| Princess Tina | |
|---|---|
 The cover ofPrincess Tina, dated 7 August 1971. Art byPurita Campos. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Fleetway Publications 1967 to 1969 IPC Magazines 1969 to 1973 |
| Schedule | Weekly (Mondays) |
| Format | Ongoing series |
| Publication date | 23 September 1967 – 12 January 1974 |
| No. of issues | 328or 330 |
| Creative team | |
| Written by | Jenny Butterworth Phillip Douglas |
| Artist(s) | Bill Baker Purita Campos Leo Davy Michael Hubbard Hugh McNeill Colin Merrett Edmond Fernández Ripoll Andrew Wilson |
| Editor(s) | John Sanders Desmond Pride John Wagner |
Princess Tina (also known asPrincess Tina and Penelope andTina at various points) was aBritish weeklygirls' comicanthology published byFleetway Publications andIPC Magazines from 23 September 1967 to 12 January 1974.[a] The comic was created by combining two underperforming Fleetway titles —Princess andTina — into a third, new comic. Notable strips included the long-running family drama "The Happy Days" and "Patty's World". The latter would outlivePrincess Tina, continuing after the comic was merged intoPink.
Princess Tina was a novel solution to problems being faced by two Fleetway girls' comics.Princess had launched strongly in 1960 but falling sales had seen it lose its magazine-stylephotogravure printing, and with it much of its aspirational middle-class readership.Tina meanwhile had been launched as an action-orientated comic made for European syndication but some of Fleetway's partners had dropped out, and the British sales of the comic were not enough to prop it up — though it remained a bestseller in theNetherlands.[1]
British girls had not warmed to the action heroines ofTina — audience research used terms such as "too macho" and "too masculine" to describe them — and so a plan was made by John Sanders, editor ofTina and protégé of Director of Juvenile PublicationsLeonard Matthews, to effectively combine them with the most popular elements ofPrincess. This would it was hoped result in a publication palatable to both British and continental readers, and see Fleetway replace two struggling comics with a single strong seller — halving the high production costs of the titles into the bargain.[1][2][3]
Readers of both titles were prepared extensively for the merge;Princess stories "The Happy Days" and "Alona — The Wild One" appeared inTina, while "Jane Bond - Secret Agent" and "The Trolls" featured inPrincess. Alongside these an adaptation ofThe Wizard of Oz was printed in both simultaneously, to be continued inPrincess Tina. Due to the need to appease Fleetway's European partners (particularly Dutch publishers Spaarnestad, who were printing 100,000 copies ofTina a week as the title became the Netherlands' best selling comic) the merge was asymmetrical. From the pages ofTina came "Barbie the Model Girl", "Here Come the Space Girls", "Jackie and the Wild Boys", "Jane Bond — Secret Agent", "Moira, Slave Girl of Rome", "My Chum Yum-Yum", "The Trolls", "Westward the Wagons" and "Willy the Wily Wolf". By comparison,Princess only contributed "Alona — The Wild One" and "The Happy Days"; instead it would be more strongly felt in the new comic's features, which continued Mike Davies' ballet photography in "Princess Tina Ballet".[2] The result was that to international partners the comic looked likeTina with a couple of new additions.[1]
The first issue ofPrincess Tina was 32 pages, and cost 8d. The comic retained the high production values of its forebears, withweb offset printing, a painted colour cover, eight pages of interior colour and two further pages with a colour overlay. In addition to the ballet pages, the comic contained two other prestige features — "Famous Royal Daughters" detailed the likes ofHelen of Troy andLetizia Bonaparte with painted illustrations byJohn Millar Watt, while Eric Tansley regaled readers with information on "Nature's Oddities".[2] Covers were contributed by the likes of Audrey Fawley, Walter Lambert andManfred Sommer.[4]
The end of October 1967 saw "Here Come the Space Girls" end; it was replaced by "Life with Tina", a good-natured slice-of-life story fronted by the magazine's fictional host and editor Tina. After the conclusion of "The Wizard of Oz" further adaptations followed, includingThe Secret Garden andLassie Come-Home. The standard churn saw a makeover as the comic approached six months and reader feedback began to filter in; "Dawn of the Islands" finished and was replaced by the girl tycoon "Chairman Cherry" while "Milly the Merry Mermaid" joined Willy in the humour department. "Famous Royal Daughters" meanwhile was replaced by "Stories That Live Forever", which saw Watt illustrate famous scenes from classic literature.[2]
With continuing good business overseas,Princess Tina was in better health than its forebears, though to keep costs down in May 1968 "Anna at the Court of Siam" began a series of reprints from the archives ofGirl. June 1968 introduced "Nita Nobody", about an orphan hunting for her mother; the character proved popular enough that even after she found her mother (who turned out to be a glamorous film star) in 1969 she would return for a second arc in 1970.[2] Later in the year the comic also debuted "Cooking with Cookie", where the namesake character dispensed recipes for Frenchcheese pudding, raspberry surprise, stuffed savoury eggs and other culinary delights.[1][5]
