Note: This is an updated and expanded version the My Guy Family Tree, which is now out of date!
Amazingly, it turns out that comics aren’t just for boys! No one saw that coming, right? Except, of course, for the countless millions of readers of non-boy-exclusive comics whose voices are still frequently being either ignored or silenced.
Younger readers might find it hard to believe, but back in the olden days (the 1970s according to my carefully-researched and potentially unbiased charts) there were lots of weekly comics published in the UK. Lots and lots. Dozens of different titles. And let’s not forget the monthly publications, and the occasional old-fashioned story-paper that was still refusing to acknowledge the invention of drawings.
Here’s a list of some of the titles the average newsagent’s store might have had on its shelves in that particular era: 2000AD, Action, Amazing Stories of Suspense, Astounding Stories, Battle Picture Library, Battle Picture Weekly, The Beano, The Beezer, Blue Jeans, Bullet, Bunty, Bunty Picture Story Library for Girls, Buster, Captain Britain, Commando, Creepy Worlds, The Dandy, Debbie, Doctor Who Weekly, Fury, The Hotspur, Jack and Jill, Jackie, Jinty, Judy, Judy Picture Story Library for Girls, Krazy, Look and Learn, Look-In, Mad, The Magic Comic, Mandy, Mates, Mickey Mouse, The Mighty World of Marvel, Mirabelle, Oh Boy, Pink, Pippin, Playhour, Read to Me, Roy of the Rovers, Secrets of the Unknown, Secrets Story Library, See-Saw, Shoot, Sinister Tales, Sparky, Spellbound, Spider-Man Comics Weekly, Star Love Stories, Sundance Western, Tammy, Tarzan Weekly, Tiger, Toby, The Topper, TV Comic, Twinkle, Uncanny Tales, The Victor, War Picture Library, Warlord, Whizzer and Chips, Whoopee!, and The Wizard.
(A note for the pedants: You’re right: some of these comics did have different titles during that era, such as Spider-Man Comics Weekly going by Super Spider-Man and the Titans because it had merged with that title, but this isn’t the place to get into that.)
Of the 66 titles in our list, 26 are clearly aimed at boys, and 18 at girls (humorous titles like Sparky, nursery titles like Toby and those aimed at older readers, like Look-in and Mad, are harder to classify, so let’s not count them). A 26:18 ratio isn’t bad, but it’s still a long way from the actual ratio of boys to girls. (See here for a more detailed look at the comics-related gender divide.)
Anyway, the point of that is to demonstrate that as long as there have been comics, girls have read comics. It’s not a new thing, and yet it does sometimes feel like every time a female comic-creator or fan has the audacity to be a female comic creator or fan, she’s in danger of being abused and assaulted by some folks who somehow believe that comics are a one-gender-only medium.
Guys, if girls choose to create and consume comics, that doesn’t take anything away from you! Your preferred comics will still be there! OK? Good, glad we got that cleared up! Coming soon: We’ll be exploring basic science in an all-new episode of “The World Doesn’t Actually Revolve Around Straight White Cis Males, So Get Over Yourself.” (If you’re a straight white cis male and you feel offended by that comment, please go back and re-read it.)
There are few British girls’ comics that have transcended their roots and lodged themselves into common culture in the same way that so many boys’ comics have. DC Thomson‘s Bunty and Twinkle are arguably just about the only ones that most non-fans might be able to name off the tops of their heads (both of which were name-checked by the great Victoria Wood on more than one occasion) though there is a strong case for including Misty in there: it didn’t last long, but by crikey it made an impression! Both my older sister and my wife were fans, but sadly neither of them held onto their collections. I’ve almost forgiven them.
(As mentioned in previous posts: vintage girls’ comics are generally harder to find than boys’ comics, partly because girls were less likely to be encouraged to collect them, and partly because some girls’ comics, such as Bunty, had things like cut-out paper dolls on the back covers. It’s not as easy to feel protective towards a comic when you’ve already butchered it with the scissors.)
