Girl (UK comics) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Girl
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
Number of issues	675
Editor(s)	Marcus Morris, Jean Crouch

Girl was the name of two different weekly comic magazines for girls in the United Kingdom. They were both published by a company called IPC Magazines.

The first and most famous Girl comic was published from 1951 to 1964. It started on November 2, 1951, by Hulton Press. It was like a sister comic to the popular Eagle comic. Over the years, Hulton Press was bought by Odhams Press in 1959, and then Odhams joined IPC in 1963. The last issue of this first Girl comic came out on October 3, 1964. After that, it joined another comic called Princess. Girl was known for being an educational magazine. Its stories often had a moral lesson. Many pages also featured real-life stories about brave women.

A second version of the Girl comic was published by IPC from 1981 to 1990. During this time, other comics like Dreamer and Tammy also joined Girl.

The First Girl Comic Series (1951-1964)

The first Girl comic was started by a person named Rev. Marcus Morris. The main comic strip at the beginning was Kitty Hawke and her All-Girl Air Crew. This strip was drawn in full color by Ray Bailey. It was about a group of women who ran their own airline.

However, this strip was not very popular. Some people felt it was too much like a boy's comic. So, it was moved to the black-and-white pages inside the magazine. A new schoolgirl strip called Wendy and Jinx took its place on the cover. This new strip was written by Michael and Valerie Hastings, and also drawn by Ray Bailey.

Other popular comic strips in the first Girl comic included:

• Angela Air Hostess
• Belle of the Ballet
• Claudia of the Circus
• Susan of St. Bride's, which was about a student nurse.
• Vicky

The Second Girl Comic Series (1981-1990)

The second version of Girl comic was published by IPC Magazines. According to writer Jacqueline Rayner, this comic was a bridge between older "picture-story papers" and newer teen magazines. These newer magazines were like Jackie and Blue Jeans.

The 1980s Girl comic featured photo-stories, stories about boyfriends and pop stars, and even problem pages. It also still had some illustrated stories.

Mergers with Other Comics

Another IPC comic called Dreamer started in September 1981. It later joined Girl after its last issue on May 15, 1982. For a while, the combined comic was called Girl and Dreamer.

The comic Tammy, which began in 1971, was also supposed to merge with Girl in the summer of 1984. However, a problem at the printer's in June 1984 stopped the last issues of Tammy from being published. So, Tammy was simply canceled. Girl did carry the Tammy name on its cover for a few issues starting August 25, 1984. But these issues did not actually contain any stories from Tammy.

In March 1990, the second Girl comic itself merged with another IPC comic called My Guy. For a period, the new comic was called My Guy and Girl. The second Girl comic published a total of 478 issues before it merged.

• [1] at the Grand Comics Database
• [2] at the Grand Comics Database

See also

In Spanish: Girl (cómic) para niños