Jinty (comics)

Jinty was a weekly British comic for girls published by Fleetway in London from 1974 to 1981, at which point it merged with Tammy. It had previously merged with Penny in a similar fashion, illustrating the 'hatch-match-dispatch' process practiced by editorial staff in the London comics publisher.

As well as the weekly comic, Christmas annuals were also published. While there were similarities with its Fleetway stablemates Tammy and Misty, each comic had its own focus, with Jinty concentrating on science fiction or otherwise fantastical stories.

Publishing format
As with other girls' comics of the time, Jinty consisted of a collection of many small strips. A typical weekly issue would publish six or seven serial stories, each consisting of around three or four pages of story ending in a cliff-hanger. The first page of the story included a text-box briefly summarizing the story so far, while the final page included a teaser line of text for the next week's episode.

In addition to the serial stories, a small number of standalone strips were normally published. Usually these were humorous and featured the same lead character week after week. Alley Cat, Penny Crayon, and others were a single page long, while Sue's Fantastic Fun-Bag! ran to two pages each week. A lead strip in the early days, often taking the cover slot, was The Jinx From St Jonah's, which normally featured a standalone story but occasionally continued it in a subsequent week. An exception to the humour format was the storyteller format, in which the same narrator would each week tell a different spooky or eerie story. In Jinty, that narrator was the character Gypsy Rose.

Other features includes a letters page, horoscopes, occasional text stories, feature articles on pop or media stars, and various articles on creative things to make and do.

Jinty was printed on newsprint using at most two colours on internal pages and a four-colour process on the external cover pages.

Jinty also merged with Lindy during 1976 and carried in to 1977.

