Reprinted stories in Princess Mk.2

Discuss all the girls comics that have appeared over the years. Excellent titles like Bunty, Misty, Spellbound, Tammy and June, amongst many others, can all be remembered here.

Moderator: AndyB

User avatar
philcom55
Posts: 5170
Joined: 14 Jun 2006, 11:56

Re: Reprinted stories in Princess Mk.2

Post by philcom55 »

A couple of panels from my original Jinty page.

Image

Tammyfan
Posts: 1981
Joined: 23 Aug 2012, 10:41

Re: Reprinted stories in Princess Mk.2

Post by Tammyfan »

philcom55 wrote:Wasn't Rowena based on an existing character from Celtic mythology?
Probably. My Celtic mythology isn't great, so I don't know.

User avatar
philcom55
Posts: 5170
Joined: 14 Jun 2006, 11:56

Re: Reprinted stories in Princess Mk.2

Post by philcom55 »

Phil Clarke brought some nice pages of original art from old British girls' comics to the Birmingham Mart this afternoon, and while I was tempted by a title page of the Tammy serial Rowena of the Doves in the end I decided to get an untitled Jinty page that had subsequently been reprinted in Princess. I'll have to get out my own Jintys to check if I have the original printed version but it looks to me as though it must have come from an early episode of 'Stefa's Heart of Stone' drawn by Phil Townsend. Can anybody confirm this from the detail shown below?
Image

comixminx
Posts: 505
Joined: 09 Jul 2015, 16:41
Location: UK
Contact:

Re: Reprinted stories in Princess Mk.2

Post by comixminx »

philcom55 wrote:Phil Clarke brought some nice pages of original art from old British girls' comics to the Birmingham Mart this afternoon, and while I was tempted by a title page of the Tammy serial Rowena of the Doves in the end I decided to get an untitled Jinty page that had subsequently been reprinted in Princess. I'll have to get out my own Jintys to check if I have the original printed version but it looks to me as though it must have come from an early episode of 'Stefa's Heart of Stone' drawn by Phil Townsend. Can anybody confirm this from the detail shown below?
Image
I think it must be from Stefa! Nice one, very jealous. I suspect it must be from the first episode because the best friend dies very early on in the story.
jintycomic.wordpress.com/ Excellent and weird stories from the past - with amazing art to boot.

comixminx
Posts: 505
Joined: 09 Jul 2015, 16:41
Location: UK
Contact:

Re: Reprinted stories in Princess Mk.2

Post by comixminx »

Here is the story post about Stefa, and you can clearly see in the sample episode that it is the same two characters.
https://jintycomic.wordpress.com/2014/0 ... tone-1976/

Very jealous! How much was it, if you don't mind me asking?
jintycomic.wordpress.com/ Excellent and weird stories from the past - with amazing art to boot.

Tammyfan
Posts: 1981
Joined: 23 Aug 2012, 10:41

Re: Reprinted stories in Princess Mk.2

Post by Tammyfan »

Nice to hear some of the original artwork from Stefa and Rowena is still around!

User avatar
philcom55
Posts: 5170
Joined: 14 Jun 2006, 11:56

Re: Reprinted stories in Princess Mk.2

Post by philcom55 »

I've sent you a PM about the price Comixminx.

It really is quite startling to see a story in which the heroine's best friend dies right at the beginning. I can still remember the shock I felt at eight years old when our Junior School Headmaster gathered us into the assembly hall to announce that a classmate called David Mountford had died. Most children get used to the idea that pets and older adults tend to pass away in the normal course of events, but the sudden knowledge that it could happen to one of us was utterly devastating! :shock:

Phoenix
Guru
Posts: 5360
Joined: 27 Mar 2008, 21:15

Re: Reprinted stories in Princess Mk.2

Post by Phoenix »

philcom55 wrote:I can still remember the shock I felt at eight years old when our Junior School Headmaster gathered us into the assembly hall to announce that a classmate called David Mountford had died.
I can empathise with that, Phil, although I was only about six at the time. I'd certainly moved up out of the Reception class at Ryelands County Primary School in Lancaster but I genuinely can't remember whether the death occurred the next year or the year after. In any event we were informed in some assembly or other that Jean Doubleday had died, and everybody was asked to bring in a penny the following morning, presumably for flowers. Now Jean was my best friend, and after school we would invariably wander along Torrisholme Road in the general direction of my family's house on Scale Hall Lane, chatting away, sometimes holding hands. When we reached Watery Lane we would turn round and go back to her house on the Ryelands estate, nowadays something of a no-go area. I don't remember being invited in all that often. Anyway a few days later I went to hers, not knowing what 'died' meant, and saw her mother standing on the front step, and I asked her if I could see Jean. I can see her mother now, and she was very gentle, telling me that Jean had died of diptheria, and she was sorry as a consequence that I wouldn't be able to see her any more, in school or out. I've never forgotten her.

User avatar
philcom55
Posts: 5170
Joined: 14 Jun 2006, 11:56

Re: Reprinted stories in Princess Mk.2

Post by philcom55 »

As a matter of interest here's an example of some typical editorial 'bodging' from the bottom of the page where the original artwork was shortened by half an inch and a couple of balloons needed to be repositioned for the reprint in Princess. The first scan shows the lower part of the panel obscured by tape as I found it while the second image shows the full picture after I'd removed the tape. (Hopefully I'll also be able to remove the extraneous lines in due course)

Image

Image

comixminx
Posts: 505
Joined: 09 Jul 2015, 16:41
Location: UK
Contact:

Re: Reprinted stories in Princess Mk.2

Post by comixminx »

Phoenix wrote:
philcom55 wrote:I can still remember the shock I felt at eight years old when our Junior School Headmaster gathered us into the assembly hall to announce that a classmate called David Mountford had died.
I can empathise with that, Phil, although I was only about six at the time. I'd certainly moved up out of the Reception class at Ryelands County Primary School in Lancaster but I genuinely can't remember whether the death occurred the next year or the year after. In any event we were informed in some assembly or other that Jean Doubleday had died, and everybody was asked to bring in a penny the following morning, presumably for flowers. Now Jean was my best friend, and after school we would invariably wander along Torrisholme Road in the general direction of my family's house on Scale Hall Lane, chatting away, sometimes holding hands. When we reached Watery Lane we would turn round and go back to her house on the Ryelands estate, nowadays something of a no-go area. I don't remember being invited in all that often. Anyway a few days later I went to hers, not knowing what 'died' meant, and saw her mother standing on the front step, and I asked her if I could see Jean. I can see her mother now, and she was very gentle, telling me that Jean had died of diptheria, and she was sorry as a consequence that I wouldn't be able to see her any more, in school or out. I've never forgotten her.
What a sad story, Phoenix!

There were other stories that started off with a 'bang' in having death quite early on - mostly the death of a parent though. "I'll Make up For Mary", which was also written by Alison Christie who wrote Stefa, has the protagonist's sister dying in the first episode. Though it had quite a few similarities to the earlier story 'Stefa', 'Mary' is not as successful a story though, nor as popular.
jintycomic.wordpress.com/ Excellent and weird stories from the past - with amazing art to boot.

comixminx
Posts: 505
Joined: 09 Jul 2015, 16:41
Location: UK
Contact:

Re: Reprinted stories in Princess Mk.2

Post by comixminx »

philcom55 wrote:As a matter of interest here's an example of some typical editorial 'bodging' from the bottom of the page where the original artwork was shortened by half an inch and a couple of balloons needed to be repositioned for the reprint in Princess. The first scan shows the lower part of the panel obscured by tape as I found it while the second image shows the full picture after I'd removed the tape. (Hopefully I'll also be able to remove the extraneous lines in due course)
Thanks for this, Phil - and for the PM too. It's always very interesting to see behind the scenes stuff like this!
jintycomic.wordpress.com/ Excellent and weird stories from the past - with amazing art to boot.

