While pre-war story papers had produced female-orientated titles such as the original School Friend and Girls' Crystal, in the aftermath of World War II comic books such as Amalgamated Press' Comic Cuts and Knockout or DC Thomson's The Dandy and The Beano were considered unisex titles, and were primarily humorous in content.

Even after the war had ended, new titles needed government approval, while a steady stream of American imports came across the Atlantic on merchant ships as comic books made ideal ballast.

[4] The initial line-up was composed of five picture strips and three text stories, as well as other prose features[6] The former included a trio of serials - "The Silent Three of St.

Kit's boarding school — Betty Roland, Joan Derwent and Peggy West — who band together as a secret society against the tyranny of the head prefect, later also fighting crime wearing numbered masks and hooded green robes – a familiar trope from girls' story papers.

[7] Another stalwart from the debut issue was "Jill Crusoe," featuring a plucky castaway with a young friend who soon gained native, leopard and parrot sidekicks.

Like "The Silent Three", Jill would return frequently in adventures drawn by Reginald Ben Davis, who would become one of the title's most prolific artists.

The other was Dilly Dreem, a cheerful but hapless bumbler with oversized spectacles forever resting on the very tip of her nose whose single-page humour strip proclaimed her to be a "loveable duffer".

[17] While many of the stories revolved around similar premises – secret societies, wrongly accused heroines, plucky girls getting caught up in some passing intrigue, Alpine skiing schools, romantic history tales – the comic did occasionally stray into supernatural-tinged adventures on occasion, such as with "Phantom Ballerina" and "Jane and the Ghostly Hound", which owed a debt to the Gothic romance.

[6] While the comic was primarily read by working class girls, School Friend featured many so-called 'aspirational' stories depicting upper class activities;[25] few of those reading would ever experience boarding schools, holidays in Switzerland or even horse-riding personally but stories revolving around such activities were wildly popular.