Plot
Tina Roberts works for a firm that tests new products to ensure they live up to the manufacturers’ claims before they go on sale. This leads to all sorts of scrapes and adventures.
Notes
- Artist: Diane Gabbot (also Gabbott)
Appeared
- Tina the Tester – Bunty: #519 (December 23 1967) – #530 (March 9 1968).
Other Appearances:
Annual appearances:
- Bunty annual 1969
- Bunty annual 1970
- Bunty annual 1971
- Bunty annual 1974
Summer specials
- Bunty summer special 1968
- Bunty summer special 1971
- Bunty summer special 1972
- Bunty summer special 1973. Diane Gabbot drew all of these.
PSL
- Tina the Tester: Bunty PSL #242. The artist for this was Tony Speer.
The annual stories for this series were in 1969, 1970, 1971, 1974. There were further Summer Special stories in 1968, 1971 and 1973. Diane Gabbot drew all of these.
There was also one Picture Story Library “Tina the Tester” Bunty PSL #242. The artist for this was Tony Speer.
Thank you for the information.
‘Tina The Tester’ ran in BUNTY 519 (December 23 1967) – 530 (March 9 1968).
Thank you.
Did Diane Gabbot draw the original series or was it another artist?
Yes she did, according to my notes, which were sent to me a couple of years ago by David Roach, although her christian name contains the letter ‘n’ twice, spelt ‘Dianne’ therefore. I have mentioned before, by the way, that I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in the writers or the artists of these highly engaging serial stories, so there is zero chance of them appearing in BUNTY AND HER MANY SISTERS. The stories themselves are, however, a very different kettle of fish.
I’m afraid I don’t have any of the run of the weekly series, so I can’t check it. I seem to remember reading somewhere that she did do the series, but I can’t find this anywhere now. David Roach’s book mentions her work for Bunty, but gives no other details.
By the way, it looks as if her name should be spelt Gabbott. Both versions are in circulation, but in looking for Tina I found some stuff relating to her family life and her marriage to an artist called Raymond Gabbott. There’s a site with some interesting information here:
https://digital.york.ac.uk/showcase/agSitter.jsp?id=nancy
Thanks for the confirmation, Derek, My message above crossed with yours.
Oh really? Maybe Gabbot crept in because the spelling was easier, or she dropped the second T. How did she sign her name? Anyone know?
So little is known about a lot of these artists that problems over matters like name spelling are probably inevitable. I used to have doubts over the spelling of Dudley Wynne (or Wynn?) until I found a signature. I’ve a similar problem at the moment over how to spell E C Julien (or possibly Julian). And is it Jaime Rumeu or Jaume Rumeu?
I’ve yet to see a signature for Diane Gabbott, but it does look as if this was the original spelling, at least.
Juliana Buch sometimes spelled her name “Busch” so people would pronounce it right. But Tammy spelled it “Buch”, so I do too. So variations in these artists’ names can occur, but so can confusion.
I think it depends on where he was born, and/or how he was christened. The surname would suggest that his parents were from Catalonia in north-east Spain, Barcelona being the capital of that region, and if I’m correct in my surmise, ‘Jaume’ would be his parents natural choice. ‘Jaime’ would not even have been considered.
Thank you, Derek. I understand he was born in Barcelona, which suggests that he was christened Jaume (full name Jaume Rumeu i Perera). “ Jaime” is found in many English language sources (including David Roach’s book on Spanish artists), but he may have used it in this form professionally to make his name easier to handle by non-Catalans – rather like Mistyfan’s example of Juliana Buch altering her name to conform to English pronunciation. He also used pen-names “Homero” and “Romeo” at different stages of his career.
I’ve sometimes seen a similar situation with the names Jordi and Jorge. Am I right in thinking that Jordi is simply the Catalan form of Jorge?
It occurs to me that I didn’t explain that the reason ‘Jaime’ would not have been considered is that it is a Castilian christian name. There has been friction between the madrilenos (from Castilla) and the barceloneses (from Catalonia) since time immemorial. All football matches between Barcelona and Real Madrid are always sell-outs, and frequently the no-holds-barred approach of both sides often leads to nasty fouls and serious injuries. No deaths so far though that I can recall.
