Egmont's Misty Comic Special Content Revealed

Egmont UK's Comic Specials, which began with Roy of the Rovers earlier this year, continue next month with the release of its first collection dedicated to the popular 1970s girls horror comic, Misty.

The official Misty web site, which publishes online versions of fan favourite strips with the full permission of Egmont (the latest is here), has released details of the strips that will feature in the Special, some selected by fans after a poll.

Along with features from the original comic will be strips with great titles such as "Mrs Grundy´s Guest House", "The Haunted Barn", "The Governess" and "WolfsBane". Because of the number of short one off stories featured in Misty it seems Egmont won't be making the same mistake it made with its earlier collections, which featured episodes of continuing stories, which proved unpopular with fans.

The Misty site also reports that due to the surge of interest in Misty and other fan favourites, The Guardian will be running an article on the Egmont reprints. Along with discussions about the reprints, the Mistycomic.co.uk site and publications also receive an honorary mention.

Launched in early 1978, Misty was a weekly horror comic initially aimed at young girls. Presenting a crop of stories very unusual to that of other titles of the era, Misty told the tales of very different girls, such as "The Cult of the Cat", a rite of passage story which told of Nicola Scott's destiny to become a member of an Egyptian cult dedicated to the cat god; “Paint it Black”, in which Maggie Laker discovered a very special box of paints that had a tale to tell; and “Moonchild”, written by 2000AD co-creator Pat Mills, about a very special girl with telekinetic powers.

Along with the regular serials, one off “Nightmare” and “Beasts” stories were told on a weekly basis, stories in which not everything had a happy ending.

Running for 101 issues until January 1980, Misty delivered some terrifically spooky stories full of intrigue and terror, before being merged with Tammy, which featured the return of the popular Misty character Black Widow in the “Spider Woman”, along with one off weekly mystery tales and the humour of Miss T.

Sadly, the 'spooky' serials did not quite have the edge of those presented in the parent magazine and although the Misty logo remianed on the cover for over 80 isssues it was eventually dropped in the run up to Tammy's merger with another popular girl's title, Jinty, at a time when the girls' comic market, which once outstripped the sales of boys by thousands, was in steep decline. (More on the history of Misty here)

• The Misty Souvenir Special from Egmont goes on sale on the 16th September exclusively in all W H Smiths for 12 weeks, after which copies are available direct from Egmont.