Can you help identify a British girls romance comic, and solve a near 50 year mystery? Many years ago, American writer and editor Scott Edelman asked the universe for help identifying a panel he clipped from a girls comic during his first trip to the UK in 1977, but had no luck. Can downthetubes readers help solve the mystery?
“Being a romantic, I carried it in my wallet until it was in tatters,” and this week, reposted the clipping to his BlueSky account, telling fans he would love to replace it.
The full thread is here, but is only visible to logged in BlueSky users
Quite apart from the rather lovely fact that someone kept a mystery comic panel in their wallet for so many years, can anyone identify the strip, which comic artist and archivist David Roach suggests is drawn by Rodney Sutton (and similar work by Sutton confirms this) – and which comic it appeared in?
Rodney Sutton was a longtime contributor to British girls comics, his work bearing a very distinctive and original style. Bear Alley publisher Steve Holland has previously noted “The Hobbies of Holly”, which he drew for Judy, might be his longest-running strip, running over eight series, published between 1963-79.
Sutton began working in girls comics in the 1950s, on titles such as Girl’s Crystal, Wikipedia, citing numerous sources including Dennis Gifford, identifying him as drawing “Linda and Madge on Crusoe Island” (published in issues cover dated 18th January 1958 to 10th January 1959, retitled “The Crusoe Girls’ Pacific Quest” from 12th July 1958); “Sheila Grant – Girl Reporter” (6th June to 29th September 1959, 24th June 1961 to 27th January 1962); and as illustrator of the text story, “Sheila at the Winter Sports” (14th December 1957 to 15th March 1958).
He also drew issues of Schoolgirls’ Picture Library, although demands from publishers Associated Press/Fleetway for a fairly standardised style for its girls’ comics, meant Sutton wasn’t the only artist who had to tone down his natural originality to conform to house style.
Comics archivist Joan Ormrod notes he drew strips such as “The Heart Decides“, for Mirabelle in 1961, a hospital serial probably based on Emergency Ward 10.
The Girls Comics of Yesterday site identifies him as artist on two strips published on or around Scott’s UK visit: “Knights of the Round Table” (published in Judy No. 867 (21 August 1976) – No. 878 (6 November 1976); and “Jodie and the Otter”, for Emma, published in 1978 and 1979, although this was largely drawn by Tom Kerr. They also list a number of his other works, published in the 1960s and 70s.
He was also a book illustrator, providing art, for example, on 15 Enid Blyton books published by Armada in 1991, including The Mystery of Holly Lane.
To possibly narrow it down, unless he plucked it from a bargain bin some newsagents had back then, Scott notes that according to his first passport, he arrived at Gatwick on 14th October 1977 and got back to the United States on 30th October (“And seeing that makes me regret my passport no longer gets stamped when visiting the UK.”).
Ignoring weekly girls comics of the time such as Bunty and June, which didn’t run romance stories, this prompted author and editor Jonathan Crossfield to provide a list of the at teen/romance titles published at the time, the most likely being:
New Mirabelle – unnumbered 15th and 22nd October (Final issue), published by IPC
Jackie 719-121 (DC Thomson)
Star Love Stories (DC Thomson). Undated
Pink – 235-237 (IPC)
Blue Jeans – 39-41 (DC Thomson)
He did make the caveat that his spreadsheets of girls comics are shaky on things like monthly digests, “so there may be one or two I’ve missed.
“Bunty, June, Jinty et al didn’t run romance stories,” he noted, “more focussed on horses, ballet, school, etc. themes.
“Mates was another romance title at the time but IIRC it was photo stories.
Jonathan also suggested that unless you were a regular reader of romance comics, he wonder if a comics professional like Scott may have picked up this issue out of all the other titles available out of editorial interest?
“For example, the final issue of the long-running Mirabelle or the merger issue of Pink 237 incorporating Mirabelle.”
“I did read romance comics (any comic book I could get my hands on, actually),” Scott replied. “plus my wife was heavily into romance comics, so it was surely one of those rather than a teen or gossip magazine.”
Can anyone help solve the mystery? Do you have copies of the comics Jonathan Crossfield lists? If so, please comment below – new comments are subject to approval, but we do that quickly here
Oh, and please don’t bother sharing the results of a reverse search from an AI. We won’t approve them, especially after one suggested it was a panel from the newspaper strip “Garth” from the Daily Mirror, then drawn by Martin Asbury!
The full thread initiated by Scott is here, but is only visible to logged in BlueSky users
- About the Author
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
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