When a title started to fail, the publishers would rarely just abandon it. Even if it had only 50,000 regular readers and they were only earning tuppence on each copy sold, that was still £1000 per week (£1000 in 1977 is, very roughly, equivalent to £7,500 in 2021), plus whatever they could make by selling ads. They wanted to keep as many of those readers as possible, hence the practise of merging one title into another.
The publishers would generally do their best to match titles that had similar demographics. They weren’t going to merge Woodworker’s Monthly into Teddy-Bear Tales, fascinating as the resulting compound publication might be. So in this timeline we see that romance titles Marilyn, Roxy and Serenade were all folded into the more successful Valentine, also a romance title and aimed at readers of about the same age.
However, every now and then there was no immediately obvious match and they had to go for the closest fit: TV Fun was a spin-off from Film Fun (as was Radio Fun) and as such was packed with strips based on TV shows or about TV personalities, but in it later years it had angled itself more towards love stories and retitled itself TV Fun and Romance in Pictures. A comic changing its format is a sure sign that not all is well. It was relaunched as TV Fan, but that didn’t work either, so it was chosen to be cast into the great volcano to appease the gods that keep the printing-presses running. It should have been absorbed back into Film Fun or even Radio Fun, but it had changed so much that they no longer matched. So it became another one of Valentine‘s victims.
Taking a step back, though, and looking at these family trees from a longer view, it can be fascinating to see how sometimes very disparate titles are connected by only a few links: In the Eagle timeline, for example, we saw how Comic Cuts (1890) was only two titles away from 1975’s Battle Picture Weekly. In today’s family tree, we see even more of that… June ends up as the repository of a whole chain of spiffing girls’ adventure comics like The Ruby, Schooldays, The Schoolgirl’s Own and Girl’s Crystal, but it also absorbed Pixie which was aimed as much younger kids. Similarly, the bubbly, early-teens title Pink absorbed the pop-star fan magazine Music Star, the romance comic Mirabelle (which is where Valentine ended its days) as well as the younger-targeted Princess Tina.
And speaking of Princess Tina… In 1951, in response to the overwhelming and almost unprecedented popularity of Eagle, the publishers attempted to catch the same lightning in another bottle with a version aimed at the other half of the market. Picture the intense brain-storming session:
“Well, we’re making a fortune with our boys’ comic, Eagle! What’ll we name this new girls’ version? What’s a female eagle called?”“I think they’re still just eagles.”“Really? Huh. OK. Well, this is a girls’ comic, so that has to be very clear in the title, otherwise boys might read it and then, y’know, be affected by it. Mummy’s boys, if you know what I mean.”“Say no more. I’m suppressing a shudder of ill-informed bigotry even as we speak. Look, this is a comic for girls… We’ll call it Girl.”“Isn’t that a bit, well, lazy and obvious and horribly patronising?”“True, but this is 1950s Britain, barely out of the war. It’s all ration-books and pipe-smoke and the importance of a good crease in the trousers, and kids getting excited about things like licorice as they gallop away to lob rocks at that mysterious grey metal cylinder they spotted half-buried in the bomb-crater, and boys being legally obligated to wear really short shorts right up to the day before they get married, and girls being carefully schooled on how their only value to society is as a provider of baked goods and/or male babies.”“You’re saying that future comic-historians will understand that we know no better and thus will forgive us?”“I’m saying that the pub opens in four minutes so we’re calling this one Girl.”
And so it came to pass. Girl was quite successful for its time, but couldn’t touch Eagle‘s numbers, and a mere thirteen years later it was absorbed by relative newcomer Princess. Thirteen years might seem like an amazing run these days, but back then it was those days, and in those days thirteen years was a little over average.
Subsequently, Princess merged with Tina and was relaunched as the aforementioned Princess Tina, then that was consumed by Pink, and so on, ultimately leading to My Guy, which regular viewers might recall was the subject of a recent investigation on this blog.
Seventeen years after the demise of Girl, in the allegedly enlightened 1980s, IPC decided to launch a new girls’ comic called… Girl. Which just goes to show you something or other. The new version of Girl predated the new version of Eagle, which is possibly indicative of something else, though probably not. I suspect I’m giving it more thought than they did.