Tammyfan
Posts: 1981
Joined: 23 Aug 2012, 10:41

Re: Reprinted stories in Princess Mk.2

Post by Tammyfan »

comixminx wrote:
Phoenix wrote:
philcom55 wrote:I can still remember the shock I felt at eight years old when our Junior School Headmaster gathered us into the assembly hall to announce that a classmate called David Mountford had died.
I can empathise with that, Phil, although I was only about six at the time. I'd certainly moved up out of the Reception class at Ryelands County Primary School in Lancaster but I genuinely can't remember whether the death occurred the next year or the year after. In any event we were informed in some assembly or other that Jean Doubleday had died, and everybody was asked to bring in a penny the following morning, presumably for flowers. Now Jean was my best friend, and after school we would invariably wander along Torrisholme Road in the general direction of my family's house on Scale Hall Lane, chatting away, sometimes holding hands. When we reached Watery Lane we would turn round and go back to her house on the Ryelands estate, nowadays something of a no-go area. I don't remember being invited in all that often. Anyway a few days later I went to hers, not knowing what 'died' meant, and saw her mother standing on the front step, and I asked her if I could see Jean. I can see her mother now, and she was very gentle, telling me that Jean had died of diptheria, and she was sorry as a consequence that I wouldn't be able to see her any more, in school or out. I've never forgotten her.
What a sad story, Phoenix!

There were other stories that started off with a 'bang' in having death quite early on - mostly the death of a parent though. "I'll Make up For Mary", which was also written by Alison Christie who wrote Stefa, has the protagonist's sister dying in the first episode. Though it had quite a few similarities to the earlier story 'Stefa', 'Mary' is not as successful a story though, nor as popular.
Oddly, a panel from Mary was used in Pam's Poll 1980, where Pam said it was one of her favourite stories.

Stefa was one of Jinty's most popular stories and in 1981 the letter column revealed that there was a huge demand in the poll to repeat Stefa. Yet the editor was still asking if other readers wanted Stefa. Was he hesitating to repeat her for some reason?

User avatar
philcom55
Posts: 5170
Joined: 14 Jun 2006, 11:56

Re: Reprinted stories in Princess Mk.2

Post by philcom55 »

Having just treated myself to some more artwork for my birthday I thought one newly-acquired page from "Stefa's Heart Of Stone' provided a fascinating look at IPC's production techniques during the 1980s. As can be seen from the three scans shown below Phil Townsend's art for this episode needed to be reprinted in Princess2 with spot colour for which the two acetate overlays have survived. Although these used solid red templates to indicate the areas to be coloured the actual page was apparently printed in black and blue: the first colour overlay indicating 50% density and the second indicating 100%. Unfortunately I don't own either of the issues of Jinty and Princess in which this sequence appeared but it would be interesting to see how it came out, as well as the extent to which the lettering was altered for the reprint.

Image
Image
Image

Lew Stringer
Posts: 7041
Joined: 01 Mar 2006, 00:59
Contact:

Re: Reprinted stories in Princess Mk.2

Post by Lew Stringer »

Ah, acetate overlays. They were the days. :roll: I remember doing some pages similar to that for Oink! The most time-consuming one I did was the full-colour cover for Harrier's Brickman special in 1986, with an acetate sheet for Cyan, Yellow, and Magenta. So long ago I can't even remember the full process now, of whether additional sheets were used for lower percentages (eg: skin tone) or whether it was all indicated in the margins for the printer to sort out.
The blog of British comics: http://lewstringer.blogspot.com
My website: http://www.lewstringer.com
Blog about my own work: http://lewstringercomics.blogspot.com/

Phoenix
Guru
Posts: 5360
Joined: 27 Mar 2008, 21:15

Re: Reprinted stories in Princess Mk.2

Post by Phoenix »

philcom55 wrote:Wasn't Rowena based on an existing character from Celtic mythology?
Like Tammyfan, I can't answer that question either, Phil, as I have mislaid my book on Celtic myths. I have, seriously, I can see it clearly in my mind's eye, but I've no idea where I've put it. I've got books everywhere in this house, even in the kitchen as there are several on the table there. To be fair, apart from my first god-daughter, who was so christened, the only other Rowena I can bring to mind was a character in Ivanhoe. She was played in the film of the book by Elizabeth Taylor.
Last edited by Phoenix on 30 Apr 2017, 23:10, edited 1 time in total.

Post Reply