Girl Comics | |
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Publication information | |
Publisher | (1949) Timely Comics Girl Confessions Atlas Comics (2010) Marvel Comics |
Schedule | (1949) Bi-monthly (2010) Monthly |
Format | (1949) Ongoing series (2010) Limited series |
Genre | (1949) Romance comics (2010) Superhero comics |
Publication date | (1949) October 1949 – August 1954 (2010) May 2010 — September 2010 |
No. of issues | (1949) 35 (2010) 3 |
Editor(s) | (1949) Stan Lee (2010) Sana Amanat Rachel Pinnelas Lauren Sankovitch Jeanine Schaefer |
Girl Comics is the name of two comic-book series published by Marvel Comics and its forerunners, Timely Comics and Atlas Comics. The first, debuting in 1949, ran 35 issues, changing its title to Girl Confessions with issue #13 (March 1952). The second was a three-issue limited series published in 2010.
The initial Marvel Comics publication entitled Girl Comics was an ongoing romance comics/girls'-adventure series edited by Stan Lee that ran 12 issues (October 1949 - January 1952), first by Marvel's 1940s predecessor, Timely Comics, and shortly afterward by the company's 1950s iteration, Atlas Comics. It was renamed Girl Confessions with issue #13 (March 1952) and ran a total 35 issues, through cover-date August 1954.
Artist contributors to this series included John Buscema and Al Hartley in issue #1, [1] Bob Brown [2] and Bill Everett in #3, [3] Russ Heath in #5, [2] Ann Brewster, Mike Esposito, and Dick Rockwell in #8, [1] [2] and Bernard Krigstein in #12. [2] Contributors to multiple issues of Girl Confessions included Hartley, Jay Scott Pike, Morris Weiss, and Golden Age Batman artist Jerry Robinson. [4] [5]
The first four issues of Girl Comics were written as typical romance comics, [6] valuing plot over character development. [7] Most narratives were recycled, not changing drastically between issues. [7] Issues #5 through #12, however, adopted a new subtitle, Mystery, Adventure, Suspense! and featured plot-lines similar to those in Nancy Drew novels. [6]
Issue | Title | Publication date |
---|---|---|
1 | I Couldn't Escape From Love | October 1949 |
2 | Blind Date | January 1950 |
3 | Liz Taylor | April 1950 |
4 | Borrowed Love | June 1950 |
5 | The Man Who Followed, The Haunted Terror, The Death Plunge | October 1950 |
6-9 | Mystery, Adventure, Suspense! | January/March/May/July 1951 |
10 | The Deadly Double-Cross | September 1951 |
11 | Love Stories | November 1951 |
12 | BK, The Dark Hallway | January 1952 |
Issue | Title | Publication date |
---|---|---|
13 | Bride with a Broken Heart | March 1952 [6] |
14 | Love or Infatuation? | May 1952 |
15 | Untitled | June 1952 |
16 | I'll Never Forget You! | July 1952 |
17 | The Soldier's Wife! | August 1952 |
18 | We Both Loved Jerry! | September 1952 |
19 | Wallflower | October 1952 |
20 | His Last Goodbye | November 1952 |
21 | Unwanted | December 1952 |
22 | Untitled | January 1953 |
23 | The Man Who Kissed Me | February 1953 |
24 | The Way You Kiss, Martha's Man, The Lonely Night, Love Note | March 1953 |
25 | Back Into His Arms | April 1953 |
26 | The Man I Must Marry | June 1953 |
27 | Grounds for Marriage" | August 1953 |
28 | Love Me or Leave Me | September 1953 |
29 | The Truth About Thelma Johnson | October 1953 |
30 | Tall, Dark and Hands Off | January 1954 |
31 | When the Real Thing Comes Along | February 1954 |
32 | Schoolgirl Crush | March 1954 |
33 | A Boy and a Girl | April 1954 |
34 | Affair of the Heart | June 1954 |
35 | Going Steady | August 1954 |
The second Girl Comics was a three-issue limited series released as a part of Marvel's year-long Marvel Women project. [8] Girl Comics was entirely written, colored, illustrated and lettered by female authors and artists. [8] Sister titles published during this period under the Marvel Women project, [9] included the limited series and one-shots Heralds , Black Widow , Namora , Lady Deadpool , and Her-oes . [10] It ran three issues cover-dated May to September 2010. [11] The collection was originally conceived as a celebration of both the 30th anniversary of She-Hulk and the National Women's History Project. [8]
Jeanine Schaefer, one of the editors, said of the initiative's timing: "Because 2010 is the 30th anniversary of the first appearance of She-Hulk, we got together to brainstorm some ideas for a celebration of women at Marvel Comics, much like we did for the 70th anniversary...." [12] She said the publisher felt the potentially controversial word "girl" in the title could be reclaimed: "It was one of the first titles we thought of (the actual first one, I think), because it pulled double-duty: Not only was it the name of an old Marvel romance title, it has a word in it that we could take back". [12]
The 2010 series contains contributions from Devin K. Grayson, Louise Simonson, Amanda Conner, Jill Thompson, Trina Robbins, and Molly Crabapple, among others. [10] [13] The 52-page first issue included stories of the male characters Nightcrawler, the Punisher, and Spider-Man in addition to stories of the superheroines She-Hulk, Venus, and Jean Grey. [14] In addition, a two-page text article spotlighted Marvel Comics' Silver Age secretary and later independent comics publisher Flo Steinberg [14]
Illustrator and cartoonist Stephanie Buscema, who penciled and inked the eight-page story featuring Venus, is a granddaughter of the major comics artist John Buscema, [15] whose work appeared in the first issue of the 1949 series.
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