This is, as far as I can tell, the largest and most diverse of all the British Comics hierarchies. We’ve got 91 different titles spanning over a century, with kids’ humour comics, romance titles, a “nursery” comic for tiny kids, photo-love stories, story-papers for grown-up adult women, pop-music magazines, serious “proper” music mags, those aforementioned comics called Girl and another two called Princess, one called Poppet and one about a puppet (Lady Penelope, in case you were wondering).
Here’s the timeline chart itself: give it a good clicking to see the full-sized version (but be warned: it’s very large: 6500×5620 pixels, taking up 3.4MB)…
As always, if you find any serious errors or omissions, please do let me know! These things aren’t meant to be the definitive word on comics history: think of them more like treasure maps that might not yet have all the parts filled in.
And on the subject of treasure maps… I’ve divided the timeline into columns labelled A to N: to find a publication on the timeline use the launch year and column label as grid references (the column label appears after the launch year in parentheses).
Cartwright’s Lady’s Companion
From: 10 December, 1892 (F)
To: 27 February, 1915
Duration: 22 years, 2 months
Issues: 1160
Relaunched as: Leach’s Lady’s Companion
The Boys’ Home Journal
From: 5 April, 1895 (I)
To: 3 May, 1895
Duration: 1 month
Issues: 5
Relaunched as: Comic Home Journal
If you happen to have a cover for this title, please get in touch!
(Not to be confused with Father Flanagan’s Boy’s Home Journal from 1918.)
Comic Home Journal
From: 11 May, 1895 (J)
To: 10 September, 1904
Duration: 9 years, 4 months
Issues: 488
Relaunch of: The Boys’ Home Journal
Absorbed into: Butterfly (1904)
Issues #238, #240, #243-#245 & #249 were Boer War editions and titled War Comic Home Journal.
Comic Life
From: 2 July, 1898 (J)
To: 21 January, 1928
Duration: 29 years, 6 months
Issues: 1543
Relaunched as: My Favourite
Originally titled Pictorial Comic Life. Relaunched as My Favourite on 28 Feb 1928. “Pitch and Toss” was later reprinted in Big One as “Chish and Fips.”
Butterfly (1904)
From: 17 September, 1904 (K)
To: 31 March, 1917
Duration: 12 years, 6 months
Issues: 655
Absorbed: Comic Home Journal
Relaunched as: Butterfly & Firefly
Lot-O’-Fun
From: 17 March, 1906 (I)
To: 16 February, 1929
Duration: 22 years, 11 months
Issues: 1196
Absorbed into: Crackers
Merry & Bright
From: 22 October, 1910 (M)
To: 31 March, 1917
Duration: 6 years, 5 months
Issues: 337
Absorbed into: Merry & Bright the Favorite Comic
The Favorite Comic
From: 21 January, 1911 (M)
To: 31 March, 1917
Duration: 6 years, 2 months
Issues: 324
Absorbed into: Merry & Bright the Favorite Comic
Fun and Fiction
From: 14 October, 1911 (L)
To: 21 February, 1914
Duration: 2 years, 4 months
Issues: 124
Absorbed into: The Firefly (1914)
The Firefly (1914)
From: 28 February, 1914 (L)
To: 13 February, 1915
Duration: 11 months
Issues: 51
Absorbed: Fun and Fiction
Absorbed into: The Firefly (1915)
The Firefly (1915)
From: 20 February, 1915 (K)
To: 31 March, 1917
Duration: 2 years, 1 month
Issues: 111
Absorbed: The Firefly (1914)
Absorbed into: Butterfly & Firefly
Leach’s Lady’s Companion
From: 6 March, 1915 (E)
To: 5 March, 1921
Duration: 6 years
Issues: 315
Relaunch of: Cartwright’s Lady’s Companion
Relaunched as: Lady’s Companion
Butterfly & Firefly
From: 7 April, 1917 (L)
To: 17 October, 1925
Duration: 8 years, 6 months
Issues: 446
Relaunch of: Butterfly (1904)
Absorbed: The Firefly (1915)
Relaunched as: Butterfly (1925)
Merry & Bright the Favorite Comic
From: 7 May, 1917 (M)
To: 19 January, 1935
Duration: 17 years, 8 months
Issues: 928
Absorbed: Merry & Bright, The Favorite Comic
Absorbed into: Butterfly (1925)
The “Merry and Bright” strip was later reprinted — in colour — in Sparkler (1934) and retitled “Muffin and Crumpet.”
