| Marilyn | |
|---|---|
 The cover toMarilyn,dated 5 September 1959. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Amalgamated Press 1955 to 1959 Fleetway Publications 1959 to 1965 |
| Schedule | Weekly |
| Format | Ongoing series |
| Genre | |
| Publication date | 19 March 1955 – 18 November 1965 |
| No. of issues | 547 or 549[a] |
| Creative team | |
| Written by | Eileen Corduroy Jim Edgar Barbara Hale Derek Long Joan Whitford |
| Artist(s) | María Barrera Daniel Billon Joan Riley Vicente Roso Manfred Sommer K. M. Waterson |
| Editor(s) | Robert Lewis |
Marilyn was aBritishgirlsromance comic published weekly byAmalgamated Press andFleetway Publications between 19 March 1955 and 18 November 1965. It ran for between 547 and 549 issues[a] before merging withValentine.
Amalgamated Press editor Robert Lewis had launched the digest-sizedLove Picture Library in 1950 and found an unexpected audience with older girls and young women. A companion volume,True Life, joined it in 1952 and was again a strong seller, and in 1955 the company decided to publish Britain's first weekly romance comic.[2]Marilyn was a 24-pagenewsprint title, featuringduotone front covers (with a red overlay) and monochrome interiors. Inside it featured a mix of picture strips (both standalone and serialised stories), text stories and a smattering of features such ashoroscopes and anagony aunt, in the form of Joan Courage.[3] The comic was published every Thursday.[1][4]
Lewis initially drew the contributors forMarilyn from the Picture Library staff,[3] with scripts written by the likes of Eileen Corduroy, Jim Edgar, Barbara Hale, Derek Long and Joan Whitford (who was also a hugely popular writer of Westerns forSun,Comet andKnockout under the pen name Barry Ford[5]), and art contributed by Joan Riley and K. M. Waterson.[3] The comic was aimed atworking class teenagers and women.[6]
The first issue featured a free "Persian Love Ring".[1]Marilyn was a swift success, so much so that Amalgamated Press swiftly launched more titles, with weekliesValentine (1957),Roxy (1958) andSerenade (1962).[7] The titles were further enhanced whenFleetway Publications (as Amalgamated Press had become when they were purchased by theMirror Group in 1960) began employing overseas art studios. María Barrera, Daniel Billon, Vicente Roso andManfred Sommer were among those to contribute toMarilyn.[3] Susan Brewer has speculated that the title was probably named for actressMarilyn Monroe.[8] Sales reached 400,000 copies,[9] andMarilyn even sponsored a concert onRadio Luxembourg, featuringRonnie Hilton backed by the Jackie Brown Orchestra.[10] Other tie-ins includedMarilyn Screen Test records, in which aspiring starlets could act out a scene with a star by purchasing a record featuring a recording of a male heart-throb's dialogue and a script for the response.[11]
Later issues included celebrity columns, including "Trad Times" and "Jazz Mirror", purportedly edited byMr. Acker Bilk andKenny Ball respectively, and by 1964 "Beatlebox" sawThe Beatles apparently answering readers' questions; the Fab Four's responses to poems, camera trickery inA Hard Day's Night andRingo's real name were in fact from the pen ofNEMS Enterprises press officerTony Barrow.[12] However, rival publishers also got in on the act - and the mid-1960sDC Thomson'sJackie andRomeo had successfully eclipsed the Fleetway titles as the fashionable choice.[3] As the oldest title,Marilyn was considered the most dated and was incorporated intoValentine in 1965, where "Beatlebox" would continue.[3][8][7]
In 2018Rebellion Developments purchased the rights to the pre-1970 Amalgamated Press/Fleetway/IPC comic titles, includingMarilyn.[13][14] However, this did not include a complete archive as much of the original artwork and negatives had long been lost, instead having to be scanned from original comics and artwork either from private purchases or loaned by collectors.2000 AD artist and comics historianDavid Roach curated an anthology of romance comics for Rebellion'sTreasury of British Comics label calledA Very British Affair: The Best of Classic Romance Comics in 2023, and noted that even fewer original issues survived than of boys' comics. In the book's introduction he suggested that early issues ofMarilyn in particular may no longer exist.[3] He was however able to include four stories fromMarilyn in the collection, which received positive reviews.[15][16]