Teena (comic strip)

Last updated
Vintage powder compact by Hilda Terry Hildaterrypowdercompact.jpg
Vintage powder compact by Hilda Terry

Teena is a comic strip about a teenage girl, created by Hilda Terry. It ran from July 1, 1944, to 1963, distributed by King Features Syndicate.

Contents

The strip evolved from Terry's earlier Sunday feature, It's a Girl's Life, a collection of gag cartoons which first appeared in newspapers on Sunday, December 14, 1941. [1] The format displayed six panels about the reactions of teenage girls to World War II.

Hildaterryteena.jpg

In Denmark, the strip was known as Tina.

Significance

Comics historian Don Markstein noted:

They also could be marketed as a daily feature, but wartime paper shortages prevented that. The main characters were named Henny and Penny... In 1943, Harry Haenigsen launched his own girl-protagonist strip, titled Penny . In response, Terry dropped hers and started a more traditionally-formatted Sunday comic about a similar character with a different name. "Tina" was a good candidate for the new one's name, but the word "teenager" was just coming into vogue, so that was the spelling used. Teena started on July 1, 1944. Teena's much younger sister, Gwendolyn, was added to the cast later. Things went well for Terry and Teena for about 20 years, until a general decline in the newspaper business forced the cartoonist to find work elsewhere. She eventually wound up in the burgeoning field of computer animation, for which she won an award in 1979 from the National Cartoonists Society she'd been instrumental in opening up a generation earlier. As for Teena, sources differ as to the exact year of the comic's demise, ranging from 1963 to '66. There is little doubt, however, that Hilda Terry's comics creations are a part of comics history that hasn't been seen in years. [2]

Main characters

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Cole (artist)</span> American cartoonist

Jack Ralph Cole was an American cartoonist best known for birthing the comedic superhero Plastic Man, and his cartoons for Playboy magazine.

<i>Mutt and Jeff</i> 1907–1983 American comic strip

Mutt and Jeff was a long-running and widely popular American newspaper comic strip created by cartoonist Bud Fisher in 1907 about "two mismatched tinhorns". It is commonly regarded as the first daily comic strip. The concept of a newspaper strip featuring recurring characters in multiple panels on a six-day-a-week schedule had previously been pioneered through the short-lived A. Piker Clerk by Clare Briggs, but it was Mutt and Jeff as the first successful daily comic strip that staked out the direction of the future trend.

<i>Smokey Stover</i> American comic strip created by Bill Holman

Smokey Stover is an American comic strip written and drawn by cartoonist Bill Holman from March 10, 1935, until he retired in 1972 and distributed through the Chicago Tribune. It features the misadventures of the titular fireman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">King Features Syndicate</span> American print syndication company

King Features Syndicate, Inc. is an American content distribution and animation studio, consumer product licensing and print syndication company owned by Hearst Communications that distributes about 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editorial cartoons, puzzles, and games to nearly 5,000 newspapers worldwide. King Features Syndicate also produces intellectual properties, develops new content and franchises, like The Cuphead Show!, which it produced with Netflix, and licenses its classic characters and properties.

<i>Henry</i> (comics) Comic strip created by Carl Anderson

Henry is a comic strip created in 1932 by Carl Thomas Anderson. The title character is a young bald boy who is mute. Except a few early episodes, the comic strip character communicates largely but not entirely through pantomime, a situation which changed when Henry moved into comic books. Henry has spoken in at least one Betty Boop cartoon from 1935. In the feature, Betty Boop has a pet shop and Henry speaks to a dog in the window.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Wunder</span> American cartoonist

George S. Wunder was a cartoonist best known for his 26 years illustrating the Terry and the Pirates comic strip.

Don Markstein's Toonopedia is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonopedia, termed it "the world's first hypertext encyclopedia of toons" and stated, "The basic idea is to cover the entire spectrum of American cartoonery."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hilda Terry</span> Cartoonist

Theresa Hilda D’Alessio, better known as Hilda Terry, was an American cartoonist who created the comic strip Teena. It ran in newspapers from 1944 to 1964. After marriage, she usually signed her name Theresa H. D’Alessio. In 1950, she became the first woman allowed to join the National Cartoonists Society.

