Comics UK

Funnily enough I just bought a lovely page of art from the girls' comic Pixie which features Jose Ortiz's adaptation of the Mikado. Here's a detail showing his interpretation of Yum-Yum...along with Ko-Ko (At least nobody ever named a comic strip hero after Nanki-Poo! ).

I see the artist has put in the outlines of the speech bubbles. I recall in the first episode of Tammy's "Plain as Pearl" they goofed and still had the outline of the speech bubble in one panel as just the outline.

They're outlines left behind when the lettered captions and word balloons have been peeled off Tammyfan. I quite like the effect it gives while allowing Jose's original artwork to be seen in full.

philcom55 wrote:Oddly enough there were two strips which starred Asian characters called Yum-Yum in British girls comics - one in DC Thomson's Diana and another in Fleetway's Tina/Princess Tina.

The Princess Tina one may be the one I was thinking of, but it's useful to know there was one in Diana too. What are the names of these strips, please?

Boy protagonists must have been even rarer than non-whites in girls comics before boyfriend stories took off at DCT. The only serial I know where a boy was the main protagonist in a girls serial was "Cuckoo in the Nest" from Tammy. What's more, he's a boy who has to disguise himself as a girl.

Tammyfan wrote:The Princess Tina one may be the one I was thinking of, but it's useful to know there was one in Diana too. What are the names of these strips, please?

The Diana strip featured a young Japanese girl and was just called 'Yum-Yum' (or, including the subtitle, 'Yum-Yum in Search of Her Sister'). The strip which began in Tina and then continued in Princess Tina featured a girl from Hong Kong and was called 'My Chum, Yum-Yum'.

On male protagonists, one oddity was Terry Brent - an adult detective who had his own long-running strip in School Friend.

Tammyfan wrote:The only serial I know where a boy was the main protagonist in a girls serial was "Cuckoo in the Nest" from Tammy. What's more, he's a boy who has to disguise himself as a girl.

You are forgetting Sara Kane's nine-year-old brother Charles, Tammyfan, who was given a temporary place at his thirteen-year-old sister Sara's Clifftops School by the headmistress Miss Talbot as their parents are abroad. Mr Kane is working for an oil company, and his wife is with him. Charles's adventures in that girls' school are recounted in Charley Boy!, which appears in Mandy 313 (Jan. 13 1973) - 324 (Mar. 31 1973) [no instalment in 316]. He is a holy terror but does steer clear of the girls' changing rooms!

A parallel serial is Tammy Smart's Schooldays in Tracy. Her problem is a need to remain undetected in a boys' school.

Looking through some early issues of Bunty these non-white protagonists can be found.

The, already mentioned, 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' drawn by Paddy Brennan in Nos 1(18/1/58)-20(31/5/58)
Also, already mentioned, the comic strip 'Little Lulu' drawn by Bill Ritchie which first appeared in No 90 (3/10/59).
Little Mo the Eskimo drawn by Jim Bleach in Nos 150(26/11/60)-163(25/2/63).
The Gentle Princess, a tale set in Africa, drawn by Vitor Peon in Nos 153(17/12/60)-157(14/1/61).
Sukaro, a tale featuring a young girl in India in 1856, drawn by the excellent J.T. Higson in Nos 190(12/9/61)-203(2/12/61).

Tammy had a revolutionary foray into boyfriends with Sandy and Steve, followed by Sandy - A Girl Like You and Sandy - A Fresh Start.

Jinty had a few dips into male protagonists with The Zodiac Prince, Mike and Terry and Pam of Pond Hill.

Phoenix wrote:

Tammyfan wrote:The only serial I know where a boy was the main protagonist in a girls serial was "Cuckoo in the Nest" from Tammy. What's more, he's a boy who has to disguise himself as a girl.

You are forgetting Sara Kane's nine-year-old brother Charles, Tammyfan, who was given a temporary place at his thirteen-year-old sister Sara's Clifftops School by the headmistress Miss Talbot as their parents are abroad. Mr Kane is working for an oil company, and his wife is with him. Charles's adventures in that girls' school are recounted in Charley Boy!, which appears in Mandy 313 (Jan. 13 1973) - 324 (Mar. 31 1973) [no instalment in 316]. He is a holy terror but does steer clear of the girls' changing rooms!

A parallel serial is Tammy Smart's Schooldays in Tracy. Her problem is a need to remain undetected in a boys' school.

Oh, I never heard of those before. And now and then the boys from the boys' school stayed at St Elmo's as I recall.

philcom55 wrote:The Diana strip featured a young Japanese girl and was just called 'Yum-Yum' (or, including the subtitle, 'Yum-Yum in Search of Her Sister')

For the record, this is the serial that was repeated in Mandy 694 (May 3 1980) - 704 (Jul. 12 1980) as Yum-Yum In Search Of Her Sister. It had originally appeared with that title, as Phil has stated, in Diana 26 (Aug. 17 1963) - 36 (Oct. 26 1963).

Phoenix wrote:A parallel serial is Tammy Smart's Schooldays in Tracy.

Of course a more famous girl at a boys' school is Roberta Dazzler, addressed by all as Bobby. As most of us will know, she had a very long run as Bobby Dazzler in colour on the covers of Judy 432 (Apr. 20 1968) - 809 (Jul. 12 1975).

Another Diana story with Asian (Chinese?) protagonist "The Baby and the Ballet"

As for males, you also had Freddy and Hodge in The Comp and I seem to recall a few annuals with text stories with males like the Mandy 1994 annual. Also the spooky storyteller was often male - Man in Black, Damian Darke, The Strangest Stories Ever Told, Bones from Skeleton Corner

peace355 wrote:Another Diana story with Asian (Chinese?) protagonist "The Baby and the Ballet"

As for males, you also had Freddy and Hodge in The Comp and I seem to recall a few annuals with text stories with males like the Mandy 1994 annual. Also the spooky storyteller was often male - Man in Black, Damian Darke, The Strangest Stories Ever Told, Bones from Skeleton Corner

Mandy had "Not a Clue!", a Sherlock Holmes spoof where the (female) Watson character is the one who is always saving the neck of her male Holmes partner and solving the mysteries. But it does give the serial a male protagonist. It was drawn by Wilf Street.

Tammyfan wrote:Mandy had "Not a Clue!", a Sherlock Holmes spoof where the (female) Watson character is the one who is always saving the neck of her male Holmes partner and solving the mysteries. But it does give the serial a male protagonist.

Yes, Wendy Watson is Victorian sleuth Sheldrake Homes's housekeeper. They live in Beeker Street. There were two series of Not A Clue!, both in the same year. The first series ran from 677 (Jan. 5 1980) to 688 (Mar. 22 1980). The second ran from 701 (Jun. 21 1980) to 708 (Aug. 9 1980).