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It seems, looking back through the mystical mists of time, that it was in the small hours of the morning when my father woke me to present me with the first issue of a new comic that had just come out. In actuality, it was probably only around 10 o'clock at night after he'd come home from work, and he'd no doubt purchased the periodical from a shop earlier in the day, or from a street vendor after finishing his shift. I'm not sure why he didn't simply wait until morning to announce its procurement - it's almost as if he was as excited by the comic as he expected me to be.
I could see it was really a comic for girls, but expressed delight on receiving it so as not to disappoint him. And perhaps I was even delighted to a degree - after all, it was a new number one. Perhaps he'd recognised the FAB 1 Rolls from THUNDERBIRDS, or saw the name of The MAN From U.N.C.L.E. on the cover and assumed it was for boys, but I'm unsure whether I ever bought another issue (though perhaps I did). I do recall though, my brother almost having a fit some months later when my mother embarrassed him by asking if he wanted 'Lady Penelope' in a newsagent's while we were looking for a comic to buy.
However, enough of my dreary personal reminiscences - you no doubt have your own memories of this comic if you read it back in the day. (Yeah, I know - your sister bought it - heard it.) So, take a trip back in time to an earlier point in your life, and live again those seemingly more innocent, halcyon days when the world was a bigger, brighter and better place that it often appears today.
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On the page below, note that Lady Penelope being an inhabitant of the 21st century is ignored, and she's depicted as a contemporary of characters from the 1960s.
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Oh, go on then - you can even have the free gift.
My sister was into a weekly 60s UK comic for girls called Poppet, which I've never been able to find anything about....ever heard of it, or know anything about it?
ReplyDelete(the only strip I recall was called "Vanessa From Venus" about a teenage lass whose friend was from Venus and - you guessed it - called Vanessa)
Poppet was published by Fleetway from October 5th 1963 to July 11th 1964 (41 issues in all), and was then merged into June. There appears to be some available to buy on eBay at the moment, BS.
ReplyDeleteWow! - yet another classic #1 in its entirety! I WANTED this comic to go with my TV21's, but I just couldn't summon up enough " guts " as a kid to either pick it up or ask for it! Daft, I know, I would do all manner of dangerous things, but I wasn't THAT brave!!
ReplyDeleteAs an adult I didn't give a monkey's - if I wanted ANY comic including girls' I would pick it up. Yeah, I KNOW they COULD have been for my daughters, but I'm telling the whole world now they were for ME! So what? ( check out Tammy and Misty, fellahs! )
In the late '70s my sister used to get comics like Mandy, Judy and Misty which I used to read as well as my own Marvel comics. Those girls' comics were perfectly readable for boys in my opinion and Misty had a supernatural theme which might have appealed even more to boys but of course we had those stupid sexist rules about who could read what. Of course from the age of eight I'd switched to Marvel which were unisex (yes, I know boys mostly read them) and you could read Spiderwoman or Ms. Marvel without it being at all "girly" as they were as much part of the MU as Spidey or the Hulk. Talking of Judy - I remember it reaching No. 1000 and there being no mention at all of this milestone event which puzzled me as I was used to Marvel UK making a big fuss about a weekly reaching No. 100, 200 etc (not that many ever did !) but Judy had reached a thousand issues and not a peep !
ReplyDeleteIt's hardly surprising that some of the comic strips in girls' comics also appealed to boys - a lot of them were written by men, JP.
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It would've been interesting to see an adventure comic that really was for both boys and girls, and included a mixture of Misty and Action type strips. I wonder how that would've fared, CJ.
Yep, Pat Mills is an excellent story teller. Did you ever get to meet him during your 2000AD years?
ReplyDeleteI did - in Glasgow of all places, when a bunch of comics people met up for an evening meal. Pat and I spent quite a bit of time in conversation. I doubt that he'd remember it 'though - it was in the mid or late '80s.
ReplyDeleteBy the way,Kid - that's nice to hear about your father buying you a comic like that. My father used to grumble a bit about comics not being educational and I think he'd have preferred that I didn't read them. He used to order them for me from the newsagent in the nearby town and I remember buying POTA No.19 one Saturday and when he saw it he was furious because he'd have to buy it again on the Monday as it was already ordered from the newsagent and he picked up my comics on a Monday morning. I shouldn't have bought it of course but that taught me a lesson not to do that again - or if I did now and again I knew to keep the comic hidden. What he really detested though was pop music so buying records was out of the question and if I ever watched Top of the Pops it was in other peoples' houses !
ReplyDeleteMy father wasn't too keen on Top of the Pops himself, but let my brother watch it, 'though not without a moan about the music and the hairstyles.
ReplyDeleteMy dad tut-tutted a bit about comics, and wondered aloud why I couldn't be like my friend (the only other person i knew then that had an interest in them), and read proper books - like James Bond.
ReplyDeleteDidn't stop him from borrowing mine to read, though :-)
I remember my dad reading Thor #158 (The Way It Began!) and expressing dismay that it was a continued story. He never did find out what had happened to the 'original' Thor.
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