Web Find: Bunty And Judy Digest Covers

Here on downthetubes we regularly promote DC Thomson’s (and indeed the UK’s) last digest or ‘Picture Library’ comic, Commando, a title that has changed little in the half century since it was first published. As well as war, DCT’s boy’s digests also covered science fiction with Starblazer, and football with Football Picture Story Monthly.

But it is often forgotten that DC Thomson used to published a range of girl’s digests as well and, unlike the boys titles, these tied-in with the company’s range of girl’s weekly comics. Judy, Mandy, Debbie and even the long running Bunty had digest-sized siblings, all of which were tagged as Picture Story Library For Girls.

With the collecting bug of keeping comics not as prevalent amongst girls as it was amongst boys, old girls comics tend to be harder to find now than old boys comics are and, for most, these girl’s digest titles are all but forgotten.

So it was a treat this week to be pointed towards a website that documents both Judy Picture Story Library and Bunty Picture Story Library with a very impressive selection of covers from both titles plus the beginnings of a selection from the Fleetway title June and School Friend Picture Library. Created by “Doeth”, the website shows how the style of covers of the two DCT titles changed over the years and, while the images are relatively small, it is possible to distinguish some of the artists who created them.

Ian Kennedy, with his artwork on well over 1000 issues, is today considered to be the pre-eminent Commando cover artist but in the past he also provided covers and strips for DCT’s girl's titles. Commando readers may enjoy the challenge of finding Ian's distinctive artwork amongst these hundreds of Judy Picture Story Library and Bunty Picture Story Library covers. We will give you a start with these two covers by Ian Kennedy.

The gallery of Judy Picture Story Library covers are here.

The gallery of Bunty Picture Story Library covers are here.

The gallery of Judy and School Friend Picture Library covers are here.

British Comic Stamps: Bunty

Here's the sixth of our ten posts to mark the release of the Royal Mail's Comic Collection, celebrating 75 years of British comics. The Royal Mail have kindly sent us large versions of each stamp, so we thought we'd show them off in all their glory, in the order of first comic publication.

Bunty was published by D. C. Thomson & Co. from 1958 to 2001. It consisted of a collection of many small strips, typically the stories themselves being three to five pages long. The Four Marys was the longest story. The comic ran from its creation in 1958 to its end in 2001. It centered around four young teenagers who lived in a girls-only boarding school in Elmbury.

Bunty is remembered with fondness by its legion of fans and there's a Bring Back Bunty web site here

• Stamps and stamp products are available at all Post Office branches, online at www.royalmail.com/personal/comic-stamps-and-collectibles, the Royal Mail eBay shop: http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Royal-Mail-Stamp-Collections and from Royal Mail Tallents House (tel. 08457 641 641), 21 South Gyle Crescent, Edinburgh, EH12 9PB.

Post Office celebrates British Comics

Britain's Post Office is celebrating what it's defined as "75 Years of British Comics" with a special issue of stamps featuring the covers of various much-loved comics, including 2000AD and The Beano.

Set to be released on 20th March 2012, the offer also includes two First Fay Covers featuring Boys Own and Girls Own - with a special 'Eagle' postmark.

The stamps comprise The Dandy (featuring Desperate Dan), The Beano (Dennis the Menace), Eagle (Dan Dare), Topper (Beryl the Peril), Tiger (Roy of the Rovers), Bunty (The Four Marys), Buster (Buster), Valiant (The Steel Claw), Twinkle (Twinkle), and 2000AD (Judge Dredd).

The stanps serve to indicate not just comics still going strong but just how many are no longer around, but it's great to see the Post Office promoting our industry in this way, even if British comics have been published for much longer than 75 years.

This release follows on the heels of  commeorative issues such as one celebrating the work of author Roald Dahl on 10th January and Classic Locomotives on 8th February.