Peg’s Paper
From: 15 May, 1919 (G)
To: 10 August, 1940
Duration: 21 years, 3 months
Issues: 1114
Absorbed into: Glamour
Weekly story-paper. Its name was revived on 21 Aug 1950 (ten years after its demise) when Lucky Star was retitled Lucky Star & Peg’s Paper.
The School Friend (1919)
From: 17 May, 1919 (B)
To: 28 February, 1925
Duration: 5 years, 9 months
Issues: 303
Relaunched as: The School Friend (1925)
The Schoolgirl’s Own
From: 5 February, 1921 (A)
To: 23 May, 1936
Duration: 15 years, 3 months
Issues: 798
Absorbed into: The Schoolgirl (1929)
Lady’s Companion
From: 12 March, 1921 (F)
To: 10 August, 1940
Duration: 19 years, 5 months
Issues: 1012
Relaunch of: Leach’s Lady’s Companion
Absorbed into: Woman’s Friend
Schoolgirl’s Weekly
From: 21 October, 1922 (B)
To: 20 May, 1939
Duration: 16 years, 7 months
Issues: 865
Absorbed: The Ruby
Absorbed into: Girls’ Crystal
The Ruby
From: 20 January, 1923 (C)
To: 2 June, 1923
Duration: 4 months
Issues: 20
Absorbed into: Schoolgirl’s Weekly
Woman’s Friend
From: 16 February, 1924 (F)
To: 11 August, 1950
Duration: 26 years, 6 months
Issues: 1380
Absorbed: Lady’s Companion
Absorbed into: Glamour
Start date and issue count are estimated.
The School Friend (1925)
From: 7 March, 1925 (A)
To: 27 July, 1929
Duration: 4 years, 4 months
Issues: 229
Relaunch of: The School Friend (1919)
Relaunched as: The Schoolgirl (1929)
Butterfly (1925)
From: 24 October, 1925 (L)
To: 18 May, 1940
Duration: 14 years, 6 months
Issues: 760
Relaunch of: Butterfly & Firefly
Absorbed: Merry & Bright the Favorite Comic
Absorbed into: Tip Top
My Favourite
From: 28 January, 1928 (J)
To: 13 October, 1934
Duration: 6 years, 8 months
Issues: 351
Relaunch of: Comic Life
Relaunched as: Sparkler (1934)
Schooldays (1928)
From: 3 November, 1928 (B)
To: 2 May, 1931
Duration: 2 years, 5 months
Issues: 131
Absorbed into: The Schoolgirl (1929)
Crackers
From: 22 January, 1929 (J)
To: 31 May, 1941
Duration: 12 years, 4 months
Issues: 615
Absorbed: Sparkler (1934), Lot-O’-Fun
Absorbed into: Jingles
The Schoolgirl (1929)
From: 3 August, 1929 (B)
To: 18 May, 1940
Duration: 10 years, 9 months
Issues: 564
Relaunch of: The School Friend (1925)
Absorbed: The Schoolgirl’s Own, Schooldays (1928)
Absorbed into: Girls’ Crystal
Dazzler
From: 19 August, 1933 (I)
To: 8 April, 1939
Duration: 5 years, 7 months
Issues: 294
Absorbed into: Golden
Rattler
From: 19 August, 1933 (K)
To: 15 October, 1938
Duration: 5 years, 1 month
Issues: 269
Absorbed into: Rattler & Chuckler
Jingles
From: 13 January, 1934 (I)
To: 29 May, 1954
Duration: 20 years, 4 months
Issues: 741
Absorbed: Crackers, Golden
Absorbed into: TV Fun
Chuckler
From: 31 March, 1934 (K)
To: 15 October, 1938
Duration: 4 years, 6 months
Issues: 238
Absorbed into: Rattler & Chuckler
Tip Top
From: 21 April, 1934 (L)
To: 29 May, 1954
Duration: 20 years, 1 month
Issues: 727
Absorbed: Butterfly (1925), Rattler & Chuckler
Absorbed into: TV Fun
“Happy Andy and his Playful Pets” soon ditched Andy and carried on as “Our Playful Pets.”