Themes and key stories
While a large number of the stories published in Jinty were realistically based in everyday life (such as 'Pam of Pond Hill', an episodic tale of a young girl at a Comprehensive school), it differentiated itself from other comics in printing more stories with a science fictional or fantastical focus.
 * The Robot Who Cried (artist Comos, writer Malcolm Shaw): robot KT-5 is built in the shape of a human girl and escapes to find her freedom and to discover human emotions.
 * Girl in a Bubble (artist Phil Gascoine, writer Pat Mills): the sinister Miss Vaal is keeping a girl in a plastic bubble. This is supposedly because the girl has no immunity to germs, but in reality Miss Vaal wants to study the effects of being cut off from the outside world.
 * Battle of the Wills (artist Trini): a girl discovers a scientist with a duplicating machine that enables her to continue with her gymnastics while her double is forced to do ballet.
 * Land of No Tears (artist Guy Peeters, writer Pat Mills): a girl with a limp travels to a dystopian future in which she is a second-class citizen, but nevertheless she encourages her peers to fight against this.
 * The Human Zoo (artist Guy Peeters, writer Pat Mills): twin girls and their classmates are kidnapped by telepathic aliens to whom humans are mere animals. The treatment the humans receive parallels the treatment meted out to animals on Earth (zoos, circuses, slaughterhouses, bloodsports, vivisection and beasts of burden).
 * Paula’s Puppets- Paula Richards’ father is convicted of burning down his toy factory for the insurance. The Phillipses, the foster-family Paula is staying with, are wonderful, but the townsfolk ostracise Paula because their jobs depended on the factory. At the burnt-out factory Paula finds some mysterious wax puppets and finds they act like voodoo dolls, and she can make things happen to whoever she makes the puppets resemble. At first the bitter Paula uses them to exact revenge, but eventually she realises she can use them to help her father.
 * Worlds Apart (artist Guy Peeters): six schoolgirls find themselves in a series of strange worlds governed by their main characteristics: greed, love of sport, vanity, delinquency, intellectualism, and fear.
 * Gail's Indian Necklace- Gail falls under the thrall of an evil necklace.
 * The Slave of Form 3B- Domineering Stacey realises she can hypnotise a weaker girl.
 * Creepy Crawley: Top girl Jean Crawley finds herself under threat from a new girl. Jean unleashes the power of an Egyptian scarab brooch to get rid of her rival. Before long, however, the brooch is using Jean to launch an invasion of insects.
 * A Spell of Trouble: Carrie Black comes from a long line of witches. But trouble looms in the form of her cousin, Angela White.
 * Child of the Rain: After a trip to the Amazon rainforest, Gemma West (who had previously hated rain), finds that she is filled with a mysterious energy when it rains.
 * Minnow: For some strange reason, Minna's mother is against her learning to swim. Furthermore, Minna begins to experience terrifying visions of drowning, but despite it, she defies her mother and has secret swimming lessons.
 * Gertie Grit, the Hateful Brit! - In Roman times, the ghastly Gertie Grit steals a druid's talisman that can send her through time. Wherever Gertie lands, she changes the course of history.
 * Who's That in My Mirror? - Magda's angelic face conceals a wicked nature. But it shows in a strange mirror.
 * The Mystery of Martine - when Martine Freeman starts playing the part of a deranged, obsessive woman in a play called "the Demon Within", her behaviour changes and she starts behaving like the deranged woman in real life. Almost as if ...there WAS a demon within.
 * The Haunting of Form 3b. Form 3b is mysteriously reverting to a Victorian pattern.
 * Then there were 3... - Ten girls hire a narrow boat, and weird things start happening.
 * Spirit of the Lake - Karen longs to skate like her rich cousin Cynthia, and finds a ghostly instructor.
 * Mark of the Witch!: Emma Fielding is persecuted because of the "black streak" that has made her family the village outcasts for generations.
 * Spell of the Spinning Wheel - After Rowan Lindsay pricks her finger on an evil spinning wheel, any humming noise sends her to sleep. This starts interfering with her running career.
 * Sceptre of the Toltecs- Jenny Marlow's archaeologist parents return from Mexico with a strange, golden eyed girl named Malincha, who possesses strange powers.
 * Sue's Fantastic Fun-Bag!- Laughs galore when Sue acquires Henrietta, a magical hand-bag with a mischievous streak.
 * Jackie's Two Lives - Mrs Mandel lures Jackie Lester away and turns her into a double of her late daughter, Isabella. Isabella had died because of her mother's obsession with her winning a riding trophy, and now that same obsession is putting Jackie's life in danger.
 * Pandora's Box - Vain, self-centred Pandora Carr is confident she has acting talent, but her witchy guardian insists on giving her a box of magic potions to help her along.
 * The Forbidden Garden - Laika Severn is determined to grow a flower for her dying sister in a future world where pollution has killed all plant life. Unfortunately growing the flower requires breaking the stern laws of the period. If Laika is discovered, she will be sent to a detention centre.
 * Slave of the Mirror - Mia Blake falls under the thrall of an evil mirror.
 * Wenna the Witch - Wenna is persecuted in a village that still believes in witches.
 * Daughter of Dreams- Sally Carter is the school wallflower until a mysterious girl befriends her. Is the girl real or Sally's fantasies come to life?
 * Children of Edenford - an obsessive headmistress is brainwashing and drugging her pupils into utter docility.
 * The Zodiac Prince - The King of the Zodiac sends his son to hand out gifts to any girl he pleases.
 * A Girl Called Gulliver - Gwenny Gulliver is looking after the last of the Lilliputians.
 * Alice in a Strange Land - Bizarre adventures of Alice Jones when she becomes part of a group to survive a plane crash in South America and finds a mysterious Incan temple.
 * Almost Human - Xenia is an alien who looks entirely human - but her touch is deadly.
 * The Girl Who Never Was: Conceited Tina Williams learns a humility lesson when she is cast into a parallel world ruled by magic. Then disaster strikes when Tina unwittingly casts a forbidden spell. She must return to her own world, or face a sentence of eternity as a statue.
 * Guardian of White Horse Hill - life is hard for orphan Janey Summers, but things change for the better when she meets a mysterious white horse.
 * Destiny Brown - Destiny Brown is the seventh child of a seventh child. When she turns 14, Destiny develops powers of precognition.
 * Cursed to be a Coward! - Marnie Miles is being harassed by a deranged gypsy woman who foretells that she will "end up in blue water". Marnie takes this to mean she will drown someday - and the gypsy woman is determined to make sure that she does.
 * House of the Past - time travel to the 1930s.
 * Horse from the Sea - an actual horse from the sea.
 * Golden Dolly, Death Dust! - Miss Marvell the witch is threatening all green things with her "death dust". So two girls, along with their corn dolly (which comes to life) must find all the ingredients to make a counter spell.
 * The Haunting of Hazel - When Hazel arrives in the village of Black Crag, she finds that the Black Crag in question has been casting a shadow over the village for centuries. Then Hazel finds she has a connection with the Crag that might put an end to its evil.
 * The Valley of Shining Mist - Debbie Lame lives with horrible relatives who, among other things, call her "Dumbie" because she stutters. Then Debbie finds an oasis of peace in the Valley of Shining Mist.

