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 Lindy and PennyComics UK Family Tree for Jinty and Penny in a similar fashion, illustrating the 'hatch-match-dispatch' process practiced by editorial staff in the London comics publisher.Smith, James Cooray. "The dark, forgotten world of British girls’ comics is about to be resurrected: The UK’s most surreal and innovative comic strips have long been gathering dust. As a publisher acquires the archives, they could be heading for a renaissance," The New Statesman (27 September 2016).
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 few 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 into 1977.
Contributors 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)Rayner, Jac. "Paper Worlds: Why girls' comics were wonderful," BBC (18 June 2014). or in boys' comics such as 2000AD, which brought such a policy in 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.
Mavis Miller was the editor.
Artists Artists featured in the pages of Jinty included: Phil Gascoine — in each issue from the very first until the last, from Gail's Indian Necklace to Badgered Belinda. Gascoine was the artist for No Cheers for Cherry, and Fran of the Floods Guy Peeters — 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 — 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 Philip Townsend — Somewhere over the Rainbow, Mark of the Witch!, Children of Stepford, and Song of the Fir Tree Carlos Freixas (Valley of the Shining Mist) Keith Robson Audrey FawleyAudrey Fawley interviewed by Steve Holland, Bear Alley (Nov. 2006). — Made Up Mandy José Casanovas, Trini Tinturé, Rodrigo Comos, and many other Spanish artists Christine Ellingham - Concrete Surfer Cándido Ruiz Prieto - Kerry in the clouds, and Scepter of the Toltecs.
Writers Writers featured included: Pat Mills — Land of No Tears, Girl in a Bubble, Concrete Surfer Malcolm Shaw — The Robot Who Cried Jay Over — Pam of Pond Hill Terence Magee — Merry At Misery House
Themes and key stories While many 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 Helen Ryan in a plastic bubble. This is supposedly because Helen 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): During an operation, lame Cassy Shaw is transported to a future world where people who are less than utterly perfect are treated as second-class citizens. In the hive (children's home) where Cassy ends up, the Gamma girls are slaves who do the cleaning, wear shabby clothes, eat nothing but scraps left by the perfect Alpha girls and are forced to share a cold, grim dormitory. Nevertheless, Cassy quickly revolts against this harsh treatment and urges the Gamma girls to train at sports in order to beat the Alphas and win the Golden Girl award, proving that 'rejects' like them can't safely be despised and humiliated. 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): After an accident with a road tanker carrying dangerous chemicals from a secret government research establishment, six schoolgirls find themselves in a series of strange worlds governed by their main characteristics: greed (Sarah), love of sport (Ann), vanity (Samantha), delinquency (Mo), intellectualism (Clare), and fear (Jilly). The only release from these worlds is for its respective creator to die – and this happens when each creator meets her downfall through the very same characteristic that shaped her world. Gail's Indian Necklace- Gail falls under the thrall of an evil necklace she buys in a jumble sale. It grants some desires that are unspoken, or socially wrong — if she can't afford something, for example, it makes her steal it. The Slave of Form 3B- Nervous Tania is a new pupil at Waverley boarding school, where she comes under the thrall of interfering know-all Stacey. Stacey's discovery that she can exert hypnotic control over the weak-willed Tania leads her down a very dark path. Her early experiments with this newly discovered power merely subject Tania to a series of embarrassing practical jokes; however, soon Tania is doing all of Stacey's assignments, cheating, stealing, sabotaging sports rivals and being systematically cut off from other potential friends and all possible avenues of help. Stacey will stop at nothing to become Waverley's next "Girl of the Year" and, when Tania discovers the truth and tries to fight back, resorts to malevolent tactics of mind control that put Tania's very life in danger... Life's a Ball for Nadine: Greystreet School's netball team needs another good player and they find it in the new girl, Nadine Nash. However Nadine is more interested in disco-dancing than netball. Although she eventually joins the team and finds netball helping her disco-dancing and vice versa, she still cares more for disco-dancing than helping the team – until two rivals set out to cheat her at both! 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 Morrice has the face of an angel but the heart of a devil. She schemes her way to anything she wants and her pretty face belies it all to everyone. But when she her way into acquiring a mirror she fancies, she is surprised to find that it reflects two images of her! The second face takes a hand in helping Magda with her schemes, but it also grows increasingly ugly, evil-looking and frightening. Magda realizes what is happening, and decides to change so the reflection will be pretty too. But she soon finds she cannot change the things she has started without getting into trouble. 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 2b Form 2b 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 Carstairs and her mother find themselves unpaid help when they come to stay with their relatives, the Grahams. And snooty cousin Cynthia sneers at Karen for not being able to skate while she is the best skater in the county. But then a fairy godmother appears in the form of the mysterious woman on the lake who starts teaching Karen to skate. Mark of the Witch!: Emma Fielding is persecuted because of the "black streak" that has made her family the village outcasts for generations. She puts up with it as long as possible, but finally snaps and decides to be the bad person the villagers claim she is. 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. To make matters worse, her mother needs the wheel to earn money for the family, so it can't be gotten rid of. Sceptre of the Toltecs- Jenny Marlow's archaeologist parents return from Mexico with a strange, golden eyed girl named Malincha, who possesses strange powers.