P.S. There should be a tilde over the ‘n’ in ‘madrilenos’ to change the pronunciation of that letter so that it will sound like ‘nuyuh’. Also, the ‘d’ in the middle of ‘ Madrid’ is a ‘the’ sound, whereas the one at the end is not pronounced at all.
I’ve now put both spellings in.
Did Tammy give her credits for “Into the Fourth at Trebizon”? How were they spelt?
I only have a few Tammys that has “First Term at Trebizon” those are credited (Phil Gascoine is artist) but not sure about “Into the Fourth”.
Thanks for checking, Lorrsadmin
I have a 2nd class Honours degree in Spanish, Portuguese and Latin-American Studies from Birmingham University, but although we could study French as a subsidiary subject for just our first year, Catalan was not available to us as an option at any time, and furthermore, only those students who had scored 60% or more in their first year summer exam in Spanish were allowed to take Portuguese as an option. Of those who had originally requested that option, only six were accepted. Nowadays that would not be a financially viable group.
I’m pretty sure that your thinking about ‘Jordi’ is correct, Goof. There was a brilliant Dutch footballer called Johan Cruyff, who went on to play as a striker for Barcelona. I don’t know how many children he had but one of them was christened Jordi, and he also went on in the fullness of time to have a good career with the azulgrana. Given that I have spent a lot of time in Madrid, I was always more of a Real Madrid supporter, and consequently I went to the Estadio Bernabeu to watch them every alternate week, Atletico Madrid the other alternate weeks, but my current key ring is a rubbery, 1.5 inch high, double-sided Barcelona badge. I’m really not sure what message that sends out.
I’m posting a brief explanatory addendum here because I’ve recently read about the probability of a rise in university students’ annual fees, to pay which the majority of students will have to borrow huge sums from their bank, not to mention the cash they will have to stump up for their food, lodgings, bus fares and all other general day-to-day expenses. An article in the Guardian fairly recently reported that lot of school leavers are seriously considering not taking up their place in September/ October, choosing instead to defer it for a year so that they can hopefully get a job near home and save the majority of their earnings.
The difference between now and when I went is like chalk from cheese. We got an annual grant from our local Education Authority, Lancashire County Council in my case, which paid me half for my first term, and two separate quarters for terms 2 and 3. They did this for each of the three years of the degree course, which included an obligatory six-month residence split between Spain and Portugal, and then also for the year I spent in the Education Department learning how to teach the languages effectively. They also paid my fees for all four years. As a result I was always able to buy the set texts for Spanish, French, and Portuguese with plenty left over for going on dates, paying to get through the turnstiles at Villa Park (Aston Villa), St Andrew’s (Birmingham City), and Molyneux (Wolverhampton Wanderers), or going to the cinema, and even for consuming adequate quantities of Ansells or Mitchells and Butlers beer.
Thanks again, Derek. I thought the reason for Jaume rather than Jaime was probably something along these lines. It looks as if Rumeu was christened Jaume but may have used Jaime as well for professional purposes, as it was the more widely-known version of the name.
I’ve checked the Tammys. Tammy didn’t give credits for Gabbot(t)’s spot illustrations for the Trebizon series in the credit period, so no help there. To make things more frustrating, Gabbot(t) drew no Tammy serials or completes during the credit period. Her last Tammy story was “Rosie at the Royalty” in 1981.
I had a horrible idea that might be the case, as it was a text serial. Thank you for checking. It looks as if we’ll have to be content with another case of alternative spellings.
Why? Goof points out that she was married to a Raymond Gabbott. We may need to differ on the spelling of her christian name, but in the grand scheme of things, that is basically an unimportant matter.
I should really have made it clear that the point I made above this one relates to Goof’s view expressed on 19 May 2020 at 11.54 a.m. that ‘Diane Gabbott’ was the original spelling.
Yes, I think the information that is known about her marriage and family show that Gabbott was the original spelling, but the other version Gabbot has been used by several well-informed sources, even though details of her marriage seem to have been known for some years at least. This could have come about though accident, or because the artist used a shortened version of her name professionally. Variations of this kind are fairly common in the names of girls’ comics artists.
As you say, small differences of this kind are no big deal. But finding the names of these artists can be such hard work that when you do find a name, it’s nice to be able to spell it correctly if you can.
Yes, we aren’t living in the days when people could spell their names different ways because spelling wasn’t standardised. All the same, these variations in how artists spell their names do occur for one reason or other.