43 Years in the Third Form

By John Freeman on 18 July 2007

(with thanks to Graeme Neil Reid) via dtbNing): Girls comics? Eh what’s that?

Starting on Monday 23rd July on Radio 4 is a five part dramatization about girls’ comics, the episodes following directly on from Woman’s Hour. Here’s the Radio Times blurb…

43 Years in the Third Form 10.45am and repeated 7.45pm FM Radio 4

If the names Bunty, Jackie and Misty stir a youthful nostalgia then the chances are you are female. These five short dramas celebrate girls’ comics from the 50s through to the 80s using escapism from the harsher realities of teenage life as a common theme, while illustrating how “motivational stories for young ladies” ended up in later years as advice columns on how to snog without dribbling.

Well worth checking out, methinks. If you buy the Radio Times then you can see a nice little illustration on page 129 (part of this above) that accompanies the text, drawn by, well, Graeme!

About the Author
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John Freeman

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.