Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Mabel Francis Taylor (1866 in Kingswood – 1947 in Surrey; also M. F. Taylor) was an English cartoonist most well known for illustrating the comic strip "Jungle Jinks," which was the longest-running British comic series until 1954.[1]
Biography
Taylor was born to an Anglican clergyman and his wife in 1866 in Kingswood, Surrey.[1]
Illustrations
Book Illustrations
In the 1890s, Taylor illustrated many children's books with her sister Edith M. Taylor.[1][2]
Early Comics
Taylor started the comic "The Little Sparrowkins," in The Playbox (1905).[3]
"Jungle Jinks"
"Jungle Jinks" was the first comic in Britain whose main characters were animals.[1] The comic was started by cartoonist Arthur White in 1898 in The Playbox, a supplement for children that came with the British women's journal Home Chat.[4] However, White worked on the comic for a short time before Taylor took over and began to write and illustrate it.[5]
The comic was about group of anthropomorphic animals who attended school: Jacko the monkey, Hippo the hippopotamus, Bertie and Billie Boar (twin pigs), the headmaster Dr. Lion, and others.[1][5] The comic contains racist and stereotyped caricatures of Africans.[1]
Between 1923 and 1925, Jungle Jinks was published as a standalone magazine for sixty-two issues.[6] The strip was famous enough to serve as a catchphrase in popular culture during the 1920s.[7]
The comic was also serialized in Home Chat during the 1940s.[3]
"Dr. Lion's Boys," published in Happy Families (1938), was a spinoff of "Jungle Jinks."[3]
Publications
Book Illustrations
- Anonymous, Little Snowdrop (London: Raphael Tuck & Sons, Ltd., c. 1896) llustrated by Frances Brundage, M. Bowley, Edith & Mabel Taylor.[2]
- Helen Marion Burnside, Antony Guest, and S. E. Bennett, Little Bright Eyes, edited by Edric Vredenburg (London: Raphael Tuck & Sons, Ltd., [1898?]). Illustrated by Frances Brundage, M. Bowley, Edith & Mabel Taylor.