Surface Reflections

This chapter examines the use of Gothic symbols, settings and archetypes in the context of gender. It pays particular attention to the use of the double, the Other, and associated symbols such as mirrors and masks, arguing that these are used to explore the limits of female identity and to interrogate issues of control and change. It also analyzes the settings of the Misty stories, demonstrating that these often contain an intrusion of the past into the present, creating the ‘Gothic cusp’, which manifests as an uncanny feeling of dislocation. It concludes by exploring the treatment of Gothic archetypes (focusing particularly on witches, vampires, and ghosts), and reveals that these appear less than might be expected, and are frequently handled subversively or sympathetically.

A Taxonomy of Terror

This chapter develops the previous discussion by examining Misty’suse of Gothic themes in its stories. It discusses the typical themes of the Misty tales, using qualitative and quantitative research into the entire corpus of 443 stories. This chapter reflects on various claims about Misty’s content, and applies Pat Mills’ girls’ comics formulae (slave, Cinderella, friend, mystery) to its stories. It then suggests an alternative approach developed from the author’s analysis of plot summaries to produce an inductive list of common plot tropes (such as external magical, internal power, backfiring actions, and more). It relates these tropes to established Gothic themes (ambivalence, redemption) and concludes that, although the fare of Misty was not as consistently negative as readers might remember, it was perhaps more shocking due to inconsistency with moral ‘rules’.

Horror and Gothic in the 1970s

This chapter considers some of the possible influences on Misty, drawing links with other comics as well as a wider tradition of horror across multiple media in 1970s Britain. It explores the surrounding atmosphere of cultural horror, looking closely at the political context of 1970s Britain, which manifests in the presence of social commentary in Misty. It explores the large number of tales that revolve around animal rights, environmental issues, or social commentary (delinquency, poverty, and so forth). It then considers the surrounding atmosphere of British cultural and literary horror, with a particular focus on the horror and mystery stories being offered to children and shown on television and in schools. It argues that Misty’s stories are strongly influenced by the atmosphere of cultural horror emerging in Britain in the 1970s and particularly by ideas of transgression and punishment expressed in horror cinema and public information films.

Leaving these Misty Isles

This chapter considers the comic’s demise and Misty’s dwindling appearances in Tammy, looking closely at the material produced after Misty’soriginal run ended and the memories of its readers. It discusses the possible reasons for the comic’s termination and looks more closely at the process of merging Misty into Tammy, demonstrating how Misty’s rolewas significantly altered and weakened. It identifies some of Misty’s international appearances in countries such as France, Sweden, Germany and Canada, and analyzes these reprints. It closely examines the material included in the British annuals and reprints during the 1980s, and summarizes the millennial re-emergence of Misty in fan websites, fanzines and other tribute publications, and reprinted and new material from Egmont and Rebellion.

Visceral Visuals

This chapter explores Misty’s artistry and layout in more detail, using close analysis of a randomized sample of ten issues. It performs quantitative analysis, noting the appearance of page features such as borders, tiers, panel shapes, and so forth. Its aims are to (1) explore the use of artistic layout in Misty; (2) investigate the sufficiency and usefulness of existing comics theorists’ taxonomies of page layouts; and (3) consider the usefulness of Gothic theory in understanding aspects of page layout. It finds that Misty’s stories play with aesthetic and medium by using dramatic layouts and non-standard panelling. The pages seldom adhere to standard models taken from established comics theory (Groensteen, Peeters, Cohn) such as grids, tiers and so forth. They do however fit well with definitions of Gothic aesthetic (Farber, Spoonre) such as exaggerated shadows/chiaroscuro; distorted proportions; skewed angles; asymmetry; baroque or intricate ornamentation; and motifs of age or decay.