A History of Jinty Covers

In a follow-up to A History of Tammy Covers, we present: A History of Jinty Covers. And now that A Resource on Jinty has run for five years, enough discussion, feedback and uploads on the Jinty covers should have accumulated to compile such a history.

We begin, of course, with the first Jinty cover, 11 May 1974. The format is a story panel format, with panels from two of the new stories, “A Dream for Yvonne” and “Dora Dogsbody“. The panel layout is rather stiff and boxy. It is enclosed inside a border, which is part of an orange background that runs from top to bottom of the cover.

The early Jintys had numbered covers, but the first issue is not numbered. Instead, the top caption says “No. 1”.

On the left is Jinty herself, a girl with long pony tails on both sides of her head. She is a blonde on the first cover, but in later years would be regarded as having brown hair. Jinty’s first gift is a “smiley” wrist bracelet.

The first two letters of the logo are separate, but the other three are joined together in a cursive style. It feels a bit of an odd mix, but it would be the standard Jinty logo until well into 1980.

updated to add: W.P. has informed us that this layout of the lettering was chosen so the “i” would not be confused with u-shaped lettering.

The second Jinty cover continues the format and still has not started the issue numbering. It was the last to advertise the free gift that came with the new comic.

The cover for the third Jinty issue is the first to start the actual numbering. It was very unusual for girls’ title in IPC to have issue numbering. June, Tammy and later, Misty, did not have it. In contrast, DCT titles like Bunty, Judy and Mandy had issue numbering from start to finish.

Issue 3 was also the last to use panel montages for quite a while in Jinty’s history. From issue 4, Jinty switched to the comic serial cover style. It feels quite an abrupt change. Did Jinty decide to use the story panel cover for her first three issues to advertise the new comic more or was she still experimenting and trying to find her feet and style? Or was she trying various ways to break away from the cover styles Tammy (The Cover Girls) or June (story panel filling entire cover)? Whatever the reason, her early covers definitely weren’t trying to copy either of them.

There is no free gift. Instead, Jinty is holding a competition. This is probably why Jinty is calling out instead of smiling and laughing as she did the previous two issues.

The first three issues used a rather boxy panel layout, using panels from Jinty’s stories inside to promote the comic. But with issue 4 this changed to the serial cover format i.e. using the first page of a serial on the cover. The story chosen is The Jinx from St Jonah’s, who would stay on the cover for a long time, as Katie was a regular and not a serial. The choice may have been using humour to attract the readers. Whatever the reason, it was a good choice as Katie the Jinx could never go more than three panels without getting into a scrape that provides laughs and hijinks for the readers and, of course, arouse their interest.

The first page is still enclosed within the window border, which gives it more of a boxy look than a splash page impression. The cover uses four panels when it first started this format, which meant less room for larger panels.

For three issues afterward the four-panel serial cover continued, but then it wisely shifted to a three-panel serial cover, beginning with #11, 20 July 1974. This allowed for bigger panels, especially the splash panel, which made the cover look less crowded and more spaced out with room to breathe, and therefore more eye-catching.

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On occasion with the early covers Katie was pushed right off the cover when Jinty was advertising something, usually a competition. So advertising covers were also used.

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Jinty ran 52 issues before she dropped her issue numbering on 31 May 1975. Other than that, the cover layout remains unchanged.

The Jinty for 1 November 1975 was the last to have Jinty on the top left hand corner of her cover. Next issue would change the course of Jinty’s history, and her cover would change with it.

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Top 10 Jinty Villains

I now present my list of the top ten villains from the run of Jinty. Some have been chosen because they are the most obvious choices, while others have been chosen as representatives of particular types of villains. The choices on this list are entirely mine, and in making my choices I have tried to keep a broad spectrum of the different types and archetypes of villains that appeared in Jinty. But I am aware that some of you may have your own views and some of my choices could be subject to second-guessing. Please feel free to suggest your own lists for the top ten Jinty villains in the comments below if you wish.

And now, counting down…

10: Mr Grand

Story: Village of Fame

Creators: Jim Baikie (artist); writer unknown

Just how far would you go for the highest television ratings? Mr Grand goes to the lengths of spy cameras all over the village called Fame he’s chosen for his location where he can watch every move under pretext of collecting footage, devious publicity stunts, including a faked UFO abduction, genuine kidnappings, blackmail, and even hiring a hypnotist named Marvo to brainwash people to do whatever he wants. At the climax, this takes the form of a widespread television broadcast where Grand and Marvo attempt to hypnotise the whole village in order to restore the television ratings. Mr Grand takes the popular view of television as a one-eyed monster that hypnotises people with junk and intrudes into their homes to a whole new level.

