Welcome to Mistycomic.co.uk, the web-space dedicated to the fondly-loved publication from the late 1970's. For those of you who have followed the journey, the text and illustrations below may be familiar. For those that are visiting the site for the first time, "welcome" and I hope the text enlightens you as to how an original labour of love caught the attention of many of the children lost in the mists of time.

 

I had a partial collection of "Misty", and when I was off ill from work in October 2002 I pulled them out of storage to revisit my childhood days. As my collection was incomplete, I decided to try and hunt out any missing issues which I could pick up. I searched long and hard on the internet as well as at comic fairs, and found any issues or information to be sparse. I had time on my hands and therefore decided to try and complete my collection of comics, as well as trying my first attempt at building my very first web page. As both "projects" were running in parallel, and the re-reading of the old issues helped me through my illness, the decision was made to base my first site on "Misty".

 

The hardest part initially was to collate the source material. EBay has become very useful for this, but the issues up for auction are very rare. I had a run of about 86 issues (out of 101 weekly issues), many in various states of wear due to the removing of the centre pages - I fondly recall my days joining Misty whilst playing " Play Misty", and gazing up to the bedroom wall at the Calendars which were published.

I managed to secure a full set of the weekly issues, with the only omissions being the 2 gifts from issues 2 and 3. I had been very lucky to secure Issue 1 with the free gift attached, but at a price. That one issue alone cost me nearly £100. All pages of these issues were intact and therefore served as excellent source material when re-scanning for the site. Whilst collecting the issues, specials and annuals, I have had to make many a serious a purchase to get the issues I was looking for and had so far to that date spent nearly £1,000 on trying to complete my collection. I still had some gaps to fill, but I did not want to delay my web site idea, as I thought the 25th Anniversary would be an opportune time to launch it.

 

My original concept was to try and recreate the look and feel of the comic as well as take on the role of Misty. Also I wanted to try and create a site of source material honouring the comic which was lacking on the internet. Very ambitiously, my goal in time was not only to have every issue, special and annual available to read online or download-able as a .pdf document, but also to try and add something new.

 

The site was launched in December 2002 and I was surprised at the interest it gathered so quickly - especially how it has been so difficult to get onto the search engines. What had heartened me so is that people have been genuinely touched by a short lived comic which was ahead of its time and had allowed them to remember how much it affected them in a very positive way. One particular email I received mentioned how a girl now in her 30’s considered herself to be "ordinary" - no doubt the traps of age and the 21st Century - but by reliving the past through the comic made her feel good again. This alone was worth the time and money invested in setting up the site.

 

Since setting up the web-site, my main aim was to try and create an historical archive of Misty for others to enjoy and to create a comprehensive record of one of the great British comics. As the web-site was launched, I also saw it as a platform for other fans to reminisce and enjoy as much as I do.

 

Thank you all again for all your support. Without it you would not be reading this now. I hope you enjoy the "new look" site and its many new features and I welcome any suggestions you may have to develop the site.

Let's hope that the memory of "Misty" continues for another 25 years.

Your friends of Misty

October 2007

Check out Let’s Hear It For The Girls a history of girls’ comics.