A Blast to the Past: Barbie Comic Books

As much as I am a manga fan, I am not a real big western comic book fanatic. Part of it has to do with the lack of influence, and the other part deals with the fact that, even as a kid, I did not like the western drawing style compared to the eastern ones. However, there were two comic series that I enjoyed and collect. One is the Archie comic books, which I still collect until this day. The other is now a defunct series of Marvel’s Barbie and Barbie Fashion lines. These comic books were released in the early 90s until about 1995.

These comics focused on Barbie and her friends. In each issue, Barbie proved to be a jack-of-all-trades. She changes jobs along with her outfits and her hair. I mean, come on. She goes from being a model to a fashion designer to an Indy 500 participant and even ends up in space as a model! Several stories exposes how she’s perfect — sweet and kind to the core. At the end of each issue, she is wearing several outfits readers and fans submitted and a section that shows fan letters. I am unsure how popular these comics were, but I assume they were popular enough to win the Parent’s Choice Award two years in a row.

Award or not, I was fascinated by seeing Barbie in a 2-dimensional setting. Her hair and her clothes awed me. I was swept away with each story, wanting more, wanting to remain in that world Marvel has created for girls like me. I was able to collect (or should I say my daddy bought them for me?) about 19 issues before the series went kaput. I didn’t even know they had stopped producing these. All I know is that my dad didn’t buy them any more! I wished they didn’t stop! I threw or gave away many “girly” stuff in the past, such as my own Barbie dolls, but I chose to keep these comic books — well all my comic books, actually. Speaking of wishes, I also wished I had taken good care of these books! The pictures will tell it all!

These are the ones with the covers . . . still there, and no they are not necessarily attached to the books.

And these are the ones without the covers. Yes, I take really wonderful care of my possessions. Well, I didn’t back then as a kid, but I think now I do a better job!