Sparkler (1934)
From: 20 October, 1934 (J)
To: 5 August, 1939
Duration: 4 years, 9 months
Issues: 251
Relaunch of: My Favourite
Absorbed into: Crackers
“Muffin and Crumpet” was a retitled and coloured version of “Merry and Bright” from the comic of that same name.
Lucky Star
From: 19 September, 1935 (H)
To: 9 January, 1960
Duration: 24 years, 3 months
Issues: 635
Absorbed into: Silver Star
Fortnightly. Issue count is estimated. From 21 Aug 1950 it was renamed Lucky Star & Peg’s Paper, but Peg’s Paper had been absorbed by Glamour in 1940 and there doesn’t appear to have been another publication of that name.
Girls’ Crystal
From: 26 October, 1935 (B)
To: 18 May, 1963
Duration: 27 years, 6 months
Issues: 1437
Absorbed: Schoolgirl’s Weekly, The Schoolgirl (1929)
Absorbed into: School Friend (1950)
Weekly story-paper. Titled The Crystal for the first nine issues. Became a comic on 21 Mar 1953.
Silver Star
From: 16 October, 1937 (H)
To: 22 October, 1960
Duration: 23 years
Issues: 967
Absorbed: Lucky Star, Golden Star
Absorbed into: Marty
Golden
From: 23 October, 1937 (I)
To: 11 May, 1940
Duration: 2 years, 6 months
Issues: 134
Absorbed: Dazzler
Absorbed into: Jingles
“The Golden Eagle” was later retitled “Kings of the Air.”
Rattler & Chuckler
From: 22 October, 1938 (K)
To: 8 April, 1939
Duration: 5 months
Issues: 25
Absorbed: Rattler, Chuckler
Absorbed into: Tip Top
Golden Star
From: 4 March, 1939 (H)
To: 17 August, 1940
Duration: 1 year, 5 months
Issues: 76
Absorbed into: Silver Star
Glamour
From: 12 March, 1939 (G)
To: 30 September, 1956
Duration: 17 years, 6 months
Issues: 725
Absorbed: Peg’s Paper, Woman’s Friend
Relaunched as: New Glamour
A story-paper, published fortnightly at first, later weekly. When it absorbed Woman’s Friend the title became Woman’s Friend and Glamour, though the ‘Woman’s Friend’ part of the logo was much smaller than the ‘Glamour’: a reversal of how most comic mergers were titled. Became a comic when it was relaunched as New Glamour.
School Friend (1950)
From: 20 May, 1950 (B)
To: 23 January, 1965
Duration: 14 years, 8 months
Issues: 766
Absorbed: Girls’ Crystal
Absorbed into: June
Girl (1951)
From: 2 November, 1951 (F)
To: 3 October, 1964
Duration: 12 years, 11 months
Issues: 664
Absorbed into: Princess (1960)
Title revived as: Girl (1981)
“Belle of the Ballet” was later retitled “Belle and Marie.”
TV Fun
From: 19 September, 1953 (I)
To: 5 September, 1959
Duration: 5 years, 11 months
Issues: 312
Absorbed: Jingles, Tip Top
Relaunched as: TV Fan
“Hoofer the Tee-Vee Gee-Gee” was a revamped version of “George the Jolly Gee-Gee.” “Z.9.” was later retitled “S.A.S.”
