Jinty (comics)

Jinty
Cover from issue of Jinty, 19 August 1978. Art by Guy Peeters.
Publication information
Publisher	IPC Magazines, Fleetway Publications
Schedule	Weekly
Genre
Publication date	11.05.1974 - 21.11.1981
Number of issues	393

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 ^[1] 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 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 in to 1977.

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 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- Domineering bully Stacey discovers she can hynotise new girl Tania. She uses it to force Tania into theft, sabotage, cheating, bad conduct and eventually an accident that nearly kills Tania.
• 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 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 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.
• Sue's Fantastic Fun-Bag!- At a jumble sale. Sue Lawton notices a handbag that came from the Mysterious Orient. Her mother does not think much of it, but Sue buys it and calls it Henrietta, saying it has personality. Sue eventually catches on that Henrietta is a magic handbag. She can put spells on things that Sue puts into her. So Sue has to be careful what she puts in there. If Henrietta does not like what is put into her or gets mischievous over it, Sue or someone else will pay the price.
• Jackie's Two Lives - Jackie Lester is discontented and fed up at missing out because her family is poor. One day, an argument with her family has Jackie running off, and she nearly gets run over by the rich Mrs Mandell, who has just moved into the district. Under pretext of making amends for the near-accident, Mrs Mandell lures Jackie 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 finds an old mirror in her house and it makes her turn against her sister. The mirror possesses her and makes her destroy things in the house, sabotaging her sister’s attempt to run a boarding house.
• Wenna the Witch - Wenna is persecuted in a village that still believes in witches.
• Daughter of Dreams- Sally Carter is a wall-flower until she makes up an imaginary friend, Pauline Starr. Her imagination is so strong she can see her new friend clearly – so clearly in fact that Pauline comes to life! Pauline helps to shake up Sally’s life by getting her to do more lively things so she can make more friends.
• Children of Edenford - Insane headmistress Purity Goodfellow is obsessed with perfection. To this end she turns her pupils into glazed-eyed docile zombies by feeding them drugged food.
• 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. As her planet is dying from lack of water, her mother and father take her for a picnic on Earth and then leave her there, with a communication pendant so that they can stay in contact with her. They think she will do well on Earth because she is stronger, faster, and more intelligent than humans are; but what they don’t know is that her alien life-force is too strong for earth life, and anything that she touches will be zapped stone dead! Then a lightning strike hits her and drains enough of her life force that she no longer kills Earth creatures with her lightest touch, but her vital energies ebb lower and lower until she is herself at death’s door.
• 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 - Janey Summers is an orphan, with foster parents who she is hoping will go on to adopt her. However, life with her new family is not easy, but things change for the better when she meets a mysterious white horse no-one else can see, and who can make Janey invisible to those around her when seated on the back of the 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 1933.
• Horse from the Sea - an actual horse from the sea, who appears every time the heir of Penrose is in danger.
• 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 Lane has been so psychologically damaged by the abuse from her adoptive family that she has become wild and thieving and has no confidence, which is reflected in a stammer. Then Debbie discovers confidence and can talk properly when she discovers the magical Valley of Shining Mist. But she soon finds that she has to learn to function that way outside the valley as well.

Some published stories show a strong environmental concern.

• Fran of the Floods (artist Phil Gascoine): The earth has gotten hotter, which melts ice caps and evaporates oceans, and triggers worldwide torrents of rain that never seem to stop. Dams break down, people on lower levels start to flee as their towns vanish under the ever-rising waters, parts of the coast return to the sea, and then there are power cuts, food shortages, stockpiling, panic buying and looting, fuel shortages and stoppages, and higher levels are being swamped with refugees. During a school concert, the waters overcome the reservoir and come rolling in. In the ensuing chaos, Fran is separated from her parents and best friend Jill, and thinks they have died. She sets out on a dangerous journey north to Scotland to be reunited with her sister June, accompanied by a young girl called Sarah and her pet rabbit Fluffy.
• 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 Gascoine): 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.
• The Birds - inspired by the Alfred Hitchcock film of the same name, a chemical factory is opened, and causes the birds to start acting strangely, attacking animals and people.

