Girl Comics is the name of two comic book

Comic book

A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...

 series published by Marvel Comics

Marvel Comics

Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...

 and its forerunners, Timely Comics

Timely Comics

Timely Comics, an imprint of Timely Publications, was the earliest comic book arm of American publisher Martin Goodman, and the entity that would evolve by the 1960s to become Marvel Comics....

 and Atlas Comics

Atlas Comics (1950s)

Atlas Comics is the term used to describe the 1950s comic book publishing company that would evolve into Marvel Comics. Magazine and paperback novel publisher Martin Goodman, whose business strategy involved having a multitude of corporate entities, used Atlas as the umbrella name for his comic...

. The first was a ongoing series

Ongoing series

The term "ongoing series" is used in contrast to limited series , a one shot , a graphic novel, or a trade paperback...

 that debuted in 1949, and the second a limited series

Limited series

A limited series is a comic book series with a set number of installments. A limited series differs from an ongoing series in that the number of issues is determined before production and it differs from a one shot in that it is composed of multiple issues....

 published in 2010.

First series (1949-1954)

The initial Marvel Comics

Marvel Comics

Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...

 publication entitled Girl Comics was an ongoing romance comics

Romance comics

Romance comics is a comics genre depicting romantic love and its attendant complications such as jealousy, marriage, divorce, betrayal, and heartache. The term is generally associated with an American comic books genre published through the first three decades of the Cold War...

/girls' adventure series edited by Stan Lee

Stan Lee

Stan Lee is an American comic book writer, editor, actor, producer, publisher, television personality, and the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics....

 that ran 12 issues (Oct. 1949 - Jan. 1952), first by Marvel's 1940s predecessor, Timely Comics

Timely Comics

Timely Comics, an imprint of Timely Publications, was the earliest comic book arm of American publisher Martin Goodman, and the entity that would evolve by the 1960s to become Marvel Comics....

, and shortly afterward by the company's 1950s iteration, Atlas Comics

Atlas Comics (1950s)

Atlas Comics is the term used to describe the 1950s comic book publishing company that would evolve into Marvel Comics. Magazine and paperback novel publisher Martin Goodman, whose business strategy involved having a multitude of corporate entities, used Atlas as the umbrella name for his comic...

. It was renamed Girl Confessions with issue #13 (March 1952) and ran a total 35 issues, through cover date August 1954.

Artist contributors this series included John Buscema

John Buscema

John Buscema, born Giovanni Natale Buscema , was an American comic-book artist and one of the mainstays of Marvel Comics during its 1960s and 1970s ascendancy into an industry leader and its subsequent expansion to a major pop culture conglomerate...

 and Al Hartley

Al Hartley

Henry Allan Hartley , known professionally as Al Hartley, was an American comic book writer-artist known for his work on Archie Comics, Atlas Comics , and many Christian comics...

 in issue #1, Bob Brown

Bob Brown (comics)

William Robert "Bob" Brown was an American comic book artist with an extensive career from the early 1940s through the 1970s. With writers Edmond Hamilton and Gardner Fox, Brown created the DC Comics hero Space Ranger, drawing the character's complete run from his debut in the try-out comic...

 and Bill Everett

Bill Everett

William Blake "Bill" Everett, also known as William Blake and Everett Blake was a comic book writer-artist best known for creating Namor the Sub-Mariner and co-creating Daredevil for Marvel Comics...

 in #3,, Russ Heath

Russ Heath

Russell Heath, Jr. is an American artist best known for his comic book work — particularly his DC Comics war stories for several decades and his 1960s art for Playboy magazine's Little Annie Fanny featurettes — and for his commercial art, two pieces of which, depicting Roman and...

 in #5, Ann Brewster, Mike Esposito

Mike Esposito (comics)

Mike Esposito , who sometimes used the pseudonyms Mickey Demeo, Mickey Dee, Michael Dee, and Joe Gaudioso, was an American comic book artist whose work for DC Comics, Marvel Comics and others spanned the 1950s to the 2000s...

, and Dick Rockwell

Dick Rockwell

Richard Waring Rockwell is an American comic strip and comic book artist best known as Milt Caniff's uncredited art assistant for 35 years on the adventure strip Steve Canyon...

 in #8, and Bernard Krigstein

Bernard Krigstein

Bernard Krigstein , was an American illustrator and gallery artist who received acclaim for his innovative and influential approach to comic book art, notably in EC Comics. He was known as Bernie Krigstein, and his artwork usually displayed the signature B...

 in #12. Contributors to multiple issues of Girl Confessions included Hartley, Jay Scott Pike

Jay Scott Pike

Jay Scott Pike , is an American comic book artist and commercial illustrator known for his 1950s and 1960s work for Marvel Comics and DC Comics, advertising art, and as a Playboy-affiliated good girl artist...

, Morris Weiss, and Golden Age

Golden Age of Comic Books

The Golden Age of Comic Books was a period in the history of American comic books, generally thought of as lasting from the late 1930s until the late 1940s or early 1950s...

 Batman

Batman

Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...

 artist Jerry Robinson

Jerry Robinson

Jerry Robinson is an American comic book artist best known for his work on DC Comics' Batman line of comics during the 1940s.He was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2004.-Career:...

.

