(Thanks to Lew Stringer for alerting me to this new annual of IPC Fleetway girls comics material: it is sold exclusively in Sainsbury so there is little information on the internet about it.)
Contents:
- Jokes: Fun Spot and Fun Time
- Bella at the Bar (artist John Armstrong)
- At the Midnight Hour (text story)
- Fancy Dressing Up? (feature)
- Bessie Bunter
- Good news for the birthday girl! (feature)
- The Strange Story: Called to Save
- Jokes: Fun Time
- Friend of Alison (text story)
- See Yourself – In Your True Colours (feature)
- Sally Was A Cat
- Tammy Jokes
- How To Make Baubles, Bangles, & Beads (craft feature)
- Beattie Beats ‘Em All! (artist John Armstrong)
- Holly Takes The Plunge! (text story)
- Beauty From The Fridge (feature)
- No Tears For Molly (writer Maureen Spurgeon, artist Tony Thewenetti)
- Bag of Tricks! (craft feature)
- Crocodile, Crocodile! More Fun With Minna From Mars (artist Colin Merritt)
- Put Your Cards On The Table! (feature)
- The Osmonds (pin-up)
- Jokes: Fun Spot and Five More Fun Spots
As a reader of British girls’ comics, overall I think this is reasonably well-balanced as a selection; I’m not that fond of text stories generally but they do give you something chewy to go back and read once you’ve devoured the comics (always my primary focus), and it includes a reasonable range of kinds of comic story too, as well as some of the usual kinds of features. As a particular fan of Jinty, with my Jinty-blinkers on, I was pretty disappointed with how little material from ‘my’ title showed up in this annual – the cover image is from the Jinty annual of 1975, and it is possible that some of the jokes or features are taken from an issue that I don’t recall, but none of the stories do*. Fans of Tammy will find more in it that they remember.
That aside, it is a publication that I will be happy to share with my young daughter even if it doesn’t trip the nostalgia-button that the publishers may have been expecting. It’s not that large a book – 72 pages is thinner than the usual run of annuals – but it has some fun items to look through with her, without me needing to trust fragile forty-year-old paper to her tender mercies.
* Edited to add: “Minna From Mars” is taken from the 1976 Jinty Annual, but there is no representation of any of the stories from the regular Jinty weekly issues.
A Resource on Jinty: Artists, Writers, Stories 
A best of girls annual from DCT and IPC this year! I hope to see this trend continuing 🙂
Indeed! I must look out for the DCT annual too. Have you got it?
Ironic that it has no Jinty content, yet the cover is reprinted from a Jinty annual.
Indeed. 😦 Although, searching for the artist for “Minna From Mars”, I find that it was printed in the 1976 Jinty annual! Which I even have, but as this isn’t a story from the weekly issues, I don’t know it as well. I’d thought it must have been reprinted from elsewhere to be honest, which I still suspect could well have been the case; it doesn’t have a strong Jinty ‘feel’.
Minna from Mars was originally Vanessa from Venus (June). They just changed her name and home planet.
How interesting, and rather weird. I do wonder why they do that sort of thing!
Strange I tried replying to this yesterday and the comment hasn’t appeared. I have gotten the Bunty Annual, it’s very nicely put together. As far as I know you can only get it online, it’s 7.99 but postage is free in UK. I blogged about here: http://girlscomicsofyesterday.com/2014/10/the-best-of-bunty/
Sorry! For some reason it appeared in Spam, which it shouldn’t have done as you have commented before. I have spotted and approved it now, many thanks!
The annual was 1976. Back then Jinty was not old enough to start reprinting her own material and her annuals were reprinting material from older comics. The Jinty annuals reprinted several old June serials such as “Sheilagh’s Shadow”. Some of them turned up under revised titles such as Vanessa/Minna.
Interesting that Holly Takes the Plunge is here. She appeared in both the first and last Jinty annuals, and I suspect she was taken from elsewhere to begin with.
I do agree that the art looks a little more old fashioned than the ones that seem a little more likely to be original to Jinty.