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 (that of a lookalike who drowned) 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.
• Finleg the Fox - Lame Una Price is sent to the Dray family at Blindwall Farm in the hope of a country cure for her poor health. But the Drays are not very welcoming, nor do they welcome Finleg, the fox Una befriends.

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): Fran Anderson, better known as Fran the Fixer, styles herself as a problem solver who can fix anything and her catchphrase is “‘s easy!”. But it is not always as easy as Fran thinks, for her ideas of fixing things are crazy, madcap ones. For the most part they work out, but there is typically mayhem along the way, and sometimes things backfire on Fran. She has been expelled from several schools because of her ‘fixing’, and her father threatens to pack her off to her aunts Toni and Chloe (or Tooth and Claw as Fran calls them) if it happens again. Luckily, her ability to use ventriloquism gets her out of trouble.
• 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 - Artistic 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 Terry has no confidence in herself, is repeatedly teased by her classmates, and her father is on an invalid’s benefit, so the family cannot afford a decent home. She envies the popular and confident Judith Langham, who has just been accepted for drama school. When the taunts go too far, the distraught Gwen runs away and falls over a cliff. Judith goes to the rescue, but through a series of unexpected turns, everyone thinks that it was Gwen who saved Judith, who is now unconscious after a fall. Gwen now has everything she dreamed of: popularity, admiring friends, Judith’s place in the drama school, and a better home thanks to the gratitude of the Langhams. When Judith comes to, she has lost her memory, so it looks like Gwen’s glory is sealed. But there is a price – Gwen cannot forget that it was really Judith who saved her life. Her troubled conscience gives her no peace of mind and she is ashamed at the depths she has sunk to, so all her new-found gains cannot give her full happiness.
• 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 Gibson 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 - Suzie Choo's parents run a new Chinese restaurant, the newly opened Choo’s Chinese Restaurant. Abigail Beaton's family owns the Riverside Cordon Bleu Restaurant, which is the snobbiest restaurant in town and charges the highest prices. Abigail is just as snooty as the restaurant and recruits help from class bullies Janet and Debbie to find ways to bring Suzie and her restaurant down. Fortunately Suzie has a friend too – Mandy Mead – who thought her school was as dull as dishwater until Suzie joined the class.
• 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 finds a book in the old cottage that she has moved into with her sister, and brings back the recipes of the "Daily Dozen," to the joy of the locals. They were invented by Granny Hayden, the local wise woman, and the recipes in the book turn out to be more like magic spells, but very positive and homely ones intended to spread positive effects in the local community.
• 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, while her parents (who also survived the accident) believe that she is dead.
• Song of the Fir Tree - Solveig Amundsen and her brother Per are two Norwegian children who are prisoners in a Nazi concentration camp. They and their mother (now dead) have been sent there by Grendelsen, a rich and powerful man whom Mrs Amundsen accidentally found out was a traitor who had betrayed their Resistance group. Solveig is the stronger one, with spirit, strength and determination to survive and make it back home, while Per has a weaker constitution. The end of the war comes and the Allies liberate the camp. But Solveig recognises Grendelsen among the Norwegian officials who have come to collect them. Realising he has come to silence them, Solveig and Per go on the run, with Grendelsen in relentless pursuit. And all the while Solveig sings the song of the fir tree to keep her brother’s spirits up.
• 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 becomes a slave to her cousin Diana Lloyd because she blames herself for an accident that left Diana blind. But Mr Hunt thinks something is fishy, especially when it becomes apparent that the Lloyds are trying to stop Tricia winning a vital swimming trophy.
• 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 is forced to live with her horrible Aunt Shirley, who does not treat her well. Mitzi has to hide her dog Firefly from Aunt Shirley as she is determined to train him as a sheepdog champion, but Aunt Shirley is being paid to prevent this.
