the competition between them that new launches were accompanied by an array of free gifts - rings, brooches and bangles - to snare the first-time buyer. If anything, these newer titles tended to emphasize the darker story lines - especially the IPC line which did not have to hold to the kind of Scottish Presbyterian moralizing that characterized the Thomson comics. In fact, creators at IPC would sometimes amuse themselves by taking things to extremes. 'Becky Never Saw the Ball', in Tammy, for instance, told the heartwarming story of a blind tennis player. Sexual innuendo was another common in-joke. The creation of a huge market for younger girls made publishers aware that there were no longer any suitable comics for teenagers (by the mid-1960s, the boom in romantic comics was effectively over). If the momentum was to be maintained, new strategies had to be tried. Again, DC Thomson took the lead. Recognizing that Britain had become the centre of the 'hip' 1960s world, with Carnaby Street and the Beatles symbolizing a new phase in youth culture, the-publisher attempted to produce a publication which mixed comics, women's magazines, and the 'pop' papers. The result was a new kind of swinging title for swinging times, Jackie (1964). |