the three Dinahs

[dishes]

Continuing the Dinah discussion from this thread: http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/Forum/viewtop ... f=1&t=4253

Dinah Mite from Dandy annual 1971 (who is the artist? really like the style.)


Dinah Mo from the Dandy 3/9/1983, art by Ron Spencer.


and Belle Tent as re-reprinted in the reprints comic "Funny Fortnightly" 6/4/1990. Originally printed as "Dinah Mite" in Buster in the 1960s according to Raven. You can see that where the name "Belle" has been substituted for "Dinah" in the dialogue the lettering is slightly larger. Art by Reg Parlett.

[Raven]

Dinah Mite from Dandy annual 1971 (who is the artist? really like the style.)

Ron Spencer, I think. There was also a strip in the weekly for about nine months, circa 1970/71.

And Peter has posted in the past about a Dinah Mite strip drawn by Leo Baxendale in the 1957 Dandy annual.

[dishes]

Ah I wondered if that was Ron Spencer, too, Thanks!

EDIT: On reflection I'm not sure if I believe you, though. It just doesn't look like his other work of the period to me.

[AndyB]

Belle Tent featured regularly in late 1970s/early 1980s Whizzer and Chips annuals. They missed a "Dinah" in one of them, possibly 1978.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

The top artwork in blue is definately by Ron Spencer...here it looks a bit more elaborate than usual, like his 1960s front cover Sparky character work.

[swirlythingy]

What was the reasoning behind renaming characters when reprinting their strips? It couldn't have been to make them less familiar to readers, since if the readers were at all familiar with the originals they'd have spotted it instantly anyway. As evidenced by the problems with name substitution above, sometimes it seemed as if the publishers were simply making more work for themselves.

I suppose in the case of Belle Tent there's a possibility it might have overlapped with DC Thomson's Dinah Mite by the time it was reprinted.

I remember, sometime in the late 2000s, the Beano reprinted a strip called "Olaf the Madlander". I always suspected it was reprints - the art (Sid Burgon?) didn't match anything current in the Beano at the time, but it did remind me of the long-cancelled second series of Biffo, and the expository dialogue in the first panel definitely felt shoehorned in - but it wasn't until some time later I found out the original had been printed in another DCT publication, decades ago, as "Adrian the Barbarian". What happened there?

[Niblet]

What was the reasoning behind renaming characters when reprinting their strips?

Maybe the publishers felt their readers' parents or older siblings were more likely to spot reprints that used the original character name. One can imagine the conversation;

Kid - "This comic's got a great strip in it called Dinah Mite"

Parent/Older Sibling - "That's funny, I used to read a comic XX years ago featuring a character with that name. Can I have a look at your comic? Blimey! It is the same character."

Kid - "What? It's from some ancient comic you used to read? That's put me off it now."

As evidenced by the problems with name substitution above, sometimes it seemed as if the publishers were simply making more work for themselves.

IPC often resized whole pages when preparing them for reprint, bringing in an artist to expand panels, so replacing names in word balloons was trivial compared to that.

[Jonny Whizz]

Yes, Sid Burgon was the main artist on Adrian the Barbarian for most of the strip's run, although I think NP drew the first strips and Bob Nixon drew the ones that appeared on Beezer covers (IIRC, he was the last Beezer cover star before it merged with the Topper). Sid also drew the silent 1990s version of Biffo the Bear, though Trevor Metcalfe drew some as well, including in the 1994 Beano annual.

Adrian wasn't the only strip to have its name changed - The Hoot Squad, which appeared in the short-lived 1980s comic Hoot, was reprinted in the Beano around 2007-2008 renamed as The Riot Squad. However, Fred's Bed, which like Adrian was reprinted from the Beezer and Topper, kept its original title.

[Digifiend]

Fred in fact proved so popular that they ran out of material, resulting in his makeover when Hunt Emerson started the new strips. When Tom Paterson and Dave Sutherland took over, they reinstated the original title banner. I believe Riot Squad stopped due to also running out of material.

[swirlythingy]

Adrian wasn't the only strip to have its name changed - The Hoot Squad, which appeared in the short-lived 1980s comic Hoot, was reprinted in the Beano around 2007-2008 renamed as The Riot Squad. However, Fred's Bed, which like Adrian was reprinted from the Beezer and Topper, kept its original title.

Well, The Hoot Squad is much more understandable, given the reference to its origins inherent in the title!

I'm not really sure what Fred's Bed could conceivably have been renamed as, given that there was no getting away from the fact that the strip was principally about a bed, whereas Belle Tent could have been about any naughty schoolgirl.

I've got quite a lot to say about Fred, but it's all off-topic here.

[dishes]

The top artwork in blue is definately by Ron Spencer...here it looks a bit more elaborate than usual, like his 1960s front cover Sparky character work.

OK, I take back my skepticism. Ron Spencer now ranks even more highly in my estimation now, what a cartoonist.

To sum up:
DINAH MITE (Thomson)
1957 Dandy Annual strip drawn by Sir Leo Baxendale
c1970/1971 weekly and annual strip drawn by Ron Spencer

DINAH MITE (Fleetway)
Buster c1965-7 drawn by Reg Parlett
reprinted in Whizzer and Chips 1970s as "Belle Tent", also new strips drawn by Tom Williams

DINAH MO
1986-1996 drawn again by Ron Spencer (and later John Geering, probably others)

[NP]

DINAH MO
1986-1996 drawn again by Ron Spencer (and later John Geering, probably others)

Yes, definitely 'others'!!

[dishes]

DINAH MO
1986-1996 drawn again by Ron Spencer (and later John Geering, probably others)

Yes, definitely 'others'!!

Whoops, sorry Nigel, no slight intended!

[NP]

Whoops, sorry Nigel, no slight intended!

It's OK, it was 1987, I'm not proud of it!

[Classic Comics]

I wrote Dinah Mo from 1993-1996. Pete Moonie was the artist on it until he became ill and sadly passed away very quickly after. We later tried out a couple of artists on the story, but I certainly struggled to get my heart into it. It just didn't feel right to be writing it for anyone else.
Pete was a fairly unique artist. He had no confidence in his abilities at all, even though we got Dinah Mo up to 2nd on the readers poll. He would pencil the page out in intricate detail at full size on paper, and if I was happy with that pencil, he would redraw those pencils onto board, which I would also have to approve, and then he would ink. I'd often have to sit with him to discuss angles, how I saw something working, what the characters were thinking... he just had no confidence at all, even though the kids clearly liked his work a lot.