• Daisy Drudge and Milady Maud - Through mischance, Lady Daisy de Vere is mistaken for a servant, Maud, and ends up in a cruel household where even the other servants mistreat her. Meanwhile, Maud is sent to the finishing school Daisy was supposed to attend, and finds the high life not as good as it appears to be.
• For Peter's Sake! - In pre-WWII Britain, Corrie and Dawn Lomax are delighted when they are presented with a baby brother, Peter. But then disaster strikes, when their father dies in a work accident, then Peter falls ill. As money is tight and Mrs Lomax has no time for her daughters, she accepts an invitation to send Corrie to Granny Mackie in Drumloan, Scotland. Granny has a pram called Old Peg, which has a reputation in the community for possessing curative powers for infants - any sick infant rocked in Old Peg seems to recover immediately. When Granny dies, Corrie finds a note in Old Peg saying “Push it to Peter”, and the pram is equipped for a long journey. So Corrie begins a long journey of pushing Old Peg all the way from Scotland to Peter in London, sleeping in her at night, and having all sorts of adventures, mishaps and dangers on the way. She also has to keep ahead of the law, as she has been reported missing in Drumloan.
• Go on, Hate Me! - Hetty Blake loves athletics, especially running. When she and her friend Carol are picked for a relay at their athletics club, she starts training hard and pushes Carol to do the same. Carol ends up collapsing and is rushed to hospital, where she reveals that she has a heart condition that she had not told Hetty about and does not have long to live. Before Carol dies, she makes Hetty promise to win the relay and to look after her younger sister, Jo. Unfortunately, Jo overhears the guilt-stricken Hetty blaming herself and causes Hetty to become the victim of a hate campaign when she starts spreading the word around that Hetty caused Carol’s death by driving Carol too hard. Worse, Hetty is stuck looking after Jo - and Jo is adamant about staying so she can make Hetty’s life miserable.
• Miss No-Name - Lori Mills loses her memory and becomes ensnared by Ma Crabb and her daughter Stella, who abuse her and force her into crime. For good measure, Ma Crabb cuts off Lori’s hair so nobody recognises her as the missing girl in the papers.
• 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. However, Wanda is not as innocent as she appears to be - she is on probation for stealing, and is going to such extreme lengths with honesty in an attempt to salve her conscience.
• A Boy Like Bobby - chaos when Tessa befriends two brothers.
• Made-up Mandy - Mandy Mason is mistreated by the employer at the beauty salon where she works as a caretaker.
• No Cheers for Cherry - Cherry Campbell’s aunt brings her to her family theatre houseboat with the promise of drama training for the fame that Cherry wants. In reality, the family just want Cherry as an unpaid servant.
• Black Sheep of the Bartons - Bev Barton looks on herself as the black sheep in her sheep farming family, both in appearance (the only one with black hair in a blond family) and in character. She is a rebel without a cause who chafes under her parents’ rules and regulations and is bored stiff with the sheep farm. She applies for and wins a scholarship in Elmsford Academy as she thinks boarding school will give her freedom from her parents, but soon finds that Elmsford has its own rules and regulations. Then Bev discovers the judo club at Elmsford and finds she has a real passion and talent for the sport.
• I'll Make up for Mary
• Slave of the Swan - The amnesiac Katrina Vale is taken advantage of by a ballet mistress who wants revenge on Katrina's mother.
• Two Mothers for Maggie
• Wild Rose
• Make Believe Mandy- Mandy Miller is abused by her family who seem to hate her and compare her unfavorably with her sister Dinah. Mandy's only escape from reality is dressing-up in the clothes her family's second-hand clothes shop receives and imagining that she is a different person, and she particularly loves to pretend that she is a princess. Then one day, she answers an advert for an audition for a princess in an amateur play, and the producer, Miss Madden, promises Dinah a better life if she passes a series of tests of character – testing honesty, kindness, loyalty, self-sacrifice, courage and other virtues.
• Cinderella Smith: The abuse of Cindy Smith under her cousins is so extreme that she is forced to wear shackles on her legs when she is working.
