AS THE sassy schoolgirl looking for adventure, Bunty was one of the biggest-selling comics of the 1960s and 1970s.

And now, 50 years later, Oxfordshire designer and entrepreneur Paula Daly has brought the comic-strip heroine back to life.

Ms Daly, from Moulsford near Wallingford, has bought licensing rights from Beano publisher DC Thomson to launch a range of Bunty products through her firm, Mouse to Minx.

She said: “I am a big Bunty fan, particularly of her adventurous character and cut-out wardrobe, so approached the publishers to ask their permission.

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“They loved my ideas and said ‘let’s do it’.”

The 51-year-old fine-art graduate had a mini-adventure of her own last year, when she travelled to DC Thomson’s hometown Dundee to spend two days trawling through the Bunty archives.

She has also spent weeks painstakingly restoring images, before transforming them into designs for textile print.

She added: “DC Thomson allowed me to rummage in their archives, so I was like a kid in a sweet shop.

“They had the original films but only black-and-white outlines, so I have put back the colour.

“As you would expect after more than 40 years, I had to digitally enhance them but have been as faithful as possible in reproducing the colour and kept the integrity of the original drawn lines, so they still have a lovely sketched quality to them.”

Her first range, based on a Bunty story Four Marys, which ran in 1961, includes an apron, oven mitts, tea cosy and tea towels. And in a few months, Ms Daly is launching a crowd-funding campaign to raise £5,000-£10,000 to help her produce more Bunty products, including mugs and fashion accessories.

She will also use the cash to pay for a stand at a London trade show visited by retail buyers.

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