Denis Gifford was a British writer, broadcaster, journalist, comic artist, and historian of film, comics, television, and radio. Many long-running British weekly comic anthologies began in the 1930s, including Beano which is now the world’s longest running comic, leading Gifford to define the decade as “the Golden Age of British Comics” in his 1984 publication, International Book of Comics.

I’m not going to argue with Gifford on this point too much, although I do think that a similar claim could be made of the 1950s. This was the decade when sales of Beano reached their peak, and we began to see the era of the girls’ comics with the launch of Girl and Bunty, the latter of which remaining in weekly circulation until 2000 when it changed to a monthly publication, before eventually folding in 2001. The annuals continued to be printed until the 2009 edition.

I grew up reading Bunty and M&J (a merged Mandy and Judy) in the 90s, M&J eventually swallowed up by Bunty. I was 15 when the now-monthly comic ceased to be, and although I was considered too old to still be reading it, I still enjoyed flicking through the pages when out of sight of others and was secretly gutted when the final issue was announced. Not publicly gutted however, I was a fifteen year old in her emo era. I had an image to maintain and liking Bunty just wasn’t cool. The internet was new and shiny, and comic sales were down. The last of the girls’ comics had fallen, and it was Beano and Dandy left still standing, although it would only be a few years before Dandy also folded.

If the 2000s looked like doom and gloom, the 2020s are a time for celebration. In my 2024 dissertation, Beyond the Panel: A Study of Toxic Masculinity in British Children’s Comics from Post-War to the New Golden Age, I make the claim that 2020 marks the start of The New Golden Age. Beano may be the last of the original children’s comic anthologies still in print, but weekly circulation figures remain in the tens of thousands. This figure may be tiny compared to the hey day, but many children are now reading comics digitally. In 2023, Readly suggested that there was a 31% increase in comic readership year on year. Beano is one publication available through the app. David Fickling’s weekly comic, The Phoenix, continues to grow in popularity, with children all over the country (indeed, the world as I discovered after a conversation at a bookselling conference in the USA) waiting on tenterhooks each week for the latest edition to drop through their door.

At this point, although the terms “comic” and “comics” are used to describe the printed anthologies, it is worth reminding people that the  “comic” refers to the medium. Yes, the sales of weekly comics are down compared to decades past. But the medium hasn’t lost popularity. It’s merely the format in which the medium accessed that has changed. The internet has made it possible for people to publish comics online, thus bringing about the advancement of webtoons and webcomics. Indeed, Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper began life as a webcomic on Tumblr and Tapas, racking up a staggering 124 million views to date, with over a million print copies sold. Jamie Smart routinely dominates the children’s charts with Bunny Vs Monkey, and both Oseman and Smart have won Illustrator of the Year in the British Book Awards in 2023, and 2024 respectively. Simply put, the medium is thriving. It is merely the format that has changed; Beano and The Phoenix continue to fly the flag for the weeklies, but graphic novels and printed volumes of comics are becoming more popular, as seen by the regular appearance of Smart and USA’s Dav Pilkey in the Nielson book charts. Comics and graphic novels are beginning to be recognised more and more in various  book awards, with The Week Junior introducing a graphic novel category in their 2024 awards, and 50% of the Children’s Illustrated Book of the Year Shortlist in the 2025 British Book Awards being made up by graphic novels.

Sales are up. Smart and Oseman are becoming household names. Manga is growing in popularity, and as a bookseller, it is the graphic novels bookcase that I struggle to keep stocked. My point is further reinforced by The Guardian article today reporting that sales of children’s comics and graphic novels in Britain have reached an all time high of almost £20m. And it’s not really surprising. Comics are fun. They can be serious. The interplay between words and pictures is fascinating; they can interact in a way to provide a unified meaning, or be played off against each other to convey something different. Visual literacy is such an important skill, and I believe that the importance of comics as a medium is underestimated by too many people.

Increased sales are pointing at increased popularity. I have countless conversations with children desperate to talk to me about Bumble & Snug, or what Looshkin is up to. Sometimes they come in, proudly brandishing a comic they have made for me to read. And you know what? They are awesome.

We are in a New Golden Age of British Children’s Comics.

Now, we need to nurture it. Publishers, it’s over to you to expand that space.