|
JAMIN JUNIOR -
HOLLAND 1972
Two Covers from 'Jamin Junior' the second
of which features a 'Please Sir! cover from 1971, and below, the
original cover.
----------------------------------------------- |
British produced strips don't just live and breathe, even
reprinted, within their native shores. A number are syndicated, and can
turn up in the most surprising places.
Syndication is the process where existing strips are 'sold'
- either by a single large payment, or by royalties, a percent of the
total sales of each instalment - to another company who then has rights of
distribution. A great many newspaper strips are published by this method,
with Syndication International, a division of the Mirror Group, being one
of the largest and well known.
Alan Fennell, the original editor of 'Look-In', appeared to
have connections with Holland, and his material had a habit of being
translated into Dutch for publication there. One of his earliest strips,
'Supercar' for 'TV Comic', appeared as 'De Vliegende Auto' (The Flying
Car) in the comic 'Sjors' from late 1961. His superior comics 'TV Century
21' and 'Lady Penelope' were the source for the Dutch equivalent 'TV2000',
running from late 1966 until the end of 1969 in a variety of formats, and
also 'Stingray' and 'Zero X', which saw print in 'Prins Valiant',
alongside the classic Hal Foster strip which gave the comic its name,
through Dutch supermarket chain Vivo. Later, in the 1990s, his
'Thunderbirds The Comic' had a Dutch (as well as French and Flemish)
editions.
In its first
editorial, written by Lisette Crevels, she acknowledged 'There
are many strips in
Jamin Junior,
because we know that you and almost all your friends are mad about them'.
And indeed the strip content, with a couple of notable exceptions, was all
derived from the first two years of 'Look-In'. Issue 1 featured 'Dubbel-Dekkers'
(On The Buses), 'Please Sir!', 'De Vrijbuiters' (Freewheelers), 'Time
Slip' (as two words) and 'Plunderaars bij Duivelsoog' (Wreckers at Dead
Eye), with 'De Jaminnetjes', a curiously confectionery based (and likewise
syndicated, by Italy's Fratelli Spada) strip on the back. Also from
'Look-In' were Colin Willock's 'Survival' features, while the remainder of
each 24 page issue consisted of features and fiction for purely Dutch
programmes, such as 'Snippers' (a news feature), a 'Sport ABC', 'De
Gabbers' and puppet show 'Onkruidzaaiers in Fabeltjes-Land', with the most
prominent being 'Floris', starring a very young Rutger Hauer in the title
role.
Although
printed on matt paper 'Jamin Junior' could, unlike 'Look-In', have full
colour on every page but while used for the mastheads of 'Please Sir!',
'De Vrijbuiters' and 'Plunderaars bij Duivelsoog', the strips remained in
black and white. This changed from issue 5, with 'Please Sir!' and -
replacing 'Plunderaars bij Duivelsoog' after an issue's gap, starting in
issue 8 - 'Catweazle' both being specially coloured. With artwork too
complex for this, 'De Vrijbuiters' had a yellow overlay from issue 7. The
only other non-'Look-In' strip, 'Zorro' (possibly reprints from the
American Dell comics), joined 'Jamin Junior' from issue 15,
|
