Credit where credit's due

There's a bit of a myth that pops up now and then with some people claiming that British comics never featured creator credits until 2000AD broke the taboo in the late 1970s. While it's true that forced anonymity was generally the rule, there were comics long before 2000AD appeared that published credits. Some comics allowed signatures, even if the writers remained anonymous, but in the case of the original Eagle in the 1950s, and its "sister" publication Girl, writer and artist credits appeared alongside most strips. At least for a while. Odhams put paid to that when they took over Eagle in the early 1960s, but from the evidence here, they still allowed writer/artist credits in Girl up to 1962 at least. 

Like Eagle, Girl was a tabliod-sized glossy publication and its photogravure print quality allowed artists to produce painted strips in colour or grey wash. The standard of artistry was extremely high. Let's take a look... 

Belle of the Ballet, written by George Beardmore, drawn by Harry Lindfield. The artist would later illustrate strips for Polystyle's Countdown comic...
The Family Storey, written by Judy Sanders, drawn by Gerry Haylock, another artist destined to find work in Countdown in 1971. (Countdown, and the comic it was renamed as, TV Action, also ran artist credits on their strips, - but not for writers.)
Send for Sally! written by Peggy Stuart, art by Roland Davies. More about the artist here: https://bearalley.blogspot.co.uk/2009/04/lesser-known-art-of-roland-davies.html
Calling Nurse Abbott! written by Frank Redpath, drawn by Philip Townsend and Leo Davy. 

Curiously, the only strip uncredited is the solo humour strip Lettice Leefe, which was by Captain Pugwash creator John Ryan...
All of these strips deserve reprinting as book collections but it's highly unlikely they ever will be, sadly. While it's admirable that Rebellion are now honouring the legacy of post-1970 comics, they don't own the rights to earlier material which is sadly becoming ever-more forgotten.

All the strips here are scanned from Girl Vol.11, No.43, dated 27th October 1962. Click the pages to see them full size.





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