Hands up who’s familiar with the British newspaper strip, Tiffany Jones? No? Perhaps you know about the X-rated comedy feature film it spawned, starring Anouska Hempel?
For those unfamiliar, “Tiffany Jones” strip ran between 1964 and 1977, the creation of writer and artist Jenny Butterworth, partner of fellow writer Mike Butterworth, and Pat Tourret, one of the talented Tourret sisters. They were hailed as the first ever all-female creative team on a newspaper comic strip when the strip launched.
The series – instigated by Julian Phipps, art editor of the Associated Newspapers (and an artist himself) – centred on a young woman who travelled to London to become a fashion model, who also happened to work as a secret agent. (The character’s good looks enabled her to easily retrieve information from the enemy).
It was originally published in the Daily Sketch; then from 1971, when the Daily Sketch merged with the Daily Mail, in the latter. It was also syndicated internationally by King Features, including into the US, running in several newspapers there, including The San Francisco Chronicle. Comic archivist Dave Karlsen notes it eventually reached twenty three countries on five continents, with fifty five newspaper outlets in Canada and America.
Blending feminist themes with what’s been described by some as “erotic fan service” (think the Daily Mirror’s “Jane”, for comparison), it’s perhaps no surprise the popular series inspired the eponymous X-rated 1973 comedy film, starring Anouska Hempel.
“Due to the all women team the style in ‘Tiffany Jones’ not surprisingly presented a new girlish design that was copied by many other artists in the years thereafter producing art for comics magazines aimed for girls,” suggests comic archivist Freddy Milton.
Tiffany Jones Abroad
in addition to its UK publication, Tiffany Jones has been published in the pages of newspapers of at least twenty-three countries, including the United States. In some of them, as with other comic characters, she was renamed. In Germany, for example, the strip was published as “Peggy” in the newspaper strips and “Conny” in the Sunday pages. In Sweden, it was retitled “Anita Jones”, and in Denmark as “Bev’s”.
In a feature on the strip in Enciclopedia dei fumetti, edited by Gaetano Strazzulla (Sansoni, 1970), republished here in Italian, Noel Barber, then manager of the Associated Newspapers Syndication was asked for a plausible judgment of this chain success, which exploded in a very short time. He replied: “This is due to the fact that Tiffany is the personification of swinging London, fashionable London, elegant London, sophisticated London but with acceptable sobriety. Tiffany is also young and is the image in which today’s razze, not only English, are reflected. Finally, it uses a language that is understandable everywhere, that is, within the reach of young users of both Hong Kong and Copenhagen.”
Tiffany Jones Collected?
Despite its international reach and enduring popularity among fans across the globe, Tiffany Jones – presumably owned by DMG Media, owners of the Daily Mail – has never been fully reprinted, although the long defunct Newspaper Comic Strip Library reprinted ten of the early stories on a members only basis in the early 2000s. Their booklets do occasionally show up on eBay.
In 2023, US publisher Classic Comic Press, whose collections include Casey Ruggles, The Cisco Kid and Frank Godwin’s Connie, announced that they had a deal in place to publish collections, but the long-cherished plan, it appears, is currently in limbo.
Tiffany Jones: The Creators
Jenny Butterworth, partner of fellow writer Mike Butterworth, was a prolific writer of comics from the 1950s to the 1970s, perhaps best known for writing the historical adventure strip “Wulf the Briton”, originally illustrated by Ruggero Giovannini, which ran in Express Weekly in the late 1950s, Ron Embleton taking over as writer-artist in 1957; and the daily newspaper strips “Patti”, drawn by Bob Hamilton, in the Daily Mirror from 1959 to 1961; and “Tiffany Jones”, drawn by Pat Tourret in the Daily Sketch and Daily Mail from 1964 to 1977. She also wrote children’s books, including Daisy (1976), The Bird Whistle (1977), The Cat Came Back (1978), The Summer Island (1980) and The House in the Woods (1984).
Patricia Tourret (1929 – 1st February 2018), aka Pat Tourret, hailed from a talented artistic family. She was educated at Harrow Art School before becoming a freelance illustrator. In addition to Tiffany Jones, she also drew for British girls’ comics, including Boyfriend, in the early 1960s, and illustrated annuals, children’s and educational books.
The Film
The Tiffany Jones X-rated feature film (rated “X” on its initial release in the UK in 1973, now rated 18 post-1986 for home entertainment release, and “R” in the US), directed by Peter Walker, is a typical mid-1970’s British farce in a similar style to the Confessions of a Window Cleaner and other comedies of the time.
Anouska Hempel, the actress who starred in it, later said she wished she never made it. She later became a very successful interior designer and, reportedly, bought the rights to Tiffany Jones and Russ Meyer’s Slaves (which she also starred in) films, to prevent them from being seen.
The film is now distributed by Handmade Films and is currently available on Amazon’s Prime service. Observer film critic Philip French thought it was “quite one of the most inept, witless, joyless and unerotic movies I’ve ever seen”.
Newspaper Comic Strip Library Reprints
The strips they ran are, which hopefully include the origin story include (list may not be complete)
• An Artist’s Model in Paris 18 January 1966 to 30 April 1966
• The Secrets of George Gore 2 May 1966 to 2 September 1966
• Pop Star Ricky Steele 2 September 1966 t0 29 December 1966
• The Boat Trip 14 June 1967 to 25 August 1967
• Tiffany the Actress 30 December 1966 to 11 April 1967
• Helping Perry 17 January 1968 to 25 March 1968
• West Indies Shoot 16 March 1968 to 4 June 1968,
• Swimsuit 26 August 1968 to 18 September 1968
• Room Mates (no confirmed dates)
• The Holiday 21 September 1968 to 3 December 1968
Head downthetubes for…
• Freddy Milton’s introduction to “Tiffany Jones”
• Follow Classic Comic Press on Facebook | Official Site
• Bear Alley: Happy Valentine’s Day – The Tourret Sisters Profiled (2008)
• Bartolomeo Of Monaco: Tiffany Jones
A representation in Italian of an article from Enciclopedia dei fumetti, edited by Gaetano Strazzulla (Sansoni, 1970), investigating the international success of Tiffany Jones and reasons for the strip’s popularity
• Foreign Favorites: Tiffany Jones
• Comics Info DK: Tiffany Jones
• The Smithsonian: Camera-ready comic art drawing for Tiffany Jones
• A Resource on Jinty: Jenny Butterworth Girls Comics Credits
• B.L. Kearney: Pat Tourret Art
• Tiffany Jones on Prime (Affiliate Link)
• Tiffany Jones: London Locations
With thanks to cartoonist Jim Pinkoski for starting a thread on the Mighty World of British Comics Facebook group about the strip, and Jim O’Brien and David Lloyd, and others, for background information
- About the Author
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: British Comics, British Comics - Newspaper Strips, Comics, Creating Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News
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I’d pick up a collection of this in a heartbeat: that art is incredible.