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COMICS BRITTANIA - BOYS AND GIRLS
Episode 2 of 3
BBC-4 / Monday 17 September 2007 @ 9.00pm
A new generation of comics such as Jackie – this front cover is from August 1968 – was aimed at meeting the demands of teenage readers
Following the Second World War, boys' and girls' adventure comics emerged to capture the imaginations of the growing baby boomer generation.
Comics Britannia – the series exploring the world of the British comic – tells the extraordinary story of the bohemian vicar who founded the most ground-breaking comic to emerge in the immediate post-war period – The Eagle – complete with its very own super hero, Dan Dare.
The programme looks at attempts to create the equivalent for girls – comics featuring ballet and boarding schools, such as School Friend, Girl and Bunty.
Meanwhile, the boys grew up with their comic book heroes achieving impossible feats of courage and endeavour on the fields of sport and battle, with the larger-than-life exploits of Captain Hurricane and Roy of the Rovers.
But comics would soon have to reinvent themselves and follow their readers as they grew older. Titles such as Mirabelle and Romeo were introduced to appeal to older girls who had once loved Bunty and Girl.
Into the Sixties and Seventies, the industry responded to a changing Britain with a new generation of comics such as Jackie, Tammy and Battle aimed at meeting the new demands of teenage readers.
Fans of comics who reveal their childhood favourites in this episode include comedian Frank Skinner, pundit and
ex-footballer Mark Lawrenson, cartoonists Posy Simmonds and Gerald Scarfe and writer Jacqueline Wilson.
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