1970s Comics

Living above my folks’ newsagent shop in the 70s, gave me access to a whole host of comics and magazines. Some of the weekly British comics for girls I remember were: Bunty, Tammy, Jackie, Blue Jeans, Patches, Oh Boy! and Fab Hits. Here’s a bit more detail on the top three.

Bunty was published by D. C. Thomson & Co. from 1958 to 2001. It consisted of a collection of many small strips, the stories typically being three to five pages long. In contrast to earlier and contemporary comics, it was aimed primarily at working-class readers under the age of 14, and contained mostly fictional stories. Well-known regular strips from Bunty include The Four Marys, Bunty — A Girl Like You, Moira Kent, Lorna Drake, Luv, Lisa, The Comp, and Penny’s Place. I've included a cover from the 1990 issue to illustrate how the artwork changed in a couple of decades.

Tammy was published by Fleetway, and at its height, Tammy sold 250,000 copies per week. Every Tammy issue was a collection of stories, usually serial instalments, that lasted three or four pages and often focussed on bleak Cinderella themes: a working class heroine, constantly thwarted hope, and overt violence against girls, usually from an older authority figure. Many stories were full of cruelty and adversity, based on the understanding that girls wanted stories that made them cry. Tammy's merge with Misty brought darker, horror tones, and the merge with Jinty brought more science-fiction. Tammy published 689 issues from 6 February 1971 to 23 June 1984, when it merged with Girl volume 2. Other titles which had merged with Tammy include Sally, June, Sandie and Princess (vol. 2).

Jackie was published by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd from 11 January 1964 until its closure on 3 July 1993 – a total of 1,538 issues. It was the best-selling teen magazine in Britain for ten years, with sales rising from an initial 350,000 to 605,947 in 1976. The best-ever selling single issue was the 1972 special edition to coincide with the UK tour of American singer David Cassidy. Jackie published a mix of fashion and beauty tips, gossip, short stories, and comic strips. The latter were usually illustrated with line drawings or posed photographs, especially if the story involved a "reader's true-life experience." Both the comics and the short stories invariably dealt with either romance or family issues.
The centre pages of the magazine usually contained a pull-out poster of a popular band or film star. The magazine featured a section called Silly Star File, a humorous interview with figures from the world of pop music. Jackie became very popular with young teenage girls, not least because of the Cathy and Claire problem page, which received 400 reader letters a week and dealt with controversial issues that were nonetheless relevant to the readership. However, the subjects covered in the column were not reflective of the majority of readers' letters, which focused on sex-related issues — DC Thomson as a result kept the editorial brief, but created a series of help leaflets which they sent to letter writers. In 1974 the NHS made the contraceptive pill free on prescription, and so under editor Nina Myskow, the magazine introduced a Dear Doctor column, which covered what were termed as "below the waist issues".