"My great memory, though, was always of Misty's stablemate, Jinty, published by IPC from the mid seventies to the early eighties. These stories were even further from the stereotypical image of girls' comics, though they contained some of the aspects of them: an orphan... who met Epona, the Celtic horse goddess; a promising athlete... sent to sleep by the hum of a malicious spinning wheel; the bully of Form 3B... who mentally dominates a weaker girl. And then there were the really far-out ones: the whole of the UK flooded by global warming; the girl whose mother was a mermaid; Viking clay warriors coming to life; and the headmistress obsessed by perfection who turns her pupils into essentially Stepford Schoolchildren." - Jenni Scott

A must see page for fans of Jinty from Jenni Scott.
http://www.jenniscott.net/Jinty_Come_Back.html

I actually have the first issue of Jinty (unfortunately, in far from mint condition). The Jinty blurb proclaimed that a great deal of thought had gone into the stories, and the staff had asked girls up and down the country what sort of stories they liked to read. These were the first stories that Jinty readers read (in no particular order):

"Merry at Misery House." In the 1920's, chirpy Merry Summers is sent to a reformatory (unjustly, of course). The reformatory is nicknamed "Misery House" - and for good reason. However Merry refuses to let Misery House break her will - or keep her from smiling. This was one of the longest running sagas in Jinty. I don't exactly how long this story ran, but it was well over 30 episodes. Curiously, Merry did not appear in either the 1974 or 1975 Jinty annuals.

"Angela's Angels." Drama with six student nurses. In 1981, Jinty ran a poll asking what stories Jinty readers wanted, and many asked for a nursing story. So "Angela's Angels" was repeated.

"A Dream for Yvonne." Yvonne runs away from the circus to become a ballerina.

"Make-believe Mandy." Why does Mandy's family hate her so much and treat her so badly?

I have started a collection of Jinty and Tammy annuals. Jinty merged with Tammy in 1981, but was still producing annuals in 1986. I don't know when the last Jinty annual was, but the 1985 and 1986 annuals sure were disappointments. There was nothing "Jinty" in them. No Gypsy Rose, Pam of Pond Hill or even a serial reprinted from Jinty. They were just a collection of short stories that could have come from any girl's annual. Indeed I recognise several of them as reprints from other annuals, including 'Jintys Crystal.' With the quality of Jinty annuals so much in decline, I doubt that they would have persisted beyond 1986.

Maybe the problem was legal hitches. The old Jinty favourite, Pam of Pond Hill, was now firmly a Tammy annual character. I know that Tammy continued her annuals into 1986 but I don't know when she stopped. At least she kept her annuals up to standard. Molly Mills, Wee Sue, the Storyteller and Bessie Bunter still appeared in the Tammy annual, years after they were dropped in the regular comic. They were proudly represented beside the Button Box, Bella Barlow and the old Jinty regular, Pam of Pond Hill. Briony- Briony

There's more from Briony on the characters page.

If you have any other information on Jinty please drop us a line.