The Belles of St. Lemons was a British

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 ...

in the UK

comic a Media (communication), medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of Panel (comics), panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, Glo ...

The Beano ''The Beano'' (formerly ''The Beano Comic'', also known as ''Beano'') is a British anthology comic magazine created by Scottish publishing company DC Thomson. Its first issue was published on 30 July 1938, and it became the world's longest-runn ...

'', first appearing in issue 1495, although the characters themselves had first been introduced in the 1968 edition of ''

The Beano Annual ''The Beano Annual'' is the current name of the book that has been published every year since 1939, to tie in with the children's comic book, comic ''The Beano''. there have been 84 editions. The annuals are traditionally published in July or A ...

''. It was drawn by

Gordon Bell Chester Gordon Bell (born August 19, 1934) is an American electrical engineer and manager. An early employee of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) 1960–1966, Bell designed several of their PDP machines and later became Vice President of Engi ...

and ran from 1971 to 1972. The title of the series was both a play on the nursery rhyme "

Oranges and Lemons "Oranges and Lemons" is a traditional English nursery rhyme, folksong, and singing game which refers to the bells of several churches, all within or close to the City of London. It is listed in the Roud Folk Song Index as No 13190. The earlies ...

" and

Ronald Searle Ronald William Fordham Searle, CBE, RDI (3 March 1920 – 30 December 2011) was an English artist and satirical cartoonist, comics artist, sculptor, medal designer and illustrator. He is perhaps best remembered as the creator of St Trinian's S ...

's Belles of '' St. Trinians'' cartoons.

Overview

St. Lemons was essentially the girls' boarding-school equivalent of

The Bash Street Kids ''The Bash Street Kids'' is a comic strip in the British comic magazine ''The Beano''. It also appeared briefly in The Wizard as series of prose stories in 1955. The strip, created by Leo Baxendale as ''When the Bell Rings'', first appeare ...

– the "belles" all conforming to comic stereotypes (the fat one, the unintelligent one, the leader etc.). The headmistress of the school was Miss Clump (originally Miss Phit in the annuals). The weekly strip ended around 1972, although further episodes continued to appear in

Characters

The Belles were: *Curli – The one who had hair curlers in her hair, and was fond of knitting. She is revealed in the annuals to have a close friendship with Spotty of The Bash Street Kids. *Dizzi – The ugly one, similar to Plug of The Bash Street Kids. *Dozi – The sleepy one. *Dumpling – The fat one, similar to Fatty of The Bash Street Kids. *Kooki – The one who was fond of cooking. *Mina – Didn't speak much, but had a

myna The myna (; also spelled mynah) is a bird of the starling family (Sturnidae). This is a group of passerine birds which are native to southern Asia, especially India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Several species have been introduced to areas like ...

bird on her head that would do most of the talking for her. *Piggi – The one with many spots, similar to Spotty of The Bash Street Kids. *Poni – The one who had a

pony A pony is a type of small horse ('' Equus ferus caballus''). Depending on the context, a pony may be a horse that is under an approximate or exact height at the withers, or a small horse with a specific conformation and temperament. Compared ...

. *Prune – The leader of the group, filling the role of Danny from The Bash Street Kids. *Swotti – The clever one – seemingly a mixture of 'Erbert and Cuthbert, two characters from The Bash Street Kids strips. *Blondie – The blonde one. *Suzie – One of the Belles, apparently an ordinary girl. *Puddy – A black,

tomboy A tomboy is a term for a girl or a young woman with masculine qualities. It can include wearing androgynous or unfeminine clothing and actively engage in physical sports or other activities and behaviors usually associated with boys or men. W ...

tabby-cat who serves as the school mascot. To an extent, she filled the role occupied by Winston in The Bash Street Kids strips. Other characters featured in the strips included the rival St. Sniffles School (similar to Posh Street School, a rival of

Bash Street School Bash or BASH may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Bash!'' (Rockapella album), 1992 * ''Bash!'' (Dave Bailey album), 1961 * '' Bash: Latter-Day Plays'', a dramatic triptych * ''BASH!'' (role-playing game), a 2005 superhero game * "Bash" ('' ...

), and occasional cameos from The Bash Street Kids themselves.

References

Beano strips 1968 comics debuts 1972 comics endings Child characters in comics Comics about children Female characters in comics Comics set in schools Fictional tricksters British comics characters Comics set in the United Kingdom {{comic-strip-stub