The Story of JANE (or a reasonable facsimile, thereof...)

[cartoonjoe2004]

On Friday, 1 April 1938, Norman Pett's creation underwent a format change. The title was shortened to Jane, and, instead of being a single panel written from Jane's point-of-view, bcame a more traditional comic strip narrative, with dialogue and four separate panels (it is presumed this is when writer J.H.G. "Don" Freeman began writing the continuities for Pett, a job he would hold {in addition to scripting Pip, Squeak and Wilfred, Belinda Blue Eyes, and Garth}, into the early 1950s, when Pett's 1949 successor, Mike Hubbard, presumably took over the writing as well).

Instead of a daily gag, the strip is now a continuing storyline, with Jane being informed by her banker that she's lost her private income, and has to WORK for a living (figures 10 and 11).

In due course, Jane sells all her worldly possessions, packs up her little Dachshund Fritz, and leaves her country home for London, where she finds a rooming house run by an attractive older brunet named Mary (fig. 12), who is engaged to a middle-age goofus named George, who's sole function is to be the butt of cheap fiance jokes (and repeatedly bitten by Fritz!).

Figures 13, 14 and 15 show our Jane adjustment to her new surroundings, while figures 16, 17and 18 feature another character, the saucy redhead Betty, an old friend of Mary's who shares a room with Jane and was no stranger to public nudity, herself (fig. 19) (the trio's relationship could be compared to that of Ruthie, Wanda Homefree and Annie in Harvey Kurtzman's and Will Elder's Little Annie Fanny strip that ran in Playboy, with Ruthie fulfilling the "Mother Hen" role, and Wanda being the wild best friend who gets Annie into all sorts of embarrassing situations, much like Mary, Betty and Jane did some twenty-five years previously.)

More to come, soon.

[lonmol]

Some photos of the "real" Jane; Chrystabel Leighton-Porter. Chrystabel was actually the second model that Norman Pett used for Jane. The first was his wife Mary.

[solarking]

This Jane series of posts is fabulous. Keep them coming please.

Also, thanks to lonmol for the photos.

[Victor_Hugo956]

There was a UK TV series in the 80's I think, dont know if there are any pics though..

[cartoonjoe2004]

Originally Posted by Victor_Hugo956

There was a UK TV series in the 80's I think, dont know if there are any pics though..

Yes, there are picture of the Jane TV series; just google "Jane/Glynis Barber", then click on "images".

[cartoonjoe2004]

Here's a link to an edited-together version of the first Jane TV series on youtube:

youtube.com/watch?v=H1kqO4nH8hA

[lonmol]

Here's a thread that should be of interest; https://forum.oneclickchicks.com/show...=glynis+barber

[cartoonjoe2004]

The Jane comic strip ran in The Daily Mirror from 5 December 1932 to 10 October 1959. The strip was also published in Australia, Canada, Italy and (briefly) the United States.

Following th strip's demise, a tribute volume, Farewell to Jane, was published in 1960, reprinting some wartime material.

The next reprint was the previously mentioned Jane at War. Published in 1976, this huge volume reprinted all of the WWII strips, starting with the 4 September 1939 strip, which was right in ther middle of the "Jane's Love Story" continuity that began in the fall of 1938, and ended with the strip for 14 August 1945, right in the middle of the "Jane's Summer Idyll" storyline, which had begun that previous June.

In 1983, there was a reprint tie-in to the Jane TV series, also with that title, reprinting the "Hush-Hush House" story (the basis for the first series of the TV show) and a later Mike Hubbard-illustrated continuity, "Nature in the Raw" (1951), which has our Jane at a nudist colony.

The Jane at War book was partially reprinted in 1994, containing less than 3/4 of the original volume (plus, it came with a handy slipcase!).

Finally, there's The Misadventures of Jane, published in 2009, which reprints "NAFFI Say Die" and "Jane at the Front" from the 1976 volume. The book also contains some never-before reprinted material from Pett's Jane's Journal magazine, including a few spot illustrations and a couple of multi-page stories, all in full color, printed on glossy stock paper.

As far as I know, none of the original Jane's Journal-The Diary of a Bright Young Thing strips published between 5 December 1932 and 31 March 1938, the serial strips published between 1 April 1938 and 2 September 1939, nor any of Pett's strips done after the war and before he relinquished the feature to Hubbard in the late 1940s have ever been reprinted in full (Though I believe Hubbard's stuff was republished in Australia in the 50s...anyone having any definite info of this, please feel free to correct me).

[Darth611]

The Jane strip cartoon reappeared in the Daily Mirror in the 1980's. It was mainly contemporary but there were some flashbacks to the war time with some old stories redrawn. Worth looking for and sharing here if I find any.

[cartoonjoe2004]

Let's not forget Modesty Blaise.

About the 1980s Jane strip...it ran in the Mirror from 1985 to 1990, and was actually about the original Jane's granddaughter. (I also neglected to mention Jane, Daughter of Jane, which appeared in 1961 and, as the title suggests, was the story of Jane's grown-up daughter {amazing, when you consider the original strip had just ended only two years before!}; this Jane, lacking the innocence and charm of the original, only lasted two years.)