9: Jean Marlow

Story: Waves of Fear

Creators: Phil Gascoine (artist); writer unknown

As you might expect, there has to be a school bully somewhere on the list. There sure have been some nasty ones in Jinty, such as Sandra Simpkins (Tears of a Clown) and Lydia’s ex-friends in Dracula’s Daughter. But the worst of them all has to be Jean Marlow and her hate campaign against Clare Harvey. There can be nothing worse than bullying a mentally ill girl, and just because Jean hates her for some unknown reason. Jean takes advantage of Clare being branded a coward and becoming ostracised and bullied when her illness causes her to flee while her friend is drowning in a cave pool. Jean has the girls throw Clare into the same cave pool, which nearly drowns her. Then Jean plays upon Clare’s illness to get her expelled: she locks Clare into a classroom, forcing Clare to smash her way out once the illness overwhelms her, and then leading the headmistress believe Clare did it out of spite. As if that weren’t enough, Jean vandalises her own orienteering club in order to frame Clare for it because Clare stumbled across her cheating.

8: Miss Marvel

Story: Golden Dolly, Death Dust!

Creators: Phil Gascoine (artist); writer unknown

It wouldn’t be complete without a witchy, cackling crone type on this list either. Jinty certainly had plenty to remember, such as Madam Kapelski (Curtain of Silence), Mrs Tallow (Slaves of the Candle) and Miss Vaal (Girl in a Bubble). However, Miss Marvel has been chosen to represent them all, for she is not only a real witch but also, in modern parlance, an eco-terrorist with her poisonous death dust. The death dust kills all the flora and fauna it touches, and Miss Marvel uses it to bring terror to the district by destroying all the plant life around. In an increasing climate of widespread pollution, mass extinction, environment destruction and, of course eco-terrorism, this sounds more relevant and disturbing than when it was first published. Plus Miss Marvel has one of the most frightening of accomplices – a terrifying Halloween mask that can float around and scare the living daylights out of anyone who sees it!

7: Mrs Siddons

Story: Dora Dogsbody

Creators: José Casanovas (artist); Terence Magee, Pat Mills et al (writers)

Comical villains are a long-running staple in girls’ comics. A popular mechanism was a schemer getting his or her comeuppance every week at the hands of the protagonist. Such is the case with Mrs Siddons. Mrs Siddons runs a dogs’ hotel where all the pooches live in the height of luxury – but she is no animal lover. She only runs the hotel for profit and making extra money out of the dogs’ owners or crafty schemes wherever she can find them. Often these come at the expense of the dogs, such as undercutting their food and heating to save money. Moreover, she can’t be bothered doing the dirty work of running the hotel. So she brings Dora Watson in, ostensibly to adopt her, to do all the work as unpaid servant and treat her worse than a dog. However, it turns into grand hijinks and laughs for the readers every week with Mrs Siddons vs Dora Dogsbody as Dora rises to the occasion to foil Mrs Siddons. And the hijinks, scheming, and animals are all rendered brilliantly and amusingly with the artwork of José Casanovas.

6: Jemima and Agnes

Story: Cinderella Smith

Creators: Trini Tinturé (artist); writer unknown

Cinderella-type stories are long-running staple in girls’ comics, where the heroine is made a drudge at the hands of cruel guardians and seeks solace and escape in a talent. The most famous one is Bella Barlow from Tammy. But surely not even Cinderella herself experienced cruelty like this at the hands of these two wicked stepsisters, er cousins. Locked in chains and deprived of food and water because she tried to tell her father how she was being treated? Being made to wear leg irons while she works? Forced to eat from the dog’s dish? Being tricked into signing away her inheritance? Deliberately given tainted food to make her ill? Made to live in a cold, shabby attic with no electricity, decent lighting,  heating or proper bedding, and forced to wear tatty clothing while the cousins live in the lap of luxury? Forced to paint a huge house from top to bottom? All these and more were inflicted on Cinderella Smith at the hands of her cruel cousins, Agnes and Jemima. They do it because they hate Cindy’s mother for some reason and are so stingy they make or save as much money as they can out of Cindy with free labour and any possessions she has. There have been hundreds of serials with cruel guardians who treat the protagonist like Cinderella. But the cruelties and excesses of Agnes and Jemima are hard to beat, even by Jed and Gert from Bella Barlow.