Second series (2010)

The second Girl Comics was a three-issue limited series

Limited series

A limited series is a comic book series with a set number of installments. A limited series differs from an ongoing series in that the number of issues is determined before production and it differs from a one shot in that it is composed of multiple issues....

, based on the idea of featuring female talent in the comics industry during 2010. Sister titles during this period include Heralds, Black Widow, and Her-oes. It is scheduled to run cover-dated May to July 2010.

Jeanine Schaefer, one of the editors, said of the initiative's timing, "Because 2010 is the 30th anniversary of the first appearance of [the superhero character] She-Hulk

She-Hulk

She-Hulk is a Marvel Comics superheroine. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist John Buscema, she first appeared in Savage She-Hulk #1 ....

, we got together to brainstorm some ideas for a celebration of women at Marvel Comics, much like we did for the 70th anniversary...." 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."

The 2010 series contains contributions from Devin K. Grayson

Devin K. Grayson

Devin Kalile Grayson is an American writer of comic books and novels. Titles that she has written include Gotham Knights, The Titans, the Vertigo series USER, and Nightwing.-Biography:...

, Louise Simonson

Louise Simonson

Louise Simonson, born Mary Louise Alexander , is an American comic book writer and editor. She is best known for her work on comic book titles such as Power Pack, X-Factor, New Mutants, Superman: The Man of Steel, and Steel...

, Amanda Conner

Amanda Conner

Amanda Conner is an Irish-American comic book artist and commercial art illustrator. She began her career in the late 1980s for Archie Comics and Marvel Comics, before moving on to contribute work for Claypool Comics' Soulsearchers and Company and Harris Comics' Vampirella in the 1990s...

, Jill Thompson

Jill Thompson

Jill Thompson is an American comic book writer and illustrator. Probably better known for her work on Neil Gaiman's The Sandman characters and her own Scary Godmother series, she has also worked on The Invisibles, Swamp Thing, and Wonder Woman.-Career:Jill Thompson illustrated The Sandman story...

, Trina Robbins

Trina Robbins

Trina Robbins is an American comics artist and writer. She was an early and influential participant in the underground comix movement, and one of the few female artists in underground comix when she started. Both as a cartoonist and historian, Robbins has long been involved in creating outlets for...

, and Molly Crabapple

Molly Crabapple

Molly Crabapple is an American artist, author and entrepreneur.The AP Wire once compared her work to "limerick shared amongst good company in a Victorian parlor."-Early life:...

, among others. The 52-page first issue included stories of the male characters Nightcrawler

Nightcrawler (comics)

Nightcrawler is a fictional character, a comic book superhero in the Marvel Universe. He has been associated with both the X-Men and Excalibur, originally appearing in comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Len Wein and artist Dave Cockrum, he debuted in Giant-Size X-Men #1...

, the Punisher, and Spider-Man

Spider-Man

Spider-Man is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko. He first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15...

 in addition to stories of the superheroines She-Hulk, Venus, and Jean Grey

Jean Grey

Jean Grey-Summers is a fictional comic book superheroine appearing in comic books published by Marvel Comics. She has been known under the aliases Marvel Girl, Phoenix, and Dark Phoenix and is best known as one of five original members of the X-Men, for her relationship with Cyclops, and for her...

. In addition, a two-page text article spotlighted Marvel Comics' Silver Age

Silver Age of Comic Books

The Silver Age of Comic Books was a period of artistic advancement and commercial success in mainstream American comic books, predominantly those in the superhero genre. Following the Golden Age of Comic Books and an interregnum in the early to mid-1950s, the Silver Age is considered to cover the...

 secretary and later independent comics publisher Flo Steinberg

Flo Steinberg

Florence "Flo" Steinberg is an American publisher of one of the first independent comic books, the underground/alternative comics hybrid Big Apple Comix, in 1975...

.

Illustrator / cartoonist Stephanie Buscema, who penciled and inked

Inker

The inker is one of the two line artists in a traditional comic book or graphic novel. After a pencilled drawing is given to the inker, the inker uses black ink to produce refined outlines over the pencil lines...

 the eight-page story featuring Venus, is a granddaughter of the major comics artist John Buscema

John Buscema

John Buscema, born Giovanni Natale Buscema , was an American comic-book artist and one of the mainstays of Marvel Comics during its 1960s and 1970s ascendancy into an industry leader and its subsequent expansion to a major pop culture conglomerate...

, whose work appeared in the first issue of the 1949 series.

External links

• Zawisza, Doug. Review: Girl Comics #1, Comic Book Resources
  Comic Book Resources
  Comic Book Resources, also known as CBR is a website dedicated to the coverage of comic book-related news and discussion.-History:Comic Book Resources was founded by Jonah Weiland in 1996 as a development of the Kingdom Come Message Board, a message forum that Weiland had created to discuss DC...
  
  , March 3, 2010
• McDonald, Amanda, and Jeff Marsick, "Best Shots Comic Reviews", Girl Comics #1 (two reviews), Newsarama
  Newsarama
  Newsarama is an American website that publishes news, interviews and essays about the American comic book industry.-History:Newsarama began in Summer 1995 as a series of Internet forum postings on the Prodigy comic-book message boards by fan Mike Doran. In these short messages. Doran shared...
  
  , March 8, 2010