Jack and Jill (comics)

Jack and Jill was a British children's comics magazine published by Amalgamated Press/Fleetway/IPC between 27 February 1954 and 29 June 1985, a run of approximately 1,640 issues. In 1955, Jack and Jill absorbed the fellow Amalgamated Press title Playbox (launched in 1925).

The title of the magazine was derived from the nursery rhyme of the same title but the characters Jack and Jill of Buttercup Farm were otherwise unrelated. Jack and Jill of Buttercup Farm was the cover strip for many years, originally drawn by Hugh McNeill and later by Antonio Lupatelli.

The stories of Jack and Jill were related in rhyming couplets, as were a number of other early stories, although by the end of the 1970s the stories were written in normal prose form. Others were told in captions below the illustrations or text comics, a style of storytelling common to pre-war nursery comics such as Puck (published 1904–1940) and The Rainbow (published 1914–1956).

Strips and text comics

Chalky the Blackboard Boy

Douglas Dachshund

The Enchanted House

Flipper the Skipper / Flipper the Jolly Penguin

Fliptail the Otter, by Bernard Long

Freddie Frog

Fun in Toyland

Gregory Grasshopper

Harold Hare

Jack and Jill of Buttercup Farm

Jerry, Don and Snooker

Joe, based on the BBC TV series

Katie Country Mouse

Linda and Her Magic Bubble Mixture

Little Miss, based on the characters created by Roger Hargreaves

Moonie

Pinky and Perky, based on the TV series

Pixie Pip

Snuggles the Koala Bear

Teddy and Cuddly

Tiger Tim and the Bruin Boys

Toad of Toad Hall, based on The Wind in the Willows story

Tommy Trouble

Walter Hottle-Bottle

The Wombles, based on the BBC TV series

References

Sources

1954 comics debuts

1985 comics endings

Jack and Jill

Jack and Jill

Jack and Jill

Defunct British comics

Magazines established in 1954

Magazines disestablished in 1985

Comic strip duos

Comics characters introduced in 1954

Child characters in comics

British comics characters

Comics about women

Comics about children