5: The Aliens aka The Silent Death

Story: The Human Zoo

Creators: Guy Peeters (artist); Malcolm Shaw (writer)

The aliens, also known as the Silent Death, were the only alien race in Jinty to give readers cause to remember them. They may be highly advanced telepathic beings, but advancement has not brought enlightenment. They are a cold-hearted race who disapprove of all sentimentality and emotion, yet revel in bloodsports and animal cruelties. They lock animals – including humans, whom they kidnap from Earth – into obedience collars that give intense pain when activated. The humans kidnapped by the aliens in this story are by turn subjected to the aliens’ equivalents of bounty hunting, pain-induced discipline, cattle markets, zoos, slaughterhouses, circuses, bloodsports, beasts of burden, vivisection and even a hint of animal sacrifice. They regard humans as animals and their attitude is (with welcome exceptions who care for animal welfare) “they’re just animals, for us to use as we like”. These include cruel versions of chimps’ tea parties where they starve humans for the purpose and never let them get the chance to eat any of the food that is thrown at them, and circus acts where the non-swimming protagonist is nearly drowned every night while the aliens clap and cheer.

But what makes them such unforgettable villains is that we see so much of ourselves in them. Humans are guilty of the same atrocities against animals as the ones the aliens inflict on the humans in the story. Even today, particularly in Third World countries, you will see animal cruelties of all sorts that are just as horrible and barbaric as the ones the aliens commit.

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The Debut of The Four Marys [1958]

This entry presents the very first episode of The Four Marys. The original appeared in Bunty #1 on 18 January 1958, and this is the reprint from Golden Age Classic Stories Bunty for Girls 2009. Artwork is by Bill Holroyd, who drew the first 15 episodes of The Four Marys.

The first episode establishes the elements that will continue all the way to the last episode in Bunty #2249, 17 February 2001: the four girls who have to go by their last names because they all share the same Christian name; they share the same study and a long-standing friendship through thick and thin; the snobs (not yet named) who will always look down on Mary Simpson because she is ‘common’; and the characterisation that helped to make The Four Marys so popular. In the early stories The Four Marys also had more individual looks than they did by the 1990s, especially Mary Cotter.

There is a distinctive Enid Blyton feel about the first episode to modern eyes, both in terms of its tone and its artwork. But The Four Marys were willing to adapt to changes in trends, tastes, and in the education system itself. For example, the formidable Dr Gull in the first episode was eventually replaced by the modern-thinking Miss Mitchell in the 1980s. There was even one story where Dr Gull returned to the modern St Elmo’s, but was too old-fashioned and strict to accept how things had changed. She tried to force the school into her mould, and of course there was bad reaction to it.

An in-depth discussion of The Four Marys, which includes pictorial comparisons of how they and their supporting cast changed over the years, can be found here at Girls Comics of Yesterday.

Specky Hector’s History of Buster [1990]

As we are on the subject of Specky Hector aka Lew Stringer, here are the Specky Hector appearances in Buster on 26 May 1990, in honour of Buster’s 30th birthday.

Artist:  Lew Stringer

Specky Hector’s History of Comics from Buster

For something completely different but still related to the subject, I have these two instalments of “Specky Hector’s History of Comics”. They appeared in Buster 1 September and 6 October 1990. Regrettably, I do not have the subsequent instalments. If anyone does have them, please drop a line.

Artist/writer: Lew Stringer (updated to add)

Crazyzee Christmas (1982)

Christmas is coming. So for some Christmas fun I am putting up “Crazyee Christmas” from Tammy 25 1982 to show how Miss T, Edie and Snoopa shared the Christmas spirit just over a year after they all came together in the Tammy and Jinty merger as “The Crayzees”.

Christmas with The Crayzees. From Tammy 25 December 1982.

Launch of Misty Advert

I was doing some trawling through Tammy and came across the advertisement for the launch of Misty in Tammy 4 February 1978. Blurbs for “The Sentinels”, “The Cult of the Cat”, and “Moonchild” are used in the advert, though their titles are not mentioned. Oddly, the ad says Misty #1 goes on sale 30 January, but the actual issue went on sale 4 February. Perhaps Misty was originally scheduled for 30th January but was delayed until 4th February for some reason?

Ad for first Lindy issue

This is the advertisement for the first Lindy issue, from Jinty 14 June 1975. The ad entices readers more with a Bay City Rollers pin-up than the story contents. Only the cover gives any indication of what stories to expect. Lindy was a short-lived title and merged into Jinty after only 20 issues. She was the first of two comics to merge with Jinty.

 

Combining Tammy serials and regulars in Tammy’s Christmas Issue 1977

Art: John Armstrong

Art: Robert MacGillivray

Tammy 1977 Christmas celebrations

I was perusing through the Tammys and came across these features that appeared in the issue for 24 December 1977. I put them up to show how Tammy sometimes brought characters from her serials and regulars together in special features and how fascinating it was to see so many characters and features from Tammy combined together. Recent or running serials team up with the Tammy regulars for these special features in the 1977 Christmas issue. This never happened with Jinty.

The Bizzie Bet Holiday Dice Game! (1979)

This dice game, based on the humour regular “Bizzie Bet and the Easies” (which ran in 1979) appeared in Jinty 28 July 1979.