• The Changeling - Katy Palmer lives a miserable life with her brutal uncle and his shabby flat. He puts Katy out to work in the stables, little realising that this is the only time she gets some joy. Unfortunately the stables job and riding are cutting into homework time, and Katy is constantly in trouble at school because of it. Then Katy's uncle puts her to work as a dishwasher, which robs Katy of her only joy. At this, Katy runs away and boards a train to Ryechurch. On the train she meets another Katy, Katy Blair, who is on her way to Ryechurch to meet her uncle and aunt, whom her lawyer has only just traced. Then the train crashes, and the accident leaves Katy Blair apparently dead. Desperation drives Katy to steal her suitcase and take her place at Ryechurch so she can finally have a happy life with loving parents. But Katy soon finds she cannot have real happiness because she is living a lie. This story only lasted three issues
• Knight and Day - Pat Day is removed from her foster family because her natural mother, Mrs Knight, suddenly wants her back after years of ignoring her. But Pat soon finds that her mother only wants her so they can get a council flat, and her stepsister Janet is spiteful.
• Come Into My Parlour - Jody Sinclair is made to wear a cat’s-paw necklace by an evil witch, who uses it to get revenge on the descendants of a judge who hanged her wicked ancestor. At first she is made to do things against her will as if she were a puppet, but her inconvenient conscience is eventually eliminated by changing her personality entirely.
• The Venetian Looking Glass - the protagonist finds a hand mirror which starts to control her life and wreak its revenge, ultimately being revealed as due to an angry ghost.
• Combing Her Golden Hair - Tamsin Tregorren finds a silver comb that belonged to her mother which shows her visions and leads her to frolic in the water like a dolphin despite never having learned to swim. Eventually she is brought to the sea where she meets her mother, who is a mermaid, and who wants her to come and live in the sea too.
• Concrete Surfer - Jean Everidge migrated with her parents to Australia, as Ten Pound Poms. Now Jean has returned alone to be looked after by relatives, with her parents making their way back slowly in failure. By contrast her cousin, Carol, is a winner: popular, rich, top of the class at school. And she means to keep it that way too, or so Jean suspects. There is one thing that Jean can shine at: skateboarding, or surfing the concrete waves.
• Is This Your Story? - One of Jinty’s more unusual features. It was a true-life feature, and each week it would run a complete story that was based on common problems among girls. But unlike the teen magazines, it was not based on letters that readers had sent in where they recount their real-life experiences or outline a problem. The stories were composites of common real-life problems. If any reader had encountered a situation similar to the one in the story, they would see themselves in that story. If not, it might be a situation they were familiar with or a warning if they did encounter one.
• Waves of Fear - Claire Harvey starts experiencing crippling claustrophobia, and her fear starts ruining her life, as she is frequently bullied and her parents are disgusted at having a "coward" for a daughter.
• Angela’s Angels - A hospital soap opera focusing on Sister Angela Rodd and her six budding student nurses: Sharon, Lesley, Jo, Susannah, Helen and Liz, who are known at Spilsbury General Hospital as Angela’s Angels.
• Prisoner of the Bell - Susie Cathcart can’t be bothered with education; her attitude is that life is for fun and she will manage fine without O Levels. The only lesson Susie does care for is gym and she has a natural talent for gymnastics. Then wheelchair-bound Grandmother Cathcart comes to live with the family, and brings a bell that she uses to summon Susie. The bell soon seems to have a strange power over Susie; every time she hears it, she goes into a trance. Gran begins to use the bell to force her to do her homework, meaning to force Susie into her own mould of being an assiduous, dedicated, brilliant scholar, as well as interfering with Susie’s gymnastics, which she considers "useless".
• Village of Fame - Sue Parker spins tall tales for a little excitement in her dreary village, despite its name – Fame. Then Major Grenfield rents out the old manor to Mr Grand of IBC TV studios, who wants to film the day-to-day life of the villagers. But Sue is not keen on cameras being installed everywhere in Fame, and her suspicions prove justified when she discovers the lengths that Grand will go to with his publicity stunts to increase ratings. But nobody listens to Sue’s warnings about because of her reputation for too much imagination. Luckily, she gains an ally in Grand's niece Mandy.
• Sally Was a Cat - Sourpuss Sally Biggs wishes she could change places with her cat – and then finds the cat comes from a long line of witches’ cats and can therefore oblige her!
