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Gothic for Girls: Misty and British Comics
Winner of the 2019 Broken Frontier Award for Best Book on Comics
Today fans still remember and love the British girls’ comic Misty for its bold visuals and narrative complexities . Yet its unique history has drawn little critical attention. Bridging this scholarly gap, Julia Round presents a comprehensive cultural history and detailed discussion of the comic, preserving both the inception and development of this important publication as well as its stories.
Misty ran for 101 issues as a stand-alone publication between 1978 and 1980 and then four more years as part of Tammy . It was a hugely successful anthology comic containing one-shot and serialized stories of supernatural horror and fantasy aimed at girls and young women and featuring work by writers and artists who dominated British comics such as Pat Mills, Malcolm Shaw, and John Armstrong, as well as celebrated European artists. To this day, Misty remains notable for its daring and sophisticated stories, strong female characters, innovative page layouts, and big visuals.
In the first book on this topic, Round closely analyzes Misty ’s content, including its creation and production, its cultural and historical context, key influences, and the comic itself. Largely based on Round’s own archival research, the study also draws on interviews with many of the key creators involved in this comic, including Pat Mills, Wilf Prigmore, and its art editorial team Jack Cunningham and Ted Andrews, who have never previously spoken about their work. Richly illustrated with previously unpublished photos, scripts, and letters, this book uses Misty as a lens to explore the use of Gothic themes and symbols in girls’ comics and other media. It surveys existing work on childhood and Gothic and offers a working definition of Gothic for Girls, a subgenre which challenges and instructs readers in a number of ways.
Today fans still remember and love the British girls’ comic Misty for its bold visuals and narrative complexities . Yet its unique history has drawn little critical attention. Bridging this scholarly gap, Julia Round presents a comprehensive cultural history and detailed discussion of the comic, preserving both the inception and development of this important publication as well as its stories.
Misty ran for 101 issues as a stand-alone publication between 1978 and 1980 and then four more years as part of Tammy . It was a hugely successful anthology comic containing one-shot and serialized stories of supernatural horror and fantasy aimed at girls and young women and featuring work by writers and artists who dominated British comics such as Pat Mills, Malcolm Shaw, and John Armstrong, as well as celebrated European artists. To this day, Misty remains notable for its daring and sophisticated stories, strong female characters, innovative page layouts, and big visuals.
In the first book on this topic, Round closely analyzes Misty ’s content, including its creation and production, its cultural and historical context, key influences, and the comic itself. Largely based on Round’s own archival research, the study also draws on interviews with many of the key creators involved in this comic, including Pat Mills, Wilf Prigmore, and its art editorial team Jack Cunningham and Ted Andrews, who have never previously spoken about their work. Richly illustrated with previously unpublished photos, scripts, and letters, this book uses Misty as a lens to explore the use of Gothic themes and symbols in girls’ comics and other media. It surveys existing work on childhood and Gothic and offers a working definition of Gothic for Girls, a subgenre which challenges and instructs readers in a number of ways.
358 pages, Hardcover
Published October 29, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 21, 2026
I understand that this is the first full-length study of a specific British comic book for girls - Misty, which I admittedly have not read, was a gothic horror comic book that included all sorts of spooky and ambiguous stories. In this, it stood out from a lot of the more general comics of the time, not that such a difference saved it from being ignominiously folded into what sound like more boring publications towards the end of its run.
All credit to Julia Round, she has produced an immensely readable critical study of Misty, analysing everything from cover elements to trope frequency and story types to debates in the letter pages. If only all academic prose was this readable! It proves, once again, that academics can write lucidly when they want to, and underlines my irritation with those who can't be bothered.
Misty is, in a sense, doubly looked-down-upon in critical circles. Firstly because it's a comic, and secondly because it's a comic for girls, and media directed at preteen and adolescent girls does not typically garner positive critical attention. Luckily, comics are getting more of that attention these days - I've even produced the odd paper on them myself! - and feminist reinterpretations of girl-centric media has also been on the upswing. As I said, I'd never read Misty before, and I'd certainly never heard of it as a kid, but it would certainly have fitted in with my preferred childhood reading material, because I loved creepy stories of this type and would likely have gobbled it up. Which makes me glad that more people are interested in critically evaluating gothic stories for girls, because they have an extraordinary reach - and that's something to celebrate, not denigrate.
All credit to Julia Round, she has produced an immensely readable critical study of Misty, analysing everything from cover elements to trope frequency and story types to debates in the letter pages. If only all academic prose was this readable! It proves, once again, that academics can write lucidly when they want to, and underlines my irritation with those who can't be bothered.
Misty is, in a sense, doubly looked-down-upon in critical circles. Firstly because it's a comic, and secondly because it's a comic for girls, and media directed at preteen and adolescent girls does not typically garner positive critical attention. Luckily, comics are getting more of that attention these days - I've even produced the odd paper on them myself! - and feminist reinterpretations of girl-centric media has also been on the upswing. As I said, I'd never read Misty before, and I'd certainly never heard of it as a kid, but it would certainly have fitted in with my preferred childhood reading material, because I loved creepy stories of this type and would likely have gobbled it up. Which makes me glad that more people are interested in critically evaluating gothic stories for girls, because they have an extraordinary reach - and that's something to celebrate, not denigrate.
December 11, 2020
This book offers a thorough quantitative and empirical analysis of the contents of the Misty comic which had a short life (less than two years) but a long legacy in British comics. Essential to anyone interested in Misty specifically or girls' comics (British or otherwise) generally. Round thoroughly documents the tropes and themes of the comic, contextualizing it within the gothic generally as well as in the comics landscape and providing generous samples, including a complete story, as well as other documents (e.g. a script). I might have liked to see a more in-depth reading of a story or two, but overall the high-level mapping approach is enormously useful to demonstrating how the comic functioned and what was unique about it.
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January 20, 2022741.5941 R8594 2019
February 6, 2026
Love it.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews