Jinty, cover date 23 August 1975

Katie Jinx (from St Jonah’s) was Jinty’s regular cover star – a mischievous but generally well-meaning heroine who got into a lot of physical tumbles and scrapes. In ’74 she spent her summer hols trying to save her cousin from stuck-up chaperone Clarence. Art by Mario Capaldi.

Clarence is awful, but why is he there? In the previous issue Cousin Janice explains why she brought him on holiday: ‘He lives next door to us at home and everyone takes it for granted I’m Clarence’s girlfriend. I guess I’m stuck with him!’ Useless! Jinx is doing the work of a saint here.

This week’s Jinty sees the start of a new adventure series, Barracuda Bay, starring Susan Smith – an ordinary young woman occasionally called upon for dangerous undercover missions with the British secret service under the guidance of special agent Martin Risen. Art by Santiago Hernandez.

In fact this is not a ‘new’ story. Barracuda Bay was originally printed in June and School Friend in 1970. It was the second Susan Smith adventure; the first, titled Who is the Ski Spy? saw her enlisted by Risen to help identify a foreign agent posing as a member of the British team at the world ski championships.

Even in Barracuda Bay, the patronising tone of a story written prior to five years of significant progression in the portrayal of women is noticeable. Susan is frustrated being treated as the office handmaid, but still very deferential to dashing hero Risen. She’s his puppet, rarely acting on her own agency.

As in the Ski Spy story, in which Risen gave Susan a crash course in competitive ski-jumping, in Barracuda she is given just a day of scuba training before making her first dangerous dive alone.

The episode ends with Susan given her first mission – from being bossed around by men in a solicitor’s office, to being bossed around (with added threat to life) by a man on a tropical island paradise. Good luck, Agent Smith!