(comment sent by email)
I was interested to read about your computer programme designed to identify authors. If you need another story to test, Alan was the author of the brilliant “Paint It Black” – although this was for Misty, not Jinty [faint carbon copy of one of his invoices attached]. I have carbon copies of some of his actual scripts for various publications, when I can find them, although I know these will be equally faint.
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[editorial comment] Of course I need hardly say that any scripts or further information on Alan Davidson and what he wrote will be extremely welcome! The words ‘eager anticipation’ come to mind.
A Resource on Jinty: Artists, Writers, Stories 
Very interesting. I guess the GBP 51 was for a single episode? Or was it GBP 5,100 for the complete story? The 18 could mean episode 18 (the final of this story) or 18 episodes in total.
£5100? If only! This invoice was for Episode 18 – there were several more after that.
The last episode of Paint it Black ran in Misty issue 18 – there were 18 episodes in total as far as I can see.
That is correct.
With these rates for an episode, it seems quite unfair writers and artists didn’t get paid for reprints and sales to foreign publishers.
Based on the Retail Price Index (inflation changes) £51 at that time is the equivalent of around £280 nowadays (according to this site http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-1633409/Historic-inflation-calculator-value-money-changed-1900.html). Last time I worked out this sort of thing there was a wide range of results, depending on what measure you used, though 🙂
So that would mean that most writers could not make a living out of writing just one episode a week. I wonder what the rates were for artists. They must have been higher, I guess, because I think it takes longer to draw a page than to write one.
There were some costs that were a lot lower at the time – housing for instance has gone up disproportionately. But yes, as per your other comment, very unfair on the creators not to be paid for the reprints and translations!
Interesting that your computer project is leading to more information about writers in unexpected ways!
Brilliant stuff! Can’t wait to find out whatelse Alan Davidson wrote!
A professional comic strip writer would usually be writing more than one episode of one ongoing story a week. Angus Allan was at one point writing all the strips in Look-in (an average of six or seven) as well as features, and other material for other publications, such as short stories. So a pro could make a good living, if prolific enough.
Yes, Alison Christie also says that at one (extreme) moment she was writing as many as six stories at once.
I can now see why a lot of writers had to write more than one story at the same time. Some of them must have done the writing on a part-time basis, combined with other jobs. The Tammy credits do reveal that some writers appeared infrequently while others were more regular.
this is really interesting – and would definitely love to see any scripts!
You can see one page of script from “Kerry in the Clouds”, with the corresponding page of published story, on a later post.
Hi Pat – I’d really like to talk to you further about your writing for girls’ comics and the extent of Alan’s writing for Misty – please do get in touch if you’d be up for a brief interview at some point (I’m writing a book on Misty and trying to speak with as many people involved as possible). My email is jround at bournemouth.ac.uk. Thanks! Julia