Broom-Hilda is an American newspaper comic strip created by cartoonist Russell Myers. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, it depicts the misadventures of a man-crazy, cigar-smoking, beer-guzzling, 1,500-year-old witch and her motley crew of friends.

<i>Little Jimmy</i> American comic strip by Jimmy Swinnerton

Little Jimmy, originally titled Jimmy, is a newspaper comic strip created by Jimmy Swinnerton. With a publication history from February 14, 1904, to April 27, 1958, it was one of the first continuing features and one of the longest running.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neil the Horse</span> Comic book character

Neil the Horse is a comic book character created by Canadian cartoonist Katherine Collins in 1975. Neil is a happy, singing and dancing horse who likes bananas and milkshakes. Neil's adventures were syndicated in Canadian newspapers, published in a comic book series, and adapted for a radio musical.

<i>Aggie Mack</i> American comic strip

Aggie Mack was a newspaper comic strip about a teenage girl. Created by Hal Rasmusson, it was distributed by the Chicago Tribune Syndicate beginning on September 2, 1946, and concluding on January 9, 1972. It had a 26-year run, with a title change to Aggie during the final six years.

<i>Etta Kett</i> Comic strip by Paul Robinson

Etta Kett is a long-running comic strip created by Paul Robinson, which ran from December 7, 1925 to November 9, 1974.

<i>Freckles and His Friends</i> American comic strip

Freckles and his Friends is an American comic strip set in the peaceful small town of Shadyside where young Freckles McGoosey and his friends lived. Although the long-running strip, created by Merrill Blosser, is remembered for its continuing storyline involving a group of teenagers, it originally featured a child at the age of six or seven in gag-a-day situations.

<i>Penny</i> (comic strip) American comic strip by Harry Haenigsen

Penny was a comic strip about a teenage girl by Harry Haenigsen which maintained its popularity for almost three decades. It was distributed by the New York Herald Tribune Syndicate from June 27, 1943, to October 25, 1970.

<i>Mopsy</i> American comic strip by Gladys Parker

Mopsy was a comic strip created in 1937 by Gladys Parker, who was one of the few female cartoonists of the era. The strip had a long run over three decades. Parker modeled the character of Mopsy after herself. In 1946, she recalled, "I got the idea for Mopsy when the cartoonist Rube Goldberg said my hair looked like a mop. That was several years ago, and she has been my main interest ever since." The strip ended on August 13, 1966.

Although, traditionally, female comics creators have long been a minority in the industry, they have made a notable impact since the very beginning, and more and more female artists are getting recognition along with the maturing of the medium. Women creators have worked in every genre, from superheroes to romance, westerns to war, crime to horror.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scribbly the Boy Cartoonist</span> American DC Comics character

Scribbly the Boy Cartoonist is a comic book character created in 1936 by Sheldon Mayer, first appearing in Dell Comics and then moving to All-American Publications. Scribbly Jibbet is a semi-autobiographical character, presenting the adventures of a young man starting out in the cartooning business, and working for the Morning Dispatch newspaper. His stories were told around the Golden Age era, when American Comic Books were primarily anthologies telling more than one story in a magazine issue. Scribbly first appeared in the Popular Comics series, and then appeared in All-American Comics from 1939 to 1944. He was then revived in his own series, Scribbly, from 1948 to 1952.

The New York World was one of the first newspapers to publish comic strips, starting around 1890, and contributed greatly to the development of the American comic strip. Notable strips that originated with the World included Richard F. Outcault's Hogan's Alley, Rudolph Dirks' The Captain and the Kids, Denys Wortman's Everyday Movies, Fritzi Ritz, Gus Mager's Hawkshaw the Detective, Victor Forsythe's Joe Jinks, and Robert Moore Brinkerhoff's Little Mary Mixup.

William Raphael Louis Dwyer, Jr., known as Bil Dwyer, was an American cartoonist and humorist. He was known for several newspaper comic strips in the 1930s and 1950s, including Dumb Dora and Sandy Hill, as well as a series of humorous books of Southern slang published in the 1970s.

References

  1. Holtz, Allan (2012). American Newspaper Comics: An Encyclopedic Reference Guide. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. pp. 377–378. ISBN   9780472117567.
  2. Markstein, Don. Toonopedia.