Some of the published stories show a strong environmental concern.
 * Fran of the Floods (artist Phil Gascoigne): the earth gets hotter and Britain is flooded. Fran must journey over the flooded countryside to find her family.
 * Jassy's Wand of Power (artist Keith Robson): this time, climate change has led to a drought. Jassy has a quasi-supernatural power of dowsing for water.
 * The Goose Girl (artist Keith Robson): Glenda is at constant war at her mother over birds - the former is a born ornithologist and the latter has a pathological hatred of birds.
 * The Green People (artist Phil Gascoigne): the protagonist fights against plans to build a new road, which will endanger her newly acquired telepathic friends from a forgotten green and subterranean race.
 * The Big Cat - Ruth protects a cheetah from a cruel circus owner by disappearing with it, hiding it in an abandoned warehouse while she works at a nursery to pay for its food. But the owner is not pleased.
 * Friends of the Forest - Sally Harris is trying to save a deer from being put in a circus.

Some stories focused on disabilities.
 * Curtain of Silence - cycling star Yvonne Berridge thinks of nothing but winning - until the day she becomes mute and a prisoner in an Iron Curtain country. She is forced to cycle for the country under another identity but is determined to escape.
 * Willa on Wheels: the story of wheelchair-bound Willa.
 * Blind Ballerina: A girl is determined to become a ballerina, even though she is blind.
 * Clancy on Trial - After an accident, nobody expects Clancy Clarke to walk again. When she does (with her cousin's help) her grandfather decides to test her determination to see if she will make a worthy heir.
 * The Darkening Journey- Thumper the dog has been separated from his blind mistress and sets out in search of her, suffering from bouts of blindness himself after a head injury.
 * Wild Horse Summer - Daphne has been mute since an accident. While on holiday with relatives she befriends a wild horse, but a farm hand wants to destroy it, considering it dangerous.

Other stories covered ground seen in many traditional girls' comics. Humour stories included:
 * Dora Dogsbody (artist José Casanovas): Dora is adopted by the Sneddons - to be the dogsbody in their dog hotel. But Dora always ends up having the last laugh on the Sneddons.
 * Fran'll Fix It! (artist Jim Baikie): A parody of Jim'll Fix It.
 * Food for Fagin- Olivia Twist is allowed to have a dog - on condition that it doesn't cost much to feed. But Olivia soon finds she has seriously underestimated the appetite of her new dog, Fagin.
 * The Jinx of St Jonahs - Katie Jinx is jinx by name, jinx by nature.
 * Her Guardian Angel - Laughs galore with reckless Roz and her overzealous guardian angel, Gabby.
 * Gaye's Gloomy Ghost - a funny regular feature with Gaye and Sir Roger, the ghost of a medieval knight who has problems with understanding modern times.

Historical stories included:
 * Merry at Misery House(Writer: Terence Magee)- Merry Summers is wrongly convicted of theft and is sent to a reformatory dubbed “Misery House”, for the cruel, heartless and brutal personal. But however harsh they may be, they have met their match in Merry Summers, who refuses to let their cruelty change her chirpy ways or stop her smiling.
 * Bound for Botany Bay - Betsy Tanner and her father are transported to Australia.
 * Slaves of the Candle - Victorian maidservant Lyndy Langtree stumbles across a candle-making racket operated by Mrs Tallow. Mrs Tallow uses child slave labour to make her candles and then uses her candle business to steal valuables. To silence Lyndy, Mrs Tallow frames her for theft as well as kidnapping her. Since there is now a very substantial price on Lyndy’s head, escape will be pointless – but Mrs Tallow has underestimated the resourcefulness and determination of the girl who is determined to clear her name as well as shut down the candle racket.

