Beginning with this issue, Jinty, or rather, Jinty & Penny, switched to sports covers drawn by Mario Capaldi. Later, Jinty would run features on sporting tips, probably in line with the covers. The sports covers must have brought more emphasis to the sports stories that Jinty was known for, but it may have been unfair to her other types of stories, particularly the science fiction stories she was also known for. The change in cover may also reflect the change in editorship that occurred around this time.
(Cover artist: Mario Capaldi)
- Pam of Pond Hill (artist Bob Harvey)
- Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost (artist Hugh Thornton-Jones)
- Tearaway Trisha (artist Andrew Wilson)
- Seulah the Seal (artist Veronica Weir)
- The Venetian Looking Glass (artist Phil Gascoine)
- Alley Cat
- Tansy of Jubilee Street (artist Ken Houghton)
- The Magic Hockey Stick – Gypsy Rose story (artist Dudley Wynne)
- Blind Faith (artist Phil Townsend)
A Resource on Jinty: Artists, Writers, Stories 
In noticed that this issue of Jinty is for two weeks: 21 and 28 June 1980. Because of the date printed on the cover you at least knew you had to wait two weeks before you could inhale a brand new dose of your beloved Jinty. But what about the following issues: 28 Dec. 74, 4 Jan. 75, 11 Jan. 75, 9 Dec .78, 16 Dec. 78, 23 Dec. 78, 17 May 80, 24 May 80, 31 May 80, 7 Jun. 80? It seems there was no Jinty on these dates. Was this due to strikes? Or was there some other reason?
Yes, I believe it was those strikes. One strike would fell Tammy completely in 1984. I wonder why IPC was so prone to strikes?
There were a lot of strikes in the UK generally in the 70s – but of course they are tied into Union activity, which DC Thomson didn’t allow. Alison Fitt mentioned in an email that when she joined IPC she had to join the NUJ. I think that union were fairly keen on strikes at the time.
A minor detail: from this issue onwards, there was no price anymore for South Africa on the cover. It might be interesting to know if Jinty didn’t sell well enough over there, or that it was political, and that someone from the government had decided to put the country more in isolation from the rest of the world because of the ongoing apartheid.
I think it’s very unlikely to be political or originating in the government. I could imagine it might be a response to declining sales.