''Flyin' Jenny'' was an aviation adventure

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

created by illustrator Russell Keaton and distributed to newspapers by

Bell Syndicate The Bell Syndicate, launched in 1916 by editor-publisher John Neville Wheeler, was an American syndicate that distributed columns, fiction, feature articles and comic strips to newspapers for decades. It was located in New York City at 247 West 4 ...

from October 2, 1939, to July 20, 1946.

Publication history

Launched in October 1939, ''Flyin' Jenny'' was published both as a

daily Daily or The Daily may refer to: Journalism * Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks * ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times'' * ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...

and

Sunday strip The Sunday comics or Sunday strip is the comic strip section carried in most western newspapers, almost always in color. Many newspaper readers called this section the Sunday funnies, the funny papers or simply the funnies. The first US newspap ...

, each running a separate storyline.

Gladys Parker Gladys Parker (March 21, 1908 – April 28, 1966) was an American cartoonist for comic strips and a fashion designer in Hollywood. She is best known as the creator of the comic strip ''Mopsy'' (1929-1965), which had a long run over three decades ...

drew ''Flyin' Jenny'' from 1942 until 1944, when Keaton's assistant

Marc Swayze Marcus Desha Swayze, known as Marc Swayze (July 17, 1913 – October 14, 2012), was an American comic book artist from 1941 to 1953 for Fawcett Comics of New York City. He is best known for his work on Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family durin ...

took over.Lambiek: Gladys Parker
/ref> After Keaton died in 1945 (at the age of 35), Swayze and scripter Glenn Chaffin made an effort to continue the strip, but it became difficult to devise adventures equal to those of the World War II years. The strip began to lose its popularity, and was discontinued in 1946.

Characters and story

Initially a test pilot at the Starcraft Aviation Factory, Jenny encountered spies, saboteurs and criminals. Since the strip began simultaneously with the start of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Jenny was active in wartime escapades. Keaton's widow, Virginia Keaton Anderson, recalled how he devised the name of the central character. He originally planned to name the strip's heroine Virginia Dare. Delighted that he wanted to use her name, Virginia Keaton cautioned, "Russell, I'm not criticizing, but historians might. Remember,

Virginia Dare Virginia Dare (born August 18, 1587, in Roanoke Colony, date of death unknown) was the first English child born in a New World English colony. What became of Virginia and the other colonists remains a mystery. The fact of her birth is known bec ...

was the name of the first child born of English parents in this country. Why don't you name her Virginia something else?" Keaton explained that he had specific reasons for choosing his character's last name as well as the first: "No, I want to name her Dare because I'm going to make her a daring young aviatrix." Then he had an idea: "Jenny is a nickname for Virginia. I'll name her Jenny Dare."''The Aviation Art of Russell Keaton'' (Kitchen Sink Press, 1995), p. 16. The

Curtiss JN-4 The Curtiss JN "Jenny" was a series of biplanes built by the Curtiss Aeroplane Company of Hammondsport, New York, later the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company. Although the Curtiss JN series was originally produced as a training aircraft for th ...

, known as "Jenny," was made by Curtiss in 1915, and it was filmed by

Lee De Forest Lee de Forest (August 26, 1873 – June 30, 1961) was an American inventor and a fundamentally important early pioneer in electronics. He invented the first electronic device for controlling current flow; the three-element "Audion" triode va ...

in ''Flying Jenny Airplane'' (1921), a short film with the sound of the aircraft.

Reprints

''Flyin' Jenny'' Sunday and daily strips were reprinted in ''The Aviation Art of Russell Keaton'' (

Kitchen Sink Press Kitchen Sink Press was a comic book publishing company founded by Denis Kitchen in 1970. Kitchen Sink Press was a pioneering publisher of underground comics, and was also responsible for numerous republications of classic comic strips in hardcov ...

, 1995), which also includes Keaton's correspondence with his collaborators and syndicate editors.

References

{{reflist American comic strips Comics characters introduced in 1939 Aviation comics Fictional aviators 1939 comics debuts 1946 comics endings American comics characters Adventure comics Comics about women Female characters in comics