• The Christmas Spirit - Julie is fed-up with being the butt of jokes because her surname is Christmas. She tries to find the Christmas spirit for her brother’s sake but isn’t having much luck – until she finds shelter in a snowstorm and things begin to happen.
• The Winning Loser - Jean and Alice Fisher try to get a replacement vase for their gran, who is comatose. Alice finds one going as a second prize in a tennis match, but has to learn to play tennis and go up against Selena, an arrogant girl who is always poking fun at her. At the tennis match, Alice starts playing a bit too well against Selena and could end up with first prize instead of the second prize she wanted for her gran. So she has to face a choice at the match – her pride or her gran?
• No Time for Pat - a tear-jerker of a story about a girl who is living on borrowed time and using it to help a wheel-chair bound girl at the orphanage.
• Tansy of Jubilee Street - Tansy Taylor keeps a diary of the goings-on in Jubilee Street where she lives, and her school and home. These include sibling rivalry with her brother Simon, which gets even worse when Simon pairs up with his friend Peter Saint.
• Pam of Pond Hill - Pam Watts brings us stories of what happened when she was a first-year at Pond Hill Comprehensive. These usually deal with bullies, problem pupils, teachers, family and friendship problems, brushes with the law, accidents and catastrophes, school trips, Christmas chaos, and even the occasional hint of the supernatural, all told in Pam’s own words and her own language.
• Race for a Fortune - When Katie McNab's Uncle Ebenezer dies, his will dictates that whichever relative reaches his home village of Yuckiemuckle first, under their own steam and starting without any money, will inherit his fortune. And so the race to Yuckiemuckle begins, between Katie and her roller skates, and her snobby cousins Caroline and Rodney, who pull every dirty trick they can to sabotage her and get there first.
• Dance Into Darkness - Della is forced to dance whenever music plays, with her free will eroded by the curse she takes on.
• Shadow on the Fen - Linden James and her family have just moved to the village of Wychley Green. Linden misses her old home and isn’t making friends because they think she’s standoffish. But then a girl from the 17th century appears. Her name is Rebecca Neville and her evil cousin, Matthew Hobley “The Witchfinder”, has accused her of witchcraft. Rebecca moves in with Linden, but soon there are warning signs that Hobley has followed Rebecca into the 20th century. And Linden, who is confident that Hobley can’t stir up people against Rebecca in this period because people no longer believe in witches, is soon to learn otherwise.
• Spell of Fog – A film crew want to make a film about Alice Compton, the victim of a witchhunter Sally Groves protests when the director announces he is making a sensationalised version that depicts Alice as an actual agent of the Devil, not a hapless victim of superstition and hysteria. Then a strange fog appears where Alice’s remains have been scattered. Its power cuts the village off from the outside world and has the village progressively reverting to a 17th-century pattern in technology, dress and people’s thinking. Hysteria erupts in the village as the fog takes hold and people think it’s Alice’s revenge. Sally is the obvious scapegoat because she alone has remained unaffected, so she becomes a target of mob attacks and people calling her a witch.
• A Dream For Yvonne - Yvonne Laroon comes from a long line of circus performers and her family takes it for granted she will follow in their footsteps. But ever since Yvonne saw Swan Lake on television, she has had other ideas – to become a ballerina. She certainly has talent for it, thanks to her acrobatic circus skills, but no formal ballet training, and her parents do not approve. Yvonne comes across the Alexia Company Ballet School and climbs up onto the roof to take a look at a lesson. She ends up crashing through the roof, where she is mistaken for a new girl they were expecting. After a demonstration of what dancing she can do, she is accepted into the school. She decides to keep her circus origins secret, fearing expulsion because of it.

LINDY

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

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 Gascoine (who was 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, 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,^[2] Made 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).

Notes

1. Comics UK Family Tree for Jinty and Penny
2. Audrey Fawley interviewed by Steve Holland