UPDATED: Girl comic merchandise

I've added some new items of merchandise - and these are highlighted in red

I've previously looked at some of the spin-off merchandise associated with Swift comic (here), Swift books (here) and Robin comic merchandise (here). In a similar vein I thought I should look into the merchandise produced by their sister title Girl. I've looked at Girl novels (here and here) but this is the other merchandise that was produced.

I thought I'd be able to find more merchandise but googling 'girl comics merchandise' turns up a lot of stuff which is not to do with the Girl comic I'm after. Anyway, I'm sure more will turn up but here's what I've found so far...

All new items highlighted in red

This was from a recent sale on 'the saleroom'. It wasn't clear to me if the Girl film strips would fit in the Dan Dare spaceship film viewer but it might do!

A lovely selection of Girl diaries here. The green diaries are dated (internally) as 1954-7 and then there are two 'stripy' diaries (for 1958 and 1959 respectively). 

Image c/o ebay.

New addition today is this piece of advertising for a newsagent...

Promotional Poster for Free Gift in Vol 12 #6 - Feb 9 1967 Rare

Girl card game from Pepys

A more comprehensive set of birthday cards images has now come to light...

The backs of the cards - albeit not in the same order as they're shown above

The Wendy and Jinx cards (designs 1+2)

The Belle of the ballet cards (designs 3+4)

The Lettice Leefe and Miss Froth cards (designs 5+6)

Over on the www.dandare.info website (here) I've spotted these two Girl birthday cards...

The first features Wendy and Jinx

...and the second has Lettice Leefe and Miss Froth

This Girl diary for 1956 recently sold for £47...

I'm unsure how many years this ran for - in fact this is the first Girl diary I've ever seen. The Eagle equivalent was long established and ran from at least 1951-1963 (but was red not green). There was also a Swift diary but I've never seen one of those so I can't even say what colour that was! 

Also spotted this on ebay recently - looks like a plastic belt buckle 

Pelham puppet of 'Lettice Leefe' - a character created by John Ryan (who created Captain Pugwash and Harris Tweed for Eagle) 

Pelham also made a 'Belle of the Ballet' puppet as well

And then there's this - a Girl doll - featuring the Girl logo on the dress and the belt buckle

from 'British dolls of the 1950s' by Susan Brewer (2009)

And there's this piece of Eagle/Girl crossover merchandise - yes, it's a table tennis set!



I'm sure there's more out there so if you have any images you could share just let me know.

Ah, a carpet sweeper! What a delightful piece of tie-in merchandise

And here's some more Girl products - I'd love to get bigger and better pictures of all of these but at least it gives me some stuff to look for

from 'The history of girls' comics' by Susan Brewer (2010)

And, thanks to friend of the blog Jeremy Briggs we can also add these images...

...a blond haired version of the doll shown above...

...and a paintbox (which looks quite similar to the Swift paintbox that was also produced)...

UPDATED: Comics Diaries

I've looked at the diaries produced by Eagle, Girl & Swift before, but in separate posts, so I thought I might usefully pull that information together into a single post.

I've now started adding other comics / comic strips to this listing - all new entries are shown in red. For this post I've added details of some Giles diaries.

c/o Steve Keene-Elliott who says...

From what information I've managed to gather, there were 4 Giles Diaries issued in total:
• Giles Diary 1994 (ISBN-10 0091778808, Random House, 1993)
• Giles Pocket Diary 1995 (ISBN-10 009178574X, Ebury Press Stationery, 1994)
• Giles Diary 1995 (ISBN-10 0091785162, Ebury Press Stationery, 1994)
• Giles Desk Diary 1996 (ISBN-10 0091806445, Vintage/Ebury, 1995)

Having said that, I've never seen the 1996 one, it's been on my wishlist for a very long time!

Rupert

Rupert diary, 1993

Rupert diary, 1995

Rupert diary, 2013

Rupert diary, 2015

Rupert diary, 2016

Eagle

Diaries were produced for at least 1951-63. No diary would have been produced for 1950 (Eagle launched in mid-April so that would have made no sense). I have copies of diaries for the following years...1951-63, so I'm just missing any produced from 1964 onwards. 

Diaries typically look like this...

Girl

This auction lot mention a Girl diary for 1953. Looks very similar to the 1956 one!

Only example I've ever seen - no idea how many were produced. This is for 1956.

Swift

Only example I've ever seen - no idea how many were produced

Judge Dredd diaries

For the year 2000...

and these images (all swiped from here) of a numbered limited edition version of the year 2000 diary as well

Doonesbury desk diaries

Doonesbury desk diary for 1984

Doonesbury desk diary for 1985

Doonesbury desk diary for 1988

Doonesbury desk diary for 1989

Doonesbury desk diary for 1991

Princess Tina diary 1968

image c/o Janis Cross (on the "Girls comics - UK" facebook group)

Princess Tina diary 1973

with more details here c/o friend of the blog Jeremy Briggs

TV21 diary for 1970

Originally priced at seven shillings in 1970 Letts published a much coveted, TV21 “desk diary”, featuring photographs from many of the Gerry Anderson series. Produced so it could be used for any year during the 1970s, they’re considered quite rare today, offered for eye watering prices unblemished on auction sites. Perhaps Anderson Entertainment should take note. “The price put it out of the range of many a fan of the time,” recalls John Freeman, “including me.”

The Murdersville blog has some more photos of interior pages