More traditional stories included:
 * Ping Pong Paula - Table tennis player Paula Pride is a real-life ping pong ball between her separated parents. Worse is to follow when rival Myra Glegg starts playing dirty tricks on Paula.
 * White Water - Mr Mason is drowned and his daughter Bridie lamed when their boat "White Water" sinks. Bridie vows there will be a new "White Water."
 * Gwen's Stolen Glory - Gwen steals the credit for her classmate's heroism.
 * The Ghost Dancer: Ferne Ashley pretends to be crippled to punish her father for causing (as she believes) her mother's death.
 * Badgered Belinda: Belinda Blair is being bullied at a boarding school. On the brink of running away, she chooses to stay and secretly care for a set of orphaned badgers.
 * Holiday Hideaway - Mr Jones has had to cancel his holiday because his business collapsed, but is too embarrassed to admit it to his neighbours. So he hides his entire family in the house and pretends they are on holiday.
 * The Sweet and Sour Rivals - Life's never dull for Mandy Mead when Suzie Choo joins the class. Suzie's parents run a new Chinese restaurant and Suzie is always cooking up fun.
 * Desert Island Daisy - Victorian maidservant Daisy finds that class distinctions still apply, even when she and her employers become castaways on a desert island.
 * Fancy Free! - Fancy Cole is the most difficult pupil at Stockbotham Comprehensive. When Fancy runs away in search of a better life, she meets an old man who helps her discover caring, responsibility, and to grow up considerably.
 * Freda's Fortune - Freda Potter thinks her dreams have come true when she wins a pony, but then come two big problems: Costs of maintaining the pony and snobby Susan Hamlin, who can't stand competition.
 * No Medals for Marie: Marie Smart is being blackmailed into losing deliberately by her jealous stepmother.
 * The Bow Street Runner - Beth Speede has been the errand girl of Bow Street since she could walk. Then a gypsy's prophecy, which Beth interprets to mean that her father's life depends on her running up to speed, has her take up cross country running. But there is a spiteful rival out to spoil things for her.
 * Diving Belle - Highdiver Belle McBain loses her nerve after her father is presumed killed following an ocean diving accident. Then a gypsy diving instructor tells Belle she must learn to dive again as fast as possible, because an important mission depends on it.
 * Dracula's Daughter: Mr Graves, an authoritarian grammar school master, disapproves of the free-and-easy methods at his daughter's school. So when Mr Graves becomes the headmaster, he forces his strict grammar-school methods down its throat in an over-zealous crusade to reform it into a strict grammar school.
 * Stage Fright - Linda Roberts' father lands a good job as a gamekeeper - but on the bizarre condition that Linda stay at the manor and train as an actress.
 * Darling Clementine- Promising water-skier Clemantine “Clem” is in hospital in a coma. Uncle Dave, having witnessed the accident from the wrong vantage-point, thinks Clem’s cousin Ella deliberately caused Clem’s accident, but the true culprit is Clem’s snooty arch-rival, Val Lester.
 * Tearaway Trisha: Trisha's careless riding puts a girl in hospital. Now Trisha is putting on three cycle shows to raise money for an operation.
 * Tears of a Clown: Kathy Clowne is the victim of relentless bullying. Her worst enemy, Sandra, is making sure Kathy gets no chance to prove her only talent - long distance running.
 * Toni on Trial - Toni Carr joins her mother's old athletics club, but finds herself an outcast because her mother was disgraced when she was accused of stealing a trophy. Toni is determined to get at the truth.
 * Sue's Daily Dozen - Sue Baker brings back the recipes of the "Daily Dozen," to the joy of the locals. They were invented by Granny Hayden, the local wise woman.
 * The Perfect Princess - Princess Victoria of Burmania is such a horror that her father disinherits her and has two British girls competing for her crown. Naturally, a heated three-way rivalry ensues.
 * Too Old to Cry!- An orphan runs away from a cruel orphanage, but the evil matron is in pursuit.
 * The Girl the World Forgot: After an accident at sea, Shona Owens lives the life of a castaway on a remote Scottish island.
 * Song of the Fir Tree - Two children are on the run from a prison camp, but they are being pursued by the traitor who had sent them there.
 * Mike and Terry - A daredevil private detective and his girl helper go on the trail of criminal extraordinaire, the Shadow.
 * Nothing to Sing About - When singing idol Gary Davis dies, his daughter Linette vows to shut all singing out of her life. Of course, expelling singing from her life isn't as easy as that.
 * Angela Angel-Face - sneaky, sweet-faced Angela Palmer becomes embroiled in a plot to kidnap a Meringarian princess. (This story is reprinted from Sandie.)
 * The Disappearing Dolphin - an underwater archaeological dig becomes a dolphin attraction.
 * The Kat and Mouse Game - Letitia "Mouse" doesn't realise that "Kat" is taking advantage of her.
 * Left Out Linda - Linda is kept at home while her family go on holiday as a punishment.
 * Always Together... - three orphans pretend to be gypsies to prevent welfare from breaking them up.
 * Prisoners of Paradise Island - Sally Tuff is a tough trainer in order to see her hockey team wins the International Schoolgirl Championship. Then the girls are taken to a luxury island and only Sally realises their hosts are trying to make sure they don't win by over-indulging them.
 * Casey, Come Back! - Orphan Josie Stanton feels unloved by her stern grandfather, who shatters her world completely when he sells her beloved dog, Casey.
 * Waking Nightmare– Phil Carey befriends and tries to hide a strange girl from the authorities.
 * Kerry in the Clouds: Kerry dreams of becoming an actress. But does she have what it takes or is she just a dreamer?
 * Freda, False Friend: Freda is torn by conflicting loyalties when her policeman father orders her to spy on a friend's father, who is suspected of criminal activities.
 * Barracuda Bay - Susan Steven finds herself on the wrong side of some crooks when she goes on a treasure hunt in the Bahamas.
 * Daddy's Darling - Lee Simons has been living a sheltered life with her overprotective father. Then wartime forces Lee's father to send her to the village school and he finds he must take in evacuees.
 * Face the Music, Flo! - Flo Carroll is afraid her brother's pursuit of a singing career will ruin him, and sets out after him.
 * Tricia's Tragedy - Tricia Hunt blames herself for her cousin being blinded in a swimming accident. Tricia decides to make up for things by looking after her cousin, but soon finds her cousin is making her a slave.
 * Save Old Smokey! - the battle to save a steam engine.
 * Bridey Below the Breadline - Bridey's father has been imprisoned after being wrongly accused of starting the Great Fire of London. Can Bridey's breadmaking help to clear him?
 * Champion in Hiding - Mitzi Morris discovers a champion sheepdog.
 * Daisy Drudge and Milady Maud - Through mischance, a Victorian skivvy and a spoilt heiress swop lives.
 * For Peter's Sake! - Corrie Lomax is on a quest to save her sick baby brother.
 * Go on, Hate Me! - Hettie is the victim of a hate campaign when she is wrongly blamed for a girl's death.
 * Miss No-Name - amnesic Lori Mills becomes slave to the horrible Ma Crabb.
 * Rose among the Thornes - Rose Smith and her grandmother are the only people who know their relatives, the Thornes, are planning to redevelop the village and make a fortune.
 * Sisters at War! - sibling rivalry.
 * Snobby Shirl the Shoeshine Girl! - Shirley Lomax is a super-snob and her father decides to teach her a lesson by turning her out to shine shoes for a living.
 * Stefa's Heart of Stone - Stefa Giles is so upset by the death of her best friend, Joy Brett, that she vows to turn her heart into stone to avoid being hurt again.
 * Wanda Whiter than White - Wanda White's over-strictness in telling the truth is making her a tell-tale.
 * A Boy Like Bobby - chaos when Tessa befriends two brothers.
 * No Cheers for Cherry
 * Black Sheep of the Bartons
 * I'll Make up for Mary
 * Slave of the Swan
 * Two Mothers for Maggie
 * Wild Rose