1969 saw "Moira, Slave Girl of Rome" finally escape from captivity andPrincess Tina, instead being replaced byMercurian "Super-Girl Sandra".[2] While sales were still robust, Fleetway were growing aware of the rise of the so-called 'tweeny-bopper' as readers stopped waiting for their teens before becoming obsessed with pop music. In the 3 May 1969 edition Scots singerLulu would be the subject of the first "Pops with Tina", which would go on to feature such greats of the age asHarmony Grass,The Marmalade,The Family Dogg andEdison Lighthouse.[1]
Behind the scenes, the owners of Fleetway were gradually trying to streamline the multiple publishers it owned into what would becomeIPC Magazines, and the end of the year sawPrincess Tina merge withPenelope — formerlyLady Penelope, one ofCity Magazines'Gerry Anderson-based titles. With the twin flops ofJoe 90 andThe Secret Service signalling the end of the sixties puppet craze there was little of the comic left to be incorporated, and only strip "Penny on Her Own" would continue into what would be namedPrincess Tina and Penelope until May 1970.[2]
By the time the title returned toPrincess Tina, "Jane Bond — Secret Agent" and "Alona — The Wild One" had also finished. The latter was replaced by the judgemental interference of "Ross, Student Nurse", though better news would come when "My Chum Yum-Yum" finally stopped in July 1970. It was replaced by the unusual territory of a football-related strip, "Sister to a Soccer Star". Autumn saw another move towards magazine territory with the addition of "Meet the Stars", a succession of features on glitterati includingSusan Hampshire,Derren Nesbitt,Eric Flynn,Judas Jump andBlue Mink.[2]
In July 1971 the long-running "Jackie and the Wild Boys" concluded, to be replaced by "Patty's World". The freckled 13-year old Patty — forever in the shadow of good-looking best friend Sharon, squabbling with date-crazy big sister Carol and failing to land a date with crush Johnny Vowden — struck a cord with readers for her candid, down-to-earth personality. Wittily written by Phillip Douglas and illustrated byPurita Campos (a talented artist who painted many ofPrincess Tina's covers), "Patty's World" rapidly overhauled "The Happy Days" as a reader favourite.[1] The strip was also a hugely popular export, notably in Campos' native Spain where Patty was renamed Esther. As well as "Patty's World" and the covers, Campos would also illustrate clothes column "Fashion Conscious" (written by Linda Semark) when it joinedPrincess Tina in November 1971.[6] At the same time "Life with Tina" was overhauled as the more modern "Tina Aims for the Top!" as Tina finished working for her father's employment agency and started a more independent career.[1]
The following month the long-runningBarbie strip finished. Change was by now sweeping through IPC's girls' comic division under the auspices of John Purdy, who brought in new writers — notably the prolific formerDC Thomson writersPat Mills andJohn Wagner. To fit in better with the likes ofTammy andSandie,Princess Tina was given a shake-up in March 1972. "The Trolls" was retired; Patty, Sue Day and still-learning Janet Ross continued but were joined by a more contemporary group of characters — including fashion designer Briony Andrews, modern school drama "No Swimming Allowed!", historical domestic misery "Jinny Below Stairs" and pigtailed monster "Catherine Arrogant". The cover also saw the 'Princess' part of the title shrink considerably. The last survivor of theTina intake — "Willy the Wily Wolf" — ended in May 1972, to be replaced by "Just Jenny", while a succession of plucky heroines and domestic dramas joined the comic — including "Doomed Village", "Candy's No Lady!", "Five Uncles for Fiona" and "Tessa and the Time People".[2]
January 1973 saw the title officially reduced to simplyTina; later in the year, two of the longest-running features came to an end, with "Tina Aims for the Top!" finishing in March, with "The Happy Days" finishing its 13-year run in June. By now the comic was caught between the likes ofTammy andSandie, and the growing success of magazine-comic hybrids likePink,Mirabelle andDC Thomson'sJackie.[1] In July,Tina made a pitch for the latter market with the number of comic strips scaled back, and the painted front cover was replaced by photographs of popstars. The move was not a success, and after the 12 January 1974 edition it was incorporated intoPink. Wagner had risen to edit the title by this stage along withSandie, and both were cancelled at around the same time, something the writer would wryly joke about in later interviews,[7] noting aboutPrincess Tina that "I really did mess that one right up."[8]
"Patty's World" would outlive not onlyPrincess Tina but alsoPink and its next homeMates, and appear inGirl until 1988.[1][4][9]
As of 2018, the material created forPrincess Tina has been owned byRebellion Publishing.[10][11][12] In 2023 they issuedThe Best of Jane Bond, a compilation featuring some of the character's appearances inPrincess Tina, on theirTreasury of British Comics label.[13][14][15]
| Title | ISBN | Publisher | Release date | Contents |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Best of Jane Bond | 9781786188021 | Rebellion Developments | 12 April 2023 | Material fromTina 25 February to 16 September 1967,Princess Tina 2 March 1968 to 6 April 1969 and 6 December 1969 to 28 February 1970. |
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