Tina #5/1993
Tina #5/1993 is a representative installment of the Netherlands' longest-running dedicated girls' comics weekly, a publication that — launched in 1967 as a Dutch-language adaptation of the British magazine Princess Tina — had by the early 1990s evolved into a distinctly Dutch product balancing serialized drama, humor gag strips, and translated British material. The issue carries forward Noortje Visser, the clumsy teenage protagonist created by writer Patty Klein and artist Jan Steeman in 1975, whose strip would go on to hold the record as the longest-running Dutch comics series produced continuously by the same creative team. As a weekly anthology aimed squarely at girls aged roughly eight to thirteen, Tina occupied a structurally unique position in Dutch publishing — 'the first comics magazine intended solely for girls' — and issues from the 1990–1993 transitional period reflect the editorial balance struck after 1990, when strips and editorial pages each filled roughly half the magazine.
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Tina magazine launched on 10 June 1967 under publisher De Spaarnestad as a full-colour Dutch translation of the IPC/Fleetway title Princess Tina, printed in colour from the outset at a time when its British source was still black-and-white. By 1993 the magazine had passed through a series of corporate transitions: De Spaarnestad and competitor De Geïllustreerde Pers had merged their comics output into Oberon, and the Geïllustreerde Pers imprint — absorbed by VNU Tijdschriften through the 1990s — continued to carry the weekly. The gradual shift away from a pure comics anthology toward a hybrid of strips and editorial features, formalised around 1983 and solidified by 1990, set the template that governed issues like #5/1993: a mix of Dutch-made gag and serial strips alongside translated British material from publishers such as D.C. Thomson and IPC.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Tina magazine first appeared on 10 June 1967, making the 1993 issues part of its 26th continuous year of weekly publication.
- The 'Noortje Visser' gag strip — featuring the clumsy, red-haired teenage girl created by scriptwriter Patty Klein and artist Jan Steeman — debuted in Tina #37/1975 and was the magazine's most popular homegrown strip throughout the 1990s; Marga Visser is Noortje's mother and a recurring supporting character in the strip.
- The 'Tina and Debbie' serial — a continuing adventure strip about two teenage girls — was a long-running fixture in the magazine, appearing as a two-page weekly instalment; both Tina Ruysdal and Debbie are the title characters of this feature.
- 'Madelon', a teen-humour strip whose cast includes George, ran concurrently in the same weekly period, as confirmed by the Grand Comics Database index for the adjacent Tina (Geïllustreerde Pers, 1990 series) run.
- 'Micky', a separate strip serial scripted by Conny Möricke (sister of Tina head writer Patty Klein) with art by Trini Tinturé, was an active feature in the magazine during 1986–1995, making Micky de Jong's appearances in early-1993 issues part of that ongoing run.
- From 1990 onward, editorial policy settled on a roughly 50/50 split between comic strip pages and editorial (features, reader pages, interviews), a structural shift that characterises all issues in the 1990–1993 range including #5/1993.
- The 1993 weekly issues also carried translated British serials from D.C. Thomson and IPC titles such as Bunty, Mandy, and M&J; the Jinty/Tina translation records confirm that 'Aunt Hard Heart' (Dutch title: 'Wieske is niet welkom', from Bunty 1991) ran from Tina #46/1992 through #5/1993, making issue #5/1993 its likely final instalment.
- De Geïllustreerde Pers — the indicia publisher on this issue — was by the early 1990s operating as a subsidiary imprint of VNU Tijdschriften, having been formally absorbed during the decade, though it continued to appear as the nominal publisher on Tina through this transitional period.