Gothic for Girls

This book is the first full-length critical study of any British girls’ comic and sheds light on an often-ignored era and genre of the comics industry. It explores the production and reception of the notorious girls’ mystery comic Misty (IPC, 1978-80), considering its influences, themes, visuals, plots, and use of Gothic symbols. Containing exclusive interview material with the comic’s creators and editorial team, rare scripts and photographs, and surveying the entire archive of Misty stories, it preserves and analyzes Misty for fans and scholars. By exploring and defining the particular type of mystery and fear that this comic offered, the strange case of Misty also becomes a tool to develop existing Gothic scholarship and identify a new and under-theorised subgenre. Gothic for Girls challenges and instructs its readers in a number of ways: offering warnings and moral lessons, exposing societal expectations and limitations, and embracing the liminality and Otherness of childhood.