Marilyn
From: 19 March, 1955 (J)
To: 18 September, 1965
Duration: 10 years, 6 months
Issues: 547
Absorbed into: Valentine
See also: Pocket-Money Comics: Marilyn
Mirabelle
From: 10 September, 1956 (G)
To: 22 October, 1977
Duration: 21 years, 1 month
Issues: 1009
Absorbed: Valentine, New Glamour, Marty
Absorbed into: Pink
Retitled New Mirabelle on 19 Feb 1977.
New Glamour
From: 16 October, 1956 (G)
To: 30 September, 1958
Duration: 1 year, 11 months
Issues: 102
Relaunch of: Glamour
Absorbed into: Mirabelle
Valentine
From: 19 January, 1957 (I)
To: 9 November, 1974
Duration: 17 years, 9 months
Issues: 927
Absorbed: Marilyn, Roxy, TV Fan, Serenade
Absorbed into: Mirabelle
Roxy
From: 15 March, 1958 (I)
To: 14 September, 1963
Duration: 5 years, 6 months
Issues: 235
Absorbed into: Valentine
Boyfriend
From: 16 May, 1959 (D)
To: 12 March, 1966
Duration: 6 years, 9 months
Issues: 428
Absorbed into: Petticoat
Rebranded as Trend and Boyfriend from #352-359 (19 Mar 1966 to 7 May 1966), then as Boyfriend and Trend from #360 (15 May 1966) onwards, with “Boyfriend and” in much smaller lettering.
TV Fan
From: 12 September, 1959 (I)
To: 30 January, 1960
Duration: 4 months
Issues: 21
Relaunch of: TV Fun
Absorbed into: Valentine
Marty
From: 23 January, 1960 (H)
To: 23 February, 1963
Duration: 3 years, 1 month
Issues: 161
Absorbed: Silver Star
Absorbed into: Mirabelle
Princess (1960)
From: 30 January, 1960 (F)
To: 16 September, 1967
Duration: 7 years, 7 months
Issues: 346
Absorbed: Girl (1951)
Relaunched as: Princess Tina
Title revived as: Princess (1983)
“Pam and Peter” was a modernised version of “Tough Tod and Happy Annie” from The Knock-Out Comic.
June
From: 18 March, 1961 (C)
To: 15 June, 1974
Duration: 13 years, 3 months
Issues: 690
Absorbed: School Friend (1950), Pixie, Poppet
Absorbed into: Tammy
“Cloris and Claire, the Sporting Pair” was later reprinted in Sally as “Sue and Prue, the Clueless Two.”
Serenade
From: 22 September, 1962 (H)
To: 9 February, 1963
Duration: 4 months
Issues: 25
Absorbed into: Valentine
Poppet
From: 5 October, 1963 (C)
To: 11 July, 1964
Duration: 9 months
Issues: 41
Absorbed into: June
Fabulous
From: 18 January, 1964 (E)
To: 3 May, 1980
Duration: 16 years, 3 months
Issues: 851
Absorbed: Melanie, Hit!, OK, Rave
Relaunched as: Fab Hits
Weekly music magazine. Retitled Fabulous 208 in 1966, then Fab 208 in 1969. Relaunched as Fab Hits.
Rave
From: 1 February, 1964 (E)
To: 1 September, 1971
Duration: 7 years, 7 months
Issues: 88
Absorbed into: Fabulous
Monthly music magazine. Issue-count and end date are estimated.
Lady Penelope
From: 22 January, 1966 (G)
To: 6 December, 1969
Duration: 3 years, 10 months
Issues: 203
Absorbed into: Princess Tina
The first character from Thunderbirds to have her own comic — beating the male characters from that show by twenty-seven years. The title was stylised as Lady P on the cover from #30 to #49 (except #31). Renamed The New Lady Penelope from #53, reverted to Lady Penelope from #63, then Penelope from #123.
Petticoat
From: 19 February, 1966 (D)
To: 10 May, 1975
Duration: 9 years, 2 months
Issues: 480 (estimated)
Absorbed: Boyfriend
Relaunched as: Hi!
When it absorbed Boyfriend, which had since been rebranded as Trend, the title became Petticoat/Trend, which lasted until April 1968.
Tina
From: 25 February, 1967 (E)
To: 16 September, 1967
Duration: 6 months
Issues: 30
Relaunched as: Princess Tina
Princess Tina
From: 23 September, 1967 (F)
To: 29 December, 1973
Duration: 6 years, 3 months
Issues: 227
Relaunch of: Princess (1960) and Tina
Absorbed: Lady Penelope
Absorbed into: Pink
Sally
From: 14 June, 1969 (B)
To: 27 March, 1971
Duration: 1 year, 9 months
Issues: 94
Absorbed into: Tammy
“Sue and Prue, the Clueless Two” was a reprint of “Cloris and Claire, the Sporting Pair” from June.
Tammy
From: 6 February, 1971 (B)
To: 23 June, 1984
Duration: 13 years, 4 months
Issues: 699
Absorbed: June, Sally, Sandie, Jinty, Misty, Princess (1983)
Absorbed into: Girl (1981)
Sandie
From: 12 February, 1972 (B)
To: 20 October, 1973
Duration: 1 year, 8 months
Issues: 89
Absorbed into: Tammy
Pixie
From: 24 June, 1972 (C)
To: 13 January, 1973
Duration: 6 months
Issues: 30
Absorbed into: June
“Gussie the Girl Guide” was a redrawn version of “Deed-a-Day Danny” from The Knock-Out Comic and later appeared in Sun, Comet (1946), Big One and Giggle.
Music Star
From: 27 January, 1973 (F)
To: 18 January, 1975
Duration: 2 years
Issues: 101 (estimated)
Absorbed: It’s Here! And Now!
Absorbed into: Pink
Melanie
From: 10 February, 1973 (E)
To: 19 October, 1974
Duration: 1 year, 8 months
Issues: 89 (estimated)
Absorbed into: Fabulous
Pink
From: 24 March, 1973 (F)
To: 14 June, 1980
Duration: 7 years, 2 months
Issues: 377
Absorbed: Princess Tina, Music Star, Mirabelle
Absorbed into: Mates
It’s Here! And Now!
From: 4 April, 1973 (G)
To: 12 January, 1974
Duration: 9 months
Issues: 40
Absorbed into: Music Star
Hit!
From: 2 June, 1973 (D)
To: 8 December, 1973
Duration: 6 months
Issues: 28 (estimated)
Absorbed into: Fabulous
Jinty
From: 11 May, 1974 (B)
To: 21 November, 1981
Duration: 7 years, 6 months
Issues: 393
Absorbed: Lindy, Penny
Absorbed into: Tammy
See the incredible Jinty Comic Resource blog for more info!
Mates
From: 8 February, 1975 (F)
To: 29 August, 1981
Duration: 6 years, 6 months
Issues: 342
Absorbed: Pink
Absorbed into: Oh Boy!
OK
From: 12 April, 1975 (E)
To: 1 July, 1978
Duration: 3 years, 2 months
Issues: 169 (estimated)
Absorbed: Hi!
Absorbed into: Fabulous
Hi!
From: 17 May, 1975 (D)
To: 3 July, 1976
Duration: 1 year, 1 month
Issues: 60 (estimated)
Relaunch of: Petticoat
Absorbed into: OK
Lindy
From: 21 June, 1975 (A)
To: 1 November, 1975
Duration: 4 months
Issues: 20
Absorbed into: Jinty
Oh Boy!
From: 12 October, 1976 (E)
To: 12 January, 1985
Duration: 8 years, 3 months
Issues: 428
Absorbed: Mates, Photo-Love Weekly, Fab Hits
Absorbed into: My Guy
Misty
From: 4 February, 1978 (B)
To: 12 January, 1980
Duration: 1 year, 11 months
Issues: 101
Absorbed into: Tammy
My Guy
From: 4 March, 1978 (D)
To: 1 March, 2000
Duration: 22 years
Issues: 873
Absorbed: Oh Boy, Girl (1981), Heartbeat
Weekly until Sept 1995, thereafter monthly. End date and issue-count estimated. Retitled MG from issue #730 (4 Jun 1992).