• There's more details about the release on the British First Day Covers web site here: www.bfdc.co.uk/2012/comics

• The full Special Stamp Programme for 2012 is as follows:

5t January - Olympic and Paralympic Definitives
10th January - Roald Dahl

2nd February - House of Windsor
6th February - Diamond Jubilee Definitives
23rd February - Britons of Distinction

8th March - Classic Locomotives of Scotland
20th March - Comics

10th April - A-Z of Britain Part 2

15th May - Great British Fashion
31st May - Diamond Jubilee

19th June - Charles Dickens

27th July - Welcome to the London 2012 Olympic Games

29th August - Welcome to the London 2012 Paralympic Games

27th September - Memories of the London 2012

16th October - Dinosaurs
30th October - Space Science

6th November - Christmas

• For more on British Stamps visit the British Postal Museum and Archive

Art © Royal Mail

WebFinds: Girls Comics of Yesterday

Researching a question from a downthetubes reader about a fondly-remembered British 'Supergirl', I came across Girls Comics of Yesterday, a relatively new fan site dedicated to British girl comics of the past, looking at three of the most long lasting publications of Bunty, Mandy and Judy.

All three titles were published by DC Thomson, Bunty comic being the longest running publication, running from January 1958 to February 2001 and lasting for 2249 issues, as well as a short-lived Picture Story Library monthly series. It's the DC Thomson title perhaps most fondly remembered, with a campaign for a revival of girls comics centring on the name.

Judy ran from January 1960 and Mandy from January 1967 (DC Thomson seem to have a thing about launching titles in January and February), lasting 1635 issues and 1269 issues respectively. In 1991, Mandy and Judy merged with each other, then merged with Bunty in 1995.

Some of their long running strips included 'The Four Marys', 'Lorna Drake', 'The Comp', 'Luv Lisa', 'Penny’s Place' and Valda, and Girls Comis of Yesterday is a growing attempt to document them all, including story lists and features.

While the site had nothing on 'Supergirl' - the sample above was actually located on 'Stupid Comics' - it's definitely a resource that is surely going to grow and well worth book marking.

As for 'Supergirl' - like many other girls characters, her fans have fond memories. From what our reader recalled, she was a schoolgirl named Susie Solomon who was hit by a car, and crippled. With a tip of the hat to 'Bionic Woman' (which had its own strip in Look-In for a time, drawn by artists such as John Bolton), the government then offered to rebuild her limbs with secret technology, in return for her services as a secret agent.




The operations she had gave her bionic legs (enabling her to run at superhuman speeds) and an extra strong arm. She agreed to keep her abilities secret, keeping up the pretence that she was a cripple.

Her crutch was actually secret tv radio - a way to speak to her superiors at HQ.

While our reader recalled her appearing in Bunty, locating information about the character - who may also later have been published as 'Super Sue' (perhaps to avoid obvious copyright issues), longtime girls comic expert David Roach has been able to provide plenty of information, although he stresses that his research is open to challenge.

Firstly, the 'Super Sue' cover of Bunty Picture Story Library 253, above, was published in 1984 and the cover looks like it was drawn by Rodney Sutton. This may not be 'Supergirl': there are earlier issues with a “Sue” in them, such as Issue 212, 'Singalong Sue' drawn by Carlos Laffond and 222, 'Sue and the Smiling Dolls'.

The annual story featured on Stupid Comics' - drawn by Douglas Perry who was a veteran of girls comics at D C Thomson, Fleetway/IPC and Pearsons - offered better leads and the revelation that the 'Supergirl' strip initially ran in Judy, not Bunty, first appearing In the comic with Issue 1217 (cover dated 7th May 1983) and drawn by Giorgio Letteri who was one of D C Thomson's most prolific and talented girls artists (principally on the long running Judy strip 'Bobby Dazzler').

Another serial called 'Part-time Supergirl' appeared later in 1983, ending with #1243 (5 11 83) also drawn by Letteri.

"I’m not aware of any other 'Supergirl' strips after that, unfortunately, though there might well have been one or two appearances in annuals," he tells us - but also stresses that he can’t be 100 per cent accurate, so further information or samples would be welcome.

Update (with thanks to the folk at ComicsUK): The fondly-remembered Supergirl ran in Bunty 1011 (May 28 1977) - 1028 (September 24 1977). Here's the first episode (© DC Thomson)...

- Girls Comics of Yesterday: http://girlscomicsofyesterday.com

- Bring Back Bunty Group: http://downthetubes.ning.com/group/bringbackbunty

Merry Christmas: 2 Days To Go

Our run of Christmas covers continue as we countdown to Christmas Day.

