'Jungle Jinks', 7 February 1925.
Mabel Frances Taylor was a late 19th-century/early 20th-century British children's book illustrator, and simultaneously a pioneer among female English comic artists. Between the 1900s and 1940s, she was a mainstay in the children's magazine Playbox, where she drew the feature 'The Little Sparrowkins' (1905) and also continued Arthur White's 'Jungle Jinks' (1898-1947) for about half a century. During her run, the comic spawned its own magazine (1923-1925) and grew into one of the longest-running British comic series of all time.
Early life and career
Mabel Frances Taylor was born in 1866 in Kingswood, Surrey, as the daughter of an Anglican clergyman. She started her career as a children's book illustrator, livening up books such as 'Little Darlings' ABC' (1885) by Grace C. Floyd, Edric Vredenburg's 'The Last of the Mohicans' (1894), 'Somebody's Luggage' (1895), Sarah S. Baker's 'Nono, or, The Golden House: A Tale of Swedish Lie' (1895), Grace C. Floyds's 'Little Snowdrop' (1896), Raphael Tuck's 'Father Tuck's Nursery Rhymes' (1896) and 'The Old Woman Who Live In A Shoe' (1898), Elizabeth W. Wood and Horace G. Groser's 'Very Funny Stories Told in Rhyme' (1902) and Ernest Nister's 'Holiday Frolics at the Farm' (1910).
Mabel's sister Edith M. Taylor was also an illustrator and occasionally ghost-drew episodes of her comics for her.
'Jungle Jinks', The Playbox, 11 July 1914.
Jungle Jinks
At the Amalgamated Press, Taylor was most notable for drawing the funny animal comic 'Jungle Jinks', originally created in 1898 by Arthur White for the women's magazine Home Chat and its juvenile supplement The Playbox. It had a large cast of main characters, among them Jumbo the elephant, Jacko the monkey, Hippo the hippopotamus, Bertie and Billie Boar (who were pig twins), Archie Alligator, Ping Panda, Aussie Koala and the headmaster Dr. Lion. White's run on the series was very short, after which Taylor became its new artist. Also in The Playbox, Taylor created 'The Little Sparrowkins' (1905), a funny animal comic about a group of children anthropomorphized as sparrows.
Under her tenure, 'Jungle Jinks' became so popular that the comic inspired its own magazine, Jungle Jinks. The first issue appeared on 8 December 1923 and replaced the AP's earlier children's publication Chuckles. Besides the title comic, the magazine also featured a spin-off of 'Jungle Jinks' named 'Dr. Lion's Boys', which additionally ran in Happy Families and Home Chat. Nevertheless, the magazine didn't last long. By 14 december 1925, it was already retitled into Playbox magazine. Other artists who published in Playbox besides Taylor and White were Julius Stafford Baker, Mabel Lucie Attwell and S.J. Cash.
'Jumbo and Rhino Get Into Trouble' (1903).
Death and legacy
Mabel J. Taylor passed away in 1947, which also meant the end of 'Jungle Jinks' after 49 years in print. By the time it came to its close it was the longest-running British comic series. This record was later surpassed by 'Tiger Tim' (1904-1985), a funny animal series with 80 years of uninterrupted run, originally created by Julius Stafford Baker II). The current British record holder is Mary Tourtel's 'Rupert Bear' (1920- ), in print for more than a century by now!
From: 'Little Darlings ABC'.