Nikki, cover date 31 August 1985

Was this the most progressive children’s comic cover of 1985?

Sadly not. In Four’s Company, this week’s Short Story in Nikki, Kevin isn’t keen on Fiona, but only because he wants to get Kay away from Alan. What a tangled web! I can’t identify the artist, I’m afraid.

Nikki was a comic launched in 1985, seemingly as a streetwise alternative to more traditional, old-school titles like Bunty. There were No Marys in Nikki; this was the comic of Marilyn, Sam, Megan, Lisa and Julie. It made Saturday pocket money-spending suggestions.

Nikki’s lead strip was a strong identifier of where it saw itself in the market. The Comp was a secondary school-based soap, similar to Grange Hill, with a wide cast of characters (third-years, so 13-14 years old) replaced every so often as they moved up through the school years.

It seems a strong concept and apparently popular as it lasted all of Nikki’s four-and-a-half-year run, then another twelve years in Bunty. There’s a great blog post on the serial (and plenty more on Nikki) on the fantastic Girls Comics of Yesterday website http://girlscomicsofyesterday.com/2016/04/the-comp-2/

This week’s episode is a good demonstration of The Comp’s broad scope, as it switches between two completely separate storylines (reminiscent of Grange Hill). This seems unusual for comic serials of the time. Andrea Skiffington wrote the script; artist possibly Ron Lumsden?

Other serials in this issue include ‘Don’t Be So Clever Katy!’, in which a twin tries to sabotage her sister’s academic success to stop her being sent away to a top school, and Why Did they Lie to Me? (art Tom Hurst), another sibling story, this time about adopted sisters.

Nikki carried a lot of good reader engagement, including a letters page (NB. sinister Savile mention), and the Bike Shed Wall on which readers got to post important messages to each other. Micky was a wallybrain, according to Norther Ireland’s Julie and Julie.