Moana Lisa was a strip about a
bad-tempered girl who could always be trusted to find something to moan about. She
moaned even about Shiver and Shake
because there was nothing in it to moan about! The moaner and griper gave
everyone around her a hard time so it’s not surprising she wasn’t exactly
popular with other people. What I find a bit surprising is that the strip enjoyed
such a long run from the first to the penultimate edition of the paper (missing
issue Nos. 32, 53, 55, 63, 72, 73). Was Moana Lisa popular because readers of SHIVER
AND SHAKE hated her so much that they liked to see her come off worst in the
end every week?
The artist was Peter Davidson (except in issues 42, 44, 51 and 56 when someone
else stepped in for him) who included his self-portrait in issue No. 62:
Initially the strip was on the back page of SHAKE section and had full-colour
privileges. This lasted until Issue No. 34 except in issues 29-33 when Moana
Lisa turned b/w and was moved to the inside of SHAKE for a while. After
issue 34 the changes became permanent.
I always enjoyed Moana Lisa, probably as the strip covered similar territory as Fuss Pot. I always thought it survived the Whoopee! merger, but it appears I was wrong as I can't find any reference to her being in Whoopee!
ReplyDeleteMatty, I checked Whoopee! and Moana Lisa definitely didn't survive the merger.
DeleteMany thanks for checking, I was probably remembering all the annuals and summer specials instead.
ReplyDelete