There wasn't much Christmas cheer on display on the Christmas cover for Bunty in 1987. Indeed it seemed to be all doom and gloom - a miserable Christmas for The Kids Of Hunger House, a cold Christmas in School's Out and tears at Christmas in The Four Mary's.

After Ian Kennedy's full colour IPC Fleetway cover of Super Naturals 1987 Christmas issue yesterday, he returns to DC Thomson's limited colour newsprint for this compilation cover for Bunty in the same year.

The tears are not from one of the four Mary's - Field, Cotter, Simpson and Radleigh, but rather for one of their friends, Denise Fowlds, who is feeling sorry for herself since her divorced mother is in hospital and she has fallen out with her sister who has sided with their father.

Set in the past, Hunger House is Conwyn Castle stately home where the bereaved master of the house is such a miser that he doesn't feed his children properly. But all is not lost as finding and reading his late wife's diary brings him to his senses in time for Christmas dinner.

School's Out has four pupils of Wansdale School - Carol, Dawn, Marie and Ellie, queuing in the snow for the New Year Sales. So really they only have themselves to blame if they have a cold Christmas.

More Christmas covers tomorrow.

Tube Surfing: Beano, Broons, Bunty and Bombers

• It is that time of year when next year's calendars are hitting the stores and the one to look out for at the moment is the Beano Retro Comic Art Calendar. With the weekly Beano falling into line with the new CBBC TV series Dennis and Gnasher series, older Beano fans should be pleased to see that the calendar features vintage Beano art selected by former Beano and BeanoMAX editor, Euan Kerr. For those readers north of the Border, it is the Brown clan's turn to be featured in DCT's softcover annual this year and they are of course also featured on the new Broons calendar for 2010.
  
  
• From humour to adventure and good news for the girls - after all the Jackie compilation books from Carlton, DC Thomson have finally decided to publish a Bunty compilation book this year. Bunty For Girls: Golden Age Classic Stories costs £8.99 and includes the first adventure of Bunty favourites The Four Marys amongst many other strips.
  
  
• All the DC Thomson items mentioned here are available via the DC Thomson website and postage is included on all the website's prices. Also still available from last year is the slipcased reprint of the 1966 Hotspur annual which has been reduced in price to £8.49.
  
  
• Away from DC Thomson and over (almost) to Look and Learn. Regular Look and Learn aircraft artist Wilf Hardy has produced many painted covers for UK air show brochures, as can be seen on Jeremy Briggs' piece on him over on Bear Alley. A selection of these paintings for the annual air show at RAF Waddington have now been produced as special limited edition packs with proceeds going to the RAF Benevolent Fund and the RAF Association. The set of 14 A5 prints feature 10 paintings by Wilf Hardy, 2 by his replacement on the Waddington brochures Tim O'Brien, and two joint efforts. Price is £5 plus £1.50 UK P&P and they are available by sending a cheque payable to "Timothy O'Brien" to 15 Angelica Court, Bingham, Nottingham, NG13 8SU. There are more details about the packs on Tim's website. If you like Hardy's aircraft illustrations in Look and Learn then these are well worth purchasing.
  
  
• And finally for now back to DC Thomson and their Waverley Books imprint which has had great success in the past few years selling Broons spin off books beginning with the high quality Maw Broon's Cook Book. This year the new Broon's books from Waverley have included The Broon's Days Oot! and Maw Broon's Remedies An' Suchlike while October will bring The Broons' Book of Gairdenin' Wisdoms in time for Christmas. For those messy cooks who have been using both the Cook Book and its follow up the But An'Ben Cook Book, then Maw Broon's But An'Ben Apron is also now available to buy from Waverley Books - "It keeps ye braw and clean!"

Merry Christmas: 1 Day To Go

After the less than peaceful image of yesterday our Christmas covers look to their feminine side.

Ian Kennedy is the artist once again but from DC Thomson's long running "For Girls" title Bunty and a far cry it is from Kennedy's more traditional DCT duty providing war covers for Commando.

By Christmas 1990 Bunty had moved away from DCT's tradition newsprint onto higher quality paper which allowed for full colour rather than four colour covers. Here we have Bunty favourites The Four Mary's caroling in front of their St Elmo's school.

From all the team here at downthetubes, "We wish you a Merry Christmas".