Jinty 1 August 1981

(Cover artist: Mario Capaldi)

• Dracula’s Daughter (artist Mario Capaldi)
• Holiday Hideaway (artist Phil Gascoine)
• For Pete’s Sake – text story (artist Mario Capaldi)
• The Witching Bones – Gypsy Rose (artist Veronica Weir)
• Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost (artist Hugh Thornton-Jones)
• Snoopa (artist Joe Collins)
• Tansy of Jubilee Street (artist Peter Wilkes)
• Angela’s Angels (artist Leo Davy)
• The Sweet and Sour Rivals (artist Carlos Cruz)
• Worlds Apart (artist Guy Peeters)

Here we in the era of the cover-sized versions of the spot illustrations that Mario Capaldi drew for the text stories inside. Way back in the early days of Jinty there were some text stories, but they were sporadic and soon disappeared. But in 1981 they started again. And this time it was not only on a regular basis but the text stories took prominence by being featured exclusively on the cover. It is intriguing to ponder on the reasons for the resurgence in text stories. There had been a resurgence of text stories, in the form of Misty, which featured them regularly, and her text stories produced classics such as “The Doorway to Evil” and “The Little White Dot”. But Misty‘s text stories faded not long after she merged with Tammy in 1980. Yet the text story was revived in Jinty in 1981. Perhaps it was due to changeovers in the editing teams?

Another thing to note about the cover is that it drops the Penny logo.

“Pam of Pond Hill”, which used to appear first in a Jinty issue, has been stopped for the moment. The last episode concluded with an invitation to readers to ask for it back. Meanwhile, “Dracula’s Daughter” is now the first story we see when we open a copy of Jinty.

The Gypsy Rose stories of 1981 were reprint now (with perhaps a few exceptions). They were either older Gypsy Roses or, more often, reprints of Strange Stories which substituted Gypsy Rose for the Storyteller. This did enable Jinty readers to see some artwork from non-Jinty artists, such as John Armstrong and Tony Higham.

This time the Gypsy Rose tale is a cautionary tale about bullying, and maybe about not messing around with spells. Mandy obtains a spell to use against a couple of bullies who pick on her and call her a witch. Afterwards, both girls end up in hospital. The spell turns out to be a joke one, but Mandy does not know what to think: was it coincidence or did she cause the accidents somehow? The bullies have no doubt she did, but they stop picking on her. The story looks like another recycled Strange Story but I am a bit puzzled as to where the original print might be.

This week’s episode of “Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost” is a highlight. Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn drop in after a misunderstanding gets Sir Roger on the wrong side of Henry – and we all know what that will mean! But Henry gets more than he bargained for when he gets on the wrong side of Gaye for eating the Sunday dinner. She calls him an “over-stuffed spectre!” and chases him off with a broom. “Verily, thou has a right one there!” Henry tells Sir Roger, “And I thought I wast hag-ridden!”