IPC Barbie comics from the 1980s

[helsbels]

Hi there, I wonder if anyone out there can help? I have recently started collecting Barbie comic magazines - specifically the ones published fortnightly by IPC magazines in the late 1980s in the UK. At present I have the following issues: 1, 11, 12, 13, 14, 26, 27, 37, 38, 39, 42 and 45. The earliest, no 1 is dated 1st to 14th November 1985 and the latest one I have, no 45 is dated 10th to 23rd July 1987. I have no idea how long this series of comics lasted, but I am particularly interested in them because they feature some stories reprinted from IPC comics such as Jinty and Misty. Issue 37 saw Katy magazine merge into Barbie - the Katy comic only lasted for 10 issues (I have all these) and consisted entirely of reprinted stories from Tammy, Jinty, Misty and Tina comics. If anyone can help in any way - ie has any of these to sell, can provide further information on where I could buy them from or just general info about the comic itself - I would be most grateful.

[Muffy]

I had a look on www.26pigs.com but couldn't find anything
- good luck with your hunt helsbels - hopefully some will come up on ebay soon.

[Earl]

I have issue 1 and know the UK licence was later picked up by Marvel UK for a run of the title but I don't know how many issues the Fleetway series ran for, sorry.

[helsbels]

Well I can answer my own question - the IPC run of Barbie comics ran from 1985 to 1987 and the last issue was indeed no 45 (which I have, and never noticed the note on page 2 which stated it was the last issue!). I bought a complete set recently on ebay and I'm currently selling my doubles there.

[steelclaw]

Found this Barbie No.1 today for 50p, some OK stories, I was quite surprised they still had a cripple boy in the story 'Assignment Disney Land' I thought that was a 70's thing but this was from 1985.

[helsbels]

There's a lot of these Barbie comics selling right now on ebay - auctions ending in next few minutes!

[philcom55]

I'm not sure if he drew her from no.1 but the legendary Spanish artist José "Pepe" Gonzalez is known to have spent some time illustrating Egmont's Barbie strip. Gonzalez, who died in 2009, started out drawing British girls' comics such as Valentine during the 1960s, though he is probably best remembered in the US for his later depiction of James Warren's exotic Vampirella (a heroic female vampire whose adventures, it has to be said, were aimed mainly at adolescent boys). It's widely felt that his best 'Vampi' work was produced during a period when he found himself reunited with Valentine's old editor Mike Butterworth.

- Phil Rushton

[RuthB]

That cver is Trini Tinture's and so is Assignment Dysneyland. Mystery of Marsh Stables is Santiago Hernandez, for sure.

[stevezodiac]

I came across Barbie no. 1 from 1985 today but the free gift bangle is in a separate bag with loads of other comic free gifts. I found a pink tubular plastic bangle, would that be the correct fee gift for this comic?