Lovecraft opens by claiming “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” He then goes on to point out that the “spectral macabre” demands “imagination”, mobilizing our fears of the world around us into a “literature of cosmic fear”. Wisker identifies Lovecraft’s (1927) Supernatural Horror in Literature as the first major text that locates and defines supernatural horror. Scholarship struggles with content-based definitions and often subsumes horror within Gothic (or vice versa), depending on the writer’s critical perspective or the medium being discussed.
The terminology blurs and contradicts, and particular meanings can be hard to separate. Gina Wisker (149) argues that “…not everything that is Gothic is horror”. The longest-running British girls’ comic, Bunty (DC Thomson, 1958–2001), lasted for 2249 issues and 43 years, while at the time of writing 2000AD has just reached its 40th anniversary. By comparison, British girls’ comics have never received the same attention and respect, despite having many of the same creators and at their peak both outselling and outlasting the boys’ titles. These offered science fiction, superhero and dystopic tales that challenged readers’ assumptions and expectations. Alternatively, some older readers might argue that the jewels of British comics are titles such as 2000AD (IPC, 1977-present) or Warrior (Quality Communications, 1982–1985). The British comics industry is perhaps best known for children’s humour titles such as The Dandy (DC Thomson, 1937-present) and the Beano (DC Thomson, 1938-present), which began the golden age of British comics. This article is published as part of a collection on Gothic and horror. It concludes by summarising the study’s findings and suggesting that these comics offer a “Gothic for Girls” that is part cautionary tale and part bildungsroman. It argues that both comics rework Gothic themes into new forms that are relevant to their pre-teen and teenage readers. Finally, it considers a selection of stories from both comics and analyses their common themes using Gothic critical theory. It uses comics theory and Gothic cinematic theory to demonstrate that the appearance of Misty is more strongly Gothic than the aesthetic of Spellbound. The article then looks closely at both titles’ aesthetics and their use of the page to draw comparisons. It discovers that both comics offer similar fare, with a subversive streak that undercuts established horror archetypes. Firstly, it closely considers and compares the structure and content of their stories with respect to theories of the terror and horror Gothic.
The article situates these comics with respect to Gothic critical theory and within the wider landscape of British girls’ comics. These mystery anthology comics followed the more famous American horror comics from publishers like EC Comics - but were aimed at pre-teen girls. This article is a case study of the 1970s British girls’ comics Spellbound (DC Thomson, 1976–1977) and Misty (IPC, 1978–1980).