LINDY

hotel in London, bullied by the sadistic manager.
 * Hard Days For Hilda(writer: Terence Magee) - Skivvy Hilda works at a posh

Creators featured in Jinty
THE EDITOR: Mavis Miller was the one and only Editor(ex-Radio Times and one of the best Editors of all at Fleetway Publications and IPC Magazines).

Problems of attribution
Artists and writers were not credited in Jinty. Artists can be identified by their work in other comics, whether girls comics such as Tammy (which moved to a system of crediting creators in the early 1980s) or in boys' comics such as 2000AD which had such a policy from earlier on. In other cases, it is possible to identify the artists from signatures on the comics page.

Identification of writers in Jinty is currently dependent on information given by the writers themselves.

Artists
Artists featured in the pages of Jinty included Phil Gascoigne (who was in each issue from the very first until the last, from Gail's Indian Necklace to Badgered Belinda). Gascoigne was the artist for No Cheers for Cherry and Fran of the Floods; Guy Peeters, artist for Land of No Tears, Black Sheep of the Bartons, I'll Make up for Mary, Slave of the Swan, The Human Zoo, Worlds Apart and Pandora's Box; Jim Baikie, artist for Left-Out Linda, Face The Music, Flo!, Ping-Pong Paula, Miss No-Name, Willa on Wheels, Rose Among the Thornes, Spell of the Spinning Wheel, Two Mothers for Maggie, Wild Rose and The Forbidden Garden; José Casanovas, Trine Tinture, Rodrigo Comos, and many other Spanish artists. Jinty also had less well-known British comics artists such as Audrey Fawley, Make Up Mandy; Philip Townsend Somewhere over the Rainbow, Mark of the Witch!, Children of Stepford and Song of the Fir Tree; and Keith Robson.

Writers
Writers featured included Pat Mills (Land of No Tears, Girl in a Bubble, Concrete Surfer), Malcolm Shaw (The Robot Who Cried), and Jay Over (Pam of Pond Hill), Terence Magee(Merry At Misery House).