Jane (the misadventure of)

série: Erotisme
dessinateur / scénariste: Pett Norman
éditeur: Titan Books EO 2009
genre: Erotisme
classement: biblio523
date: 2009
format: cartonné, avec jaquette
état: TBE/N
valeur: 15 €
critère: *
remarques: a selection of Jane,
the UK pin-up (english book)

six years afer Jane debuted 5.12.1932
in the Daily Mirror by Norman Pett,
Don Freeman was hired to revamp the strip,
he introduced an ongoing continuity
that turned Jane from a daily joke cartoon
into a racy, adventure strip
with the emphasis heavily on the strip,
it was a decision that turned Jane into one
of the most significant cartoon characters
of the twentieth century
(in fact this is a bit exaggerated and Jane
remained for a long time somehow
an unknown comics character)

Jane, the lithe, long-limbed blonde and
her constant companion, a worried looking
dachshund named Fritz, was called
the strip(tease) heroine and queen
of the undieworld

Jane was serving in the NAAFI with the motto
"service with a smile" showing often
a delicious nudity and nice underclothes

n.b. the Navy, Army and Air Force
Institutes (NAAFI) is an organisation
created by the British government in 1921
to run recreational establishments needed
by the British Armed Forces and to sell
goods to servicemen and their families

Jane was crowned the "Army's girlfriend,
the Royal Navy mascot and the R.A.F's pet",
her impact on troop morale led
sir Winston Churchill to call Jane
"Britain's secret weapon"
and it was claimed that on the day Jane
finally stripped off, September 4 1944,
the British 6th division advanced six miles

summary of the book
1/ NAAFI, say die (black and white)
>> p. 156 a dip in a pond

2/ Jane's journal: the perfect model
and caravanseraglio (colour)

3/ behind the front (black and white)
a) in France against Mme Bonnefemme,
a collaboratrice
b) in Germany against the German girl Lorelei
at the Schloss Blitzberg
>> p. 253 Jane taking her bath (famous picture)

4/ Jane as a model


>> a book of collection, the graphic is not
of high quality and the scenario not very
elaborate and rather naive, but Jane is one
of the first erotic figure of the kind
in England


Information
Jane was a comic strip created and drawn
by Norman Pett exclusively for the British
tabloid newspaper the Daily Mirror
from 5.12.1932 to 10.10.1959

Jane was born when artist Norman Pett made
a wager that he could create a comic strip
as popular to adults as the strip Pip,
Squeak and Wilfred was to children,

oiginally Pett's wife Mary modelled for him,
but in the late 1930s, she abandoned
modelling in pursuit of golf, Pett then
teamed up with Chrystabel Leighton-Porter
whom he met while she was modelling
for a class in Birmingham in 1939

orginally entitled Jane's Journal, or
the diary of a bright Young thing,
the salacious comic strip featured
the misadventures of the title ingenue,

the heroine had a habit of frequently
(and most often inadvertently) losing her clothes,
her intimate confidant was a pet dachshund
named Fritz,
her full name was Jane Gay, a play on
the name Lady Jane Grey,
(in contemporary usage, "gay" referred
to her cheerful, fun-loving character
with no implication of homosexuality)

the strip became very popular during
the Second World War and was considered
morale-boosting, inspiring a similar
American version:
Milton Caniff's comic strip Male Call,

until 1943, Jane rarely stripped beyond
her undergarments, but then she made a fully
nude appearance when getting out of a bath
and clumsily falling into the middle of
a crowd of British soldiers

Norman Pett's assistant Michael Hubbard
continued, beginning in 1948,
to develop the cartoon's original storyline
until ending in 1959 with charmer Georgie
giving Jane a happy marriage and ending the series,
the Mirror tried to revive the character
on several occasions, one such comic strip
was Jane, daughter of Jane, who was apparently
the original's grown-up offspring,
but she lacked her mother's charm and innocence,
another attempt was made during the 1980s

recurring characters:
- Jane Gay, heroine and "Queen of the Undie-World'",
- Fritz, Jane's faithful dachshund,
- Georgie Porgie, Jane's boyfriend,
- the Colonel, Jane's commanding officer and friend,
- Lola Pagola, Jane's arch-enemy, also a Nazi spy,
- Thelma, the Colonel's demanding and suspicious wife,
- Dinah, Jane's good friend, Dinah worked
also with NAAFI

during 1945, King Features Syndicate attempted
to distribute Jane in the United States,
however, the nudity was too much for prudish
American audiences and the attempt ceased
during 1946

other comics in the tradition of, and possibly
inspired by Jane include Sally the Sleuth,
Male Call and Little Annie Fanny

the strip inspired an eponymous stage play
during the 1940s, with Leighton-Porter playing
the character of Jane (see Jane on Stage),
Chrystabel also featured in a 1949 movie,
the Adventures of Jane, directed
by Edward G. Whiting

a 1987 movie, Jane and the Lost City,
starring Kirsten Hughes in the title role,
was directed by Terry Marcel,
a television series was made by the BBC
between 1982 and 1984, featuring
Glynis Barber in the title role,
the first season was titled simply Jane,
while the second was titled Jane in the desert,
despite the early evening scheduling slot,
the show was decidedly risqué with Jane
continuously stripping down to her underwear,
including stockings and suspenders,

at the end of the second series' closing episode,
she appeared topless momentarily,
despite considerable publicity in the press
at the time of its original screening,
the show became somewhat obscure and has
never had a commercial video or DVD release

couvertures:
Copyright 2008 - 2025 G. Rudolf