Plot
It is the year 1840, a hungry year. When Jess Hope’s father dies, she sets out to get the family to America. But they run into problems, and these are hungry times. A sequel follows the Hope family voyage and arrival in the New World.
Notes
- For issues #184 and #185 the title changed from The Voyage of the Hungry Hopes to The Hungry Hopes In The New World.
- The Voyage of the Hungry Hopes/The Hungry Hopes in the New World – Reprinted in colour and translated to Dutch as “De grote reis van de familie Venema’ – Debbie (magazine folded after 6 issues leaving stories unfinished)
- Reprinted completely in black & white as ‘De grote reis van de familie Venema’ – Debbie Groot Verhalenboek 6 (1978)
Appeared
- Dark Days for the Hungry Hopes – Debbie: #165 (10 April 1976) – #172 (29 May 1976)
- The Voyage of the Hungry Hopes/The Hungry Hopes in the New World – Debbie #180 (24 July 1976) – #185 (28 August 1976)
- In the Netherlands, ‘The voyage of the hungry Hopes’ was published as ‘De grote reis van de familie Venema’. Six episodes, in colour, were published in a weekly magazine called Debbie. After six issues, the magazine folded with all serials unfinished. In 1977 Debbie returned as a monthly magazine with complete stories. ‘De grote reis van de familie Venema’ was published as a complete story in black and white in 1978 in Debbie Groot Verhalenboek 6 in 1978.
In the Netherlands, ‘The voyage of the hungry Hopes’ was published as ‘De grote reis van de familie Venema’. Six episodes, in colour, were published in a weekly magazine called Debbie. After six issues, the magazine folded with all serials unfinished. In 1977 Debbie returned as a monthly magazine with complete stories. ‘De grote reis van de familie Venema’ was published as a complete story in black and white in 1978 in Debbie Groot Verhalenboek 6 in 1978.
It be interesting to see some colour versions of these stories, few times I’ve seen strips reprinted in colour it can be mixed results, some done very well others deleting a lot of the details in the drawings.
I’d guess the expense of doing good colour printing is one reason the magazine didn’t last long.
I will see if I can find one of the Debbies and scan a page.
A reason that the original Debbie weekly folded after six issues could be that we already had Tina, in colour, which was extremely populair at the time. Debbie lacked the quality of Tina, although the covers had the wonderful artwork of Lluis Bargalló.
In 1977 two new girls comics arrived: Anita, which was in black and white and cheaper than Tina, and Debbie Stripstory. Debbie Stripstory had long, complete stories, while Tina only had serials. So a reason these new comics lasted could be that these were different from Tina, and did not compete with it, like Debbie tried to do in late 1976.
I found the Debbie comics yesterday. I could scan a few pages for you, if you like. How can I get these to you? It seems I can not upload them here, so I would have to mail them to you.
Thanks Marc, I’ll pm you.