The Jackson Twins (begun November 27, 1950, ended March 24, 1979) was an American comic strip, created by Dick Brooks and distributed by the McNaught Syndicate. Warren Sattler was also a contributing artist for many years to The Jackson Twins.

The strip was centered on two identical-twin high school teenage girls, Jill and Jan Jackson, and their lives and social adventures in fictional Gardentown. The twins were all-American girl types of that era, trim and pretty, tight with the popular crowd and paired with their (usually) regular boyfriends Wiffie and Nightowl. Their understanding parents were Jim and Julia, while their annoying younger brother Junior was frequently a target. When bored with their social mastery, the twins would sometimes swap identities for a while, just to confuse everyone.

Into this halcyonic-to-be vision of American high school came various incarnations of the “A stranger rode into town” motif. But after a bit of plot arc, all was always restored to the status quo.

The strip hit its peak in the mid-1960s, after which it lost readers from seeming lack of social relevance in more turbulent times and lost newspapers from attempts to remedy the first. Notable, however, was one of the first comic strip or otherwise manifestations of a stalker, in the form of a social misfit type who adored one of the twins from a perpetual distance, only to hire someone to attack the twins just so he could stage a rescue. The plan didn’t work and the Jackson returned to her world and he to his.

Jackson Twins – 1950
Jackson Twins – 1954
Jackson Twins Various Strips

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4 responses »

  1. Anthony Perdue says:

    šŸ˜Ž This strip was one I hadn’t seen written about in the books on comics history I read. Of course I have since discovered strips not noted in books claiming to be complete history of comics. In 1975 I discovered The Twins when my paternal grandparents gave me a stack of Sunday and daily comic sections from their local paper which they had saved for me. I took an immediate liking to their world and have continued reading the strip in 3 newspapers I have access to on a digital newspaper site.

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  2. tzlovesmusic says:

    I definitely love this strip (I’m also the person that requested it:) )… I do a lot some of the editing on the ilovecomics site and am always finding new stuff that intrigues me.

    If anyone here has other strips from this series, feel free to let boutje know so he can add them to this blog!

    Thanks for the Jackson Twins!

    Anthony

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  3. lfsc1952 says:

    Seems worth a look: I had never heard (or read) of this strip.

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