From June 1980, Jinty had started to run specially-drawn covers by Mario Capaldi, rather than using images from inside the comic. They were striking and beautiful, though I confess to a preference for the ones that gave you more of an idea of the contents of each issue.
“Blind Faith” is particularly worth noticing in this issue; despite being beautifully drawn by Phil Townsend, I mark it down as one of the more ridiculous stories ever run in Jinty becaase, not content with blind ballerinas and stuttering or dumb heroines, here is the reductio ad absurdum of the genre with, yes, a blind showjumping horse. (Mind you, I did comment on this story to Barrie Mitchell at Raptus in 2003, he told me that there had been a real news item he’d seen once, about an actual blind showjumping horse! As they say on Wikipedia, ‘citation needed’, but I’m sure truth can be stranger than fiction…)
The Gypsy Rose story this issue is possibly a reprint; the artist is the same as drew “Wild Horse Summer” in the early days of Jinty. It has the feel of something possibly taken from a more old-fashioned, ‘classic’ girls comic.
Stories in this issue:
- Pam of Pond Hill (artist Bob Harvey, writer Jay Over)
- Gaye’s Gloomy Ghost (artist Hugh Thornton-Jones)
- Tears of a Clown (artist Phil Gascoine)
- Gypsy Rose, ‘Pictures of Peril’
- Tansy of Jubilee Street (artist Ken Houghton)
- A Spell of Trouble (artist Trini Tinturé)
- Minnow (artist Peter Wilkes)
- Blind Faith (artist Phil Townsend)
- Alley Cat
Yes, the Gypsy Rose story was a Strange Story reprint.