Comics and Crochet

When I was little, me and my brothers were avid readers of the Beano and the Dandy. Pocket money was spent on the comics and Christmas time meant that we got the annuals. I was even a member of the Dennis the Menace fanclub (D.I.N.G...). As we grew older these comics started to seem childish. Whilst my brothers progressed on to Marvel comics and the like, I was left with cheesy comic strip photo stories in Jackie magazine. So by the time I was in my teens, reading comics just wasn't for me anymore. In more recent years, film has got me reading comics again. Ghost World, American Splendor and Persepolis are all great graphic novels that have crossed over in to film. One of my favourite books that I have read this year is a comic strip (Psychiatric Tales by Darryl Cunningham if you are wondering). And yet girls and women don't really talk (at least not in public) about reading comics. Team Girl Comic is a local all-female comic collective trying to get more females (young & old) creating comics. On Tuesday as part of Glasgow Comic Con they held a workshop asking 'what do women and girls want from comics, and what are we going to do about it'.
It was a really interesting event, and produced quite a bit of discussion. From a bit of the history of girl comics throughout the years, encouraging comic reading in the curriculum, comic book stores, to creating comic strips as a way of communication. An encouraging statistic was that 40% of the Dandy's current readership is female. I must admit on my way home I had a quick flick through the Dandy in WH Smiths (yes, I do realise that I am going to be 32 next week!). Desperate Dan has had a makeover, and Harry Hill has his own comic strip - things have certainly changed!
PS, I think I have finally figured what a double and what a treble is! :)