Girl | |
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![]() The cover of Girl issue 1, featuring Kitty Hawke and her All-Girl Air Crew, 1951 | |
Publication information | |
Publisher | Hulton Press, Odhams Press, IPC |
Schedule | Weekly |
Format | Ongoing series |
Publication date | 2 November 1951 – 3 October 1964 |
No. of issues | 675 |
Editor(s) | Marcus Morris, Jean Crouch |
Girl was the name of two weekly comics magazines for girls in the United Kingdom.
The first and more well-known volume was published from 1951 to 1964. It was launched by Hulton Press on 2 November 1951 as a sister paper to the Eagle Girl was very much an educational magazine whose heroines, including those who got into scrapes, became involved in tales that had a moral substance. A considerable number of pages were also dedicated to real-life tales of heroic women in various fields.
A second volume of the series was published by IPC from 1981 to 1990, during which time Dreamer and Tammy were merged into it.[1]
Like the Eagle, Girl was founded by the Rev. Marcus Morris, with the close participation of Morris' fellow clergyman Chad Varah. The lead strip was originally Kitty Hawke and her All-Girl Air Crew, drawn in full colour by Ray Bailey, about a group of women running a charter airline. The strip was not very popular — it was apparently felt to be too masculine — and it was moved to the black-and-white interior pages, replaced on the cover by the schoolgirl strip Wendy and Jinx, written by Michael and Valerie Hastings and drawn by Bailey.[2][3][4]
Other strips included:
Girl | |
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Publication information | |
Publisher | IPC Magazines |
Schedule | Weekly |
Format | Ongoing series |
Publication date | 14 February 1981 – March 1990 |
No. of issues | 478 |
According to Jacqueline Rayner, writing about girls' comics in The Guardian, the second volume of Girl "was a stepping stone between the traditional 'picture-story papers' and . . . teen mags such as Jackie and Blue Jeans." It "had photo-stories, boyfriends, pop stars and problem pages, alongside its occasional illustrated story."[22]
The IPC title Dreamer, which debuted on September 19, 1981, merged into Girl after Dreamer's May 15, 1982, issue. The merged publication carried the title Girl and Dreamer in the period 1982–1983 (issues 89 to 110 at least).[23]
The fellow IPC title Tammy (launched 1971) was intended to merge with Girl in the summer of 1984, but, according to the Grand Comics Database, "a printer's dispute in June 1984 prevented the final issues being published and it was simply canceled. Girl did carry the Tammy masthead for several issues from 25th August 1984 but these issues contain no material from Tammy."[24]
In March 1990, Girl was merged into its fellow IPC title My Guy, which became My Guy and Girl for a period.[25] Girl volume 2 published 478 issues.