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.
In case you don't already have an artist name, i think the story artist here was Harry Lindfield, although the covers were done by somebody else.
This isn't quite his usual style, and I wonder now if he may also have done Belle et les Fourrures Ensorcelées from Line.
Thank you Goof... On this subject, I must tell you that the drawing style of "Trois filles sur un bateau" also resembles that of "Belle et la Cendrillon Volante" (thumbnail below)
Also, do you happen to know where this story was first published? As far as I know, the stories in Frimousse mostly came from Schoolgirl Picture Libraries, with a few coming from School Friend or June comics. I'm pretty certain that this one did not come from a Princess Picture Library, and Girl didn't have a Picture Library series. I don't think School Friend or June ran any Belle and Mamie stories.
Alas no, Goof !... My rare information on comics from English magazines, I find them on forums like Comics UK and pdf files downloaded from British sites
All I can say is that the comic strip "Trois filles sur un bateau" is taken from a magazine with a very different format, because on certain pages there are traces of cutting out of the original drawings.
Thanks, Vautour. This definitely looks like the same artist.
Regarding the original source of "Trois Filles sur un Bateau" - and "Belle et la Cendrillon Volante" also - I think I've answered my own question. Here is the cover from Girl comic for 13 July 1963.
Thanks to the cover of 'Girl' that you posted, I was able to see other images of the original English version of "Trois Filles sur un Bateau", on the 'lastdodo' site ... and have confirmation that Harry Lindfield was indeed the designer https://www.lastdodo.com/en/areas/23167 ... ark?page=2
Still on 'lastdodo', I think I also found the original version of "Belle et les Fourrures Ensorcelées": it is most probably "The Russian Furs" ... with, indeed, Harry Lindfield drawing. https://www.lastdodo.com/en/items/6732937-girl-14
(on the other hand, I haven't been able to find what title "Belle et la Cendrillon Volante" originally had)
A note of caution regarding the artist for the last 5 episodes of "Trois Filles". It seems that Gerald Haylock took over as artist for the Belle and Mamie series from August 1963 to August 1964. Lastdodo credits Haylock as artist for the two episodes 24 and 31 August, and carries no credit for the episodes 3 to 17 August - presumably because the comics carried no artist credit for these dates. These three episodes may also be Haylock, although it's no easy task to tell the two artists apart. Haylock's and Lindfield's styles were very similar any any time - Lindfield was once Haylock's pupil - and in this case it looks as if Haylock was trying to match Lindfield's style for the series.
Thank you Goof for this clarification. I appreciate Harry Lindfield more and more, too bad he is so little known in my country France... On this subject, a question: in Great Britain is Harry Lindfield recognized at his true value, or is -he is a little-known artist (like, alas, Noël Gloesner in France)
Thank you Goof for this clarification. I appreciate Harry Lindfield more and more, too bad he is so little known in my country France... On this subject, a question: in Great Britain is Harry Lindfield recognized at his true value, or is -he is a little-known artist (like, alas, Noël Gloesner in France)
In my opinion, no. In fact, he is one of many artists who worked in the field of UK girls’ comics who are still grossly undervalued. When I first became interested in this type of art, I could not believe that many of the best artists could not be identified at all! The work of David Roach and some others have done much to put that right, but despite their efforts even the best of these artists are still not valued at anywhere near their true worth.
In the case of Harry Lindfield, he is probably best known for his work on a number of TV spin-off comics, especially strips based on Dr Who and Star Trek, but in that field he was working alongside several other excellent artists, and perhaps as a result of this I think the true quality of his art has failed to have its full impact. His work on girls’ comics seems to have been largely forgotten except by a fairly small number of enthusiasts. This is a great shame, as his first-class technical ability was matched by a quite exceptional freedom and spontaneity of style, which I personally prefer to the more precise and polished work of artists such as Ron Embledon and Don Lawrence.
So I’m very grateful to you for posting here so many examples of his work on Belle. I hope that other readers of this blog have enjoyed this impromptu exhibition of his work as much as I have.
