[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.