Photo-Love Weekly
From: 31 March, 1979 (F)
To: 29 January, 1983
Duration: 3 years, 10 months
Issues: 197
Absorbed: Photo Secret Love
Absorbed into: Oh Boy!
Revived as: Photo-Love Monthly
Penny
From: 28 April, 1979 (A)
To: 5 April, 1980
Duration: 11 months
Issues: 45
Absorbed into: Jinty
Photo Secret Love
From: 15 March, 1980 (G)
To: 30 January, 1982
Duration: 1 year, 10 months
Issues: 99
Absorbed into: Photo-Love Weekly
Fab Hits
From: 10 May, 1980 (E)
To: 27 September, 1980
Duration: 4 months
Issues: 20
Relaunch of: Fabulous
Absorbed into: Oh Boy!
Potentially confusing: The final issue has the same cover-date as the first combined issue of Oh Boy! & Fab Hits.
Girl (1981)
From: 14 January, 1981 (C)
To: 14 March, 1990
Duration: 9 years, 2 months
Issues: 478
Title revived from: Girl (1951)
Absorbed: Tammy, Dreamer
Relaunched as: Girl (1988)
Dreamer
From: 19 September, 1981 (C)
To: 15 May, 1982
Duration: 7 months
Issues: 35
Absorbed into: Girl (1981)
Heartbeat
From: 3 October, 1981 (D)
To: 10 April, 1982
Duration: 6 months
Issues: 28
Absorbed into: My Guy
Princess (1983)
From: 24 September, 1983 (B)
To: 31 March, 1984
Duration: 6 months
Issues: 28
Title revived from: Princess (1960)
Absorbed into: Tammy
My Guy Monthly
From: April, 1984 (F)
To: March, 2000
Duration: 15 years, 11 months
Issues: 131
Absorbed: Best of Girl, Oh Boy Monthly
Monthly. Initially called Best of My Guy Monthly but the “Best of” was dropped after issue #4. Reprinted photo-stories from My Guy. Relaunched/rebranded as MG: My Guy Monthly around June 1995, but its ultimate fate is unclear.
Oh Boy Monthly
From: November, 1984 (F)
To: September, 1993
Duration: 8 years, 10 months
Issues: 118
Absorbed: Photo-Love Monthly
Absorbed into: My Guy Monthly
Monthly. Issue count and final date unconfirmed.
Photo-Love Monthly
From: March, 1986 (F)
To: April, 1990
Duration: 4 years, 1 month
Issues: 50
Revival of: Photo-Love Weekly
Absorbed into: Oh Boy Monthly
Number of issues unconfirmed.
Best of Girl
From: June, 1986 (E)
To: April, 1989
Duration: 2 years, 10 months
Issues: 35 (ish)
Absorbed into: My Guy Monthly
Monthly. Reprinted material from Girl (1981). Title later simplified to Girl Monthly. The end-date and issue-count are unconfirmed.
Girl (1988)
From: 4 May, 1988 (C)
To: 14 March, 1990
Duration: 1 year, 10 months
Issues: 98
Relaunch of: Girl (1981)
Absorbed into: My Guy
Relaunch of Girl (1981) as more of a mag than a comic. Issue-count has now been confirmed, thanks to Richard Sheaf of the indispensable Boys Adventure Comics blog!
Unanswered questions…
If you’ve read through all of this article so far, you’ll likely have spotted that there are far too many cases where data is estimated or incomplete or just plain unknown. I’d rather fill in the gaps than paper over the cracks, if you see what I mean, so if you can provide any of the missing info, or have spotted any errors, please do let me know.
In the meantime, here are what I currently deem to be the most important unanswered questions:
What was the publication date and issue-number of the final issue of My Guy/MG?
Were My Guy/MG or My Guy Monthly/MG Monthly absorbed into any other publication?
Have I missed any comic, story-paper or magazine that — by way of a merger or a rebranding — really ought to be part of this hierarchy?
Rusty Staples 