Thank you Goof for this clarification. I appreciate Harry Lindfield more and more, too bad he is so little known in my country France... On this subject, a question: in Great Britain is Harry Lindfield recognized at his true value, or is -he is a little-known artist (like, alas, Noël Gloesner in France)
In my opinion, no. In fact, he is one of many artists who worked in the field of UK girls’ comics who are still grossly undervalued. When I first became interested in this type of art, I could not believe that many of the best artists could not be identified at all! The work of David Roach and some others have done much to put that right, but despite their efforts even the best of these artists are still not valued at anywhere near their true worth.
In the case of Harry Lindfield, he is probably best known for his work on a number of TV spin-off comics, especially strips based on Dr Who and Star Trek, but in that field he was working alongside several other excellent artists, and perhaps as a result of this I think the true quality of his art has failed to have its full impact. His work on girls’ comics seems to have been largely forgotten except by a fairly small number of enthusiasts. This is a great shame, as his first-class technical ability was matched by a quite exceptional freedom and spontaneity of style, which I personally prefer to the more precise and polished work of artists such as Ron Embledon and Don Lawrence.
So I’m very grateful to you for posting here so many examples of his work on Belle. I hope that other readers of this blog have enjoyed this impromptu exhibition of his work as much as I have.
Thank you Goof!... and I completely share your appreciation of Harry Lindfield! What I appreciate about this designer is the skill with which he gives an impression of fluid movement to a detailed drawing... His characters are never fixed.
I though I would add one of my own to the gallery, a charming little story which you may not have seen before as it's from an annual - Girl 1963. But I think the art is superb. Every ink stroke lives, and some of the facial expressions are priceless:
I didn't know this story...Indeed, the facial expressions of the characters are very nicely and subtly...I also noticed it in his stories published in "Line" (despite a smaller printing format). Thanks Goof
Thank you Goof for this clarification. I appreciate Harry Lindfield more and more, too bad he is so little known in my country France... (...)
In this regard, it is actually not so surprising that Harry Lindfield is unknown in France: his name - just like those of his colleagues - was erased from the comics published in French and Belgian 'girls' magazines . The question I ask myself is: who is responsible. Is it the French and Belgian publishers?... Is it the British publishers?
Most British publishers of girls’ comics did not give artist credits. Girl, however, was an exception, and gave credits to both artists and writers for most of its run. Credits seem to have been given up to around 1962 at least, and included at least some of the strips drawn by Lindfield. If you follow the link in your post of 20 September, you will see that the page from Belle is credited.
I can suggest a way that you can check this. I have seen several pages of the Belle serial called “The Rebel” in English, and Stanley Houghton is credited in all of them. You can check the corresponding French version which you have seen (“Place aux Jeunes”). If this carries no credits, it would seem that they were removed by the French publisher.
Thanks Goof, but I lacked precision in my question. I know that "Girl" magazine displayed the authors' names. I will rephrase my question: Had the names of the artists been erased by the Belgian and French publishers ? (to hide the English origin from readers ?), or what if it was the British publishers who erased the names from the comic strips, before sending them to Belgian and French magazines ? (in order not to pay authors their share of these additional sales ? - dishonesty which was not uncommon among Franco-Belgian publishers)
Ah, that’s more difficult, and is really a question for an expert on the subject, which I am not. I can only speculate.
Odhams Press, which at that time was the publisher of Girl, was sold to Fleetway Publications in 1961. Fleetway published many of the most popular girls’ comics of the time, and had a strict policy of giving no credits to artists. Odhams seem to have retained some autonomy for a while as a separate part of the group, and Girl’s credits did continue for a short time, although they were now printed inconspicuously down the right hand margin of the page. Once this practice stopped (sometime between 1962 and 1964), any Fleetway reprints of Belle would not have carried credits. However, as far as I know Fleetway and their successor IPC never did reprint Belle.
I think we can discount the possibility that the artists may have had rights to further income when the stories were reprinted by other publishers. As far as I know, this was almost unknown in the UK comics industry until the 1980s at least. The UK publisher may not therefore have had any strong reason for removing credits. The answer may simply come down to the way that the material was transferred to the reprint publisher. Assuming the French/Belgian publishers were given the original artwork, would the UK language text bubbles have been removed first? If so, the artist credits were probably removed at the same time. If not, the UK publisher may not have bothered to remove the credits, if they had no particular reason to do so.
Hopefully another more knowledgeable contributor can help with this.
